Monday 16 April 2012

Twinking in Rift


My last post covered the topic across the MMO genre and this one will focus on the state of twinking in Rift since it’s the game I’m playing now and I sort off twink there as well. As usual the pvp forum is flooded with discussions about twinking. But to be honest I don’t see it as a problem in Rift. 

As written in my last post the term twinking is rather broad covering everything between extremely well geared people who 2 shots everything as well as an excuse for getting one’s ass kicked by better players. Even though Rift gives you the possibility to lock your XP it still doesn’t allow people to 2 shot people like twinks did in wow. Trion has prevented players from using max lvl enchants on low lvl gear and made it easier to obtain good low lvl gear (compared to wow, at least before blizzard made it easier as well). So even though twinks exist in Rift they are nowhere near as unfair as twinks were in wow.

Sure, twinks will still have an advantage which seems unfair, but since gear is a vital part of this game as well as plenty other MMOs, there’s nothing wrong with it. Only when it gets to the extremes! People who are against twinking are often calling us for lamers who can’t fight without a gear advantage and I have heard someone say something like “Twinks should get to lvl 50 so I can show them how it is to fight overgeared players”. This argument (if we can even call it that) is simply just the words of a hypocrite, the worst of them. So it’s ok for r40 people to faceroll fresh 50’s but when a lvl X0 gets beaten by a X9 it’s suddenly unfair, pathetic. And too be honest the gap seems to be bigger at lvl 50.

Getting decent low lvl gear doesn’t require a whole lot of effort and doesn’t require a main either. The real problem is that there are many people who don’t put any effort at all and of course they will get their ass kicked in pvp. I wouldn’t feel sorry for those who rush to 50 and complains about the unfairness of twinks. It’s their own fault. But newer players might quit the game when they don’t stand a chance in low lvl pvp and it’s Trion’s responsibility to guide them to be more prepared for pvp, both gearwise and skillwise. One suggestion is to make a few PVE quests that reward good pvp gear for low lvls. It should give everyone a fair chance to get atleast a few pvp items. Helping new players skillwise is a harder, but the premade roles are a great start.

My own twink is a 39 cleric and I mostly play as healer. I will actually refer my cleric as a semi-twink. In a few days I will move to next bracket together with a friend of mine. I have been pvping a lot at the 30-39 bracket which means I got all the pvp items for that lvl and still got lots of favor in reserve. But most importantly I have gained a lot of experience with my class and learned much about the individual WFs. This surely means a lot more than gear but people often forgets that this is also what people get from twinking. Especially for someone who hasn’t pvped a lot at lvl 50. You can’t deny people a chance to learn and improve, and too be honest it’s a much better way to learn your class when taking it step by step rather than rushing to 50. I recently started pvping on my lvl 50 mage and if I could, I would temporary downscale my mage to lower lvls and start from there. And no, I am not gonna lvl a new mage just for that. I have met a few people who temporarily are locking their XP to pvp a bit. And I can imagine there are plenty of people who are doing that. So don’t take away their option to do that. It’s a great way to prepare for max lvl pvp rather than getting steamrolled by r40 players.

So for god’s sake quit whining about twinks. Low lvl pvp do matter and it gives people a chance to prepare before entering the ruthless 50 bracket. Twinks aren’t that unfair as many people think and I have only met few twinks who are going for the extremes. Most twinks are actually people who just lock their xp temporarily to enjoy some low lvl pvp and improve.  Don’t ever remove the XP lock. The only problem with twinking is if it allows the gear gap to be way to big, which it isn’t in Rift. 

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