Patch 5.1

Patch 5.1 will bring a number of changes to the play environment, and a decent amount of them are balance changes and UI changes that DO affect Free to Play players. An interesting feature is the "Crowd Control UI" that will help you discern when you are silenced, which should help some people out. Here's a short compilation of the changes directly affecting the F2P bracket. These are not complete changes and this post will be updated to reflect upcoming changes.

General

• The durations of all Disarm effects have been reduced to 8 seconds.
• The caster version of Rune of Perfection now gives +10 hit instead of spell penetration.
• The Booty Bay fishing tournament is now merged with the Kalu'ak fishing tournament, and can have three winners.

Classes

Druid

• Mangle has received a damage buff.
• Rake damage reduced by 18%.

Balance

• Starfire and Starsurge have received damage buffs.

Guardian

• Thick Hide now reduces physical damage taken by 12% in addition to it's previous effect.

Hunter

• Steady Shot is now usable while moving.

Marksmanship

• Careful Aim critical strike chance bonus lowered to 75% (from 90%), but health threshold reduced to 80% (was 90%).

Mage
Arcane

• Arcane has received a slight blanket nerf in damage to compensate for damage gained from the new Arcane Charge passive.

Priest

• Penance has received a big nerf in base damage but a buff in spell coefficient (to 103.7%, from 63.5%).
• Psyfiend Psychic Terror cast time has been increased to 2 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds.
• Dominate Mind no longer has a cooldown, but it's cast time has been increased to 2.5 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds.

Rogue

• Kick now costs 10 energy (down from 15).

Shaman

• Lightning Bolt damage increased slightly.
• All totems are now considered spells, and summoning totems can be prevented by silencing effects. Searing Totem, Magma Totem, and Fire Elemental Totem fall into the Fire school, while all other totems fall under the Nature school.

Warrior

• Execute damage slightly reduced.
• Impending Victory and Victory Rush damage changed to a base amount.

Fury

• Wild Strike damage slightly increased.
• Bloodthirst damage slightly reduced.

Mists of Pandaria: Thirk F2P returns? Quick tips for your return to the bracket!

This is going to be the first blog post in almost a year. In the past 12 months, the Free to Play bracket has had a lot of turbulence. If you're coming back because of MoP like I am, read this post for my very basic balance and change overview. After that, continue down below for general changes that will affect the bracket.

There's a new chest enchant in town. Rather, an old one that's suddenly gotten much more useful. Lesser mana, which was previously something to laugh at, is suddenly much more useful. Because of the change to mana, this enchant is the only way F2Ps can increase their mana pool. But 20 mana? No, not 20. All healing specs get access to a 400% mana pool increase, or 5x their base mana. This makes the enchant give you 100 mana, or an extra sixth of your total pool. While it may seem like healers never OOM, in a serious premade situation this will now be clearly best in slot. And it seems like this enchant is Horde only since it's bought from two Horde only vendors, so Alliance is out of luck for once.

The resistance cloak enchant has been completely grandfathered. If you had a scroll in your bank, it will have disappeared. The stat no longer shows up in your character tab, but the effect remains. The only way to get resistances now with gear is via rings, as they still seem to drop. Outside of this, any new source of resistance in the F2P bracket is effectively gone. While this shouldn't have a major effect on the bracket, it will likely impact premades.

If you're newly leveling enchanting you will find yourself lacking Magic Essence, and no easy way to get it. After all, only uncommon weapons will have it. Luckily, there may be a quick fix for you. Check here for a list of weapons sold by vendors that you can quickly DE. They're mostly in Northern Barrens, and a few of them are located directly in the major cities. Come back to restock every once in a while, they don't take long to appear again.

The future of the bracket remains to be seen, but it's looking awfully optimistic. Blizzard has been quick to nerf Holy Shock's damage and tossed out a blanket nerf to PvP healing. With this response to PvP, I can only anticipate good things for the bracket as a whole. Looking forward to seriously restart this blog.

Until next time,

~ Thirk the Hallowed

2500 Pageviews this month so far! Loot card giveaway!

CONGRATS LINDENKRON AND ATCHIPHOBIA! 

STAY TUNED FOR MORE GIVEAWAYS!

This morning the blog hit a new record for monthly views. Beating the August record of just over 1,000 views, we've reached over 2,500 views for the month, getting as high as 250 views a day for 2 days of this month! In celebration, I'll be giving away two TCG loot codes. 

Before I announce the contest entry information, I'd like to thank Twink Info for being the best twink information site on the net, and if you haven't checked them out you really should, you'll need an account there to enter the contest. I can easily credit them for a lot of my twink knowledge and for keeping me hooked on twinking. I now blog there as well, and my username there is iaccidentallytwink. You might have seen me around. 

Now, onto the loot cards I'm giving away:

Paint Bomb x 100 - Covers an enemy in paint.

Paper Airplane Kit -  Right click to build a paper gyrocopter.

To enter, follow this blog with your google account, and post a comment in this article with the following:

• Your Twink Info username (must have at least 20 posts).

• One thing you like about the blog.

• One thing you dislike about the blog.

• Your favorite article.

• Your least favorite article.

If you do not enter the contest correctly your entry will not be considered. Be sure to spread the word about the blog, and good luck! 

The night of Halloween, I will announce the winners of the giveaway here, and I will PM them on Twink Info telling them they're won and giving them the loot code. I will choose two from all eligible entries from random. Good luck, and thank you for making this blog a wonderful place for free to play twink information!

The Power of Outlands: Halaani Whiskey, Energizing Spores, and Charged Crystal Foci

If you're looking for some serious buffs for your free to play character, you've probably spent some time looking around at WoWHead for small things that Blizzard may have slipped in without a level requirement. I've already went over the 2 types of Parachutes that you can get in a previous post, and this post is dedicated to 2 specific overpowered items and a buff that Outlands provides. Neither of these are easy or reasonable for the average player (save for the first), and I highly recommend saving them for something important, but if you need to go all out, here's your fix.

By now, every "veteran" twink knows about Haalani Whiskey, but in case you don't, here's how to get it. Free characters can get ported to Shattrath, and I recommend that everyone get their Hearthstone set to the Shatt inn. From there, even if you've been collecting FPs, you'll realize that you cannot get any FPs in Nagrand. Get ready to trek on foot out to Haala. If your faction currently controls Haala, there is a vendor there that will sell you the Whiskey, 3 of them at a time, for 1g60s. Use it wisely, as you can't stock up, and you need to go back there each time you need more.

These might give you quite a bit of trouble.

In Zangermarsh, you're going to find a ton of Sporebats. There's a little trick most people don't know. You can easily take these guys down with a group, and when he gets below 5%, he will use an AoE ability that increases all stats by 30 for 5 minutes! It's called Energizing Spores. All you have to do is be in melee range around 5% and wait for the buff, then take him out. It helps if you queue right before attempting this, and then begin right away. This helps make the most out of those 5 minutes. Very helpful with a group if you guys are PuGging WSG.

These guys are nasty.

Aether Rays are nasty little things. But with them, and the help of some high level characters to summon you to Ogri'la, you can gather up enough Apexis Shards and Crystal Foci to make your time spent worth it. Combining 10 Shards and a Crystal Focus will give you, for almost every situation, a one-click, off GCD HEAL TO FULL, known as a Charged Crystal Focus. While you're out there you should farm quite a few, but when you're doing some serious Warsong Gulch, these can be invaluable. Just be prepared to spend quite a bit of time out in Blades Edge getting yourself these. Aether Rays aren't the only things out there that drop these, but they're easily found and one of the best sources of these drops.

Good luck, and happy PvPing!

You come get da Voodoo,

~ Thirk

YOU can be 'the Hallowed' too!

Thirk the Hallowed, World First F2P and 20.

On the first day of Hallows End I became the first 20 and first Free to Play twink with the Hallowed title, beating another P2P player by 20 minutes for the title of first level 20 'the Hallowed'. Now that the event is in full swing, I might as well discuss the meta itself. The meta took me about 11 hours total, about 3 of which was 2 HH kills, and most of the rest going around Azerothian and Outlandian inns without having most flight paths.

The meta itself is easy and nearly soloable.

Every part of the achievement can be done completely solo except for "Bring Me The Head of... Oh Wait" and "The Masquerade". Trick or Treat and related achievements are all done by going around inns and completing the Candy Bucket quests. If you don't already have most of the Azerothian Flight Paths, you will after going around for the achievements. "That Sparking Smile" and "Sinister Calling", you should get by the time you're done going around Azeroth. Out with it is done by simply eating the Tricky Treats until you get the achievements. "Rotten Hollow" and "Savior of Hallow's End" is done by completing the 5 dailies for the first time. "G.N.E.R.D. Rage" is done by getting 10 HKs while under the effect of G.N.E.R.D.s, and The Masquerade should be done nearly last with someone else as you guys trade wand uses.

Killing the Headless Horseman is simple. Have some 85s queue up, then the 85 from your realm takes lead and kicks someone, then invites you in before the event begins.

This one might take you up to 3 days to complete.

Check your head, if you're lucky, will take 1 day with 1 Headless Horseman kill. If you're lucky enough to receive 5 pumpkins from killing him, and 5 from the Crudely Wrapped Gift (as I did both times), doing the 2 dailies that award one pumpkin each will give you the 12 needed for this achievement. If you get extremely unlucky and receive 3 pumpkins both times, unless you get another HH kill in you're going to be waiting up to 2 extra days. By now, it's third day, about 5 Free to Play characters have the title on Aerie Peak.

Lo'mon,

~ Thirk