Hotfixes November 27 - December 5, Transmogrification News, and F2P Death Knights

Since 5.1 there have been a couple of hotfixes already applied to realms, some of which effect Free to Play characters. It's not much, but hunters have been decently buffed.

PvP

• Players are now correctly affected by silencing effects.

Classes

Hunter

• Aspect of the Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 15% (up from 10%).

• Disengage now properly removes root effects when used with the talent Posthaste.

• Serpent Sting's damage has been increased by 100%, and it's focus cost is now 15 (down from 25).

Paladin

• Holy Wrath now correctly benefits from Attack Power and Spell Power.

In addition, according to Zarhym, we should soon be able to transmog Main Hand/Off-hand weapons into One-handers, and vice versa. Personally looking forward to this change myself, as it opens up a couple of new options.

Last up, we've got something that's been making the rounds recently for Free to Play characters: Death Knights! That's right, someone has discovered a way for Free to Play characters to create Death Knights, which opens up quite a few possibilities. Creating one is quite simple.

1. Switch to the realm Nemesis. If you are US, this is in the Brazil or Latin America tab. If you are EU, I believe it is an Italian realm.
2. Create a Death Knight there. It will allow you to do so regardless of your highest character being 20.
3. Delete the Death Knight. You can now create a Death Knight on any realm!

However, there is a strict limitation on them. You can ONLY use them "once". After logging into your Death Knight, if you log out, get disconnected, or otherwise exit out of the game, you will be completely unable to access that character again. You will be presented with a character locked error upon attempting to log in past the first time. This means that all those new achievements that are now possible with your brand new Death Knight, will have to be done in a single sitting, or in a way that you do not ever leave the game after making your character. 

May your blades never dull,

~Thirk

Free to Play FAQ and Information

Where do I get heirlooms? How do I get Justice Points?
Probably the most common question asked is, where are heirlooms obtained? A lot of people seem to assume that they aren't even available for Starter Accounts, but that isn't true. All of these heirlooms are obtainable through Honor gained from battlegrounds.

For the heirlooms requiring Justice Points, you can convert Honor to Justice Points at a 375:250 ratio from theHorde or Alliance vendors. Cloak and Helm heirlooms are not available to Starter Accounts.

How do I get bags? What kind of bags can I get?
Aside from dropped bags, reputation satchels are available if you hit revered with your home factions by doing dungeons with these tabards equipped. This bag is also easily obtainable 1 week per month. These will fill all your slots and obtainable bank slots.

Both factions can attempt to obtain this bag, which can drop from the Gurubashi Arena chest.

What titles are obtainable? How do I get Ambassador?
The most common title you will see Starter Accounts running around with is Ambassador. This is easily obtained (but will take quite a while) by running dungeons with these tabards equipped.

Apart from Ambassador, almost all titles obtainable at level 1 are obtainable for Starter Accounts (the exception being 'the Explorer', as Starter Accounts cannot access Northrend and cannot complete the achievement). This includes the following titles:
'the Noble',
'the Diplomat',
'of the Horde',
'the Bloodthirsty',
'Guardian of Cenarius' ,
'the Hallowed' - This title was only available for a short time and is now grandfathered.

What primary professions can I get? What secondary professions can I get?
All primary professions are available up to 100 skill. Enchanting and Leatherworking are staples for gearing your character, as they provide the only available enchantments.

All secondary professions, with the exception of Archaeology, are available, with Cooking and Fishing obtainable up to 525 skill, and First Aid up to 225 skill. This enables us to make and use Mageweave Bandages.

How do I get enchantments for my gear? How do I get armor kits?
The only way to obtain enchantments is to level Enchanting and Leatherworking yourself and provide yourself with enchants. These enchantments are available for Starter Accounts from Enchanting, and these armor kits are available from Leatherworking. Blood Elves also have access to these additional enchantments because of their racial ability.

What is the Lucky Fishing Hat? How do I get it?
You can find that information and more here.

What is the Arena Grand Master? How do I get it?
You can find that information and more here.

What about the characters running around with Bind on Equip items?
Bind on Equip items need to be obtained on the character you wish to use them on. With the launch of Cataclysm, there are now chests spawned out in the world with guaranteed rare loot. The most useful one for Starter Accounts is the Sturdy Treasure Chest, which is found in Ashenvale (among other areas), and can contain very useful rares. There are also zone drops that need to be farmed for.

What type of vanity can I collect? What type of vanity is popular?
The most common vanity for Starter Accounts seems to be the Darkmoon Faire items, the Swift Lovebird(obtainable only during Love is in the Air), the Swift Springstrider (obtainable only during Noblegarden), the Sea Turtle (which can only be fished up in Cataclysm zones (and Darkmoon Island)), and the many obtainable dropped pets. This pirate hat is also common.

What's grandfathered?
Luckily, this bracket has the least grandfathering done of any others. The only 'effective' grandfathering in the bracket is 'the Hallowed' title, as shortly after the event an achievement was made no longer obtainable for Starter Accounts or any character under level 83. However, paid accounts and players who obtained grandfathered gear on old Trials may have a small collection of gear that is not available anymore. It's effect on this bracket, however, is less than minimal, and most of the gear is vanity.

How do I chat with others and find other Free to Play twinks?
Most F2P players are using F2PAddon to talk to each other and create groups or queue together. The designated realm for this addon is Aerie Peak, but it is taking off on other realms as well (please read through the forum and the sticky for this addon for more information).

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!