What Does Twink Mean in WoW?

Definition

• A twink is a character who is below his level cap, or maximum, and intends to remain there rather than leveling up. Twinks typically work to obtain the best armor and weapons available to them and improve those items with powerful enchantments. Some twink players may also improve their characters in other ways, such as collecting mounts, vanity pets, titles and achievement points.

Stopping Experience Gains

• "World of Warcraft" is designed so that almost every action in the game grants experience, including killing enemies, completing quests, exploring areas and participating in player-versus-player, or PvP, battles. As a result, players who want to make one of their characters a twink will advance the character until it reaches the desired level, and then stop experience gains by visiting an experience eliminator, located in Stormwind City for the Alliance faction and in Orgrimmar for the Horde faction.

Twink Levels

• Although twinking is possible at any level, players most often create twinks at levels that are at the higher end of level brackets for battlegrounds, such as 19, 29 or 39. Another possibility is the expansion twink, a character locked at the maximum level allowed by an earlier expansion for "World of Warcraft," such as 70 or 80. Also possible, though more rare, is the achievement twink, a character who locks his experience at Level 1 and focuses on obtaining as many achievement points as possible rather than focusing on gear.

Restrictions

• "World of Warcraft" places several restrictions on twink characters. Many powerful enchantments are restricted to characters of a higher level, making them inaccessible to twinks. Level requirements also exist for quests, potions, buffs, items and profession advancement. Additionally, to keep low-level PvP enjoyable for normal characters, any character with locked experience is restricted to participating only in battlegrounds with other characters who have locked their experience. This can lead to long queues for twink battlegrounds in certain level brackets.