My World of Warcraft Story
Reuniting with old friends [Part 2]
The departure of Dimitri marked the start of a new phase in my journey. For a time, I traveled World of Warcraft alone. Among the memories that stand out most is my first dungeon run: The Deadmines. Located in a desert area, Westfall. The Deadmines is the first dungeon for Alliance players and requires a group of five: a healer, a tank, and 3 DPS. I didn’t know much about the process at first, but that’s when I met my first online friend: Gilfrod.
Yes, I still remember his name. Gilfrod, a dwarf hunter. To this day, I wonder what it would be like to speak with him again, after all these years. Together, we explored The Deadmines countless times, helping him collect pieces of a special armor set. Some of the pieces were very rare, but the connection and experiences we built during those runs made it worthwhile.
Meeting Old Friends
As I continued to level up, I discovered something exciting: two friends from the previous school year, Tanguy and Sim, also played World of Warcraft. Unlike me though, they played on the Stormrage-EU realm as Horde characters. They were both undead priests.
Excited to play with them, I created a temporary undead priest on their server. They came to find me in Tirisfal Glades, the starting zone of the undead. Unlike Teldrassil, this was an area full of dead trees. After fooling around for a bit, my friends marked me with a cross icon and claimed I was now “able to be attacked.” I fell for their prank, believing I was truly in danger. It turned out the mark was simply a tool for strategy, often used to designate which enemies to attack. Their laughter set the tone for our friendship in the game.
Inspired by this fresh start, I decided to leave behind Stormkill and Swordblade on the Skullcrusher realm and start a brand-new adventure on Stormrage. This time, I chose a Tauren druid and named him Quickness. Little did I know, this would be a character I would play for years to come.
The Twinking Dream
As I leveled up, I often participated in battlegrounds. The game’s dedicated PVP mode. It was the Alliance vs. The Horde. Scenarios like Warsong Gulch, a capture-the-flag game, had teams of 10 battle against each other. Battlegrounds were divided into level brackets, ensuring fair matchups: 10-19, 20-29, and so on. This system created a unique type of character: a Twink. Twinks were characters locked at specific levels to dominate their brackets, decked out in the best gear and enchantments. The idea was interesting to me. I wanted to create a Twink of my own later.
By the time my druid finally hit level 70, Sim had already quit the game. Just like Dimitri before him. Now, the only real-life friend I had left in Azeroth was Tanguy.
My focus in the game began to change. The interest in endgame content didn’t impress me at the time in comparison to creating this “Twink”. So I began brainstorming on which class I should pick. I ended up chosing a priest who I named Betrayed. Focused not on dealing damage like most Twinks, but on healing. Keeping my team alive at all costs. I decided I wanted to become a level 29 Twink. This didn’t require a long leveling grind, and you still had a good number of abilities compared to level 19. As race I picked blood elf for their unique ability to silence enemies and restore mana, an invaluable skill in PVP. So, here she is in all the glory:
Gearing Up
My main character became a money-making machine, funding Betrayed’s journey to acquire the best gear and enchantments available.
Some notable items I collected:
- Deadman’s Hand:
An epic-quality ring with a rare drop rate from the final boss of the Scarlet Monastery Library. I devised a clever strategy: clear the dungeon with my main character, wait for the loot to become available, and log in as Betrayed to claim it.
- Arena Grand Master:
A trinket offering an incredible shield, able to absorb almost an entire health pool at that level. This was obtained by looting a chest that would spawn every 3 hours. This area had forced PVP enabled and was always heavily contested. You had to loot the chest 12 times before you could obtain the Arena Grand Master. My strategy was to clear the arena with my main before switching to Betrayed to loot the chest.
- Power of the Scource shoulder Enchant:
A very rare shoulder enchant removed with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It required a player who had cleared one of the final bosses in the level 60 Naxxramas raid. This shoulder enchant was not tradeable, so the person had to enchant it on a piece of armor and then trade the armor. With Tanguy’s financial help, I acquired it through a neutral auction house since the seller was Alliance.My quest for the best gear wasn’t perfect, and one elusive item haunted me for years.
- Hotshot Pilot’s Gloves:
A best-in-slot item for level 29 priests. These gloves, with their low drop rate, could only be found on specific mobs within the Alliance-controlled Gnomeregan dungeon. Being Horde made getting them even harder. Not many people would run this dungeon which meant less people were trying to sell it.I ran Gnomeregan over 300 times with my level 70 character, but the gloves never dropped. Twice, I found several equally rare items, like Petrolspill Leggings, but never the gloves I needed. Frustrated but undeterred, I created an Alliance character named Hotbuyer, hoping to buy the gloves directly from the Alliance. Despite my efforts, no one ever came through. The Hotshot Pilot’s Gloves became my ultimate unattainable treasure.
The battle is on
Betrayed evolved into a god. Through countless battles, I achieved exalted reputation status with Warsong Gulch and came close to the same with Arathi Basin, dedicating myself to countless hours in battlegrounds. Over time, I managed to achieve 38,393 honorable kills. Honorable kills were earned by either killing other players or helping other players kill them.
From both battlegrounds, Warsong Gulch held a special place in my journey. It became my favorite with 358 matches played. Some of these stretched on for hours. Back then, there were no timers to cut the action short, sometimes leading to extremely long battles.
I loved keeping people alive. My focus wasn’t on flashy damage numbers but on ensuring my teammates survived as long as possible!
Doing so, I build a bunch of friendships too. People I would see and play with often. There’s even people that had some amazing comments like these:
The End of an Era
But all good things come to an end. Fast forward a year after the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard dropped a bomb:
Even though they allowed players to turn off experience gain, it just wasn’t popular enough. It separated Twinks from the general players. This decision led to excessively long queue times, effectively killing the Twink scene. Even though I joined efforts to revive the community by transferring servers, where I also changed my name to Thextera, the glory days of Betrayed were over.
Today, that same character sits at level 13 due to level scaling from future expansions, still decked out in her hard-earned gear. The missing Hotshot Pilot’s Gloves remain a bittersweet reminder of those days.
Looking Ahead
As this chapter of my World of Warcraft journey ends, the story is far from over. In the next part, I’ll share how the Wrath of the Lich King expansion took my addiction to new levels. From late-night leveling sessions to growing closer to Tanguy. That is until he disappeared forever. This period was unforgettable. I also joined the best raiding guild on the server and stepped into competitive Arena for the first time. Stay tuned!