I know it's been asked before: TwinkingFollow

Twinked means: you have better gear on that character, than they would normally have at that level, be it good gear or the best droppable gear in the game for that class.

Uber (twinked) means:
...I am going to get the rest of my group killed!
...I don't care if the rest of the group is oom, I'm off to pull more mobs!
...Here's the link again to my "Virtual ***** of Leetness", aren't you all impressed!
...Look at all the mezzed mobs, let's kill them all at the same time!
...LOADING, PLEASE WAIT!

For the original question posed in the thread. It's your call, whatever you feel comfortable with. A simple gift (like, an item or a bit of cash) cannot be considered "twinking". It's a gift. Twinking is more of an act of fully equipping a character, with gear that is far above what they could get on their own. Also, as will be detailed below, keep in mind that your first toon is the most important. This will be the one you learn the game on. But an item or two here or there, will not impact that very much.

Most people don't realize, but there are 2 "versions" of twinking. Basically as Jennock said above, but will expand a bit more.

One version is twinking your alts. Normally this is done by a high level player creating a new character for fun. In most cases, this high level character has a good understanding of the whole game in general and will use this gear to help them do their job in a group or solo. This player could play untwinked, and few would notice any real difference. It's about the ability of the player.

Version two (as mentioned above) is twinking a new player. This can create several problems. First off, you don't really learn your class (and since you're new to the game, that's all you go). You can't learn the ins and outs and what the true limits are due to the exta whatever you have. This creates a dependency on the equipment. As you get higher, and the mobs become tougher and tougher (and you eventually grow into your gear) this lack of understanding the basic game mechanics (aggro, dps, resists, special attacks, etc) will show and you will no longer be able to perform to where you should at your level. This kind of player could not play an untwinked character without covering the ground with corpses (his own, and group members').

Basically, it comes down to a basic understanding of the game being a priority. If you know how the mechanics work, any alt you create will be better than a new player at the same level (twinked or untwinked). Your skills will reach caps as it takes longer and longer to level, this is really a non-issue. Where skills really suffer, is through PLing, but that's a whole different thread :).

since no one seems to know my position on twinking (and i am not sure if anybody wants to but anyway) - I use tarvs model.

1. I do twink my alts in the way that I give them armor my cleric made and money enough to buy backpacks and the components for their newbie armor that are to be found at vendors. Don't get me wrong there - I like it the hard way but even I don't want to fight mobs for 2 hours over 20 bricks of crude iron/bronze which I am not even able to carry all the way back to the forge at once. *lol*

My Enchantress on the other hand had to do it the hard way since nearly every part of her newbie armor included no drop-items and I had intention to spend time and plat on doing cured silk armor as an intermidiate for that one occasion because CS sells terribly at the bazaar. So it took me a day of tedious work (and 2 deaths - shame on me)to kill all those Wasps and it was good that waybecause it told me how to use my senseless 4th level and later on 8th level pet in combination with the rest of my spells. If I wouldn't have been forced to do this I would have made quite a fool of myself in the CB groups I joined later on (and it happened to show that the other casters acted quite chaotic compared to my elvish gal *lol*)

2. I never twink my alts with gear I haven't crafted myself (to skill up at the same time of course) and I even have problems twinking my main with Bazaar stuff. So far I have 2k of plat and can't make myself spending it on gear. I will need the money anyway to buy components for LDoN armor later but thats just my personal blacksmith-addiction.

But I am sure I will make up the lack of the +100 mana my cleric could have with skill.

Being an optical oriented gal I am of course intrigued by stuff that has nice graphics and for one of these shields with the skull appearance I was already seriously tempted =)


3. I think thats one of the rare occassions I am with the majority of the board here.

Edited, Sat Mar 6 15:41:46 2004 by Leiany

Oops sorry if i seemed to be aiming at you Leiany, thats what happens when you don't read all the posts I wasn't refering to you in the 'Antitwink' comment since i certainly wouldn't put you in that Bracket <Since i don't recall you flaming anyone for twinking> Sorry if it came across like i was.