wow Burning Crusade Timewalking (9th - 14th December)

[Valks 2,373]

December is fully underway and with it comes the second event of the month, Burning Crusade Timewalking. Make sure you know what's what for the next week of dungeons!

 
For those of you that aren't familiar with the structure of events quite yet, every week Blizzard throws us another special event that comes around once every 2-months or so. This week's event is going to be taking us back into our beloved Outland dungeons with our level and gear scaled down to level 70. The dungeons included in this event are as follows:

• Arcatraz
• Black Morass
• Mana-Tombs
• Shattered Halls
• Slave Pens
• Magister's Terrace (As of 6.2.3)

If you're wondering about future weekly events in December, make sure to check out our December Survival post.
 
Today we're going to be giving you a run-down of the most efficient methods for farming Timewalking, the best way to gear for it, what you can get for it and how it all works. This will change depending on the expansion of Timewalking, so look out in the future for posts relating to Wrath and Cataclysm.
 

What is Timewalking and how does it work? 

 

Timewalking is essentially Blizzard's way of allowing us to re-visit the old content that we all look at with rose-tinted glasses, then force us to farm it so that we never ask for them to implement old servers.
 
Really though, Timewalking is basically just re-doing the old dungeons with the same level of gear you would have had in that expansion. Talents and abilities are the same. Throughout each dungeon, the bosses drop a currency by the name of Timewarped Badges. The bosses also have a chance to drop gear depending on your real level, before the dungeon scaling. At level 100, this gear is item level 660, but can drop as warforged resulting in an item level of 675. The gear will not level with you, instead staying at the level you earnt it.
 

Why would I bother with Timewalking?  

 

Timewalking is arguably the most efficient way to gear a character up in a short space of time when reaching level 100. Admittedly, the gear is not the highest item level, but it works for a fresh level 100. Through the use of drops from bosses and gear bought from the vendor, you can very quickly find yourself with a full set of 660-675 gear. Neat!
 
 

 

The mount from Burning Crusade Timewalking, the Eclipse Dragonhawk.

 
For those of you that are already geared and don't care about the item drops, there are plenty of toys at the vendors to be bought, as well as a mount specific to the expansion of Timewalking. There are also a number of reputation rewards to be earnt. Below is a list of the rewards you can buy from the Burning Crusade event:
 
Vendor: Cupri. (Found in Shattrath City)
 
Mount: Reins of the Eclipse Dragonhawk.
 
Toys: Mark of the Ashtongue, Ever-Shifting Mirror.
 
Gear Slots: Weapon, waist, legs, back, head, trinket.
 
Faction Reputation Commendations: The Consortium, The Sha'tar, Thrallmar, Honor Hold, Cenarion Expedition, Keepers of Time. 
 
Heirloom Items: Ancient Heirloom Scabbard, Ancient Heirloom Armor Casing, Timeworn Heirloom Scabbard, Timeworn Heirloom Armor Casing.

 

How can I farm these badges quickly? 

 

The currency for all of these items, Timewarped Badges, is quite a laborious task to farm. They don't drop in huge quantities, so if you want to get the mount in 1 week, you're going to need to farm quickly and efficiently. We're here to help you know exactly how many of these dungeons you need to farm and how quickly you can be doing them.
 
First, let's outline all the places these badges come from:

• Weekly quest when the event is on: 500 badges. (Once per event)
• Call-to-Arms bonus: 50 badges.
• Completing a dungeon: 10 badges.
• Normal boss kill: 5 badges.
• End boss kill: 10 badges.

When attempting to farm these badges, I would recommend finding another 4 people that are aiming for a similar number of badges. Since players below level 100 can queue up, often their lack of abilities can slow the run down quite a bit. Find other players and queue as a group of 5.
 
The next thing to make sure your runs are quick and smooth is gear. I'm sure you think I'm a bit strange suggesting farming gear since everything is scaled down, but some gear is better than others in Timewalking. Take a look at some of our tips:

• Legendaries are amazingly powerful

​This goes without saying, but I feel I should bring it up anyway. Legendary effects work in Timewalking and they are simply incredible. In certain instances, legendaries such as Shadowmourne can make you quadruple the DPS of other players in your group. 
 

 

The legendary weapon, Shadowmourne.

• Gem slots don't scale down

One of the biggest boosts to your output is going to be gems. Gems in Timewalking are simply incredible. Take the scenario of a Burning Crusade dungeon in which you have on a pair of Bracers of Destructive Strength. The bracers will give you a base stat of +6 strength, but there are two red gem slots. We can fill these gem slots with epic gems to allow for a bonus +20 strength. I'm sure you can see how this adds up over all your items.
 
Make sure to farm gear that has a large number of gem slots regardless of the other stats on the item. 
 
If you are looking for a Best-in-Slot gear list, make sure to check out this spreadsheet.

• Make sure you don't use any %-based trinkets

The best example I can give to support this claim is the Warrior class trinket from Archimonde, Worldbreaker's Resolve. When used at level 100, it grants a 21.96% bonus on its effect at item level 705. If used in Burning Crusade Timewalking, the bonus drops to 1.34%, rendering it useless. 
 
Hopefully some of the tips listed here might be able to help you understand Timewalking a bit better. Put on your rose-tinted glasses and get farming!