Blizzard's new Recruit a Friend initiative: Triple experience, free levels

Trouble · 08/05/08, 5:29 PM

I'm making a new post about this because this goes far above and beyond any changes to the leveling game since the inception of WoW.

Blizzard Support

What in-game benefits do we get while the accounts we play are linked?

1. Characters on both accounts can summon each other once per hour.
2. While adventuring with your linked friend/family member, you will each gain triple experience.
3. For every two levels the new player earns, the new player can grant one free level-up to a lower-level character played by the veteran player.

How long will I be linked to my recruit?

The link between the accounts will last for 90 days from the date that your recruit creates an account. Remember that for the link to work properly, your recruit must create a new World of Warcraft account using the 10-day trial key in your invitation email.

Do I always gain triple experience while I am linked to my recruit?

No, only when you are partied with a character on the linked account and both players are present when slaying the monster or completing the quest. Also, if the two characters are not the same level, only the lower-level character is given the experience boost.

Is quest experience tripled too?

Yes, but only if the quest was not trivial (gray difficulty) for either character.

It doesn't even have to be a paid account. Just has to use your referrer key. Here's how it goes: you refer yourself an account. Create new chars on current account and new account and dual box. Get TRIPLE EXPERIENCE on BOTH chars starting from the first second, even if you haven't paid. If you DO register the new account, your main account gets a free month, which basically means it only cost you $5 extra for all this. ON TOP OF THAT, if you get to 60 on these new chars, you can basically insta-create ANOTHER character at level 30.

Does this qualify for "Jump the Shark"? This just throws more fuel on the fire in favor of getting rid of the PvE->PvP transfer restriction. 1->70 in 5 days played?

Jebraltar · 08/05/08, 5:41 PM

If you sign up for two months, the referring character also gets a unique Zhevra mount, apparently. I know of people who have paid more for less.

(This doesn't work with rest experience, but it DOES work with quests, which is interesting.)

Cranberry · 08/05/08, 5:42 PM

It does cost you a bit more, since your "friend" (i.e., you) has to buy the game as well as game time beyond that first ten days.

Trouble · 08/05/08, 5:42 PM

From what I read, apparently it doesn't consume rested XP the entire time you're leveling. This means you get to level 60 and have 1.5 levels of rested waiting for you.

Jebraltar · 08/05/08, 5:52 PM

Even with a trial account, you could extremely quickly level characters up to 20, just by making new characters to play with each character you want to level. Could be kind of interesting. (Not to mention that leveling two characters to 20, if I'm reading this right, would let you insta-level a third to 20.)

Actually, it just occurred to me that it's a little interesting how you could use this to get a character to level 19 extremely quickly for free.

♦ Bass · 08/05/08, 5:53 PM

This is a little silly, and sort of invalidates all Azerothian content, and a bit of Outland as well. They may as well have given us premades, leveling seems to just be a formality at this point.

Now, let me continue by saying that I am in no way mad about them doing this. It's quite fantastic. I, and I am sure many other EJ frequenters, am very sick of doing Azeroth repeatedly. Outland is a little tedious too, but not nearly as bad. This is a business move more than anything, so people can actually get themselves to the levels they'll need to be to experience WLK.

Though, speaking of WLK, I wonder if this policy will be amended for 70-80 experience? It would seem that doing 70-80 at 3x speed would depreciate the value of all the new leveling zones in the expansion. Edit: it cuts off at 60, answered below

And yes, PvE->PvP transfers need to happen now if they're doing this. It's going to be retarded easy to get a 70 anywhere, regardless of the PvP ruleset.

From what I read, apparently it doesn't consume rested XP the entire time you're leveling. This means you get to level 60 and have 1.5 levels of rested waiting for you.

I admit to a bit of skimming, but I did not see any reference to the 3x experience stopping at a certain level? The giving-a-level-to-an-alt-for-each-2-levels-you-earn bit stops at 60, though. Edit: it cuts off at 60, answered below

Trouble · 08/05/08, 5:59 PM

WoW Forums -> Earn a Zhevra Mount- New Recruit-a- Friend!

Originally Posted by Nethaera

I believe the cut off is level 60 or 90 days (whichever comes first). We'll keep gathering questions though and try to add to the FAQ where we can.

Copernicus · 08/05/08, 6:01 PM

There are blue posts clarifying, but the triple experience cuts off at 60.

MMO-Champion BlueTracker - Earn a Zhevra Mount- New Recruit-a- Friend!

Originally Posted by Naethera

* The recruit may not grant a level to a character that is equal to or higher than the current level of the character he or she is playing.
* Additionally, the recruit may not grant a level to a character that is level 60 or higher.
* I believe the cut off is level 60 or 90 days (whichever comes first). We'll keep gathering questions though and try to add to the FAQ where we can.

Lookit · 08/05/08, 6:11 PM

Ignoring for a moment the rather large impact on gameplay, one has to marvel at what an extremely effective marketing strategy this is. Getting a free month of gameplay for recruiting a friend is a benefit that's fairly intangible and easy to ignore; my paycheck gets directly deposited, and Blizzard takes my monthly fee automatically - I never see or touch this $15 a month, so it's 'out of sight, out of mind'.

But get an exclusive mount? Suddenly I'm mentally thumbing through my rolodex, thinking "Dammit, who could I get to play?"

One question that rises is this - my wife has an account, and we've been leveling toons together, currently at 55. Could I start a new account, thereby getting the mount, and then transfer her level 55 character to the new account, and we could continue playing with the "linked" benefits? (Ignoring of course whether or not anyone else thinks it worth the financial cost to do so)

• Zoid · 08/05/08, 6:13 PM

I like Trouble's plan. You don't even have to level to get the mount, just use a trial key, link then buy an extra month. $20 bucks isn't too bad for an extra mount.

cbxMelk · 08/05/08, 6:14 PM

Im curious how this will work with the higher lvl "veteran"

boosting the trial account, since it says:

Do normal experience rules apply?
Yes, if a monster is trivial to either player, no experience boost is given.

But would u still get triple xp of boosting? :o

♦ Bass · 08/05/08, 6:15 PM

Originally Posted by Lookit

One question that rises is this - my wife has an account, and we've been leveling toons together, currently at 55. Could I start a new account, thereby getting the mount, and then transfer her level 55 character to the new account, and we could continue playing with the "linked" benefits? (Ignoring of course whether or not anyone else thinks it worth the financial cost to do so)

From this wording, I don't see a reason why what you've described wouldn't work. Apparently she would only get 5 levels of triple experience this way, though.

Originally Posted by cbxMelk

Im curious how this will work with the higher lvl "veteran"

Do normal experience rules apply?
Yes, if a monster is trivial to either player, no experience boost is given.

Looks like they are pushing for 2 roughly same-level characters here. I don't see why you couldn't twink them out, though.

Xunwael · 08/05/08, 6:20 PM

This is obviously a good idea by blizzard, though the only way I'll see any benifits if I get someone to make a new account just to level the new character then transfer it over to their old one when they're done. Azeroth content is by this point extremely tedious and feels more like work than playing a game, but outlands is enjoable (no sudden "hops, I need to travel for 20 minutes to get to my next questhub"). Pretty expensive to do that, though.

Could we just use this new account to level up a bunch of characters to 59 then transfer them over to the old account(s)? Ignoring the obvious expense of this.

Corvin · 08/05/08, 6:23 PM

Current recruit a friend system on EU realms excludes quite a lot of countries as I discovered when I bought second account. Anybody found some info that this would work otherwise?

Edit: Just to answer my own question, if you play on EU realm and your listed country is not Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, UK, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Belgium or Spain then you are out of luck. I guess that covers the big ones but doesn't make it any more fair for others, European Union or not.

• sordee · 08/05/08, 6:24 PM

So... Blizzard is promoting multi-boxing even more?