recruit-a-friend

Everyone knows that the Recruit-A-Friend program awards triple experience for both quests and killing of mobs.  It's because of this that many people have delved into the world of dual- or multiboxing so they could quickly level alts to 70 before Wrath is released.  I've gone and called it Recruit-A-Multiboxer because it really has encouraged people to open more than one account so they can level alts quickly.  The triple experience is truly incredible and the speed at which people are leveling multiple characters is simply ludicrous.

Now that Hallow's End is upon us, anyone in the RAF program should realize that leveling has just gone from ludicrous to pure insanity!  If you're still in the dark, allow me to elaborate.

The program awards triple experience for quests turn-ins and yes that means all the quests from Hallow's End.  What I'm talking about here are the quests that are part of the three achievements obtained during Hallow's End, Tricks and Treats of: Kalimdor, Eastern Kindoms, and Outland.  Both the Horde and Alliance havve their respective requirements for these achievements, but the tasks are the same.

To obtain these achiements you are asked to visit the Candy Buckets in various Inns throughout the three continents.  Each time you visit a Candy Bucket it's like turning in a quest, and each quest gives experience!  Normally you get 2600 experience with each Candy Bucket visited.  However if you are doing these are part of the RAF program you get triple experience, . . . that's 7800 experience per Candy Bucket.    [Update/Edit: It seems that the amount of experience is dependent on the level your character is. The previous numbers were based on a level 44 character, but when that character dinged to level 45, the amount of experience wet up to 8250. I'm still investigating if this continues as one levels and whether it levels off or not, but as of right now it seems to scale with level. This makes sense as each new level brings a higher amount of experience needed to gain the next level.]

Now let's do the math real quick on what you'll get by just visiting all the Candy Buckets alone.  The total number of buckets per faction are as follows:
Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor:  16 (Alliance), 17 (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms:  13 (Alliance), 16 (Horde)
Tricks and Treats of Outland:  15 (Alliance), 14 (Horde)

That's a total of 44 (Alliance) and 47 (Horde) Candy Buckets at 7800 experience each, for a total of 343,200 (Alliance) and 366,600 (Horde) experience!   [Update/Edit:Again these numbers were based on the experience gained from a level 44 character and it appears to scale with level. So the total amount will naturally vary depending on level].  The amount of levels gained from this amount of experience will depend on the levels your characters are currently at, but regardless of that it's still a lot of experience.

It's a lot of running around if you don't have all the flight paths, but remember if you're in the RAF program you have one other benefit to make this easier, . . . summons.  You have the ability to summon characters in linked accounts anywhere in the World of Warcraft.  So with a high level main character it's easy to get your alts to places where they can't quite get to yet with a series of summons.  Sure there's a one hour time limit in between summons, but carefully planned over the course of Hallow's End and over all your characters, it's completely doable to get them everywhere they have to go.

So yes, Recruit-A-Friend + Hallow's End = Insane Leveling, but you don't have to be part of the RAF to still get a huge amount of experience.  Remember that each Candy Bucket normally yields 2600 experience, so even if you aren't in the program you could still benefit from the 114,400 (Alliance) or 122,200 (Horde) experience to be gained.  [Update/Edit: See previous updates/edits as to why this number will depend on your characters level].   This doesn't even include completion of the other quests available during Hallow's End, so with those included it's a lot of easy experience.

What are you waiting for?  Go visit those Candy Buckets!

[Update/Edit:]Added updates/edits above as I found out that the amount of experience gained seems to be dependent on the level of your characters..

The Recruit-A-Friend uproar regarding people losing the ability to grant levels they had saved before the patch, will be resolved. It appears that Blizzard will return those "lost" levels after this coming Tuesday's update (the following post says Wednesday but that's because that's when the European servers are updated).

GM Issuntril responded on the European Forums.

216. Re: Recruit A Friend - Granting Levels 20/10/2008 08:29:51 PDT
Hi guys,

We have an update for you on the status of this issue, and I am happy to confirm that players who have been affected by this problem over the past week will have any levels which they had accumulated before patch 3.0.2 reimbursed after our scheduled maintenance on Wednesday morning.

Once again, we do appreciate that this problem was through no fault of your own, and we do apologise for any inconvenience caused to you all. I would also like to commend you for the controlled and constructive manner you have conducted yourselves in this thread, and let you all know that your feedback was most appreciated.

Happy leveling!

Issuntril

This is indeed good news. I had stopped playing any of my multiboxed teams until this was resolved. I was a victim of lost levels, but I had a feeling Blizzard would do the right thing and return those granted levels back to those that had lost them. Way to go Blizzard!

Over the past couple of days there's been a lot of activity over on the official European Forums regarding Patch 3.0.2 and the granting of levels via the Recruit-A-Friend program. Apparently it's a Known Issue for this patch:

"Recruit A Friend - Levels collected and stored prior to patch 3.0.2 cannot be granted
Gaining new levels will allow you to grant those, just not the ones you had stored pre 3.0.2."

GM Issuntril had this to say in response to the original post and poster, Zhadro.

1. Re: Recruit A Friend - Granting Levels 16/10/2008 14:43:35 PDT
Hi Zhadro,

Unfortunately it seems like any levels which were saved up by players before the patch are now lost. It is not possible for the Game Master team to retrieve these levels I'm afraid, but any levels which you earn post-patch should be spendable as normal.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this problem.

Issuntril

A follow up post from Thulljos backed off a little and said that it wasn't definitive but they were looking into it:

51. Re: Recruit A Friend - Granting Levels 17/10/2008 05:05:40 PDT
Hey guys,

Regarding this issue, we are waiting for further information on what will be done to resolve it. I do not have concrete information for you all just yet, but we hope to have something tonight. This is not definite, but it is what we're aiming for.

I want to stress, however, that our development team are aware of this problem and are looking into a good resolution for it. While I can understand the frustration and concern that you are experiencing, I ask that everyone remain calm and level-headed. We are looking into the matter and trying to find the best and fastest way to fix it.

Thuiljos

I'm upset about this. Not because I lost any levels I had saved and had not granted, but the fact that this was part of the incentive for people to actively "recruit-a-friend" into the game. Many people (myself included) saw this as "Recruit-A-Multiboxer" and recruited ourselves but there are actually people out that that brought in (or back) people into the game with the promise that the recruited person would be able to grant levels back to them.

There was no indication that this was going happen before the patch was released, nor was there was a change in the RAF program that states this either. It's actually still the same program they implemented when the RAF was released. So personally I don't think this is acceptable and should give back those levels to those that had them saved up.

I would like to believe that Blizzard will treat this with an appropriate and fair action. If not then they may actually "Lose-A-Friend" or a few friends because of it.

[Update:] They are going to return those "lost" levels. See new post here.

Last night I finally joined the "Recruit-A-Friend" (RAF) program and let me tell you that the speed of leveling is amazing. No, let me rephrase that, . . it's absolutely ludicrous.

Though the triple experience from killing mobs is nice, it's nothing compared to the triple experience from turning in quests. Since running Team DoubleD as a RAF pair, I was amazed that they had leveled from 37 to 39 from just turning in a few quests that I had already completed.

Lately I've neglected playing any of my multi-boxed teams. I believe the last time I got on to any of them was when Patch 2.4 was released and I got the level 30 mounts for Team DoubleD. Wow, has it been over a month already?

I haven't given up on those teams, I just got into doing other things. The distraction actually began in mid-July when I checked Team DoubleD into an Inn to get some rest so I could have some rested XP when I resumed. So I hopped back over to my hunter, Ziv, and it was at that time that I started the endeavor for that Frostsaber mount. I also joined a new guild that I enjoy the company of and have been doing instances with them and gearing up the core group.

We've slowed down a bit on the instances and I've been getting anxious to run the teams once again. To get back into it, I'm going to participate in the "Recruit-A-Multiboxer" program but haven't done so yet. It turns out the with the "Recruit-A-Friend" program there is a serendipitous benefit to having Team DD resting in that Inn for so long. So here's my idea and plan.

The idea is to play Team DD and use up their rested (double) XP before changing over to the "Recruit-A-Friend" program. Why would I first use up the double experience gains when I could get triple experience from being in the program immediately? Well, it's to get even more double XP. Confused yet?

Everyone knows that participating in "Recruit-A-Friend" will yield triple experience from killing mobs and quest turn ins. Participating in it also means that any rested XP your characters have already or gains while in the program will not be consumed. So that means the rested XP bonus will be waiting there for when the program finishes (either by hitting 60, or by reaching the 90 day limit).

If the characters are already capped with rested XP (like Team DD should be for being in that Inn for so long), they won't gain any new rested XP. See where I'm getting at? Use the double XP now to get more double XP later. Pretty nice huh? But why should I do that when I should be able to get to 70 within those 90 days right? True, but I also want to use the program bonuses on several teams that I'd like to level all the way to 70, and since the triple XP gains ends when my team gets to level 60, the rested XP is just a nice additional bonus. So basically I'm just leveraging it so I could take maximum advantage of the program.

So that's the idea at least, the plan is to play Team DD for a few more days until my second account is due to have it's subscription renewed. Then I'll be able to "recruit" myself and start reaping the new benefits. So it's double XP now, and double XP later, with a lot of triple XP thrown into the middle.

If Blizzard's new "Recruit-A-Friend" program doesn't scream dual- or multiboxing then I don't know what does. Though this program is actually designed to get new people into the World of Warcraft, the benefits of this program can't be ignored by any current or would-be multiboxer.

The one thing that completely sticks out from the FAQ is:

"While adventuring with your linked friend/family member, you will each gain triple experience."

Allow me to emphasize that again. Triple Experience when grouped with your linked "friend". That's triple experience from killing mobs as well as quest experience! Talk about leveling fast. This triple experience while grouped with your friend will last for 90 days.

There are other benefits as well such as the ability to summon each other from anywhere in the game, and also the ability for your friend to grant one level of experience to one of your low-level character. You will also get an exclusive Zhevra mount.

Naturally there are some limitations to the program. Your "friend" will need to upgrade to the full game past the 10-day trial for an additional 60 days, but if you want the full benefit of the 90 days of triple experience you'll want to at least keep it active for that time.

The multiboxing community is already abuzz about this new program, and many are taking advantage of it. A few community members have weighed the cost-benefit of transferring their existing characters to newly "recruited" accounts and have determined that it's a small additional expenditure to a potentially large benefit.

So if you were ever on the fence about dual- or multiboxing, this could be the big push to have you give it a try. I mean think about it, there is no better way to quickly level new characters.

I know I'm going to be taking advantage of this seemingly ridiculous offer, will you?

[Update] Blue poster Syndri has some Q&A posts on the Official Forums that will answer a lot more questions than the FAQ itself. The thread is quite long but Syndri is very active in it and really does attempt to answer as many questions as possible. So take a look as your questions may have already been answered. The Q&A part begins here, is continued here, here, and here.