Recruit A Friend Guide - Some of the unexplained too!

[Sn00p]

Greetings! This is Sn00p's guide to recruiting friends!

So, we all know what recruiting a friend is, or RAF, so why bother making this?

Well, this guide is intended to walk you through persuading some friends to play, some of the benefits gained from recruiting a friend and also how to claim some of these benefits to their optimal usage! It also provides a few tricks for fast leveling for you to enjoy as well as some recommended combinations of characters to try with your pals! Hopefully this guide may prove useful to you, and really help you!

What is Recruiting-A-Friend?

Recruiting a friend is a special system made by Blizzard to grant special privileges for players that persuade other people to join, as well as encouraging people to start playing together. It's a very handy system, but it does have some cons that'll be later explained.

What are some of the pro's and con's then?

As forementioned, there are some brilliant pro's to Recruiting-A-Friend, that affect both the recruiter and recruitee! A few are listed here:

• - Triple experience! (Including quests, monsters etc.)
• - Free game time
• - Special items
• - Getting to play with a pal!

However, there are also cons to Recruiting-A-Friend that may hinder you! Some are..

• - A lack of money from leveling
• - A lack of equipment from leveling
• - Trying to stay even with your friend

Although may of those seem harmless enough, they can and I speak from experience be a very... very big pain! They'll each be explained ahead!

Triple Experience: Fast Leveling, Lack of equipment, Lack of money

You have to be near your friend for this to take effect!

Even though leveling very quickly can be handy, it can often leave you short handed when it comes to money or equipment because the quests are no longer necessary. Normally, you have approximately enough quests to get a full set of equipment for your level range before moving onto the next set of two or free areas. This is however, not the case when it comes to the triple experience bonus. You gain levels too fast to effectively gather equipment or gold, in my case I resorted to purchasing gold (because I had no main on that server) as a quick fix solution. We eventually bought equipment from the auction house.

Staying even with your friend can also be difficult, you may find one of you ends up pulling away faster or slower due to class quests etc. and may end up in you both having to make sacrifices. By sacrifices I mean, just abandoning a quest every now and then to even your experience. Make sure it's one you abandon where you don't need the rewards!

You said itenz & fri play time??

Indeed I did say items & fri play time! After your friend has PAYED for his first month of playtime, you get a month too as a present from Blizzard! After he has PAYED for his second month, you get a special mount exclusive to people who have recruited and kept a friend playing World of Warcraft! I capitalized payed for a simple reason; Blizzard do not count the first you get with your WoW box! I asked a Blizzard employee when I was due for my free months play time, and they explained that to me. It's not clearly explained, it's a pain! That's a clarity piece for you all out there. :-)

How do I recruit a friend?
Step one:

Get your friend to agree to start playing World of Warcraft!

Step two:

Log onto your World of Warcraft account, click the recruit a friend forms - including THEIR email address. When they open their email, they'll have a recruit a friend message prompting them to create a trial account!

Step three:

Get your friend to finish his account, download the WoW downloader in the account management section or lend him your discs then start playing for a while!

Step four:

Get your friend to sign up with a CD-Key!

Congratulations! It's activated! You and your friend will now gain the above benefits. Now choose from a good selection of duel-classes! Some recommendations:

- Paladin + Mage/Warlock
- Warrior + Priest
- Warrior + Paladin
- Hunter + Druid
- Druid + Rogue

I hope you have enjoyed this guide, and have a lovely time playing with your pal's in WoW! Please don't flame me class combo's etc., however, if it makes you feel complete insult my guide.

[_DecpticoN_]

This is pretty much all common sense

[Sn00p]

^ I didn't expect to go oh... damn... can't afford anything... daaannng... It's a bigger pain than I realized.

[whitekidney]

+rep for the guide.
useful !

[Sn00p]

^ Thanks Just trying to contribute a little ^^

[Jankem]

You know what, it's common sense, but be damned is some of the users lack this very rare commodity. +repsputin

[Sn00p]

^ Omg I love you! Repsutin = Rasputin = my favourite russian drunk!

[Kaitech]

Lack of money shouldn't be much of a problem. From what I've seen, not many people at all tend to make a new account then refer straight off.

Lack of gear shouldn't be too much of a problem either, because if you go Tank and Healer, you'll get into instances in a flash. That way it'll be like any normal instance.

Then again, starting fresh on a server could be a pain (As you said).

And also gear shouldn't be TOO necessary if you're leveling 3x the normal speed. You'll be outleveling your gear then paying more, therefor it's wasted.

When I went from 1 to 60 with RaF (I referred a friend who got bored of the game and let me take over the account... Dualboxing rules) I tended to leave out the mob duo-ing because the gain isn't so spectacular from RaF grinding. I just got quests in an area on both chars, done them on one, handed in then done them on the other. Feels slower but hey, switching from dash and spank to kite was a hell of alot of fun ^^

Oh, and I'd also like to add: Your gear doesn't come from quests as much as it should in Vanilla (From my experience, anyhow). Instancing all the way ^^

Just thought I'd say all that =D

[sebastian2112]

ummm i have a problem it say Not all accounts are eligible to recruit a friend. For a full list of restrictions, please see the FAQ. wen i clik on the link what can i do ??

[Blade Fatality]

Very well written (aside from some of the spelling errors) and a good read! +rep

Another thing... I suggest you change steps 3-4 as signing up with the CD key from the email and "finishing" an account seem like pretty much the same thing.

[HellCat23]

This is pretty much all common sense

Agreed. I did this for my mate and it really doesn't require a guide.

[naxxgor]

Additional stuff!

If there's some need for a FAQ like this, there must be a need to make it a little more bigger! Therefore I'm going to post some info about getting to level 60 the fastest way. With this you get some more info why you should consider RAF right now. I didn't find anything like this when I was planning this the first time so I hope I help someone here. Even though it's common sense to many, I'm trying to convince you to never level from 1 to 60 solo again! Being a lazy copycat, I'm going to steal the layout from the original post.

Leveling like this is fast, but sometimes it feels really slow!

I know, I know. When I first tried out RAF a few months ago, I did it with a friend that had pretty much zero knowledge of WoW. He kept dying, and as a shaman he had to do a lot of his class quests. It also felt like all the quests turned green and on bigger zones even gray before I could turn them in. Sure, getting to 60 was quite fast, but in the end some experienced levelers could almost get to that time even solo.

So what's faster then?

Well, you probably knew it already. Boosting. I had a chance to borrow a level 80 DK (naxx-10 geared) from a guildmate of mine, and there the fun began. A protection paladin and a frost mage work fine, too. In fact, every high-level character works, but AoE classes tend to be very fast. You go into an instance, kill a lot of trash and bosses, run out and reset. Simple, yet effective.

So how fast is it?

Even with some deaths and slowdowns with a noob friend, you can easily get to level 60 in less than one day. Trust me, this way your XP bar gets filled faster than Kungen's rage bar.

Wait, tell me more! What do I exactly need?

So, now I have 3 accounts here:

1: My guildie's DK.
2: Me (my alt I want to level).
3: My inexperienced friend. (RAF'd to your account)

Everyone doesn't have access to a guildie so there's an alternative that costs a bit more:

1: Your main (you boost with it).
2: Your alt, with a different account. (RAF'd to your main account)
3: Your inexperienced friend. (RAF'd to your main account)

With the latter setup, you boost the alts with your main. But wait, what do you do with an alt on a second account? You can always transfer it, or...well, remember the benefits of RAF? You can grant a level with every 2 levels you gain. You get two level 60's who can both grant you 29 levels! Not really much leveling required on your real alt, right? Just go to a big city and grant all the levels and maybe you get some jealous whispers from newbies!

I have a crappy computer so I played the boost char. My inexperienced friend has a better one so he just opened two WoW clients and logged in with both accounts, controlling one and having the other one on follow.

Um, level 80? Doesn't that reduce my XP a lot?

You could think so. But because of the RAF-linking of the accounts, you don't. This is simply a lot faster than leveling the traditional way. If you got a good-geared level 70 character, you probably get less reduction. I haven't tried it so I'm not sure. But you should also note that a level 80 character can clear the instances a lot faster.

So what do I exactly do?

Well, many guides like this exist on the Internet. I'm going to post what I feel is best with the DK I used.

Alliance:

1-10: Do quests. The starting area quests should take you at least level 7 or 8. Then do a few quests from the next hub and you're ready. You can stop questing the moment you hit level 10 if you want to.

10-15: Deadmines. Quite easy, just make sure your noob friend doesn't die to the spawns from behind after every boss. You can also start the quest chain from the letter VanCleef drops as it leads to the next instance we're heading into.

15-22: The Stockade. A very easy instance to boost. You might be slowed down by the instance limit here, though. You can leave at 20 already but at level 22 you get the quest outside for some more easy XP. If you got the quest from DM, be sure to do its follow-up here too.

22-45: Scarlet Monastery. Just an awesome place. You can run Graveyard and Library for the achievement but for XP I recommend Cath and Armory only. Remember that all the wings are a part of the same instance, so reset only after you have cleared both. Cath is better than Armory but because of the instance limit you should just clear both.

45-60: Stratholme. Not a good place for big aoe pulls due to annoying debuffs, but I still liked it here. I entered from the Service Gate and after killing the first three packs, I also pulled the whole place on the left, after the gates. Then I just cleared the whole undead side, killing every monster I could see. You can also get the mount from baron for your alts or even yourself! Get the Startholme quests from Light's Hope Chapel at level 55 for some easy XP. Collect 30x Bone Fragments and Crypt Fiend Parts for even some more easy XP!

Horde:

I admit I haven't leveled a horde character this way, but luckily it is very similar to the alliance version and this is probably how I would do it.

1-8: Beginner area questing.

8-10: Ragefire chasm. Remember to take the quest outside. You can stay here a bit longer if you want since it's an easy instance to clear with lots of melee mobs around.

10-20: Shadowfang keep. Nice instance to boost, and also a small chance to get some cool twink items!

20-45: Scarlet Monastery. Remember to get the quest from Varimathras if you happen to be in Undercity at level 30 or bigger. See the alliance list for more information.

45-60: Stratholme. See the alliance list for more information.

HEY! What about ZF? Lots of people recommend it!

I tried boosting there, too. It gives decent XP, but to be honest SM is still a lot easier instance to boost with all the melee mobs around. It is also closer to Stratholme where we will be heading next. If you really want to go to ZF, try it at levels 42-48. Remember to take the quests, they give decent XP too.

Any additional tips and tricks?

Do you find it hard to get to the new instances like SM with your alliance alts? Just log on your main, go to the instance portal and summon your friend (don't you just love RAF benefits?). Then log on your alt and have your friend summon you and you're ready!

Be sure to match the size of the pulls you make with the level of your skills and gear. The bigger the pull, the bigger the risk of you or your noob friend dying. Don't take any unnecessary risks, remember that especially on the lower-level instances the instance limit can become a problem.

You can also use a level grant on your RAF friend's account when you're about to ding level 60. Have your alt stand outside the instance while you kill some mobs for your friend to get a bit ahead in XP. When your friend dings level 60 and you are at 99% at level 59, grant the level. The result? You got a level 60 with 99% XP gained. The RAF bonus is gone, but with minimal effort you ding level 61 without even going to Outland.

You got me interested, should I really try it?

Yes! Trust me when I say this: I'm never going to level an alt solo again. The price of a new WoW account is very small compared to all the trouble you save yourself from. Also remember this: every alt you boost to 60, you get 29 level grants. That means that in two days, you can have three level 60s on your account! Even if a class doesn't interest you now, you can level it for tradeskill purposes, or maybe you'll become interested later and start leveling straight from level 60.

I hope this helps someone. Sorry for grammar mistakes. Also, if you got something to add, you can discuss it here or maybe I can even add it to my post if it really does help. Good luck!

[BiGDeE]

Lol i was just writing one of these up for the simple fact that EVERYONE is asking about it.. lol

[Anti Lifesaver]

1: Your main (you boost with it).
2: Your alt, with a different account. (RAF'd to your main account)
3: Your inexperienced friend.(RAF'd to your alt's account)

Thought I would correct that.

If you have them both RAF'd to the 80 then they won't gain experience.

You need them to be linked together because of the level difference.

[qITIp]

uhh how about gift levels in op? Use them before RAF is over and such...