f13.net

  They launched a new promotion today, which includes;

  Free Zevra mount for the account that "recruits"  (The "recruited" must actually upgrade to a full account, and pay for 2 months additional for this)
  Triple experience and honor for both accounts while they are playing together (The triple only applies to the lower level of the 2, if both aren't the same level)
  The ability to summon each other once per hour (up to level 60)
  The "recruited" also can grant one free level per 2 they gain to a character of equal or lower level on the "recruiter" account.
  The "recruiter" gets a free 30-days of game time (If the "recruit" upgrades to a full account and pays for 1 month)

Link to the Blizzard R-A-F FAQ (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20588)  which has been hammered for a few hours now.

  It's definitely a huge jump for them, triple experience for the entire old-world content means everyone levels extremely quickly in anticipation of the WoTLK launch.  Not to mention, talk about artificially inflating the subscriber numbers, multi-boxers rejoice!

  My question would be, can I create the free account and transfer one of my existing characters over to it?  Moving my 70 prot pally to a new account, and having him be able to run everyone of my characters through instances to get them to 60 would be just about worth it.  Since, according to what I've read, every one of my chars below 60 would get triple exp for 3 months, even doing it this way.  And if I'm understanding it right, I'd get to pretty much level a character on the new account with the "free levels", just about up to 60, without ever actually playing it?  If I gain 100 levels across 5 characters, I get to "give away" 50?

Is this a joke? Edit - I know the link is legit, I'm just stunned that Blizzard feels the need to give away the store like this.

Looks like "no" to me: (unfortunately)

So if you've got a 30, they won't recieve any bonus XP from anything the 70 kills unless it's green to the 70.

  Ahh, I seem to have misread that part, I thought it meant the higher level wouldn't get any exp, not that the triple-bonus wouldn't kick in at all, much like current rules.  So much for that idea!

EA have got to be spitting blood  :grin:

I don't know about that. Trust your game. Trying to play games with sub numbers is not wise, IMO.

Why now after I'm not interested in playing WoW?  I love zhevras.  Always wanted one for a pet, and now this.  :cry2:

It's almost enough to make me play again.  Fortunately there's no one I know to invite to tempt me.

How are they giving away the store?

Hmm, with triple exp is 90 days enough time to hit 60 through casual play?

Proof they are losing subs and desperate!!

Also, I saw a blue car, which I believe proves the same thing. 

Depends on how casual.  I hit 70 on my warlock just outside of a month of solid play 3-5 hours on weekdays and ~7 or 8 on weekends.    I also was using that QuestHelper mod, which helps even more than the leveling guides since they have you jump around too many zones.   Soo.. about 156 hours total.  That works out to 1.7 hours a day over 90 days.  But it'd take even less time since 2-3 hour' players wouldn't blow through their accrued rest XP as fast as I did at the upper end.

Giving away free levels if your friend levels. Trust me, I'm not a hardcore poopsocker who's going to cry about the game being too easy, but at some point they may as well just put in a "level to 70" button.

They may just do that one day.  :grin:


Seriously, I still don't see whats the big deal? It just ensures the friends are always at a similar level while they level up in tandem. Also ensures the new friend is put into relevant content rapidly, since the 'old' content isn't used as much, but it still allows the new player to experience the good parts, since they are being shown everything with their established friend.


The only QQ about this system I have is it wasn't put in sooner. We recently had a brand new player join our guild, and she's only now just hitting the 60 range. It's kinda annoying to everyone involved when you have to work around a 50+ level gap. Plus, new mount  :drill:

Yeah this would have been brilliant for getting her up to speed. I do have one sister-in-law left who isn't playing but she's not much of a gamer, and I don't think this would be her thing.

If the Zhevra mount is an Epic one, I might be tempted to do this.

I'd have to become interested in playing again, of course.

Interesting. I already 2-box and I've just started up a warlock and druid pair with the aim of getting them to 70 by wotlk. Given that they're only level 20 now it'd almost be worth my getting a *3rd* account using this and rerolling one of them.

Hrmmm. Pondering :p

They should just have put in side-kicking ages ago.  It would make it all so much more fun.

They will probably do this one day. Deathknights starting at 55, the adjustment of experience gain pre-60, this new buddy recruit system.

I daresay WoW has become so top-heavy that Blizzard is going to take more and more drastic steps to let people play catch up.

  Sent you a PM about this, I'm really curious.

This is pretty dumb, to me.

Who only has one friend who they might want to play with? What if you have two, and those other two want to just play with each other sometimes? Etc bleh.

Sure it's better than nothing, but most of the stuff I read around the place is from people sayings stuff like "mmm, tempted to 2-box and get the pet" and shit like that, not "this will be great to get my casual friends to play".

Just charge extra to start characters at level 60 or 70 already.

I think they want new players, that's the goal of this and starting a new player at 60-70 would be a bold and frankly stupid move. However I agree with you on the issue of who has one friend they want to play with?

Really for me, all my geeky friends are already playing wow, or have played wow and quit. I doubt I know a single person who would be interested. I also know if I did refer them I'd never actually play with them since I spend too much time on my main guy as it is.

Just to add to the straw polls,  I saw a ton of linked Zhevras going around last night while playing.  People were sighting them all over the place.  That's on the launch day.

For some reason even before this, we've been picking up a new member for our guild at least once a week.  They are a friend of xxx or a cousin of yyy.  We picked up yet another one last night.

I doubt I'll ever do anything with this, but from my limited perspective, whatever they are doing is working.

The drawback?  We're back to the daily calls for help running people though Deadmines and Gnomerang, etc.

Alliance scum. real newbies are looking for mankirk's wife.






btw where is she?

Keep heading south, she's after the elevator.

I totally agree.....it seems a win - win for both Blizzard and players.

If you get to a big white desert with lots of turtles in it.... keep going, you're nearly there :awesome_for_real:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE1sJFi3bz8

 :vv:

No matter what anyone says, this is awesome. Simply brilliant.

:grin: You wanna invite me?

I have to say, your post seems pretty dumb to me. They're giving you something where before you got nothing and you're bitching? You expect them to put in a reciprocal port to anyone who might be your friends? FWIW, my casual friends who might be interested in WoW are already playing.

Those who wouldnt be, won't.

If you have two friends, you can invite one and that guy can invite the other. You miss out on super-PL and ports for your second friend and the tradeoff is both the lowbies can port to and from one another. Oh noes!

George Bush is a good president because he isn't Stalin.

Wow, you're good at making irrelevent points that have nothing to do with the argument!  :awesome_for_real:
Actually, it's more of a comment than a point, since the initial assertation is highly questionable at best. But feel free to try again. Or not.

Anyway, looks like the mount is epic.
http://thottbot.com/i37719

You're an idiot.

Criticism is not black and white.


in my original post.

Now go be stupid somewhere else.

Any particular reason you're being an absolute troll and cunt lately? You weren't this much of a dickhead previously.

Or are you attempting to be an internet.bad.ass?

He has gone the way of the boog.  I eagerly await the day that he stops posting, or at least stops posting, "you're stupid", as his main sole point.

You came in here and had a go at my post for no apparent reson whatsoever. I said I thought the system could be better, that it didn't do a whole lot from what I could see because it could be awkward beyond one friend, and because the advantages apply mostly to new players to the game, where most people have friends who have tried it already, not entirely new ones, so as a promotion it could do things a whole lot better instead of the "mmm, time to 2-box for a mount/alts" that I saw all over the place.

And for some reason you seem to take that criticism as some kind of blizzard sucks yadda yadda. So then I glibly pointed an example to illustrate that criticism or praise is not just "omg awesome" or "omg sucks" but can be more, and you posted another dicky reply, so I got annoyed.

Now, can we move on already?

It's a money-grab, but it's a smart one that hurts no one. I fail to see the downside of such a move either as a business or a player, especially given the timing of the expansion.

I think I saw the Twilight's Hammer Torturers escorting her into a cave in Northeast Silithus. You might want to try there.

No, no. I'm sure I saw some necromancer with her in a sack heading through the Dark Portal into outlands. He has a secret castle there, just fly north from the northernmost tip of netherstorm for 10miniutes, then fly straight down. Of course you'll need to be level 70, but just keep it in your log till then, it's a secret quest reward--like the cow level in diablo.

Oh ho ho, I see through your trap fiend. Every evil bastard thinks they are so clever with their schemes, but they always leave careless little clues that they are lying. In this case the cow level wasn't actually in Diablo. It was in Diablo 2. Thwarted again lamaros.

No, he's talking about the secret cow level. The one through the portal in the rogue encampment was hardly a secret.

I've been doing this with a buddy who has been playing WoW for a while.  I'm level 47 at maybe 30 hours played, so...  yah. 

This.  It doesn't matter how fast they make everyone 70 now, since it's not like they're going to be stuck at that cap for years or anything.

I signed up for this (my 3rd WoW account, sheesh, I need help) 2 days before putting my back out rendering me unable to play since. Talk about frustrating  :x

edit: not good at typing on this craptop!

Hey Apocrypha, do you use Keyclone when you two-box?  My kid and I have thought about it, just to play around with.

The only thing is I can't link my son's account to mine, so I guess we both might get accounts threw this for the mounts.

Then you can transfer your mains from your old accounts, and away you go.

The mount is only for one toon on your account though, from what I understand.  It's not a permanent mount option, the way CE pets are for every toon you create.

No mate, I don't. I've got 2 PC's, 2 keyboards, 2 mice, etc, and I play both chars totally manually. I don't even use in-game macros except for a simple /target charname /follow one for the "2nd" char.

It means that the 2nd char is a bit retarded cos there's only so many buttons I can press with 2 hands but it's how I enjoy playing - it's enough of a challenge that it keeps my brain interested even when levelling through the same content for the 10th time :)

My biggest wish for WoW? More level 1-60 content. LOTS of it.

Now that this has been in for a while, I kind of hate it.  Why?  Because I can't level with my friends who are playing who I don't have a friends account with!  They level way too fast.

I wish there was some sort of "Veterans Rewards" program for those of us who have played the game from launch and thus, apparently have no friends in real life, so that we too could level in 1/3 the time it takes.  (Although I am an odd one, I think I prefer leveling to being max_level).

You're not the only one!

Know what's a real pisser? Your wife resubbing, then luring you back to the game (wait, that's not the pisser).  Then you buy a GTC at Best Buy (because your "real" credit card sub budget is going to EVE) and you resub to the game (we're still not at the pisser).

Later you look at the account management screen and realize your wife could have extended you a "scroll of ressurection" and gotten you 10 days free, plus once you cash in your GTC she'd have a 30 day extension to her own account.  Instead, you both paid full price  :uhrr:


Now, to the real point of this thread: it seems to me like they'll never put in a sidekick system, or a /level_me_to_70 command ala DAOC, but they seem to see the wisdom of doing everything except that. 

I guess their market research must point to the existence of someone's geeky cousin still out there.   IMO that's a good thing for the industry.  Not only have they opened the industry only about 20 times wider than anyone used to think it was, but they're continuing to do so.

I don't like leveling, I prefer being max level.  As for veterans rewards...I both like and dislike that idea, because I've had several accounts, and the current accounts I use aren't the ones I started with (stupid reasons, but it happens). 

I also hate things that reward me retroactively for things I didn't know I would be rewarded for at the time.  That's one thing that annoys the hell out of me for some of these 'Feats of Strength' they're putting in the achievement system.  They can't be redone, and at the time, I had no idea there would ever be anything.  So although I may have accomplished some of them (or had the opportunity to do so) I won't get credit for any one of various reasons such as not having done it (because at the time, there was no reward) or having destroyed the item(s) that serve as proof for the game.

I'm sure you can petition a GM to have that resolved.

None of the Feats of Strength grant titles beyond what you'd initially earned, (Knight-Captain, Hand of A'dal, etc) so the only REAL pisser is that they're taking-out the ability to gain them at a later date.  I didn't want to fuck with all the heroic bullshit a few months back, so I never nabbed the easy titles.  Now I've got no chance.. That's a nuisance only if you're a title-loving badge whore like me.

The real oddity is that you get "achievement points" for all this crap, but they're meaningless.  You can't spend the points on anything, so there's no real reason to track them.  They've even gone so far as to point out that they never actually said that you'd spend them on things.  Of course, this ignores that everyplace else in the game that you earn 'points' you spend them so it was an obvious conclusion.


the fuck.. I posted stuff here and it went bye bye.

Anywho.. you can get most of the items from vendors with the patch.  The brewfest stein lore mentions is probably the only one you can't get again.

I destroyed my Yellow Brewfest Stein(s) last year due to them being useless and a lack of bag space. Now I won't get the achievement.

Wait, who really gives a fuck about ones you "earn" like that?

Some though, I can see doing just for the fuck of it.

Yeah, the kind of things I'm talking about are things like the stein, the Clockwork Rocket Bot, and so on.

Of course I hate the removal of the ability to do something at all, so pretty much anything they've removed from the game (PvP titles, for example) irks me.  And yeah, just like Merusk, I never got the easy titles at the time and now I'll never be able to, and it GNAWS at me!

I suspect they'll eventually make the points spendable to purchase fluff items.  The only thing they've stated unequivocally (and they occasionally go back on those, too) is that they won't be spendable to purchase items that increase your power in-game.

I just hope that when they put in account-wide achievements, they make the PvP titles into account-wide.  I didn't get that high in the old system (Knight-Captain was my highest), but I loved my titles and am proud of them, I just wish they could be displayed on characters I'm actively playing now a days.

The Feats of Strength (the Achievements you can't do anymore) don't actually provide 'points', it's pure E-Peen fluff.

(http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:V6whHk45bWQJ::op-for.com/simpsons_nelson_haha2.jpg)

I bought a third account to abuse the recruit-a-friend system.

I have a new level 60 druid, and a level 48 rogue - my friend is also leveling two other characters to 30, so after granting levels, he'll have 4 level 60s.

I endorse this promotion! Our rogues were in their early 40s at about 17 hours in, with my warrior on my main account just running the characters through stuff.

Hey I plan on doing that same thing soon , would you (or anyone else) have any general tips on combos that would be the easiest for this setup ? Not really worried about being the most "uber" just enough to run through most open world content -

Was thinking warlock/warlock as it seems like an easy setup - or something like mage/priest ?

Warlock/Shadow Priest.

Thanks for that suggestion - hadn't even thought of warlock/priest combo but I can see how that would work well - downloading now as I play last few hours of WAR -

https://solidice.com/keyclone/index.html

Keyclone and the dual-boxing forms have been pretty helpful on planing how to set up our rigs.  We plan on getting 2 more accounts (one for me, and one for my child), plus we are linking our accounts in CoX, so those games are pretty cool for this type of play. 

Duo's I've played to decent levels (40+) (main char listed first each time):

Rogue + resto druid - awesome. Really fun, tough as nails, double stealth, an instance-soloing monster of a duo.
Enhance shaman + holy pally - see above. This is WoW on easy mode. Pally spams FoL, has all lots of <3 for OMGSHIT moments, shammy pours out DPS and buffs pally.
Warrior + holy priest - not a good as expected. Not enough DPS and priest more complicated than pally/druid healbot.
BM hunter + shadow priest - surprisingly good. Awesome pet tank plus 2 DPS plus healing. Problem was keeping agro off priest.
Feral druid + afflic warlock - too confusing. No easy healing. I suck with feral druids too. Abandoned at 40.

Currently doing another rogue/druid combo, but Horde this time. Only thing slowing them down is my fucked back :/

This will break many hearts:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20588

Sorry, if was already posted.

The FAQ?