Recruit-a-Friend; or, How To Use 300% XP Without Really @#$!ing Yourself

There’s been a lot of discussion about the Recruit-a-Friend program, most of it discussing how it’s a Bad Thing with a capital BT – some people have even called it a game-killer, which strikes me as a bit of hyperbole… but I digress. There’s even a few amusing cautionary tales about it floating around out there, such as running into level 59 ret pallies wearing level 26 pants. Still, the allure of the program is hard to deny, especially when it lets you do things like this:

I’m one of those people. I recruited myself. Eladhon and Xajek receive the 300% xp bonus when grouped together (granted, in a level or two, so would Eladhon and Galehorn), and I can attest to the fact that it is freaking amazing. Here’s the guidelines I set out for myself so that I wouldn’t be that complete gimp when I get to Outland.

Keep in mind these guidelines mostly apply to dualboxers who already have an account at 70, since that’s my personal experience, but if you’ve got an actual friend (or S.O., or roommate, or sibling, or parent, or mailman, or whatever) to recruit, you may want to help them out with these guidelines as you speed them along towards Outland.

1. Carefully – CAREFULLY – pick and choose your quests. Part of the disconcerting effect of the experience bonus of the Recruit-a-Friend is how quickly quests go from yellow to green to grey. For those of you who’ve leveled to 70 already, at least once, you may find that you’re skipping quests instead of slogging through all of them like you did the first time. Obviously, you’ll want to prioritize the ways you do these quests, so here’s a few suggestions.

• Prioritize quests that provide equipment over those that don’t. As you fly from 1-60, you’ll find that you quickly outstrip most greens you find as drops. You’ll also find that quest rewards may last you just a bit longer. Try to take quests that give you new gear, so you can keep your gear constantly upgraded instead of it lagging several levels behind.
• Do those dungeon quests. You may not be able to find a group for many low level instances, as even with the recent nerfs to many “old world” dungeons (what do you mean, Theradras doesn’t summon adds anymore?!), there just aren’t as many people doing them. That’s fine. You’ve probably got a friend at 70. Whether you run them appropriately or get yourself run through, do dungeon quests. The gear you find in instances is better than quest rewards, 9 times out of 10, and will last you longer. There are pieces in ZF and SM that you can wear clear up until you pass the Dark Portal, even! Plus, well, dungeon quests grant large XP bonuses anyway – and 300% of that is better. Not to mention you seem to get the 300% xp bonus on elites, as well. I had my buddy Vandersloot pull Eladhon and Xajek through Deadmines last night twice and SFK once, and they were getting around 150xp a kill, plus boatloads of gear that’ll be good for a while.
• Prioritize “kill X of Y” quests over “bring me X of Y” quests. There’s really no reason for this other than efficiency. While many quests allow you to share goals, even for things like deactivating spires, ground spawn or item drop quests do not. First off, think of your second character as an extension of your first. Ready? Well, if you’re collecting souvenirs, you have to effectively complete the quest twice over. For some quests, that can be ridiculous (why do those poor farmers in Hillsbrad not have skulls?!). Ground spawn quests aren’t nearly as bad, assuming it’s an easily visible ground spawn. But Kill X of Y quests, or Kill X, Y, and Z, or Kill X And Bring Me His Token Body Part quests, are your bread and butter.

2. Be smart with the Auction House. While you might be tempted to go to the AH and pick up a new load of greens every few levels, unless you’re virtually brimming with gold this could eventually get expensive for two new alts. My suggestions is to ask yourself, “will this still be usable in (3/5/10) levels?” Be smart – use the resources available to you, such as Wowhead or its ilk, to plan what it is you’d like to have, and work towards specific pieces of long-term-use gear instead of whatever crap happens to be for sale at the auction house.

3, which is really the corollary to 2: Feel free to pick up greens and blues from the AH or world drops for the character to be granted several levels. Part of the inspiration for many people to pick up Recruit-a-Friend is that if you manage to get your alts from 1-60 (keep in mind I did 1-20 with virtually no effort, and have three months to get to 60 at this rate, so you can gauge how doable it is), you get to grant 30 levels to an alt on the main account. If you do it twice? You get to grant 60 levels. While running a lot of instances and choosing relevant quests is all well and good for the alts you’re leveling up, the toons you’re about to unleash on an unsuspecting Outland may not (more likely will not) have the gear to even do the simplest of quests in Outland. So while you probably shouldn’t be hitting the AH to gear up the ones you’re leveling (at least not all the time), you should probably get your level-granted character a set of stuff to wear so he or she doesn’t die to the first helboar in Hellfire Peninsula.

4. Understand the fiscal responsibility. And I don’t just mean the cost of a second account. Part of the tradeoff for prioritizing gear over money is that, well, you may not have much money. And if you’re flying through zones at top speed to get to 60, your tradeskills – even double gathering skills – will more than likely not keep up. You’re probably going to be funding mounts and more from your main character’s pocketbook. So, make sure you’ve got at least enough to pay for 2 sets of regular mount training, 2 sets of epic land mount training, 2 regular mounts, and 2 epic mounts (note: does not apply so much if one or both of your alts are a pally or a lock, though those quests – especially the warlock one – are costly in their own right). Not to mention training – when you’re earning 2 or 3 levels per instance, training can get expensive. Once they’re in Outland, of course, those slackers can earn their own keep.

5. Learn your class. Granted, you may not get many opportunities to learn your class in Azeroth, not only because you’re rushing from 1-60 but because you’re not going to be using your eventual endgame spec because it sucks for leveling. That’s fine. Lots of classes fall into that rut, like prot warriors or resto anything. But if you have the chance, and you’re running those instances like I told you to do so above, learn your role! Priests – learn to heal and support! Hunters – learn to CC properly and work on those shot rotations! Tanks – learn to tank! DPSers – learn to control your threat while maximizing output! These are the kinds of things people already assume you don’t know when you get to Outland, but if you get there and don’t know your stuff and are a Recruit-a-Friend baby? Don’t expect any favors. Be willing to learn from those who know better than you, and read as many tactics guides as you can sneak in at work fit in your spare time, but at the same time, be sure and put it into practice. You need to know what you’re doing, and reading is a great start, but real world experience dovetails nicely with that and makes you even better at the class you just rushed up to 60 with.

6. Have fun. Seriously, have fun. You’re about to get a new endgame alt to play with, and who knows? Maybe you’ll like it better than your main! But do some fun stuff with it. Run an instance you skipped last time, or level in new zones (there’s equivalents to pretty much everything; no one ever has to go to STV). Enjoy yourself. And follow these guidelines above; in my opinion, they’ll maximize your fun!