While the perks of the triple experience rate are perhaps the most obvious, there are a few other benefits to the Recruit a Friend program. One of the most useful is the ability for paired characters to summon one another. The vet can summon the recruit, and vice versa. The cooldown for this summoning is 30 minutes. Between this summoning, using the hearthstone, and all the other aids, travel downtime is almost eliminated. The recruit can also grant free levels to the veteran, as long as the recruit is higher level. For every two levels the recruit gains, he or she can grant one free level to the veteran. The idea is that the recruit will adventure solo a bit, while the veteran might have a raid with another character. Granting levels like this makes it much easier to stay within the 4 level range for triple XP, as well as on the same quest chains. In our case, my son and I were only adventuring together, but I did use the free levels for a lower level alt, because why not?
You might think the enhanced XP gain, summoning, and free granted levels would be enough to make the Recruit a Friend program worthwhile, but there are two more benefits, one of the financial and one of the cosmetic variety. Once the recruit pays for the first month of World of Warcraft game time, the veteran gets a free month. That’s like $15 in your pocket, always nice in these times when we want to stretch our gaming dollar. The cosmetic benefit turns up after the recruit pays for a second month of game time. The veteran can then claim a unique in-game mount, the Obsidian Nightwing. Instead of summoning the mount, you actually BECOME the Nightwing, and your recruit can ride around on your back! I’m not too vain about mount appearance, but there’s no denying the cool factor here.
My son and I have enjoyed many hours of gaming time together in Azeroth this summer. Because of the easy levelling, we have been able to level up to 81, with 82 just over the horizon. He was particularly excited about making a Death Knight character, which requires having a level 55 character in another class. At first, I thought we’d never make it, but it really didn’t take too long at all. We haven’t experienced much raiding or dungeon grouping yet, but we are well on our way to seeing some of the more interesting end-game content.
World of Warcraft is a highly cooperative game by any measure, but the Recruit a Friend benefits make it even more conducive to playing with a friend. The experience rate increase, ability to summon, grantable levels, and free month of game time, as well as the unique mount, are tremendous incentives. If you have a friend or family member who has ever expressed any interest in Warcraft, give it a shot. There’s an awful lot of gaming value for your buck, and plenty of time to try before you buy, in any case. Before you know it, you and your buddy will be walking around in epic loot, fighting tough bosses, and worrying about what gear suits your build best, and having fun doing it.