Powerleveling with World of Warcraft Recruit a Friend

For anyone that has done the trip to max level in a video game knows how difficult it can be, not to mention somewhat repeated feeling. With the recent release of World of Warcraft's Recruit a Friend bonus XP system, playing with two characters will level much faster than one. Also you get two toons, plus some extra free levels to hand out to another toon.

So, how much faster is this leveling compared to the solo method?

As an example, I leveled a two team mage and priest Blood Elf to level 11 within 1 hour. Then I leveled a Draenei mage to level 11 and took 4 hours. Now the zones are not the same but I think 4 times longer is a large increase of time. Basically you are getting a bonus XP for everything, from killing mobs to quest turn in's. During the low 20's, expect about 200xp per mob.

Now how does this compare at higher levels?

Well, I just got to level 24 on the mage and priest, but took about 13 hours of played time. They just finished the quests in the Blood Elf starting zones and I could have cut even more time by skipping most of the quests. As you level using the Request a Friend, you will notice quests going gray while you are doing them. On my other team, 51 druid and paladin, when I did quest turn in's they were usually 10,000xp to a 30,000xp for some dungeon quests.

Keep in mind that when I played the mage and priest, I still did the collection quests which many people say to drop since you need to collect 2x as many items (and take twice as long). I think I could have skipped these quests and gotten the leveling done even faster.

What's next?

Since the mage and priest are heading to Undercity, I'll pick up the SFK quest and grind that instance for a bit with a 70 to help out. I've been getting about 4~5 levels per night, playing maybe 2 hours per night.

Problems?

Playing two toons, or multiboxing is not as hard as it sounds but does take some setup. Right now I'm just using a software called Keyclone which passes any key I press to both clients of WoW on my computer. Then I have some macro's to help out with the rest. It's best to choose two casters, as it's easier then trying to chase down mobs with a melee classes.

Here's my basic setup.

Main - Mage (frost spec)
Secondary - Priest (wands, shadow spec)

I mostly play from the Mage, so I need to match up the spells from the mage with similar cast time spells from the priest. This makes it hard since the casting times need to be close or else I'll have the mobs on me before both toons can finish casting.

So here's a walk through of how I attack a mob.

1)From the main, I right click the mob.
2)From the main, I press the "1" key, this passes a "/assist Main" to the secondary. Now both toons are targeting and ready to cast.
3)From the main, I press the "2" key, mage casts frost bolt, priest casts smite. The smite is slightly faster cast time.
4)From the main, I press the "3" key, mage casts fireball, priest casts smite. This time the cast times are the same.
5)From the main, I press the "5" key, mage and priest start to attack with wands. This saves mana for the mage. :)

Now, I casted two items but really hit the mob for 4 plus wands. Also this makes a mana heavy class like the mage last much longer in battle.

I also have extra macros for buffing each toon, one for the priest to heal the mage (which I use allot), and another for inviting the priest to the party.

This week I'll post a video of how I attack a mob. It sounds complicated but it's really simple, and I like things simple. :)

Next posting, I'll report how things are going from 24 to 30.