Having reached 60, with alts at various points, I became able to give my refer-a-friend an instant level 60. Well, instant would be pointless: might as well create another alt myself and run through the newbie town, because that gets you to level 9 (with triple-xp) in less than an hour. Might as well save those granted levels for when they’re worth more.
So we made alts and quested our way to Goldshire. The next time we got together, he thought it would be fun to play those characters again, so we did most of the Goldshire quests. That, plus running to Westfall for the gryphon (plus some minor violence along the way), left us at level 14. Turning in any quest yielded multiple bars of xp.
That almost caught up to the first alt from whom I was going to start granting levels. That is the Mage, painfully leveled solo with the pitiful mana regen. His Mage reached about the same point in a coupe nights of easy grouping. He hasn’t even twinked this one, because it has not mattered: it goes too quickly, and who needs to farm more heirloom gear when level 60 is right around the corner?
I like my shiny new level 14 Rogue. Woo! But it makes playing solo kind of pointless. I would be better off dual-boxing, putting a character of his on /follow, and getting more rewards for everything I do. Which I have done, when there was a level-relevant character available. If nothing else, summoning a friend to a quest hub for an effectively free level at quest turn-in is nice. But it does make playing without him seem like a waste of (2/3 of my) time.
: Zubon
There is something about fast levelling that I dislike:
1.) you train zero trade skills, especially gathering skills. Your mining/skinning/whatever will be totally untrained or very very low.
2.) You will have not many flight points unlocked, unlike a Death Knight. Easy to solve with a fast mount, but still something you should do. I already had level 80s who have never been to some parts of the world and could not follow without my Warlock summoning them.
You are right about the drawback of this mechanic, without your buddy you are almost WASTING time, as the bonus is so powerful.
My prediction: Soon we will be able to create near max-level chars in WoW if we already have one or more max level chars on this account/server.
But will they be given proper tradeskill training or start at zero? I think gold farmers will abuse this system to the max if they get any decent job training, so Blizzard might be careful about this.
Will Blizzard sell these skills in an item shop for a little fee? Or will they just go on and sell max level chars in their store for little money, with the slight disclaimer that you need at least one max level char to be eligible for the purchase.
That was not a problem for my Herbalism: just obsessively pick everything, and you’re fine. It was for Skinning, because I kept forgetting to do it.
The real trade skill problem is the first tier. You can finish the newbie levels in a night, so if you do not do enough gathering then, you will be behind the curve and never be near things you can gather.
OTOH, that is something to do when your RAF partner is not available: spend a night exploring and farming crafting materials. That goes no more quickly or slowly.
“Might as well save those granted levels for when they’re worth more.”
Instant level 60 goblins eh? Cunning!
And this is why I haven’t multi-boxed. I’m afraid that once I do I won’t be able to go back to playing the old way. Only now I’ll have two subscriptions to support and not just one. It’s easy to get hooked on the convenience.