Update (10/22): This is now live!

Recruit A Friend Returns - Blizzard Preview
Recruit a friend will be returning soon with a bunch of new features!

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Ready to make memories with your friends and share fantastic adventures with them across Azeroth and beyond? The new Recruit A Friend program is the perfect way to show them the ropes.

What’s New?
The new-and-improved Recruit A Friend (RAF) program retains fan-favorite features, and it introduces a bounty of new rewards—because Azeroth is best experienced with friends at your side. Just like the previous program, you can teleport to each other with Friend-to-Friend Summoning (which works on a 30 minute cooldown) and receive 50% bonus experience when partied together.

More Recruits, More Rewards
The new Recruit A Friend program allows you to be linked with up to 10 friends, and earns game time and other unique rewards—like mounts, pets, and more—the longer they play. Players new to WoW and veteran players who have not purchased game time on their account in the past two years can be enlisted in this program. Each time one of your recruits adds game time to their account, you’ll earn progress toward a new reward. The more friends you invite, the faster you’ll earn the rewards, as one friend adding multiple months of game time earns the same rewards as multiple friends adding one month of game time each. See all the rewards you can get below!*

  • Rikki - 1 Month
  • Game Time – 2 Months
  • Explorer’s Dunetrekker – 3 Months
  • Title: Renowned Explorer – 4 Months
  • Game Time – 5 Months
  • Enchant: Stinging Sands – 6 Months
  • Renowned Explorer’s Tabard – 7 Months
  • Game Time – 8 Months
  • Explorer’s Jungle Hopper – 9 Months
  • Renowned Explorer’s Rucksack – 10 Months
  • Game Time – 11 Months
  • Renowned Explorer’s Attire – 12 Months


Rewards shown from left to right: Renowned Explorer’s full set as shown (Attire, Tabard, and Rucksack), Rikki, Renowned Explorer’s Jungle Hopper, and Explorer’s Dunetrekker. Not pictured – Enchant: Stinging Sands.

  • Rikki—This curious monkey is ready to see the world at your side.
  • Explorer’s Dunetrekker—Traverse deserts, jungles, tundra, and beyond on this two-seater mount.
  • Renowned Explorer Title—Distinguish yourself with a unique title.
  • Enchant: Stinging Sands—Enhance the appearance of your weapons with swirling sands.
  • Renowned Explorer’s Tabard—Don this rugged tabard to show off your adventurous streak.
  • Explorer’s Jungle Hopper—Soar through Azeroth’s skies on this mount for two.
  • Renowned Explorer’s Rucksack—Always be prepared for adventure with this bustling backpack.
  • Renowned Explorer’s Attire—Look the part of a grizzled outdoorsperson with this rugged appearance.

Game Time
Every 3 months after your 12-month reward, you’ll get a game time reward.

Recruiters must have active game time to earn and claim rewards.


Go it Together
Time flies when you’re having fun, and it goes even faster when you and your recruits play together. Conquer Azeroth alongside your friends and you’ll both receive a 50% bonus to experience for faster leveling when partied together. You can also summon each other once every 30 minutes. Furthermore, our new Party Sync feature makes it easier than ever to level with friends. When activated, everyone in the party becomes aligned to the same quest state and phase. You’ll also have access to a “replay quest” feature that allows players who’ve already completed certain quests to replay them with their friends for rewards that are appropriate to their current level, regardless of the quest’s original level. Quests can be replayed for rewards once per day.

If you’d prefer to play with your friend using a current character rather than starting a new one, you now can. By using Party Sync, you can choose to have your level adjusted so you can quest and experience outdoor content with your friends as they level up. And, If you want to queue for instanced content (such as Battlegrounds and dungeons) in their level range, you can choose to join them by having your level scaled down.

Please note that unlike Timewalking, when your level is scaled, you will temporarily lose access to abilities and powers (such as Azerite Traits and over-level spells, abilities, talents, and trinket effects) with requirements that exceed your reduced level.

Lead with Confidence
To help you help your friends, we’ve created a brand-new RAF panel in-game to help you know when to expect your next reward and given your access to Party Sync. The RAF panel also lists special activities available to players who participate in the program. Complete these in-game challenges with your recruits to earn even more rewards.

Start Your Journey
The new Recruit A Friend lets you generate a custom link in-game that you can send to your friends. This link will help you and your recruit connect in-game, and you’ll be able to see if they’ve purchased game time, which will lead to rewards for you! For each month your recruits have active game time, you’ll earn a new reward, such as unique pets, mounts, game time, and more. These rewards unlock each month and scale with the amount of time your recruits have subscribed for. And, of course, with Party Sync, you’ll be able to journey with your friends on any of your characters.


Adventure Awaits
Recruit A Friend returns to World of Warcraft in the next few months. When you’re ready to bring your friends to Azeroth, simply log in to WoW and generate an invite link through the Recruit A Friend interface, then send that link to your friends. Up to four friends can use it to link their accounts to yours. To recruit more friends, you’ll need to generate a new link, which you can do once every 30 days.

*In-game rewards are available to use in World of Warcraft, but not in World of Warcraft® Classic. Free game time earned through Recruit A Friend provides access to both World of Warcraft and WoW Classic.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Recruit A Friend Returns! started by Stoy View original post
Comments 248 Comments
  1. Cæli's Avatar
    we don't know how long it lasts? I hope the recruit of friend lasts forever once activated, up to 10 per account and the counter can never go down automatically
    should have mentioned it as it's a big question!
  1. DarkAmbient's Avatar
    Nice, they made something that should really have been archaeology rewards and monetised it instead. Actiblizz strikes again.
  1. horbindr's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    yet guess what
    if you wanted those pets you could not earn them ingame
    you NEEDED to pay REAL LIFE MONEY if you wanted those INGAME ITEMS.

    cash shop.
    well sure it meets the technical definition. but the intend is completely different which is what makes it a false equivalency if you ask me.

    cash shop to me implies more than just having to pay real money, it also comes with inherent negative/greedy connotations. and i don't believe for one second the original vanillla/TBC/WoTLK collectors editions were made with greed or milking the customer in mind.

    i also feel like for something to be a shop, you actually have to be able to buy things at it. and those early CEs were some very damn limited runs man.
  1. Laqweeta's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    how stupid i sound?

    lets compare.



    Pets, mounts, and toys you can only obtain by paying blizzard real life money= not cash shop.
    recruiting friends to play wow, and for doing so you are rewarded for every month one of your friends is subbed= cash shop.
    that is what you are saying.
    ok man.


    no, they charged i think it was 150$
    but nah thats fine, cause it was vanilla, and vanilla was perfect.
    oh justn oticed, you admitted they had a cash shop.
    "SHow me where they sold a CE version of the base game, and i will admit it had a cash shop"
    well they did, so mate, sorry to tell you, but in vanilla, you could pay an extra 100$ and get ingame items that other people could not, and you agree!
    Being able to afford $100 to get a pet and being too poor to purchase a CE version of the game to get a pet does not define the term cash shop.

    Being able to buy a token for $20 that you sell on the AH for 175k gold and buy ilvl 930 HC gear defines the term cash shop.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by horbindr View Post
    well sure it meets the technical definition. but the intend is completely different which is what makes it a false equivalency if you ask me.

    cash shop to me implies more than just having to pay real money, it also comes with inherent negative/greedy connotations. and i don't believe for one second the original vanillla/TBC/WoTLK collectors editions were made with greed or milking the customer in mind.

    i also feel like for something to be a shop, you actually have to be able to buy things at it. and those early CEs were some very damn limited runs man.
    1. again you forget the TCG, which you had to buy hundreds of card packs to get the mounts, are you saying lootboxes are not greedy? I guess you must be an EA fan
    2. how do you know blizzard didn go "hey you know what, lets add pets to it, so if players want those petsi ngame, they have to buy it!" almost like the current cash shop...

    how can you say "Blizzard making us pay real life money for ingame items is fine cause it was vanilla, but now that its BFA that is not ok"
  1. bloodwulf's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by RobertoCarlos View Post
    Yes yes business can do whatever they like. People are just meat suits to be sold things. There's nothing like ethics and government oversight to stop predatory behaviour. Who cares if they are ripping people off and are promoting gambling in youth. They have to pay their power bill. Please. Open your eyes for once
    How is ethics even being brought into this. Nothing being sold is power gaining, so there is no reason for people to obsessively buy it. Stop trying to make something where there isn't. This is literally a conversation about vanity items and you are saying this is promoting gambling or ripping people off? Get off your high horse, nothing being sold in the shop or as part of this RAF is essential for play.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    Being able to afford $100 to get a pet and being too poor to purchase a CE version of the game to get a pet does not define the term cash shop.

    Being able to buy a token for $20 that you sell on the AH for 175k gold and buy ilvl 930 HC gear defines the term cash shop.
    lololol
    so you agree this is not a cash shop thing. as its only 180$ for everything only 120$ if you dont include the free months. and only poor people would complain about that, as you just said!
    see, you changed your mind, this is not a cash shop thing.


    paying 120$ for a total of 8 rewards is cash shop
    but paying 150$ for 1 of 3 pets is not.
    i gotcha man.
  1. Laqweeta's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    lololol
    so you agree this is not a cash shop thing. as its only 180$ for everything only 120$ if you dont include the free months. and only poor people would complain about that, as you just said!
    see, you changed your mind, this is not a cash shop thing.
    Yes it is, this has cash shop written all over it.

    I don't know what you're talking about at all.

    Vanilla never had this, retail does.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    Yes it is, this has cash shop written all over it.
    so this thing, the recruit a friend has cash shop all over it? ok so then so does the vanilla collectors edition, and the TCG rewards.

    if not feel free to inform me why this is cash shop, but that was not.
  1. Asotcha's Avatar
    Credit where its due; its very smart to have the party sync system set up and have it all easy to access on the UI like this. Its a shame that cool mogs like this are just through this system, but I get it.

    I wonder what they're gonna do with the old rewards, like that awesome fire-pegasus. I really like that.
  1. horbindr's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    1. again you forget the TCG, which you had to buy hundreds of card packs to get the mounts, are you saying lootboxes are not greedy? I guess you must be an EA fan
    2. how do you know blizzard didn go "hey you know what, lets add pets to it, so if players want those petsi ngame, they have to buy it!" almost like the current cash shop...

    how can you say "Blizzard making us pay real life money for ingame items is fine cause it was vanilla, but now that its BFA that is not ok"
    i said how one was fine and the other isnt: the obviousness/excessiveness of the greed vs fanservice.

    TCG is just a weird thing man, technically it's not a cash shop but merely cross promotion. in reality sure it's a straight up cash shop now that the actual TCG is pretty much dead. but cause its a TCG its also kinda inherent that it works that way. card games are fucking weird with their monitization man.
  1. RobertoCarlos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bloodwulf View Post
    How is ethics even being brought into this. Nothing being sold is power gaining, so there is no reason for people to obsessively buy it. Stop trying to make something where there isn't. This is literally a conversation about vanity items and you are saying this is promoting gambling or ripping people off? Get off your high horse, nothing being sold in the shop or as part of this RAF is essential for play.
    Keep making excuses. What did they do with all that allied race money? Lay off staff.

    When's the last time blizz made a new game? They're not even creating new games but this kind of shit is fine. No wonder studios can get away with cutting up content into dlc and cash shops and people like you not only buy it up but even defend it. Rofl.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by horbindr View Post
    i said how one was fine and the other isnt: the obviousness/excessiveness of the greed vs fanservice.

    TCG is just a weird thing man, technically it's not a cash shop but merely cross promotion. in reality sure it's a straight up cash shop now that the actual TCG is pretty much dead. but cause its a TCG its also kinda inherent that it works that way. card games are fucking weird with their monitization man.
    except it was cahs shop
    1. you are paying blizzard directly, as they make money off EVERY SINGLE PACK SOLD
    2. also omfg the tcg is dead? guess what that has no effect on. this. thats funny, so blizzard used to sell loot boxes for wow back in vanilla, but removed it later, i think with cataclysm?
    3. so agian your saying lootboxes are fine, but recruit a friend is not?

    card games arte literally lootboxes, but they were usually fine as they could be traded, and only effected the card game, the thing becomes loot boxes when those card suddenly have a chance to have a reward for an entirely different game.
  1. Drusin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    There it is, there it fucking is.

    I'm 100% positive that this "Renowned Explorer's Attire" will be xmoggable over any armor type.

    There's your Cash Shop fully implemented now, except in the case of F2P MMOs, this is 100x more expensive. (15$x12 = $180). Whereas on the F2P the set would likely be $15 to $20.
    mfw vanity items
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by RobertoCarlos View Post
    Keep making excuses. What did they do with all that allied race money? Lay off staff.

    When's the last time blizz made a new game? They're not even creating new games but this kind of shit is fine. No wonder studios can get away with cutting up content into dlc and cash shops and people like you not only buy it up but even defend it. Rofl.
    when was the last time they made a new game? like literally less then a month ago with wow classic. oh not that? alright, diablo immortal and wow BFA, oh not that? overwatch and hots.


    also yeah, laying off staff you dont need.
    cause roberto idk what world you live in, but just keeping staff you dont need cause you have the money to, is something a certain president would think is a good idea, no wonder they went bankrupt time and time again.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    There it is, there it fucking is.

    I'm 100% positive that this "Renowned Explorer's Attire" will be xmoggable over any armor type.

    There's your Cash Shop fully implemented now, except in the case of F2P MMOs, this is 100x more expensive. (15$x12 = $180). Whereas on the F2P the set would likely be $15 to $20.
    oh yeah also the armor set doesent cost 180$ again, you fail to read, it costs 15$.
    as does everything else on this list.
  1. RobertoCarlos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    when was the last time they made a new game? like literally less then a month ago with wow classic. oh not that? alright, diablo immortal and wow BFA, oh not that? overwatch and hots.


    also yeah, laying off staff you dont need.
    cause roberto idk what world you live in, but just keeping staff you dont need cause you have the money to, is something a certain president would think is a good idea, no wonder they went bankrupt time and time again.
    You think wow classic is a new game?

    HaHaHaHaHaHaHa
  1. horbindr's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by FelPlague View Post
    except it was cahs shop
    1. you are paying blizzard directly, as they make money off EVERY SINGLE PACK SOLD
    2. also omfg the tcg is dead? guess what that has no effect on. this. thats funny, so blizzard used to sell loot boxes for wow back in vanilla, but removed it later, i think with cataclysm?
    3. so agian your saying lootboxes are fine, but recruit a friend is not?

    card games arte literally lootboxes, but they were usually fine as they could be traded, and only effected the card game, the thing becomes loot boxes when those card suddenly have a chance to have a reward for an entirely different game.
    eh you are laying it on to thick now. the amusement has passed.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by RobertoCarlos View Post
    You think wow classic is a new game?

    HaHaHaHaHaHaHa
    i mean i litertally said "wow classic, oh not that? alright"
    i mean but completly ignore the entire rest of the post, ok.
  1. Justpassing's Avatar
    So that's pretty much a pretty pricy transmog set. I'll pass.
  1. bloodykiller86's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    "Renowned Explorer’s Attire – 12 Months"

    I know how to read, do you?!

    I bet you and everyone else are going to see a LOT of people wearing the set, as well as the backpack. money money $$ Activision. Gotta make it better for the shareholders.
    one you're not paying that money, 2 its to incentivise more people to play lol sounds like your sucking your own cock here man

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Laqweeta View Post
    Good luck.

    No one wants to play BfA, I'll recommend them to WotLK or MoP private servers before that trash.
    speak for yourself lol many people still play BFA. we have 3 raid groups and all are running just as before lol man you like to talk alot of trash

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