Changes to Recruit-A-Friend - Now Live

[chaud]

Changes to Recruit-A-Friend - Now Live

In Patch 7.3.5, we made significant changes to the level 1–100 experience to ensure players can better enjoy the stories, quest lines, and zones they want to at their own pace. Because of this, we are adjusting the XP bonus on the Recruit-A-Friend (RAF) program to ensure it reflects the updated pacing of the game as new players level their characters and explore Azeroth.

Dynamic Leveling in Patch 7.3.5
As you may have heard, Patch 7.3.5 significantly overhauled the level-up experience in World of Warcraft so that zones from 1–100 will dynamically scale to your character’s level. Why? Over the years, we’ve made multiple changes to adjust the leveling curve—and as a result, the pace of characters’ progress has become significantly out of sync with the content. Players often out-level areas long before they’ve had a chance to complete key stories and quest lines, leading to a less-than-ideal experience.

With this significant update to pacing, the existing Recruit-A-Friend program would no longer provide the best experience for players new to World of Warcraft. Even with scaling zones, triple-speed leveling would mean new players going into dungeons could find themselves overwhelmed by multiple new abilities gained over the course of a single instance run, and might still outpace storylines that help the world make sense and make players feel like they’re part of it—and we want new players to feel at home in Azeroth.

To align the Recruit-A-Friend XP bonus with the upcoming leveling changes, we have reduced the XP boost gained from the Recruit-A-Friend program when playing with a linked friend down from 200% (300% XP vs. base XP) to 50%* (150% XP vs. base XP). We are making these changes to ensure the XP boost doesn’t upset game balance and undermine the experience, while still giving a significant XP bonus to you and a friend as a thank-you for being part of the Recruit-A-Friend program.

Recruit-A-Friend Changes in Full

• The XP boost has been reduced from 200% bonus to 50% bonus*, effective today, January 22, 2018.
  
• If you’re already actively participating in the program, fear not! If you either sent or received an invite before the change went into effect today, once the invite is accepted you and your friend will still receive triple XP* (200% XP bonus) until the link between your accounts expires (90 days from the date the new recruit’s account was first created). Please note: RAF invites expire after seven days.
  
• Heirloom gear XP bonuses will no longer stack with the RAF boost (i.e., the maximum XP boost you will see from today onwards is 50%). If you were already on the program, Heirloom gear will still stack.
  
• All other rewards are unchanged and yours to enjoy:
  
  • Summon your friend once every 30 minutes.
    
  • 10% bonus reputation from kills that grant reputation.*
    
  • Level granting: for every two levels your friend gains while the accounts are linked, they can grant one level to one of your characters.
    
  • Recruiter rewards, including game time and epic mounts.
    

*For a full list of the rewards and the in-game criteria for receiving them, visit our RAF In-Game Bonuses page.

[Sithalos]

Let the over dramatic tears flow freely.

[DarkAmbient]

Multiple pages of posts deleted, what the hell? I'll just repeat what I said before:

Blizzard are pushing it. They increased leveling time with the flimsy excuse that they wanted players to experience the story etc. But they also removed xp pots, nerfed heirlooms, and now this. All they want to do is inflate their time played metric and sell more boosts.

They need to be careful.

[Blamblam41]

"Please give us money for boosts." Is all I hear from Blizzard with this move. It was bad enough they are 'improving the quality of their low level experience' by not doing anything about the story, gameplay or plot (you know, the things people actually fucking care about in an MMORPG.)

All they are doing is making leveling elongated and a bunch of fanbois are out in force trying to tell you that stuff taking a lot of time=satisfaction.

In the industry we call them dopamine addicts.

[Puddlejumper]

Did RAF ever even get used by players who wanted to level through the content? I thought RAF existed to be exploited for speed leveling, and that's it.

[Infernix]

There's going to be so so so so much salt

[Eleccybubb]

Don't agree with it. Nor the removal of the potion. What's wrong with someone wanting to speed through leveling precisely?

As I said I bet within a year the potion is added to the store.

[Kithelle]

Don't agree with it. Nor the removal of the potion. What's wrong with someone wanting to speed through leveling precisely?

As I said I bet within a year the potion is added to the store.

Probably be added just in time for BfA...

[Deleted]

Don't agree with it. Nor the removal of the potion. What's wrong with someone wanting to speed through leveling precisely?

As I said I bet within a year the potion is added to the store.

Just to respond to this, in MY opinion, if you know about the potion, specifically the one form Krol The Blade, the Digested bags and the one rare on Timless Isles (forgot the name of the potion and the mob, my apologies) and you are WILLING to put in the time to farm it and get it. Than you are both skilled enough to know how to play the game, and want to NOT level enough in order to invest the time in it.

This could just be a cashgrab I just can not find any other explanation.

[Yunaqt]

TBH RAF was never really that suitable for brand new players just getting started with the game and leveling through the content, really was just used as a P2W feature to skip the process for alts. It also diminishes the idea of having to RAF to speed up leveling Allied races since now it will be equal to wearing looms which is actually deterring from using paid features for them.

If you don't want to level and were buying the second account purely to speed level a toon then you were doing it wrong anyway unless it was for a ton of characters/multiboxers.
Recruit yourself and buy a copy of legion on sale linking the new account to your main then BAM you get a level 100 boost you can use on either account for 1/3 of the price of a full price 100 boost.

Alternatively just buy a boost @(wowtoken price)*4.
Or just let's get social and level old school.

[Kithelle]

There's going to be so so so so much salt

So many "so"'s...you need to calm down and not get so triggered.

[Blamblam41]

TBH RAF was never really that suitable for brand new players just getting started with the game and leveling through the content, really was just used as a P2W feature to skip the process for alts. It also diminishes the idea of having to RAF to speed up leveling Allied races since now it will be equal to wearing looms which is actually deterring from using paid features for them.

If you don't want to level and were buying the second account purely to speed level a toon then you were doing it wrong anyway unless it was for a ton of characters/multiboxers.
Recruit yourself and buy a copy of legion on sale linking the new account to your main then BAM you get a level 100 boost you can use on either account for 1/3 of the price of a full price 100 boost.

Alternatively just buy a boost @(wowtoken price)*4.
Or just let's get social and level old school.

Ahhh yes, forced social interaction, the pinnacle of MMORPG design only three decades old.

If you're going to lock efficiency behind being social you might as well just remove the RPG aspect and call it a Massively Multiplayer Online Social Experience, since clearly it's that 'experience' that Blizzard cares about far more than the actual game.

[Yunaqt]

Ahhh yes, forced social interaction, the pinnacle of MMORPG design only three decades old.

If you're going to lock efficiency behind being social you might as well just remove the RPG aspect and call it a Massively Multiplayer Online Social Experience, since clearly it's that 'experience' that Blizzard cares about far more than the actual game.

What I don't even, where is the logic there?
So you don't want to be social but you want to 'Recruit a Friend'.
That statement seems a tad contradicting.

Nor did my previous post have anything do to with maximizing efficiency through any social means.
Just stated there were more efficient routes if you did choose the P2W method which many people seem oblivious to.

[BraveNewWorld]

I think the changes to leveling and RaF are fine, but they are missing one thing: making those changes optionnal.

Maybe add an incentive to "Level the slow way" (extra gold? priority in LFG dungeons? etc), but let those who want to level ASAP be able to do it without having to buy a boost

[StoNe220022]

Hold fast Blizz...stick to your guns

*prepares umbrella for the tears of people despite having never used RAF before*

[Yunaqt]

If the main purpose to sell boosts don't you think they would allow you to use a paid boost on an allied race? That there seems like a much better move than nerfing one of the PAID services? Considering the amount of leveling the will take place when the additional races are introduced.

Edit: Disregard, i'm mistaken it's only the heritage armor sets it affects. You can boost an allied race.

[Dastreus]

I don't understand why the RAF change is so drastic. Heirlooms, if you have as many equipped as you can, give you a 55% EXP increase. If it doesn't stack with RAF, then you are essentially fucking yourself over, with only a 50% EXP increase. At the least, there is no benefit to RAF, anymore, other than a mount.

[riptal]

OMG again! People on this forum kill me! I'm so tired of people thinking Blizz do anything just for money! Alot of people ask this change for years!!!! We want leveling to be looooong, fun and rewarding. We want to to live the story and take our time in every zone we choose. Can you understand that??? We dont care about hitting cap level without much effort. If you're not happy, just buy a boost but believe me, you elitist, you're not in majority anymore!

I'm very happy with the patch! Thank you so much Blizz for that! Finally I can enjoy questing and leveling!

[Yarathir]

Why? If you leveled one character, no one is forcing you to level another one.

Nice meme answer.

[Culex]

OMG again! People on this forum kill me! I'm so tired of people thinking Blizz do anything just for money! Alot of people ask this change for years!!!! We want leveling to be looooong, fun and rewarding. We want to to live the story and take our time in every zone we choose. Can you understand that??? We dont care about hitting cap level without much effort. If you're not happy, just buy a boost but believe me, you elitist, you're not in majority anymore!

I'm very happy with the patch! Thank you so much Blizz for that! Finally I can enjoy questing and leveling!

Then maybe you should have just waited for classic then instead of ruining this game.