Fun with Recruit-A-Friend

Consider this both an anecdote and a guide - I've been (ab)using the lovely new Recruit-A-Friend bonuses for the past weeks, and boy are they exciting.

I'll give an example, though it's only one of many dirty, wonderful things I've done with Recruit-A-Friend.

This Saturday, I was bored, so I thought that thought that I'm prone to think when I'm bored... I should roll a new toon.

But rolling a toon alone didn't excite me enough. Rolling two at once? OK!

Full disclosure: I have 3 accounts. All of the stuff I'm about to talk about is possible with individuals accounts controlled by different people... but that requires 3 people. Weigh the options yourself.

What classes don't I have yet?

Druid!

Eckh... fine. (Grudgingly rolls a Druid on Account 2.)

What else?

Shaman!

OK, yes, this I like. (Cheerfully rolls a Shaman on Account 3.)

OK! I have new toons. Now what?

Well, we've got to get to level 10, and set up our boxing macros. These are mutually compatible goals, thankfully, so away we go. Druid becomes Box1, Shaman becomes Box2, since I'm assuming I'll be running a Feral/Hybrid Caster combo, and the melee class is easiest to run as Box1. I won't bore you with details of multiboxing - visit dual-boxing.com if you want to learn more about that.

Anyway! We box our way up to level 10, which is when interesting little tricks become possible. Tricks like running the toons through instances with a 70th-level toon.

A slight aside on running characters through instances - have them collect up all the quests for the instance, save up their rest XP, and knock that thing out with a 70. Even without Recruit-A-Friend, you might be shocked at just how fast the levels come.

Back to the show... and we're off to RFC!

So I grab the Hunter on Account 1, 70, with a Ravager pet - I find that Ravagers are great for running lowbies through instances. We burn through RFC. Yay! RFC down two times, and the boxers are...

...wait.

14?

No way.

They're level fourteen.

OK, this is working, to say the least... let's do Wailing Caverns!

Dum dum dum shiny Druid gear, Wailing Caverns down. How are the boxers doing? Keep in mind, their windows don't come up much... the Hunter's window dominates my screen.

After two Wailing Caverns runs... drumroll... they're level nineteen.

Well, heck, Pa, let's run RFK!

RFK once... level 22. RFK twice... 24... three times! 26! Four times! 27! And turn in the RFK quests to see...



That's two toons to 28 (only the Shaman is shown there, but the Druid is right with him, actually around 28.3) in less than 11 hours /played, without trying particularly hard.

So find some friends, tell them you possess the key to deep, hidden magics, and go level! It's easier now than it has ever been before.

Quit looking at me like that!

My shoulders keep looking at me like I'm crazy.



I have this problem.

I'm motivated by DPS meters.

It's a terrible way to feel motivated - all I really want is to top the DPS meters, and when I do, it's all gone. I continue to do only what I have to do to top the DPS meters.

So now, having taken so many upgrades in such a short time, most recently the Shoulders of the Hidden Predator and Fists of Mukoa, my DPS is great. 1600 DPS on Gurtogg Bloodboil great. And now, as we attack Reliquary of Souls, I don't feel like working at maximizing my DPS on my own anymore.

I don't feel like doing heroics, don't feel like farming for crafted gear, don't feel like fighting to get into Grim Guzzler groups after that DPS trinket. The main problem, to be honest, is that PuGing is a nightmare, and my current guild doesn't do a whole lot of 5-man stuff during off times.

Clearly, someone needs to bury me on the meters and give me the motivation to sit through hour-long "LF Tank" queues. Go Fury Warriors, go!

Lady Vashj bites the dust.

I won't write a long post about it - she's dead, and that's exactly as exciting as it ought to be. I got a pair of Cobra-Lash Boots, and then used the badges she dropped to buy Gauntlets of Rapidity.

The Vashj fight, which I had never done before tonight, is really a great example of good encounter design. Everyone has to participate; everyone gets to feel like they've contributed individually. Tossing tainted cores around rugby-style has a "team sport" feel that a lot of encounters lack.

Perhaps most importantly, the difficulty in the fight comes not from reacting to random Bad Things inflicted upon the raid, but in performing complex (but reasonably predictable!) tasks very precisely. Nothing instantly kills you without giving you a chance to react, like Supremus' volcanoes often do. Sure, lots of things are trying very hard to kill you, but none of them have that dice-roll-of-doom feeling. There is no snake-eyes condition where events conspire to make the encounter unbeatable.

In any case, several hundred gold worth of gems and enchants later, I'm a much scarier Hunter. Kael is on notice - that second Vial is so close, I can taste it.

Here's me with Vashj - I'll never tell you what I'm whispering in her ear.

Upgrade time!

Boy, it's been a while since those sweet words have passed my fingers.

Last night I visited SSC with my new guild, Kraklenheit Industries, and we killed off Hydross, Lurker, Tidewalker, and Fathom-Lord Karathress without too much trouble.

I brought Wendy, my zappy Windserpent, and we had a grand old time up at the top of the damage meters.

Other than some stupidity on my part on Hydross (Argh! Feign Death on cooldown!) it was a smooth night.

When we downed FLK, I lucked out on a Bloodsea Brigand's Vest, which bumps my unbuffed crit rate to almost 29%, but also puts me over the hit cap. Hopefully, I'll get to replace a +hit item or two soon.

Here's the WWS report from our FLK kill - Hunters rock hard in SSC.

You hear that? Bears. Now the whole guild is in danger.

I trialed with a new guild, Kraklenheit Industries, tonight, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

I cracked 1000 DPS on each boss fight up to Akama, where I fell slightly short thanks probably to frequent trap-laying. When I lit into Shade of Akama at the end, though, with Bloodlust, a trinket, Berzerking, and Bestial Wrath ticking, I found a momentary peak around 1700 damage per second. Mmm, that's delicious.

Even 1k DPS was often not enough to get me into the top 10, though, which is a new experience for me. Even with my best full-boss DPS performance ever, I only found the 8th slot on Supremus. Here's a Recount display from that kill:



I find Supremus to be supremely annoying, but with practice I think I'll be able to improve my total output on him by filling in a few more gaps in my DPS-time.

The Fists of Mukoa dropped from Naj'entus, but I couldn't take them because I was a trial. Sad face.

I liked raiding with KI - they get through stuff quickly and with a minimum of drama or frustration. We wiped, sure, but the attitude stayed positive, so it never felt like one of those horrible nights I'm sure so many of you are familiar with. I've got high hopes for a guild invite.

The fruits of Recruit-A-Friend

I have my computer back! And oh, the WoWing has been good.

Recruit-A-Friend has been amazing - I've leveled a Mage to 60 and used his grantable levels to flash-level a Priest up to 60 as well. Orgrimmar was duly impressed.

That's the Priest, Massor, on the left, and my new Mage Nicciter on the right. It took me about a week to level the Mage to 60, without having to play all that much - if you want a 2nd 70, RAF is the way to go.



In other news, I have a trial in Black Temple tonight with Kraklenheit Industries. A good friend of mine also has a trial, which is exciting. I hope we both get in - KI seems like a really great guild.

Even if I don't, though, it'll be good to raid again, especially in content I've only seen a couple of times.

Finally, a brief note. A few people have been asking me why I don't post beta news and analysis. Well... because a million other people do. They've pretty much got it covered. If something really grabs me, rest assured, it'll come up.

Leveling!

I apologize for the massive deviation from my usual content, dear readers, but I am currently living with a laptop while my desktop PC is shipped.

This laptop I refer to as the Frankencomputer, because someone really should put it out of its misery before it kills any children.

Is it slow? Yes, that is true, but slow doesn't really capture it. Glaciers are slightly slower... sloths are much faster. It's somewhere in the slowness zone defined by glaciers and sloths.

Capital cities are a nightmare - instant chug of the less than 1 FPS variety. The same goes for anyplace with lots of shiny effects, like raids. I tried to run a heroic... and chugged so badly that the group thought I had DCed.

So it's leveling, for the moment, and boy have I been productive!

My Paladin, Encephalitic, is now level 48!
My Rogue, Eun, is now level 22!
My Priest, Massor, is now level 42!

I've also started a semi-secret mage that I don't want to reveal until he's much higher level, perhaps even 70... because I want to surprise the people who knew me when my original mage was banned.

So the very near future will see at least one fresh 70 - the Paladin is hustling right along at the rate of about one level per day.

I've also been enjoying some questing with the friend I recruited, who is having a great time leveling his Shaman (now 26) and a new Paladin. Definitely looking forward to getting some free levels out of him. /rubhands

Until later, dear readers.