Recruit-A-Friend Revisited

Once upon a time I posted a short rant about Recruit-A-Friend. I was mostly in a bad mood that day, and it showed. However, now that I've actually participated in the Recruit-A-Friend program, I'm a bit more qualified to report upon the pros and cons of the program.

Shall we get started?

Pros
Ding! Ding! Dingdingdingding...
You gain triple experience from both mobs and quests. This causes levels to speed by, and you can have a level 60 in a couple days with little effort (level 60 is when triple experience ends). A red quest for SM can give around 17550 experience, catapulting a level 31 to level 32. Stocks runs can give two or three levels, both from mob experience and quest turn-ins, even when the run is lead by a level 70.

LFM...NOT!
The great advantage of the triple experience requires that you be grouped with the linked account and be within a certain level range. This encourages group play. Besides enabling the buddy system on a PvP server (where you're less likely to be ganked unless they're ridiculously higher level than you), it also means less downtime in the form of looking for members for a group quest or dangers of high-level mobs catching you unawares. If you pick classes that compliment each other, you gain a lot of experience and can adapt to many different situations. Also, you can get higher level quests done at a lower level, increasing the xp gain you receive from turning them in.

New Class, No Hassle
If you've always wanted to play X class but never had time to seriously level an alt, the triple experience smooths the way for you. Even if you simply need an alt at high level so you can get them max rank of a beneficial profession, such as alchemy or inscription, that you just don't have room for on your main, this is an effective means of gaining it. As well, you can try out a role you've never filled before, such as tanking instead of healing or DPS.

Cons
Penniless and Friendless
If your friend is using an account, likely they have no money. Triple experience gains speed you through questing areas and levels like no other, but what comes with levels? Skills and spells that need to be trained. Training costs progressively more and more money, but you're not doing enough quests to make that money. Therefore, it's an intense monetary burden upon the person who recruited the friend to supply money for both rapidly-levelling characters so that they can train and improve. In addition, since less quests are needed for levelling, reputation gains falter behind. If you want a certain class and race but want another race's mount, this is a detriment.

That Look is SO Last Month
You're doing less quests, making less money, and blowing through zones. At some point, you're going to notice your greens from VC and WC just aren't cutting it, and you haven't been picking much up along the way. You're stuck; do you keep going as you have, do you rope a 70 into some instance runs, do you grab a group and hope what you want drops and no one else needs it, or do you buy yourself some equivalent level greens which you also may/may not outstrip in just a few hours? It's a difficult question.

What Does This Button Do?
When in a group, mobs often die fairly quickly, before you're even through a full rotation. Group settings against squishy mobs often favor burst damage moves rather than a damage-over-time or a debuff setup. You can settle into a pattern of what works and works quickly, especially if you notice your partner is killing the mob before your DoT gets two ticks. You're training skills, but you're never using them. Some don't get bound or even read. I cannot speak personally for everyone who uses this levelling system, but my lock is at level 32/33 at the moment, and I only have a basic grasp of how to play her. I do not know what all my buttons are for or how to use them in a real rotation. I barely even know how to spec, because if I take too long to make a decision, the points pile up. Though my partner does not have the same difficulty (he's played a paladin before), I'm looking at all the different curses and have only the barest grasp of what works in what situations.

*~*~*

There are pros and cons to every system, as is evident. Of course, there are the bonuses of the free month and the Zhevra Mount, and it's all going to amount to personal choice. I'm going to feel incredibly noob on my lock and every other character levelled this way for a while, but hopefully I can figure it out.

All comments and additions to the list welcome.

Also, opinions: are there any races that actually look good on the Zhevra?

Bellbell: A (Re)Introduction

Most of you don't know me, and even more of you didn't even know I existed until just now. My name is Bellbell, and I'm the highest level member of Bellwether's crew under Bellworker herself. 'M not as into the whole pirating thing as the Pirate Queen, who seems to be enjoying picking fights with goblins these days, but I wouldn't say no to taking down a ship or two. Though that's kind of going off on a tangent and it seems necessary that perhaps I be a bit more professional here. *snerk*

Like I was saying. I'm Bellbell, and I'm a Retribution Paladin. I once had a little space to myself where I said I was going to be a Shockadin, but I didn't take care of it so Bellwhiner took it away. Said it was obviously too much work for me and that, if I had something to say, I could just say it here.

I don't know what she's thinking. I'm not the best at healing (though, unlike some Paladins, I haven't forgotten that I can), and I'm certainly not some pine-scented woodland frolicker. I'm also pretty lazy. I leave all the technique stuff up to other people unless I get in some sort of responsible mood. Ha.

Last time I talked about myself, I was massacring the denizens of Scarlet Monastary with some help from friends, piecing together a pretty red set and content to just chill out at 39 and smack some Horde in the face in a Warsong or Arathi every once in a while. Bellwether was busy pretending she'd ever see past Karazhan. I guess it worked because she got there, but this isn't about her. For once.

Anyway, things happened, comrades retired, and I'm left sitting in an empty guild with an obsolete guild tag. I drop that like a bad habit and I'm a free agent, and I'm thinking I may stay this way. Guildies chattering away in your ear doesn't let you savor the death throes of your enemy, you know? Life was pretty easy.

But one day Bellwhatever charges into my room in the Ironforge inn (I'm sure it has a name, just as I'm sure I don't care enough to learn it) and sort of dumps me on my butt. She can get scary, even if she is some sort of healer. Then she goes on about how she's tired of doing all the work for the crew and we have to start pulling our own weight or no more cherry-flavored health potions and lazy days of Horde killing.

Now I pointed out she was taking away my lazy days anyway by making me go out and do something, but you know how it goes. I lost the argument, grumbled, picked up my axe, and went back to Dustwallow.

For the record, I hate swamps. Grime and muck and moss and mold squooshing between the cleft in my hoof ain't exactly comfortable. And I had gotten soft and lazy, but I eventually picked myself back up and could cut through things again. Solid things that go SCHLUCK when you pull your axe out of them.

Mmm.

I gained my pony, Princess Sparklebutt, and some Paladin Bellwhimsy has been making eyes at ripped apart that place with the pigmen (I'd been there before with a Rogue, but I had somehow found even more quests for that stank hole), and then he pushed me over to Desolace to get quests for some horribly convoluted place called Maraudon.

I need to rename my pony, as I can never think about the name "Princess" in the same light again. Gag-me-with-a-spoon-and-stab-me-with-a-fork, but that...elemental, I guess...was just deformed. The fact that she actually procreated makes my libido want to kill itself.

Anyway.

I was originally doing Jewelcrafting, which seemed like a good idea at the time. But I kept wrecking gems with bad cuts, and going to the Exodar everytime I needed a skill was just plain hassle. I had to take boats and gryphons and hippogryphs just to get there. And then I'd get there and the guards would be all "oh no, she's back again" with the faces and the looks.

I flunked Paladin school, did you know?

Something about Justice and Right and Protect the Weak and blah, blah, blah. I have an axe, I introduce it to Horde face. It seems to work well enough so far. Everything else is pretty much complication.

That orc guy Ratshag has been wandering around in some buff Draenei suit as of late, but I'm sure he's having some sort of identity crisis by this point. Don't even know if he's really Horde anymore, to be honest.

To continue, I hated Jewelcrafting, but I didn't know what else to pick up. Professions are kind of a pain in my opinion, but Bellwarning says it's obvious no one will ever want me, so I have to learn to fend for myself. She was kidding, I think, but just to be safe...I picked up Engineering.

Which of course, for a lazy gal like me, was probably the worst choice ever. I had to make four trips around Elwynn to mine copper. Everything takes copper. I do like the bombs. Quite handy if I want something to come to me.

Don't know what the point of telling you all this was, though. Bellwriter thought you might be interested to know about me; I think she's off her rocker. Expect to see me around a bit more in either case, whether I want to be here or not. Gotta do what the boss-lady says, amirite?