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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsForum post of the day: Born with a plastic spoon
by Amanda Dean 
Aug 18th 2008 at 2:56AM
Aside from players that are bitter because they missed out on Recruit-a-Friend benefits, is there anything wrong with this program. Kuahs of Kil'jaeden has encountered problems with raising enough cash to keep up with gear and ability upgrades. He has a level 70 character, but rerolled with his recruit on another server. He can't simply send money down from his main, and is sitting at level twenty-two with level twelve abilities.
Many posters suggested sending down money from a main character, which isn't so helpful on a new server. Others made the usual suggestion of gathering skills for sale on the auction house. While this is a good suggestion, mining and herbalism will suffer the same problem of being outpaced by leveling. There is always the option of begging for gold in major cities, though I personally don't recommend this method.
My other concern is that the massive bonus to experience points will be detrimental to new players actually getting WoW experience. Not only are they leveling at a blisteringly rapid pace, but they also are also always joined by someone with more WoW time under their belts so that they don't have to learn how to get themselves out of sticky situations. Then again, the pattern that I've noticed is that recruits are infrequently new players. Most of the people recruits I know are actually secondary accounts by veteran players or folks looking for a good time to come back to the game.
In most cases, folks will roll on their main servers with this new system, which eliminates the problem. I'm afraid the RAF bonus will encourage gold buying in the end. What suggestions do you have for folks outpacing their gold production with their experience?
Filed under: Leveling, Making money, Alts, Forums, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Rob Aug 18th 2008 12:19PM
You know, this is actually a good life lesson. You need to pick and choose. Rent before cable for example. So, I think its a good thing that the economy is the way it is. Young people will see those guys in S4 and netherdrakes and realize they'll have to work, hard, to get to that level.
Dreadbeard Aug 18th 2008 7:52AM
In addition to all of the other mess associated with the RAF program, your uber-leveling lowbie pal, is now going to be your new gold-leech. Enjoy running dailies so you can pay to gear up your recently recruited friend...suddenly that stupid ass zhevra mount doesn't seem so awesome anymore, does it.
Kibokun Aug 18th 2008 7:58AM
imo you guys really should worry less about what other players are doing and just enjoy YOUR experience. Life isn't fair, games aren't fair. You never notice this until you start comparing, however. Does it really affect you at all that someone basically gets power-leveled? People do it all the time. What about the player that gives a new friend (before RAF) eighteen different leveling guides, hundreds of gold, gear and teleports? Then would you say "Why can't I have that? What makes them so special?" Of course the effect would not be as dramatic as 300% exp, but it's really not your problem or your place to complain about how other people play simply because you're fuming mad and nerdraging when it's really simply jealousy.
I personally plan to use this to help my gf get into the game. She's skeptical, so I can't expect her to have the same attention span of someone geniuinely wanting to be devoted. However, she WILL level 3x faster than you and so will my alts. What makes us so special? None of your concern, really.
Jallandhara Aug 18th 2008 7:58AM
"Will worr for gold or gear"
Your sign has a typo.
Rihlsul Aug 18th 2008 8:38AM
Glad you and a couple other folks pointed this out. It gets tiring pointing to their lack of spelling, grammar, typing, and proof-reading skills. (No joke.) Free to read should NOT equal 'crap quality'. Personally, I'd be embarrassed.
Sylythn Aug 18th 2008 5:38PM
There are enough areas for each level jump that if you're vigilant you can get enough soloable quests done to keep the money coming in. You may outstrip the zones for say Ironforge region, but remember there's 10-30 level zones for Stormwind and Darnassus too. Usually when I find out way outleveled my gear and gold, I try and get someone to run me through a dungeon once - it's quick and you get tons of vendor trash that gives you enough money to get you to the next step.
Raaena Aug 18th 2008 9:13AM
I signed up for RAF with my husband on Friday...we're dual-boxing characters that we've had some experience with but haven't played to 70...once you hit 60, the 3x bonus stops, so we'll probably rotate one of the characters out and pair the other one with one of our nicely geared 70s to do the final push (which is what we have done on all our other toons to 70).
I can see money being an issue, but if you do the upgrade out of trial ASAP, you can "sorta" work your way around it. Once trial status is dropped (72 hours after you pay to upgrade to normal WoW/BC), then you can trade, use mail, etc. I will say that I was doing selective skill purchasing on my trial character, while letting the one attached to my account do all the looting (and even so, she still didn't have enough money to buy skills up to lvl 15) since she had 16-slot bags. We have a collection of gatherers in our 4-person team...an herbalist, a miner, and 2 skinners. I'm trying not to fund this pair of alts too much as I'm saving for another epic flier for my 3rd 70, but if you just hit the AH, you should start coming out ahead. I always sold all greens that I got below lvl 50 (DE'd what I needed to level enchanting), and I always made a good amount of change just doing that. That seems to have worked on all my servers so far as a quick moneymaker.
Also the recommendation of picking up gathering professions is a good one. The more stuff you can sell, the better.
Fedwinmorr Nov 11th 2008 8:11AM
I can't stomach farming, and NEVER had an eye for the Auction House (lost alot of money trying). Yet I never had a lack of cash leveling from 1-60. Here's my secret:
Don't buy gear before max level.
Honestly, unless you are building a twink for pvp or something of that sort, you really shouldn't be buying gear until you hit max level. You will likely replace whatever you just bought, within a couple levels anyways. And nothing you ever buy pre-60 will match even the simplest greens in Outland.
If you don't blow money on gear, and allow your professions to just level with you (this can be a little harder if you fall behind, and might need a LITTLE farming to catch up), you should always have PLENTY of money for leveling your skills.
Jaynitan Aug 18th 2008 9:44AM
Um ok. . ..well I guess maybe I see this a little differently than most.
If you get 3X experience while with your friend who is equal or higher lvl than you, then they are probably helping you through stuff, maybe evne instances which are an entirely reliable method for getting blues for your lowbies.
I remember a day when you ran instances for one blue drop 5 or six times, you leveled from doing the runs and quests. By the time you got the lvl 45 blue you were lvl 50.
You don't have to have blues and mega enchants on every toon you level. THe 3x exp is about leveling. Screw the gear and level, get rares and epics when you ding 60 and the exp slows down.
As a matter of fact go ahead and PL your new 60 to 70 and do an hour of dailies to fund your lowbies.
If you are racing through levels you don;t need uber gear friggin level and get over it.
Once in order to get a mount I sold all my gear on three toons lvl 30-45. I had a bunch on naked characters. After a few hours of simple solo questing on each I was back in nearly all greens and a few whites.
In a few weeks on each I was in good greens and a few blues. It was a fun experience and didn;t really make a huge difference in the long run, unless you are twniking and capping at a certain level like 29, then you need to forget the gear and focus on the questing.
Whytehand Aug 18th 2008 9:50AM
Okay, first of all, I just wrote a massive anti elitest rant because I notice a lot of them falling out of the woodwork latley, I deleted it because I dont want to read their bitching rants, who wants to read mine right?
But seriosly, I have re-rolled on a lot of servers and I dont know what these people are talking about, a level 20 with level 12 skills....? I have even been able to level Tailoring/Enchanting, Mining/Blacksmithing, Leatherworking/Skinnings, toons as a first character and still have money for my skills, mount, and a little bit of "extra gear". Has it been that long that these people have forgotten what its like to put together the best you can with quest/drop gear? There is a line you have to draw when your leveling, what is more important, gear or skills. Now, depending on your toon you can avoid certain skills that you know you wont use for a while and get them later (ie rightous defense for pallys at low levels, sentry totem etc) but you just cant afford the prices of the AH to regear blues every 3 or 4 levels, it just doesnt happen. If you try to I hope you can do A LOT of white dmg because your skills wont do diddly squat against the mobs your facing, especially casters who are likely to see "resist" come up a lot.
vlad Aug 18th 2008 12:02PM
just do what i do and never come back to read comments. that way you always win and no one can "zing" you :)
Blayed Aug 18th 2008 9:50AM
I just recruited a friend (new player) to the game (I'm personally a 4 year veteran), and I have to admit, that the leveling speed is INSANE (1-21 in 2 days of casual play). My friend has only played one character up to ~level 9 on my account, so he has next to no in game experience, and I have noticed that his lack of experience affects his in game playing skill. (misuse of abilities, slow reaction times ect.) We're only leveling our new toons when we're both online and partied, so my game knowledge has saved us both on countless occasions (Although I find myself dieing in order to save his ass more times than I'd like to count). We're both playing classes neither of us have played before, me a rogue, him a warlock (Okay, I've played a rogue, but it was years ago), so my knowledge on warlocks is virtually limited to "LAWL DOTS!".
I haven't noticed the lack of gold (but this coming from the guy who hit 70 on his druid with 3500 gold to spare (Don't ask me how I did it, I'm still amazed to this day about that), but I can see how the fast leveling speed and always having a WoW "pro" around would inhibit their ability to learn their class mechanics, but I've personally been taking into my own hands to get my friend to attempt to solo certain situations without instruction in attempt to have him problem solve his way out of it (only jumping in if he goes wrong and starts getting himself killed). I don't explain what he's supposed to do until after he's tried for himself, and then after explaining, I let him go back at it to see if he executes properly. (Last thing we need is another warlock walking around with a talent tree that looks like it was created by a drunk, asking the world "What's a succy?!".
And yes, you can find me, Rugar, Champion of the Naaru on Khaz Modan [A] riding around Shatrath proudly on my new Zhevra whenever I'm not smashing my face into old content trying to educate a new player.
(P.S., Don't judge my crappy PVP gear on the armory if you happen to look, until a few days ago, I was a tank and only a tank, just started PVP recently)
Jaynitan Aug 18th 2008 9:53AM
Also to anyone who is "QQ- this idear sux!!!!! I h8 it!!"
Go get a friend ot refer you. . . enjoy the 90 of easier and faster leveling, and OMG do you realize that 3x is only a little better than the 2x that you get from rest state?
And if you still say "QQ - casualz shodnt tel blzard hoe to progrm dere gamez"
Go get an f'n buisness degree or common sense and realize that it isn;t casuals that are making this happen. Blizzard realizes that now there is a huge gap between lvl one and lvl 70 and when 80 goes into effect and outlands is as dead as Azeroth . . . . people won't want to start from scratch, so if they give them an incentive to sign up and play . . . well people just might.
And for now the RAF benefits are for 90 days and stops at 60. . . when Wrath pops it will extend to lvl 70. So people can get a little speed boost to get into Wrath. Same reason DK starts at 55, and in a few hours you roll out on a mount with really good and matching blues. Blues that are so good that unless you hit up a lot of outlands instances or raids. . . .you won't replace many until you hit Wrath.
Naix Aug 18th 2008 10:02AM
FFS just go do some quests for gold. Every time I show up in org I get about 5 tells begging for 1 gold. Just go out at quest for the gold its much faster than begging 100 people and you could level!
I have 4 level 70s I had almost zero help leveling to 70 and no gold donations.
zappo Aug 18th 2008 10:04AM
Anyone else find it disturbing that the Refer a Friend program seems to have an order of magnitude more people dual boxing then actual new players trying the game?
vit Aug 18th 2008 1:21PM
nah, not disturbing at all...dual-boxing, however, is disturbingly too much fun.
pudds Aug 18th 2008 10:06AM
Get 2 gathering professions, ideally mining and skinning. Mining because it makes a ton of money, skinning because its easy to keep up to date and doesn't require tracking.
Keep your mining and skinning caught up with your leveling; that means stopping for all nodes, all the time. Mining can be hard to keep up, but stopping to do a couple loops of a zone you're done leveling will help.
Send all gathered materials to a bank alt, and sell regularly.
I just rerolled on a new server last month, and at 42, I have over 350 gold, from selling ore, leather, white items like meat and large fangs, as well as all green and blue drops.
Buy bags as soon as you can afford them.
Igarashi Aug 18th 2008 12:20PM
I don't particularly like the new system, but I wouldn't revoke it just because it's not conducive to making the amount of gold you need to keep up. I'm mostly bitter because I'm leveling along with my boyfriend and his friend (they're using the RAF thing) and they are leaving me in the dust... D: I do agree that it takes away from some of the game experience and yes, it will prevent new players from gaining skills/knowledge to deal with "sticky situations."
Substandard Aug 18th 2008 11:24AM
I don't think you guys really understand the issue.
I'm not going to complain about it too mightily, but I just hit 60 with a friend in the RAF program in like 1day 10 hours played. We just had a 70 run us through quests / instances the whole time, and it worked great.
However, I didn't make enough money to buy a mount or all my skills, let alone the skills for the 30 "gifted" levels to my level 40ish priest and mage.
I have a bunch of 70s, so it's not a huge issue, but I can honestly say the RAF program has already cost me hundreds of gold off my main account, just for skill training.
I can really see how you would run into problems if you didn't have a 70 backing you.
Although getting gathering professions and using them as you go along will completely destroy the whole advantage of leveling at 300% speed, it's probably your best option.
As a hunter, I suppose you could just keep your level 12 skills till 60, and it won't make a huge difference. Just make sure you train "mend pet".
Guy Aug 18th 2008 3:05PM
ok, a few thing wrong with ur statement
1. if u had a 70 running u thru everything then thats not the raf that failed, its the boosting from the 70. yeah, i turned in quest regualrly that gave me 10k xp but i also had to grind the mobs/items to complete it. u on the other hand took like 3 mins to have a 70 mega rape a zone then turned around, turned in like 8 quests and got 100k xp. thats not any different then having a 70 do that for u now, it still screws u, especailly at low lvls.
2. the 300%"speed" as u put it isn't. it for ease of lvling NOT speed of lvling. so i spent 2 hours in a zone instead of 6. i can still skin/mine/herb in 2 hours. plus with faster lvling u have NO reason to be AH greens for gear. where as i would have had to take the loot i got in thought 6 hours to buy ah gear to stay alive since i was solo and had to spend so much time at a lower lvl in that zone. now not only am i abit higher starting that zone but im also in and out alot quicker so i save tons of money on gear.