Powerleveling a friend

[Fandralas]

Is it possible to help a friend level without interfereing in his
experience gain? I have a 70 rogue and my friend just started the
game a week ago and I was wondering if there are ways to help him
level a little bit faster without interfereing with experience. I
tried doing this the other night but I don't think I'm being very
helpful. It almost seems more efficient for him just to quest and
level on his own. What I tried doing was finishing off mobs when they
were below 50% health but I'm not sure if that's cutting into xp that
he could be receiving.

I'm not trying to get him to level 70. I'd like to catch him up to
one of my lower level alts. So, are there efficient ways of helping
the levels go by faster or is powerleveling counter productive?

[Eldon Down]

Post by Fandralas
Is it possible to help a friend level without interfereing in his
experience gain? I have a 70 rogue and my friend just started the
game a week ago and I was wondering if there are ways to help him
level a little bit faster without interfereing with experience. I
tried doing this the other night but I don't think I'm being very
helpful. It almost seems more efficient for him just to quest and
level on his own. What I tried doing was finishing off mobs when they
were below 50% health but I'm not sure if that's cutting into xp that
he could be receiving.
I'm not trying to get him to level 70. I'd like to catch him up to
one of my lower level alts. So, are there efficient ways of helping
the levels go by faster or is powerleveling counter productive?

As a rogue, I can't think of much you can do, other than keeping adds
off your friend and clearing the way to quest items so he can finish his
quests faster. Yes, even if you are not grouped, damaging a mob will
reduce his XP gain ... in fact, it wouldn't take you doing much damage
to make his XP per kill less than if you had been grouped. A healer
class could heal a low level player while they mindlessly slaughter and
still get full xp, but of course, that doesn't help your rogue much.
All-in-all, you're probably best off just grouping with him and helping
him finish his quests as fast as possible ... especially if he needs
runs through dungeons you can handle.

[J. Cochran]

Post by Fandralas
Is it possible to help a friend level without interfereing in his
experience gain? I have a 70 rogue and my friend just started the
game a week ago and I was wondering if there are ways to help him
level a little bit faster without interfereing with experience. I
tried doing this the other night but I don't think I'm being very
helpful. It almost seems more efficient for him just to quest and
level on his own. What I tried doing was finishing off mobs when they
were below 50% health but I'm not sure if that's cutting into xp that
he could be receiving.
I'm not trying to get him to level 70. I'd like to catch him up to
one of my lower level alts. So, are there efficient ways of helping
the levels go by faster or is powerleveling counter productive?

You can effectively power level your friend. You just have to remember
that there's 2 main sources of XP.
Mob kills.
Quests.

Under normal conditions, if you're doing a lot of questing, you're
gonna get about the same total XP from both sources. However, when
you group with someone a lot higher level than you and that higher level
helps with the kills, you're going to get a LOT less XP per kill than
if you were soloing them or only groups with equal level characters.

So attempting to power level a friend by slaughtering tons of mobs
is counter productive.

However, quest XP isn't reduced because you had a high level friend
help you. And if you're grouped with a high level friend, you can
burn thru a lot of quests quite quickly. Those "Kill 30 XYZ mobs"
may take you 30 to 45 minutes to do solo, but take 5 minutes or less
with a high level friend helping so even though the total amount of
XP you would have gotten for the quest is less (the mob XP part
is gimped, but the quest XP part is unaffected), the amount of XP
gained per unit time is greatly increased.

So if you want to effectively power level your friend, have him pick
up every quest and sight and go for it.

Now this does NOT mean do every quest. A good example is some of
the drop quests. E.g. Get me N items from the dead mobs. Some of
these drop quests have very good drop rates and you only have to kill
about the same number of mobs as items you need to collect. Other drop
quests have absolutely terrible drop rates and you could grind for
a long time to get the drops you need. If the drop rate sucks,
DROP THE QUEST, and go on to other quests.

[Mark (newsgroups)]

Post by Fandralas
Is it possible to help a friend level without interfereing in his
experience gain?  I have a 70 rogue and my friend just started the
game a week ago and I was wondering if there are ways to help him
level a little bit faster without interfereing with experience.  I
tried doing this the other night but I don't think I'm being very
helpful.  It almost seems more efficient for him just to quest and
level on his own.  What I tried doing was finishing off mobs when they
were below 50% health but I'm not sure if that's cutting into xp that
he could be receiving.
I'm not trying to get him to level 70.  I'd like to catch him up to
one of my lower level alts.  So, are there efficient ways of helping
the levels go by faster or is powerleveling counter productive?

One thing I meant to try when I had two accounts, but somehow never
got round to it was attempting to power level through dungeons. I
noticed when I had a high level friend run my priest through one of
the level 20ish dungeons that I was getting a lot of XP per hour.
However, he was using a mage which meant he could aoe quickly through
the instance, a rogue isn't the best boost character in dungeons.

[Urbin]

Post by Fandralas
Is it possible to help a friend level without interfereing in his
experience gain? I have a 70 rogue and my friend just started the
game a week ago and I was wondering if there are ways to help him
level a little bit faster without interfereing with experience. I
tried doing this the other night but I don't think I'm being very
helpful. It almost seems more efficient for him just to quest and
level on his own. What I tried doing was finishing off mobs when they
were below 50% health but I'm not sure if that's cutting into xp that
he could be receiving.

That will probably still cut into his XP gained.

Post by Fandralas
I'm not trying to get him to level 70. I'd like to catch him up to
one of my lower level alts. So, are there efficient ways of helping
the levels go by faster or is powerleveling counter productive?

Why don't you create a new alt and level in a permanent group with him. Once
you reach your other alts, you can then discard this "temporary" alt (or
keep him as a banker, or keep playing him in the duo team :-)

The only thing standing in your way could be if you already had 10 chars on
that server.

Also, there is the "recruit a friend" program but since he is already
levelling (i.e. has an account) I don't know if you can join that program...
That would give both of you extra XP (threefold, I believe).

Cheers
Urbin

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by Urbin
Also, there is the "recruit a friend" program but since he is already
levelling (i.e. has an account) I don't know if you can join that program...
That would give both of you extra XP (threefold, I believe).

Depending on how much cash he wants to invest, he could get an extra
account himself though WoW standard is only $20 right now, with a
free month of play included (so essentially, the game is $5 - the
"free month" is $15 itself). Attach that on, level with him for the
XP, and then when you're done transfer your character back to your
main account. That might cost $50-60 in the end though, so it's a
question of if it's worth it to you. I do know though that at least 2
people in my guild have done refer-a-friend for their own account and
levled toons dual-boxing with the intent to transfer them all back to
1 account when they hit 70. 1 guy I know is actually burning through
6 toons - 3 pairs of them, swapping between each group as the rest XP
runs out.

Mike

[Mark (newsgroups)]

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by Urbin
Also, there is the "recruit a friend" program but since he is already
levelling (i.e. has an account) I don't know if you can join that program...
That would give both of you extra XP (threefold, I believe).

Depending on how much cash he wants to invest, he could get an extra
account himself though  WoW standard is only $20 right now, with a
free month of play included (so essentially, the game is $5 - the
"free month" is $15 itself).  Attach that on, level with him for the
XP, and then when you're done transfer your character back to your
main account.  That might cost $50-60 in the end though, so it's a
question of if it's worth it to you.  I do know though that at least 2
people in my guild have done refer-a-friend for their own account and
levled toons dual-boxing with the intent to transfer them all back to
1 account when they hit 70.  1 guy I know is actually burning through
6 toons - 3 pairs of them, swapping between each group as the rest XP
runs out.

I thought rested XP didn't apply to RAF toons as they're already
getting triple XP?

[David Z]

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by Urbin
Also, there is the "recruit a friend" program but since he is already
levelling (i.e. has an account) I don't know if you can join that program...
That would give both of you extra XP (threefold, I believe).

Depending on how much cash he wants to invest, he could get an extra
account himself though WoW standard is only $20 right now, with a
free month of play included (so essentially, the game is $5 - the
"free month" is $15 itself). Attach that on, level with him for the

Only if you're stupid enough to buy online through Blizzard. In Australia
that works out to $29.50 AUD. In stores it's considerably less. Several
online shops, including JB hifi here in Aus, were selling it for $17.95 plus
postage.

[Gumby619]

Post by David Z

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by Urbin
Also, there is the "recruit a friend" program but since he is already
levelling (i.e. has an account) I don't know if you can join that program...
That would give both of you extra XP (threefold, I believe).

Depending on how much cash he wants to invest, he could get an extra
account himself though WoW standard is only $20 right now, with a
free month of play included (so essentially, the game is $5 - the
"free month" is $15 itself). Attach that on, level with him for the

Only if you're stupid enough to buy online through Blizzard. In Australia
that works out to $29.50 AUD. In stores it's considerably less. Several
online shops, including JB hifi here in Aus, were selling it for $17.95
plus postage.

Go away cheapskate

Gumby619

[terroraustralis]

Post by Gumby619

Post by m***@gmail.com
Depending on how much cash he wants to invest, he could get an extra
account himself though WoW standard is only $20 right now, with a
free month of play included (so essentially, the game is $5 - the
"free month" is $15 itself). Attach that on, level with him for the

Only if you're stupid enough to buy online through Blizzard. In Australia that works
out to $29.50 AUD. In stores it's considerably less. Several online shops, including
JB hifi here in Aus, were selling it for $17.95 plus postage.

Go away cheapskate

cheaper than skate

$AU 1 = $ US 0.65
wow $AU 17
tbc $AU 19
wotlk $AU 49 new shiny toy premium
60 day $AU 35
the set and 90 days for ~$US80 less than a $US buck a day to play

Actually FINDING wow tbc and wotlk on the shelves of the average
shopping centre gaming shop, that may require some searching and some blank stares
from assistants.

It really doesn't have much presence in many places
which probably explains the lower prices.

[David Z]

Post by terroraustralis

Post by Gumby619

Post by m***@gmail.com
Depending on how much cash he wants to invest, he could get an extra
account himself though WoW standard is only $20 right now, with a
free month of play included (so essentially, the game is $5 - the
"free month" is $15 itself). Attach that on, level with him for the

Only if you're stupid enough to buy online through Blizzard. In Australia that works
out to $29.50 AUD. In stores it's considerably less. Several online shops, including
JB hifi here in Aus, were selling it for $17.95 plus postage.

Go away cheapskate

cheaper than skate
$AU 1 = $ US 0.65
wow $AU 17
tbc $AU 19
wotlk $AU 49 new shiny toy premium
60 day $AU 35
the set and 90 days for ~$US80 less than a $US buck a day to play

That sounds pretty cheap, until you compare it to some other games on the
market:

C&C 3: Tiberium Wars $AU10.
SIMS 2 $AU10.

Over 365 days (1 year), the cost works out to less than 3 cents a day! By
comparison, World of Warcraft is over 30 times more expensive.

[terroraustralis]

"terroraustralis" <whowantstoknow> wrote in message

Post by terroraustralis
$AU 1 = $ US 0.65
wow $AU 17
tbc $AU 19
wotlk $AU 49 new shiny toy premium
60 day $AU 35
the set and 90 days for ~$US80 less than a $US buck a day to play

C&C 3: Tiberium Wars $AU10.
SIMS 2 $AU10.
Over 365 days (1 year), the cost works out to less than 3 cents a day! By comparison,
World of Warcraft is over 30 times more expensive.

In absolute terms yes.
In terms of what you consider your time , and entertainment time , to be worth they
are all nearer to zero than your hourly rate.


Per hour ,
work for near minimum wage $20
a good sitdown bachanal $200
Go to the pictures $10
rent a vid $2
drive to work $20 , fuel and other costs, all day carpark $15
bag of twisties (cheesy treat) $1, can of coke $2, coffee at the airport $3.50

You spend what you want, if you already had a good time and are broke until
payday Thursday you play wow

:-)