-
Social Media
-
Recruit-a-Friend? Recruit-a-Myself!
A few months back, someone in our guild had invited a friend (a fully experienced raider) to roll a character on our server and join us in our raiding escapades. This friend had two accounts, rolled a Shaman and a Priest, and leveled them simultaneously in our guild.
It was neat to see his two characters progressing at the same time. I imagined how satisfying it must have been when he finally dinged 70, to have more or less leveled a Shaman and gotten a free 70 Priest out of the deal.
I had been pondering the fun and challenge of opening a second account and dual-boxing with some new toons for a good while. Whenever I could I pestered him for advice. I wanted to know what sort of setup he used to play two characters, how he handled looting quest items for both of them, how much extra work it was to have a character constantly on follow behind you, etc.
Then BAMF! Blizzard drops the Recruit-a-Friend promotion on us. Invite a friend to start a trial account and if they upgrade to a full-access account, you get cool stuff. When they pay for their first month, you get a month of game time free. When they pay for their second month, you get an exclusive Zhevra Mount.
But even better in my opinion, and regardless of how much game time the recruited friend pays for, is that you get triple experience when grouped with them. AND for every two levels that a recruited character earns, they can grant a free level to a lower level character on the account that recruited them! How the hell can I say no to that!?
I did some digging around to see if I was allowed to refer myself or if I had to do it covertly. Well, along with the official Blizzard FAQ, I found this amazing Recruit-a-Friend - Ultimate FAQ on the forums from Vrakthris. I read every detail and decided that everything looked to be in my favor and I had nothing to lose but time.
I sent out the invite to myself (the same email address that my primary account was already setup with) and opened the trial account under the same exact name and billing details. I purchased my WoW key online, then upgraded my account to The Burning Crusade. I then copied my entire “World of Warcraft” install folder to “World of Warcraft Two” and made a start menu shortcut to the copied executable.
I already had a level 10 Hunter that I had started under my primary account a few days earlier. I decided that I would stick with him and roll a (Resto) Shaman to cruise around with him and his pet and keep everyone’s health topped off and free from poisons and diseases. Of course the totems are nice to have around as well.
I loaded up my two instances of WoW, one on each of my monitors in windowed mode, pointed Firefox at Jame’s Horde Leveling Guide (free, not a paid link) and got to work. It took me a good three days to really get the hang of it. And I’m still tweaking things as I go.
So that was 8 days ago I guess and my Hunter and Shaman are now level 35 and moving fast. Factoring in the time it took me to get my macros/keyclone software/system crashes all ironed out, I probably realistically have about 20 hours of played time in them. And that is with me maintaining the primary professions on both characters and stopping to buy greens from the auction house. And don’t forget about the ridiculous quest chains that Shamans must do to get their totems. And of course my hunter has to have just the right pet.
I’ve had to skip huge chunks of my leveling guide because of the bonus experience. I bought a blue polearm for my hunter at level 20 and two hours later it was replaced by superior green gear.
Anyway, when those two hit level 60 and the Refer-a-Friend bonus no longer applies, I’m going to grant my Shaman’s levels to my level 33 Warlock. So I’ll have a 60 Hunter, 60 Shaman and 60 Warlock.
And then?
After that’s done I’m going to roll a Priest to tag along with my level 9 Rogue and level them to 60. Then I’ll get my 21 Mage up to 30 on his own and use the “Grant a level” program to make him 60 as well.
By that time, WotLK should be mere weeks away and I’ll have several options to look forward to leveling to 80. Along with my Druid as my main of course.
Unless I still have time to spare. In which case I still need a Paladin and a Warrior…
I’ve also gotten the mind to start multiboxing and was wondering what keyclone software you’re using. I’ve read up a bit on the options, but I figured I’d ask someone who’s actually used the software for their opinion as a bonus resource.
I’m using Keyclone to do my keycloning :)
There’s a download link and some helpful guides at this forum: http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/
It costs $20 to register, and I don’t think there is a trial version. So far it has suited my needs perfectly. I unbound every action bar key in the default WoW keybindings, then set a short whitelist of keys that are allowed to be sent to my second WoW instance.
I’ve learned a lot about macros in the past few days, trying to get my setup to do what I need it to. I should probably take some time and document what I’m actually doing in case it might help anyone else.
My favorite so far: A mouseover loot/skinning/herbalism setting for my second character so I don’t have to focus that window to loot and whatnot.
I was thinking about using keyclone, but wasn’t sure because of the price (I’m trying to keep costs down, I’m not even getting BC for the second account) but from what I’ve read it seems to be exactly what I’m looking for.
I’ll have to check out that macro! That’s awesome.
Hey, I got just one thing to say, this R-a-F program is awesome. But you didnt have to copy your game folder, save yourself the space on your drive because to can run both windows out of the same folder.
Get a fucking life and sell your other account, moron.