Not too long ago, it was saying something pretty impressive if you had a level 70 of every class.  But now, anyone can have 10 toons at 70 with a lot less sweat.  Really, you can reasonably develop 10-12 level 70 characters in less time than you can possibly imagine.  It’s so easy, and I’m kicking myself for not seeing it sooner.  But I really can’t be too hard on myself since this wasn’t even possible until about a month ago when Blizz introduced the Refer-a-Friend program.

We did an article about that, but I just didn’t look into it all that much at the time.  You see, I already have 3 accounts and several 70’s so I just didn’t see what a big benefit it was until a couple of days ago.  So stop whatever you are doing with your toons and read this very carefully before you do another minute of leveling.

My wife and I are working on several sets of toons in preparation for the expansion.  I certainly wanted to have one of each class at 70 ready to take into the new content so that I wasn’t stuck having to push several classes all the way from level 1-80.  That just doesn’t sound like a good time.

Based on our beta testing, you could also stop at level 68 and do just fine in WotLK if you wanted to.  I took my shadow priest to Northrend at 68 with middlin gear and it was no sweat.  So if you could just get a full set of toons to level 68 you could have a good jump start on most folks.

But leveling 4 sets of 2 plus one just doesn’t sound like fun to me – or probably anyone else.  Especially if you are relatively new to the game, this can seem like a simply impossible task.  But with the RaF (refer a friend) in effect, you will just not believe how easy it can be.

I’m even going to approach this from the perspective of “you don’t even have any friends who play.”  You don’t have to actually refer a new person to the game.  I referred myself using the RaF link and started a new account that linked to one of my old accounts.  I even transferred several toons from another account to the new referral account!  It’s just like starting any new account, but you get all the experience buffs and other benefits to go with it.  It’s just too easy to pass up.

So I put it to the test a bit yesterday.  Triple experience is something you just have to see for yourself to believe.  In one session at level 30, my wife and I completed 8 quests in Thousand Needles.  Those 8 quests would normally take you from halfway through level 29 to just about level 30.  But by the time we had done those (total played time about 45 minutes) we had both dinged 32 and were over 50% to 33.  It’s just stupid fast.

So that made me put pen to paper on the other big benefit from the RaF deal.  For every 2 levels you gain on your RaF account, you can give 1 free level-up to a toon on your Main account.  That means each toon that hits level 60 has 30 levels to grant to another toon under level 60.

From what I can tell so far, when playing with two linked accounts, you should reasonably be able to hit 60 in half the time it would normally take you to do it solo.  So if you are smart about it, you can have 4 level 60’s (2 on the referred account and 2 on the main account) in the same amount of time it would take you to hit 60 on one toon by yourself.

At the end of that period of time, your 2 level 60 toons on the RAF account would have 60 free levels to give!  So you just pop a new toon onto your main account, meet your RAF toons and BOOM – one free toon at 60 with ZERO days played time.

Well, that was so easy, let’s just lather, rinse and repeat.  Push another two toons to 60, and get another free 60.  By this time you have 10 level 60 toons ready to go into outlands whenever you like.  That’s one of each class, plus an extra paladin or something so you don’t have to worry about respeccing him all the time.

If you are working on your first 70, you can just start another account and whack out one of every other class faster than it took you to hit 70 the first time.  It’s really unbelievable how well this works.

If you are even just a little smarter, you can figure out how to actually hit 60 on 4 of those toons and only have to play 50 levels.  Play the toons that are going to get the “Free” levels up to level 10, and there’s 20 other free levels to give to the “main” toons.  If you play the RaF toons to level 5 before you begin the main toons, and save the free level ups until later, you will only have to play your main toons to about level 54 or so and then just ding them to 60.

And check this out for another nifty little time-saver.  I have grown to prefer the Blood-elf starting area up to level 20.  But if I want a Tauren druid, that means a hideous run that takes about 20 minutes.  Not with RaF.  I can just start a Blood Elf Toon, pop my new Tauren in the game, have the Blood Elf invite the Tauren to a group, and then summon them to Sunstrider Isle in 5 seconds.  No fuss, no muss – it’s brilliant.

If your computer can handle it, you can just double box this the whole way.  Just log into both accounts, set one toon to follow and then minimize so it doesn’t chew up your graphics processing power.  You can play both toons all by yourself and still get the triple experience.  That also means you can skip all of the quests where you have to gather 10 of something and only do the ones where you kill 10 of whatever mobs.  This way, you’re not having to switch back and forth to loot drops between screens.

So, the way to take maximum advantage of the RAF program is to create the new account with the instructions at the wow website.  Activate the account to full BC status and then get to work.  Run two toons on your main account to level 10 and then just let them sit.  Run 4 toons on your RaF account to level 4 and then double box (or actually play with a friend on your main or RaF account) with the toons on your main account.  Just save all the free level-ups until you hit 60 on your RaF toons, and then pop everything else on your main to 60.

It’s sweet, sweet, sweet.  Use the RaF program to build all those toons you’ve always wanted, and when the WotLK comes out – you’ll be ready to REALLY Dominate – with any class you like.  Good luck, and we’ll see you in Northrend!