Everything you wanted to know about RAF / Battle.Net Accounts

[Slats]

This thread is a rough draft I did at 6:00AM. Please comment with stuff I have missed and I'm going to make it more readable and add things I've forgotten. Couldn't find another thread like this anywhere that was stickied at least.


RAF:
The Basics

RAF or Refer-A-Friend is a service provided by Blizzard for World of Warcraft to bring in new players. It gives the following features:

300% XP Bonus when in a party with your RAF friend that is within 4 levels of your current level.
The ability to summon your friend once an hour by right clicking their party frame and selecting 'Summon Friend'.
For every 2 levels gained by the referred person they may grant ONE level to the referee up to a maximum of 30. You may not grant levels to characters that are above 60.
If the RAF friend purchases one month of game time the referee gets 1 month playtime.
If the RAF friend purchaes two months of game time the refree gets a zhevra mount usable on one character.

Creating Accounts/Limitations
You may send RAF invites to the same e-mail address/battle.net account.
You can have a maximum of 8 accounts per battle.net account so consider this if your RAF accounts are throw away accounts.
If you create a new battle.net account for your RAF accounts you will not be able to transfer OUTSIDE of this battle.net account to other battle.net accounts with the same last name for 30 days as a security feature. Once the 30 day timer runs out you can xfer freely between them.
A trial account cannot refer a friend, if you are going to chain your accounts together you will need to upgrade each one and then refer again once its processed.
If you are going to purchase digital upgrades online you will only be able to do 3 upgrades before you are likely to get an error #127 even if your credit card details are valid and there are no other problems you will need to do the upgrade from another computer or reset your modem/router till you obtain a new IP address. For most cable companies it will take a good 5-10 minutes of the modem being powercycled for the lease on the IP to run out, for xDSL it shouldn't take this long usually.[/b].

Common RAF Setups.
A --> BCDE

This setup is where A sends out 4 invites to your e-mail address, 4 new accounts are created and linked to Account A. This method is useful if you want to grant the MOST RAF Levels to the one account. You would only use this method if you were intending to create multiple teams of 60's and level them together all the time. If any character in the party that is part of the RAF link breaks the 4 level difference rule the RAF will break. This means you cannot use a 80 to boost in this scenario.
This gives the most rewards possible to Account A. Once you use Summon Friend once on this RAF setup it is on cooldown for the other 3 characters, not very useful really.

A -> B -> C -> D -> E

A Refers B. Account B is created and upgraded. B refers C. Account C is created and upgraded. Account C refers D. And so on. This spreads out RAF levels in a staggered effect and isn't as useful for creating lots of teams without doing some character transfers later. This setup is most popular as it lets you use a 80 character on the A account for boosting. This works because as long as B & C are within 4 levels of each other it doesn't matter that A and B link is broken. A can summon B who can summon C who can summon D who can summone E etc. This is useful for boosting in instances that are hard to get to like Sunken Temple or Scholomance/Stratholme.

This is all I can think of from the top of my head at the moment.

[Owltoid]

I don't think there is a maximum of 30 grantable levels. I'm pretty sure if you level that toon to 80 it will have 40 levels to grant (assuming you do that before the timer expires).

[lacitpo]

Something to add.

A Blizzard customer service rep can and will permanently delete wow accounts from a battle.net account, and transfer wow accounts from one battle.net account to another battle.net account provided account details are the same.

[Ualaa]

300% XP Bonus when in a party with your RAF friend that is within 4 levels of your current level.


Requirements to get the bonus exp:
a) You are grouped with a toon whose account is directly RAF linked to your account; and
b) You are within +/- 4 levels of that toon; and
c) Both of you are level 59 or lower; and
d) The mob/quest is not grey to either of you; and
e) You are in fairly close proximity to the linked toon.

If all of these are true, you will get RAF experience from quests and kills, even if there is a higher level in your party.
Even if the chain is "A -- B -- C -- D -- E", and A is level 80, B gets RAF from their link to C, if the conditions are true.



For every 2 levels gained by the referred person they may grant ONE level to the referee up to a maximum of 30. You may not grant levels to characters that are above 60.


I would change the wording to:
For every even level gained by the referred character, they may grant ONE level to the referee, to a maximum of 30 levels granted.

Basically a DK starts at 55th, and as a level 60 or higher DK you can grant 3 levels. Also a level 2 toon can now grant a level; it used to be a level 3 toon (2 levels gained), but is not anymore.




Creating Accounts/Limitations
You may send RAF invites to the same e-mail address/battle.net account.
You can have a maximum of 8 accounts per battle.net account so consider this if your RAF accounts are throw away accounts.
If you create a new battle.net account for your RAF accounts you will not be able to transfer OUTSIDE of this battle.net account to other battle.net accounts with the same last name for 30 days as a security feature. Once the 30 day timer runs out you can xfer freely between them.
A trial account cannot refer a friend, if you are going to chain your accounts together you will need to upgrade each one and then refer again once its processed.
If you are going to purchase digital upgrades online you will only be able to do 3 upgrades before you are likely to get an error #127 even if your credit card details are valid and there are no other problems you will need to do the upgrade from another computer or reset your modem/router till you obtain a new IP address. For most cable companies it will take a good 5-10 minutes of the modem being powercycled for the lease on the IP to run out, for xDSL it shouldn't take this long usually.

It is worth mentioning, the same B.Net account (for all accounts) gets you easier account management options. While different B.Net accounts get you quicker game access with an Authenticator.




A -> B -> C -> D -> E

A Refers B. Account B is created and upgraded. B refers C. Account C is created and upgraded. Account C refers D. And so on. This spreads out RAF levels in a staggered effect and isn't as useful for creating lots of teams without doing some character transfers later. This setup is most popular as it lets you use a 80 character on the A account for boosting. This works because as long as B & C are within 4 levels of each other it doesn't matter that A and B link is broken. A can summon B who can summon C who can summon D who can summone E etc. This is useful for boosting in instances that are hard to get to like Sunken Temple or Scholomance/Stratholme.

This is all I can think of from the top of my head at the moment.


This is strong, for getting the maximum levels possible.

Granted levels cascade.
As in you get to give granted levels, based on the levels which were granted to you.

For maximum effect, you will want to boost 2 toons for every chain in the link.
A -- B -- C
A -- D -- E
There are two links here, A to B and B to C (or A to D and D to E).
If you were to boost four toons, on BCDE...
C/E each give B/D two toons, and those toons add up to a full toon on A (via granting levels).

If you have a lot of toons on A, and don't care if A receives any granted levels...
You can set it up like this:
B -- C -- E
B -- D
Really, E can be linked to C or D.
There are two links that you care about, so you'd want to boost either 4 or 8 toons.
Still use A for boosting, and link A to B, for the Zhevra and free month, but disregard receiving granted levels on A.




A final boosting/RAF link strategy.

You are established on one server and wish to start over on another.
You have 5 accounts.
Link them like this:
A -- E
A -- B -- C -- D
Transfer your "booster" to E and not to A.
And A will receive RAF because of their link to B.
E will serve as the cornerstone, the tank for each PvE set you boost on A-D.

[Vecter]

I don't think there is a maximum of 30 grantable levels. I'm pretty sure if you level that toon to 80 it will have 40 levels to grant (assuming you do that before the timer expires).

All grantable levels (and RAF xp bonus') stop at level 60, so 30 will be the maximum.

[crowdx]

So a question on the DK scenario, has anyone experimented with creating two DKs on RaF linked accounts, level to 60, grant the 3 levels to a different class starting at level 1 on the first account, then delete the DKs and rinse and repeat until the different class toon hits 60? I am wondering would this be a fast way on a fresh server with no boosters on it. I have read about people doing this to get a fast gold supply on a new server but not in an RaF level granting scenarion.
Just wondering :)

[Ualaa]

The amount of time needed...
And the annoyance of the DK starting zones...

I personally would not consider this.

However, if you have cascade granted levels.
Which do not add up to a full toon.
(Need to boost 2 toons per link in the chain for this to work properly).

You could easily use a 60th, to grant 3 levels..
Possibly a few times.
For the final few "top up" levelings.

[DrChaos]

ive boosted 4 toons to 60 in 12 hours running them with my 80 spriest. not to hard to do once you get the hang of it. to date Ive leveled about 12 chars for friends and family all in the 12 (and once 13) hours or less. then with the gifting its easy to have several toons to 60 on one account in a few days. Given you have the time and the set up to do so. When best buy had the games for $5.00 I loaded up on them for future patches and friends accouts

[Chronic1337]

Can account B in the A->B->C->D->E routine grant account A 30 or more grantable levels to a new character?

[Akoko]

What would you say are the most viable ways to upgrade from tri-box to quad-box or 5-box respectively?

For quad box it seems that I would have to sacrifice a free month of game time in order to allow my characters to level at the same speed.

For 5-box is there any better option than B-D and C-E? Would require a higher levelled (60+) toon on the main account to be joined with the others.

[Ualaa]

In an A -- B -- C -- D -- E scenario.

Let's assume A is boosting.
Or that you have quested with five toons, in either case from 1st to 60th.

One toon at 60th =
B
- gives 30 levels to A, because they have a level 60.
- gives 15 levels to A, because C gave them 30 levels.
- gives 07 levels to A, because C gave them 15 levels (based on levels given to C from D)
- gives 03 levels to A...

In the above example, we have four links in the chain.
Which means there are not enough character slots on an account to cascade all the levels.
For cascading to grant full levels, we need to level/boost two toons per link in the RAF chain.

With A -- B, you need two toons on B, for B to give A a full 60th.
With A -- B -- C, you need four toons on C, for C to give two toons to B, and for B to give one full toon to A based on levels received from C.
With A -- B -- C -- D, you need eight toons boosted on D, = 4 on C, = 2 on B, = 1 on A.
Add E into the link, and you need sixteen toons, but can only have eight on an account.

I personally like:
A -- B -- C -- D -- E (for a brand new set up, or with one existing account).

But:
A -- B -- C (gets you full cascading granted levels)
A -- D -- E (which can be nice on a new server, with only one toon transferred to A for boosting).




A boosting trick.

You level up enough to boost from x to 60th on A.
Let's say the toon is level 1.
You will want to level to 2nd, 3rd or 4th (doesn't matter the level).
But you want to be as close to 99% into your level as possible.
Be cautious of moving the toon receiving the levels -- exploration can cause a level up.

If your toon is level 3, and 97% into their level.
When you grant them 57 levels, they will be level 60... and 97% into it.
Which means they will ding to 61st, on exploration experience before reaching Hellfire.

[Ualaa]

What would you say are the most viable ways to upgrade from tri-box to quad-box or 5-box respectively?

For quad box it seems that I would have to sacrifice a free month of game time in order to allow my characters to level at the same speed.

For 5-box is there any better option than B-D and C-E? Would require a higher levelled (60+) toon on the main account to be joined with the others.


From 3 to 5, you are adding two accounts.
Call the existing accounts A, B and C.

Since there are only two new accounts.
I would link them to B and C.
With either your best booster on A, or your account with the most toons (won't receive any granted levels).

Then use A to boost BCDE.
If BC are full or don't need many new toons, you can delete the toons after reaching 60th.
Or possibly character transfer them to DE, after reaching 60th.

You eventually end up with...
Several existing toons on ABC; and
A bunch of new toons at 60th on DE.

If ABC are shammies (the best option), but pet classes in general work.
Consider Borean Tundra boosting.
Take two toons (must be grouped) on DE.
Aggro a bunch of mobs, by tagging them.
Then have pets do 100% of the damage -- Totems are pets.
Stoneclaw (one at a time) on round robin, will keep the lowbies alive.
With 3x Magma Totems down at the same time.

If you are grouped, and have tagged the mobs.
Pet damage does not take anything away from your experience.
But you need to tag the mob first, and be in a party.






Four boxing, going to five boxing.

The easy method is character transfers from ABCD to E.
Which gets you several toons on E, that are semi-geared from your 4 boxing days.

Or you could RAF E from an existing account.
Boost toons on two accounts, one existing and one new.
Once you reach 60th.

I'd probably one-box a solo 60th.
Or pet boost a pair of 60's.
Get to 70th, or at least 68th anyway.
Go to Northrend, with a healer on auto follow.
Quest/Kill, with zero down time.

[thefunk]

my head hurts

[greglord]

Simple question - When 4 of my chars hit 60, do I lose RAF on my accounts or ONLY from my 4 toons that hit 60?

Thank you.

[Ualaa]

You lose RAF for the toons who are 60th.

But you retain RAF for as many other toons (under 60th) as you care to level.
You get the full 3 months of time.

[Owltoid]

When you say you "lose RAF" you're correct in that you lose 3x exp, but you can still grant levels and summon other toons. I'm nearly positive you continue gaining levels to grant after 60 (you can't boost someone above 60, but if the granting toon hits level 80 they will actually have been able to grant 40 levels).

[jimbobobb]

Owltoid, please stop spreading misinformation - you stop gaining levels to grant after 60. You get a MAXIMUM of 30 levels to grant from one character on RAF, and that is from a character leveled from 1 to 60.


At what level do recruit characters cease to gain levels to grant? The ability to gain levels stops at level 60.

Straight from the faq

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=25716

[Ualaa]

I stopped gaining levels which I could grant at 59th.
But when I had RAF it was based on every two levels gained.

It has been changed to every even level gained.
But still to a maximum of 60th level.

To my knowledge it has not changed from 30 levels granted at 60th.

[Owltoid]

Guess it changed from when I used it well over a year ago. Oh well :)