How does level granting in RAF work, exactly?

I've recently returned to Wow after a long hiatus, and have decided to do it via 5-box RAF.

I've got Keyclone working, and some rudimentary macros bound for my 5 shaman team and all is progressing swimmingly, albeit slowly (Avoid those collection quests - holy crap!).

I created five fresh accounts, (since I couldn't remember my old account name or character names) and linked them so that each account recruited the next account in line.

My questions are about the level granting ability.

If Account A recruits Account B, then characters from A and B (call them A1 and B1) group together and pick up levels 1-20 together, does that then mean that any character on Account B can then grant ten levels to any character created on Account A?

Or must character B1 be the character to grant them?

Also, must the character from Account A be lower level than the granting character on Account B?

Your RAF chain is:
A -- B -- C -- D -- E

For every even level gained on B, up to a maximum of level 60 (30 even levels gained), B can grant one level to any toon on A, who is lower level then the toon on B who is granting the levels.

Similarly, C can give levels to B, and even levels received from C count as levels gained for B. And D gives to C, and E gives to D.

For the cascading levels to add up to full characters (granted levels based on levels which were granted to you), you need to level 2 toons per link in the chain.
So, with an A to B link, two toons boosted/leveled to 60th on B equals a full toon on A.
And with A -- B -- C, four toons on B/C, adds up to a full toon on A, from the levels B is granted by C.
A -- B -- C -- D is the furthest we can go, since that is 8 toons leveled, and we can only have 10 on an account (even here, we'd need to transfer toons from A to say E, to make space).



Specifically...
A1 and B1 (and C1, D1, E1) are all grouped, and level to 20th from 1st.
Which is 10 even levels gained (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th).

This means that B1 can grant 10 levels to any toon on Account A.
But the recipient has to be lower level then B1.
At 20th, you could grant levels to a level 10, to 20th.
But at 20th, you could not grant levels to a level 50 toon.

The best option for granting levels...
Take a toon on A, and level them to as close to level 2 (or 3, 4 etc) as possible, without dinging.
Be very wary of exploration experience, which will cause a level up.
Grant the toon to 60th, from say level 2.97 (almost level 3).

The toon will be level 60, and 97% into it.
Which means they will likely be 61st level, before reaching Hellfire -- from exploration experience.

Thanks for the update!

If I understand this correctly then, my first team of 5 will pretty much be unavailable to be the recipients of boosting, right? Because they'll all be leveling at the same pace so no one will be higher level to be able to grant levels.

When they hit 60 though, they'll be able to boost a second team of four twenty levels each.

Is that correct?

Once the first team reaches 60th, they'll each have 30 levels to grant.
When the second team reaches 60th, they'll each also have 30 levels to grant.

Between these two teams, they'll add up to full toons on the inviting account.
As in E will give a full toon to D, D to C, C to B and B to A.

Two more teams, and you'll also receive another 1 granted toon per account.
And there will be enough cascaded levels for those to add up to a full toon on some accounts.

Or alternatively, you could level some of the toons part of the way to 60th.
And then use the granted levels from the 60's to grant them the rest of the way up.

If your 5 accounts are
A-B-C-D-E (Where A recruited B, then B recruited C etc)
Then when Team 1 hits 60 B-C-D-E will each have 30 levels to grant

Example
Once team 1 hits level 60(Dont go to level 61)
So create a new level 1 on Accounts A-B-C-D
Then take your level 60 on E and grant 30 levels to the new level 1 on account D. Now you have a Level 31&60 on account D.
Then login to your new level 1 on account C, and your level 30 on account D
Grant 15 levels to account C, then bring in your account D level 60.
Grant 30 levels to account C. Now account C has a level 46 and a level 60.

So C now has 23+30 levels to grant to B so account B gets a free level 54
Now B has 27+30 levels to grant which is a free level 58 on account A.

So by leveling 1 team you can have
A - 60 and 58
B - 60 and 54
C - 60 and 46
D - 60 and 31
E - 60
(Fun fact, if you level up the team you are going to be granting levels to, to level 2 you will get a level 60 on account A, so instead of it being 31,46,54,58 it will be 46,48,56,60)

Obviously the more teams you get up the more free toons you get and the more you can play around withthe granted levels. I recommend not spending any levels on free toons until you have gotten all the teams you want at level 60. And then sitting down and working out what you can get. You may find at the end that if you level up a team to level 15 then start granting you will get substancially more out of it.

So for every team you get up you get to grant
30 levels from E to D
45 levels from D to C
54 levels from C to B
57 levels from B to A

Thanks for the thorough answers guys. I hadn'r really considered what I'd planned on doing with the granted levels except for making a tankadin on my primary account so I could mix up 5 shammies and 4 shammies and one tank. Big woo, right? :D

But this is food for some serious thought on what to do with my granted levels.

While you have RAF, I'd suggest leveling a bunch of teams.
If you think it might be fun to play down the road, RAF it to 60th.

1st to 60th is a lot faster now, then it will be down the road once RAF ends.

Also, if this is your first set of toons.
Consider a tank type toon, Druid/Paladin is best on Account A.
Once your first team reaches 60th, take them to Hellfire and do most/all of the quests there.
Hellfire (Burning Crusade) was a massive gear boost over the old world.

So now you have a 62nd level tanking type toon, with much better gear then you could get pre-BC.
Group the other four characters... level 1's... in your second set of toons together.
Invite the higher level into the group.
Run instances, as long as the 62 can solo pull it.
You'll get a lot less experience per kill, with a 60+ in the party.
But, you'll get a lot more experience per hour.

A general route will be...
- Get to 10th, I'd quest with the booster in the party.
- 10-20 Shadow Fang Keep (Horde) or 10-16 (Deadmines Alliance) and then 16-20 (Stockades Alliance).
- 20-45 Scarlet Monastery.... start in the low ones without needing a key... eventually do an Armory - Cathedral - Reset // Cathedral - Armory - Reset rotation.
- 45-55 Stratholme/Scholomance..... if your toon can solo trash there.
- 55-60 Ramparts... probably cannot solo trash here, unless you're 70+

Once you reach the limit of what you can "solo" to boost the lowbies.
That toon can still boost the team through quests.
But you can also boost other teams of toons.

If my team is all Horde on the Earthen Ring server, does this then mean that all of the remainder of my toons will need to be on the same node in order to receive level grants?

Perhaps I should bring up my 5 Shaman horde team to 60, then start bring another 5-team to 60 on an alliance server somewhere so I'd have both sides represented?

In order to grant levels you need to be on the same server and the same faction (Horde or Alliance) the main problem you may run into on a new server is money though, buying the skills when you are leveling that fast gets expensive :) although I think its worse in the lower levels, including buying a mount and only the skills I needed I dropped about 10g per toon 1-60. But I make it back in spades by selling the mechanical chickens I get from the quest line in Hinterlands, Feralas and Tanaris. I sell those on the AH for 500-600g each in a day or so (Im impatient and so cant be bothered waiting I could prob sell for more)

If the team you level to 60th is horde on earthen ring.
Then the levels they grant, will be to horde toons on earthen ring.
You need to physically target with the granting toon.

If you want both factions, RAF is still the time to level toons.
Doesn't matter if they're the same or different factions.
Now is the time to level toons from 1st to 60th.

If you have a higher level existing toon to boost with.
I'd consider boosting one faction until your satisfied.
Then faction transfer the booster to the other faction.
The faction transfer lets you bring gold with the toon, which will help starting a new faction dramatically.
And boost teams there too.

Once you're done boosting, do all the granting levels on both sides.
Be sure to grant levels before RAF expires.