The experience bonus for recruited friends in World of Warcraft will soon disappear. But why is Blizzard removing this benefit?
If you encourage a friend to play World of Warcraft and recruit them, you, as the referrer, receive a number of nice perks. However, one of those will soon vanish. The 50% additional experience points will disappear and be removed without replacement.
What is it about? Anyone who invites a friend to play World of Warcraft through the “Refer a Friend” system and levels alongside them currently receives a 50% bonus on the experience points gained. This is especially important for the recruited player, as the referrer is usually a veteran who has access to powerful heirlooms – something that newcomers cannot do due to their low gold reserves.
This bonus means that both the veteran and the newcomer are rewarded with an additional 50%. Since this bonus is capped at 50% – whether through “Refer a Friend” or heirlooms – both players level up at roughly the same speed.
This will now change with the start of Patch 9.0. The heirlooms will also lose their XP bonus.
Which bonuses remain? All other bonuses from the “Refer a Friend” program will remain. You will still receive a new reward during the first 12 months that your friend is actively playing. These include transmog items, pets, mounts, or game time. Subsequently, you will receive one month of game time credited for every 3rd month your friend plays.
The ability to summon your friend every 30 minutes will also continue to be valid.
Why is Blizzard removing the XP bonus? This is due to the redesign of the leveling phase. With the pre-patch 9.0 the maximum character level is being reduced and leveling speed is increased by about 70%. The journey to level 50 will then go by significantly faster than the current path to level 120. Therefore, an additional XP bonus is simply unnecessary. This also ensures that leveling speed corresponds quite precisely to the effort you desire.
Despite the removal of bonuses, leveling to the maximum level should be faster than before. At least many streamers continuously find new ways to complete leveling in record time …
