Patch 3.3 has finally arrived!

It has been some time coming, but we are on the road to wrapping up the Lich King expansion. While there are still some major bugs to be worked through, it is a major step forward.

One of the highlights of patch 3.3 is the new dungeon finder system. Most people will know the old eye on the task bar that managed the “Looking for Group” feature. The old system used to put you in a special chat channel and listed what you wanted to be, but getting the group together was largely up to you. The new dungeon finder system that has replaced it in patch 3.3 will put together the group for you. As an added bonus, it will use players from all active realms.

Why do I want a group from all realms? Well, the more players you sort from, the better your odds will be of finding other players.

What about travel time? Glad you asked. There is no travel time for any instance through the dungeon finder. The mini map located in the upper right has a matching green eye when you are in queue. The eye teleports you to the instance when your group is ready, and afterward it sends you back to where you originally left from.

The first dungeon you run per day awards a special gift. The lower level dungeons provide a bag of useful items, and higher level dungeons give emblems you can use to buy gear gear.

For my gameplay money, the dungeon finder was the best addition WoW has had since the auction house.

Great gaming!

Refer a Friend

Refer-a-Friend

Refer a friend is almost a cheat. It is like the holy grail of fast leveling. If you came to WoW through an invite, or if you have a friend who has not yet joined, use the “Refer a Friend” feature. It will make your game time that much more enjoyable, and you will gain the advantage of triple experience while grouped together.

The main features of ‘Refer a Friend”:

• Triple XP while grouped. That includes kills and quest XP
• A free month of service to the person who refers the new member
• A free mount for both you and your friend

I can already hear you saying this is great. It truly is remarkable. The only downside is that after 90 days the bonus ends, but that is plenty of time to blast through the levels with triple experience. Oh, did I forget to mention there is more?

• Summon between referred accounts from anywhere in Azeroth
• Level gifting – up to 30 levels to a veteran account at level 60

That’s right. Until you reach level 60, you can summon the referred character to you. So let’s say you want to play a night elf and your friend wants to roll a human. Normally you start off in different areas, but with “Refer a Friend” you can bring either character to you without having to travel to them. I can tell you firsthand, taking a level one character to another starting area is not easy and takes time.

So exactly what is level gifting? For the referring character, it means for every other level you gain from 2-60, you get a level you can give to a veteran player that is under level 60. So if the referring friend has a level 30 character, when you get to level 60, you can boost that character to 60 by gifting all 30 levels from the referred character. There are restrictions, however. A level 2 character cannot gift a level 39 character a level, but a level 60 can gift any character not already at 60. Wow!

Further details can be found at:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20588

Now, get out there and play. Triple XP is waiting, after all.