World of Warcraft’s Recruit-A-Friend program started with a horned zebra mount that was given to players who had pulled a friend into the immersive world Blizzard created. It wasn’t necessarily anything fancy, but it was something exclusive and only available for a limited time, so that made it in high demand. After a year or two, it was announced that Blizzard would be retiring the zebra mount and would start offering a new mount.
That mount was a two-seated rocket ship. Blizzard set the bar high for Recruit-A-Friend mounts. I found myself willing to pay for a friend’s subscription just to get the mount. Like the Swift Zhevra before it, the X-53 Touring Rocket has now been retired. This has opened up several forum threads full of speculation on what mount will be next.
Well, it’s time to stop speculating and start recruiting! Blizzard has announced the new Recruit-A-Friend mount – Obsidian Nightwing. Like the previous mount, it’s a two-seater, but not in the traditional sense. Taking a cue from the Sandstone Drake, the player transforms into the mount and a party member rides on your back.
While I’ll certainly be recruiting a friend just to get this, I can’t help but feel that the design is a little uninspired. If I wanted a winged panther bad enough to pay for someone’s subscription, I’d just buy the Winged Guardian on the mount store. Sure it’s more of a lion, but the likeness is certainly there. Plus lion beats panther any day.
The perks of the Recruit-A-Friend program remain unchanged.
You, the Recruiter, Get:
- A FREE Obsidian Nightwing mount for a single character – when your recruit pays for their second full month of game time
- 30 days of FREE game time – when your recruit upgrades to a full version of World of Warcraft: Battle Chest and pays for their first month of game time.
Your Recruit Gets:
- World of Warcraft: Starter Edition, enabling them to play FREE up to level 20
You Both Get:
- Friend-to-friend summoning, making it easy to travel and adventure together
- Bonus experience when grouped together and grantable levels so you can easily maintain a character to level up with your friend.
As always, if you have any questions, they are likely addressed in the FAQ. Now excuse me while I go recruit a sucker friend.
