This like the sidekick system before it is a brilliant idea. The leveling pact system really helps form tighter bonds between players and helps motivates friends to play their characters regardless of whether their playtime works out with their friend(s) or not on any given day. I have used it and am extremely fond of the system.
I do have one concern though the level 5 restriction is holding this feature back from being everything it could/should be. It could and would be employed by many more people helping to build stronger player-to-player bonds and keep more people playing this game if this restriction were not holding it back.
I understand the fear of power-leveling using this system, but that is easily gotten around. Why not let any 2 players within 5 levels of each other sign a pact. This would let a whole host of subscribers be able to take advantage of this system. If the developers feel that even 5 levels is too much of disparity in level then at the very least allow players of the same level to enter into a new pact.
Most of us who have tried this feature love it. I would only like to use it more. How many characters have we tried and fallen out of love with after level 5? We should be able to start a new pact with a new character that we enjoy more after level 5. Just restrict the level disparity between characters entering into a pact. There is no reason to restrict pacts themselves to characters of level 5 or less....my 2 cents.
