"Summn plz": the joy of being a warlock
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Dec 14th 2006 at 5:00PM
Everyone thinks it's so easy to be a warlock these days. Sure, we have dots that will kill you long after we ourselves have died to your teammates. Sure, we can have a pet that is essentially a small warrior attack you while we sip Foster's in the shade. Or we can ... we can ... I'm not exactly sure what the Destruction 41-point talent is because no one uses it. Some kind of AOE? Whatever. Anyway, the point is that life as a warlock has its annoyances. Take this conversation my level 51 lock, repairing her armor in Undercity, had with a level 16 warrior in Thunder Bluff today.
Warrior: can you please summon me to undercity?
Me (figuring the guy at least said please): Sorry, I don't have a group right now.
Warrior: how hard can it be to find a group in UC :P
Me (thinking I'm not going to find a group to summon this guy without payment): How much are you going to pay me?
Warrior: 0.00
Me: So basically, you want me to use my own soul shard and my own time to find a group so I can summon your lazy behind?
Warrior: um ... yeah
Me: Hell no. Walk.
The average warlock has this conversation many, many times before hitting 60, and an interminable number of times thereafter. In a raid, you have to summon stragglers, dispense healthstones, soulstone important people and make sure you have Curse of Elements up or your mages will eat you alive. Speaking of mages, they also have it rough when it comes to being bugged -- they have to portal people places and create food and water for the whole raid!
Warlocks, mages, how do you deal with the annoyance of random tells for "summons" or "wtr plz" when you're chilling in Ironforge?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ChrisM Dec 14th 2006 5:07PM
I'm a mage and currently am spending a lot of time in the battlegrounds. This is has brought more people that I normally don't group with begging for food/water. I will do it for guildies because I think it's just the right thing to do. However once in a BG you get people spamming to open trade with you and telling you to give them water. If you don't they call you all sorts of names(alliance lover is my favorite).
So what I did to fix this was block trades all the time. Have a DND macro set up that reads. "Please remember that I was busy when you sent me a tell asking for food/water. Therefore in order to stop and accomodate you there will be a 1g fee for any port,buff, food or water you may want. Unless you have an invite for Naxx. Otherwise have a nice day."
After a long DND like that you usually don't get much response and if someone decides to flame you it spams their screen with the message till they give up. It's a wonderful tool.
Baccob Dec 14th 2006 5:10PM
I play a (H) Mage. Generally I will dish out the water if they ask nicely :). If they just say give me water, I just ignore them.
Portals arent so bad, I just have them buy the rune and we are set.
Smithra Dec 14th 2006 5:32PM
I usually either A) help (if they're polite and/or I'm not busy) or B) ask for a lot of money.
My favorite fix for the unwanted summon request, though, is something I saw on the WoW forums:
"Sorry, I'm not summon specced"
Andy Dec 14th 2006 5:24PM
I personally would have summoned him.
Lock4Life Dec 18th 2006 10:17PM
The greatest annoyance is probably reading on the forums daily that the Warlock class should be nerfed. Other than that, getting told to 'Learn how to better manage my shards'.
Sava Dec 14th 2006 5:16PM
If I am already in a group I will summon them. If not, I tell them to find me two people to help and they usually leave me alone after that.
Acariquara Dec 14th 2006 5:29PM
Yea, as a Lock, constant begging for healthstones bugs me, especially when we are at the fifth wipe in ZG/AQ20/MC JUST BEFORE some instance boss and I don't have that many shards, and no means to get more (like I will solo and Drain Soul Onyxia? Locks are overpowered but NOT THAT MUCH). In this particular case, I just say, sorry, shards are limited and I won't give healthstones, or else there will be no soulstone for the priest, and no sixth wipe. Now just fecking pay attention to what the damn raid leader says!
/rant off
Uh, and I usually ignore summon requests. No answer whatsoever, even if the guy says please, is better than having to explain that you are (pick one) not in a group/just browsing AH/in fact in a group and your teammates are not here, and you are not the leader/fresh out of soul shards, dammit!
Hey, I am a Lock. I am NOT supposed to be good, or easy going. I eat souls for breakfast.
paul Dec 14th 2006 5:28PM
screw em, let em rot.
SummonThis Dec 14th 2006 5:53PM
When I get a request, and I'm NOT grouped, I say "Even though I'm in a group of three, I may be able to get the Scubbi to click on the portal, but there is no way my horse can click on it"
Pruflas Dec 14th 2006 5:54PM
for the battlegrounds as a mage, i make water/food while i wait for it to pop. when i go in i pass out what i have and have a seat drinking while i wait for the count down to start the fight. I ignore most other requests unless they are grouped with me.
Clementure Dec 14th 2006 6:00PM
I don’t know if this works, but I’ve always wanted to summon a troublesome pesky beggar over a cliff. But do non-guildies or non-group members really expect me to get a group together and summon them? That’s a lot of time and trouble: not going to happen.
As for health stones, sure, no problem. I’m happy to help during a run of something with as many as I can contribute.
Once in Strat a fellow Lock in a PUG was massively obnoxious with “BRBs” “buf plzz” and 10,000 “can I have that”. When we were breaking up the mage, after whispering the rest of the PUG, opened a “Port to IF” that was actually a port to Darn. Petty, but satisfying, specially when he sent a “Darn WTF” to the group.
holyterror Dec 14th 2006 6:32PM
On a side note...leveling my first priest up (48 right now) is an interesting experience as well. I can't count how many tells I get asking me to join a group for a dungeon or raid...random strangers out of the blue. Not that I mind, I just didn't experience that while leveling my rogue or hunter (both 60's now)
michel Dec 14th 2006 6:17PM
I play a gnome mage, and simply , I ignore unknown people asking me to give them water/bread
and for people asking me portal, I ask money (I vary cost, it depends of your level, your politeness and if you are gnome and my time and of course the moon's phase).
if they are not polite, I put them in ignore list for a time.
people opening the trade box without telling ONE word are ignored.
of course I create whatever for my guildies, raids friends.
--
Yes, I'm THAT grumpy and busy :)
blkmasta Dec 14th 2006 6:33PM
I'm a mage, but most people on my server don't actively ask for water, so i ask if anyone needs anything while my party is resting. I've only ever once had to snub someone because they wanted water and asked rudely for it.
klinko Dec 14th 2006 6:38PM
My main is a warlock and I have at least one summon request a week from a complete stranger. I have three possible answers I commonly use:
1. no response (I use this the most)
2. /w "NO" (the AV default answer)
3. /w "You find two more people in and I'll summon you. (you better ask me real nicely)
Suuteki Dec 14th 2006 6:38PM
I play an undead rogue, and I can say that this concept of people opening trades asking things from your class (food, water, healthstones) applies to rogues too. Try walking around a capital city at level 60, browsing AH/checking mail/looking through your bank/just standing around. People open trades without saying anything, shoving lockboxes in my face. Now, I'm a reasonable guy. If they send me a tell beforehand, asking politely if I would open a box for them, I'll do it. But when they just shove on in my face, especially when I was looking through mail, I refuse.
Shalkis Dec 14th 2006 6:47PM
Being a mage, I haven't had any problems getting along with warlocks. If I decide to join a party or a raid, it's a package deal. I provide food, water (standard-issue warlock ration is 20 Cinnamon Rolls and 40 Crystal Water), AI, decursing and portals when needed, but I also assume that I get Curse of Elements, healthstones (I rarely ask for them nowadays, because they are on the same cooldown as my mana gems) and summons if we are in a hurry.
When it comes to random players, manners are usually the key. People who ask nicely get food and water, and if you bring a Rune of Portals (or cash), you'll get a portal.
Oh, and the Darnassus portal trick doesn't work on Horde. Thunder Bluff is just a few minutes away from Orgrimmar, and Undercity is just a zeppelin ride away. :(
Oh, and when it comes to rogues, I usually ask politely for a lockpicking, but neglect to mention the amount of lockboxes I have. ;)
Shalkis Dec 14th 2006 6:47PM
Being a mage, I haven't had any problems getting along with warlocks. If I decide to join a party or a raid, it's a package deal. I provide food, water (standard-issue warlock ration is 20 Cinnamon Rolls and 40 Crystal Water), AI, decursing and portals when needed, but I also assume that I get Curse of Elements, healthstones (I rarely ask for them nowadays, because they are on the same cooldown as my mana gems) and summons if we are in a hurry.
When it comes to random players, manners are usually the key. People who ask nicely get food and water, and if you bring a Rune of Portals (or cash), you'll get a portal.
Oh, and the Darnassus portal trick doesn't work on Horde. Thunder Bluff is just a few minutes away from Orgrimmar, and Undercity is just a zeppelin ride away. :(
Sylythn Dec 14th 2006 6:50PM
Simple - ignore - and if they keep bugging /ignore. The ONLY time I will summon someone is if it's for an instance or raid - and nowadays the meeting stones do that for me. If people want to get from point A to point B, they can do it the same way I do - walk, run, ride, sail, or swim. And if you've got to have it fast - find a mage, or use your hearthstone. At least the mages have a renewable resource to cast portals. Maybe I should just start saying "Go kill a lvl 60 mob for me and bring me back his soul shard - then I'll summon you." Heh, I'd like to hear that lvl 13's response then.
As a side point - my week was made the other day when my group summoned me with the meeting stone to our instance run...man it was nice to be on the other side for once.
Sylythn Dec 14th 2006 6:57PM
Oops - just realized portals aren't "free" for mages any more than summons are for us. I'd likely cop the same attitude I have now if I was a mage in that case.