Blue Notes: LFG changes, Warlock pets to despawn on flight
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 5th 2007 at 2:18PM
It's no secret that a lot of people are unhappy with the new LFG system. Personally, I always use it, although I haven't had much luck with it. Usually I'll flag myself as LFG for some group quest and do a solo quest while waiting. After this, if I still don't have a group (as is usually the case), I go ahead and ask about it in General. Anyway, apparently the LFG tool is going to get better, and the old global LFG channel is not making a come-back. From Neth:- While you haven't seen changes as of yet, we are working on some improvements that we would like to implement. I just can't tell you any more details about that as of this point in time however. You won't be seeing the old LFG channel reappear.
Apparently, when you go on a flying mount as a warlock, your poor demonic pet stays out and runs along below you. This usually leads to it dying, of course, and is pretty unbecoming anyway. Fortunately, this is in for a change (Ommra):
- We intend to make a change so that Warlock pets will vanish when you mount and reappear when you dismount from flying mounts, regular mounts and even flight paths to help conserve the need to use soul shards to resummon.
This will most likely be in a future patch that we do however, we do not have a specific date as of yet. At current our testing is looking promising for this feature.
Filed under: Warlock, Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dontfront Feb 5th 2007 7:33PM
About time - It is horribly annoying to resummon pets, mana up, THEN go gank the alliance you see :p
Not to mention if you aren't demo specced, it takes forever to summon any pet.
Zuuler Feb 5th 2007 2:35PM
I haven't gotten my flying mount yet but I've been wondering what happened to my pet when I fly away. This is good information to know, and hopefully they implement this idea of pets automatically respawning when you land, because summoning sucks.
James Feb 6th 2007 9:46AM
I have mixed feelings on the LFG interface. I am 100% glad it is there, and I wish that it had been implemented from the start. Because that leads into some of my mixed feelings: the idiots from LFG chat did the obvious and went to Trade/General, especially in cities. I have them both turned off nowadays, but I have seen friends and complete strangers mocked, ridiculed and chastised for offering an item or service for a particular price. My wife has gotten chewed out for being both too high and too low on the same item for the same price. These people have always been there--but it seems like they've tripled and they feed off each other since the LFG channel demise.
There needs to be a global channel to replace LFG. Call it the Asshat channel, or whatever. Something that the childish, trolling and in general crappy people can go hang out in and be crappy to each other and leave everyone else alone.
As for LFG interface, it needs to be really, really beefed up. It feels about half done, and its not exactly the friendliest thing out there. Here's hoping its all it can be come 2.1. For a proper LFG interface, see City of Heroes. And for crying out loud, give teams some control over who they are picking. When you have a team of 4, and that 5th needs to be a healer or a tank, then it'd be nice to limit the classes who can get in. Getting a rogue or a mage when you needed a priest or a shaman is a pain.
Spacedog Feb 5th 2007 3:48PM
Funny thing when you say "did you know you can use /lfg and /lfm to call up the respective interface panes?"... I never accessed the interface panes in other way. *n00b mode on* Is there another way?
Jenet Feb 5th 2007 4:21PM
Warlock with an epic flying mount here. It's a huge pain in the ass having my mana battery out, I take flight, and the poor bastard can't keep up with me so he despawns, and then I have to resummon. I think that's the biggest problem rather than flying off and your pets dragging a bunch of mobs around, eventually dying.
and a P.S. 2 piece oblivion set bonus makes lil Geltai a nuclear reactor of mana. Dark Pact for the win.
Chleo Feb 5th 2007 3:12PM
What about hunter pets? Sure it doesn't cost a shard, just time and food :\
Guernia Feb 5th 2007 3:25PM
I'm more interested in hearing about the proposed changes to professions Blue have confirmed will be happening "sooner rather than later" (see recent posts in the Professions forum). How radical the changes will be is anyone's guess, but I'd wager one of the next major content patches will see something interesting.
That said, and on topic, anything that fixes the LFG tool is good in my book. Perhaps they'll implement some kind of saved mini-profile in which you can enter basic information, such as primary role (DPS, Tank, Heal, Hybrid, Other) to save having to fill out the comment section every time, or unlocking the level restriction.
Eliah Hecht Feb 5th 2007 3:33PM
Spacedog: the "usual" way to access the tools is the button in the micro-menu, that little strip of buttons that I could nuke entirely, were it not for the fact that it's the only way to open a GM ticket, which means I have to use a FuBar plugin to replicate just that one button...*sigh*. There's also a keybinding ('I' by default).
Apocolipto Feb 5th 2007 3:40PM
Thats cool that they are fixing the problems. But iv been having another problem with LFG system. Once you get people in, theres always that Ghost person that says Joined but really isint there. But they are taking up a space in the group. anyone else have that problem? its happend a few times and we always have to reform the party so we can get that last space filled
Sylythn Feb 5th 2007 3:58PM
@6 - Unless they're the leader, you should be able to right-click and just uninvite that member.
dspacedog Feb 5th 2007 4:26PM
So that's the problem. I nuked that panel from my interface and never noticed the button was there. In the first time I needed to use the LFG system, I used an educated guess and went ahead to type /lfg (:
Anyway, more into the topic, I always try to use it but every time it came to nothing, so broadcasting it in General is the final solution. I really wish they bring us some good change in the system.
Flit Feb 5th 2007 4:49PM
Can they fix my UI first, i'm still having the problem with my Target frame disappearing, so I can't see what i have targeted. I also have a problem sometimes where I can't see my group members at all. Complete Reload of the UI (and the game!) didn't fix it. Come on blizzard.
Finnicks Daerkhiv Feb 5th 2007 6:16PM
My solution:
Mount up, set your pet on "Stay", then fly away. Once you get out of range, he'll despawn and you'll at least get your shard back. It might be annoying to have to resummon, but that's better than wasting a shard when it dies.
Finnicks Daerkhiv Feb 5th 2007 6:17PM
Don't listen to me. I'm stupid. You can't use pet commands when mounted.
/slapself
Smithra Feb 5th 2007 6:37PM
Flit: I'm willing to bet you're still using an outdated CTRaid. All the people I know who had this problem updated CTRaid and it went away.
Several patches ago us locks started getting our shard refunded when our pet despawns due to taking a flight somewhere or just general lag. That fixed the problem of "how many shards do I have left and how long am I staying here?" but it's still a nuisance to resummon every time you go anywhere. I imagine it only gets worse when you get a flying mount.
Reygar Feb 7th 2007 11:28AM
it would be better just to have the pets fly alongside you. the succubus has wings... why not use em? as for the others....well...