No more summoning in Battlegrounds
by Robin Torres 
Jul 20th 2007 at 7:08AM
Confirmed by CM Drysc, a hotfix was implemented 7/19 that now prevents Warlocks from summoning in Battlegrounds. Drysc explains:The reason for the change is that it was being used to exploit battleground mechanics, most notably flag captures. We realize that its use in Alterac Valley was useful as the battleground is much larger in size, and it was with much disappointment that we had to make the change to keep players from exploiting its use in other battlegrounds. At current the rules extend through all battlegrounds which we find also helps maintain a consistency of rules and mechanics, but we will be watching the impact of the change.
Drysc goes on to explain that players in Warsong Gulch are the people using summons not as intended and therefore ruining it for the players in AV using it legitimately. The way it worked was that a Warlock would be standing by his or her team's flag while another player would approach the enemy flag. The flag carrier would grab the enemy flag, accept the summon and be able to immediately capture the flag.
Except for a handful of times, I have played AV on the Horde side and rarely were we organized enough to summon people to help kill Stormpike. Honestly, it's hard enough to get the Horde to not fight on that stupid bridge. (Just ride through to a common objective, people! You can't capture the bridge!) But I do know that the Allies often used summoning to beat us. Or so I heard from the woefully undermanned defense while I was trying to heal the handful of people who weren't fighting on that bridge or AFK in the entrance or fishing. Hmmm, I seem to have a lot of bitterness left over from my "pre BC trying to get the pretty Frostwolf Mount" days.
Do you think it's fair to have made the change across all battlegrounds? Do you even think that the summoning method of flag capture should be considered an exploit?
Filed under: Warlock, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
VegasHorde Jul 20th 2007 7:20AM
1- Fix the afk'ers in AV. Blizz can easily afford to hire more people to respond to issues in each realm.
2- Swap the starting points in AV once a month, that'd be interesting and fun!
Nighcol Jul 20th 2007 7:40AM
Well, the best solution in my mind would be to modify the flag/spell so that the flag does not travel thru a summoning.
idburns Jul 20th 2007 7:46AM
@2
Yea, you think that would be the simple solution... Apparently the eggheads at Blizzard love to over-complicate the simple things.
Chris Anthony Jul 20th 2007 7:46AM
On the one hand, part of me thinks that there must be something more going on here than just flag caps in WSG - that there must be a larger issue with warlock summoning in battlegrounds that Blizzard wants to address. (I'm not clear on what that might be, since I've never actually spent any time in Alterac Valley, and I can't see how it could be exploited in Arathi Basin.) If it were just a WSG exploit, why not simply change the mechanic so that when you accept a summon, you drop the flag?
On the other hand, it occurs to me that implementing that mechanic might take more than just a hotfix. (On the gripping hand, Blizzard's never been shy about pushing mini-patches to fix a single issue before...)
Any other thoughts on why this might be a problem in other battlegrounds, and why they didn't just make a WSG-specific fix?
-Chris A.
http://www.etherjammer.com/blog/
YPEELS40 Jul 20th 2007 7:50AM
hey blizzard why dont u fix arathi basin alliance side where one can walljump to the roof of the house and jump over the fence for an early start.
Gungolf Jul 20th 2007 8:20AM
Or simply make the flag flagging the carrier as being "in combat" so he can't accept the summon.
Angael Jul 20th 2007 8:38AM
wow...
go blizzard. l2patch
Serenity Jul 20th 2007 8:48AM
@7 That would bring up all sorts of bad things, think about it:
You're on your roof, allies have the flag, so you're sitting there by yourself hiding. A rogue comes up to the roof, you fight, and kill him. You're at low health an mana though, and no healer around, so you eat and drink...but you can't because of the flag...then a paladin comes up with his leet DPS and whacks you and you die. Then you quit WoW and jump off a bridge because you died to a paladin.
Bad things...
Gungolf Jul 20th 2007 8:54AM
Right... Basically it would have to be similar to dropping the silithyst when mounting while openpvping in Silithus.
Iazbel Jul 20th 2007 9:36AM
Ah good. Another warlock nerf. Ritual of Summoning is now almost totally worthless. I heard next patch they're going to remove corruption, too, because it can be used to harm other players and NPCs.
GamerJunkie Jul 20th 2007 3:05PM
This fix is kind of a surprise. They fix these cheats but won't fix whats really mechanically broken in BG.
James Jul 20th 2007 10:37AM
@2 and 4
Agreed. If a player goes to mount up, they drop the flag. How is accepting a summon any different than that? Wouldn't that just be the same if-then statement as the one used for mounting up while holding the flag.
@10
Don't even start. No one is going to have any sympathy because they 'nerfed' locks. Please. Blizzard could take the nerf back to locks for real and they'd probably still come out of it overpowered compared to other classes. If you're going to cry about it, go somewhere else.
Well, at least now I won't have to listen to the 1 or 2 lazy players in AV repeatedly beg for a summons because they're too lazy to ride to Drek'thar, or unwilling to ghost walk it.
Rihahn Jul 20th 2007 10:46AM
That's brilliant! Summon the flag carrier... Why do I never think of these things?
ben1778 Jul 20th 2007 11:03AM
Even though there is no more summoning in the BGs, there will still be people who fall for the old, "Please help me summon my friend into this AV" trick before the game starts and just throwing up a portal instead of a summon and shooting right-clicker-ers back to a starting city.
Shadowisp Jul 20th 2007 11:21AM
L60 Druid in Speed Armor, hundreds of WSGs, 1000s of flag runs.... WTF Why didnt I think of using damn summon.
Never seen it used ever. Cant believe I didnt consider that. Would of also made it easier to defend the flag room if the Lock is already there.
I so wanted to try that now *cry*
Coherent Jul 20th 2007 1:20PM
This is an incredibly stupid and lazy way to fix this problem. Why not simply change it so that accepting a summon causes you to automatically drop the flag?
But noooo, they need to completely remove a class ability in the battlegrounds instead. GG blizz.
Mark Jindra Jul 20th 2007 1:43PM
This was an issue more than a year ago, I remember summoning a stealthed rogue that would drop down and grab the flag and then accept the summon. And they changed it so locks can't summon while in combat. That change also screwed us in non pvp situations but thats another issue altogether.
The real issue is that based on the way the game is played it is NOT an exploit to do this. It is merely a tactic that blizzard does not want being used. So they ban it everywhere.
I will agree its a cheap tactic and should be banned in WSG but because of its cost and the existing limits I think they should not remove it in AV.
Just my 2 copper worth
--V
SaudiGamer Jul 20th 2007 3:57PM
So much for going all the way north in AV with 2 other guys and summoning people :(
Verit Jul 22nd 2007 3:27PM
I don't consider it an exploit (speaking as a warlock) simply because different classes/races have different advantages in bg. Someone pointed out most all Druid bg/arena gear gives a pretty massive speed boost in cat/travel form - is that unfair/exploit?
Fact is you'd have to have a reasonably coordinated team to pull off a summon in any bg. It takes 2 to summon and someone with the flag - thats 4 people to play nice. If you can pull all that off - especially in a pug I think you deserve the win.
For #10 - yeah I will start. Fear is so nerfed right now, that I'm lucky if get 2-5 seconds with damage. A comparable example would be like the priest/pally bubble breaking randomly if you did any heals on yourself.