(Retail) Enhancement: Removing the Functionality of Meeting Stones

[Augmentation-rexxar]

Synopsis

A proposal, to remove the summoning functionality of meeting stones in World of Warcraft (Retail), and replacing the functionality with other quality of life (QoL) improvements.

Note: This proposal is very subjective and based on my personal experience over 16 years with WoW.
So a constructive discussion is very welcome.

Abbreviations / Aliases

WoW - World of Warcraft
Blizz - Blizzard Entertainment (Company)

Vanilla - (The first published version of World of Warcraft)
TBC or BC - The Burning Crusade (Expansion #1)
WotLK - Wrath of the Lich King (Expansion #2)
Cata - Cataclysm (Expansion #3)
MoP - Mists of Pandaria (Expansion #4)
WoD - Warlords of Draenor (Expansion #5)
Legion - Legion (Expansion #6)
BfA - Battle for Azeroth (Expansion #7)
SL - Shadowlands (Expansion #8)
DF - Dragonflight (Expansion #9)

cd/CD - Cooldown
hs/HS - Heart Stone or Health Stone (depends on context)
fp/FP - Flight Point
LFG - Looking For Group
AH - Auction House
Randoms - Players that are stranger to you, or you never played with
spec - Class Specialisation
cr - Combat Resurrection

irl/IRL - In Real Life
afk/AFK - Away From Keyboard
QoL - Quality of Life (A feature that improves the gameplay)
OP - Original Post (Author of a post)

WoW Timeline⁽¹⁾

About me

I began playing WoW in 2007, when TBC released, since then I always enjoyed to run dungeons.
That enthusiasm stepped up in 2012, as Blizzard introduced “Challenge Modes” in MoP and improved the system to todays “Mythic+ Dungeons”.
I can’t estimate how many cumulative hours and key/mouse strokes I spend, to get to dungeons, or summoning my team mates (or being summoned). But I know, it must be a very big number after 16 years!

Topics

1. The Issue
   1. Current state
   2. History
   3. Mentality
   4. Pre-Cata vs Today
      1. Flight Points
      2. Location of main gathering points (in past and current expansions)
      3. Flight Speed in DF and post-DF
   5. Portals
   6. Summary
2. A Possible Solution
   1. Solution
   2. Meeting Stones: New Functionality
   3. Warlock: Ritual of Summoning → “Ritual of Serving” or “Ritual of Hell”
   4. Benefits
   5. Downsides

The Issue

Current State

There are session, where you waiting a relative long time, till the group get’s into the dungeon. If one or two players are busy with something or just idling around, it’s not much of a problem. But if only one player made it to the meeting stone, well … .

Right now, we got a mix of five common scenarios:

1. the majority of the group is on their way to the dungeon, the other part is busy with idling, ingame- or irl chores
2. two guys are on their way to the dungeon, but are in different phases (warmode). The other part just afk’ing around somewhere
3. one guy is at the meeting stone, while the rest is somewhere else. And all of them having CD on hs
4. No one is on their way. They’re all idling at the same place
5. No one moves, because they expect, the Warlock can summon them all (just kidding)

Scenario 2-4 is kinda frustrating, because you really feel the lazyness of the group. Although their distance to the dungeon is only 2-5 minutes.
Or you got players querying instantly “sum” or “123” to the group, before even greeting.

But let’s jump in, into more background information, about the history of meeting stones, player mentality, flight paths and more.

History

Imagine me on a rocking chair, with a grey beard and a smoking pipe
Back in Vanilla, the paths to the dungeons/raids where very far. Getting to a dungeon/raid took somewhat between 10 and 20+ minutes (depends if you had a mount).
Because: You couldn’t summon people to dungeons in 2004! The ability to summon players via meeting stones, was introduced in 2005⁽²⁾.

Walking a long way to a dungeon contributed a lot to the immersion, but at some point it get’s boring. And maybe frustrating, because you made the long way for no loot, whiping or canceling the run.

So summoning players was very convenient and saved a lot of time. In Cata, Blizz implemented MASS SUMMONING! → Spell: Have Group, Will Travel
But unfortunately, it was removed pre-MOP. Press F

Summarized, summoning stones made sense in a time span, where traveling fast was a more prestige feature. But summoning changed a lot, which brings me to the players mentality.

Mentality

It’s kinda difficult to talk about players mentality, because it’s very subjective. So I’m trying to point out some observations about the mentality I experienced, in realtion to the history of the summoning stones.
Take this with a grain of salt.

Because of the time investment everybody had to make, to get to the dungeon, the act of summoning was highly valuable. Players made it together to the dungeon, rather letting two people “do the work”.
Most players still value your time for summoning and are thankful, but it is more casual now.

To illustrate this further: Imagine someone went (irl) through the whole process of crafting a necklace for you. This has a much higher value, than pulling it from a vendor machine for 4,-€.

To quote WoW-Wiki⁽²⁾:

“Stone etiquette” also generally assumes the two party members who can arrive fastest (by proximity or mount) should summon others barring obstacles.
It is bad manners to keep the entire party waiting because no one is willing to interrupt their play and head over.

Pre-Cata vs Today

Flight Points

FP’s where less scattered through pre-Cata Azeroth than now.
Both continents received a drastic design change after Cata. You can see, that the same regions got way more fp’s over time.

This is a comparison between the available Alliance fp’s. Classic vs now (DF)

Images⁽³⁾⁽⁴⁾ Edited by OP

The increase of fp’s and optimization of flight routes, enabled a faster travel time to the dungeons/raids.

Location of main gathering points

In Vanilla WoW, Stormwind and Orgrimmar where the more populated areas (I assume!). Both cities are located more to the far left and right part of the continent. Which isn’t optimal regarding travel time.

The newer main gathering points where somewhat more central. For example:

• Shattrath (TBC)
• Dalaran (WotLK)
• Horde/Alliance Shrines (MoP)
• Dalaran (Legion)
• Oribos (SL)
• Valdrakken (DF)

Images⁽³⁾ Edited by OP

Since the cities are in a more central location, it results in shorter travel times from a city to a dungeon/raid.

Flight Speed in DF and post-DF

Going back to another history lesson, so imagine me again with a grey beard, rocker chair and a smoking pipe!

Back in Vanilla, players had to walk till level 40 - except druids, they got a travel form with level 30.
And even if a player hit level 40, it wasn’t guaranteed to get a mount, because it was very expensive. You had to pay for a mount and riding skill! So walking was the only option till a player got enough gold.
Additionally, there where different upgrades regarding the speed of your mount! There was a 60% and 100% variant, you can imagine how expensive and prestige a 100% mount was!

But the mount speed and price changed over the history of WoW. It became more accessible and they bumped up the speed of flying mounts. Plus, you can use a mount at level 20 now.

Here’s an overview of the speed change over time:

G = Ground Speed / F = Flying Speed

1. Vanilla - G: 40% / 100%, F: none
2. TBC - G: 60% / 100%, F: 60% / 280% / 310% ⁽⁵⁾
3. DF - G: 60% / 100%, F: 150% / 310% / 660% / 830% ⁽⁶⁾⁽⁷⁾

Now (DF), we got flight speeds up to 830% (in DF zones) and 660% (in non DF zones)!

Portals

Mages aside, the amount of accessible portals increased. In Shattrath (TBC), there where portals to the capital cities and some key zones. With every expansion, Blizzard added even more portals.
At some point, there are now portal rooms in Stormwind & Orgrimmar. And even more portals in both cities.

The cherry on top: Since Patch 10.2 (DF), there’s another portal room⁽⁸⁾ in Valdrakken, that provides access to dungeons, from the current season.

Edit: as mentioned in the replies, there are even more portals. If a player succeeds a +20 Mythic+ Key , he’s granted a portal spell, that ports him straight in front of the dungeon. I din’t mentioned it initially, because it isn’t accessible to all players.

Summary

To summarize it, we got today:

• Way more flight points with a higher density
• capital cities are located more central on the continent (mostly)
• Mount riding is affordable
• Mount speeds increased drastically
• Higher amount of portals to different key locations and dungeons

A Possible Solution

Solution

As spoiled at the beginning, I would suggest to remove the functionality of summoning stones, on par with the Warlock’s Ritual of Summoning. And replacing their functionalities with other features.

Based on the facts - summarized above - summoning stones are obsolete. Most of the dungeons/raids are currently reachable within 1-5 minutes. For lower levels, the travel time could be about 5-10 minutes, but I bet, the majority uses the LFG tool.

Meeting Stones: New Functionality

Assuming the players adapt to the new paradigma, the dungeon entrance could be a new gathering spot.
This enables the possibility, to shift he summoning stones back to meeting stones. But with new features.
Features:

• Sells buff scrolls, for n $currency
• The $currency drops from dungeons/raids
• access to repair, mail and a basic vendor

Info:

• Scrolls are only usable inside raids/dungeons
• Scrolls affecting only the single player, not the group
• Scrolls are unique to max n items
• Only one type of scroll can be used in the dungeon/raid for n minutes

Available scrolls:

• Scroll of Adaptation: Players receive one missing group buff, based on their spec
• Scroll of Rebirth: If no player with cr is present, this scroll grants one charge of cr
• Scroll of Swiftness: Allows the player to mount up instantly, without cast time and grands a speed buff by n% current movement speed, for n seconds

Warlock: Ritual of Summoning → “Ritual of Serving” or “Ritual of Hell”

Thats a difficult one, because I’m playing Warlock from time to time and I know this is a unique feature. And sometimes the only reason why you get invited to raids, beside hs’. Edit: Removed a judgemental sentence

Ritual of Serving

• Can be summoned by the Warlock himself, without any help of additional players
• Gives the Warlock and the group/raid access to:
  • AH
  • bank
  • repair
  • transmog
  • mail
  • vendor (for profession material)

Ritual of Hell
Creates a gate to hell. Players who enter the gate, are invisible for n seconds or if they outrange the gate by n yards.
While inside hell, waves of demons spawning and attacking all players (not tauntable).
Slaying all foes in n seconds, summons the Gatekeeper (tauntable).

After the Gatekeepers death, all players getting visible and are granted a buff to their primary stat by n%, cast/attack/movement speed by n% and a shield for n seconds by n% of their max. health.

Infos:

• Players, who entered hell, can not use the gate again for n minutes.
• cast/attack speed buff doesn’t stack with effects like bloodlust
• Needs the Warlock and one player to summon

If used inside a raid:

• players doesn’t get invisible
• enemys from hell are tauntable and favoring dps players

Benefits

1. Lower “Time-To-Dungeon/Raid”, because if everyone knows there’s no summoning possible, they have to make their way
2. QoL improvements inside raids/dungeons

Downsides

1. Maybe more wait time in raids. Because the whole raid has to wait, till the new guy makes his way from the beginning of the raid → could be solved with additional waypoints inside the raid
2. Temporary agitation, because a base feature gets removed

Sources

⁽¹⁾ https://gamerant.com/world-of-warcraft-every-expansion-chronological-order/#mists-of-pandaria-2012

⁽²⁾ https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Meeting_Stone#:~:text=0%20(07-Mar-2005)%3A%20Meeting%20Stones%20added.

⁽³⁾ https://www.wowhead.com/guide/transportation#flightpaths-kalimdor

⁽⁴⁾ https://www.wowhead.com/classic/guide/wow-classic-flight-points-zeppelins-boats-travel#wow-classic-alliance-flight-points-in-kalimdor

⁽⁵⁾ https://legacy-wow.com/tbc-burning-crusade-classic-mount-cost-and-level-requirements/

⁽⁶⁾ https://www.wowhead.com/skill=762/riding

⁽⁷⁾ https://gamerant.com/world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-dynamic-flying-speed-limit/

⁽⁸⁾ https://www.wowhead.com/news/new-mythic-portal-room-in-dragonflight-season-3-336128

[Eliquís-silvermoon]

@Augmentation-rexxar

there’s no summoning possible,

So you want to take away also a baseline warlock spell they have had since vanilla?

@Augmentation-rexxar

sometimes the only reason why you get invited to raids, beside hs’.

They do amazing dps and offer more then summon and hp stones a lot more.

@Augmentation-rexxar

olution

As spoiled at the beginning, I would suggest to remove the functionality of summoning stones, on par with the Warlock’s Ritual of Summoning. And replacing their functionalities with other features.

Based on the facts - summarized above - summoning stones are obsolete. Most of the du

its a real none issue atm due to the fact in valdrakan there is a portal room to each dungeon and players get there own portals at timing 20s.

Edit

You gave great info but i really do think there are more issues with greater needed then summon stones.

[Cystem-frostmane]

I’m quite busy with things at the moment and not an answer to your rather large set of proposals, just thought I’d give you a high five on the sheer determination and effort you’ve put in here. Quite impressive!

[Augmentation-rexxar]

@Eliquís-silvermoon

So you want to take away also a baseline warlock spell they have had since vanilla?

Yes, and this isn’t the first time something like that happenend. Look at the evolution of survival hunters.

@Eliquís-silvermoon

They do amazing dps and offer more then summon and hp stones a lot more.

You’re right, I gonna strikethrough that sentence. I meant it in a more humoristic way, but I guess it could be interpreted wrong.

@Eliquís-silvermoon

its a real none issue atm due to the fact in valdrakan there is a portal room to each dungeon and players get there own portals at timing 20s.

Yeah, thats one argument for removing the summoning functionality. We got already so much possibilities to reach dungeons/raids.

I didn’t mentioned the M+ portal rewards, because they are not accessible to every player.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Chronormi-outland]

I don’t think summoning stones are bad, they just help people get there faster. Since we have portals to M+ dungeons, if half the group is too lazy to enter a portal and fly there while the other half is too lazy to summon I leave because that’s a red flag.

Sometimes though people are just in the middle of nowhere without HS cooldown and summoning them speeds up things.

@Augmentation-rexxar

DF - G: 60% / 100%, F: 150% / 310% / 660% / 830%

BTW I’m nitpicking here but the wowhead article is wrong. Old world dynamic flight will be “644%” (technically 744% but for people like to reference the speed increase and not the total speed). They got it wrong because they applied the 20% reduction only to the speed bonus and not to the total speed.

I verified it on PTR with a speed measuring addon.

[Warlóór-steamwheedle-cartel]

@Eliquís-silvermoon

You gave great info but i really do think there are more issues with greater needed then summon stones.

Like augmentation being basically required in high keys

[Falsejaina-ragnaros]

I’m only for removing stones at dungeons, for locks - NO, unless you give some cool buff if you have warlock, similar to mage buff. Oh well, maybe remove mage teleports too then lol

[Ishayo-tarren-mill]

While I am extremely impressed, I’m afraid the forums don’t usually receive literal scientific papers for a reason: People don’t want to spend the time to read such a long text.

As for me, I think the problems you highlight are real, but the solution of having no summons to deal with people idling, having chores, or HS being on CD obviously aren’t solutions to those problems. You say so, but their HS will still be on CD and they will still have chores.

We don’t need vendors just outside the instance either - we already have those in the form of our mounts.

All I want is for the summoning stone to be moved inside the dungeon so Warmode doesn’t mess with us. Really simple.

[Furyeclipser-stormscale]

I simply kick players who are afking in Valdrakken.