Have Group Will Travel is gone -- now what?
Patch 5.0.4 is the point at which even if you have a group, you can no longer travel. Gone are the days of sending one poor soul to wait at the instance while the raid leader hangs out in Orgrimmar or Stormwind, spamming trade chat for ranged DPSers.
Have Group Will Travel will be removed from the game with this patch, replaced with a boost to flight path speed. For those of you who had gotten used to its presence in the game, what do you do to get to your instances now?
There are a few methods available. Of course you can fly, ride or walk to instances. If you know roughly where you're headed -- for example, Dragon Soul is in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris -- you can hop a flight path to as near as possible to your destination. For Dragon Soul, that is probably Gadgetzan.
And don't forget the portals in Orgrimmar and Stormwind that take you to the Cataclysm zones throughout the world. If you're planning a trip to Kalimdor as an Alliance player, both Mount Hyjal and Uldum are in Kalimdor, one in the north, one in the south. And if you're in Orgrimmar wanting to go to Eastern Kingdoms, you can take the portal to Blasted Lands in the far south or Twilight Highlands in the middle. Sure, they're likely not right where you want to go, but these routes can be far faster than taking zeppelins or boats.
Summoning %T ...
Once you've got a couple of raid members at the instance (or dungeon party members, for that matter), you can use the meeting stone outside the instance to summon the rest of your party. The meeting stone is a large, obelisk-like rock usually found near the instance entrance. To use it, one player targets the party member who is to be summoned, then clicks the stone, generating a portal, and a second player clicks the portal. Summoning stones aren't tied to instance entry, so if you happen upon one while out exploring, you can use it to summon your party whether you're planning to go into the instance or not.
Warlock portals (Ritual of Summoning, to give them their proper name) work just like summoning stones, only you need a warlock of level 42 or higher to create the portal. Once the portal is up, it can be used to summon any party member, including the warlocks themselves. With either the Ritual of Summoning or the meeting stone, the summon's validity period is two minutes. If the player's hearthstone is well-placed, that's plenty of time to hearth back, grab food, drink and the like, then accept the summon to return to the instance.
And of course, if you have recruited a friend, you can summon each other to your locations. All you need to do is make a party, then right-click your friend's portrait and select Summon Friend. Note that this only works with accounts linked by the Recruit-A-Friend service, not any old friend!
Finally, for the next month or so while we're still beating down the dragons in the Caverns of Time, there is a portal in the Violet Citadel in Dalaran to go straight there. It requires no reputation. You're welcome! And if you haven't got a raid member in Dalaran, completing this quest will get you Jaina's Locket, which teleports you to Dalaran.
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
