Have Group, Will Travel

• Have Group, Will Travel
• Unlimited range
• 2 hours cooldown
• 6 sec cast
• Summons all raid or party members to the caster's current location. Cannot be used while in combat, and can only be cast while in the outdoor world or near the entrance of a dungeon or raid.

Have Group, Will Travel was a guild perk granted at guild level 21 that summoned everyone in the raid or party to the summoner's location.

Controversy

The introduction of Have Group, Will Travel brought with it considerable controversy, featuring in numerous threads on the official forums. Some felt that the instant summoning effect of the spell removed most of the necessity for travel, with single players able to summon whole raids without those players even needing to know the way to the raid entrance. It was feared that this would lead to greater centralization of players into cities, causing the rest of the game world to become even less populated and players to lose much of the remaining motivation to explore and experience the world outside of cities and instances. Some considered the perk to be yet another concession to 'casual' gamers, accusing Blizzard of over-simplifying the game and replacing the game world with an endless series of queues. Meanwhile, others welcomed it for its convenience, saving time and trouble spent traveling to locations and making it easier for friends to play together. Its effect upon world PvP was also remarked upon, enabling players to quickly summon several allies to join them in fighting others. This was considered to be useful both for those seeking to attack others, and those seeking to fight back against unexpected attackers, such as when greatly outnumbered or ambushed by higher level characters.

With the release of information regarding the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, it was announced that Have Group, Will Travel would be removed, "because the goal in MoP is to emphasize on going out into the world to do stuff.". In the Mists of Pandaria Press Tour Interview, Tom Chilton stated:

The Have Group, Will Travel was popular because it is one more thing that shrinks the world and allows players to avoid being out in the world. We are trying to put more of an emphasis on players going out into the world to do stuff, so that is one of the ones that we are going to replace with something else.

This announcement sparked numerous threads from those who felt angered and frustrated by this news, with many who had enjoyed the ease and convenience of the perk unhappy to be losing it. The debate regarding its removal mirrored that surrounding its introduction, with similar arguments presented by both sides. Some players proclaimed its removal to herald a return to world PvP and putting players back in touch with the game world, while others bemoaned the change, accusing Blizzard of attempting to deliberately upset or belabor players, either to increase the time it took them to reach max level, or simply to distract them from a perceived lack of end-game content. Both opinions were well-represented on the forums, but in patch 5.0.4 the perk was removed, and replaced by [Ride Like the Wind]. With the removal of Have Group, Will Travel, other summoning options such as warlocks' [Ritual of Summoning], made mostly redundant during the perk's existence, once again became valuable tools.

Notes

This guild perk was not brought back in Cataclysm Classic.

Patch changes

• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Removed.

  Replaced by [Ride Like the Wind].
  

• Hotfix (2011-04-27): Attempting to use the "Have Group, Will Travel" guild perk while the Battle for Tol Barad is in progress will now provide an error that states "You can't use that here." After a battle concludes, the guild perk works as intended and summons party members to the caster's location.
  
• Hotfix (2011-03-29): The guild perk "Have Group, Will Travel" no longer allows players to summon guild mates inside dungeons, raids, Battlegrounds, or Tol Barad when the battle is in progress. It will also not function while the player is on any transport.
  
• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Added.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB