World of Warcraft®

01/28/2011 11:53 AMPosted by Westfire

I haven't read this whole thread so it may have been mentioned already but upon exploring outland the other day I found a port to orgrimmar out by the dark portal on outland side.

I don't think those are usable, unless that's changed too.

I hearth in UC, hit the orb to get to SMC. Hit Blasted Land port in Magic Quarter then Dark Portal then Org port to visit Kalimdor. For trips to Dalaran, I use my AT Tabard. But! My BElf hunter with Aldor rep could not use any of Dalaran AH NPCs in early Jan, all the Dalaran AH NPCs were hostile to her.

You can buy a Kirin Tor ring for a free port to Dalaran.
And finish the Ashsworn questline for a free port to Outland.
If you are an engineer there are all sorts of ports that you can make and if you're an Scribe you can always use a low level teleport scroll to go back to azeroth (where you end up is anyone's guess)
Also there is a portal from both Shatt and Dalaran to the Caverns of time and a portal from Sholazar Basin to/from Un'goro Crater and a portal from Shatt to the Sunwell Area.

I have a mage and frankly I am getting rather tired of having to port someone every time I show up in a city to do a daily or something else. If I was going to have to do some much porting Blizzard should have least removed having to use reagents. I find myself having to waste bag space to port everyones butt around the world. Also, most people don't even have the decency to give a tip without having to ask for one. I have gotten to the point I have to demand a tip up front before I even pop a portal now, I find that very sad I have to do that now.

You don't have to port anyone. If you don't want to or are busy with something else, don't.

Well that is easy for you to say being a DK. I frankly am not that type of person to leave someone stranded in Dal with one one else to get them out of there. I am really not trying to QQ about this, but frankly I am getting tired of doing Blizzards job for them, because they are to lazy to program a portal to either Shattrath or Dal from Org or Stormwind.

01/28/2011 12:48 PMPosted by Sváfa

There were only two reasons for leaving Dalaran in WotLK: to visit the auction house or a trainer.

Sorry. That statement is patently false, and an absolutist view that discounts other legitimate reasons, which are many. By a single example, farming, it destroys that argument, and that is besides the point that the decision to remove portals hasn't improved a thing worth mentioning.

I also spent many hours exploring, and distinctly remember running into other players throughout Azeroth then, which are now almost completely dead since the change took place. That's not an accident, and probably one of the many contributing factors that have chased some away.

Lastly, should Blizzard pride itself on making sour what many thought was sweet? If that's how they rationalize changes, then they're in deeper than I thought....

The portals aren't really necessary once you open the cata ports....set your hearth to deepholm...hearth, go to SWC...not hard ...take the portal back to badlands for outlands..

*shrug* Seems pretty easy to me.

"we don't want it to be easier to farm" is just as stupid a reason to take portals OUT as "I want portals to farm" is as a reason to put portals IN

if you're doing it deliberately to make the game more of a pain in the ass say so, so we can make our own decisions about what (if anything) to do about it. don't be cutesy about it, and don't pretend that wanting to farm is a bad reason to want portals.

i want portals back so i can easily get from one city to the next for various reasons including e.g. world events, going through old instances, etc. it's a pain to get from one continent to another without portals, don't try to pretend it isn't. we had access to much faster transport for two expansions and now we don't any longer. quite frankly i'm sick of boats and i think they're a stupid way to handle transition between zones. you want to know the reason why everyone loved captain placeholder? because waiting for boats was then and is now a pointless timewaster, just like meandering gryphon paths. you've removed meandering gryphon paths to a certain extent with the introduction of old-world flying but you've regressed and stuck us with boats again.

Don't worry, next time you level through old world will be infinitely worse, as you're led by the nose everywhere, have no choice in anything you do within a zone, find absolutely no challenge even on brand new servers, and ultimately wind up feeling like a spectator to the story rather than a participant.

01/28/2011 1:36 PMPosted by Bashiok

That's nice that trainers and auction houses are in those cities now, as they should have been all along; but that presupposes that the primary reason players used portals was for those two things, when that is not the case.

Listen here city slicker, ridin' into town with yer silver tongue ready to make ginger water flow from the wells! I reckon you got them words from the back of a soap box cause I ain't never herd them afore, and I ain't never seen soap neither! HEE HEEEE!!

<3

01/28/2011 12:02 PMPosted by Arcamedes

I have said it elsewhere and will say it here as well: removing the portals was not a wise decision because it disregarded how game flow is being utilized by a significant portion of the vast variety of players, and especially players who frequently farm for herbs, skins and ore that are not available in other places.

That's not a bad thing. We should have portals so people who want to farm up materials can do so more easily? No, that's ok.

It's quite possible to get around the inconvenience factor by mailing your stuff to a bank alt, or by paying an additional monthly fee for WoW Remote. Making changes to discourage doing it the old-fashioned way without mules or extra fees isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not necessarily a good thing either.

01/28/2011 12:02 PMPosted by Arcamedes

It doesn't even take into account that some opt to switch crafts, which are now even more time consuming than ever because of the convenience having been taken away, and how I'm not likely to help someone lower in level when getting there is arduous.

I don't understand your meaning. So you're 85 and decide to drop something and pick up herbing. You herb up to skill level with the Azeroth 1-60 areas, head into outland and herb there, fly out and head up to Northrend, herb there, then hit Stormwind/Org for portals to Cataclysm areas.

Are you saying the single flight to the dark portal, and then the single flight back out to a boat ride to Northrend is arduous?

You're assuming people will grind this out in one long play session instead of gradually over time, while keeping up with dailies and the other activities of a level 85. It's not arduous, but there is additional travel time associated with running back and forth between areas that the portals used to help mitigate, but don't anymore.

01/28/2011 12:02 PMPosted by Arcamedes

What's more, nothing prevents anyone who wants to from taking the "scenic" route if they wish to do so; but when this impedes many others ---for no justifiable reason when considered in its proper context--- it does nothing to reinforce what used to be reasonable and fun.

I may not be a smart man but... wuh?

I don't really think portal removal was intended this way, but... in my opinion, it's unethical to demand that other players be negatively affected to enhance your own play experience. There were other reasons for removing portals, but at least to some degree it was seen as the demands of some players for "immersion" negatively affecting the ability of other players to travel around the world of Warcraft.

01/28/2011 12:02 PMPosted by Arcamedes

Now we have lag-choked cities and nearly empty ones, an unequal compromise and sad situation, to say the least.

*Now* we do? That has always been the case sir.

One of the selling points of portal removal was to get people out of Dalaran. It worked, but those people all moved to Stormwind and Orgrimmar instead. For people who were expecting it to revitalize the other capital cities or get people out in the world, it didn't really work out the way they were expecting.

01/28/2011 12:02 PMPosted by Arcamedes

It doesn't even take into account that some opt to switch crafts, which are now even more time consuming than ever because of the convenience having been taken away, and how I'm not likely to help someone lower in level when getting there is arduous.

I don't understand your meaning. So you're 85 and decide to drop something and pick up herbing. You herb up to skill level with the Azeroth 1-60 areas, head into outland and herb there, fly out and head up to Northrend, herb there, then hit Stormwind/Org for portals to Cataclysm areas.

Are you saying the single flight to the dark portal, and then the single flight back out to a boat ride to Northrend is arduous?[/quote]

That's not it at all. I may have time to farm for an hour, or less, depending on what else is going on, or how much tediousness I can stand. Having quicker access to key areas, therefore, makes it much easier to switch gears as often as I'd like. What you mention really only applies to a single run all the way through, not to multiple return visits that are necessary from time to time to refresh vital supplies.

[/quote]

*Now* we do? That has always been the case sir.[/quote]

Not to the same degree. I was born at night, but not last night, and the congestion now is much more noticeable (i.e., painfully obvious) in comparison to the way it was before. Having more in the capitol cities is to be expected, but there's a distinct difference between what was little to no lag then and much for many --and I'm not using that as justification for myself because that isn't a problem for me personally. What is, is the lopsided distribution of players now that reduce and diminish the playing experience of the past that worked out very well for the most part.

Guilds are suppose to be a big part of this expansion. I realize that there are not alot of group quests in Outlands that cannot be soloed but having the portals would actually speed up the process of being able to help guildies. If someone asked in guild chat for help in Outlands, how many people do you think volunteer to take at least 20 mins of just travel time to get there and back?

I'm not in a guild now but have had people ask me to help them in Outlands when I was in a guild and I could not since I was only playing for 30 or 45 mins in that session. If the portals were there I could have easily went to Nagrand and helped kill Grull (I believe it was him).