So Blizzard removed some portals on retail and the community has freaked out on the forums demanding more portals so it’s easier to move around the world.
A blue even made a topic about it.
Classic communities thoughts on this?
I personally think this is a great idea (although I will admit my views are extreme as I wouldn’t mind if they removed almost all of the portals from the game.) The only way you should be able to get a portal is through a mage (ANOTHER player! no npc mages). This forces more positive interaction people real people (as we will see on Classic.)
I asked my friend who plays in a top 50 mythic raiding guild and he didn’t even know it was a thing.
So for there to be more interaction between players, just getting rid of some portals is really not going to cut it. It is the whole game and the players in it that determine if there will be player interaction.
That is to say I think it’s stupid they got rid of these portals.
I’d agree with this ONLY if they hadn’t already created several portal hubs that persisted for years on end.
Otherwise, I’m indifferent and not at all surprised Blizz did this.
![:cocktail:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/cocktail.png?v=6" ":cocktail:")
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Let’s use the example of the Shaman Class Quests for a brief moment.
For a couple of them (Water Totem and Aquatic Form iirc, I didn’t really play Shamans back then but knew folks who did) you had to talk to Person A in Southern Kalimdor, then get something from the Eastern Kingdoms and bring it back to them - only to find out you had to run back and forth between Person A, Person B and a bunch of out-of-the-way locales around three times before you got your new ability. Back then, I don’t remember people complaining about the legwork or the travel times that much because
A. WoW was, even in Vanilla a less hardcore MMO than it’s competitors
B. The redundancy was part of your adventure as a Shaman to grow in power, and it didn’t feel like much of a chore because the focus was on progressing your character and not just skipping straight to endgame PVP and Raiding.
Retail now is an entirely different beast. You now have the ability to pay money to boost any chosen character past all of their trials to near-max level. Questing was streamlined in Cataclysm. Riding is at level 20, and doesn’t cost nearly as much as it did in 2005. Quests (and quest objectives) are all marked on your maps and mobs have been nerfed damage and healthwise so that engaging in leveling content doesn’t require too much attention. There are more flight paths and, as the topic of this thread pertains to, access to portals which have made the entire world less mysterious and vast.
So, in conclusion I think the removal of the portals is a good idea that was too little, too late. Players in retail are used to having the majority of the world accessible within a few minutes of walking and taking two portals. I think Blizzard realized this isn’t the direction they want to take WoW, and I only hope the next step is to include things like transmog and barbers in every city so players aren’t confined to SW and Org.
The modern game has so many conveniences that it’s honestly kind of weird that they would do this.
If they wanted to scale back overall convenience and get back to basics then sure, I’d be all for that.
But it seems like all they’re doing it removing some portals. It’s not really going to make the world feel any bigger unless they do a bunch of other things too.
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What a lot of people miss is that there is a quest chain that goes to all the same places that your water totem quest does, and so you actually get a fair amount of exp for running around like that if you’re attentive.
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Different game, so I apply a completely different mindset. I think this is a bad change. Just like the way the devs have handled flying is atrocious. They don’t design the game to be fun, but tedious…with the potential for fun, behind a wall of arbitrary time limitations and inconveniences. To say there is a disconnect between the devs and the playerbase would be a massive understatement.
Frankly, I’m surprised they’re going this route. I feel like Classic frees them up to make the Current WoW even more…‘casual’, accessible and easy. For those who want a challenge, there’s Classic.
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i find it largely a non issue. it’s going to take an extra what, 2-3 minutes to get to where ever you are going? big deal.
For some, especially people farming on numerous alts, that adds up to a lot of playtime over days/weeks.
and yet, this is still an mmo, a game genre all about putting in time and effort towards obtaining rewards.
In Current WoW that ship sailed long ago. ![:wink:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
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Where it’s warranted sure.
This change didn’t seem as necessary as Blizz made it out to be. Especially in light of the glaring problems they have yet to address.
In my opinion, you should have to take time to travel around the World of Warcraft. There should be remote places, that take time to get to, with reasons to go to them. With max flying skill, it still only takes 5 minutes or less to get anywhere.
and that’s all I have to say about that.
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It was a mistake to remove portals. Retail is a different mindset and it is already an abysmal dumpster fire of a game. The entirety of BfA has been an “expansion” that is doing nothing but constantly REMOVING things from the game. Blizzard is completely out of touch with their current player base and it is only getting worse.
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Blizzard has done this obnoxious portal shuffling thing before and there has been the same outcry. This one is a bit worse IMO because they’re removing portals that have been there for literally years (the MoP and CoT portals) and I’d argue that the CoT portal removal is just kind of petty.
But, Blizzard gonna Blizz, just like they always do. And players will adapt to these arbitrary changes, just like they always do. And I’ll be playing Classic in a few months (hopefully) and not thinking about the latest controversy on modern
riding is at level 1 if you have earned the chauffered hog (from collecting heirlooms i do believe). granted its the only thing you can ride but its still much faster than running on foot.
On the surface. Big deal. So we have 2 less portal places and cleaning up the portal locations in main cities is a great idea. However. You factor in all of the ignored feedback. All of the issues the game currently has. Bad/non-reciprocated communication from blizz across the board and I can see why some are upset.
I’ll say this. I was sitting on the fence about canceling my sub. Even though I seldom play anymore. I cancelled after reading the blue posts concerning portals. Not because of the portals but because they have bad communication across the board. I even cited that and lack of updates on classic specifically. 500 words is not enough.
They haven’t/ won’t communicate on the tough issues but because GD caught fire over this they actually tried engaging the player base and then ran away when their fire fighting tactics didn’t work. It was really pathetic to watch. It was nothing but damage control. Which tells me they are not trying to get better at communication. So I’ll stay snubbed until classic. Live just does not hold my attention anymore and if this is how blizz wants it? Then screw it. Why bother giving feedback if it’s just ignored? Let’s just talk about food and puppies! It’s all these forums are good for.
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Also. This effects old content. Mog, pet, and mount farmers. To an extent levelers but not much. Especially if you have flying. The thing is they are trying to make it sound as though old content is somehow relevant and this will somehow make people go oh wow Azeroth feels big again! It’s already big. Stop making new zones so small. Pur some things in old content that are relevant besides mounts, pets, and mugs. Through some old school mats into new school recipes. Make some quests that send you to the old world. Idk but making old stuff feel bigger? Come on man…
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What’s the name of the first quest in that chain?
i think it was a good idea but too late. said it before, will say it again: once you release content/abilities, nerfing them is always going to result in sub losses. its better to make absolutely sure something is going to work and preserve the game’s quality before releasing it. once its in the wild, it’s too late. the game is too big now. they need to make wow 2, have wow retail players phase into it if they want to, and start everybody off from square 1, then apply what they learned from wow retail, to wow 2.
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