Rearranging and Removing Portals

Community General Discussion
1519

As I stated in the other thread, you seem to be under the misconception that removing these portals will somehow increase player engagement with the world, rather than end it completely. Because that’s the actual outcome of this. Without the ease to move about the world they once had, people will feel discouraged from going out into it. They will stop doing the things they did before in the game and, eventually, may even stop playing the game itself as it has lost its value to them.

You know what I remember from vanilla? Back when there weren’t any portals? Ironforge. I remember A LOT of Ironforge. Because that’s where I spent most of my time. That’s where most Alliance spent their time. It’s where the auction house was and it was the most convenient capital city to the vanilla raids. I would not call us engaged with the world back then.

I also remember the dire need for warlocks in a group. Good luck getting anyone to join your run without a warlock to summon them. (I mean, yes, people would be it made it far, far easier). To support my guild’s second raid group, I was asked to bring my THEN LEVEL 55 warlock to Molten Core just so they could have the summons and fort buff. That’s all she was there for, to make the traveling more convenient because it was necessary to get things going. (She walked out of that run with 7/8 felheart, btw. Fun memory… still don’t have the chest.)

Before Legion I hardly ever did the Greench. Flying there from Ironforge, even in my flight form, was super frustrating (mostly due to the altitudes and the ceiling in the sky). When Legion added the Dalaran Crater portal (Which, I want to add in here, is not a portal Mages can create for others) I was suddenly doing it on all my characters. It got me out there, it got me engaged with the world and the content. Now you want to take that away and I’m back to just ignoring it.

Ignoring it, ignoring the world, ignoring your game.

Why not actually put things out in the world if you want people to go out and experience it? You know the best thing - BY FAR - the best thing you guys have done lately have been those secrets and riddles. Why not… do more of that, instead? Spread all over the world. Various ones of varying difficulties and rewards to get people into exploring the world.

And wow I just realized how annoying some of those are going to be now without the ports.

And also, another thing… why Azusa? Why Jade forest? There’s no sense there. By moving the portal to the Jade Forest, you are moving it AWAY from all the content aside from the timeless isle. And from a lore standpoint, why would the Alliance and the Horde maintain a portal there instead of the shrines? Azusa, meanwhile, feels almost jokingly random in its choice. Did you not want to have two portals to Dalaran in the same room? Were you worried that players would get confused (like about pvp vendors) and take the wrong one? Because that’s still going to happen. People will still take that Dalaran portal at first not knowing it goes to Northrend. And if you really were concerned about two Dalaran portals, why not make the Northrend one go to Dragonrest?

I’m getting… aggressive here, and I really don’t mean to. I’m not really that kind of guy. But I can’t take this anymore, Blizzard. It’s just one thing after another after another these days.

To those of you in this thread who are thinking of trying out FFXIV, I recommend it as someone who plays both games. Perhaps more actual market competition will drive Blizzard to make better changes for this world. If anyone wants it, here’s a friend referral code from me, it’ll get you some useful stuff to help you on your way:

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As for this whole… debacle, I don’t expect them to change. If they do do anything, it will be minor and barely address anything (“Mages can now open portals to Dalaran crater!”). The only time I’ve ever seen Blizzard, or at least this new Blizzard, go back on something was when they wanted to have us use our real names in the forums. It’s sad the way things have gotten… I’ve lost a lot this past year, I didn’t want to lose WoW too…

9 Likes
1520

You just complained about the additional time to get to kara and CoT earlier. There is 2 mins of additional travel time to CoT via Uldum. 1 min of extra travel time to kara via Blasted Lands. Are those 3 mins a week really cutting into your life?

1521

I’m going to stop repling to you your not getting it.

1 Like
1522

Why does someone’s preference bother you? Something about wow being “too casual” or something? Either way, we all play the game in different ways.

5 Likes
1523

We have a very efficient process in place for the farming. It is highly annoying that that time is now going to be extended for no good reason. And I wouldn’t say that the removal of portals are the straw that broke the camels back, it is yet another symptom of a company that is out of touch with their consumer base.

3 Likes
1524

It is all about PLAYER OPTIONS>

NOT EVERYONE PLAYS THE SAME.

yOu WANT SLOW DOESN’T MEAN I WANT TO.

Like I said you can rp walk everywhere but that doesn’t mean I want to.

4 Likes
1525

As I’ve stated. I feel there are too many portals in the game as is, and the blue post hits right on the money of why its better to remove them. We do play the game in different ways, and we’re all blizzard subs. I can post my opinion on the matter just like you can.

1526

what kind of person you have to be to defend this kind of QoL change removal that doesnt affect you in any what whatsoever? :roll_eyes:

report for trolling and move on.

4 Likes
1527

Oh,i see .You haven’t played much of the older content and you are here saying it nothing for others to fly or mount to these places.

2 Likes
1528

Why would you remove portals from zones like WoD or Legion where players returning to the game or haven’t done the Pathfinder achivies will have a super inconvenient way of travel? MoP is annoying because the portal is in Jade Forest, but it’s workable because flying. In WoD, to get to the other end of the continent, you need to either have Pathfinder or be prepared to do a maze-like path. In Legion, you have to do something similar, with Highmountain being the offender to get through.

But hey. I guess everyone should be expected to roll Druids and Mages. Screw the other classes that exist, right?

2 Likes
1529

I really like and agree with your post, but I want to clarify something here:

Ancient Tome of Portal: Dalaran has existed since Mists of Pandaria (5.0.4). The teleport version was acquired by running Scarlet Monastery (there’s a flame boss at the end of the correct wing) and not letting the boss burn the book shelf the book is on. Loot it, and you can teleport to Dalaran Crater.

Then, there’s an NPC in Dalaran (Northrend and Legion) who sells an Ancient Tome of Portal: Dalaran, which enables you to make portals for your group.

I know this because I was a snarky little mage who liked to use that portal on occasion instead of the requested portal (for my friends only, not for strangers who were paying me). They’d appear in the air and drop to their deaths, and I thought it was hilarious. I did go with them and make a portal to where they wanted to go after, though (plus a little gold for repairs in good spirits).

So, mages can make that particular portal, and have been able to since MoP. It wasn’t invented in Legion. That’s the only flaw in your post that I can see. I wouldn’t mind if we could make a Caverns of Time portal, too…

2 Likes
1530

For me, every minute counts when it comes to getting to an instance that has a rare drop that people want to farm or there’s an obscure faction to grind in a far off place that when you’re working toward that faction mount achievement. That’s one huge point people are making with the negative feedback. Another point that’s being made comes down to saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Sure, it would be good if the portals were a little more consolidated (one stop shop for portals place), especially if you’re playing the horde at Orgrimmar, but portals work.

Portals continue to facilitate exploration of older zones that aren’t as popular anymore as they were in their prime. Blizzard keeps saying the want the world to look bigger and feel bigger, but getting rid of the portals doesn’t make it bigger, it makes it smaller because you have less points of contact to explore the bigger world they made. If there’s less time to get from Point A to point B you have more time to do everything including explore, and there’s plenty of collecting and exploring to do at the end game. The whole argument from Blizzard and supporters/trolls that having all of these portals is a mistake is just preposterous and out of touch with what’s happening in the game. What Kaivax says is chaos for having so many choices, I say, “I’m glad there’s this many choices and it’s sensitive to the limited amount of time I have so I can still explore and enjoy it instead of wasting that time going back and forth until I get to where I want to go.” Please don’t take away portals such as Dalaran Crater, Caverns of Time, and Karahazan that make things more convenient for the majority of players that want to use them.

2 Likes
1531

The only portal to Wod (stormshield) will be there. You also get a garrison hearthstone. Dal in legion you have a Dalaran hearthstone.

1532

The world is already huge and that is the reason why we need the portals. We don’t get portals to every zone do we? So having some portals to key zones can make life easier for most people.

So you actually want to inconvenience players? Is that it? By making travel longer? How is having a convenient way of traveling a bad thing?

Ok first of all, explain how you can interact with someone during a flight path? Also players rarely interact when manually flying to locations because they’re either auto-flying or because the world’s so big the likeliness of bumping into someone mid-flight is very slim. So how do you encourage interaction between players this way?

If you want players to interact with other players just look at the Legion Dalaran. Legion Dalaran can be seen as a second hub because there are always players there. And when there are a lot of players in an area they can interact.

The reason why there are always players in Dalaran is because Dalaran is so well connected with portals to other zones. I assure you, when you remove those portals you won’t be seeing much players in Dalaran anymore.

So in truth, you’re actually discouraging interaction between players in these unconnected zones. Zones that are well connected will always be the ones more likely to have more players in them and therefore promote player interaction.

12 Likes
1533

So this is you guys just putting your fingers in your ears and going: IM NOT LISTENING.

Caverns of time is one big issue, and No Uldum’s portal is not the solution you have to travel almost 2 zones to get where the old portal was.

Honestly, and this point, its not so much as to removing some portals and creatign others, to go to the some continent but in obscure places no one would want to go to. But you’re clearly not listening to the majority, and there are 5k+ reasons as to why.

7 Likes
1534

Even if you did, mages don’t exist to serve us. I shouldn’t have to beg people who are busy doing other things to get me to Dragon Soul. I often see people sitting in trade chat for a long time asking for mage ports with no luck… mages don’t port people… they just don’t.

4 Likes
1535

The travel time from the middle of Ramkahen (where the Uldum port drops you) to the spot the caverns of time portal drops you is 2 mins.

1536

OK. So for Alliance, my garrison is on the other side of the continent. Apparently for Horde it’s up in Frostfire. So can you please explain to me how the Garrison Hearthstone nullifies having to do some kind of weird labyrinthine path throughout an entire continent? Cannot comment on Legion.

1537

I’ll admit, I do on my mage, but I also request a tip if I have to travel to you. Not so much because it costs me anything in money, but it costs me time that I might have been doing something else.

That said, mages don’t exist to serve, you’re correct. I don’t want to be inundated with requests to go places. I’m not always interested in going out of my way for that. Sure if I’m just sitting in a city it’s not so bad, but what if I get a random whisper in a zone “Can I get a port to X?!” which does happen (though rarely, with all the portals right now).

That said, I was only clarifying that mages can make that portal. Not that they should have to! I just like to make sure that people know it’s there if they have a mage (not every mage knows they can get it, and not everyone posts on their mage alt they may or may not have).

2 Likes
1538

2 mins 40 secs… don’t try to make it seem shorter