Rearranging and Removing Portals

[Eristra-moon-guard]

The more I think about it, the funnier it is that the city of magic and wizards, which actually has a dedicated portal room, is getting its portals removed. Like come on, really?

[anon23092290]

Yeah makes no sense. a dedicated portal room in a city of magic with no portals.

[Hippyvan-misha]

Such bull crap! Who has ever said, "Oh I wish I could spend more time traveling from point A to point B. Thank you for giving us time to AFK while on the flight paths so we can do Laundry or whatever I guess…

[Pyromor-shandris (Pyromor)]

And for those that worked the night before Zzzz…

[Elfina-deathwing]

What about mage portals? Will mages still be able to create portals to locations that blizzard removed access to?

[anon23092290]

Be glad if it isn’t there that it isn’t there otherwise you will be spammed with port requests non stop.

[Atalanta-trollbane (Atalanta)]

What about mage portals? Will mages still be able to create portals to locations that blizzard removed access to?

I doubt it, honestly.

Mages can teleport and make portals to Dalaran Crater, but not the other ones. They’ve been able to do that since before Legion introduced the standing portal to that location.

Caverns of Time could be thematic, of course, and Karazhan could make sense (but there’s a legendary staff with that effect, so I doubt they’d want to infringe on the four remaining people with it).

[Zalathel-tichondrius (Zalathel)]

I would agree with this reason but this is 2019 not 2004.

I feel like myself and many more other players have seen pretty much every inch of the world now again and again and again and again and again and again.

The world itself hasn’t changed. It is static, scripted and unchanging. I cannot go to BC zones or Wrath zones or MOP zones or wherever else and see something that is interesting anymore or different.

I’m not going to be in a MOP zone and something crazy happen. The world is not alive.

At least in my opinion until that changes then this change is utterly pointless and boring.

[Wolfsleigher-kiljaeden (Wolfsleigher)]

I can see it now… you’re exploring Dalaran… you get to see all the beauty of the tall buildings… oh hey that’s the bank… remember that from Wrath? lololol… oh here’s a teleporter that takes me to a different room… and it’s empty? It looks like something SHOULD be here, but nothing is… such engagement. much big world. wow

[Zalathel-tichondrius (Zalathel)]

Also it seems you guys are listening to people who are still living in the past and drowning in their nostalgia.

[Kalyeatrish-blackrock (Kalyeatrish)]

Too many eliminations of the distances between places can diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size.

No, it doesn’t. I can hop on a plane and fly to another continent, but that doesn’t make it feel like that continent is any closer to home. It’s still the same distance away. The same is true in-game. This statement has been proven false, repeatedly, and every change using this as a justification has had disastrous results. If you’re offering it to us again, that just tells us the developers don’t care to learn from their mistakes. That they are prioritizing time spent logged in but afk over engagement with content.

With new expansions, we’ve made a tradition of removing some of the portals from the previous expansion’s cities. The goal with that is to encourage transportation flow through newer places where players are more likely to interact with other players. We neglected to do that initially following Legion (and we never did that following Mists of Pandaria for various reasons), but we feel that we should have. We’re correcting that now.

Once doesn’t really qualify as a tradition. This also doesn’t justify disrupting travel while leveling. Caverns of Time content is relevant to where the portals to it are. They’re part of the leveling through those expansions. A level 70 looking for a Caverns of Time instance isn’t going to take the Uldum portal to get there. They’re too low level for Uldum. They should be taking the portal from Dalaran in Northrend. That’s the relevant zone. You’re going to have to rewrite quests if you’re changing that, otherwise you’re just adding to player confusion.

[Odinval-aerie-peak (Odinval)]

the whole blue is just bullcrap double speak for we want you to spend 3 more mins per location to rack up that time played so we can show our masters that look people are playing 10 mins more a day now f them

[Makiritah-dalaran]

The real question is , do you have that many subs to lose over your portals? I travel all over the old world doing random raids and dungeons . whatever I can get to quickly . Took me years to get my thunder fury because I never wanted to fly there . You might see it as a bit of time added to make the world feel bigger and more immersive . I see it as a reason not to play . I’ve been playing since 2005. Every portal added made it easier and easier to get around . To get to kara was as easy as hearthing to old dal AMD taking the port there . Now what ? Have to take a 10 min flight there? Molten core ? Take a zep.over then another 10 minute flight ? No thank you

[Peishanwei-aerie-peak]

We’ve processed a lot of feedback on this, especially feedback about specific locations that feel like they’re going to become disproportionately inconvenient to reach, and we’ve followed that feedback through to the conclusion that you’re seeing on the PTR. We believe that the numerous remaining means of quick access in the game make most locations quite reachable.

So what are we exactly seeing? Not everyone is currently on the PTR-- So a brief Summary of the changes thus far?

Since I don’t see a direct response to your question elsewhere:

They are creating portal rooms in Stormwind/Orgrimmar
Portals have been removed from MoP except for Stormwind/Orgrimmar
All portals from Legion Dalaran will be removed except for Stormwind/Orgrimmar
Caverns of Time Portals will be removed from Shattrath and Northrend Dalarn
This means that portals for:

1. The Shrines in MoP will only be available to Mages
2. Dalaran Crater will only be available to Mages who have acquired the required item in a dungeon and purchased a limited availability item in Northrend Dalaran.
3. Portals to Caverns of Time and Karazhan will no longer exist anywhere in game.

[Kneeshooter-amanthul (Kneeshooter)]

Boralus and Dazar’alor will continue to offer portals to a full range of capital cities, as well as to Silithus.

Which is fine if your character is of a level high enough to have access to those portals. The Silithus portal should have been placed in Stormwind and available to characters of any level so that it would, to a degree, mitigate the removal of the Caverns of Time portal in (N) Dalaran.

Too many eliminations of the distances between places can diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size.

I understand this reasoning, I just don’t agree it’s valid. Why is removing portals affecting our view of Azeroth? It hasn’t changed, its dimensions (more or less) remain intact. Having a portal in Northrend Dalaran to get us to the location of a number of instances and a means of travelling easily to Tanaris does not affect the game world at all. All it does is save us a little time. Its a pure convenience that has zero impact on the game as a whole.

[Flowermilk-proudmoore]

Wow, just wow. Even after an almost five thousand response thread telling you not to do this, you’re still going through with it anyway? I have no hope or faith left in this game or these devs anymore. Why should anyone bother playing this game anymore if you keep showing us that you don’t even care about the feedback players give anymore?

I have defended the WoW devs before from this kind of criticism, I did not believe they were malicious or doing this kind of stuff on purpose. But this is just the final straw for me, they really genuinely just do not care about player feedback anymore. It’s increasingly apparent now that it’s all about the time played metric, and that’s it. This, the pulling teeth over getting flying back, the time gated rep grinds for new races, etc is all just too much for me anymore.

[Doublehealix-aegwynn]

Bummer, Loss of some of the portals is disheartening. I do play BFA (and Legion - still working the Nightborne area) on a daily basis. But, I am totally caught up on storylines on both sides. When I am done with dailies in that area I often log an alt for leveling or frequent the portals for mount/tmog/pet farming as well. I enjoy the lore of WoW, and it’s art is amazing and is still spectacular. Flying everywhere will be more time consuming, but it’s not going to put a halt to my side-activities. It will be a bit annoying though. I really wish the Legion ones were left intact.

[Peishanwei-aerie-peak]

As we read most everything posted here (and elsewhere) about next week’s content update, we can’t help but be impacted by the subject of transportation portal removal. It’s a subject that’s approaching 5000 replies in one thread alone, and the question raised there, repeatedly, has been, “why?” Here’s the answer to that question.

From the beginnings of World of Warcraft, game designers have had a number of guiding principles. Sometimes these notions change quickly, and sometimes they evolve slowly, but a few guiding principles have remained more or less the same throughout WoW’s history. One such lodestar has been “don’t overuse portals between locations in the world”. Too many eliminations of the distances between places can diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size.

Of course there’s an equal and opposite design consideration—“don’t make it too inconvenient to get from most places to most other places”. Some amount of convenience is vital. Not every visit to a wondrous landscape is your first. We know when it’s your 100th visit, you don’t want the flight over to be the bulk of your time spent. And of course, some players have chosen to play as Warlocks or Mages specifically because those classes offer unique means of transport.

With new expansions, we’ve made a tradition of removing some of the portals from the previous expansion’s cities. The goal with that is to encourage transportation flow through newer places where players are more likely to interact with other players. We neglected to do that initially following Legion (and we never did that following Mists of Pandaria for various reasons), but we feel that we should have. We’re correcting that now.

Boralus and Dazar’alor will continue to offer portals to a full range of capital cities, as well as to Silithus. The portals to Cataclysm zones will remain intact, and many other modes of transportation, such as Dalaran Signet Rings, Karazhan’s ring, the Timeless Isle trinket, Coordination Cloaks, and boats and zeppelins between many regions, will all be retained and functional.

However, we’ve seen how updates to the game can leave the means of accessing different areas feeling increasingly chaotic. For example— today if you go to the Cleft of Shadows in Orgrimmar, you’ll find it dotted with portals in a way that almost looks sporadic. We’re cleaning that up, and we see this as an opportunity to consolidate a lot of travel into a consistent venue with a consistent look and feel, and room for future growth when needed.

We’ve processed a lot of feedback on this, especially feedback about specific locations that feel like they’re going to become disproportionately inconvenient to reach, and we’ve followed that feedback through to the conclusion that you’re seeing on the PTR. We believe that the numerous remaining means of quick access in the game make most locations quite reachable.

If there are any specific locations that feel as though they’re about to become unreasonably inaccessible, we’re certainly open to adding additional means of travel in the future.

Please summarize this current state of the ptr for the class.

You may already have figured this out, but I don’t see any direct replies to your question so here it goes.

They are creating portal rooms in Stormwind/Orgrimmar
Portals have been removed from MoP except for Stormwind/Orgrimmar
All portals from Legion Dalaran will be removed except for Stormwind/Orgrimmar
Caverns of Time Portals will be removed from Shattrath and Northrend Dalarn
This means that portals for:

1. The Shrines in MoP will only be available to Mages
2. Dalaran Crater will only be available to Mages who have acquired the required item in a dungeon and purchased a limited availability item in Northrend Dalaran.
3. Portals to Caverns of Time and Karazhan will no longer exist anywhere in game.

[Captsjw-thrall]

How many subs do you guys need to lose before you stop removing things from the game. This xpac has seen so many things removed, masterlooter, teir sets, so many abilities, pvp vendors, gear swapping in mythic plus, an now portals to old content.

This isnt helping the game.

Stop removing an start expanding.

If you want the world to feel bigger than add to the world dont remove things.

[Odinval-aerie-peak (Odinval)]

They just dont care they laugh at feed back. They do not fin listen they just dont care about the game the way the players want its their game and too hel with everyone else