Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Let's Talk About Portals!


I want to bring back up the discussion about portals in Cataclysm (and I promise I will make NO Portal references in this post! /pinky swear). Remember when Blizzard announced the removal of city portals and everyone lost it? People started complaining and got out their sandwich boards and started screaming the sky is falling. Those were fun times. Then Cataclysm hit and we were introduced to our new portals that would take us to each of the new zones once we got through a certain point of questing in that zone. I haven't really seen anyone bring up these portals in comparison to the old ones. What do I think of the new portals? I love them more than the old ones.

I guess I can see a problem with alts and them not being able to travel as easily, but why is that necessary? The game doesn't require you to travel across the continents, especially with the new questing and zone design. I'm trying to stay as unbiased as I can be on this topic (because I hate alts and don't play them) but I really don't see how this hinders playing alts that much.

Compared to the city portals, these new zone portals seem way more important. I mean really, when's the last time you went to the Exodar (if you're Alliance). If anything you only went there to get closer to one part of the world. Which is now done easier with the convenient and much better decorated portals we have today.

Let's compare:


As you can tell by the map, before Cataclysm we didn't have that much of a range of where we could go with the old ports. Now we could pretty much take a portal that will put us close to anywhere we need to go. And if you REALLY need to go to Darnassus, just find a mage. I'm sure you'll find one easily. And if you can't find a mage, roll one.

And to all the people who freaked out: I hope you feel silly. These newer portals are way better. I love them. If I could I would marry them and have little portal children with them. That's how much I like them.

And with that we've reached the end of the post, and there were no Portal references. I'm proud of myself, really. I guess you could say this was a triumph.

2 comments:

  1. I didn't understand the whole hoo-ha over the portal decimation myself (and I love alts ^^) because they were unnecessary -- a convenience available for your max level characters to zip to the auction house and then back to the action.

    In some ways, the new portals are more "cheatery!" than the original ones, but I must say, they're darn convenient.

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  2. I feel silly,
    Oh, so silly,
    I feel silly and chilly and light!
    And I pity
    Any alt who isn't me tonight.

    I was one of the people who QQ'd about the portals being gone, but I got over it quickly.
    http://aboyandhisdeathrays.blogspot.com/2010/11/shattered-patch-403a.html

    Any of my 80's bought a Ring of Kirin Tor for easy porting to Dalaran, and all the rest are in Orgrimmar or Stormwind, leveling up slowly just by doing the cooking and fishing dailies. It's an easy way of advancing them when I don't feel inclined to go out questing, plus it's a gradual bonus to their skills.

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