I have portals, I know things
by Amanda Rivera 
May 5th 2007 at 5:15PM
The other day I was helping a guildie with their mage as they reached 20. Thus began the long journey to collect teleportation training from around Azeroth. Something he said along the way stuck with me though. He mentioned that he hardly sees people asking for portals to Darnassus now. I thought about it, and would have to agree. I seem to sell as many ports to Darnassus as I sell to the Exodar. The cities are so closely linked, it's fairly easy to hop on a boat and be anywhere on Kalimdor that you need to be.
Why then the great level difference in the training? The portal to Darnassus still remains a spell you can train in at level 50, while the portal to the Exodar is a level 40 spell. This goes for the teleport spells as well, since the level for Darnassus is 30, while all the others are available at level 20. So in essence, all that bouncing around the continent starts ten levels sooner. I imagine that initially the portal to Darnassus was level 50 because it represents a greater magical achievement. You are now transporting a group across the ocean. Does the Exodar require less skill to use? You are still transporting people across the Great Sea. Wouldn't it in fact require more skill, seeing as how we have had a longer history with the Night Elves than we have with the Draenei? I am thinking that the developers might want to take a look at the level requirements for the portals. The initial level requirements seemed to support the lore. The training, as it stands currently, does not.
A possible explanation is that Night Elves shun arcane magic. However, they do accept the portal trainer within their city, so this argument doesn't seem to work for me. If they let that first mage in there to create the portals in the first place, why would it be more difficult for other mages to do so? Is there some sort of other explanation that I'm missing as to why there is such a level discrepancy with both the teleport and the portal spells to Darnassus?
Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kuzarron May 5th 2007 6:16PM
It's because Darnassus and Thunderbluff are the only cities that are not home to mages. Thus a greater magical skill is required to be able to teleport/portal to those cities. (i.e. Night Elves and Tauren cannot be mages)
Orgrimmar: Trolls
Undercity: Undead
Silvermoon: Blood Elves
Stormwind: Humans
Ironforge: Gnomes
Exodar: Draenei
Hellbena May 5th 2007 6:19PM
Playing horde, we don't quite have the whole wait till 30/50 to go trans-continental excuse, but to teleport or portal to Thunder Bluff is what we get. So here's my theroy on the whole thing:
The residence of Darnassus and Thunder Bluff cannot be mages, so they have to hire out portal specialists so there is someone waiting on the receiving end of the portals to said cities. And the hired portal specialists are somewhat disgruntle, so they pick on any up and coming mages that actually do more useful things than open portals all day and make them wait more than the regular portal specialists.
Amanda Rivera May 5th 2007 6:28PM
Hellbena,
I give you marks for originality. And seeing as how mages have never been the sort to pass up the opportunity to pass on some frustration to others, it's entirely plausible. Plus, it just plain makes me smile.
oshin May 5th 2007 6:54PM
I thought for a minute you were going to mention how shattrah`s portals have made the practice of selling portals to people in cities less common.
ErsatzPotato May 6th 2007 2:46AM
Twist up however you'd like to find a lore explanation but it's simple game mechanics and misguided design. Darn was on the other continent, more difficult to reach (and no Alliance mages started there) so it had a premium. Exodar is easier because it is a start city and they intended it as the new Alliance hub.
The Exodar? really? does anyone go there after 20 unless their computer can't handle IF's load? Yay for difficult to navigate "cool" cities. While we're at it, reclassify non-epic flying mounts as Shat Assistance Devices.
ErsatzPotato May 6th 2007 2:46AM
Forgot to add in my previous post: my mage main can assure you that porting after BC is far, far more profitable than it was before BC. There's more cash sloshing around and people actually tip (I only ask for cost covered), unlike dealing with new players' night elves.
Oddly, many players--even experienced ones--think they need a warlock to get to Outlands. Sure, a 'lock can summon your straight to HH, but good luck finding one standing there with a couple friends and a shard. Spam for a mage instead and corpse run to Temple in Hellfire. Heck, probably will only die once, to the ravagers, no matter the level.
Laukidh May 6th 2007 12:09PM
@6. Just did that on my 40 warrior (first toon, now a bank alt). I died at the hellfire border, rezzed at falcon watch, and for some reason found that I had the fp to thrallmar and the dark portal... went WAY easier than I thought it would.