No sanctuary cities in Cataclysm
by Matt Low 
Jan 13th 2010 at 7:00PM
I'll be happier for not having to share city space with Horde players. Actually, now that I think about it, no more "Lagaran!" Perhaps I won't disconnect every once in a while when I fly in to the city during peak hours. For me, I'll be running circles around the Stormwind bank steps. But since Dalaran has portals to all the major cities, it wouldn't surprise me if it continues to be the major transportation hub of choice for players looking to travel around the world.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
SunwellVialist Jan 13th 2010 7:01PM
Shattrath reborn!
It will happen!
...ok, maybe not.
Tyr Jan 13th 2010 7:28PM
I like Dalaran and Shattrath equally, but I'll be putting my hearthstone where I get the least screen lag... hoping it'll be Shattrath, but who knows how many other people will have the same idea.
Mr. Tastix Jan 13th 2010 7:29PM
I actually would love to see them removed just to see the amount of tears that spawns from the eyes of the people who love those portals.
The portals are a commodity. People should be thankful that we have TWO cities that have portals to the capitals. In vanilla WoW, you had NONE. And I'd love it that way again because it promoted exploration, simply because you either had to use a flight path or find your own way there.
In Cataclym, we'll be able to use flying mounts EVERYWHERE anyway. There won't be an outdoors area that exists now that we won't be able to fly in (with the exception of instances). Azeroth? Check. Outlands? Check. Northrend? Check. The portals make travelling easier (far easier) but I wouldn't be adverse to them removing them either.
smcn Jan 13th 2010 7:29PM
Maybe if you could buy rings with a teleport to Shattrath :P
I just got the ilvl 251 ring a couple weeks ago and love it, even moreso that it will actually be useful for another 2-3 years. Fun fact: unlike most on use items, there's no 30 second cooldown when you equip the Kirin Tor rings or Argent Tournament tabard.
Jonathan Jan 13th 2010 7:36PM
@ smcn
Unless something's change VERY recently, there IS a cooldown on the Argent tabard.
jam Jan 13th 2010 7:56PM
I will park my chars in Iron Forge or Thunder Bluff, depending on the faction I'll play in Cata.
Hoggersbud Jan 14th 2010 1:30AM
>And I'd love it that way again because it promoted exploration, simply because you either had to use a flight path or find your own way there.<
what exploration? The time-consuming picking your way through a zone around insurmountable barriers to find the flight point so you never had to go that way again?
Sorry, but there's no exploration in this game, even ignoring the fact that most people will just follow an existing map anyway.
Dan Z. Jan 14th 2010 8:54AM
I think it would be great if they added portals to each of the major cities in all major cities. For example, if I had portals to Dalaran and Shat in SW, IF, Exodar, and Darnassus it would be practical to set my hearthstone in any of those cities. If necessary, make the ability to use those portals based on whether the person has been to those cities before
dawneb Jan 14th 2010 8:58AM
@Mr. Tastix & @Hoggersbud - There are quite a few people that like to explore. That's why there are so many cool screenshots out there, the designers out did themselves in some places. Recently I've been visiting some secret and hard to get to places and SS'ing them in case they're gone in Cataclysm.
Makes no sense to down rate a guy for liking to explore the game to it's fullest.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Jan 14th 2010 9:14AM
I think I rather see portals to Dal and Shat in the major cities instead of the portal that takes you to the Dark Portal.
Barinthos Jan 14th 2010 10:35AM
Anything to prevent the failtasticness of Lagaran and Lagtrath is fine with me.
I'm still thinking Blizz should implement "channels" similar to Aion(bashing aside) where you can change channels freely for ONLY major cities to further prevent lag or over population in a small area. All communication and transactions between NCPs will still be shared across channels, but if you want to interact with or see a specific person you'll have to be in the same channel. Think of it as a buffed up Phase area.
Aykwa Jan 14th 2010 12:27PM
You get what you reward. And sometimes that is not a good thing. For example, if you reward everyone for putting their hearths in Dal by putting portals to everywhere else in Dal, everyone will set hearths to Dal, will live in Dal, etc. But from a technical standpoint, we all know that is a bad thing, especially when both factions are forced into the same space. Why didn't they put an AH in Dal or Shatt? Blues have said they don't want the old world cities to die and want to try to ease the congestion in Shatt and Dal. Well, the current portal system certainly does NOT ease Dal congestion, and we all know the negative effects of that! Plus I like the idea of not being almost forced to have your hearth in the same place as everyone else if you don't want to suffer from a lot more wasted travel time.
I would suggest that in Cataclysm all major cities have portals to all the other major cities. This will allow faster travel between some of the main points. It will relieve congestion as people will have 4 different cities that they could set hearths to and spend time in without getting stuck somewhere. It will give greater flexibility to where people spend there time since there won't be just one AH city where (like Org often is for Horde) all the trades people do their thing. I will cut down the number of players in most people's log-in zones by up to a factor of 8 (instead of 1 city for both factions, each faction will have 4 cities with ports, totaling 8 cities). Log in times will be faster, server loads more equalized, player lag seriously reduced, variety added, commerce facilitated, racial ties strengthened, and world population distributed more evenly (avoiding huge pockets of empty zones).
moirafae Jan 14th 2010 12:51PM
Personally, I think it might be possible that they'll put major portals in the main cities ... Perhaps making some of the portals only accessible at certain endgame levels. Like the Dark Portal portal is only usable over 58, I believe?
Perhaps Dal will continue to be the hub du jour, but I think it far more likely that they'll figure out a way to spread out the load.
Baimberix Feb 3rd 2010 11:57AM
ummm... did you guys all forget the new under water cityS that are comeing out?
Momus Jan 13th 2010 7:03PM
Personally I hope they will remove the portals from Shatt/Dal. Those cities are kind of worn out now, and it would suck to have to keep hearthstone in Dalaran for yet another expansion.
Drakkenfyre Jan 13th 2010 7:06PM
So you are saying it would suck more to use it as a travel hub, as opposed to sucking because now you have to travel more to get to each city?
jtrain Jan 13th 2010 7:30PM
I don't know why Momus is downrated. Blizz also stated that the reason they want players back in the original capitals is to make the old (new?) world feel populated and alive. Blizz may be a lot of things, but they're not stupid. If they don't remove the portals from Shatt/Dalaran, players will use those cities as their hearth location. I would be willing to bet a lot of gold that the portals in Shatt/Dalarn will be removed, and similar portals will be added to the original capitals.
Eddy Jan 13th 2010 7:59PM
That or they just put new portals into the currently existing cities. I can't imagine there won't be a portal to Dalaran and Shattrath, at the very least.
Derick Jan 13th 2010 8:29PM
Seems silly to get rid of the portals just because people will be hearthed there. The game will be focused back on Azeroth, so there will be people in the old capitols. Letting people hearth back to dalaran or shatt when they just need to stop in to do some banking or log into a bank alt would keep stress off the Azeroth servers and that's not a bad thing.
moirafae Jan 14th 2010 12:58PM
This defies logic ...
People will still be leveling through Outlands and Northrend. The whole point of having portals in the main cities is to access the main areas of Azeroth quickly - specifically, the cities that actually have Auction Houses. If you take away the portals from Dal and Shatt, people leveling through those areas suddenly have no way to access the world, no way to empty their bags of useful items beyond dumping them in their bank and later taking the long way home via Dark Portal/boat to sell their stuff.
There's no reason to remove the portals from these cities just because you're bored of them. It's probable that the focus will shift to the capitals with the expansion, and at most, Dal may be used as a hub city, but I think it far more likely that the capitals will have portals and the city in the sky will become as much a ghost town as it's forebear.