Shattrath and Dalaran portals

[Kalliope]

*snuggles her locket* If nothing else, I have a get out of jail free card if the old world servers go down. (I have great memories of ending up in MC after getting trapped in a heroic with some people when Northrend went down...and I used my Direbrew remote to get us out.)

NONE of the engie ports outside of the Northrend one are working at all on the PTR; please tell me it's different on beta.

And allow me to steer this conversation slightly differently....what city are you all planning on making your new home?

[Lisaara]

*snuggles her locket* If nothing else, I have a get out of jail free card if the old world servers go down. (I have great memories of ending up in MC after getting trapped in a heroic with some people when Northrend went down...and I used my Direbrew remote to get us out.)

NONE of the engie ports outside of the Northrend one are working at all on the PTR; please tell me it's different on beta.

And allow me to steer this conversation slightly differently....what city are you all planning on making your new home?

Hmm...probably either Stormwind or Darnassus.

[Saturo]

Ironforge and Undercity, no doubt about it.

[Kalliope]

Oh, and a related blue post:

The reason the portals from Shattrath were not removed from Outland when Wrath of the Lich King released is that there was a new central hub with portals to all major cities in Northrend. There is no longer a neutral city hub which both factions will be using in Cataclysm. We want to ensure visiting the major faction capitals is still the most attractive thing to do in Cataclysm, rather than having people use Shattrath and Dalaran as easy connector hubs.

To make up for this, we'd like to add class trainers and Auctioneers in Shattrath and Dalaran for those leveling through The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content.

Source.

[Lisaara]

Oh! Talu will probably have hers in Orgrimmar or Darkspear Isles.

[Royi]

Gnomeregan! if i can.. heh Or else Darnassus

[Vephriel]

I'll most likely set my hearth to Undercity. It's my favourite Horde capital, love the decor there, plus I love how close everything is and the fact you can stay mounted while running from Bank to Mailbox to AH, etc.

[Cerah]

If you have the Argent Crusader's talbrad from the Argent Tournament, you can always use that as a quick way to Northrend. It's cheaper than a Kirin Tor ring too.

So, no central hub for Cata? Boo-urns. I was kind of hoping we'd get Undermine (since Bilgewater Harbour in Azshara seems to be the likely goblin "capital").

If we're not getting new portals and the old ones are being taken away, I demand a zepplin going from northern to southern Kalimdor! A neutral one going from either Everlook or Ratchet to Gadgetran would be ideal for those of us who are *not* exalted with the Keepers of Time.

Oh, and my new "home" will be the Troll capital. Yeah mon!

[cowmuflage]

Well my hearth allready is thunderbluff i never bother to change it when i got it at lvl 15 all those years ago......

Finally theres going to be a AH in dal thats not for eng.

[Saturo]

I'll most likely set my hearth to Undercity. :) It's my favourite Horde capital, love the decor there, plus I love how close everything is and the fact you can stay mounted while running from Bank to Mailbox to AH, etc.

Indeed, I love UC for those things too. IF for the same reasons (except for the mounted AH part, but MOLL-E takes care of that. :P))

[Anyia]

I suspect Anyia will go back to using Thunder Bluff as her base of operations. As with Undercity, most things are within easy reach, and AH+Bank while mounted is very convenient. Also, it's suitably far away from Garrosh.

Might have to pull out my old black dragonscale armor set for old times' sake if I do end up loitering in TB...

[Silvarain]

mine will be the race cities of my toons (most rep there), but ill miss how fast getting to the cooking/fishing dailies are now *cries*

[Noba]

I'd want to make my city of choice Darnassus, since I find it to be very pretty. I like the streams and all the trees. However, that sort of depends if the major 80-85 leveling zones are spread across both continents or only on eastern kingdoms. Stormwind would be my second choice because you can see the blue sky overhead, and there are some decorative trees. I personally don't care for how 'indoors and dark' IF is, though I will admit to it having one of the most practical layouts.

Also, last I knew(long time ago) Darnassus didn't really have forge, mining/bs and such trainers. Is it still like that? If so, that should be addressed if Blizzard wants us to spread out. Also, Exodar has some really goofy layout aspects that make many people annoyed with it. For example, their jewelcrafter trainer is 3 sectors away from the nearest forge to smelt your ore as you work your skill up. The process of exiting the city takes a while also with that big spiral ramp.

[Royi]

I'd want to make my city of choice Darnassus, since I find it to be very pretty. I like the streams and all the trees. However, that sort of depends if the major 80-85 leveling zones are spread across both continents or only on eastern kingdoms. Stormwind would be my second choice because you can see the blue sky overhead, and there are some decorative trees. I personally don't care for how 'indoors and dark' IF is, though I will admit to it having one of the most practical layouts.

Also, last I knew(long time ago) Darnassus didn't really have forge, mining/bs and such trainers. Is it still like that? If so, that should be addressed if Blizzard wants us to spread out. Also, Exodar has some really goofy layout aspects that make many people annoyed with it. For example, their jewelcrafter trainer is 3 sectors away from the nearest forge to smelt your ore as you work your skill up. The process of exiting the city takes a while also with that big spiral ramp.

Darnassus now does have an anvil and a forge, its by the Weapons Master opposite from the Battleground guys

[Troubleshot]

Although I understand the need for this change to keep down city lag, I am not particularly fond of it.

I also think that Bliz is just going to have to come up with some other portals somewhere else in order to speed up the levelling through the lower levels.

One thing I am surprised that no one mentioned is the impact that this will have on some achievements. Those "shoot a troll rogue" and "throw flower petals on a female dwarf" achievements might become a nightmare.

[Rhyela]

Although I understand the need for this change to keep down city lag, I am not particularly fond of it.

I also think that Bliz is just going to have to come up with some other portals somewhere else in order to speed up the levelling through the lower levels.

One thing I am surprised that no one mentioned is the impact that this will have on some achievements. Those "shoot a troll rogue" and "throw flower petals on a female dwarf" achievements might become a nightmare.

While this is true to some extent, I have seen Horde and Alliance work together during holiday events. Even in battlegrounds, we've let horde come into the flag room to do pick up and drop the flag for each other while the alliance watched closely, and vice versa. Maybe this will lead more people to help the other side out, or maybe there will just be more people making opposite-faction alts and parking them in front of major cities for a little while.

[Kalliope]

I also think the population will go up in Dal/Shat at those times of year too.

[Mr. Perfect]

Right, we all know the drill form Vanilla, everyone back to Ogrimar and Ironforge!

[Slickrock2]

Remember, part of the reason for this is that we are supposed to get back to faction warfare...

[Fayos]

This almost makes me bring out my mage damnit >.>

Alltho, I do understand the reasoning behind it. I still hope engineers will get some new great stuff to use tho, even an upgraded wormhole with a "Go wherever you like" would suffice.