‘World of Warcraft’ Players Aren’t Happy About Removed Portals

A new update is on the way for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, and just like previous patches — notable changes are on the way. With the upcoming patch giving both the Alliance and the Horde access to centralized pubs, the most recent changes does mean the removal of pre-existing portals and the accessibility change is making quite a few WoW players upset.

These portals offers an easier mode of travel between different parts of the expansive map that World of Warcraft has and some players aren’t thrilled with the idea that some of those means of getting from point A to point B are being removed. Even though centralized hubs have been a long-awaited feature, some didn’t realise the cost of this particular add-on.

The cost of a more streamlined means of travel means that cutting off strangling points of arrival was key. Though this isn’t the first time pre-existing portals have been removed, it seems that this time people just really aren’t a fan.

The below areas, thanks to the team over at Wowhead, are listed that contain a portal back to Stormwind / Orgimmar, though Ashran, Boralus, and Dazar’alor haven’t been altered:

Dalaran (Legion)

• Ironforge/Thunder Bluff
• Darnassus/Undercity
• Caverns of Time
• Dalaran Crater
• Karazhan
• The Exodar/Silvermoon City
• Shattrath
• Wyrmrest Temple
• Vale of the Eternal Blossoms

Shrine of the Seven Stars/Two Moons

• Shattrath
• Dalaran (Northrend)

Dalaran (Northerend)

• Caverns of Time

Stormwind/Orgimmar

• Hellfire Peninsula

From removal, to simple shifting, the team over at Blizzard has been addressing the concerns head one. Community manager Bornakk did their best to take on the criticism and show the design intention behind this move:

“I understand that changes can throw people off a bit at first, but I also think they help keep the world of Azeroth feeling alive. When there are fewer portals, does the world feel a bit bigger to you? Do you like that? How difficult is it to get to the locations you mentioned without a direct portal?”

Unfortunately, the replies to their comment didn’t garner any favors. That’s when Kaivax, another community manager, stepped in with their own post. “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.”

Some players offered their own alternatives to this move, most of which you can see here, but the actual change will go live on March 12. To read up on all of the creative hot takes, you can check out the WoW subreddit here.

Thoughts on the changes coming to Azeroth? Sound off in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.

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Thanks, Wowhead.