Liala the Second is going strong in her leveling, but she’s fetched up against an ethical conundrum. I thought I’ d put it to you, the viewer, to decide her fate:
She’s leveling in a brand-new server without any alts, heirlooms, or gold to reproduce the experience that all brand-new players go through, and to adjust my leveling guide accordingly. However, it turns out that I do in fact know several players over there. One would be, very kindly, willing to port Liala the Second into Dalaran.
So here’s the conundrum: Is taking a high-level port contrary to the spirit of the enterprise?
On the one hand, it seems unlikely that a brand-new player would know anyone to port them to Dal, be able to purchase a port (a 10G tip is my going rate in Farstriders), or even know that such a thing was possible. I remember landing in Dal for the first time as a newly-dinged 75, for example, and being awestruck.
On the other hand, many new players land in guild and have the service offered to them, or can request it from fellow guildies for a purely nominal tip, if any.
On the other hand again, the whole point is to level from the perspective of a newbie; would it hurt the purpose of this noble enterprise to merely hearth-port-swish into Undercity, say, from halfway across Azeroth? But then again, letting people know how to get to Dalaran and set your hearthstone there could simply be part of any reasonably thorough guide. Gah!! /headexplodey
You see my problem.
So enlighten me, readers, and pick the path the Second should walk!
Disciplinary Action 
Hmm, yeah, I think using Dalaran this soon is cheating a little bit. But I’m also a bit masochistic towards my characters – the way I see it, my main had to walk through the Barrens so all of you youngins have to too!
Besides, using Dalaran to shave off 30 minutes of travel time makes you miss out on the following:
1) Random level 8 mobs that attack you on the road
2) Level 80s challenging your less than level 20 character to a duel
3) Said level 80s then falling off the boat/blimp because they tried to jump up on the barrel/top of the blimp.
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Those runs really do build character! And you can’t put a price on being attacked by Lvl ?? tigers every six yards on your way to Booty Bay. So one vote for ‘No Cheaties!’.
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I’ll second the “nay”… especially if you’re writing a guide.
I was essentially unguilded until 78 or so, and didn’t get there until ~70, when I bought a port to Dal.
The sad thing about alts is that you can never again achieve the wonder and awe you had for some of the old “first times”:
Going through the Dark Portal, Getting into Dal, your first blimp (or boat) ride…
*sniffle*
I do miss that sometimes.
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A very good point! I was guilded, but Dal? That was totally beyond my reach.
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On the other hand, at what point does having an advanced port become legit? It’s such a common practice. I would say: if you can buy a port, it’s legit.
BTW, where did you get that fabbo artwork!? It’s awesome!
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I MADE it, my friend! It took a ridiculously long time, and I’m chuffed you noticed 🙂 Okay, okay- so as per Grimm, what if I bought a port to Dal? Would that make it legit, or is it still an old hand’s trick at getting things done faster?
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Since you can technically make it to Dalaran as a lv 1 all by yourself (although you might level by the time you get there) I don’t see it as cheating, creative perhaps but definitely legitimate.
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Assuming Grimm’s vote ‘Do It!’ and not being academic, this makes two ‘Do It!’ votes and two ‘No Cheaties!’.
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I have a baby horde hunter far, far away on a server by herself — a toon to play when I’m not feeling like company. She had made over 20G from guild signatures before level 20 and happily spent half on a port to Dal. It wasn’t anything a completely new player couldn’t have done, there was no veteran insight involved. I reckon you should go for it!
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Three ‘Do It!’s!
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I think it depends on how “hardcore” new you want it to be. Because as some people have said, getting to Dalaran isn’t all that difficult anymore. While I don’t think you can actually make it there at level 1 (doesn’t the person down on the ground have you be a level range before he will port you? I don’t know that for sure though) I think you can easily get someone to port you there even if you don’t have friends/guild on the server.
Just think of all the random people asking for boosts to this or that, they are sometimes new and don’t offer a reward and I’m sure a bored player sometimes gives them a boost cause they have nothing better to do.
While my mage isn’t high enough level to port people to Dalaran she was always happy to provide low levels with portals to Shattrah or other major cities. If they wanted to give me the silver for the reagent, fine – but if they were truly new and low level, I’m quite happy to just help – hoping that when I’m new and lonely some kind mage would do the same for me.
Also, it doesn’t remove all your walking time. Just the one back to the major cities to train. Any time you need to go to a new area you still have to do the long trekk and there will be plenty of time for you to get mauled by ?? animals 😛
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Four to two for the ‘Do It!’s. I confess I’m hoping I’ll get to do it as I ended up spending an HOUR yesterday traveling from Silvermoon to Undercity to Ogrimmar to Thunder Bluff just to get to the leveling area outside of Thunder Bluff because I happen to like the music there.
However, during a twenty-minute wait for the Zeppelin to Thunder Bluff (seriously, Blizzard!!!) I talked to a level-80 priest who- seeing my GearScore 4, unheirloomed, level 1o self waiting for Zeppelin took me for a true newb and gave me fantastic introduction-to-being-a-priest advice for ten minutes. Then I made friends with a 10 Tauren waiting for his ride, to the point that when we finally got on the Zepp we ended up re-enacting the ‘I’m Flying, Jack!’ scene from Titanic.
That wouldn’t have happened if I’d ported to Dal and hopped to Thunder Bluff. On the other hand, I forgot to pick up ANY flight points and now have to travel an hour to get back to Undercity! >.<
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You can get there as a level 1 or 2 without a Mage port/Warlock summons. My Mage took up residence in Dalaran at lv 10 with no help from anyone one else whatsoever. You just need to be a bit creative in your thinking.
Get to the Borean Tundra by boat/Zeppelin depending on your faction. Die and get running as a ghost. When you hit Crystalsong Forest, you automatically get a dead gryphon. At this point, log out and log back in (you need to log to ensure you can res at a different graveyard to the one closest to your body). Then fly as high as you can next to Dalaran, move towards the city and you’ll get dismounted but hopefully you should end up on Krasus’s Landing as a ghost. Run into town and res at the graveyard there.
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Clever!
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Oooo, yet another arrow in my pro-port-quiver. I likes.
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Let me clarify that I have not done so on any of my toons as far as buying a port, though I have accepted a lift from a friendly guildie. Having said that, it’s more that I haven’t felt the need to do so, not that I look down upon those that do. I’m not so much voting “yes” as “it’s cool.” 🙂
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Ohhhh, the non-answer answer! I thought I’d trick you into voting yes to serve my own nefarious purposes! Curses…
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For some reason your previous reply didn’t get flagged in my email, so let me say now – RIGHTEOUS work, well done 🙂
And if my vote matters, then consider me a solid DOOO EEET.
🙂
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You’re too kind! It was just for a laugh (half the text is the wrong color and it doesn’t look comic-book-y enough for me yet) but it’s really grown on me!
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I say do it, provided that you pay around the market rate for it. I did it on my first WoW character at about level 40-something (I think it was around then) so it’s not out of reach of new players. Provided they’ve looked around the internet/map enough to realise that Dalaran even exists of course!
Get gathering and auctioneering little levelling Liala the Second 😉
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She’s stalking some fierce harpies at the moment outside Thunder Bluff, and guild signatures might pad her coffers. I’ll let her get a bit of gold and then… I do eet!
Thanks for playing (and for enough votes to let me do eet- phew!).
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no port! I think I’ve come late to the vote, but I agree with the concept that a first time player wouldn’t really know the way of ports, or understand why they should have a hearthstone to dalaran. I never port anyone under 60 to dalaran. in my mind, it was never intended for under 60s to have easy access to the city in the sky. it is a special kind of awesome place for the elite of northrend, and nowhere a level 20 should be kicking around.
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