Mage portals Free or Not

[McNeil]

I've never had to ask for any portal in my entire WoW career, starting in vanilla. I guess I'm one of those people that actually like traveling, I'm the same in real life

[yurano]

I like all the non-Mages who complain about the prices of portals.

Having been on both sides of the coin, providing portals is a huge pain. People are rude, sometimes even expect you to go to THEM and end up not paying you for your time. I'm pretty impatient so I'm willing to pay some 50-100g per portal.

How much you should charge for a portal should be based solely on supply and demand, not whether it costs anything to provide the spell.

[Feral Camel]

All I ask for is a thanks.

That can be pretty rare though.

[Theendgamelv3]

Enchanting costs money to level? Nah, you can farm all the mats yourself. All it takes is time. And all gold is, anyway, is time spent earning it. It took you time to level enchanting, just like it took you time to level your mage. Enchanting something is just "clicking a button in your spell book".

Not to mention the fact that you have to stop what you are doing, you have to join their group which can mess your queue up, and wait for them. I'm sorry, but doing a portal takes about as much effort as enchanting somebody's stuff with their mats. If one warrants a fee, so does the other. Not to mention you can enchant their stuff without being in a group with them.

Time and money are very much the same thing in WoW (though some can turn their time into money more efficiently than others).

---------- Post added 2013-02-14 at 01:17 AM ----------



Leveling a mage can be likened to leveling a profession. I don't see how this is different at all. You have to spend time getting your skill high enough to enchant. You have to spend time getting your mage level high enough to make a portal. It's really the exact same thing.

You say it takes time away from your group and all that, simple solution to this "Hey I can't enchant your item, busy". All you are doing is leveling a mage, to level a profession, you need to level a toon AND the profession. You say it takes the same effort. All I have to do to level a toon is quest and do dungeons, that is some effort. To level a profession, I have to do those two things to level the toon AND go out of my way to get mats, makes items to a certain level, GO BACK to the profession trainer, spend money to train and repeat the process all over again. You are telling me that is the same amount of effort? Hell look at Enchant Weapon - River's Song, to get this enchant you have to do dailies. You DON'T have to do dailies to learn portals. Sorry it is not the same. I do agree that mages should be tipped since they are offering a service, but don't compare them to professions.

[thunderdragon2]

How much you should charge for a portal should be based solely on supply and demand, not whether it costs anything to provide the spell.

based solely on personal perception i've noticed alot of supply and not alot of demand so based on that it should be 30g per

DISCLAIMER : your own perception on the mater may differ from mine

[Seegtease]

You say it takes time away from your group and all that, simple solution to this "Hey I can't enchant your item, busy". All you are doing is leveling a mage, to level a profession, you need to level a toon AND the profession. You say it takes the same effort. All I have to do to level a toon is quest and do dungeons, that is some effort. To level a profession, I have to do those two things to level the toon AND go out of my way to get mats, makes items to a certain level, GO BACK to the profession trainer, spend money to train and repeat the process all over again. You are telling me that is the same amount of effort? Hell look at Enchant Weapon - River's Song, to get this enchant you have to do dailies. You DON'T have to do dailies to learn portals. Sorry it is not the same. I do agree that mages should be tipped since they are offering a service, but don't compare them to professions.

I will compare them to professions because it's the same thing. It's true that since you have to level, a profession takes a little more work, but still.

If something took time to get to, it's worth a cost. It's not the time spent doing the actual process as much as the time spent getting there. I just see no reason that people should expect it to be free and get indignant when it's not.

[Theendgamelv3]

I will compare them to professions because it's the same thing. It's true that since you have to level, a profession takes a little more work, but still.

If something took time to get to, it's worth a cost. It's not the time spent doing the actual process as much as the time spent getting there. I just see no reason that people should expect it to be free and get indignant when it's not.

So clicking a trainer to learn a portal spell is the same as going to a mining node in some place, hoping that noone else gets it, get the node and do that again and again to level up? It is not. It is A LOT more work to level a profession, hence why it isn't the same thing. Now if learning portals involved gathering mats to make a portal, then it is the same or close to it, if learning a portal means you have to go through reputations, then it is IMO the same thing or close to it. You say it is a little more work, go ask the enchanter who had to get revered with Golden Lotus THEN get revered with the Shado Pan to get River's Song if that is a little work. You don't go out of your way to level up portals. When I leveled my latest hunter to 90, I skinned all my kills to have mats for my LW. I STILL had to go back to lower level zones, taking my time away from doing other stuff to go and farm mats that I didn't quite get enough of. You don't have to do that with portals. You don't go, "Oh crap, gotta go to Winterspring, to make sure I can get enough mats to level to get Portal Dalaran." It isn't the same. No one should IMO pay for someone's effort when they just level a toon and that to me what portals are. They are apart of the process of leveling a mage. You pay/tip someone's effort when they level a profession cause they go out of their way to do so. They gather mats, do dailies, spend a lot of gold. Hell in the past certain bosses drop recipes so you can get the best enchants, BS gear, etc. You do none of those things to level up a Mage which is why IMO they aren't the same.

[Correlia]

I've never charged anyone for a portal, I will accept tips though.

[Seegtease]

So clicking a trainer to learn a portal spell is the same as going to a mining node in some place, hoping that noone else gets it, get the node and do that again and again to level up? It is not. It is A LOT more work to level a profession, hence why it isn't the same thing. Now if learning portals involved gathering mats to make a portal, then it is the same or close to it, if learning a portal means you have to go through reputations, then it is IMO the same thing or close to it. You say it is a little more work, go ask the enchanter who had to get revered with Golden Lotus THEN get revered with the Shado Pan to get River's Song if that is a little work. You don't go out of your way to level up portals. When I leveled my latest hunter to 90, I skinned all my kills to have mats for my LW. I STILL had to go back to lower level zones, taking my time away from doing other stuff to go and farm mats that I didn't quite get enough of. You don't have to do that with portals. You don't go, "Oh crap, gotta go to Winterspring, to make sure I can get enough mats to level to get Portal Dalaran." It isn't the same. No one should IMO pay for someone's effort when they just level a toon and that to me what portals are. They are apart of the process of leveling a mage. You pay/tip someone's effort when they level a profession cause they go out of their way to do so. They gather mats, do dailies, spend a lot of gold. Hell in the past certain bosses drop recipes so you can get the best enchants, BS gear, etc. You do none of those things to level up a Mage which is why IMO they aren't the same.

I didn't realize you could learn all the portals at level 1. My bad. I was under the impression that you had to level a mage up first. I also thought you had to be in a group for portals, meaning you waste your queue trying to give someone a portal. Guess that's not true either?

See, it's attitudes like you seem to have that are why when a mage sees someone say "LF mage to port me" they just ignore it. I mean seriously, why bother giving a random person a portal who is totally unappreciative of it?

[Frolk]

If im not busy i make em for free, people usually give me a tip
People that overcharge for portals/food give mages a bad rep

[Volbian]

If im not busy i make em for free, people usually give me a tip
People that overcharge for portals/food give mages a bad rep

Mages charge for buns? Since when?

[cospaok]

I always find a mage, go close to them, whisper them where I want to go and the fee I'm offering for their service (during WotLK 10g, Cata 20g, MoP 50g), get my portal and many times get added to their friends list. I don't have a mage alt even though I have 9 alts but, if I had one and some stupid, entitled mofo asked me for a free portal and harassed me if I denied I would probably get perma-banned for the things I'd say to them.

[Aquamonkey]

Back when people actually hung out in the other cities, I would teleport to people as part of my crafting business.

[ZeroEdgeir]

I long since found other travel means to get myself around the world.

With my Hearth in Shrine of the Two Moons, that is every capital.
Keep a stack of Loremaster Lodestones on me to bounce to dig sites in Pandaria (can be useful at times).
Ring of the Kirin Tor for Dalaran, Argent Crusader's Tabard for the Argent Tournament Grounds.
Blessed Medallion of Karabor gets me to Outlands if needed.
Guild Cloak for Orgrimmar, Hellscream's Reach Tabard for Tol Barad (which is virtually Orgrimmar anyways).
Direbrew Remote for Blackrock Mountain (MC/BWL runs).
Last Relic of Argus if I'm feeling "lucky"...

Oh, and I suppose I could grow mage portals at my farm too, since that is a thing...

---------- Post added 2013-02-15 at 02:35 AM ----------

I always find a mage, go close to them, whisper them where I want to go and the fee I'm offering for their service (during WotLK 10g, Cata 20g, MoP 50g), get my portal and many times get added to their friends list. I don't have a mage alt even though I have 9 alts but, if I had one and some stupid, entitled mofo asked me for a free portal and harassed me if I denied I would probably get perma-banned for the things I'd say to them.

Don't do that. Especially if they ask for Dalaran, send them to the Crater :P

[Zoma]

A mage can charge however much they want. They are under no obligation to give you a port anywhere. And even though it costs them nothing nowadays, selling a service isn't about how much it costs to provide, it's about how much the customer is willing to pay.

Anyway, I never pay for ports, mainly because I never need them. Between the 15 min hearthstones and the bunch of ports inside the shrines, it's pretty easy to get to any place that a mage could send you. And then there are some tabards, rings, etc that can also take you around the world.

[yurano]

So clicking a trainer to learn a portal spell is the same as going to a mining node in some place, hoping that noone else gets it, get the node and do that again and again to level up? It is not. It is A LOT more work to level a profession, hence why it isn't the same thing.

You have to level your mage...

Contrary to popular belief, players have other things they would like to do than act as a portal vendor.

AAnd even though it costs them nothing nowadays, selling a service isn't about how much it costs to provide, it's about how much the customer is willing to pay.

Its about how much the customer's willing to pay as well as how much the mage thinks his time is worth.

[Shruikah]

I ask politely, and if they say yes without asking for gold i usually tip them 100g or so, if they say it's gunna be 20g or whatever its their loss.

[Temp name]

If a mage asks for money, there are other ways to travel. If they give them for free, they will get tipped 90% of the time.

[Sills]

Totally free. If people tip me, most of the time I will close the trade window and tell them to keep their gold. Sometimes ill take the tips but most of the time I dont mind turning down tips.

[Deleted]

I don't mind mages asking for a fee for their portal, on mine it really depends if I ask anything or not. Depends whether I get a "PORTL NAO PLX" or a "Any chance for a portal perhaps? I'll tip". The latter gets it free.

Now lockboxes are a bane of mine since I play mostly on my rogue, and for some reason people think that should be done free automatically as well, regardless of manners.