Let's try to make sense of it - Mage Teleportation restrictions. The best burglars?

[Knight Meta]

So the idèa just hit me the other way as I was in Stormwind on my Alliance Warrior and I noticed one of the houses that is still sealed off / has a door with no contents behind it.

"F***-all a wooden door would do to stop a Warrior from getting side anywhere..."

But that actually had me thinking. Who would be the best class lore wise to get into any "restricted" place without getting spotted or called out for it. At once Rogues and Druids using stealth to sneak by and around hit me, but it's not like many folks would go like:

"GEE WOOP! I AM JUST ABOUT TO LEAVE MY HOUSE FOR A WHILE AND AS I AM LEAVING, I'MA JUST HOLD MY DOOR AS WIDE OPEN AS I CAN WHILE GOING AROUND IT BEFORE CLOSING IT VERY SLOWLY!"

Stealthers are still THERE and you can bump into them even tho they are invisible.

Sure any and all class could so anything to blast or blow the s*** out of any door to get in but the point is not to be busted.

Then there's Mages. Do these bastards have any teleportation restrictions actually?

Look at Khagdar in the recent ToS End Boss cinematic. He teleported himself, Illidan, Veleen + Somewhere between 10+30 Champions from a Space Ship right before Argus down to Azuna.

"It was nothing blocking the path in the air-space between the two destinations"

Okay okay. Let's backtrack to WoTLK and how Jaina ported down from the Balcony to inside the chamber bellow in the 3.1 Secrets of Ulduar trailer. That does not have a clear air-space unless she just jumped off the balcony and ported inside once just above ground level by the entrance.

So can Mages teleport ANYWHERE? Is there ANY restrictions to this in lore? Since if not, what's to say a Mage just can't pop into someone house, snag all the shit they want and then leave for no one to notice in any way.

We make up Rogues to be thieves but I'd say Mages got em beaten on this one.

[zlygork]

Lorewise, teleportation and portals are not a simple feat. For one, notice how most portals that are presented in lore tend to be held open by more than one mage at a time. I don't know if having to know the previous location is technicaly canon for teleportation, but I do know teleportation is related to ley lines, so it might just be impossible to teleport into a specific house if no ley line is passing through?

[Lochton]

Lorewise isn't the same as mechanics. I bet it takes quite some knowledge and power to do a 'wildcard' teleport (an unanchored) where you appear where you want.

[Friendlyimmolation]

Other mages/warlocks can block and sense portals, if you try to do a random portal you might end up in a wall or at the bottom of a ocean.

[I-Thalos-I]

There is an in-game lore book about portal usage:

Thinking with Portals - A Memorandum on Proper Portal Usage

Page 1

It is not our intention to replace popular transportation methods such as ships, zeppelins, and flightmasters. These are cheap, practical, and safe methods of transportation. Portals, when used properly, are just as safe and certainly faster. HOWEVER, in practice portals have a history of being a burden on any society in which it is offered to the general public. Of all the major spells developed and maintained by the Kirin Tor (including polymorph), portal technology is the closest to becoming banished from anything but emergency usage.

Page 2

Why all the trouble? First, Ley Lines don't grow on trees. Massive traffic through a Line from all over Azeroth wears down the infrastructure and must be periodically replaced. We charge the mage for every portal via reagent taxes, and encourage mages to pass off these charges to those using the portal. But these taxes don't even begin to cover the time cost of replacing a Line, only the materials.

Page 3

Remember that a portal most used is a portal most efficient: More persons using a single portal causes no further stress to the Ley Lines, and is encouraged. A "Portalpooling" program is in the works that will give tax breaks to mages who create portals for no less than (5) persons. Read your latest issue of "Kirin Tor Monthly" to see the progress of the Portalpooling program.

Page 4

Second, while a properly used portal is just as safe as your average zeppelin trip (maybe more so considering the engineering practices of goblins), an improperly used portal can potentially yield dire results. Here is a list of immutable regulations for appropriate portal usage:

Page 5

Rule #1: Do not create a portal to anywhere but the designated Kirin Tor portal drop-off zones. The most dangerous aspect of the portal spell is its vast potential. We realize it's easy for a mage to create a door to anywhere, so our only way to combat such potentially deadly acts is to make it punishable by death.
Special Issue License D-6 permits open portal usage, but is rarely issued. Speak with your local Portal Trainer about qualifying for this license.

Page 6

Rule #2: Create a portal in the proper place, and use it in the proper way. Do not create a portal beneath the feet of someone. Do not linger halfway in and out of a portal. The portal is not a garbage disposal. The portal is not a shield. Do not use a portal like an umbrella, or any kind of shelter from the elements.

Page 7

Do not back out of a portal after partially entering it. Do not try and "grab" the edges of the portal, either from the inside or the outside. A portal does not create "handlebars" to assist usage, and disruption of its boundaries is dangerous.

Page 8

Rule #3: Never force or trick anyone to go through a portal. Not only is this a great way to lose repeat customers, it's also incredibly dangerous (See Rule #2).

Page 9

Rule #4: Do not have someone who is polymorphed enter a portal. This has yet to not cause an explosion. This is also covered in "Polymorphic Rules & Regulations."

Page 10

Rule #5: Do not remove the liquid filter from a portal spell. Portals innately prevent large amounts of flowing water through them so that they can be cast underwater. To allow for water elementals to use a portal, this filter can be omitted when casting. Do not omit this when underwater! We feel obligated to mention Moderately Severe Claims Disaster Case 34-zz: "The Great Lakeshire Drought & The Great Ironforge Flood of 24 A.D."

Page 11

Rule #6: Standard Portal dimensions are 3 yards, 1 foot, 3 and 3/4 inches tall, 2 yards, 8 feet, 9 and 15/16 inches wide. Double-wide portal creation requires Special Issue License G-16, and is commonly issued to mages with a clean portal record of 8 years or more. Speak with your local Portal Trainer about qualifying for this license.

<This goes on for hundreds of pages>

[mickybrighteyes]

I think there are also different means of teleportation around with different tweaks added in. Rogues got their shadow step. Monks have their pilgrimage and the transcendence (i think... they make a clone of themselves to swap with). Warlocks have their own portals and summoning which probably is more fleshed out than the typical mage's when looking at limitations. And even death knights have their own form of portal that has a more limited destination point.

All that aside... Blink might be the ultimate form of short distance movement skill assuming the mage only needs line of sight of a general sense of the location when they utilize the spell.

[Soon-TM]

It makes sense. Iirc, in Vanilla beta, Mages had a spell called "Khadgar's Unlocking" which let them open locks and coffers, exactly like a Rogue. It was removed in order to cement the thief-theme of the Rogue class.

[A dot Ham]

So the idèa just hit me the other way as I was in Stormwind on my Alliance Warrior and I noticed one of the houses that is still sealed off / has a door with no contents behind it.

"F***-all a wooden door would do to stop a Warrior from getting side anywhere..."

But that actually had me thinking. Who would be the best class lore wise to get into any "restricted" place without getting spotted or called out for it. At once Rogues and Druids using stealth to sneak by and around hit me, but it's not like many folks would go like:

"GEE WOOP! I AM JUST ABOUT TO LEAVE MY HOUSE FOR A WHILE AND AS I AM LEAVING, I'MA JUST HOLD MY DOOR AS WIDE OPEN AS I CAN WHILE GOING AROUND IT BEFORE CLOSING IT VERY SLOWLY!"

Stealthers are still THERE and you can bump into them even tho they are invisible.

Sure any and all class could so anything to blast or blow the s*** out of any door to get in but the point is not to be busted.

Then there's Mages. Do these bastards have any teleportation restrictions actually?

Look at Khagdar in the recent ToS End Boss cinematic. He teleported himself, Illidan, Veleen + Somewhere between 10+30 Champions from a Space Ship right before Argus down to Azuna.

"It was nothing blocking the path in the air-space between the two destinations"

Okay okay. Let's backtrack to WoTLK and how Jaina ported down from the Balcony to inside the chamber bellow in the 3.1 Secrets of Ulduar trailer. That does not have a clear air-space unless she just jumped off the balcony and ported inside once just above ground level by the entrance.

So can Mages teleport ANYWHERE? Is there ANY restrictions to this in lore? Since if not, what's to say a Mage just can't pop into someone house, snag all the shit they want and then leave for no one to notice in any way.

We make up Rogues to be thieves but I'd say Mages got em beaten on this one.

I'm quite certain that a mage "lore wise" needs to have seen the area they are teleporting to.