You can also buy instant gate potions off the alchemy vendors unless they removed them for some reason. They cost 1k each but worth it if it prevents a death with no rez. It's called a vial of swirling mist.
If you are on call and you know you may have to leave at a moments notice set the fireplace up in PoK or your guild hall. Then if you have to go just campfire out. Token is instant cast and doesn't have a fail mechanic. Makes it harder to get where you are going, and you can't use the stat fire, but its better than eating a death.
Yeah, that's what I do currently. Can't do in combat, but I did consider playing a NEC, SK, BST when I am on call so I can just flop and walk. Does FD fail much at high levels? Good idea. Good tip. I have a FTP druid that I clicked a Krono on to get the AA. As ENC, MAG, CLR, the MAG is my tank. I do have a FTP druid I usually don't bring along, but I could, though she doesn't have the expansions. I have thought about switching my CLR out for a druid, which is probably the best solution, plus forage, track and snare. I have resisted the idea of not playing my cleric because I have had her for like 15 years, but a stand in DRU is a solid idea.
I think you're confusing secondary recall (the AA) with anchors (mentioned by Conq) which are bought with Loyalty points (you know, the things we aren't getting any more, as of now, at least). Primary and Secondary Anchors are bought at the Loyalty vendor, and allow you to place the actual anchors on any player- or guild-owned property where you have permission. Then, you have a clickie for each, with one hour cooldowns. For Druids and Wizards, you also get a scribable set of spells for porting to them.
I am confusing them. I didn't know non-porters could use anchors. Can they be used in combat? Are they one time use?
You can also buy them in the market place. There are primary anchors and secondary anchors. You get a ball to put in your inventory and a dead tree looking thing to place in your house or plot or guild hall. Click the ball and it ports you to the tree, So you can have 2 more ports that way. Porting classes get the spells also with the anchors that allow them to port folks to guild hall or elsewhere. They are very slow casting and I would not use them in combat due to that. Easily interrupted. The fastest ports are the bulwarks of many portal and drunkard stein.
The only time I had to drop imediately was when my mother had a heart attack and I was needed to go to the hospital with her in the ambalance (2 minutes round the corner from me). Dropped everything imediately and the other half had the responsability of logging me out. Had my chars died during the 6 hours I was at the hospital, it would have been a small price to pay for me being where I needed to be.
Although I'm sure I've used it for crashes and the like, I can't think of a time in 21+ years that I've needed to exit the game so quickly, but I've always known where the reset button is on the computer case.
You can also use throne of hero's AA every hour or so. Every character now gets all veteran rewards. A failure on the gate AA really sucks because of the long recast, but those classes can load gate in their spell bar, too. A failure for the cast is not so bad.