You can join a game where someone already smashed the orb, and walk through Durance yourself and get the WP. From there you can access Durance 2 with WP.
The catch is that if you TP back home, you can't use the Portal to get back in. You either have to use the WP or walk, which is really only a big deal if you die in the process (since you have to rejoin instead of setting a safe TP), or if you need to pot up. For MFing in the late game, dying is really a non-issue, but early rushing while anything kills you, it can be annoying without being able to TP, since you have to walk from Durance 2 TP each time.
I believe Durance stays open if you kill Meph from Durance 2, but it just locks out the ability to Portal back (later rectified if you go back and do the organ quests).
This post was edited by eric1014153 on May 14 2022 09:22am