The Queue: Exploration, garrison resources, and more

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

After the long drought, we now have a deluge of Warlords of Draenor questions. And I couldn't be happier.

ArthurN asked:

Is there supposed to be an easy way for Horde to get into Shadowmoon Valley? I had a Garrison quest to tame an animal in Shadowmoon Valley. I made it in, even picked up a flight path with the Shadowmoon Exiles (they were yellow to me instead of red like everyone else in the zone). But I had to run around the coastline a bit to find some passable beach. The only way in by land that I found was guarded by Alliance. Am I missing something? And is it similarly tricky for Alliance to get into Frostfire Ridge?

For the Alliance, there's a passage into Frostfire Ridge through Gorgrond. If you aren't veering too far off the road, you won't encounter any Horde guards. The safest way to enter Shadowmoon Valley for the Horde appears to be through western Spires of Arak -- there are no Alliance encampments on the border there and there's at least one road between the zones. You could enter through western Talador, but that looks like a dicier proposition. There's an Alliance camp -- Anchorite's Sojourn -- along that road from the Talador side.

Armenius asked:

Can you upgrade the quality of followers or is my Kaz the Shrieker doomed to a life of mediocrity?

The quality of your followers can increase, but it may take awhile. Once they hit level 100, their experience will go towards upgrading their quality. So a level 100 uncommon follower will earn experience toward becoming rare quality. Once they're of rare quality, they'll earn XP toward being epic. Epic is as high as they can go. No legendary followers!

ScottLeyes asked:

We (Me, Khadgar, Thrall, Maraad, and (i assume) a few grunts) pushed through the Portal when we found a small opening. We gathered some "natives" along our way, plugged the hole, then went to Shadowmoon Valley (I havent played Horde yet). Khadgar takes great effort to open a BRIEF portal to Stormwind to let a FEW workers though, to build our little fort.

So, where the HECK are all these other Azerothians coming from? (I know, I know, gameplay trumps lore) Did I miss an in-game explanation as to why, for example, Fiona is here? Or, for that matter, "Dog"?

There are some interesting assumptions Blizzard is asking us to make in this expansion. First, there's dialogue scattered around that implies we went through the portal with a significantly larger force than the one we see. We see a small fraction of it; we went through with a small army but all we see is maybe a couple dozen named NPCs. You're meant to assume your ragtag band is larger than what is shown.

Further, when you reach Ashran for the first time, there's NPC dialogue that suggests the Alliance forces have been on Draenor for months by the time you first arrive there. While you've likely only been playing for an hour or two by the time you get the quest to visit Ashran, a great deal of time has actually passed. Our guerrilla warfare in Tanaan Jungle might have drawn on for weeks before we destroyed the portal and made it to safety. Building up the garrison might have taken even longer. I can't speak for the Horde, but at least for the Alliance, the player finds a notable NPC's journal in Spires of Arak. His journal covers at least a month's worth of time, starting at the foundation of his camp -- not his first step onto Draenor, but when the fortifications were built.

When we take those bits of information, it's possible we've been on Draenor for six months or more by the time we finish questing through Nagrand. Khadgar could only briefly open a portal to Stormwind before we started construction on the garrison, but the building process took a long time, and that brief portal allowed more forces -- fresh and healthy since they didn't need to struggle through a jungle -- to join the campaign. The people who came through that portal reinforced those of us who came through the Dark Portal, established a foothold on Ashran, and stabilized more permanent portals. Hell, when we get to Talador, we see Khadgar has teleported in his mage tower from Azeroth.

Getting through Tanaan was that suicide mission, and while it takes little playtime to complete, it might have taken a very long time in the story. Once our garrison has been built, we survived the suicidal part of the mission and have a stable foothold. Every army has camp followers. Where the army goes, so go those who want to make a profit off of battle.

Krald asked:

while the regent tab is great, along with the button to deposit all regents with one click.... it is so incredibly annoying to have to have said regents IN YOUR BAGS to start work orders.... so many trips back to ashran.....

I had this complaint, too. However, last night I noticed the problem had gone away. Either they hotfixed work orders to check your reagent tab or there's something else going on.

Kehara asked:

I'm having trouble with a lack of garrison resources. I can't affort doing all the followers missions, building new buildings etc. and I think it's because I choose the inn for my medium plot. I'm level 93 currently and just came to Gorgrond. Should I swap buildings to the lumber mill or just wait it out and will it get any better? Thanks guys. Hope you're enjoying WoD, I am so far!

I'm having the exact same problem and unfortunately, I don't have an answer. I've considered switching to the Lumber Mill or Trading Post, but I really love having the inn. I wouldn't mind accruing resources more slowly as my punishment for not taking the Lumber Mill, but I feel like I'm at a deficit that can only be overcome by not playing and letting my stockpile regenerate passively. Which is lame.

Personally, I expect Blizzard will do something to alleviate this issue in the future. I can't imagine they intend for every player to take the Lumber Mill or Trading Post if they want to participate in garrison missions at all, especially when the Inn seems aimed at giving you more mission gameplay. That's the inn's entire purpose! Right now, I feel like I have to demolish my inn, replace it with a Lumber Mill, build up resources for my level 3 garrison, then demolish the Lumber Mill and put the Inn back.

Chad C asked:

As an orc, I felt kind of weird following Khadgar's orders. Sure, he's one of, if not the most, powerful mages living, but he's still a pink skinned human I'd really rather bury my axe in. Anyone else feel that way?

I know someone already said this in the comments yesterday, but ... that's how the Alliance feels about Thrall.

BapoThe-Paladin asked:

So I've been doing work orders, and I also have been using my daily cd to craft 4 Truesteel Ingots. I also put Rulkan to work in the forge, to help yield better results from work orders. But is there any way to get more faster?

There's also a vendor in your garrison that accepts Primal Spirits in exchange for the various crafting materials. Items like Truesteel Ingots and Gearspring Parts require 10 Primal Spirits each. You get Primal Spirits through mining, herbalism, and skinning. They also drop as loot from any level 100 mob that drops Apexis Crystals.

Taitrina asked:

I was questing in Talador (I always level via loremaster) and I was even reading all the quest text. Suddenly I was fighting the Legion. Now, I had been fighting the Iron Horde so it was a bit of a surprise. True I'd been playing a while and should probably have taken a break but clearly I missed something massive and I'm not quite sure how I managed it. So what's the story with the Legion in Talador? Where did they come from? It kinda felt like out of nowhere. I did all the quests in Shadowmoon, I'm guessing something to do with Gul'dan?

If you were paying attention to the quests, I'm surprised you're surprised! Gul'dan is still mucking around with the Burning Legion with his Shadow Council followers. A few quests in Shadowmoon Valley makes it fairly explicit. He sends Teron'gor and Cho'gall out into the world to set plans in motion. Teron'gor goes to Auchindoun and Cho'gall to Nagrand. The orcs as a whole didn't partake of the demon blood, but Gul'dan most certainly did.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!