garrisons
Latest
The Queue: Owl worship
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. Goooood morning, WoW Insider! ScottLeyes asked: Is there a "best time" to queue for LFD? Or, more appropriately, are there "better" times to queue? I usually try to queue in the early evening, thinking there are more people online, but Saturdays seem horrible, and Sundays are hit and miss. Opinions? Data?
Recruit Soulare of Andorhal for your garrison
How would you like a follower who will happily throw a beam of light on you if you /praise him, and hand over a toy for your Toy Box just to be nice? Soulare of Andorhal isn't your typical follower at all. He's a protection paladin with the usual array of good follower abilities, but it's the fun things this follower does that makes him appealing. There's also the fact that he's a thinly-veiled reference to the Dark Soul character Solaire of Astora, but that's just the icing on the cake. Getting this follower, however, is slightly more difficult than you'd think. He starts out at level 90, because you don't find him out in the wilds of Draenor -- you recruit him from your Inn. In order to get Soulare, you're going to need the right building, the right set of abilities, and a whopping dollop of luck on top of it. But it's all worth it in the end. And if you're not quite feeling up to the challenge ... well, there's some good news on that end, too.
World of Warcraft in the new year
Blizzard has just released a preview of some exciting new things we can expect from WoW in 2015. Let's get right down to the highlights: In patch 6.1, the legendary quest will be rewarding you with a legendary follower. They will be testing the ability to send tweets (with screenshots) from inside the game. Better flight paths, with more direct routing. New incentives to invite friends into your garrison with daily tasks (complete with rewards and achievements). New ways to spend Garrison Resources, new follower missions and rewards, new follower modification items, and a new tier of difficulty for garrison invasions. The ability to purchase game time tokens (with real money) that can be traded with other players in game for gold. Account-wide heirloom system, with the ability to upgrade heirlooms to level 100. New blood elf models and tweaks for existing models. Improving Ashran faction balance. Blackrock Foundry will begin opening in February 2015. Check out the full blue post after the break.
The Queue: Invasions, work orders, 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. Yes, more garrison questions. What can you do? loli.gigis asked: How long after you get an invasion quest does it go away? Is it with the reset or after 7 days?
The Queue: Azerothian tobacco
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. Gallywix, you need to see a dentist. Lenneth asked: So I'm wondering how do players who haven't gone hardcore into professions/get lucky with auctioning boes make decent gold in WoD? I had a lot of success with mining before the IoT was introduced, then I capitalized on on the mats from the troll rares. Aside from maybe a small handful of gold from garrison missions I'm not amassing any wealth and that really hurts my serious mount collecting efforts.
Recruit garrison kitty Goldmane as a follower
He may not be the best-dressed or most literate garrison follower you'll ever have, but Goldmane has one thing going for him, and it's right in his name. Goldmane the Skinner is a level 100 follower with the Skinning trait, allowing him to work at your garrison Barn and increase work order production. Available to both Alliance and Horde, Goldmane is pretty easy to pick up -- he just requires a short trip out to the southern coast of Nagrand. Head to Ironfist Harbor on the southwest shores of Nagrand and you'll come across a base for the Iron Horde that also includes a bonus mission, if you feel up to the challenge of killing a lot of orcs. If not, look around for the tallest tower in the base -- your objective is at the top. Fight your way up the tower, and you'll see two things of note: One very angry kitty locked away in a cage, and an orc by the name of Bolkar the Cruel, who is gloating over his latest captive.
Upcoming changes to garrison outposts
If you've regretted any of your garrison outpost decisions, it's now going to sting just a little bit less. Instead of costing 10,000 gold to switch outposts, it will soon be reduced to 5,000 gold. The exception is Nagrand where it will only cost 500 gold to switch between the siege tank and mounted combat. Blizzard is also going to allow you to recruit followers from the other outpost (previously this was not possible, even if you switched). These changes won't happen until the next maintenance. Looks like I have yet another reason to get a level 3 Barracks. Lore We're planning to make some changes to the Garrison Zone Outposts, to reduce the costs necessary to change out the building you initially chose while questing through the zone, and also allow you to earn the unique follower associated with alternate building choices. Specifically, these changes will be: The cost to change your Garrison Outpost building in Gorgrond, Talador, and Spires of Arak reduced to 5,000 gold The cost to change your Garrison Outpost building in Nagrand reduced to 500 gold Changing your Garrison Outpost building in a zone will also grant access to the building-specific questline for that zone, including the building-specific follower Note that you will still be unable to change your Garrison Outpost building until you've reached level 100 and earned your current building's zone achievement, at which point the building can be changed by speaking with the outpost's foreman NPC (who varies from building to building). These changes are currently not planned to go live until the next maintenance period for each region, but we wanted to give as much advance notice as possible that they're on their way. source
Patch 6.0.3 hotfixes for December 9
Do you have a Barn, Dwarven Bunker / War Mill, or Trading Post? If so, you're going to enjoy today's round of hotfixes. Alchemists can also rejoice now that Crystal Vials exist outside of a single vendor in Draenor. Here are some of the highlights: Barn: Increased the drop rates for Savage Blood from work orders. Dwarven Bunker / War Mill: Work orders now award more Iron Horde Scraps and increased the drop rates for Follower Enhancements. Trading Post: The Savage Friends achievement now only requires the character to become Exalted with 1 Draenor reputation (down from 3). Salvage Yard: Salvage recovered from a Garrison Mission should now always contain an item. General goods vendors across Draenor now offer Crystal Vials and Enchanting Vellums for sale. Check out the full list of hotfixes after the break.
The Queue: Lumbershelly
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. Everyone thank Adam for covering for me yesterday. And now I'm taking his place today! Bugboy asked: I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but...well, my apologies for not taking note before. For the legendary quest, do we need to collect and keep 4986 apexis crystals, or can we spend them along the way?
Changes to Salvage Yard rewards
The Salvage Yard has become my favorite building ever since I upgraded it to level 3. The Big Crates of Salvage can be loot pinatas. I personally have received two ilvl 665 epics, a full class transmog set, and numerous green and blue BoEs that have sold well on the auction house. Then, of course, there's all the follower upgrades. This building was so lucrative that people figured out if you kept a single follower in the 90-94 range, you would have a virtually unlimited supply of 30-45 minute missions to gain salvage. Blizzard wasn't a fan of this somewhat tedious requirement to maximize the building's output, so they made some adjustments. Here's a summary of the Salvage Yard changes that have happened over the last few days: Only successful missions can reward salvage crates (failed missions used to reward them too) Successful level 100 missions always reward a Big Crate of Salvage (or Crate of Salvage if you're level 2) Successful level 95-99 missions have a chance at rewarding a Big Crate of Salvage (or Crate of Salvage if you're level 2) Successful level 90-94 missions have a chance at rewarding a Bag of Salvaged Goods, also known as the junk box. This is regardless of the building level. You can read the post announcing these changes after the break.
Hotfixes for December 4
Another day, another round of hotfixes. Today's highlights include: Player pets should now correctly rejoin the player after taking a flight path or using a vehicle. Battleground Flag Carriers should now correctly have a 45-second delay before their location is revealed to the enemy team (was incorrectly revealing their location immediately). Recruit-a-Friend characters should now be correctly receiving a 300% bonus to the experience awarded for completing a Dungeon (was incorrectly awarding 900% instead). The full hotfixes can be found below. There are a few class balance hotfixes there, so don't miss them!
World of Warcraft developer AMA highlights
Last night, World of Warcraft developers Tom Chilton, Ion Hazzikostas, Cory Stockton, and Brian Holinka held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the /r/wow subreddit along with the occasional responses from community managers Jonathan Brown (Zarhym), Micah Whipple (Bashiok), Josh Allen (Lore), and Randy Jordan (Kaivax). Over the course of the AMA, the developers answered questions pertaining to class balance, Warlords features, garrisons, character models, and slight teasers for future content. We'll pull out a few highlights here, but we suggest heading over to /r/wow to read everything. Subreddit moderator aphoenix compiled a handy summary of the AMA to make finding the developers' responses quick and easy -- but remember to read the developers' full responses rather than take the summary as direct quotes. Flight in Warlords of Draenor Aedeus asked: What's the deal currently with your stance on flying, any new developments, or insights? Ion Hazzikostas: Overall, we're happy with how ground travel in Draenor has played out thus far, and we've heard a lot of feedback to that effect as well, though we of course recognize that there are players who feel differently. We'll have more to announce about our 6.1 patch plans in the very near future, but as the focus of our endgame outdoor content remains in the main Draenor zones, our reasons for disallowing flight in 6.0 continue to apply in 6.1. Whether you're navigating your way to Orumo the Observer in Shattrath Rise, trying to reach a treasure cache atop a column in Spires, or working your way around the ledges encircling The Pit, you're engaging in gameplay that simply would not exist in a world with unfettered flight. It was never our intent to make large-scale navigation of the world inconvenient, and in 6.1 we're going to be improving our flight path system to always take the most direct route between two points, even if you have not discovered some of the intermediate nodes. Please keep the feedback coming – if you're unhappy with the design, some of the most helpful feedback would be specific examples of situations or systems that feel frustrating without being able to fly in Draenor. source Follow along for a few more highlights.
The Queue: Garrisons, Socrethar, and disgusting toes
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. Good news! Today isn't completely about garrisons. Only mostly. Hallowspite asked: how the heck do I use follower enhancement items? I'm in the mission table follower screen in front of a level 100 follower who's neither assigned to a building nor out on a mission, but nothing is working.
The Queue: Khadgar is not your minion
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. Another Monday shortday! CaptainCakewalk asked: What is that little change in Warlords that you really like / love? My vote would go to the random upgrading of gear, it's given me pieces of gear which are often Epic quality when I really needed them, it's amazing!
Master Plan addon makes Garrison mission management a breeze
Garrisons are an integral part of the leveling game in Warlords of Draenor, but they're also part of the endgame, too -- collecting various followers and sending them on the appropriate missions will net you rewards like gear, gold, resources, and more. But although I love the garrison game, when you've got 20 followers, trying to keep track of who does what is almost a logistical nightmare. Sure, there's only a handful of threats that your follower's abilities need to counter, but remembering which follower does what is something that I still haven't mastered. Beyond that, the mission interface itself is decent and fairly intuitive, but it's not quite as user-friendly as it could be. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited the inevitable addons that would take missions and follower management to the next level -- because if there's one thing I've learned in 10 years of gameplay, it's that addon authors are ridiculously talented when it comes to redesigning UI functions into elegant masterpieces of design. And the addon Master Plan by Foxlit has done exactly that with the missions and follower interface.
My Garrison of Discontent
Is it possible to admire something as well designed, a really excellent piece of game design, yet resent that it exists? Because I feel that way about the Garrison. Keep in mind, I'm not saying the Garrison is bad, because I honestly believe it's one of the most intriguing things World of Warcraft has ever done. Instead of something like player housing, they've made you the head of a base, a forward war camp on hostile alien terrain. In essence, your Garrison is the tip of the Horde or Alliance spear onto Draenor. It's brilliantly executed. The feature, with its outposts and the follower minigame and the buildings that grant specific benefits all ties together, and feels organic - it makes sense that your base of operations, cut off as it is from home (at least in terms of story) would do as much as it could to become a self-sufficient entity. Frankly, although we have Warspear and Stormshield over on Ashran, the Garrison feels more like the official Horde or Alliance capital, at least to me. And yet I've grown to hate my Garrison in some ways. Perhaps it's simply that the Garrison is too good at hooking into the rat brain and making it dance. There's always some reason to be concerned about it - if you want to make use of your Garrison to its fullest extent, there's ore to be mined or plants to be gathered or missions to send your followers on, resources to be collected, buildings to be upgraded. It feels like I'm never allowed not to be thinking about my Garrison.
PSA: Beware the Hearthstone Strategy Guide and Supreme Manual of Dance
Though Blizzard issued its own warning previously, but as we're still seeing players make irreversible mistakes they regret, we'd like to mention it again: be careful when using the Hearthstone Strategy Guide or Supreme Manual of Dance on your garrison followers. The Strategy Guide's tooltip reads Use: Teaches a follower the Hearthstone Pro trait. What it doesn't tell you is the Hearthstone Pro trait will replace one of your follower's current traits and you cannot choose what is replaced. Numerous players have used the item under the (reasonable) assumption that it will be added on to the current list of traits, losing something essential in the process. If you accidentally wipe out the Blacksmithing trait from a follower you intended for your forge, you might not be able to get another follower with that trait unless you build a level 2 inn and recruit one from the headhunter. The Hearthstone Pro trait increases experience earned on follower missions by 35%, so it can be useful for leveling new followers, but be cautious where you use it. Similarly, the Dancer trait from the Supreme Manual of Dance is also useful, granting a follower the capacity to counter Danger Zones on missions. Note that Dancer is a trait and not an ability, meaning the follower who uses it will be able to counter 3 abilities rather than the typical maximum of 2. The Supreme Manual of Dance is an excellent thing to use on a follower dedicated to running missions and does not already have the ability to counter Danger Zones, but use it with care.
The Queue: Garrisons, garrisons, some other stuff, and garrisons
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. Garrisons continue to be the hot topic around these parts. With Warlords of Draenor leaving so much unexplained, confusion is rampant. dshiryu asked: How do one trigger garrison invasions? We already kill dozens of mobs from an opposing faction daily to get apexis, how many more must suffer to cause retaliation? THOUSANDS?
The Queue: Garrisons, bladefists, and Blackrocks
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. As is often the case with Monday editions of The Queue, we might be a bit brief today. Benjamin Seeberger asked: What's the max number of followers you can have? What happens when I want another follower but have no more room? What should I do!
Garrison Secrets, Easter Eggs and Hidden Surprises
Leave it to Blizzard to slip a few in-jokes into their new Garrison feature in Warlords of Draenor. From riffs on celebrity names to hidden caches of Garrison resources to a special bird that will make you the envy of all your RP friends, we've compiled a list of everything we've found so far. First, of course, is Pepe, the bird that you can wear on your head. As outlined by our very own Anne Stickney earlier in the week, Pepe is a bird hiding in a tree in your Garrison. If you can get to him and click on his little feathered figure, he'll perch on your head for the next hour. Yes, even as your run the special 40-man Molten Core or hunt elites for desperately needed Garrison resources. And, in case you were curious, Pepe's secret origin has been published by his creator.
