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Warlords of Draenor: Warspear and Stormshield
In Warlords of Draenor, the island of Ashran isn't just home to a potential paradise for world PvP -- it's also the location of both Alliance and Horde faction hub cities. City may be too strong of a word, however -- the two areas are more like souped up bases of operation than proper capital cities like Shattrath or Dalaran. Less giant city, more stronghold -- and slightly more spread out than the garishly charming Shrines in Mists of Pandaria -- both Warspear and Stormshield are meant to be not necessarily a home away from home, but a centrally located area for commerce and trade. Each stronghold contains portals to every capital city for your respective faction, as well as profession outposts, an auction house, an inn, and a hub of activity for the nearby PvP action in Ashran. In a way, it's kind of nice that the action is nearby. Shattrath was a fun hub city, but it was nowhere near Halaa. Dalaran was great, but having to hop a portal to get to Wintergrasp was never the most elegant solution for players that wanted to duke it out with other players. Still, one of the major concerns for players is simply the strongholds themselves, and their proximity to areas that some people might not want to partake in. So what are these strongholds really like?
Warlords of Draenor: Garrisons will not require gold
While we haven't exactly had an influx of news regarding WoW's next expansion, one good piece of information was recently mentioned on Twitter. Garrisons, a major feature in Warlords, will not require gold to build. Instead, they'll have their own resource system -- although what that resource happens to be, or how it works, has yet to be revealed. Garrisons are WoW's answer to a plea for player housing that has been asked for as far back as vanilla WoW. However, rather than a traditional view of player housing, garrisons have already been shown to be a far more interactive experience, one that your character can use to their advantage by gathering followers, sending them on missions, and even use as a method of boosting professions. While we've seen screenshots of garrisons, and seen a post on the art and design elements behind the feature, we haven't really heard a lot about the actual mechanics other than little tidbits released via Twitter or mentioned in interviews. Here's hoping that waiting for the "soon" mentioned in Senior Game Designer Jeremy Feasel's tweet will be a pretty brief experience. And even though we haven't got much in the way of details, it's nice to know that garrisons won't be breaking anyone's bank.
Warlords of Draenor: New Garrisons screenshot
It seems that Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi isn't the only one tweeting images from Draenor. On the heels of some perfectly lovely screenshots of Talador and Gorgrond, another screenshot has surfaced. Game Designer Jeremy Feasel has stepped in the fray, having joined the Twitter crew yesterday under the moniker @Muffinus. Feasel designs Pet Battles, was the mastermind behind the Timeless Isle, and is now currently working on Garrison content. After a short introduction, he didn't waste any time, posting a new screenshot of a garrison in progress. #Garrisons Just chilling out after building my Town Hall, Inn and Barracks, heading out to find some merchants! pic.twitter.com/Ers3D2uMk1- Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) March 7, 2014 I didn't really think it was possible to get any more excited about garrisons than I already am, but the screenshot certainly managed to make it happen. I love the fountain detail in the center and the clock tower in the back. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind parking any of my characters there for a while.
Warlords of Draenor: New Talador screenshot
We've had several recent tweets from Blizzard developers coyly discussing aspects of certain upcoming patches, or, say expansions. With no Warlords of Draenor beta access yet in sight, every potential glimpse into that world gives us something to get excited about, and last night's tweet of the above picture from Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi is no exception. If you're not quite yet familiar with the different areas of Draenor, our own Matthew Rossi has an excellent article to enlighten you. Talador is a the center of the continent, described as "the heart of Draenor." In that area can be found both the draenei's central city Shattrath and the great mausoleum of Auchindoun. Unfortunately for those draenei players who may wish to make a pilgrimage to Shattrath, Warlords of Draenor finds it almost completely occupied by the Iron Horde. At least Talador itself is serene and beautiful, as the screenshot shows. Preliminary speculation among the WoW Insider staff has us fairly sure that the settlement in Afrasiabi's picture is none other than Tuurem. Burning Crusade era players may remember Tuurem as a ruin in the middle of Terrokar Forest filled with hostile Broken. It was also the key to several quests, including forging the connection between Firewing Point and the unfortunate fate of the Cenarion Thicket. In any case, Tuurem looks a lot nicer in that screenshot than it does in Terrokar, that's for sure.
