Garrisons: Spotlight on Medium Buildings

This post in one in a series of posts that will be in regards to garrisons, the main new feature in Warlords of Draenor.  In the previous posts we went over the last of the small buildings and all the standard buildings that come with every garrison.

This post will focus on medium buildings and explain what they can be used for.  You will not be able to build a medium building until your garrison reaches level 2 and you will be allowed to add a second one when your garrison reaches level 3.  You can always build over a building you no longer want and replace them with something else, but even if you can afford it, having an idea what you want beforehand can't hurt.  I hope this post will help in that endeavor.

Note:  As warlords is still in beta, it is possible some of this information might change before the expansion is released.

Medium Garrison Buildings:

Each medium building is tailored to a specific style of game play.   It is quite possible all these buildings will seem as if they were designed just for you, but you can only have two.  As such, while I review the buildings and make suggestions on them, your mileage might vary, depending on what aspect of the game interests you.  It is possible that none of these buildings will really tickle your fancy, but that is alright too, I will still have a suggestion for which ones to build if that is the case.

Spotlight on the Barn:

The barn, as you might have noticed I mentioned in the professions guides, is the only place you will be able to get savage blood from.  Being savage blood is used for basically every piece of crated upgrade gear items that means that the barn is focused on people that are into crafting.  It is a professions building, if you will, and the most important one at that no matter what your crafting profession might be.

Edit: It has been noted in the comments that you can also get savage blood from trading in 50 primal spirits.  As it remains to be seen how rare these drops are (I've never seen one) I will refrain from considering them a viable option for buying savage blood.  It has been said they will also come from gathering nodes, which might make this a possibility but a barn would still be the best and only predictable way to get savage blood.

Level 1 Barn:

A level 1 barn requires you to have a level 2 town hall.
A level 1 barn will take 1 hour to build and requires 100 garrison resources and 150 gold.
A level 1 barn allows you to use iron traps.
A level 1 barn allows for the capture of clefthoofs for leather.
A level 1 barn allows for the capture of elekk for leather.
A level 1 barn allows for the capture of wolves for fur.
A level 1 barn allows for the capture of talbuk for fur.
A level 1 barn allows for 7 work orders.

Level 2 Barn:

A level 2 barn requires you to be level 98 or have completed the spires of arak outpost quest line.
A level 2 barn will take 1 hour to build and requires 300 garrison resources and 300 gold.
A level 2 barn allows you to use improved iron traps.
A level 2 barn allows for the capture of riverbeasts for meats.
A level 2 barn allows for the capture of boar for meats.
A level 2 barn allows for 14 work orders.

The level 2 barn blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1000 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 barn blueprint with a copy of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Spires of Arak and Gorgrond.  This could effectively save you 2000 gold.

Level 3 Barn:

A level 3 barn requires you to be level 100 and have completed the [Master Trapper] achievement.
A level 3 barn blueprint will cost you 1000 gold.
A level 3 barn will take 1 hour to build and requires 600 garrison resources and 500 gold.
A level 3 barn allows you to use deadly iron traps.
A level 3 barn allows you to capture elite beasts for savage blood.
A level 3 barn will award you with the pygmy cow battle pet.
A level 3 barn allows for 21 work orders.

Work Orders:

Work orders are different in a barn when compared to everything else I have written about thus far.  In a barn you can start many different types of work orders depending on the items you have to start them.  Each work order will give you different result depending on what you used to start the work order.

When clefthoofs or elekk are captured you get an item that can start a work order for leather.
When wolves or talbuk are captured you get an item that can start a work order for fur.
When riverbeasts or boars are captured you get and item that can start a work order for meat.
When an elite wetland trampler is captured you get an item that can start a work order for savage feasts and it gives you a chance at getting some savage blood.
When an elite iron hide bull is captured you get an item that can start a work order for raw beast hide and it gives you a chance to get some savage blood.
When an elite direfang alpha is captured you get an item that can start a work order for sumptuous fur and it gives you a chance to get some savage blood.

You can mix and match starting a few different work orders of a few different types.  Over all the elite beasts will be the most important ones, not only because you get more materials from them, but because they give you savage blood, a much needed commodity to crafters, and this is the only way to attain it.

Work orders will stack up if you are not online for a while and you will not miss out on anything. So if you have a 21 order queue you would only need to collect your products and place new orders every 84 hours, which is three and a half days, making this fantastic for those alts you sometimes forget to log into.

Traps:

To trap a beast you need to first injure it so that it is below 25% health and then throw the trap to capture it.  Once you capture it an item will be placed in your bag representing the beast you caught.  This item is used to create work orders.  Note, for pet classes, it might be a good idea to put your pets on passive when you are trying to capture a beast, even more so if you are a considerably higher level than the beast you are trying to trap.

Iron Traps allow you to capture clefthoofs and elekks which can be used to place leather work orders and wolves and talbuks which can be used to place fur work orders.
Improved Iron Trap allows all the previous in addition to being able to capture boars and riverbeasts used to place work orders for meat.
Deadly Iron Trap allows all the previous in addition to being able to capture elite beasts which give the very important crafting material known as savage blood.

My personal assessment of the barn, opinion only of course.

The barn is of huge importance but like all medium buildings it will depend on your focus for game play.  If you are in a serious raiding guild that will be downing bosses with ease the second normal and heroic are released the value of the barn is greatly diminished as the most important thing that comes from a barn is savage blood which is used to craft weapons and armor, but no greater than a 665 item level, which gear from both normal and heroic raids is higher than.

Same goes for if your focus is PvP.  Being the crafted gear is not PvP gear than the savage blood and the ability to make gear with it is all but meaningless to you.  Add people who have a lot of gold and do not mind spending it to that list of people this might not be the best choice for.  Being savage blood is not souldbound someone with a fair deal of gold can just purchase it, or the item to upgrade, from someone else, and choose to have a different medium building while someone else does the work of collecting the materials for them.

On the other hand if you are not a raider, at least on the terms of normal mode or better, than this building could be a very good way to build toward making your own gear.  For alts this works wonders as well, as the gear the savage blood makes is better than LFR gear.  Also, if you are looking to make gold, irregardless of  if you want to make gear for yourself or not, farming and selling the savage blood on the auction house will no doubt be a fantastic to make some early expansion gold.  If you are someone like me, that will be raiding and downing bosses, but has notoriously bad luck with drops, this could be worth it so at some point I can craft a missing piece or two without having to spend the gold to do so.

Rating: 5 out or 5 stars if you need the gear, need the gold, like to craft your own stuff or are an alt.
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars if you do not care to make the gold, are a PvPer, or will be downing every boss the moment it comes out.

Spotlight on the Gladiator's Sanctum:

The gladiators sanctum can best be described as the PvPers building.  It focuses only on the player vs player aspect of the game.  Of course anyone can build it, but if you are interested in that aspect of the game you will most definitely get more out of it.

Level 1 Gladiator's Sanctum:

A level 1 gladiator's sanctum requires you to have a level 2 town hall.
A level 1 gladiator's sanctum will take 1 hour to build and requires 100 garrison resources and 150 gold.
A level 1 gladiator's sanctum increases your out of combat regeneration of health and resources while on draenor.
A level 1 gladiator's sanctum allows for the collection of broken bones from players defeated in combat.
A level 1 gladiator's sanctum allows for 7 work orders.

Level 2 Gladiator's Sanctum:

A level 2 gladiator's sanctum requires you to be level 98 or have completed the spires of arak outpost quest line.
A level 2 gladiator's sanctum will take 1 hour to build and requires 300 garrison resources and 300 gold.
A level 2 gladiator's sanctum grants the safe fall ability while on draenor reducing fall damage.
A level 2 gladiator's sanctum grants underwater breathing while on draenor.
A level 2 gladiator's sanctum opens a daily quest entitled nemesis.
A level 2 gladiator's sanctum allows for 14 work orders.

The level 2 gladiator's sanctum blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1000 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 gladiator's sanctum blueprint with a copy of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Spires of Arak and Gorgrond.  This could effectively save you 2000 gold.

Level 3 Gladiator's Sanctum:

A level 3 gladiator's sanctum requires you to be level 100 and have completed the [Bone Collector] achievement.
A level 3 gladiator's sanctum blueprint will cost you 1000 gold.
A level 3 gladiator's sanctum will take 1 hour to build and requires 600 garrison resources and 500 gold.
A level 3 gladiator's sanctum reduces all damage taken by 50% when below 35% health while outdoors on draenor.
A level 3 gladiator's sanctum grants access to the highmaul coliseum gladiator tournament.
A level 3 gladiator's sanctum allows for 21 work orders.

Collecting Broken Bones:

Broken bones are automatically awarded to you, and added to your inventory, whenever you beat an opponent that grants honor or experience in player vs player battle.  Each honorable kill will grant you anywhere between 3 and 8 broken bones.  The bone collecter achievement, which is needed to get the pattern for a level 3 gladiator's sanctum, requires you to collect 4000 broken bones and is account bound, so once you get the achievement on any single character all your characters will have access to the level 3 plans for the gladiator's sanctum.

Broken bones are not only just a measuring stick of collection to open up the level 3 blueprints but also a commodity for the Warlord of Draenor [H] / Warlord of Draenor [A] quest that requires you to turn in 50 of them.

Broken bones will also be used as the commodity that you will need to fill work orders in your gladiator's sanctum.  It takes 10 broken bones per work order and you could be awarded with 620 gear (675 in PvP) when completing a work order.  So keeping the broken bones, and blood, flowing and the work orders running is most definitely a good idea.

Nemesis Quests:

Nemesis quests will ask you to seek out a specific race for extermination.  A standard quest will seek the heart of a specific race, such as bring a human heart for the horde, or bring an orc heart for the alliance.  However there are other quests that require much more work over a long time and offer titles in return.  Each of these quests will require you to kill 500 of a specific race and once completed, besides giving you some gold and some garrison resources, it will award you with a title. You will not be able to choose the quest, it will just be given to you and you have to complete it before moving to the next.

Horde Titles:

Kill 500 Draenei: (name), Draenei Destroyer
Kill 500 Dwarves: (name), the Dwarfstalker
Kill 500 Gnomes: Gnomebane (name)
Kill 500 Humans: (name), the Manslayer
Kill 500 Night Elves: (name), Scourge of the Kaldorei
Kill 500 Tushui Pandaren: (name), Terror of the Tushui
Kill 500 Worgen: (name), Worgen Hunter

Alliance Titles:

Kill 500 Blood Elves: (name), Slayer of Sin'dorei
Kill 500 Forsaken: (name), the Death Stalker
Kill 500 Goblins: (name), Killer of Kezan
Kill 500 Huojin Pandaren: (name), Huojin's Fall
Kill 500 Orcs: Orcslayer (name)
Kill 500 Tauren:  (name), the Butcher
Kill 500 Trolls:  Troll Hunter (name)

Highmaul Coliseum:

The highmaul coliseum is like the gurubashi arena in STV or the darkmoon deathmatch arena at the darkmoon faire.  Many people enter, only one comes out.  If you win the highmaul coliseum gladiator event you will be awarded the title , Lady of War or Lord of War.  The winner will also receive a new toy to add to their toy box, the Warlord's Flag of Victory.

My personal assessment of the gladiator's sanctum, opinion only of course.

Being I am not into player vs player combat to begin with my interest in this building started at a low point.  However, as I researched on garrisons while playing and further more while writing this, I must admit even myself, who is not really into the PvP aspect of the game, is interested in this building.

Sadly for me, as a PvE focused player this would still be my last choice.  If it were a standard building like the mine or the garden I could very well see myself getting active in PvP and even starting to enjoy it as I worked toward titles and collected broken bones along the way.  But even at that, and my knowing that at least at the start of the expansion I will not be building this building, it sure does seem like something I will switch to later on if and when I feel like one of the other medium building are no longer suitable for me.

I personally believe blizzard made a huge mistake by not making this building part of the standard buildings that everyone gets like the garden and mine because it could have very well started to get some interest from people that are not into PvP, but having to waste a space on it will hurt them even trying.  Each time I look at this building on the beta I keep thinking "lost opportunity".

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars if you are absolutely against PvP and not interested in it at all.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars as a non PvPer that is open to the idea.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars if you are a PvPer, because this is fantastic PvP content.

Spotlight on the Lunarfall Inn / Frostwall Tavern:

For the sake of sanity as to not type both names each time I will just refer to this building as the Inn, thank you very much.  The inn is a place where you will see many faces passing through that you might recognize.   Even if it were only for the fun and nostalgia reasons this could be an interesting building to consider spending one of your two medium spot on, but we would need more.

The inn does offer more.  The inn serves as a dungeon quest hub.  Each day two visitors will come to your inn and offer you quests in dungeons and they offer some unique goodies like toys, pets or just more junk to take up bag space.  The inn also offers you a place to recruit some additional followers, which if you are trying to build up quickly can really help, and if you are trying to get all the follower achievements, is required.  This building works as a daily quest hub best, if I needed to tie it to what it is best suited to fill the space of, as I have with all buildings.

Level 1 Inn:

A level 1 inn requires you to have a level 2 town hall.
A level 1 inn will take 1 hour to build and requires 100 garrison resources and 150 gold.
A level 1 inn has a visitor come every day to offer a daily dungeon.
A level 1 inn does not have any work orders that can be filled.

Level 2 Inn:

A level 2 inn requires you to be level 98 or have completed the spires of arak outpost quest line.
A level 2 inn will take 1 hour to build and requires 300 garrison resources and 300 gold.
A level 2 inn will allow you to recruit one follower each week.
A level 2 inn allows your to specify what abilities or traits you are looking for in a follower.
A level 2 inn does not have any work orders that can be filled.

The level 2 inn blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1000 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 inn blueprint with a copy of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Spires of Arak and Gorgrond.  This could effectively save you 2000 gold.

Level 3 Inn:

A level 3 inn requires you to be level 100 and have completed the [Stay Awhile and Listen] (A) / [Stay Awhile and Listen] (H) achievement.
A level 3 inn blueprint will cost you 1000 gold.
A level 3 inn will take 1 hour to build and requires 600 garrison resources and 500 gold.
A level 3 inn opens up the chance to get treasure hunter follower missions.
A level 3 inn does not have any work orders that can be filled.

Dungeon Quests:

There are two types of daily dungeon quests, I am only going to list the ones needed for the achievement.  But there are others.  Any others listed just drop baggies as rewards.  What they might contain is mostly still unknown.  But I would guess a bag of skins contains skins, and so on.  Hey, I could be wrong.

Needed for the Achievement:

And No Maces!: Grimrail Depot, rewards Cache of Arms.
Aviana's Request: Skyreach, rewards Aviana's Feather.
The Brass Compass: Iron Docks, rewards Plundered Booty.
Cenarion Concerns: The Everbloom, rewards Ever Blooming Frond.
Cleaving Time: Grimrail Depot, rewards Gamon's Braid toy.
Cold Steel: Grimrail Depot, rewards the Bloody Bandana cosmetic.
Cro's Revenge: Bloodmaul Slag Mines, rewards the Fruit Basket toy.
Damsels and Dragons: Upper Blackrock Spire, rewards Maximillian's Laundry.
The Cure for Death: Auchindoun, rewards Leonid's Bag of Supplies.
Family Traditions: Upper Blackrock Spire, rewards Huge Pile of Skins.
Feeling A Bit Morose: Iron Docks, rewards Moroes' Famous Polish.
For the Birds: The Everbloom, rewards the Everbloom Peachick battle pet.
Glorious Incandescent: Skyreach, rewards Faintly Sparkling Cache.
The Huntress: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, rewards Sentinel's Companion battle pet.
Oralius' Adventure: Upper Blackrock Spire, rewards Oralius' Whispering Crystal.
Shadowy Secrets: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, rewards the Void Totem toy.
The Soulcutter: Auchindoun, rewards the Lilian's Warning Sign toy.
Time Lost Vikings: Bloodmaul Slag Mines, rewards Sack of Mined Ore.
Titanic Evolution: The Everbloom, rewards Bag of Everbloom Herbs.
The Void Gate: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, rewards Manual of Void Calling.

Recruiting Followers:

While I will not go into details on all the followers that can be recruited through the inn, it should be worth noting that followers that require you to do other things, like complete an achievement, a dungeon, own a building, etc, will not be capable of being recruited this way.  If you want those followers you need to do those things.

One follower may be recruited per week from Lysa Serion (A) or Akanja (H) located at your inn.  Each week they will look around for you to find some people willing to work for you and offer you a selection from what they have found.  There are some gems to be found in this bunch, don't get me wrong, but the majority of the followers they find will basically be filler until you get better ones.  They are still worth recruiting as there are achievements tied to recruiting X amount and leveling X amount of followers.

You can only pick one of the followers that are offered each week so pick wisely.  I suggest looking for followers that have traits none of your current followers have because it will better help balance your group and later on when harder missions come having a follower with the correct traits for the task can be the difference between success and failure.

You will have a tab on the follower selection screen where you can specify which traits or abilities you are actively looking for.  Like if you are looking for someone with the orc slaying ability to have better success on missions against orcs, or you would like a follower with jewel crafting to work at your gem boutique.  Selecting these will mean that next week, after your headhunter comes back with some new possible recruits, they will be more likely to suit your specific needs.

My personal assessment of the inn, opinion only of course.

I must say there is little not to like about the inn.  It gives daily quests, something this expansion is desperately lacking, even if they are only in the form of dungeon dailies, and it allows you to recruit followers, even more so when you can specify what you need.  The lack of ability to make work orders could slow you down if you are pushing quick to get those 250 work orders finished to get the level three profession blueprints, but outside of that the lack of work orders at the inn means little.  Might have been nice if there were food oriented work orders in the kitchen of the inn however. Suggested it on the beta but doesn't seem like they thought my idea was all that good.

This is a content filler building for PvE just as the gladiator sanctum is for PvP and I can see it as being worthwhile for those looking for something to do.  Being you need to queue directly for the daily dungeon however, meaning no extra gold from the random finder, is a huge drawback.  It makes it that once you have completed all the goodie giving dailies and gotten all your toys and pets and other things I am not sure how useful this building will remain long term.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars for the short term while getting your goodies.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars because after you are done with the quests and recruiting followers, outside of looking good there is no reason for this building, except for role play purposes.

Spotlight on The Lumber Mill:

The lumber mill seems to be something that supports garrisons.  You can use to to create garrison resources, which unless they changed anything at the eleventh hour on beta, will not really be a problem, to get a few titles, a few toys, a couple of followers you can get no other way, as well as achievements.  In a way, it gives you a new gathering profession that you need this building to have and a bunch of other little goodies.

Level 1 Lumber Mill:

A level 1 lumber mill requires you to have a level 2 town hall.
A level 1 lumber mill will take 1 hour to build and requires 100 garrison resources and 150 gold.
A level 1 lumber mill allows you to harvest timber from small trees on draenor.
A level 1 lumber mill grants you the ability to track trees on your mini map for harvesting.
A level 1 lumber mill allows for 7 work orders.

Level 2 Lumber Mill:

A level 2 lumber mill requires you to be level 98 or have completed the spires of arak outpost quest line.
A level 2 lumber mill will take 1 hour to build and requires 300 garrison resources and 300 gold.
A level 2 lumber mill allows you to harvest timber from medium trees on draenor.
A level 2 lumber mill allows for 14 work orders.

The level 2 lumber mill blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1000 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 lumber mill blueprint with a copy of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Spires of Arak and Gorgrond.  This could effectively save you 2000 gold.

Level 3 Lumber Mill:

A level 3 lumber mill requires you to be level 100 and have completed the [Upgrading the Mill] achievement.
A level 3 lumber mill blueprint will cost you 1000 gold.
A level 3 lumber mill will take 1 hour to build and requires 600 garrison resources and 500 gold.
A level 3 lumber mill allows you to harvest timber from large trees on draenor.
A level 3 lumber mill allows for 21 work orders.

Note:  The achievements for the lumber mill require filling 10, 50 and 100 work orders, but since they increased the number or work orders I am not sure if they intend to make these numbers a little higher or leave them this low. If they do reach live this low, consider it a gift from blizzard as you can fill them all, with some work of course, in less than a week.

Work Orders:

A work order at the lumber mill requires 10 timber to start.  The only place to get timber in the game is from chopping down trees on draenor, which luckily enough the lumber mill grants you the ability to do.   Each work order will get you 100 garrison resources.

Work orders will stack up if you are not online for a while and you will not miss out on anything. So if you have a 21 order queue you would only need to collect your products and place new orders every 84 hours, which is three and a half days, making this fantastic for those alts you sometimes forget to log into.

Titles:

There are two titles that you can get from owning a lumber mill.  The lumberjack title, Lumberjack (name), come from completing the achievement [Choppin' Some More Logs] which requires you to complete 50 work orders at the lumber mill and the commandojack (A) / timber lord (H) title. (name), the Commandojack and Timber Lord (name), come from the achievement [Chopping Even More Logs] (A) / [Chopping Even More Logs] (H) which requires you to complete 100 work orders at the lumber mill.

Followers:

There are three different followers that are unique to the lumber mill but you can only get two of them.  Two come from a quest where one is offered to you depending on which faction you are, meaning you can only have one as you can not do both quests.  The alliance quest is, The Rise and Fall of Barov Industries: Weldon Barov which will award you with the Weldon Barov follower and the horde quest is, The Rise and Fall of Barov Industries: Axeli Barov which will award you with Alexi Barov follower.

The third follower, the Phylarch the Evergreen follower is uniquely suited to work at your lumber mill.  To get him as a follower you need to have a level 3 lumber mill.  While out in the world chopping down trees he will occasionally appear as a 400K plus NPC that you must fight.  After enough appearances he will no longer be hostile with you are offer to join you so that he can teach you to gather your timber in a more humane way.  Hey, he is a tree.

When assigned to your lumber mill as a worker he will help make your work orders more profitable as well as offering to sell you a fun item.  The Everbloom Seed Pouch will cost you 250 garrison resources and is one of those transformation goodies that turn you into a tree but only had three charges. It will surely be something fun for some people that like those sorts of things.

Goodies:

Speaking of goodies the lumber mill offers a few more things that might be of interest to collectors.  Sadly these are not toys so they will take up some bag space and they will not be shared across all your characters like toys are.  Lets hope blizzard changes their minds on these before the expansion goes live.

Treessassin's Guise transforms you into a tree and you get it after completing a quest that requires you to assassinate 4 trees.  Not kidding, that is what makes you the treessassin.
Barov Lumberjack Caller is a 550 item level trinket with 75 critical strike and 75 mastery which effectively makes it useless from a gearing perspective, but its use ability calls for a bunch of lumberjacks to come to your side.  You will be award this are part of the quest line that gets you the appropriate barov follower.

My personal assessment of the lumber mill, opinion only of course.

While at face value a building that only offers ways to get more garrison supplies, when they are never in short supply to begin with if you are active, seems a little underwhelming.  But it can be put to good use if you pair this building with another medium building, namely the trading post, which allows you to trade garrison resources for any material basically.

This building does however offer some unique things like the titles, followers, goodies, achievements, that could woo some people to play with it for a while just to get them and then maybe move along to another building. I can most definitely see this being the case for players like me.  I will, at some point, build this to get all of those things on my main, but I can't see this being the type of building serving a long term purpose.

If you want to use it to get all the stuff and move along, this is a good building.  If you want to use it early on to get some quick extra garrisons resources that could make for a solid strategy.  If you want to change to it later and use it in conjunction with the trading post to get lots and lots of extra resources (read trading post section for more on that) than that is a solid game plan.  All in all, this building seems to have its purpose, but only as a part time building.  Not as something you will want to keep forever, unless it is on a rarely played alt you use as a material gathering mule, then this would be a great choice, but once again, only when paired with a trading post.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars when standing alone.
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars when paired with a trading post.

Spotlight on the Trading Post:

It should go without saying that the trading post is all about commerce.  Trading this for that is implied with the title of this building and it does not let down on that aspect.  A great building for gathering garrison resources, trade resources for materials, and trading with other players via the auction house.  Some might say that this building best suits a goblin trying to make money but I say it best fits a player trying to play.

Level 1 Trading Post:

A level 1 trading post requires you to have a level 2 town hall.
A level 1 trading post will take 1 hour to build and requires 100 garrison resources and 150 gold.
A level 1 trading post allows you to trade garrison resources for crafting materials.
A level 1 trading post allows for 7 work orders.

Level 2 Trading Post:

A level 2 trading post requires you to be level 98 or have completed the spires of arak outpost quest line.
A level 2 trading post will take 1 hour to build and requires 300 garrison resources and 300 gold.
A level 2 trading post allows you to assemble a auction house robot in your trading post.
A level 2 trading post allows you to get reputation with the Shattari Defense (A) or Laughing Skull (H) faction.
A level 2 trading post allows for 14 work orders.

The level 2 trading post blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1000 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 trading post blueprint with a copy of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Outpost Building Assembly Notes can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Spires of Arak and Gorgrond.  This could effectively save you 2000 gold.

Level 3 Trading Post:

A level 3 trading post requires you to be level 100 and have completed the [Savage Friends] (A) / [Savage Friends] (H) achievement.
A level 3 trading post blueprint will cost you 1000 gold.
A level 3 trading post will take 1 hour to build and requires 600 garrison resources and 500 gold.
A level 3 trading post increases all reputation gains on draenor by 20% account wide.
A level 3 trading post allows for 21 work orders.

Work Orders:

Work orders at the trading post are unique in the fact you can not plan for them like you can with all other building work orders.  All work orders in all other buildings are a set item but with the trading post you never know what they will be looking for.  Today they might ask you to fill some work orders with 10 raw beast hide, tomorrow they might ask you for 10 nagrand arrowbloom, the day after they might need 10 sumptuous fur.

While some of those items you might be swimming in, say as an herbalist when it is arrowbloom day, others you might not be, like raw beast hide day on that herbalist, who might not have many or any of them.  So the way I suggest handling this building is to stack up on the work orders when it is an item you have a surplus of, and then when it is a day when it is an item you do not have many of let it sit for a while and work on your backed up work orders.  Only add new work orders when you need to because they are about to expire, or when it happens to be an item you have a lot of.

Work orders will stack up if you are not online for a while and you will not miss out on anything. So if you have a 21 order queue you would only need to collect your products and place new orders every 84 hours, which is three and a half days, making this fantastic for those alts you sometimes forget to log into.

Acquiring the Trader:

With your level 1 trading post you will be given a simple quest to find the missing trader, Tricks of the Trade (A) / Tricks of the Trade (H), and wake him with a cup of coffee.  Hey, it would work on me.  It is a simple quest and once you finish it the trader will appear in your trading post offering you a vast selection of items which you can trade garrison resources for.  While really early on you might find yourself on the short end of the garrison stick in due time you will have more than an ample amount and you will be able to use this trader to the best of his ability.  Remember, you can use this very same building to create garrison resources.

List of Materials for Resources:

20 Garrison Resources = 5 Raw Boar Meat, 5 Raw Riverbeast Meat, 5 - Raw Elekk Meat, 5 - Rylak Egg, 5 - Raw Talbuk Meat, 5 - Raw Clefthoof Meat

25 Garrison Resources = 5 - Blackwater Whiptail Flesh, 5 - Abyssal Gulper Eel Flesh, 5 - Sea Scorpion Segment, 5 - Fire Ammonite Tentacle, 5 - Blind Lake Sturgeon Flesh, 5 - Fat Sleeper Flesh, 5 - Jawless Skulker Flesh, Crescent Saberfish Flesh

30 Garrison Resources = 5 - Blackiron Ore, 5 - True Iron Ore

40 Garrison Resources = 5 - Draenic Dust, 5 - Raw Beast Hide

50 Garrison Resources = 5 Sumptuous Fur, 5 - Chameleon Lotus, 5 - Talador Orchid, 5 - Nagrand Arrowbloom, 5 - Starflower, 5 - Frostweed, 5 - Gorgrond Flytrap, 5 - Fireweed

You can also trade for a smuggled sack of gold for 50 garrison resources which will contain a small amount of gold and and a bloody gold purse for one savage blood which will net you around 50 gold but I suggest never doing that, as I expect savage blood to go for a lot more on the auction house, at least at the start of the expansion.

Acquiring the Ancient Trading Mechanism:

I know you want an auction house on your garrison, do not deny it.  A trading post will allow you to build a robot right there called the ancient trading mechanism once you reach level 2.  The quest to open up the auction house, Auctioning for Parts, will require you to do a variety of things all around draenor to complete it.  Or to go to, ironically, the auction house and buy them.  Yes, these quest items will not be placed with your quest items, but will be in your bags, and are not soulbound so you can sell them.  Or in some cases if need be, buy them.  Lets take a look at the parts and where you can get them to build your auction house in your trading post, or to sell the parts for what is sure to be an obscene fee at the start of the expansion.

Arcane Crystal Module:
Requires: Arcane Crystal Casing, Arcane Crystal Conduit, Arcane Crystal Amplifier, and Arcane Crystal Focusing Lens.
Found At: Garrison Invasions and Raids.

Auction Control Module:
Requires: Auction Memory Socket, Auction Connecting Valve, and Auction A.D.D.O.N.S. Installer.
Found At: Dungeons

Cyclical Power Module:
Requires: Cyclical Power Convertor, Cyclical Power Housing, Cyclical Power Framing and Cyclical Power Sequencer.
Found At: Frostfire Ridge, Gorgrond, Spires or Arak

Super Cooling Module:
Requires: Super Cooling Regulator, Super Cooling Tubing, Super Cooling Coolant, and Super Cooling Pump.
Found At: Shadowmoon Valley, Talador, Nagrand.

Universal Language Module:
Requires: Universal Language Compensator, Universal Language Filter, and Universal Language Repository.
Found At: Ashran

Once you collect all the items and assemble the machine you will have an auction house in your trading house making it a full service trading house.  Be aware the parts do not stack so they take up a lot of space.

My personal assessment of the trading post, opinion only of course.

I like the trading post.  I can not tell you the number of times I needed just 2 or 3 more of something and going right over to the trading post to get it was really nice.  Having an auction house in your garrison is also a wonderful thing because, lets face it, anyone that is not an engineer always hated having to head back to the main city out of the way just to list a few things and then head back to current content.  With so many people crafting goods in the garrisons having the ability to instantly turn around and list them on the auction house is a good thing.

The fact that the trading post offers you the ability to fill work orders with extra resources for garrison resources is also something that can help you both early in the game and late in the game.  Early in the game, even more so if you are power leveling, you might find yourself on the short end of the garrison resource stick and this will ease the pain.  Late game you can turn that X commodity that sells for crap on the auction house into garrison resources and then buy Y commodity that is in high demand.

For example, if it is frostweed day and you have thousands of them and it seems everyone else does because they are not selling on the auction house, fill out all your work orders with frostweed.  When the work orders are done you can take those 100 garrison resources and buy 10 sumptuous fur, which might happen to be selling for quite a lot and basically have turned your 10 worthless frostweed into 10 very valuable fur.  Sounds kind of good to me and a great mini game for the money maker in all of us.

Rating: 5 our of 5 stars in any situation.