Cleaning Up for Release Day

With just a few short days left before the launch of warlords of draenor it is time I finish off the clean up on my characters to get ready for leveling.  It is not something I am just starting now.  I have been doing it a little here and there as the weeks have past, but with only a few days left I need to get my butt in high gear and maybe spend some time this weekend preparing and not soloing every instance ever made on all my characters for mounts.

Cleaning Out the Goods:

Since 6.0 was released I have been clearing out my timeless island items.  Sending cloth stuff to cloth enchanters, leather stuff to leather enchanters, mail stuff to mail enchanters and plate stuff to plate enchanters.  Usually I send some of the items to a server that is not my main, if I have the suitable enchanter there, and use the timeless pieces as a way to make some gold for those lesser played alts on servers where I do not have a lot of gold. It is like sending gold between servers.

Over the last few weeks I have made over 100,000 gold selling just sha crystals.  No, I am not exaggerating at all.  It is probably well over 100,000.  If I were approaching 150 it would not surprise me.  One character on a server where he was alone I sent over many mails filled with timeless island gear and converted it to items and then disenchanted it and sold the sha crystals and he went from having 13K gold to having 48K gold in the past 2 weeks.  Yes ladies and gentleman, 35K gold made just selling sha crystals from stuff I collected on timeless island.  And that is just one character of about 6 I have been selling sha crystals on like mad in the last few weeks.  By the time I get home he could be sitting at 55K if everything I listed last night sells.  He and 3 other enchanters on 3 other servers all listed 60 before I logged off. As high as 110 on some servers and low as 74 on others.

I am listing trillium bars, enchanting materials, anything that has a short life span that I know will go away when the expansion comes out.  Usually things like this go down in value at the end of an expansion but since 6.0 came out these things have only been going up.  I am not ashamed to admit I am milking this great turn of events for every bit that I can.  But I do not believe that this weird turn of events will continue when the new expansion comes out.  I do expect it to be the same as all others and when the new expansion comes out old stuff will be worthless, mostly.

I still have hundreds of timeless island pieces left and I do not think I will have time, or the demand, to sell all those sha crystals, but I could still make a fair deal of gold off them.  Just thinking about it, I still have more than 10 characters that never even opened their chests on the timeless island.  So if by some chance the crystals do sell, I always have a lot of characters to go back and restock.  Have to love having hundreds of thousands of gold just sitting there for the taking.  I think that is the only thing I will miss about timeless island.  The free gold for a tiny bit of effort.

I have to be careful however because as soon as warlords comes out sha crystals are basically vendor trash with no sell value.  So I do not want to over convert the timeless gear into materials.  I need to stay active and do them in small amount of 20 to 40 at a time or I will be left with a bunch of worthless crystals I would have been better off just vendoring the gear instead.  Heck, even at 15 gold or so each, it is still fair deal of gold I have sitting around in timeless gear and I am going to need it for my garrisons.

I am almost completely sold out on herbs and ore of all types, so this is just about crystals now in the last days.  I do have a few thousand leather however, but that doesn't seem to be selling for me.

Cleaning Out the Bags:

I did a lot of clean up when 6.0 first came out but there is still some room to make space.  I am going to sell off any food, potions, flasks, you name it, that are left in my bags.  Old stuff will be worthless shortly so might as well see if I can get something for it now, or I will just use it while leveling or vendor it.

There are also bits of junk I have sitting around to sell, like more than a few characters probably have an overgrown lilypad that I can vendor for a hundred gold.  I will also start selling off the off spec gear, or things I was holding on to "just in case" I needed it.  Also it is time to ditch all that PvP gear, the next time I will need it the gear would be so out of date I would be better off being in my PvE gear.

There are also a bunch of characters I need to head to the island of thunder on.  Still have keys that need using and will free up a bag space when I do so.  Not to mention I have dozens of the incantations of xxx items that need to be used.  Yes I can just throw them away, but it only takes a few seconds to kill the things and sometimes they drop stuff that sells for 20 or 30 gold and I am not the type that just throws away 20 or 30 gold.  So I need to clear them all out of my bags as well on my trip to the island of thunder and if I am going to be there anyway... why not.

Now that bones from the dinos are no longer soulbound I should make one character a catch all for them and send them all to that person.  Even if I have had the mount of ages, I could go back and get another pet.

Speaking of pets, I need to start cleaning up those.  Between imperial moths, sunreaver micro sentry, and the new iron starlet among other things I have pets on all my characters.  I have a bank alt on another server who has a guild bank filled with pets.  So I need to box them on that server, put them in the guild bank, go back to the character that has them, learn them, and then repeat the process until I get all the pets out of all those bags.  I'd say most of my characters have at least 2 pets on them, some have more, much more.

Cleaning Out the Quests:

I had a pattern I established after I leveled my first few characters that seemed to make every character have the same quest left sitting in their logs when they hit 90.  It was the one in townlong steeps where you talk to that plant guy and pull the thing out of his side.  It is the last thing I needed for the zone for loremaster, yes I always did all the townlong quests except that quest, so I might as well quickly run off and finish that quest line on all my characters that have it sitting there.  It won't take long now-a-days and quests are still nice money makers and more important, it will get the quest out of my quest log.  Most likely I will do this on my way to the island of thunder being I pass right by it on my way there.

There are also other quests sitting in my logs, some done and just need to turn them in, some quick to be done, some I will just abandon.  Either way, clearing up my quest log is usually a big part of the pre expansion ritual.

I have a few characters that are at various stages on timeless island quest like 35/50 epoch stones or 4/20 elites and I am not the type to just abandon them so I am going to head over there and finish them off.  Not to mention going to buy the trinket that returns me there for a few characters so I can pop by occasionally and kill some things trying to get the last of the 7 pieces I need for the need a bigger bag achievement.

I also want to make sure I get the blasted lands quests finished on all my characters and there are only a few days left for that.  I am putting the extra pets in my bank for sale later on being they will be gone from the game after this is done (or at least that is my understanding).  I think I have done 15 of my 20 90s and should have another character hit 90 this weekend, so that means I have 6 more to do.  The question is, which ones have I not done it on yet.  I have no clue.

I like to enter the new expansion with a clean quest book.  Not sure if others are that way, but knowing me and my desire for everything to be in order, can you blame me for putting this on my list of things that need cleaning up?

Cleaning Up the Crafting Materials:

I mentioned selling them off, but not cleaning them up.  There is a difference.  I am still a hoarder and I still like to have a nice supply of items on me if I want to make something old or level an alts professions.  This means I want to keep a few stacks of junk around.  But now a few stacks is a lot more material than it used to be with the increased stacking size to 200.

I have so many characters with so many bits and pieces of stuff on them and while I did do some work on condensing them onto one character when 6.0 came out there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

I want my reagents tab empty on all my characters when warlords comes out.  Yes, you heard that right.  That is how I am going to break things down for my characters.  The reagents tab is going to be for current expansion materials only.  As such, I need to make sure I sort everything out.

My main jewel crafter so far is the only one I would say is done.  Any character that had any gems on them has mailed them to her.  She has three gem bags on her which neatly fit all the original gems, bc gems, wrath gems, cataclysm gems and mists gems.  Thanks to stacks being 200 now, she even has a lot of room left over and her reagents tab is 100% empty and ready to roll for next expansion.

Every single one of my characters I would like to do this on.  Make catch all characters for everything, but not using their reagent tabs for the catching, using profession bags for the catching and leaving the reagent bags for the new content materials.

I will run into one road bump however with cloth as there is no cloth bag.  I always wondered why that is.  So I have to decide which of my tailors will end up using their reagent tab for cloth, or should I just use some royal satchels in the bank for that.  Decisions decisions.  I'll probably go the normal bag route.

Condensing all the materials and stacking them all nice and neat and sorted by expansion makes me happy.  It also makes it easy to find something when you need it, and who would not like that?

Cleaning Up the Skills:

I always say I march to the beat of a different drummer and this is the perfect case of that.  I do things differently when questing than I do when raiding or soloing or PvPing.  As such, if I know that questing is going to be my main focus for a bit of time, like it will be when the expansion comes out, I will change around my key binds to be better suited for what I am doing.

Being I have no intention of doing dungeons, raiding, soloing or PvP while I am leveling and I am going to go straight to 100 and then moving on to complete loremaster, that means I am going to need to change some things around.

I will switch some talents out.  I will change my key binds to be more "quest friendly".  For example (not like it matters any longer) things like hunters mark or serpent sting I would not even have anywhere near my normal binds because I would never really use them while questing.  I keep it short and sweet when leveling as far as abilities go.

This expansion also bring another aspect to it with all the changes there have been.  Looking at the classes and deciding what I want to level as.  I will most likely go shadow on my priests to level and being I have not changed to shadow even for a second since 6.0 I will need to do so and get my bars ready.  Same with my shaman and elemental but at least with my shaman the questing and raiding binds are mostly the same because elemental doesn't have many buttons to begin with.  I'll also need to see if leveling as a tank will be viable because I usually do on my tanks.  If it isn't I will need to set myself up with a nice and easy leveling skill set for them.  One of my druids would be the only problem for me as it has no DPS spec, only tanking and healing.

Some people never put much thought into these things or will use their normal set up.  But as I said, I am different.  And as such, I have different binds for different things I do.  I move them around depending on what I am doing to be more comfortable for me.  Whatever floats my boat right?

Also.  Have to make sure all my characters have 3 mounts bound.  Normal land mount, vendor land mount and water walking mount.  Not like we will need the latter often if at all (I'll talk more about that in my leveling post), but I like to have it.

Then there is the issue of skills and for many classes the skills you might use while leveling would be different from those that you use for anything else and I would rather decide on them before hand then be thinking about it at the last minute.

This weekend for me will be about closing out mists.  Sometimes, for me at least, getting ready for the next expansion is just as much about saying goodbye to the last one as it is getting ready for the new one.

Ideas for Planning My Hunters Garrisons + The Perfect Build for Everyone.

Please join me while I explore what I intend to do with my garrison, at least on a few of my hunters. I will go over my main hunter of course as well as hunters with two crafting professions and hunters with two gathering professions.  Horde and alliance side and on servers with other characters and solo.  Each garrison will of course have a different impact on the character based on the supporting staff they have on that server.  And make sure to check the last one, what I believe to be the perfect raiders build for a hunter, even if that character is the only character you have.

Welcome to my Garrison:

This is my intended garrisons first incarnation

The main hunter:

Theses are the buildings one of my hunters (main with support) will be moving into warlords with.  This, of course, will not be the final incarnation of my hunters garrison, this is just my starting one.  I intend to change some buildings over time.  As this is my main hunter I will likely bounce some buildings for achievements here because this is the hunter I will likely spend the most time on.  For the record the professions this hunter has are herbalism and alchemy.

I will explain my entire process of thinking with all these buildings and my intentions on when I will be changing them, perhaps so you can read into the method of my madness and get some ideas of your own.

The buildings that I will have from the start are as follows:

Base Buildings:  Town Hall, Garden, Mine, Fishing Shack, and Pet Menagerie.
Small Buildings: Alchemy Lab, Enchanters Study, and Salvage Yard.
Medium Buildings: Trading Post and Lunarfall Inn.
Large Buildings: Barracks and Stables.

The reasoning behind my small buildings:

The salvage yard will help me gear up my followers so I can do better missions.  It seems almost like a no brainer to have something in your garrison from the start that can help your followers because your followers will end up helping you in return.

The alchemy lab makes sense because I am an alchemist of course.  It will allow me to make additional items that are required for the larger flasks and those flasks, even more so in the first tier of raiding, will be a pretty large boost to what we are capable of doing.

The third small building was a bit of a decision for me to make because as it seems if you do not have the profession to go along with a small building the professions small buildings are pretty much useless.  If you could trade the special crafting materials I would most definitely have taken a tannery, but being you can't, and the storehouse feels like a complete waste of space, the next best thing is the enchanters study.

Lets not forget that the enchanters study is, without a doubt, the best hunter fill in building.  Why is that you might ask?  Because the only things you can not make with the enchanters study that an actual enchanter can make are weapon enchants and guess what, hunters do not need weapon enchants.  So we can effectively get all of our enchanting done 100% with the enchanters study.  For a hunter, the enchanters study is like a complete and full profession without having the profession.  No other class can claim that of any profession building, cool, huh?

Add to the fact I solo a lot on my hunters and you can disenchant items in the enchanters study.  So it would be a good idea to have one to get extra materials.  Even more so when you think that a main, or a character you play often, will end up with a lot of gear won from coins that you do not need, so having a way to disenchant that gear you can not send to your enchanter seems like a solid idea to me.  Well, that, and there are really no other decent small buildings.

The reasoning behind my medium buildings:

The trading post is a must have, and so is getting that auction house going ASAP.  It will save me a lot of time running back to the city to put stuff up for auction and from previous experiences of expansions past there is a lot of money to be made from really impatient people that will willing pay 800 gold for something today that will be listing for 20 gold in a few weeks time.

Also the trading post will help me make sure I can keep up with the flow of garrison resources I will need being I expect to level quickly meaning I will probably run out of garrison supplies pretty fast.

The second medium building, the Inn, is one of those buildings I know is a part time building the second I build it.  I am adding it for one reason and one reason only.   To get everything I can out of it and get rid of it.  I will keep the building long enough to get any achievements tied to it, do all the dungeon quests to get all the goodies tied to them, and recruit a bunch of followers for the weeks that I do have it.  Once I have everything, and enough followers recruited to ensure I can get the 40 follower achievement and once I finish the other things, I will ditch the Inn and move along to another medium building.

The reason I decided on the Inn first of all the medium buildings I plan to rotate my way through was two fold.  One being that my first character will most likely be doing more dungeons than any other because it will need the gear.  So doing the dungeon quests on it makes more sense being it will be doing dungeons to begin with.  The second is that I want to get a full group of followers ASAP and get them leveled and geared as fast as I can.  While I could have used one of the other building as my first medium that I will rotate through, this one just made the most sense to be the first one to do because it has no lasting effects once you have gotten everything from it that it offers.

Depending on how things are looking, I will either end up with the barn for the savage blood creation so I can either sell it or craft some gear for my non raiding alts being savage blood is not bound or the gladiator's sanctum for some skull bashing fun.  Even if I am not into PvP generally, this option does seem to really appeal to me for some reason and will most likely be the building I end up with when all is said and done in a medium spot.

The reasoning behind my large buildings:

You start with the barracks anyway and it is not a bad building at all, so might as well keep it.  It will give me more missions for my followers and that will help them level faster.  Then once it is level 2 I can start working on my bodyguards and leveling them up.

As a hunter I am considering using a healer as my bodyguard I level first because it could offer me some heals while still at that low geared just hit 100 phase and that might be needed.  But also because the healer follower, once level 3, will have the portable mission table, which at the beginning will be the most useful additional ability any of the bodyguards can offer me.  While I am out achievement hunting, treasure hunting, fishing to get nat pagle as a follower, I will be able to call the mission table with my healer and send followers out on new missions instead of having to return to the garrison to do so and if you are looking to level them as quick as possible starting a new mission as soon as the old one ended is the best way to do that.

After that one is leveled, and most of my followers are leveled and it is not so pressing to start new missions ASAP I will level the bodyguard with the summon ability because lets face it, having the ability to summon a friend to you is pretty darn awesome, wouldn't you say?

For the second building I decided on the stables because capturing and training wild beasts is what I do.  I am a hunter after all.  At first I did not consider the stables a good option but as I did more research it seems to be the best option for a character that is a main or is played a lot and more so one that you will be on a lot before flying is added to the game, if it ever is.

The 20% mounted bonus of course is a huge plus but that does not come until you have a level 3 stables.  First you have to hunt down and capture and tame a bunch of mounts and who better to do that than a hunter, more so a hunter that is a main character which means they will be better geared, thus better suited for the task at hand.

Once flying is added I will ditch this building, as I am sure I will be done with all the quests, achievements and such associated with it, and pick up the gnomish gearworks doing all those achievements and then finishing it off with the mage tower most likely.  Even with flying, getting around fast is not a bad idea to have just sitting there waiting for you.

A double gathering setup

The double gathering hunter:

As a skinner / herbalist on a server with no support system being a solo character there this character will be left in the wind not really being able to craft much of anything for itself.  Being my main hunter and a few other alts will be taking care of all the achievements, this hunters set up will most likely be what he ends up with.

Base Buildings:  Town Hall, Garden, Mine, Fishing Shack, and Pet Menagerie.
Small Buildings: The Tannery, Enchanters Study, and Salvage Yard.
Medium Buildings: Trading Post and Barn.
Large Buildings: Barracks and Dwarven Bunker.

The reasoning behind my small buildings:

Once again the enchanters study for the above mentioned reasons.  Even more so being this character has no support system on the server so making their own enchants can save a bit of gold.  The tannery works because one of the gathering professions is skinning.  While I will only be able to make 640 pieces because I do not have leather working I can sell additional 640 pieces and save that gold to purchase the upgrade items, if need be.

The reasoning behind my medium buildings:

The trading post is for the same reasons mentioned above.  The barn is because I will need some way to generate a fair bit of cash flow so I can buy upgrades to the gear I craft should I need it, or just gold in general is always good if I don't, and savage blood will be the golden goose for the beginning of the game so we might as well squeeze as much gold out of it as we can.

The reasoning behind my large buildings:

The barracks for the same reasons as mentioned above.  The dwarven bunker because I can get more follower upgrade pieces and for any character that might not be entering raids right away having followers well geared up is a great way to help gear your character, slowly sure, but still a plus.

A double crafter setup

The double crafting hunter:

This is an engineering and leather working hunter that has some support.

Base Buildings:  Town Hall, Garden, Mine, Fishing Shack, and Pet Menagerie.
Small Buildings: The Tannery, Engineering Works, and Salvage Yard.
Medium Buildings: Trading Post and Barn.
Large Buildings: Barracks and Dwarven Bunker.

The only difference:

This will end up being my default set up for alts.  It has both the salvage yard and dwarven bunker to help gear them up and the barracks to allow for more followers to be active.  The main difference for the double crafting hunter is that he will have both buildings that match his crafting profession and the salvage yard as his third small building.  If the hunter happens to be on a server without an enchanter to support it with enchants than I could remove the salvage yard and add the enchanters study and not lose too much being I still have the dwarven bunker to get some follower gear.

The perfect set up:

If you are a raider and a hunter and you are looking for the perfect set up this is what I would suggest.  This set up would work if you are with a support staff on the server or on a server all by yourself.  This build is designed for the hunter that will be downing raid bosses the second the raids are released and clearing content rather quickly, at least at normal mode and even better if you do heroic and mythic.  This means it is missing any way to make the crafted gear as you would have no need for it being normal and higher all drop better gear than anything you could make.  You would need to have jewelcrafting and engineering as your professions to take complete advantage for the perfect set up.

Base Buildings:  Town Hall, Garden, Mine, Fishing Shack, and Pet Menagerie.
Small Buildings: Gem Boutique, Engineering Works, and Enchanters Study.
Medium Buildings: Trading Post and Barn.
Large Buildings: Stables or Barracks and Dwarven Bunker.

The reasoning behind this build:

Being you will be downing raid bosses crafting your own gear is of little use.  Even at the best level crafted gear is only 665, which is below even normal mode raiding, so there is no need to even care about crafting your own gear.  The same goes for followers.  You will, or should, not be counting on them to help gear your character so having  buildings specifically meant to help your followers gear up are not really required but you will still be able to do so with the dwarven bunker around, if you wish.  I would say it is worth it anyway, even if not required. 

The small buildings would match your professions which should be jewel crafting and engineering to make this work.  The third building is the enchanting study.  The reasoning for these two professions and the third building should be pretty clear.

These three small buildings will make your character completely self sufficient.  You will be able to make your own scopes, your own gems and your own enchants.  Being the only enchants you can not make with the study are weapon ones and we do not need them, that means we can get everything covered with this make up.  It is also why it works so well for even a solo hunter on a server all by themselves.  Because they do not ever need to seek out anything to buy, they will be able to make everything themselves.

The reason for the stables is because a speed increase is nice, but you really could replace it with something else if you wish, the barracks is the next solid option, almost tied and maybe better.  Stables or barracks will come down more to the individual, neither is a bad choice. The reason for the barn is to make some gold.  People will need savage blood, they will need it in large amounts, might as well take some advantage of it and with your trading post, and by process auction house, you can list it as soon as you get it.
With the dwarven bunker giving you one coin a week, the trading post easily making the garrison resources for another one each week, and the savage blood surely being capable of buying you the third coin each week after they sell, you effectively get all three extra rolls for free each week.  Nice work hunter, and all done without any need to be on for more than raid night alone.

I have 2 of my 3 solo hunters that are all alone on their servers which will be switching professions to this set up, and being you only need to be level 1 of a profession to do everything I mentioned, anyone can change if they want to.  Remember, all you need to do is raid normal to make this a good set up where you can keep yourself perfectly gemmed, enchanted, and ready to rock and roll without any support what so ever.  Some might say, this building really can turn warcraft into a single player game.

The perfect build for non hunters: 

This build works for you as well.  You would need to have jewel crafting and enchanting as your professions to cover everything you need.  Your two small buildings would be the gem boutique and enchanters study to go along with your professions of course.  Your third small building could be a choice for you.  Salvage yard would be what I suggest but making a storehouse, if you wish, or even an alchemy lab, might not be too horrible of an idea.  While you will not be able to make the big flasks you can make the small flasks needed to make big ones and then pay an alchemist to complete it for you.  Either way, this is the perfect solo play raider build for non hunters.

So, what are you building?

Garrison Achievements: Yes, These are Required

In what many can only call an odd move, blizzard has done something they have never done before in a sense by requiring an achievement to open up things.  It is not really the first time for this but it is the first time it is explicitly stated.  Many times we needed an achievement before we could do something like when we needed to clear a raid on normal before we could clear it on heroic.  But the normal achievement never said "unlocks heroic" so it never felt like it was required even if it was.

In warlords the achievements specifically say they reward you with the level three blueprints which effectively makes them required.  It seems worse than it is however as all the achievements are things you probably would accomplish anyway during the daily operations of your garrison to begin with.  And do not worry about these achievements being required for anything additional.  If you are not going to be taking advantage of garrisons, not getting these achievements will not hurt you in any way.

The awards in italics are the ones that offer blueprints.

Garrison Achievements:

Garrison Buddies (A) / Garrison Buddies (H):  Visit a friends garrison.
Staying Regular: Relieve yourself in the garrison outhouse.
More Plots (A) / More Plots (H): Upgrade your garrison to tier 2.
Even More Plots (A) / Even More Plots (H): Upgrade your garrison to tier 3.

Buildings:

Builder: Upgrade all the building plots on your garrison to level 2.
Master Builder: Upgrade all the building plots on your garrison to level 3.
Time for an Upgrade: Upgrade any garrison building to level 2.
Movin' On Up: Upgrade any garrison building to level 3.
Keepin' Busy:  Construct all the preset buildings listed.
Draftsman: Learn 20 garrison blueprints.
Master Draftsman: Learn 40 garrison blueprints.
Garrison Architect: Complete the listed achievements.  Awards: Architect title.
Working Some Orders: Complete 125 work orders at your garrison.
Working More Orders: Complete 250 work orders at your garrison.  Awards: Unlocks all level 3 profession building blueprints.
Working Many Orders: Complete 750 work orders at your garrison.

Barracks:

Wingman: Become a personal wingman with one of your barracks bodyguards.
Wingmen: Become a personal wingman with all (5) of your barracks bodyguards.

Barn:

The Trap Game: Place 50 work order by capturing creatures in the world.
Master Trapper: Place 125 work orders by capturing creatures in the world. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.
Trapper's Delight: Place 250 work orders by capturing creatures out in the world.
Trap Superstar: Place 500 work orders by capturing creatures out in the world.

Gladiator's Sanctum:

Fight, Kill, Salute!: Complete the quest Fight, Kill, Salute at Highmaul Coliseum.
Nemesis: Death Stalker (A): Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Death Stalker title.
Nemesis:  Draenei Destroyer (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Draenei Destroyer title.
Nemesis: Dwarfstalker (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Dwarfstalker title.
Nemesis: Gnomebane (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Gnomebane title.
Nemesis: Huojin's Fall (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Huojin's Fall title.
Nemesis: Killer of Kezan (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Killer of Kezan title.
Nemesis: Manslayer (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Manslayer title.
Nemesis: Orcslayer (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Orcslayer title.
Nemesis: Scourge of the Kaldorei (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Scourge of the Kaldorei title.
Nemesis: Slayer of Sin'dorei (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Slayer of Sin'dorei title.
Nemesis: Terror of Tushui (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Terror of Tushui title.
Nemesis: The Butcher (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: the Butcher title.
Nemesis: Troll Hunter (A):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Troll Hunter title.
Nemesis: Worgen Hunter (H):Complete this nemesis quest line. Awards: Worgen Hunter title.
Warlord of Draenor (A) / Warlord or Draenor (H):  Complete all nemesis and the fight kill salute quests.  Awards: Warlord of Draenor title.
The Bone Collector: Collect 5000 broken bones on draenor. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Gnomish Gearworks / Goblin Workshop:

Terrific Technology: Use all the inventions available at the workshop. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Lumber Mill:

Choppin' Some Logs: Place 10 work orders at the lumber mill.
Choppin' Some More Logs: Place 50 work orders at the lumber mill. Awards: Lumberjack title.
Upgrading the Mill: Place 75 work orders at the lumber mill and complete the quest lines.  Awards: Unlocks level 4 blueprint.
Choppin' Even More Logs (A): Place 100 work orders at the lumber mill. Awards: the Commandojack title.
Choppin' Even More Logs (H): Place 100 work orders at the lumber mill. Awards: Timber Lord title.

Lunarfall Inn / Frostwall Tavern:

Stay Awhile and Listen: Complete all the Inn quests listed. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Mage Tower / Spirit Lodge:

Finding Your Waystones: Loot 500 Orge Waystones. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Salvage Yard:

Salvaging Pays Off: Open 100 pieces of salvage from missons.  Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.

Stables:

Intro to Husbandry:  Complete all the capture quests at the stables.
Master of Mounts: Fully train 6 mounts at your stables. Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint.
Advanced Husbandry (A) / Advanced Husbandry (H): Defeat all mount-in-training targets in nagrand while carrying the Black Claw of Sethe. Awards: Armored Frostboar.
The Stable Master (A) / The Stable Master (H): Defeat all mount-in-training targets in nagrand while carrying the Garn Tooth Necklace.  Awards: Armored Frostwolf and The Stable Master title.

Followers:

A Rare Friend: Recruit a rare follower.
An Epic Buddy: Recruit an epic follower.

Follow the Leader: Recruit 5 followers.
Where You Go, They Will Follow: Recruit 10 followers.
Fearless Leader: Recruit 25 followers.
Commander: Recruit 40 followers.

Following Up: Raise a follower to level 100.
Raising the Bar: Raise 10 followers to level 100.
Filling the Ranks: Raise 20 followers to level 100.  Awards: Unlocks level 3 dwarven bunker / war mill blueprint.

My Item Level Is Higher Than Yours: Raise a followers item level to 625.
My Item Level is Way Higher Than Yours: Raise a followers item level to 650.
Item Level Army:  Raise 10 followers' item level to 650.
Item Level Force: Raise 20 followers' item level 650.

Invasions:

Bronze Defender: Successfully complete a garrison invasion with a bronze rating or better.
Silver Defender: Successfully complete a garrison invasion with a silver rating or better.
Golden Defender: Successfully complete a garrison invasion with a gold rating.

Master Defender: Earn a gold in each max level invasion.
Save Those Buildings: Complete the invasions listed below without letting any buildings get destroyed.

It's an Invasion!: Successfully complete a garrison invasion.
Invasion Specialist: Successfully complete 10 garrison invasions.
Invasion?  What Invasion?: Successfully complete 50 garrison invasions.

Invasions Are Better With Friends: Successfully complete a garrison invasion in a party of 3.

Botani Invasion: Successfully complete a Botani garrison invasion.
Goren Invasion: Successfully complete a Goren garrison invasion.
Iron Horde Invasion: Successfully complete an Iron Horde invasion.
Orge Invasion: Successfully complete an Ogre invasion.
Shadow Council Invasion: Successfully complete a Shadow Council invasion.
Shadowmoon Clan Invasion: Successfully complete a Shadowmoon Clan invasion.

Missions:

On a Mission: Complete 10 missions.
On a Few Missions: Complete 50 missions.
On a Lot of Missions: Complete 100 missions.
On a Massive Number of Missions: Complete 500 missions.
On a Metric Ton of Missions: Complete 1000 missions.

A Rare Mission: Complete a rare mission.
Keeping It Rare: Complete 50 rare missions.
The Rarer the Better: Complete 300 rare missions.

Patrol Mission Specialist: Complete a patrol mission.
Patrolling Draenor: Complete 50 patrol missions: Awards: Unlocks level 3 barracks blueprint.

Treasure Mission Specialist: Complete a treasure mission.
Treasure Master: Complete 50 treasure missions.

Exploration Mission Specialist: Complete an exploration mission.

Mission Specialist:  Complete the mission specialists achievements listed below.

Monuments:
All award a garrison monument.

Defender of Draenor (A): Get 5000 honorable kills on draenor.
Defender of Draenor (H): Get 5000 honorable kills on draenor.
Draenor Pet Brawler: Win 2000 pet battles on draenor.
Master Draenor Crafter: Craft 50 epic items of at least 600.
Master of Apexis: Collect 100,000 apexis crystals.
Mythic Draenor Raider (A): Complete the mythic raiding achievements listed below.
Mythic Draenor Raider (H): Complete the mythic raiding achievements listed below.

Other Achievements:
These are achievements not listed under the garrison sub header but are required for the level 3 blueprints for garrisons and as such I consider them garrison achievements.

Draenic Pet Battler: Win 500 pet battles on draenor. Awards: Unlocks level 3 pet menagerie blueprint.
Draenic Seed Collector: Loot 500 draenic seeds. Awards: Unlocks level 3 herb garden blueprint.
Draenic Stone Collector: Loot 500 draenic stones.  Awards: Unlocks level 3 blueprint for lunarfall excavation / frostwall mines.
Draenor Angler: Complete the angler achievements listed below. Awards: Unlocks level 3 fishing shack blueprint.
Got My Mind On My Draenor Money: Loot 10,000 gold in draenor. Awards: Unlocks level 3 storehouse blueprint.
Savage Friends (A) / Savage Friends (H): Earn exalted with 3 draenor factions. Awards: Unlocks level 3 trading post.

Good luck with your achievement hunting.

Some Garrison FAQs

There are a few questions I have been asked, and a few I expect to be asked because I asked them myself when I was first looking at things, so I figured I would throw together a short FAQ with some of them as there are people that might have the same questions.

1) Are garrisons required or optional?

The are both.  You are required to start up your garrison when you first reach draenor.  However, after you do the initial quests that set it up and pick up the quest from inside that sends you out in the world to start questing you never really need to touch your garrison again if you do not want to.  I suggest, even if you do not intend to get into garrisons, just keep up on the quests from there at least so it grows with the story even if you do not build on it.  Many quests will start from there and lead back to there.  Might as well have your town hall, at the least, upgraded.

2) How can I visit my friends garrison?

You need to be in a group with someone to visit their garrison.  You can not just visit any garrison you like.  You also can not just visit any garrison of anyone in the group, only the garrison of the group leader.

You right click on your portrait and click on visit leaders garrison.  When you next zone into the garrison area you will be in the leader of your groups garrison and not your own.  When you wish to return to your garrison you once again right click on your portrait and choose to return to your garrison.

3) What can my friends do at my garrison?

Your friend can come to your garrison and you can fight off garrison invasions together.  This is actually a very good idea to do also because it will make it easier to get a gold and golds offer nice rewards at the start of the expansion like 645 gear.

Beware however that anyone that visits your garrison has full access to it which means they can pick your herbs and mine your ore.  I know, a real friend would not do that, but it is something to think about before inviting people to a group.  For all you know they can click to view leaders garrison, hearth to the garrison and steal all your herbs or ore.  Perhaps it is best you clean up before you join a random group unless you do not care.

But there is a good part to this.  Even if you do not have an enchanters study as long as a friend does you can go to his / her garrison and disenchant using their enchanters study.

4) When does my garrison get invaded?

Whenever you want it too.  It is a quest, not a system timer thing.  You can start the garrison invasion whenever you wish and do it solo or with friends.  I was able to get bronze, silver and gold solo in many of the invasions but they were always easier with friends and only gold gives you a bag where you can get 645 gear from it.  Great for alts, if you can find a friend or two to help you get the gold.

5) Can the horde / alliance attack my garrison?

No, the garrison itself is not a PvP zone.  You will never be standing around and suddenly find yourself ganked.  The opposing faction can not get into your garrison and in truth I do not see that ever happening because the garrisons are phased, like the farm, where every one of them is in the same place.  So if the opposing faction came and entered which one of the 3.5M garrisons would they be be flying into?  Don't worry.  You are safe in your garrison.

6) Do I need a profession to use the profession building?

No you do not but be aware that you will not be able to make everything a profession can make with the garrison building.  Top tier items, like upgrades, best flask, weapon enchants, etc, are for people with the profession only.

Note:  There is however one profession building that is kind of useless if you do not have the profession and that is the alchemy lab.  While it is true you will be able to make everything outside of the top flasks and such, the work orders will be useless to you unless you have alchemy as they give the alchemical catalyst when filling them and the only things that use those are the best flasks which only an alchemist can make.  An oversight by blizzard that was still on beta when it went down.  With less than one week until release, I do not expect it to be corrected, but you never know.

7) Why do I need leather (fur) for tailoring?

You don't.  Sumptuous fur is not leather, it is cloth.  It is easy to be confused by the name.  Sumptuous fur (cloth) drops from animals and the cat people on draenor.  It is not like standard cloth we have gotten used to that only drops from humanoids.  Thus, as it is fur, it is only dropped from animals.

8) Can I change buildings?

Absolutely.  While you can not change standard buildings like the garden or mine with something else, any building you built yourself that required a decision can be changed later on.  You will need to go to your architect table and drag the new building you want over the old building and pay the fee to build it, as well as wait the hour it takes to build, but any building can be replaced as long as you have the blueprints to do it.

Be aware that even if you have a level 3 building, when you replace it with something else that something else will be level 1 and you will need to build level 2 and level 3 as well.

9) How much does it cost to build the garrison to max?

This question actually has multiple answers but I will give only one of them, the most expensive version.  The worst case situation, so you know the most it could ever cost you.  There are buildings you can get blueprints of for free and there are 4 items you can get when questing and completing the outpost quest line in their respective zones that can be used to get a level 2 pattern for free, if you quest in all 4 zones and collect all 4 books and use all 4 books than the price will be a total of 5,000 gold less.  But I am only giving you the absolute worst case scenario of building a completely level 3 garrison without using any free stuff, so you know the most you would ever conceivably need.  Note: If you start replacing buildings it will cost more of course.

The absolute most you will need to build everything from the ground up once is... drum roll please...39,000 gold.

Yes, that is 39K.  The number includes buying all blueprints and the cost to build then in gold.  The number will be lower if you use the 4 books I mentioned to buy some blueprints, but yeah, it is a bit of a gold sink, so saving 5K gold from those books really seems worth it.

Lets hope blizzard makes a last minute change that when you get the achievements for the level 3 buildings to "learn" them instead of "unlock" them and that would save us an additional 7,000.  Or how about if they made the blueprints account bound so you did not need to buy them on every single character, that would lessen the over all cost as well.  Lets face it, 39K is out of reach for the vast majority of the player base.

10) Is it worth it?

That is completely subjective and it would be wrong for me to tell you yes or no.  I will just tell you what I plan to do.  My more active characters will surely have a completely upgraded garrison, even more than just my main characters on my main server where I have a few hundred thousand doing nothing anyway.

For the alts which I do not plan to do anything with I will only pay for and upgrade the town hall, garden, mine and salvage yard.  This will make sure I have materials, follower upgrade items and the full map for all possible quests.

As I mentioned in the opening question, none of this is required.  So if it is worth it is entirely up to you.  I will say, if you can not afford it, do not stress it.  It will not completely kill the game for you if you do not build it up to the maximum, which I believe over 90% of the player base will never be able to do anyway.

Have a question, I can try to help answer it, or even add it here?

Happy building.

Collected Warlords Garrison & Profession Guides

I wanted to make one post for all the garrison guides I have written over the past few weeks and this is it.  To anyone that might stumble across this later on after warlords of draenor comes out please note these guides were written toward the end of the beta and it is entirely possible some of the things in them have changed once it hits live.  If that is the case please let me know on the specific guide and I will update it.  Either way, maybe you can find some use for these guides.  Happy building.

Alchemy and the Alchemy Lab

Blacksmith and the Forge

Leatherworking and the Tannery

Tailoring and the Emporium

Engineering and the Engineering Works

Inscription and the Scribes Quarters

Enchanting and the Enchanters Study

Jewelcrafting and the Gem Boutique

Small Buildings and Standard Buildings

Medium Buildings

Large Buildings

How to get Nat Pagle as a follower?

Garrison FaQs

Garrison Achievements

Hope these posts have been some use to you.  Enjoy your garrison and warlords of draenor.  See you there.

Garrisons: Spotlight on Large Buildings

This post is the last in a series of posts that will be in regards to garrison buildings, the main new feature in Warlords of Draenor.  In the previous posts we went over the small buildings, standard buildings and medium buildings. This post will focus on the large buildings.  Your level 3 garrison will be able to hold two large buildings and with five to choose from and one of them basically forced on you from the get go, whether I believe it is worth keeping or not, that means most people will have one large plot to play with making this, possibly, the hardest decision in the entire garrison mini game.

Large Buildings:

The large buildings are as follows.  A barracks which you will make when your are first starting up your garrison, you have no choice in the matter, but you can change it later on if you wish, this building will allow you to have more followers as well as have followers quest with you.  The dwarven bunker / war mill which is all about gear.  The gnomish gearworks / goblin workshop which allows for special engineering doodads to use around draenor. The mage tower / spirit lodge which allows you the ability to create three portals to get around draenor faster. And the stables which will allow you to tame your own mounts as well as get some extra mounted benefits.

Spotlight on The Barracks:

Level 1 Barracks:

A level 1 barracks and everything needed for it will be given to you when you start your garrison.
A level 1 barracks takes 1 hour to build and requires 150 gold and 150 garrison resources should you ever need to replace it.
A level 1 barracks unlocks patrol missions for your followers which give increased experience.
A level 1 barracks gives you the call to arms ability which calls for the assistance of some of your garrison personal.

Level 2 Barracks:

A level 2 barracks requires you to have a level 3 town hall.
A level 2 barracks requires you to have set up your nagrand outpost and be level 100.
A level 2 barracks takes 1 hour to build and requires 300 gold and 900 garrison resources.
A level 2 barracks allows you to have a follower with the bodyguard trait assigned to work there and accompany you while outdoors in draenor.

The level 2 barracks blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1500 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 barracks blueprint with a copy of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Nagrand and Talador .  This could effectively save you 3000 gold.

Level 3 Barracks:

A level 3 barracks requires the achievement [Patrolling Draenor].
A level 3 barracks blueprint costs 1000 gold.
A level 3 barracks takes 1 hour to build and requires 500 gold and 1200 garrison resources.
A level 3 barracks increases the amount of followers you can have active by 5.
A level 3 barracks allows the use of racial guards and banners.

Bodyguards:

When your barracks reaches level 2 you will be allowed to assign a follower there with the bodyguard trait.  Once assigned there that follower will act as a guardian while you are out in the world of draenor.  It will not follow you into instanced content however.

Each body guard has a friendship level.  The more you do with this bodyguard the faster their friendship with you goes up.  They will gain 10 friendship points whenever you kill something that is level appropriate.  There are a total of three levels of friendship each requiring 10,000 friendship points to get to the next.  You start at 1, of course, which just offers you the basic bodyguard.  When your friendship reaches level 2 your bodyguard will learn a new ability to assist you while out in the world.  Once you reach level 3 friendship your bodyguard will offer you as special perk while with you.

There are a total of 7 followers with the bodyguard trait in the game at the moment.  Two of which are exclusive to either horde or alliance which mean their are three other which are shared.  So you can get up to 5 followers with the bodyguard trait.

Leorajh:  Restoration Shaman
Side: Both
Acquired by: Leorajh, the Enlightened, a quest in spires of arak.
Level when acquired: 97
Friendship level 1 ability: Chain Heal
Friendship level 2 ability: Primal Bloodlust (15% haste)
Friendship level 3 ability: Windspeaker (portable follower mission table)

Tormmok: Arms Warrior
Side: Both
Acquired by: A Centurion Without a Cause, a quest from an event in gorgrond.
Level when acquired: 93
Friendship level 1 ability: Recklessness
Friendship level 2 ability: Avatar (burst damage for him)
Friendship level 3 ability: Master of Arms (offers repairs)

Talonpriest Ishaal: Shadow Priest
Side: Both
Acquired by: Talonpriest Ishaal, a quest that appears after you complete the [Between Arak and a Hard Place] (A) / [Between Arak and a Hard Place] (H) achievement
Level when acquired:97
Friendship level 1 ability: Basic abilities.
Friendship level 2 ability: Last Rites (increases damage taken by 20%, explodes on death)
Friendship level 3 ability: Courier Raven (offers mailbox)

Vivianne: Fire Mage
Side:Horde Only
Acquired by: From the quest, The Dark Ladys' Gift.
Level when acquired: 91
Friendship level 1 ability: Blizzard
Friendship level 2 ability: Meteor (large AoE)
Friendship level 3 ability: Portal Garrison (portal to your garrison)

Delvar Ironfist:  Blood Death Knight
Side:Alliance Only
Acquired by: After completing a quest line that starts with Ashran Appearance.
Level when acquired: 91
Friendship level 1 ability: Death and Decay
Friendship level 2 ability: Breath of Sindragosa (AoE damage)
Friendship level 3 ability: Death Gate (portal to your garrison)

Aeda Brightdawn: Demonology Warlock
Side: Horde
Acquired by: After completing a quest line that starts with Gatekeepers of Auchindoun.
Level when acquired: 95
Friendship level 1 ability:Tanking abilities. (yeah, really)
Friendship level 2 ability: Summon Infernal (AoE damage, you control the minion)
Friendship level 3 ability: Ritual of Summoning (summon a party or raid member to you)

Defender Illona: Protection Paladin
Side: Alliance
Acquired by: After completing a quest line that starts with Gatekeepers of Auchindoun.
Level when acquired: 95
Friendship level 1 ability: Tanking abilities
Friendship level 2 ability: Guardian of the Ancient Kings (reduces damage you take by 50%)
Friendship level 3 ability: Guiding Light (summon a party or raid member to you)

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

At first I was sort of upset I was forced into having to take this as my large building to start with, and really it does not seem like a great building when looking at the others, but after thinking about it and researching on garrisons and playing through it a bit this is actually a great first building.

It will allow you to have more followers later on and bodyguards with interesting bonuses when you level them later on as well after some work and effort but at the start from the get go having those patrol missions for increased follower experience really pays off.  A hell of a lot more than any of the other buildings would do at level 1.  So I think I will be keeping this one when I start out.

In the late game, after I have leveled all my followers and got all patrol mission achievements and building related achievements, and all bodyguard related achievements, the need for this building might diminish. But having that one follower that allows you to summon anyone too you might just be too much of a big deal for me to let go of.  Have to see how that works out.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars early to mid game.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars late game and only if you are actively using your bodyguards or 1 out of 5 if not.

Spotlight on the Dwarven Bunker / War Mill:

For the sake of my own typing I will just refer to this building as the bunker.  A bunker could be a solid early choice if you wish to ditch your barracks, for some it might be worth considering.  Actually, this might even be a better first building if leveling gear matters to you but if you even have LFR level gear or close to it, leveling gear will never be an issue.

Level 1 Bunker:

A level 1 bunker plan should be known as soon as you create your garrison.
A level 1 bunker takes 1 hour to build and requires 150 gold and 150 garrison resources.
A level 1 bunker increases the chance of quest rewards becoming rare or epic upgrades by 50%.
A level 1 bunker gives a small chance to increase the potency of those upgrades.
A level 1 bunker also increases the chance followers could be rare or epic.
A level 1 bunker allows for the collection of iron horde scraps.
A level 1 bunker allows for the exchange of scarps for transmog items.
A level 1 bunker allows for 7 work orders.

Level 2 Bunker:

A level 2 bunker requires you to have a level 3 town hall.
A level 2 bunker requires you to have set up your nagrand outpost and be level 100.
A level 2 bunker takes 1 hour to build and requires 300 gold and 900 garrison resources.
A level 2 bunker opens up more transmog purchase options.
A level 2 bunker opens up work orders for follower weapons or armor in exchange for garrison resources.
A level 2 bunker allows for 14 work orders.

The level 2 bunker blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1500 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 bunker blueprint with a copy of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Nagrand and Talador .  This could effectively save you 3000 gold.

Level 3 Bunker:

A level 3 bunker requires the achievement [Filling the Ranks].
A level 3 bunker blueprint costs 1000 gold.
A level 3 bunker takes 1 hour to build and requires 500 gold and 1200 garrison resources.
A level 3 bunker grants you 1 of 3 seals of tempered fate each week.
A level 3 bunker allows for 21 work orders.

Work Orders:

Work orders at the bunker cost 100 garrison resources and could reward you with follower upgrade items, iron horde scraps, or just junk.  As I have not used this in a while I do not know if they changed the rate of follower items, but they went from being plentiful to being nonexistent on the beta.  Last I read on the forums they seem to be underwhelming, but in line with the salvage yard right now.  The possible follower upgrade items you can get are as follows:

Weapons:
Balanced Weapon Enhancement (+3 item level)
Striking Weapon Enhancement (+6 item level)
Power Overrun Enhancement (+9 item level)

War Ravaged Weapon (615 item level)
Blackrock Weaponry (630 item level)
Goredrenched Weaponry (645 item level)

Armor:

Braced Armor Enhancement (+3 item level)
Fortified Armor Enhancement (+6 item level)
Heavy Reinforced Enhancement (+9 item level)

War Ravaged Armor (615 item level)
Fortified Armor Enhancement (630 item level)
Heavily Reinforced Enhancement (645 item level)

Iron Horde Scraps:

Iron horde scraps have a low drop rate from any orcs you kill while out in the world and they work like a currency for the bunker.  You can trade in your iron horde scraps for various transmog armor sets and items.  The higher the level your bunker is will not effect the drop rate, you will need to work for this transmog set.

The cloth set is called the Shadowmoon set.
The leather set is called the Thunderlord set.
The mail set is called the Warsong set.
The plate set is called the Blackrock set.

Alliance transmog items will be sold from Kristen Stoneforge in the alliance garrison and the horde transmog items will be sold from Grun'lek in the horde garrison.  You can view the costs for all items and see what else they have available there including faction specific orc or human guard sets that are marked as cosmetic items which means they can be used for trasnmog purposes from any class regardless of the armor type you wear.

Tempered Seal of Fate:

The level three bunker gives the owner one tempered seal of fate of which they are allowed to attain a maximum of three each week.  These coins will be used for the purpose of an extra roll on raid bosses.  There are many other ways to get tempered seals of fate, but this is the only one that is absolutely free.  A list of the additional ways are as follows:

Each time you do a quest, the cost to continue with that same commodity doubles.

Fate Twister Seress (A) and his horde counter part offer these quests.

Apexis Crystals are 1000 /  2000 / 4000
Garrison Resources are 300 / 600 / 1200
Gold is 500 / 1000 / 2000
Honor is 500 / 1000 / 2000

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

The bunker is probably the most rounded large building of them all.  With a level one bunker being helpful while leveling, a level two bunker being helpful once you level to build up your followers and a level 3 bunker being good for the end game saving you a little of some commodity to get a free roll on loot, meaning there is something for everyone.

With that all said, my rating for this building is greatly effected by my personal feelings on certain things such as the level one bonus, at least on my main or any character I plan to level straight up.   Having quest greens change into rares or epics might be fantastic for an alt or someone that was not in SoO gear to begin with but it is basically useless when it will take most people from 12 to 24 hours to level.  So any bonus gear you get will either still be useless for you or will be replaced as soon as you hit 100 and enter dungeons to get better gear in one days play time later.  So the over all worth of the level one bonus does not carry enough weight for my liking.  If it increased me chances of getting warforged loot, loot with gem slots or loot with bonus tertiary stats when I use a coin or am in a group using the personal loot option it would most definitely be better.

Secondly, if the iron horde scraps, which require a boat load of grinding, could buy actual loot that might be useful instead of just trasnmog gear, or maybe mounts or pets or toys or anything else, it would increase the value of the building in my mind.  I am not really into transmog that much and even less so when I do not like the look of the gear, which is the case here.

Then there is the fact that the level three bonus seems very lacking.  If you got an extra coin that did not count toward one of your three it would be much better.  But being the cost to get three otherwise is so cheap to begin with, with apexis crystals being mostly useless past the first few weeks of the game, garrison resources easily attainable with many building, the honor quickly attainable, or the gold number reasonable for most, at least at the first level, getting a free coin just isn't that dazzling really.  But if it were a 4th coin it would be.

The only thing this building seems to win me over with is its ability to help me help my followers which in turn allows my followers to help me.  That alone makes it a bit of a winner for me, just not really a huge one.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars for a main.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5 for an alt.

Spotlight on the Gnomish Gearworks / Goblin Workshop:

For my ease I will be referring to this building as the workshop.  The workshop will give everyone the ability to craft some interesting and fun doodads that can be used around draenor.  It is a fun type of building as I see it, not really much more.

Level 1 Workshop:

A level 1 workshop plan should be known as soon as you create your garrison.
A level 1 workshop takes 1 hour to build and requires 150 gold and 150 garrison resources.
A level 1 workshop has a personal engineer that will make you one invention per day.

Level 2 Workshop:

A level 2 workshop requires you to have a level 3 town hall.
A level 2 workshop requires you to have set up your nagrand outpost and be level 100.
A level 2 workshop takes 1 hour to build and requires 300 gold and 900 garrison resources.
A level 2 workshop adds 5 new powerful inventions.

The level 2 workshop blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1500 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 workshop blueprint with a copy of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Nagrand and Talador .  This could effectively save you 3000 gold.

Level 3 Workshop:

A level 3 workshop requires the achievement [Terrific Technology].
A level 3 workshop blueprint costs 1000 gold.
A level 3 workshop takes 1 hour to build and requires 500 gold and 1200 garrison resources.
A level 3 workshop allows for the creation of 1 siege engine per day.

Machines and Inventions:

At level 1 these inventions become available:

Pneumatic Power Gauntlet:  Gives the death grip ability.
Robo-Rooster: Summon a mechanical rooster to fight by your side.
Skyterror Personal Delivery System:  Launches you in the air than gives you a glider.
Sticky Grenade Launcher: Launches an AoE damage bomb.

At level 2 these inventions become available:

GG-117 Micro-Jetpack: Your jump becomes a fiery leap.
N.U.K.U.L.A.R. Target Painter: A single massive AoE.
Prototype Mechano-Hog (H): A very fast 2 person mount with an ejector seat.
Prototype Mekgineer's Chopper (A): A very fast 2 person mount with an ejector seat.
Sentry Turret Dispensor: Summon 3 sentry turrets for 30 seconds.
XD-57 Bullseye Guided Rocket: 1 minute of uncontrollable flight on draenor, at your own risk.

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

I moved on and completely forgot to write this part. If that does not tell you enough about what I think of this building I do not know what will.  While the doodads it makes could be interesting and fun as we all know any new fun toys wear out their welcome in time and so does the workshop.  The siege engines are nice too, but also wear out their welcome rather quickly.  I am sure there is something to it I am missing here but I did not see much more and none of the places I looked this up online could supply any more information than what I already knew.  Which basically means this building is not really worthy of a large plot on our garrison and I do not even have any suggestions that could have made it better.

I will be making one at some point for achievements and completion sake of course but the building really seems to be one that will be quickly forgotten about.  I personally believe that everything this building offers should have been added to the engineering works small building thus making that building a bit more attractive of an option even for non engineers and really, for double gatherers, there does need to be a better small building or two.  If they added this to the small building it would have been well worth a plot even if you did not have engineering, but as a large building it's value is very much on the low end.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars for the fun you will have for a little while.
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars for after the fun turns to frustration while you try to finish the achievements so you can ditch this waste of space.

Spotlight on Mage Tower / Spirit Lodge:

Now anyone can be a mage, within reason and only for 3 specific places on draenor, and only if you have the required items to do so.  But hey, it is still a fast way to get from point A to point B.  Assuming you opened it all up already. I will be referring to this building as the tower for the length of this post.

Level 1 Tower:

A level 1 tower plan should be known as soon as you create your garrison.
A level 1 tower takes 1 hour to build and requires 150 gold and 150 garrison resources.
A level 1 tower allows for the collection of orge waystones on draenor.
A level 1 tower allows you to maintain one open waygate.
A level 1 tower occasionally spawns a rune of power during combat.

Level 2 Tower:

A level 2 tower requires you to have a level 3 town hall.
A level 2 tower requires you to have set up your nagrand outpost and be level 100.
A level 2 tower takes 1 hour to build and requires 300 gold and 900 garrison resources.
A level 2 tower allows you to maintain two open waygates.

The level 2 tower blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1500 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 tower blueprint with a copy of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Nagrand and Talador .  This could effectively save you 3000 gold.

Level 3 Tower:

A level 3 tower requires the achievement [Finding Your Waystones].
A level 3 tower blueprint costs 1000 gold.
A level 3 tower takes 1 hour to build and requires 500 gold and 1200 garrison resources.
A level 3 tower allows you to maintain three open waygates.

Rune of Power:

If you have a tower occasional an arcane orb will spawn that you can run through and gain the rune of power buff which will increase your critical strike chance by 100% for 20 seconds.  At the time of this writing I was not able to test if only you could see the rune or if others in your party could as well.  I am going to guess this rune will be for you only, like the monk tanks personal bubbles are.

Orge Waystones:

Orge waystones can be collected as random drops from any orges killed on draenor.  They are limited to the point were you can only hold 60 of them on you at one time.  So if you are just achievement hunting with this building you will need to spend some to keep collecting so you can get the achievements for collecting waystones.  The drop rate for these waystones was very low on the beta meaning if it was not changed it will take you a fair deal of time to collect waystones.  I was getting roughly one waystone every eight or so orge kills.  I do hope the drop rate was buffed a little. 

Waygates:

Each zone has a waygate that can be opened.  Once you have done so there will be a portal in your tower to the opened waygate and vice versa.  It will cost you 25 ogre waystones to open a waygate and 10 orge waystones to close one.

Locations of the waygates:

Frostfire Ridge: Map
Gorgrond: Map
Nagrand: Map
Shadowmoon Valley: Map
Spires of Arak: Map
Talador: Map

Ziplines:

I am not sure if these were removed as it has been a while since I had a tower on the beta and I can't find any reference to them anywhere on any website.  But for the sake of completion I will mention them here because I do not see any reason why they would have been removed, so maybe it is just an oversight from all the other guide authors.  I do not know what they are called, so I named them ziplines myself.

When you have a tower two familiars (they look like really large kirin tor familiar pet) appear outside of your tower with a vehicle like arrow that allows you to mount them.  You can then ride the familiars around your garrison placing them anywhere you like.  As long as the two of them are close enough to each other a line will appear between the two of them.  If you touch the line on one side you will be zipped across it to the other side.  I sure hope this was not removed and maybe just every single guide online overlooked them, but these were great for garrison invasions and setting them up to get from one side of your garrison to the other instantly.  If anything I think having these is better than the portals, at least at the start when we are not over gearing garrison invasions because being able to get around your garrison is really key to getting a gold.  They were also kind of fun.

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

When I first looked at the buildings we would be getting from the garrison and knowing that there would be no flying in draenor the tower really got my interest.  It was at the top of my list of building I felt I must have.  Any time you can save time is a good time, and saving time from traveling is the single most important time saver in any game because traveling time is wasted time you would be better off playing.  This made the tower one of my favorite options upon initial release.

After playing on beta and seeing how small the world map was and how quick it was to get from point A to point B even on a ground mount, added to the fact that there is little to no reason to really go out in the open world of draenor often, the tower really lost the buzz I had created in my own mind for it.

With that all said, and expecting flying to be added in 6.1, the tower is still a fair addition to your garrison.  It can be used to get you to the raid entrance faster.  To get to the world bosses faster.  To get to around for whatever reason you see need to faster.  Of course the zones furthest away from your garrison will be the best options to make your three active waygates with.  When flying is added its value will be greatly diminished for sure but it will still be instant travel and still an attractive option for some.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars before flying.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars after flying is added.

Spotlight on the Stables:

The stables are an interesting building for many reasons.  It gives you a fair amount of in the world benefits.  It allows you get get some new mounts.  It has a series of quests that get you out in the world when there is really not much of that in draenor to begin with.

Level 1 Stables:

A level 1 stables plan should be known as soon as you create your garrison.
A level 1 stables takes 1 hour to build and requires 150 gold and 150 garrison resources.
A level 1 stables allows for the capture and training of special mounts while on draenor.
A level 1 stables will have five of your favorite mounts roaming around.

Level 2 Stables:

A level 2 stables requires you to have a level 3 town hall.
A level 2 stables requires you to have set up your nagrand outpost and be level 100.
A level 2 stables takes 1 hour to build and requires 300 gold and 900 garrison resources.
A level 2 stables allows you to interact with objects while mounted outdoors in draenor.

The level 2 stables blueprint can be purchased after meeting the above requirements from Rezlak (H) or Sparz Boltwist (A) in your garrisons for 1500 gold.
Alternatively you can purchase the level 2 stables blueprint with a copy of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide item from Torgg Flexington (H) or Kinkade Jakobs (A) at your ashran base.
Two copies of the Comprehensive Outpost Construction Guide can be obtained free from questing by completing the outpost quest line, in both Nagrand and Talador .  This could effectively save you 3000 gold.

Level 3 Stables:

A level 3 stables requires the achievement [Master of Mounts].
A level 3 stables blueprint costs 1000 gold.
A level 3 stables takes 1 hour to build and requires 500 gold and 1200 garrison resources.
A level 3 stables increases mounted speed by 20% on draenor.

Trained Mounts:

You will receive a series of quests that will ask you to capture a beast and then do certain tasks with it.  Once you have completed the entire quest line for each type of beast you will be rewarded with that particular mount as a permanent mount you can add your your collection.

Talbuk Training will get you a Talbuk Silverpelt mount. (12 quests)
Elekk Training will get you a Trained Meadowstomper mount. (7 quests)
Wolf Training will get you a Trained Snarler mount. (7 quests)
Clefthoof Training will get you a Trained Icehoof mount. (12 quests)
Riverbeast Training will get you a Trained Riverwallow mount. (9 quests)
Boar Training will get you a Trained Rocktusk mount. (10 quests)

Even if you remove your stables and replace it with something else, once you have done all these quests and earned the mounts, the mounts stay yours to keep forever.

Challenge Mounts:

There are two items at your stables that you can decide to carry with you when doing these quests.  If you choose to do so the quests while carrying either of these items the quest will be more difficult to complete but will also offer additional mounts if you do.

The Black Claw of Sethe increases your damage taken by 25% and reduces your movement speed by 25%.
The Garn Tooth Necklace increases your damage taken by 50% and reduces your movement speed by 50%.

As you can guess, these battles you will face while doing the quests will be considerably more challenging at lower gear levels and most definitely out of the question while still leveling for some of them.

[Advanced Husbandry] (A) / [Advanced Husbandry] (H) rewards the Armored Frostboar.
[The Stable Master] (A) / [The Stable Master] (H) rewards the Armored Frostwolf and the Stable Master title.

For advanced husbandry you will need to defeat all 6 of the quest lines end bosses with all 6 of the mounts while carrying the black claw of sethe and for the stable master you will need to defeat all 6 of the quest lines end bosses with all 6 of the mounts while carrying the garn tooth necklace.  Over all you will need to win 36 battles for each achievement.

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

At first the stables was something I was going to leave to an alt to take care of.  The more I look at it the more I realize this is a main sort of building.  The mounted speed increase does seem like something that will be a great bonus, until we get flying, and the idea of the quest lines, and the fact they might be challenging, seems that a main who should be better geared will have a lot easier of a time with doing them.  Not to mention that increased speed will really help on a main who is more likely to be out in the world and need that speed increase than an alt who, with nothing much to do in the world, would not really take full advantage of that perk.

As a hunter this really seems like a hunter building, capturing and training beasts is right in my wheelhouse.  But I must warn hunters, and locks I guess, that when you are doing the quests you are mounted and you do not have a pet (but they might have fixed that) which means this might be a little harder than you might expect.  If they didn't fix it then it might be near impossible for a BM hunter and if they did fix it, even at the hardest difficulty it will be trivial for a BM hunter because you can just run and let your pet do the work.  This is one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't, situations for blizzard.  One of the few times I feel bad for them because no matter what they do it will be broken for BM hunters or BM hunters will be over powered for it.  Poor blizzard and the no win situation.

Being this building offers content, mounts, a nice buff and some achievements it is really attractive and will only lose its luster once flying comes out and you have been done with all the quests and achievements for a while.  This, you will see, is greatly influencing my rating for the building.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars before flying.
Rating: 0 of 5 starts after flying once you have finished the achievements, mounts and so forth, unless the mount speed bonus counts for flying mounts as well, than it would be 1 1/2 of 5 stars.