Wednesday, November 5, 2014

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.

15 comments:

  1. I have my buildings for my 3 characters planned out. Each one will be using the Barracks, for the reasons you listed and because bodyguard traits sound like they will make follower's feel much more immersive. I'll have an easier time caring about my followers if some of them can run around with me.

    I am curious though, Grump. Once you have acquired all the achievements for every building on your main, and assuming flying gets added back in: Which two buildings will you make your permanent large buildings? Will it be whichever were the last two you leveled up? Or will you change them for atmosphere/aesthetic purposes? Or will two of them offer real benefit to a geared flying main?

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    1. Love the summon bodyguard and the mission table bodyguard best myself.

      I have a post coming (already written actually) that explains what I plan to do for my hunters as far as garrison builds go and I mentioned the order I will be leveling bodyguards as well. It really does make them interactive.

      Barracks and dwarven bunker would end up being the last 2 once everything is done if flying comes in 6.1 most likely. Because of the 5 extra followers and the free coin and continued follower gear between the 2 of them.

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  2. Yeah, those 2 sound pretty useful long term. My only other consideration for a final building is the stable so stuff can be interacted with no dismounting, and also because having some mounts lounging around in the garrison would make it feel slightly more huntery.

    Sidenote: I finally got my Garrosh Heirloom bow last night. Joined a normal run at Spoils and it still took a further 4 hours to finish. We were averaging about 25 people at any one time, and by the time we downed Garrosh, the only other people still in the sun when I started were one shammy healer and a lock. Everyone else had cycled in at some point. I don't know if Anybody at the end was there for Immersius. Funny how pugs can work like that, there is one set of players at the first pull, and by the time the last boss is downed, there's been 100% turnover and its a completely different set of players.

    One big problem we had that delayed us was belts. Im used to LFR where I can do every belt myself, but with the debuff requiring switches me and another hunter had to tag team it. And then imagine my further distress when I did it and realized with the nerfs and changes Im not good enough anymore to solo a belt add. I'd get them to 20% but if my kill shot didn't crit, I couldn't kill them alone. Made me feel like a huntard. 2 players on each belt is major overkill, but one wasn't quite enough by a few percent.

    Finally, a question: the normal, heroic, mythic looms have different stats at 90, but when we hit 91, do you know if they will still have different tiers of stats for each level? Or will the 3 tiers of weapons normalize and do the same damage at 91-100?

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    1. The interact without dismounting would be better if it worked for gathering nodes but it doesn't. Maybe they might add that on live but it did not work that way on beta and we can pretty much guess it will go live that way. In the end that is not a huge deal. How many collect quests are there? Not many. How many collect quests will there be once you actually get the stables the level where it gives your that benefit, meaning level 100? None because you will have finished all the quests by then and there are not dailies. Nice idea, but that bonus isn't really a huge one.

      Congrats on getting your weapon. Enjoy it. Will get you to 100 nicely where it will be 620 at max level.

      Many pugs are like you mentioned. I was in one this past weekend where we had to look for a new tank on every single fight.

      The higher bows will always be better from 91-99, the gap gets smaller each level, and at 100 they have the exact same stats even flex and mythic are equal at 100.

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  3. Hi Grumpy

    Thanks muchly for doing the hard work on these spotlights - it's much appreciated :0

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    1. You're welcome. Glad you liked them. I had fun writing them.

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  4. After reading this, I changed some of my assignments for my 2nd large plots. I'm planning for Barracks as the 1st plot on all toons.

    I put the Tower as the second building for my hunter.

    Stables doesn't sound like it'd work for my hunter or my feral druid (frost mage's pet might also be annoying), so I'm thinking to use that for the priest.

    Then just randomly putting the others on the remaining alts to get the achievs.

    Looking forward to your wrap-up post.

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    1. Most of the large buildings seem to offer small bonuses. I think the medium buildings are better than the large ones over all. But it doesn't make the decision any less of an issue. Barracks does seem like something that everyone, or nearly everyone will have.

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  5. Thanks again for the series. You made me change my plot assignements a bit again... :) But I was very unsure at the beginning anyways. I was *sure* that I had overlooked many important features of large buildings, but your post confirmed that I didn't (not so much). I underestimated the importance of Barracks and overestimated the usefulness of Tower and Gearworks a bit, because I expected there to be more than what I found out skimming over building overwievs. Also I agree with you that Stables is better suited for a main char than an alt, and I too planned to let the alts do the stablework but changed my mind now.

    For my main, I was planning with Bunker + Tower, but now, it'll probably be Barracks + Stables, and Bunker is to replace Barracks when I'm through with it. Mage Tower sounds quite like a time saver, but it now is only 4th choice, meaning I'll only use it for convenience once Bunker or Stables have become useless or better suited for twinks.

    In any case it seems that some buildings are far from finalised. Maybe we will be surprised with extra features at launch? I kinda hope not, because it is hard enough to decide on a garrison plan as it is already... :)

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    1. Sorry to keep making you change. lol But I guess that is a good thing.

      I would like to believe they are not done with design as there are still some issues, but I don't expect anything major to change at the last minute. I expect the workshop / gearworks to remain a joke.

      There are some things, like the alchemy building without alchemy that I do hope they fix and expect them too. But not sure how they will do so. If you are not an alchemist than the materials you get from work orders do nothing for you whatsoever and I can't believe that is right.

      Sad to see things this unclear and unfinished with less than a week to release. But over all, garrisons has been a huge undertaking on their part and seems interesting. I am just really sad that it is a one and out thing and they wasted this much time on something that will just get left behind.

      I think I would have prefered another raid tier over the garrisons at this point. Or daily quests over a garrison at this point. Or a gearing system with valor implemented again that required more work over garrisons at this point. Or scenarios being in the game over garrisons at this point. etc

      Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to garrisons, they interest me, or I would not have spent over 2 weeks writing about them, but the fact it is a one and out thing, I can't help but think their development time could have been better spend building content that could last for many expansion instead of just the first few months of one.

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    2. Heh, ya know your guide saved me lots of time, because I would only skim over wowhead descriptions and constantly forget and confuse building bonuses. It's much easier to come up with a solid plan now thanks to your guide.

      Workshop is kinda interesting imho. It looks really lackluster compated to e.g. the barracks, but it does offer very situational bonuses. It's value therefore will depend on endgame open world content. It may or may not become a powerful building depending on what content we'll be getting later on. I'm actually fine with that. After all the inventions look really fun so there's that. Pair it with a Barracks and you've got your character becomes twice as powerful (or so).

      Honestly at this point I don't care about another raid tier. We'll get 17 bosses to start with, so there's more than enough content for several months from now on. I prefer small quality content over quantity.

      I really hope that they won't increase the release frequency of content because I hate the feeling of being rushed like it was at some point in MoP and older content. The only thing they really need to be more careful about is not letting us sit 1 year with the same content, but giving us more time during the previous tiers would have fixed that too. But please, please no release frequency of 2 months for patches or a new addon every year. That would be a turnoff for me because I'm a completionist and would have to be forced into choosing some content over some other. Those raid free 8 months really came in handy for me because of this, it allowed me to focus on other things ingame... and exams... :)

      I'm really excited about garrisons. They add diversity and diversity is good.

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    3. oh one thing i forgot: i really hope for some mechanism to let garrison perks carry over to the new addon. followers should do so at the very least. after all, followers should be able to follow their commander, right?

      as for the garrison itself, i do hope to have it pack up in wod and maybe leaving behind an outpost (for the questing), and relocate elsewhere. i'd hate to leave it all behind. sure, it might come in handy to level professions with alts and get old mats, but that seems a bit of a hassle.

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    4. I am glad it has worked well for you. I hope it does for others as well. I heard a lot of people just breezed by other ones as well. Each person reacts differently. For some it might be easier to dig into with just simple text like mine I guess.

      I hate feeling rushed as well, and while I loved the faster content of mists, I think it was too fast early on, which is why we were screwed in the end. So sad I never fished the first tier before ToT came out. We got a late start and because of that we never even came close. At least we finished ToT before SoO, but the really short first tier with the slow start for me sucked.

      As far as all comments I have seen said, it is not currently their intention for garrisons to last any more than this expansion. That is the one HUGE drawback to garrisons in my opinion. With all this effort put into them, and writing all this I really see it, it seems wrong to just ditch it after 1 years, if indeed this is only a one year expansion.

      Leaving it behind I think is the worst feature of them, even if I like their idea otherwise.

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  6. After getting all of my barracks followers to wingman, I wanted to let you know the place that I found the fastest and easiest for farming rep. It is the location in Talador where Sunderthorn spawns. The wasps there are very easy to kill and they respawn almost immediately. Solo or with a group, you can level a follower from nothing to full in about an hour if you have the ability to AOE pull. I found this spot via a WoWHead holiday "Love Is In the Air" guide for charm farming. It works for that, too.

    http://www.wowhead.com/guides/world-events/holidays/farming-lovely-charms-in-warlords

    Good luck!

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    1. Sweet spot. I used the firefly spot where they instantly respawned the week the expansion came out and got them all up but they nerfed it since then. Nice to see there is a new spot out there for people to use.

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