In this series of blog posts, we’re giving you a closer look at Garrisons and how you’ll interact with them in Warlords of Draenor. In this fourth and final part, we’re looking at the day-to-day operation of your own personal base on Draenor, along with the many and varied ways you’ll interact with the world through your Garrison.

As we mentioned in part 1 of this series, we want the process of staking your claim on Draenor to fundamentally shape your gameplay experience. In part 2 of this series, we looked at some of the buildings that you might choose to construct and the different perks and rewards they offer you. In part 3, the focus was on your army of Followers and what they’re set to do for you. In this part, we’re putting it all together and taking it out for a spin.

Calling the Shots

Building, staffing, operating, and enhancing your Garrison is not a “daily” undertaking in the sense you might be used to. Your Garrison isn’t simply a location where there are things for you to do each day—everything from your Garrison’s layout to the details of what your Garrison is good for have been chosen by you, and you can interact with it at your own pace.

For example, your farm in Mists of Pandaria’s Halfhill could be compared to a set of daily quests. You’d visit your farm, pick your produce, till the soil, plant seeds, tend the new plants, and then wait a full day before everything renewed. Rewards from the farm were quickly in-hand: reagents for cooking and other tradeskills, and items you could sell or give away or trade for reputation with certain factions.

Your Garrison operates more like a personal guild that you lead. Whether you check in on it multiple times per day or a few times a week, you can set up your Garrison to give you rewards and present you with challenges at varied intervals. When you’re ready to return, Followers that you previously commanded have finished their tasks, cooldowns have cooled, and resources that you need to progress have been gathered. The urgency of it all is up to you.

Somewhere Out There

Outposts are extensions of your Garrison that you can establish in four different locations across Draenor. They integrate your Garrison with distant zones, and as you construct them, you’ll meet new Followers—and acquire impressive new powers to command.

Starting at level 92, you’ll gain access to a series of quests for your first Outpost in Gorgrond to the north. You’ll need to decide between a Lumber Yard and a Sparring Arena for your Garrison, and that choice will determine what happens in Gorgrond. The Sparring Arena causes you to attract a champion in Gorgrond who can be summoned to fight by your side, granting you a potent buff. The Lumber Yard provides you with a shredder on a 10-minute cooldown that hits hard and helps you gather Garrison resources a bit faster.

At level 94, it’s the Talador Outpost and a choice between offensive perks that do terrible, terrible damage to your enemies.

At level 96, a new quest line develops your Outpost in Spires of Arak. Ultimately, this leads you to the interesting choice of establishing a Brewery or a Smuggling Run. The Brewery increases your XP in Spires of Arak and gives you a portal to the Outpost. The Smuggling Run results in a building that acts as a trading post of sorts, attracting a vendor who sells a wide variety of goods from around Draenor—some of the items he carries make this an offer well worth considering.

At level 98, you can begin unlocking your Nagrand Outpost with its choice between a Tankworks and a Corral.

While You Were Outposting

As you take the fight to the Iron Horde, you’ll be waging a war on multiple fronts. You’ll have scouts coming and going from your Garrison, and they’ll give you much to do as a commander.

At level 100, your scouts will identify threats all across Draenor and regularly provide you with a choice between two enemy locations that you may want to assault. Sometimes, these options will include group content or even Ashran (PvP) content.

Once per week, you’ll get intel from one of your scouts that leads you to embark on a series of up to 10 quests in one of the level-100 zones in Draenor. Players who beta-tested with us may recall the first of these: a scouting mission to a Warsong encampment in Nagrand where, captured by the Warlords themselves, you’re introduced to Azuka Bladefury. These weekly chapters are bound to lead you to a major confrontation with the enemy.

Work Work

There’s plenty to be done to keep a Garrison up and running at peak efficiency. Much of what your base can do for you falls into two categories of effort: Work Orders and Follower Missions. We touched on Missions previously in part 3.

A Work Order is a simply a way to convert one resource into another, and is attached to a specific building (and building level). Using Work Orders, you can get your hands on reagents that you need for professions, whether or not you’re actually skilled in that profession. Here are a few examples:

• With the Lunarfall Excavation, convert Draenic Stone into Blackrock Ore.
• With the Alchemy Lab, convert Frostweed into rare Alchemical Catalyst.
• With the Gem Boutique, convert Blackrock Ore into rare Taladite Crystal.

Sometimes, Work Orders also reward you with a bonus uncommon reagent, such as a Sorcerous Air, Sorcerous Earth, Sorcerous Fire, or Sorcerous Water. Followers can also provide Work Order bonuses when assigned to a building, and you’ll want to match specific Follower traits to their relative buildings for maximum throughput. Don’t forget that you can specify what you want in a Follower by using the Lunarfall Inn.

Work Orders take four hours to complete, and can be queued up, causing the building to automatically move on to the next Work Order as each is completed. The size of the queue increases as your Garrison levels up:

• 7 Work Orders at Garrison Tier 1
• 14 Work Orders at Garrison Tier 2
• 21 Work Orders at Garrison Tier 3

There’s no rush to receive your completed orders; when multiple jobs have finished, the produce of all that work just piles up for you.

And Then . . .

Your Garrison is full of opportunities to expand what you’re doing in every part of the game. Here are just a few more examples of what you might find going on.

If you’re into battle pets (and if you aren’t, now is a great time to get started pet battling!), you’ll want to visit your Pet Menagerie often. As soon as you have it up and running, you’ll find that it gives you access to elite opponents, unique rewards, and a special way to assign your favorite pets from your collection to inhabit your Garrison for all to see. To unlock this wondrous building, you’ll first need to reach level 98 and then go on a quest to defeat three pets that are lurking nearby: Gnawface, Gorefu, and Carrotus Maximus.

When you think transmog, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Well, It turns out the farmers at the Herb Garden are selling the very tools they use to work the garden. They’ve got a pitchfork, a shovel, a scythe, and more. As your pappy always said, “No tier 2 transmog set is complete without a pitchfork!”

Speaking of amazing gear, one of the possible rewards from the Fishing Shack at building level 3 is a Tentacled Hat. It increases your fishing skill by 100, and it looks like a purple squid on your head. True story.

Build a Monument to Yourself

The mark of true greatness should be prominent and impressive. Monuments are hard-won, everlasting testaments to your personal success. You gain access to each of them by completing a difficult achievement, such as:

• Defender of Draenor (Get 5,000 honorable kills in Draenor)
• Master Draenor Crafter (Craft 50 Epic items with an Item Level of at least 600)
• Draenor Pet Brawler (Win 2,000 pet battles in Draenor)

The result? A beautiful statue that you’ll doubtlessly stand before and admire for many entertaining hours.

As one does.

Check out our previous Garrison previews:

Part 1 – Overview

Part 2 – Buildings

Part 3 -- Followers

Warlords of Draenor is now live, and we look forward to talking to you about Garrisons in this new forum thread. See you in Draenor!