Draenor Diaries Thursday August 14 2014

Draenor Diaries   August 15, 2014 

Verified that the Migrant Workers quest line gives you access to a Level 2 Garrison. 

Otherwise at this time you need to be level 93.  These things change constantly, however.

My alchemist needs Draenic Stone for her mine work orders.  I sent my Skinner/Miner out to get her own mine activated, and she of course also needs the stone.

My Dk’s Mining skills make the mine a motherlode of ore spawns, every time I go back to my garrison I see more has spawned and I can’t resist going in after it.

The non-miner who is interested in mine work orders has to have the  Draenic Stone given to them, but the miner character gets the work orders plus a bonanza of ore, which does include the Draenic Stone.  There are even “rich deposits” of ore which just makes my gathering/hoarding instincts go whacko with pleasure.

 

My Skinner/Miner chose the Mage Tower as a replacement for the Barracks in her garrison because once she finds the Ogre Waystones etc she can have portals around the world. 

I also picked the Lumber Mill because it gives her the ability to do logging out in the world and work orders give you garrison resources.

I picked up the Storage Building for personal bank access.

She has one small open plot, but the small plots are all profession specific and she really doesn’t have one.

Salvage, which might be useful to any character is greyed out.  If it turns out to be something useful for any character, that would be her good use of a small plot.

I’m disappointed to see the level 3 garrison is only available at Level 100 L

Having had the level 3 garrison in two prior builds, I really want it, and because there is a lot more land in your garrison map available, I wanted to see more levels of the Garrison. 

I suppose leaving that open allows them to add features in future content patches, which will be okay if that’s the plan.

These are actually notes from yesterday.  I’m going to write up my daily diary after playing each day because you how it is, I can’t find a thing in my notes…

Draenor Journal: Ye Feral Druid Alchemist

I take notes but they are a bit scattered and hard to read.  This should help me sort things out:

Feral Druid Level 98 currently beginning Nagrand quests.  Has a few quests left in other areas but since there was a character wipe so soon after I originally started beta, I don’t have a feel for how long I have to work on the character and world, so have started to push through what I can to see and do as much as possible before a possible poof.  Have a few quests undone in other areas but if not poofed will back track to complete them. Plan A.

She has Alchemy and Herbalism

Stronghold (Level 3 Garrison, apparently the highest level available though my architect’s table shows a pulsing Level Up! button)

I found out yesterday you can replace a building in your garrison by buying the plans from Sparz Boltwist near your architect table, then you learn it and slide the new over the old on your Garrison map.

So I got rid of the Barracks and put a Stable in its place.  Now the annoying Boltwist won’t open his little store and sell me anything, bah.

 

For this character, these are the buildings I find useful:

Town Hall (Doh)  

Blueprint seller, Command Table, Architect Table, Innkeeper, and a pvp mission table that doesn’t seem to do anything for me though I went in and picked a mission, so I thought.

There may be no real home in my Garrison, but inside the Town Hall I send my little character off to sleep.

War Planning Map: Strategic Options?  Nothing happens that I can discern when I choose one.

Alchemy Lab

This Build it will not complete the quest Your First Alchemy Order.  I put in the materials and can pick up the order no problems, but the quest doesn’t recognize it at all. I’ve tried dropping the quest and picking it up again to no avail.  In the first build it worked like a charm.  I can’t understand why it would work then not work unless it is intended, and they’re reworking the Garrison quest/crafting process altogether, and they just aren’t saying so.  This is my first beta with Wow and I don’t have a feel for how they do things, how they think, how they operate.

You can purchase recipes here but you need Black Rock Ore for Work Orders and it has a low spawn rate in the world, plus my Mine isn’t working so I don’t get a trickle from that either….zzzzz.   Another reagent is Crescent Oil, apparently from filleting a fish that I haven’t found yet and people on the forums are saying they have the fish but filleting a zillion of them gets not a drop of the oil.   I have to suspect another “working as intended” circumstance.

I keep my Guild Bank on Live stocked with all levels of Health Potions, so I brought a bunch along with me before I Copied the character.  They are running low as is my Alchemist’s Rejuvenation Potion. Additionally, at level 98 they don’t help heal a whole lot.  Either the Crescent Oil needs to be makeable by me soon or I dreadfully have to go back to Pandaria to gather Green Tea Leaves to make more of the not so useful but better than death Master Healing Potion.

Herb Garden

This provides a selection of herbs from all over Draenor once perday.  You can get more herbs via a work order with Olly Nimkip which requires at this time 25 Seeds.  These drop alongside herbs once you are working your Herb Garden if you have herbalism.  A leveled (same level as you) Disturbed Podling sometimes pops up as you gather your herbs.  Annoying but he will usually have an additional 10-12 herbs on his little Podling body.

Storehouse

This gives you access to your personal bank at Level 1.  In the beta, you have no access to your guild bank because “you’re not in a guild”.   There are a few guilds recruiting in beta but they all seemed a bit hinky to me, even the one I briefly joined.  I like my real guild and love my peeps.  🙂

Nevertheless, Level 2 gives you Guild Bank access.

Level 3 gives an Ethereal Trader for Void Storage and Transmog ((I’ve never done anything with either of them) and for the Bozo About Town such as myself, increases active work orders in all building to 2.

Lunarfall Inn

Lunarfall Inn Level 1 Outside View

Lunarfall Inn Cozy Sleeping Quarters

Lunarfall Inn Main Room with customers swigging ale, a Cook who doesn’t do anything at least yet, and a Headhunter who at Level 1 will find you a new Follower once a week.

Choose your new Follower:

At Level 2 you will be able to choose Follower Traits and Abilities.

Level 3 “Unlocks the particularly lucrative Treasure Hunt Missions”.   Doesn’t that sound so intriguing?

Lumber Mill

Your Lumber Mill gets you Garrison Resources in blocks of 100 for every 50 Small Trees that you pick/gather/whatever out in the world.  These are all over, not just in Shadowmoon Valley, so you can grab them anytime some fiend doesn’t beat you to them.    I enjoy having another thing to look for and collect while I’m out in the world, but if you are already at the level cap of 1000 Resources or don’t have the ability to collect 100, at this time your materials and time are basically eaten.  The shipment isn’t there so you can come back after using some of your resources elsewhere.  Grr grr.
I have not been able to advance my mill so I can pick up larger trees.  Nothing to see here.  Right now I’d frankly like to blow up my lumber mill guy.

The Mine

In theory you get a drizzle of minerals from your mine every day, but the quest to unlock use of the mine has been dead in the water since I began beta “Things are Goren Our Way.”   The mine is dead empty of mobs, and you can see where they should be but no no.  If it worked, I’d be pleased to have even a trickle of ore for my Alchemy.

Mage Tower

The Mage Tower at Level 1 gives you a Portal to Battlefield Ashran (not the charming little stronghold you visit in an early quest.)  If you aren’t at level 100 it currently puts you in a loop telling you aren’t level elible to be here.  I kept jamming on OKAY when I could till it stopped spamming then hearthed back to my Garrison.  Sheesh.

Level 2 Ports to Talador

Level 3 Ports to Gorgrond and Nagrand.

Without doubt the Ashran one should be the last one you unlock, right?

The Mage Tower at Level 1

 Notes on other buildings

Tannery
I looked at, but find not useful the Tannery which a Leatherworker can use, or your Skinning character who has materials fed to him by a Leatherworker to get extra shipments the Leatherworker can use.

Stable

At first I thought Hunters and maybe Leatherworkers alone might use this, but you can heal your Battle Pets here and it seems to display some of your mounts, so it might be nice that way.  More useful to me than the Barracks which is really useful to the PVP types.

The Forge

Processes ore into bars for Blacksmiths as a Work Order.  No smelting is done here.  If your character has Mining but not Blacksmithing you may be able to work in a way similar to the Tannery and get some materials from the Blacksmith to help produces extra materials for them.  If that is indeed how it works.  I don’t have a Leatherworker or Blacksmith here in Betaland yet.

Trading Post

Sounds like your own little storefront supplier of Trade Goods but it is another PVP based building.

Salvage Yard

I thought this might be interesting but my Blueprints NPC wouldn’t sell me anything so I could replace the useless to me Tannery with this to try it out.

Quests I can’t complete at this time because of Missing NPCs/Items:

Garrison Support
Your First Alchemy Work Order
Things are Not Goren Our Way

Shadowmoon Valley
Darkness Falls

Spires of Arak
A Parting Favor

For all the places I’ve been and quests I’ve done, that isn’t too bad.  Frustrating though!

World of Warcraft: Draenor the Dream World

I am so immersed in the Warlords of Draenor world.

I keep thinking that I should write something up about how immersive the world is, and how enjoyable the storylines are and how each new area is a revelation and a pleasure to explore.

Then I think, hmm I should just sneak back in and play a bit more instead.

I’ve been trying to think how I have come from not being sure I’d like the expansion to being a bit fiendish about getting in there and playing just a bit more.

The Commander

Games always talk about making you the hero, and how they want to make you feel as though every npc in the game adores you or hates you because of your deeds.  Except for a bit in Cataclysm, I haven’t felt that way in World of Warcraft. 

Here, you are immediately part of a group of awesome heroes (Khadgar, how I do worship him…hehehe).   You make your mark early and are called Commander at your Garrison and elsewhere.  Everyone is looking to you to solve the problems of the land.

As you move through the world you have the choice to command troops of followers and be a PVP oriented person, and I imagine being called Commander in that scenario of things really feels different than if you take the PVE path (as I always do).

It does feel as if you really make a difference in the world.

The Garrison

Wow, I say.  I thought these sounded pretty stupid and uninteresting, before I got one.  Even the base level Outpost gives you your own place in the world. 

I have often thought that in World of Warcraft the closest thing to a home you can have in the game is your personal bank.  Your only spot in the world that is just yours.

Now you have your own little Outpost, Fort or Stronghold (I’ve just gotten to level 3 Garrison so far).
The NPCs you win as Followers throughout your questing stroll around here or sit and knock back a few cool ones.

You have a mailbox, repairs.  A Fishing Trainer, an Herb Garden, a Lumber Mill, an Alchemy Lab, access to your personal bank.  There are other buildings and choices galore.

You can invite people to your Garrison.

With my small family guild I picture us having a guild meeting sitting around the table in my Stronghold level City Hall:

I think they did such a wonderful job with the interiors of buildings, and this is an example for me, of how things are actually beautiful and cozy. 

I feel like I finally have a home in this world of many adventures.

I come back here often to send my Followers out on new Missions.  I can find seeds now when I pick up plants that can be grown in my Herb Garden.   I scramble to grab trees for my Lumber Mill while I’m out in the world.  I’m working on getting fish to curry favor with my Fishing Trainer guy.

The boring world of just grinding xp and gathering to grind out materials is incredibly enhanced.  There are treasures everywhere (including these little glowing purple treasures in unexpected places which can be just about anything.)

I’m three levels from max with my character but there is still so much to do and to explore.  I want all my characters to have a Garrison and their own place in the world.

The possibilities seem endless here in Draenor.

Follow the Bozo: Warlords Garrisons and Followers

I have my first two Followers:  Qiana Moonshadow who apparently is an expert at fighting/doing quests in forest areas and a rogue whose name I apparently didn’t write down nor her specialties.

My take on the Followers now is that they are a mini-game sort of like Battle Pets.  Missions become available and you look at the quest and what is being fought, look at your available Followers and choose the one who you think can complete the quest.  You do get some indication going in on your likely success rate with that Follower.

Bozoid that I am I just willy nilly sent them both off and one Succeeded and one Failed.  I suppose if a quest comes up that neither of your current followers have a good chance  of completing you should just not send anyone, but as long as there’s better than half chance, off they go.

So far the Quests take the Followers 30 minutes to complete, then you have a message that they are complete and you should return to your garrison.  All interaction with them is through the command table where you get the missions.  They aren’t lounging about your garrison having a smoke between quests.

I’ll try to be more strategic about who I send where henceforth.  And my collecting instincts are now in gear so I want to catch them all and have a better variety of possible minions for quests which may come up.

The Follower Interface:

I’m In! Warlords of Draenor

A big wave of invites went out and my name was on one of them.  I didn’t realize that I could use my live character in the beta so I made a Frost Mage to try things out.

Agh my Live Bomb is gone 😦    How I do love my Live Bomb.

I ran her through the opening areas until I heard I could bring my “real” characters in.  My Druids are my 90s (I have been waffling with others and could smack myself) so I brought my favorite in.

I’ve been reading what others have to say about it and didn’t expect to be too excited about it, but WOW I really like the area and how it plays so much.  It has a dynamic feel to it that I haven’t seen in quite awhile.  It draws you in and moves you along as if the story and events have an urgency about them.  I love that.

I am now a fan of Khadgar, who I only knew before as an herb called Khadgar’s Whiskers.

I’m am doing something I never do in this game, I’m reading the quest texts.  The world and its story are interesting.

It does not feel anything at all like you’re in some alternate Outlands.  It feels all new.  Dark stories and deeds.

I appreciate more than I can say that multiple people who have a quest for a particular mob can just run up and start fighting it and get credit.  No waiting around for the right moment to tag it before the other guy.  So much better and everyone is happy and moves on.

I was so curious about the Garrisons, and truly could not picture it.  Mine is in Lunarfall.  It’s just plunked in the middle of the forest. I imagine when others approach they see their own Garrison rather than mine.

The architecture is reminiscent of The Grizzly Hills in Northrend.   Here’s the view from the outside:

Inside, there is a flightmaster, an Inkeeper, Architect Baros Alexston (who helps you build things), and “Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade Beta Instance Teleportation”

It is just like a little NPC village. They’re all bustling around.  Certainly none have come up to me and said they’re my minion or anything.

As a tutorial sort of thing for adding to the Garrison, I “built” a barracks.  You open a map of the compound via an architect’s bench and you need to place the barracks in an assigned spot.

Once it is in place here, you’ll see Alex and crew putting it together and then you have voila! a cozy barracks for your potential minions (I’m guessing).   No spot for me to sleep, noooo.   Not even a bedroll on the ground outside.

I haven’t gotten farther than this so I don’t know the ultimate purpose of the Garrisons.  My initial impression is that it will serve as a way station for your character, and you’ll be able to add features and the minions but I am not seeing it currently as player housing.

Trying to play this evening I think there are a huge number of people playing and there is alot of lag and many disconnects, and I want to play and explore and submit my incomparable Bug Reports.  Must sleep instead 🙂