These are a few of my Favorite (Garrison) Things

Much like I did at the end of Mists, I want to pause for a moment to reflect on what my characters accomplished during Warlords. I leveled 15 16 characters to 100 — all 1112 (counting the Demon Hunter) classes as Horde, plus one Alliance Mage, plus Horde doubles of Death Knight, Shaman, and Monk. Almost as soon as I’d finished leveling them, however, I decided to Retire my Horde doubles.

Although the Garrison wasn’t nearly as customizable as we might have hoped, it still offered some latitude for expressing personal preferences to differentiate amongst my characters. Certain buildings were so useful, though, that the differences mostly came down to building the correct small building for each character’s individual crafting profession and occasional variations in medium and large building choices. For the sake of convenience, I kept their general Garrison layouts very similar.

Although there are no active Lumber Mills in my characters’ final Garrison choices, various characters did have Lumber Mills at one stage or another of their progression through the expansion.

Another important way to differentiate my characters’ Garrisons arrived with the Jukebox in Patch 6.1. When I went AFK for a few minutes, the tune playing in the background reminded me which character I was logged in with when I came back. Depending on how much they’d cared about capital city rep in previous expansions, some characters were also able to choose different guards. And then of course there were the Followers…

KAMALIA
Guards: Thunder Bluff
Jukebox: Thunder Bluff, Mulgore Plains
Ideal Garrison Staff: Yepa, Rizei, Tadi, Shappa, Lonan (Tauren Shaman); Geyah, Lokra, Kal’gor, Kaz, Leorajh (zone/quest Shaman); Karg, Na’shra, Mulverick, Ka’la (Frostwolf Orcs); Utona, Unkala, Raitea, Fazerra, Kieu, Reena, Soozee, Moxy (inn recruit female Shaman)

KETURA
Guards: Sen’jin
Jukebox: Totems of the Grizzlemaw, Zul’Gurub Voodoo, the Zandalari
Ideal Garrison Staff: Fawne, Kwahu, Hara’len, Kaama (Tauren Hunters); Pleasure Bot 8000, Ziri’ak (Mechanicals); Rala, Mulverick, Rokash, Penny, Velonara, Nat, Harrison (zone/quest Hunters — Harrison may technically be a Rogue, but he carries a gun, so that makes him an honorary Hunter); Karga, Rumelda, Kew, Vala, Mychele, Mokuja, Abigail, Samantha, Coggeye (inn recruit female Hunters); Aesin (inn recruit male Blood Elf Hunter)

KATEWATHA
Guards: Huojin Pandaren/Shado-Pan
Jukebox: Way of the Monk, Song of Liu Lang
Holiday Decorations: Pandaren Brew-witch (Hallow’s End)
Ideal Garrison Staff: Yiska, Toega (Tauren Monks); Fen Tao, Bruto (zone/quest Monks); Lin, Kang, Ken-Ken, Ashyo, Xiao (inn recruit Pandaria Monk Buddies!); Su-Lai, Xue, Haomi, Nuan, Fo Sho, Xen, Len Shu (inn recruit Pandaren Monks); Tizare, Lara, Lucy, Yu’un, Favra (inn recruit female Monks); Velandros (inn recruit male Blood Elf Monk)

KREGGA
Guards: Ebon Blade
Jukebox: Mountains, Ghost
Holiday Decorations: Hallow’s End pumpkins
Ideal Garrison Staff: Kilga, Tipa, Kaasa, Tigar (Tauren Death Knights); Xuk, Ahm (Ghosts); Kaz, Bruto, Xuk, Cacklebone (Laughing Skull Orcs); Gibb, Abu’gar (zone/quest Death Knights); Vivianne, Ulna, Barov, Velonara (zone/quest Forsaken); Gie, Sylvie, Arachni, Morticia, Rike, Torwa, Nerwalla, Heyzzle (inn recruit female Death Knights)

KERISA
Guards: Thunder Bluff
Jukebox: Magic
Holiday Decorations: Visiting Arakkoa Seer (Hallow’s End)
Ideal Garrison Staff: Ishaal, Kurekk, Rukaryx, Vayx (Arakkoa); Leorajh, Goldmane, Pallas (Saberon); Phylarch (Botani); Choluna (zone/quest Druid); Matoclaw, Genah, Kuma, Haumeja, Cadi, Tama, Goahn, Magrum, Tapa, Tholo, Atohi, Muaha, Humak, Iye (Tauren Druids); Jakala (inn recruit female Troll Druid)

KEIJA
Guards: Thunder Bluff
Jukebox: Mountains of Thunder
Ideal Garrison Staff: Kanuama, Karn, Gaho, Maska (Tauren Warriors); Olin, Na’shra, Karg, Morketh, Lantresor, Tormmok, Blook, Ahm (zone/quest Warriors); Bim’ini, Xuan, Motina, Gazra, Olivia, Allison, Eula, Rizza, Annix, Myra (inn recruit female Warriors)

KAELINDA
Guards: Silvermoon/Sunreavers
Jukebox: Silvermoon, Lament of the Highborne
Ideal Garrison Staff: Dawn, Chillbreeze, Vella, Taela, Marius (Blood Elf Mages); Krelas, Vivianne, Vargoth (zone/quest Mages); Kaz (because she’s a pyro); Tuulani (because Kaelinda likes the Draenei); Candice, Noel, Kral’girz, Shoka, Jukka, Awarri, Pele’zol, Kaz’hiki, Nuku’te (inn recruit female Mages); Tuan (inn recruit male Pandaren Mage)

KARAELIA
Guards: Silvermoon/Sunreavers
Jukebox: Argent Tournament
Ideal Garrison Staff: Layla, Ariia, Hannya, Faala, Naana, Skah, Sahale, Lusio, Tawa, Kaiel (Tauren Paladins); Tuulani (because of Liadrin at Auchindoun); Seleriel, Auriel, Besandran, Opheron, Artemisia, Salanar, Merhean, Zance, Tas’ril, Argonis, Lan’Veros (Blood Elf Paladins); Soulare (Human Paladin)

KAOHANA
Guards: Thunder Bluff
Jukebox: Faerie Dragon
Ideal Garrison Staff: Enola, Yaalo, Ahote (Tauren Priests); Ulna, Tuulani (zone/quest Priests); Priscilla, Phaedra, Arienne, Hayli, Pikake, Takmoa, Marara, Vyse, Handel, Harley, Ruthia, Kenzi (inn recruit female Priests); Zuo (inn recruit male Pandaren Priest)

KALANEIA
Guards: Silvermoon/Sunreavers
Jukebox: Black Temple
Ideal Garrison Staff: Cheri, Soulblaze, Vera V, Nadia, Kerraleon (Blood Elf Warlocks); Aeda (zone/quest Warlock); Krelas, Vivianne, Kaz (because they’re pyros); Veka’kai, Natalie, Simone, Shade, Nethraza, Arga, Deena (inn recruit female Warlocks)

KELISANNA
Guards: Silvermoon/Sunreavers
Jukebox: Rescue the Warchief (Lost Isles — the most piratey track!)
Ideal Garrison Staff: Ariiya, Alia, Vivalia, Vaal’kelthos (Blood Elf Rogues); Ka’la, Dagg, Harrison, Kimzee (zone/quest Rogues); Kimzee, Penny, Felblast, Goodwell (zone/quest Goblins); Velonara (because poisons are a Rogue thing); Kablouie, Pinkee, Qwilla, Grelwaz, Zaelatha, Lai, Ella, Vera H (inn recruit female Rogues)

KAYLYNDA
Jukebox: Shalandis Isle, Cold Mountain
Holiday Decorations: Winter Veil trees & wreaths, lights, and presents & stockings
Ideal Garrison Staff: Serena, Vargoth, Millhouse (zone/quest Mages); Fiona, Rulkan (because they’re awesome); Chel, Erdanii, Kaalya, Tuulani, Onaala, Illona, Miall (zone/quest female Draenei); Rebecca, Becky, Araspeth, Tessa, Bloodrose, Scrapsy, Mysandra, Danaeris, Reina, Caerania, Seona, Alessia, Haana (inn recruit female Mages)

You would think that with this goal of making each character’s Garrison into a sort of proto-Order Hall for her Class in mind, I’d have made a list of which Followers each character specifically needed to recruit soon after the beginning of Warlords, but no, I didn’t do it until a couple of weeks before Patch 7.0. Thus, Kamalia was so focused on trying to recruit all the Tauren Followers that she often turned down Followers that she should have hired (ie Shamans that weren’t Tauren). Even if every character gets a Follower whom she actually wants to hire every week from now on, it will take me about four more months of visiting my Garrisons at least once a week just to recruit new Followers at the Inn to completely perfect my characters’ Garrison staffing.

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So, those Broken Shore storylines…

/bowled over

I did the Alliance version first. I hoped that the Horde version would make some more sense of some of Sylvanas’ actions. And yes, yes it very much did.

My absolute favorite thing about the whole experience, though, was what I observed when I took a thorough tour of the docks area before turning in the first quest. I don’t think it’s too terribly spoilery to write about this, as it’s not related to the big lore reveals and many folks may have missed it in their rush to get to and through the scenario itself.

I’ll put it behind a cut, though, just in case.

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Stable Master

Examining the Achievements listing, it occurred to me that completing the Black Claw of Sethe mounted combat challenge was not, in fact pre-requisite to doing the Garn-Tooth Necklace challenge — and that only the latter was required for the Stable Master title. So I didn’t bother with the Black Claw of Sethe at all and just picked up the Garn-Tooth Necklace. Over the past week, I have been taking out the mount-in-training whistles and beating up one or two of the quest bosses.

It was much easier than I expected — even ridiculously easier than I’d anticipated — doing the bosses as Lone Wolf Marksmanship. Even with the debilitation of the challenge item, the mounts took less damage than when I’d been doing the ordinary mount training quests as a pet-less Beast Master — probably because the bosses were dying faster.

And that’s all my Warlords content goals completed. Now what am I going to do until the Demon Invasions actually begin?

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Millhouse is mine! Muahahahaha!

I have wanted Millhouse Manastorm for my Alliance Mage’s gathering of Follower Mages basically forever. I had given up, though, on ever actually getting him for her, because, quite frankly, I was too lazy to push her through Silver Proving Grounds — and it didn’t help that getting Millhouse requires running UBRS, one of my least favorite of all the Warlords dungeons (probably the only one I despise more is Grimrail Depot). I had even reactivated Millhouse in Kamalia’s Garrison, figuring that Kam was the only character who would ever recruit him.

Then when I was reading through the latest hotfix notes at Wowhead the other day, I noticed this lovely bit of news:

Removed the requirement to have completed Silver Proving Grounds in order to queue for Warlords of Draenor Heroic Dungeons.

I’d been thinking that Blizzard ought to do this eventually, to make farming Warlords Heroics for mogging and stuffs at level 110 easier to do — I’m glad that they did it now and not in a later patch!

So I hopped in LFG and managed not to get kicked for my incompetence, and here we are!

Now Kaylynda will be able to leave her Garrison for the Broken Isles without feeling like she has unfinished business on Draenor.

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back to business as usual…

Now that my guild bank and active character inventories are cleaned up and I’ve chosen some talents and set up action bars for my currently active specs, it’s back to business as usual in my Garrisons, more or less.

Having a stage 3 Warlords crafted item didn’t automatically bring the appearances for the stage 1 and stage 2 items into the Appearances tab as well, so I’m revving up my Alchemists and other crafters again to backfill the Warlords crafted gear sets.

I found that one of my characters had forgotten to bring in her Followers on Monday night. When she opened up the crates that they brought her, she got some Follower gear, some crafting mats, and an item from her Salvage Yard set. This was an important discovery to me, because none of the characters that I leveled in May had managed to complete their Salvage Yard sets. All of them are still missing at least one piece; a few are missing two or three pieces. So after I’ve let my Garrison Resources build back up a bit, I’ll be sending out my Followers on missions for XP, their own gear, Primal Spirits, and Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry chests (if those missions still exist) at least until I’ve completed all of the Salvage Yard sets.

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Ready to Roll Out!

After liquidating all of my characters’ Garrison assets in preparation for Patch 7.0, Kamalia personally had 151354 gold and the rest of the characters on my primary Horde server had a combined total of 295023 gold, with another 96164 gold in reserve on the linked server where my Retired/Banker Tauren alts live (and, to complete the tally, my Alliance Mage had 38754 gold). That’s the most gold I’ve ever had!

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with that much money:

Now I’m ready to travel the Broken Isles in style!

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Rulers of the Warchief’s Navy

So landsmen all, wherever you may be,
If you want to rise to the top of the tree:
Stick close to your desk and never go to sea
And you all may be rulers of the Queen’s Nay-vee!
— Gilbert and Sullivan, HMS Pinafore

Captain’s Ringmail

Captain’s Hat, Crusader’s Pauldrons, Felstalker Breastplate, Veteran’s Ringmail Girdle, Wasteland Ringmail Leggings, Talhide Lined-Gloves, Railwalker’s Ratcheted Boots, Steelforged Dagger (1-630), Sharptusk Shield
Alas, the most perfect shield to go with this hat is an Alliance-specific quest reward!
And while I am willing to do there-and-back-again faction-switching shenanigans with my other characters, I won’t do that with Kamalia. sigh…
I guess I’ll just have to make do with this Draenor shield, which looks vaguely nautical — kinda-sorta like a broken porthole cover.
Savage Blood required: 0

Sea Wolf

Fleet Commander’s Hat, Pauldrons of Wild Magic, Wayfaring Tunic & Belt (1-640), Kiraser’s Gloves of Precision + Oran’s Cuffs of Malice, Patroller’s War-Kilt, Knight’s War Hammer, Sharptusk Shield
This fancier version of the Shipyard hat is an account-wide reward for completing any three of the rare Shipyard missions. This kit is less nautical in flavor, choosing instead to play off of the red color. I hadn’t planned to make the Wayfaring tunic at all until I was building this set and realized how nicely it would fit with the rest of the items. As an added bonus of how nicely this kit came together, it will look great with Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji, if and when I ever get around to going Timewalking!
Savage Blood required: 0

A hotfix in December 2015 quietly made the achievement that awards the Fleet Commander’s Hat account-wide, meaning that I could create the rest of these kits without having to actively play the Shipyard with my other characters.

Commodore of the Cavalry

Fleet Commander’s Hat, Enumerated Shoulderpads, Sorcerer Drape, Laughing Skull Waistguard, Astralaan Pants, Coldwraith Handwraps + Sorcerer Bracelets, Saltarello Shoes, Brilliant Hexweave Cloak (2-655), White Tuxedo Shirt, Tower of Theramore*
Savage Blood required: 15
I’ve been waiting to make this kit for a long time — I originally designed it about three-and-a-half years ago for the Equestrian event of the Mogolympics. Oddly enough, it works equally well as an equestrian or a nautical theme, probably because the competition equestrian costume has its roots in cavalry uniforms — which share aesthetics with naval uniforms.

Captain Azeroth

Fleet Commander’s Hat, After Hours Pauldrons, Protectorate Assassin’s Tunic, Burning Blade Devotee’s Cinch, X-52 Pilot’s Leggings, Bandit gloves & boots, Zorbin’s Mega-Chopper
Given the origins of most of these items, however, perhaps this kit should be called “Captain Outland“.

Dread Admiral

Fleet Commander’s Hat, Dread-Rider Shoulders, Nobleman’s Coat & Pantaloons, Burning Blade Devotee’s Cinch, Bandit Gloves, Rapscallion Boots
This rather formal outfit will be just the first of many pirate-themed kits inspired by the Outlaw Rogue Artifact weapon, the Dreadblades Fate & Fortune.
Although the outfit looks nice without shoulders, it somehow didn’t feel quite right for an Admiral to not have epaulets.

Lord High Admiral



Fleet Commander’s Hat, Stockade Pauldrons, Overlord’s Chestplate & Legplates, Girdle of Uther, Gauntlets of the Vanquisher, Obsidian Greaves, Martial Shirt (any color), Forgotten Champion’s Blade, Admiral Taylor’s Greatsword
At the time that I made this kit, Horde characters couldn’t use the appearance of Admiral Taylor’s Greatsword for Transmogrification, but they could equip it — so Keija kept it equipped from the moment she solved the mystery of Admiral Taylor’s Garrison in Spires of Arak right up until she got her first Artifact weapon at the beginning of Legion.
An Alliance Protection Warrior or Paladin should use Revilgaz’s Cutlass and Wheel of the Lost Hope with this kit.

~*~*~

So there you have it: how I spent my Warlords of Draenor expansion.

I’ve also been working on one or two smaller, not specifically Warlords-content-related Transmogrification projects that aren’t done yet, but I’m sure glad to have these two big projects out the door before the Legion pre-patch!

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is it Patch Day yet?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to get really itchy for the pre-patch to arrive. Of course I’m looking forward to the questline — which I will probably do with Kamalia, then my two Mages, and then with other alts as I have time and energy — and the unfolding lore reveals and so forth. What I’m anxiously awaiting, though, is the inventory cleanup and Garrison wind-down that the patch will bring.

I’ve already got what I need to do on the evening before the patch drops all planned out:
*Bring in all Followers and don’t send them out again that night
*Trade all Garrison Resources for gold
*Turn in Primal Spirits for Savage Blood and dump them in the Guild Bank, just in case I want/need to craft a Warlords item in the future
*Open up Big Crates of Salvage, put stuff I do want for Transmogrification in the mail as a temporary storage, and vendor stuff I don’t want for Transmogrification — I seem to recall reading that Salvage Crates obtained before the patch will be unchanged after the patch, but I don’t want to risk my accumulated crates turning into junk
*Move alts who are Retiring to capital cities

Then on Patch Day itself (and probably for the next several days) I will be systematically logging on with each of my characters in turn (including the low-level toons that I haven’t actually played for two or three years), loading their clothing inventories into the Wardrobe, binding all the stuff I’ve been hoarding all these years, and vendoring just about everything once it’s bound. After that’s done, then I can jump into the actual patch content…

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Too Many Tigers?

Ketura the Hunter finally finished the mount training quests and upgraded her Stables to level 3. Ketura is currently a Beast Master Hunter… but when she mounts up on one of the Stables mounts-in-training, her pet disappears. She’s managed alright without her pet for the ordinary training quests, but I think she’ll probably need more DPS to get through the Black Claw of Sethe and Garn-Tooth Necklace mounted combat challenges. So I’ve decided to wait to do those until the pre-patch arrives and I can switch her over to Lone Wolf Marksmanship more easily.

I spent some time curating her pet collection for use with the Dire Stable glyph, taming new pets and abandoning releasing others. Of her 46 pets, 20 are cats, and 13 are striped cats, including all 9 colors of the “grand tiger” model introduced in Mists. “Crazy Cat Lady” much? *shrug* I’m definitely a cat person, not a dog person. There are even more tigers out there that I could tame… but I do like the non-cat pets that I have, and I need to have room for a kodo and a mechanical pet, too.

Meanwhile, Kerisa the Druid finished the 6.0 Garrison Campaign and recruited Choluna this week. I also took her back to Tanaan until she got her Vol’jin’s Headhunters rep up to Revered and could acquire the “Battlegear of the Frostwolves” transmogrification kit that is only available to leather-wearers. I figured I might as well get that now, rather than having to come back for it later.

That just left Kregga the Death Knight’s Laughing Skull rep grind… and although I had gone out to Everbloom Wilds several times to work on it, I just couldn’t stand how slow it was going. Garrison gold to the rescue — because what is gold for, if not to spend it on things that I want or need? — I bought a pile of Medallions of the Legion off the AH to get her to her target level of Revered.

Speaking of rep grinds, I took Kaylynda the Human Mage back to the Isle of Thunder and finished off the series of introductory solo scenarios. Then I burned the whole big heap of Isle of Thunder rep tokens I had, which got her just barely into Revered. So she’ll have to spend a week or so doing the quests there to get up to Exalted — and that’s definitely manageable. And then she’ll have a proper violet and white Kirin Tor-of-Dalaran tabard to wear when she is summoned to the floating city to begin the campaign on the Broken Isles.

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the Underpowered Death Knight takes the bank

Having read that on the PTR, not only are gold missions gone, but also the Smuggled Sack of Gold is no longer available from the Trader, I decided I ought to make hay while the sun shines. This evening, I began taking my alts to the Trading Post to exchange all their Garrison Resources for gold. I’m leaving alts who don’t have an active Shipyard with under 1k resources and alts who do have an active Shipyard with around 3.5k resources.

I’ve also seen the idea of stockpiling Big Crates of Salvage until the pre-patch drops mentioned in a few places. I must admit that I’m not quite sure why one would want to do that. Is there something about the Salvage Yard being changed in the pre-patch that I’ve missed?

Anyhow, while I was cashing in the Underpowered Death Knight’s cache of Garrison Resources, out of the blue she informed me that as she is Retired, when the pre-patch drops and it will no longer be of any benefit for her to stay in her Garrison, she would like to become my primary Bank Alt.

AND, said she, she therefore required an appropriate Hat:

(You know, I’m really glad that Blizz put a swimming pool at the Gallywix Pleasure Palace, because it’s such a fun set piece that it would have been very sad to leave it completely behind on Kezan.)

Previously: the Underpowered Death Knight in the Homestretch

Next: the Underpowered Death Knight in Patch 7.0

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