Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Garrisons: It is Time to Ditch the Bunker / Mill

Remember the caveat emptor that the PTR is the PTR and things are subject to change but we always look to the PTR for early indications of what we might want to get ready for with the next patch.  Best case scenario the next patch is still a few months away so you have time to work on things.  But that also leaves the door open for change on the PTR.  With that said, lets move to the topic at hand.

Note:  If they change it that the dwarven bunker /war mill can give you ship fleet upgrades than please disregard this post, forget you were ever here.  This post is written with the idea that the bunker / mill will continue to only give follower upgrades.

We have been told that the maximum follower item level will remain at 675 in 6.2 from this twitter post.

With that said it is time I change my suggestion that people have the dwarven bunker / war mill in their garrison.  This was one of the two main buildings for getting follower upgrades.  Between this and the salvage yard giving follower upgrades I would hazard a guess that most people are somewhere in a position like I am at the moment with multiple stacks of follower upgrades and 40 followers or more sitting at 675 item level.

If we are not going to be getting any new followers and the follower item level is not going to be increased, the value of the dwarven bunker / war mill has greatly decreased.  Unless you are still collecting the pieces to buy for transmog or really really like getting a free coin to roll with, and we do not know yet if it will give the new coin so beware, there really is no reason to have the dwarven bunker any longer.  If, and only if, the dwarven bunker / war mill does not give the new coin than its value is basically nil.

So I suggest it is time to ditch the dwarven bunker / war mill.  The only reasons I can currently see to keep it is if you are still trying to collect the transmog gear or if you are a new, or newish, 100 and still want to gear up your followers.

Remember, the old follower missions will remain which means there will still be highmaul missions and blackrock foundry missions which could serve as a nice way to gear up an alt, albeit slowly and requiring luck, but a solid way none the less.  Not to mention doing missions for gold will always be nice and higher geared followers means better missions and more success at them.

Outside of those reasons it is now time to take a look at what other level three buildings there are out there that could be an option.

If everyone read my guides here from the beta and took my suggestions I am going to guess you all have the barracks.  If you do not then that is worth considering.  The barracks allows you to have 25 active followers which means you can send more out on missions.  This means more treasure hunters to make you gold, more scavengers to make gather you resources, more people to get you salvage boxes or other goodies that you can sell.  So the barracks is the best option to replace your dwarven bunker / wall mill if you did not already have one.

The stables would be my choice for the small increased mount speed, the protection from being stunned or dismount while riding and the bonus that you can interact with items while remaining mounted.

If you happen to be a gather this ability is priceless in my opinion.  For the time I had the stables while I was collecting the 8 free mounts, 6 from quests and 2 from achievements, this was my favorite feature as an herbalist.  I always stopped to gather every time being I did not get dismounted but since I replaced the stables with the bunker I have not stopped to gather a single herb in the world, not worth stopping if I am going to get dismounted.  So this is the leading candidate to be my second large building.  I like being able to interact with items while mounted.

But do not discount the mage tower / spirit lodge.  It sure has its uses.  In the past patch they added work orders to the tower / lodge so that you can get mission rush orders from it.  This is great for completing missions faster.  Getting the gear missions done instantly, getting that gold faster, getting your treasure hunters on one missions, finishing it, putting them on another, finishing it, etc over and over.  That way you can end up getting the maximum effect from your followers.

Add that nice little bonus recently added to the tower / lodge that was not a part of its original release and the portals you can have all over draenor and you might just have a winner of a choice here.  I have the tower on my tank and I have ports to nargand which was right near the highmual raid and to gorgrond which was right near the blackrock foundry raid so hoping that they keep up with what seems to be the idea we might see them adding a port to tanaan that is right near the new raid.

There is also another beautiful thing with those portals if you happen to be the raid leader.  If you have a portal to the area right near the raid, people can visit your garrison and use your portal to get to the raid faster.  A great little bonus for groups without a lock or even for groups with them, so the lock can get there faster.  So the mage tower / spirit lodge is not only a very viable replacement for the bunker / mill but it might be the best one for you.

The last large building that remains is exactly as it was when I first described it, a complete waste of time.  You can build the gearworks if you wish, it will give you many fun toys that you can use out and about in the world and who does not love having a robot chicken fight with you or a rocket pack so you can "sort of" fly around draenor some.  But outside of the "fun" factor the gearworks holds absolutely no practical purpose like the stables or the tower / lodge do as a replacement for the bunker.

Do you think it is time to ditch the bunker / mill?  I sure do and it is my suggestion that people do so.

I will most likely be going with the stables on gathering characters and the tower / lodge with non gathering characters.  A simple either or decision for me as those are the only two options I see now for a second large building, of course with the barracks staying our first.

10 comments:

  1. I've actually been contemplating this same thing, but will probably wait until we get blue confirmation that the seal/upgrades will not translate to the shipyard and new raid. If the shipyard upgrades are there, it will stay. If it is only the new seal, then it will probably not. I am swimming in resources, so I can buy three seals a week that way and still be back at 10K within a couple of days.

    My guess is that I'd replace it with the mage tower, especially given the completion orders. Everything else is butter on the bread. The portals to raids are nice, but portals generally don't matter. There is no reason for me to go out in the world right now... as we've griped before. Which means the stables is relatively useless to me now, too.

    I will probably do the new jungle pet tamers, however, so a portal there would be nice and if the mount speed/daze would help that effort, I'd probably consider that, too.

    Ultimately, my decision will rest on new information, hopefully coming sooner rather than later. Of course, since we are talking about Blizzard, I pretty much imagine we'll get the straight scoop about a week before the patch drops.

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    1. New raid missions will all be naval missions and not require followers, that has been confirmed.

      Remember, you can always switch it now if you wanted something else now and then go back to it later if you so choose.

      I am sitting on 2 stacks each of the 630 base weapon and armor, 1 stack each of the 645 base weapon and armor, and two stacks each of all the other individual upgrades. But I recruit a new follower from the inn each week and level them, so I will use them, but in all honesty, I think I have more than I will need for a long time. Thinking of switching it sooner than later.

      Also, for me, I am sitting on 10 tokens and usually am at 10 tokens. So the bonus roll thing is not that important for me either any more. And I could afford to buy them with gold, crystals, resources, or honor no problem if need be.

      I can't believe blizzard would totally devalue a building like that, but on the other hand it does kind of fit their pattern of when new stuff comes out forget anything before it ever existed.

      However, it is nice to see them continue with the gear upgrades, I was very surprised by that. I think that is the first time ever in the history of the game they did not instantly devalue anything made previously. I plan to make a post about that. I will give blizzard credit for doing something right there.

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    2. Ah, I meant whether the bunker would start providing naval upgrades, not that the current upgrades would also apply to ships. Wasn't clear. I'm not expecting it, but hold out hope. I'd rather not give up such an easy method of outfitting my units. Mostly because I'm not feeling my usual drive to min/max everything in the game of late.

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    3. I do not expect them to offer naval upgrades either. Same with the coin, I do not expect them to offer the new one. Maybe blizzard will surprise us, you never know.

      You are not alone, I am not feeling my usual drive either. I seem to have less desire to do things this expansion.

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  2. Now that I have it, I could never not have the stables on a character I play. The way WoD is designed (no flying), being able to do things while mounted, and just run through bad guys without being stunned/dismounted is too valuable, to me. I have no desire to be annoyed by travel any more than I have to be.

    So really I only have one choice for large plots. I've had the dwarven bunker since fairly early. But yeah, it's definitely out the door if I don't have followers to upgrade. It's hard for me to decide between spirit lodge and the barracks. I wanted barracks in 6.0, when I was playing a lot, and wanted to have more followers to do more missions. But now, I'm basically only logging in to raid. I don't do anything at my garrison except the BrF missions, and occasion gold missions, if they're available when I go in to do my BrF mission. I stopped all work orders a month or two ago, and there's just nothing compelling about playing the missions mini-game anymore. So what do I really need more followers for?

    Bendak from Eyesofthebeast really likes the mage tower. So I may jump on that band wagon, as it will mean even less time I have to spend travelling around a continent that I've already grown tired of (please bring back flying).

    meh...

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    1. I do love the stables and it was what I had first on my main. After I got the mounts I went to the bunker but now that we know we will not need to upgrade out followers any more I am going to switch back to stables. I really like it for the reasons you mention and the fact I am an herbalist.

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  3. What are your thoughts on the Salvage Yard?

    I hate it since it feels like work to open those boxes and manage my bag space.

    Latest Salvage Crate Analysis (sample size 15000+)
    --
    Regards,

    regardsanon

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    1. A friend of mine came up with an idea for opening boxes and not worrying about bag space.

      Open all of them, even if you do not have bag space, it will all get sent to your mail box. Then mount on a sales mount and take out as much as you can, vendor, talk out, vendor, etc. He said it is so much easier that way.

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  4. I am not ready to ditch mine just yet. Having not had a salvage yard, it is my only source of follower gear upgrades and it's taking me aaaaages to get them to 675. I think I only have 7 at 675.

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    1. Once you get them all up there you still start thinking like I am, "why do I need this any more".

      Just do it daily, and do the daily quest for another piece, and you will have everyone to 675 in no time.

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