As of this post, I have thirteen characters at level 100. While this makes me question things about my life, and perhaps my sanity, I can freely admit that getting a character from 90 to 100 is the easiest part of the whole proceedings. The part that has always been, and continues to be, the biggest point of headache and frustration is getting the character’s garrison up to Level 3.

Despite Blizzard’s claim to the contrary, it actually is important to have a Level 3 garrison. It unlocks more plots to build garrison buildings, gives you access to the Harrison Jones quests which can buff your followers, lets you get into Heroic dungeons by passing the Proving Grounds, Tanaan Jungle Shipyards blah blah blah you get the idea.

Bottom line, you need that garrison pimped out to the max. It’s easy enough to get your garrison to Level 2; it’s just that last step to Level 3 that’s the biggest cramp in the buttocks. To get access to all the content that gives a level 100 toon something to do (via L3G), you’re going to need two things. First, you’re going to need two thousand garrison resources. Now depending on how you leveled your character, you might be close to having that already. You might even be at two thousand resources. But if you find yourself a little short, or a lot of short, here’s three ways to get your hands on the resources you’ll need.

1. Gathering Treasures and Rare Mobs – With the Handynotes addon, you can see where all the treasures and resources are hiding. That’s good for a couple hundred resources per zone. Plus, you are rewarded with garrison resources the first time you kill a rare mob. So chances are, if you’re one of those folks who power leveled your character to 100 through treasure gathering, you’re probably pretty close to 2000 resources. Lucky bastardo.
2. Garrison Buildings: Lumber Mill or Trading Post – With a Level 2 Garrison, you only have room for one medium sized building so you can only get one of these. Neither cost resources to buy, just gold. If you’ve got flight, the Lumber Mill might be better for you. If you don’t want to leave your garrison, then Trading Post might be more your speed.
3. Huge Ogre Cache – Usually on sale on the AH, the Huge Ogre Cache rewards 1000 GR. So if you’ve got the gold, this is obviously the fastest way to get your resources.

Oh and by the way, since we’re talking about gold,  you’re going to need five thousand gold to level the garrison from Level 2 to Level 3. Again, depending on how you leveled you may already have the cash. But if you don’t, here’s three ways to pick up the necessary coin.

1. Gathering: Selling Treasures and Loot – Treasures, green and better, can be vendored for 10-30 gold each. That adds up, and adds up quickly. Every zone has goodies to pick up, and most of it you probably can’t use. Sell sell sell!
2. Running Quests – Okay, if you hit 100 in less than two hours, you probably didn’t do much questing. The nice thing about revisiting these quests once you’re at max level is that you can get 15-20 gold per quest reward. Plus, outleveling the quest means you’ll run through them with little effort.
3. Farming Old Content – Whenever people ask about making gold, this is one of the main responses they get: power through old content raids for loot (transmog or otherwise). Video goodness provided below.

And there you have it. It’ll probably take longer to get the resources and gold than it would to level a character from 90 to 100. But once you have what you need, the World (of Warcraft) is your oyster!