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How Long Will Garrisons Last
Gotta make hay while the sun shines.
“But despite the fact many of us have developed a fondness for our Garrisons, Hazzikostas suggested we may not want to get too involved as there’s no guarantee it’ll be kept running when the next expansion rolls around.”
Uncle Ion gave this interview back in January of this year. Back then, we were still being teased with the possibility of flying at some point to be determined, and the three million subscribers who have left WoW weren’t newsworthy yet. Also, much to the delight of the developers I’m sure, people still enjoyed garrisons.
Now people feel that garrisons are chores, work, and a pain in the ass.
Not me though. For me, garrisons are a super easy way to make gold. I just wish I had put the pieces together sooner. I’d probably be gold-capped by now.
But therein lies the issue. I am by no means what you’d call a “smart man.” I’m not the only one who uses garrisons strictly to generate gold. Granted, the amount of gold a person makes depends on things like how many alts are being used as gold generators. But it’s not unhead of to have a single character’s garrison generate two to three thousand gold a week. That’s eight to ten thousand gold a month! Ten thousand gold for maybe five minutes of work a day!
There are other ways to make gold, and some of them can net you more gold than a garrison. The difference being the time invested and the net reward. Farming raids takes time, and even if you sell every drop you still have to put in the work. Garrisons give you a sweet payout without having to invest a whole bunch of time to it.
That’s why I can’t see Blizzard allowing garrisons to exist beyond this expansion. It’s too easy to earn gold with them. Having players thick with gold works to their benefit (see WoW Tokens) but it would keep people out of the new content if it were allowed to continue.
Patch 6.2 is going to introduce a shipyard into the mix, obtainable only via a Level Three garrison. But once 6.2 drops I’ve got a feeling that it also signals the beginning of the end for garrison gold. Until I receive my eviction notice, my game will continue to consist of maximizing the gold making aspect of garrisons (Treasure Hunters, Harrison Jones) for as long as I can. I may not reach gold cap, but I’d like to be in the realm of throw away cash before Blizzard pulls the plug.
Baller, yo.
Spending Money To Make Gold
Decisions, decisions.
While having five Horde garrisons generating gold is nice, having six – or more – would be even better. I’m not saying that I’m being greedy. I’m not saying that. Not out loud anyway.
To make this happen I have three options:
Option One – Level a new character on Earthen Ring from scratch.
- Pros:
It’s the cheapest option. Costs nothing but time.
- Cons:
As fast as the leveling process might be, even with heirlooms, it’s still going to be a few weeks (depending on my work schedule) before this character is garrison ready. Even at an average of three levels a day, it’ll be over a month before I can even start thinking about a Level Three garrison. Less time with a Death Knight of course, but I’ve already leveled quite a few of those.
Option Two – Level a 91 Horde character that I have on another server and transfer him over to ER.
- Pros:
Takes less time than leveling a new toon. Days rather than weeks.
- Cons:
The cost will be in both cash and time, though more of one and less of another. I’d have to pay for a server transfer. Then there’s the ramp up time in getting enough garrison resources for construction of buildings and garrisons, as well as building a roster of followers.
Option Three – Take a Level 100 Alliance toon on another server who is already running a gold garrison (Salvage 3, Inn 3, Max followers with a few Treasure Hunters) and faction/server transfer him.
- Pros:
Ready to make gold right out of the box. He’s doing it now on his own server, so by plugging him into my Horde gold machine he’ll be contributing immediately.
- Cons:
Expensive. Dollah dollah bills yo. We’re talking a server and faction change, which is almost as much as a boost to 90. That’s quite the chunk of change to spend on a garrison.
Now the gamer in me wants to go with the first option because a) it will give me something to do other than sit in a queue on my main, b) I’m not spending money on a character I’m not planning on investing any time in. I want the garrison that comes with a max level character, not the character himself.
The OCD in me wants to go with the second option because a) he’s already started leveling to 100, and I feel like I need to complete the process, b) it’s cheaper than going with option three but will take less time to start making gold than option one, and c) I have nine characters at level 100 and ten is a nice round number.
Then there’s the goblin in me. He wants to go with the third option because this character will only be used for making gold, nothing else. I only want to focus on one character so this toon will just be a menu-clicking minion, much like the other toons on the server. Option three lets me start doing this right away. I can plug him right into the equation immediately and start generating more gold. I’m essentially buying a gold garrison.
Real estate. That’s what this all boils down to. Amassing real estate that will generate revenue.
I feel like Donald Trump.
Rokk Talk 