One of the new features in World of Warcraft's newly announced expansion, Warlords of Draenor, will be the ability to build a Garrison. Following today's announcement, Blizzard has detailed the personal fortress that you will build, staff, and manage.
"You’ll customize your Garrison’s layout, appearance, and gameplay effects, and attract followers to operate it. The Garrison allows World of Warcraft players to own a larger part of the world than ever before, and opens up a wide variety of interesting gameplay decisions—with as much or as little micromanagement as you wish.
Your Garrison exists seamlessly in the world, but you won’t need to go into an instance portal to visit your home base—as you travel through Draenor, you’ll see your Garrison looming on the horizon."
And here are some more basic details:
Followers
Followers are NPCs that you'll be able to recruit to join your Garrison. You can send them on missions which will improve your Garrison and earn loot for your character. They can also be used to complete tasks like crafting or gathering resources, which can be done whether your online or offline.
Followers have a character level, item level, and traits that will affect missions and tasks.
Missions
Successful missions will give you resources needed to develop your Garrison, but you'll also have a chance to acquire powerful loot for your character as well. Resources you'll acquire include existing crafting reagents and Garrison-specific materials that can be used to construct new buildings and upgrade existing ones.
Followers will gain experience for each mission they run. From levels 90 through 100, followers will gain character levels which have a significant impact on their abilities and mission success chance. Their item level can also be increased as you equip them with follower-specific gear.
Garrisons & Buildings
Buildings (Stables, Farms, Mines, Armories, etc.) improve your ability to recruit, use, and train followers; to craft; to complete missions; and to run missions more quickly by reducing your followers' downtime.
Each building can be upgraded which will amplify its mechanical effect and visuals.
Buildings in your Garrison can be placed in a number of configurations based on building size and plot size. For example, only small-sized buildings can be placed on small plots.
Garrisons will have a specific look depending on whether you're Horde or Alliance, and you'll be able to place your Garrison in one of several zones on Draenor. You'll be able to invite same-faction players to your party who can then walk around your base, talk to NPCs, and trade resources. If you find yourself with extra building resources, you can bring them to a friend's Garrison and exchange them for materials that you need.
Garrison buildings can be specialized which adds a variant of bonuses and abilities. For example, one Mine specialization might make your miners gather ore faster by the hour, while another will increase the chance that your workers strike a rare mining node.
For more details about World of Warcraft's Warlords of Draenor expansion, check out Blizzard's FAQ.
