Garrisons, Your New Home

Garrisons are a really beefed-up version of player housing. While a lot of the gameplay will involve building it up and gathering resources like the farm (and managing your followers in what I hope will be a very fun mini game,) it's also presumably going to serve as a home.

Typically, with the exception of Mages (who can just teleport,) I always set my Hearthstone to the most convenient urban location. Shattrath, Dalaran, Stormwind (Dwarven District,) and the Shrine of Seven Stars.

We are getting two new cities - one for each faction - in WoD, and I'm sure that that's where all the portals and bankers and engineering auction houses will be, but I think it would be pretty cool to make it convenient for people to really count their player housing as a true home.

You might still want people to have to go into the major cities to do their business, but I think this could be achieved pretty easily by having a portal accessible somewhere on your Garrison that takes you to Karabor or the Horde equivalent (Bladespire?)

At the moment, the concept for the Garrison is that it's a per-character thing. Your Warlock main might have a huge fortress of people who fear and respect you, but your Hunter is going to come across a dinky little outpost that's basically just an inn and a fence.

In some ways, I'm ok with that. It will let you focus your Garrison on what that particular character really needs.

But on the other hand, I foresee my Death Knight and Paladin's Garrisons getting really tricked out while the rest of my toons don't really see much progress (though if managing your followers is a relatively quick process that requires less maintenance as time goes on, that might not be so bad.)

Still, there's one thing that I have wanted for an incredibly long time, and that's a way for my alts to interact with each other in-game.

While theoretically my alts are all good buddies, all members of the same guild and always happy to help each other out when one needs gold or the other needs some ore smelted, the fact is that none of them has ever actually laid eyes on another.

So here's my little suggestion to Blizzard: Let there be one standard building (that you get from the start) called the "Adventurer's Lounge." Think of it is a comfy tavern where the heroes of Azeroth can trade war stories over a pint of ale.

And in this lounge, you would see every alt that was on that server and of the same faction. They would be randomly arranged, sitting on chairs or standing at the bar. Maybe one of the is dancing on top of it. Two might be playing Hearthstone.

From there, you'd be able to access their inventories and be able to move around any non-soulbound items. You could also maybe access their professions as well. Isn't it annoying to get a new piece of gear, then have to log on to your enchanter, then your jewel crafter? I know that Blizzard wants to make it easy to access professions through the Garrison itself, but I'm going to be leveling up my Warlock and my Mage anyway, and presumably level their professions as well, so why not make it easier to access them?

It would make finding which toon had that Timeless Plate Shoulder piece a lot easier, and it would be just a great feeling to see all your dudes and lady-dudes chilling out like the badasses they are.

Additionally, I know that for now, Garrisons are probably going to only have a "Horde" theme and an "Alliance" theme. I get it - art resources are limited. But I'd love to see them allowing alternatives. Say, for example, that instead of a Human-style Inn, I want one of those built-into-the-side-of-a-hill Dwarven taverns? Or instead of an Orc-themed barracks, I want some kind of Forsaken stronghold?

If Garrisons are successful, I can imagine them carrying on into expansions in the future (not sure if they'll let you carry on your old one or just make you construct a new one,) but I have high hopes that it's something they'll continue building on in their Blizzardy way.