The garrison in World of Warcraft has been forgotten by many. However, there are powerful buffs available that are still useful today.
When a new expansion comes out, many existing features become obsolete. This was also the case for the garrison in the expansion “Warlords of Draenor”. However, some players are very attached to the garrison – and for good reasons. It provides many benefits that are otherwise not easily obtainable.
What was the garrison? For many, the garrison is just a bad version of housing. It allowed only minimal customization and was mainly liked because one could earn a lot of gold without much effort back then. You could earn several tens of thousands of gold pieces per day through the mission table, and the amount increased with the characters played per account.
However, the garrison also led to a peculiar form of isolation. Many players actually never left their garrison, causing the capitals to be completely empty. This is a problem that Blizzard wants to avoid with housing, as player housing should be a very social feature.
What makes the garrison still so strong? In the WoW subreddit, the player QuastQuan reveals that even in 2025, the garrison still offers many benefits that are simply timeless. Especially with the separate hearthstone, you always have a good retreat option for many useful services here. If the garrison is properly developed, you can access the following amenities:
- At the trading post, you have direct access to the auction house.
- In the storage, you can access the bank, void storage, and a transmogrifer.
- Additionally, there are NPCs like a repair vendor or the stable master (for hunters).
However, the biggest advantage is the forge. Because when you fully upgrade it and assign an NPC for work there, you get the buff “The Song of the Anvil” for 4 hours. This buff prevents durability loss. The buff does get lost upon death, but even if it only lasts an hour, you already save a lot of gold, as armor also wears out.
QuastQuan puts it this way: “[The forge] has saved me way more gold than I spent on building the garrison in the first place.”
Another bonus is that during the Hallow’s End, as a Horde character in the garrison, you can obtain the buff from the Scarecrow to receive the 10% reputation bonus. This is significantly faster to acquire than a trip to Undercity.
How the community reacts: The community has many upvotes for the explanations, but at the same time, there are some loud voices. Many are concerned that Blizzard will remove these useful features once they become more well-known:
- “Also the best place to level battle pets, thanks to the sparrow.” – velvetcrow5
- “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who misses garrisons. They were the coolest thing ever for me.” – Rebelhero
- “I hate that when a new expansion comes out in WoW, all the old stuff just gets thrown away. In other games like Runescape, that’s not the case; old content is still relevant. That’s a good idea, and I hope they do something similar.” – tommior
At least initial steps in this direction are already being taken by World of Warcraft. Because more and more old features are slowly being transformed into “evergreen” features that are brought out from time to time. This is currently the case with the Horrific Visions, which turn out to be quite complex.
