‘World Of Warcraft’ Alpha Removes Gold From Garrison Missions, Water Striders No Longer Function Everywhere

With Warlords of Draenor complete and Legion releasing this summer, World of Warcraft players are either catching up on old goals or managing their garrisons. Garrisons, the polarizing feature added in the latest expansion, may give players a way to manage a small army in menial tasks but the rewards are pronounced if a garrison is set up correctly. Unfortunately, players will no longer be able to make gold through the use of their garrisons once Legion launches.

Right now, players can generate a fair amount of gold with one or many characters that utilize the garrison and its inn, for the Alliance, or tavern, for the Horde. Having this type of building unlocks profitable treasure missions if a certain achievement is earned on the account. After the initial investment of building a garrison to tier three and buying the plans for the building, players start to recoup some of their lost gold through the treasure missions. Not to mention, the inn or tavern also lets players recruit new garrison followers with a Treasure Hunter trait that increases the amount of gold offered from these missions.

Although the feature from Warlords of Draenor is blatantly tedious and often keeps players confined to their own personal instance, garrisons were definitely lucrative. After all, the gold cost to set up a maximum tier garrison was rather substantial for some players and the return from setting up a garrison was paramount to many. Not only could they get their investment back, but the gold offered from the garrison also made the system somewhat bearable if not mandatory for World of Warcraft players looking to earn some gold.

In a post-expansion update, the garrison feature extended to the shipyard where players could commission ships for their docks. These ships are separate from the followers that work in the garrison and have their own naval missions to complete. Just like the followers with a Treasure Hunter trait, some ship crews returned with more gold from missions that rewarded it. Considering the shipyard has its own setup cost separate from the garrison, players needed even more gold to invest in the shipyard, a feature that unlocks the Tanaan Jungle.

Both the garrison and the shipyard will no longer offer gold rewards when Legion releases. In the latest World of Warcraft alpha build deploying soon to the alpha server, garrison missions no longer reward gold and the water-walking Water Strider mounts no longer function anywhere but their specified zones. According to the data mining website MMO-Champion, the inn and tavern will unlock “garrison resource missions” instead of treasure hunting missions after the update.

Followers with the Treasure Hunter trait and naval crews that bring back extra gold have their bonuses replaced with new things. Followers, for instance, will bring back more garrison resources. Instead of bonus gold, naval crews will now bring back “naval equipment.” WoWhead notes that this even applies to the gainful Blingtron’s Secret Vault mission.

In addition to the removal of gold from garrisons and shipyards, players will also notice that the popular Water Strider mounts will no longer walk on water in certain areas. The latest World of Warcraft alpha makes each Water Strider work only in the zones from which they were purchased. For example, the Azure Water Strider only works in Pandaria and the Crimson Water Strider only works in Draenor. Some might speculate that this change is being made to the game since no flying will be allowed when Legion releases. Using these mounts is a great way to traverse the game when flying is not available. It makes leveling faster by skipping tedious combat by walking on water, something a handful of classes can do anyway.

Of course, these alpha alterations are subject to change. Nothing is final yet, and these changes could easily be reverted before the patch hits live servers. However, the destruction of a previous expansion’s features is not unheard of. Drops and their frequency often change after an expansion is antiquated. Features that are introduced often go unused after the subsequent expansion releases. For instance, the scenarios from Mists of Pandaria never returned after that expansion ended. Although the class order halls of Legion are likely to use the same infrastructure as the garrison, there is no word on whether or not players will be able to generate gold from them.

.@warcraftdevs Hope this is an error -or temporary.. because sinking water striders is seriously nefarious #warcraft https://t.co/fwEfIyJDNk

— Posty™ [Loa of Pizza] (@Postsemreh) February 23, 2016

The gold removal from World of Warcraft garrisons will definitely put a damper on those using their garrisons to generate the gold needed to buy a WoW Token. Many players were able to use their garrisons to pay for a subscription to the game, essentially making World of Warcraft free-to-play for those with enough in-game gold. Perhaps that is one reason for their removal as well.

Legion, the sixth World of Warcraft expansion, releases on or before September 21. The Warcraft movie also releases this summer with a June 10 premiere. As the Inquisitr reported, Blizzard Entertainment is toying with the idea of including a month’s worth of game time, most of the game’s expansions, and an in-game item with the purchase of a Warcraft ticket.

[Image via Blizzard Entertainment]