Clarification needed on Legion followers please...

[Eloosive]

In an interview recently the Blizz guy said something to the effect of the intention for Legion was to put Garrisons behind them and leave them in WoD. Then I read about class halls having "missions" as well, and yesterday I see the followers popping up again with missions and such. So, I have 2 questions for anyone in the know:

1. Will there be any viable use for current garrisons in Legion, and if so, should I maintain mine and even improve upon my follower groups to prepare for Legion?

2. Will the class hall missions be the same kind of crap we currently have or are they entirely different?

I have yet to get my Legion boost, and I have several toons with Garrisons that are "weak" in the follower sense. I'm wondering if I should get those up and primed for Legion or is all that wasted effort. As an aside, I don't need gold, so I don't need to get my followers going for income purposes. I am strictly interested in if and how they will play a role in the expac.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Deleted]

The problem with the WoD mission system is that it's a mini-game whose only purpose is to fuel itself.

That wasn't its problem. Its problem is that it was a boring gated timesink that was essentially mandatory as so much of the content was constructed around this boring facebook game.

I haven't seen anything about class halls that prove they are any different yet. It still has resources, followers and missions. If any worthwhile rewards are tied to the mission system then it will be no different.

@OP though garrisons will be almost entirely worthless in Legion. They remain for the sake of achievements, mounts, etc. but gold rewards are being significantly nerfed if not removed and the bonuses from buildings won't apply outside of draenor. You can feel free to skip them without consequence.

[thelightthatstrays]

We don't have a lot of information, because as far as I know the system doesn't really work at the moment.

1. They seem to be unrelated, so you can just ditch the current one.
2. From the information we have (Blizzcon, interviews) they are entirely different.

Your first point is correct.
Your second shows that you are in denial.

It's becoming absolutely clear that the class hall is just farm 3.0, the new version of the garrison you'll be starting from scratch for Legion. Mandatory, grindy and yet another lazy rehashed bit of content.

[Arbs]

In an interview recently the Blizz guy said something to the effect of the intention for Legion was to put Garrisons behind them and leave them in WoD. Then I read about class halls having "missions" as well, and yesterday I see the followers popping up again with missions and such. So, I have 2 questions for anyone in the know:

1. Will there be any viable use for current garrisons in Legion, and if so, should I maintain mine and even improve upon my follower groups to prepare for Legion?

2. Will the class hall missions be the same kind of crap we currently have or are they entirely different?

I have yet to get my Legion boost, and I have several toons with Garrisons that are "weak" in the follower sense. I'm wondering if I should get those up and primed for Legion or is all that wasted effort. As an aside, I don't need gold, so I don't need to get my followers going for income purposes. I am strictly interested in if and how they will play a role in the expac.

Thanks in advance for any input.

From what it looks like on the Alpha, the quest that pops up on your scouting map or board in the Class Hall is a scouting mission. Currently they say 15 seconds, than you should get a quest to complete. No clue how long they're when go do them youself though.

[Deleted]

Really?
Can you name me three things that were hidden behind follower-missions?

Certainly.
1) Raid bonus loot + extra bonus roll tokens
2) Legendary quest items
3) Salvage - for transmog sets

You could drop your bias and then look again? It's completely different since it's integrated in actually playing the game, something the WoD missions really lacked.

Uh... No it's not? The information we currently have on class hall missions:
- We get resources. This means that some missions will likely reward resources, like the current garrison system, or resources will have to be farmed / spent on items for your followers
- Followers require equipment, which means that there is a chance of mission failure. Because of this, it means we will have to properly level / equip our followers or be unable to get these quests they are offering
- Some missions give you zone-wide buffs. How is that unlocking content? You just get another button to press in the zone. Much like, er, oh yeah - garrisons.

Basically, from how they sold it initially, I would have expected that followers wouldn't need you to level them up, gear them up, brush their hair, etc. and would already be competent champions who can bring their own equipment, missions would not fail, but simply give you quests to go and do.

As it stands, missions clearly will fail and the only rewards on the alpha at the moment are zone-wide buffs. I don't see your point of view, quite frankly. It looks exactly the same as it is now, except the rewards are garbage.

[Nevcairiel]

Basically, from how they sold it initially, I would have expected that followers wouldn't need you to level them up, gear them up, brush their hair, etc. and would already be competent champions who can bring their own equipment, missions would not fail, but simply give you quests to go and do.

Most of the current threats and counters seem to just cause missions to last longer, and many of the traits of the Legion followers seem to just buff the reward instead of be required to finish the mission.

The entire system is still extremely unfinished so far though, and the last Alpha build was the first to actually start adding things to it, so its way too early to judge from the current Alpha state. Nearly all missions have placeholder rewards and durations, and follower traits and abilities are not really fleshed out. Its hard to draw any conclusions from a bunch of missions that yield 5 copper each.

[SoulSoBreezy]

2. Will the class hall missions be the same kind of crap we currently have or are they entirely different?

There's very little data to work with. I like many others will offer a more meaningful review of what's going on but until we see more it's just a lot of us speculating.
So here's some speculation =).

Regarding the missions themselves, I expect the continued use of Master Plan, if you get what I mean.
As for why should we do missions? Much harder to say. It depends on what the missions do. It looks like we'll get the following:
Missions that unlock quests
*I speculate that if there will be any "required" quests, they probably will have few to no counters or requirements.
Missions that enhance the outdoor experience (zone buffs)
Missions that reward follower gear (to successfully unlock missions)

So far, it looks pretty optional. The incentive to even bother with the system is because of the adventure mode-style of daily questing players will do.
So why are there mission timers at all, assuming the 15s time is a placeholder?
I speculate that if there are any extended mission times, they are for missions that unlock quests. Mission times for zone buffs will likely be super fast or instant to get players out and playing.

[Mafic]

There is nothing optional about garrisons 2.0.

If you want to do world quests? Must send followers out. Want more lucrative quests? Upgrade your followers.

I think such a system is a pointless gated, time sink. If I want to do a quest, let me go to a quest hub to pick it up with no strings attached.

[owbu]

You could kinda hear the PR bullshit irradiating from them, when they were talking about all the interactiveness that the new mission system is going to have. So I am really not suprised, if it will stay the same with a token "thing to do in the "real" world" mission tacked onto it.
The whole idea behind the mission system is to have a cheap way of creating artless time gated content to keep us busy, instead of creating actual hard to make gameplay within the world.
I dont really see any incentive for blizzard to create "missions 2.0" and fully integrate them into the game world. It will still be collecting gear, gathering ressources and waiting 10h till you can do so again. The question is, if they will lock important stuff behind it again or if this time you can just ignore it and do the world content, that they promised(tm) to have in loads this time.

[Deleted]

Most of the current threats and counters seem to just cause missions to last longer, and many of the traits of the Legion followers seem to just buff the reward instead of be required to finish the mission.

The entire system is still extremely unfinished so far though, and the last Alpha build was the first to actually start adding things to it, so its way too early to judge from the current Alpha state. Nearly all missions have placeholder rewards and durations, and follower traits and abilities are not really fleshed out. Its hard to draw any conclusions from a bunch of missions that yield 5 copper each.

Well hopefully it changes a lot. I'm fine with the traits changing / buffing a reward. I'm not fine with having to do the stupid rock paper scissors borefest with the followers just so the % fail chance isn't through the roof.

In a perfect world, missions 2.0 should be:
1) Unimportant. It should be a minor, preferably optional part of the game.
2) All of the followers should come fully trained + equipped.
3) Resources should be removed
4) No useful physical rewards for missions (read: raid gear, buff items, bonus roll tokens, artefact power, etc). Temporary zone buffs are fine. Reward increases for doing world content are fine. Rep items would be fine, though I'd prefer items that buffed your increased rep gain so you actually had to go out and grind rep to use them.

Essentially the issue with the garrison was that it was a mandatory part of the game that played the game for you. They need to get rid of this and basically just turn missions into a support tool, rather than a central feature.

It should complement your gameplay, not dominate it.

[thelightthatstrays]

There is nothing optional about garrisons 2.0.

You spelled farm 3.0 wrong.

[berdrek]

can we not conform to this and outright just reject it ? stop pre ordering, post in the forums. i mean seriously, anyone that claims this is actual content thats worth paying a box price on top of a sub is lying to themselves, as if we didnt have WoD as an example.

[SoulSoBreezy]

There is nothing optional about garrisons 2.0.

If you want to do world quests? Must send followers out. Want more lucrative quests? Upgrade your followers.

I think such a system is a pointless gated, time sink. If I want to do a quest, let me go to a quest hub to pick it up with no strings attached.

I don't see this at all. Except for the extra legendary slot, which I'm sure folks will absolutely lose their mind over.

[Adoxe]

Watch Blizzcon panels and you'll learn everything you need to know.

[Mafic]

There is nothing optional about throttling quests behind the follower system. Professions are the exception but beyond that you will be forced to do the follower system in Legion if you want to do world quests.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

1. No

2. We don't know. The system isn't even implemented yet, but the vague strings that have been datamined indicate it's basically if you threw the Shipyard and the Garrison together, and threw in redshirts.

[SoulSoBreezy]

There is nothing optional about throttling quests behind the follower system. Professions are the exception but beyond that you will be forced to do the follower system in Legion if you want to do world quests.

To my experience though, we haven't seen this world quest/adventure mode stuff yet aside from the initial mockups. Class order quests look like a different thing.