I Need Me Some Garrison Resources!

The Storehouse doesn't actually make resources but
you could pretend to store them there. Or something.

If you're like me, you got to level 100 and among the first things you wanted to do was scare up 2000 garrison resources so you could build out your garrison into a proper castle. And, if you're like me, that wasn't too bad because you'd been collecting a fair number of resources from quests you see completing. I think I had about 1850 at the time I struck level 100 and got the rest fairly easily after that.

So when I spent my 2000 resources, I did so with a little niggling worry in the back of my head: these resources had been mostly found using quest rewards...ones that I'd never be able to collect again. These were non-renewable resources, which if we have learned anything from our dependence on fossil fuels, should teach us that one should never build an economy on that.

Blizzard has done a pretty arcane job of giving us ways to generate resources. There are some "easy" ways to do this, but those are almost exclusively non-renewable. Which is to say, you'll get that haul once and then never again. There are some renewable sources of garrison resources but they need some set up work to become effective. And then there are other sources that will require your constant attention.

Non-renewable Sources

Quest Rewards- Most of us found this early on and it has been helpful to get things going. There is no lost of these quests but you could surely find some clues picking through the Wowhead database.

Treasure Chests- These often include resources. You can find these by good old-fashioned exploration or by finishing the quest story in a zone and heading to Ashram to buy a map. These are also mapped on Wowhead.

Rarespawn- most rare spawn cough up some bits and pieces that can help build a garrison too. In Nagrand, there are a number of powerful rarespawn that you can knock over time and again because they seem to mostly exist for the sake of building rep with the Steamwheedle Preservation Society. This almost tips this source into a renewable category, except these rarespawn have a few million HP each and are a pain in the butt to track and kill.


Setting Up Shop- When you are set up something new in your garrison, like the Stables, perhaps, you'll receive a number of quests to teach you how to use the facility and most of these garrison resources as part of the reward for completing. I was reading a comment section somewhere, where a poster thought they were going to continue to receive about 120 resources a day in daily quests from the Stable. But I can see no continuation of that beyond fulfilling those set up quests in any documents.

Farming Methods

These two methods are solid generators but require you to have a specific garrison building and for you to be out hunting for mats.

You can practically smell the sawdust.

Lumber Mill- This teaches you how to go logging and enables timber nodes to be visible on your minimap. Then you go out, get trees cut down, and process 10 logs into 20 garrison resources. This output will improve if you can upgrade the mill to level 3 and then, if you recruit Phylarch the Evergreen as a follower, you can assign him to the mill to improve output. It notes that Phylarch, a resto Druid, also processes wood more "humanely" if that's a thing for you. Heheh, I looked up how to recruit him. When you upgrade your mill to level 3, he will spawn and attack three times. After the third attack, he'll surrender and offer to join your team and offer to make your logging "humane"

Trading Post- if you already mine or collect herbs, you can trade these at the post for garrison resources. I can't find the exchange rate on this though I'd imagine it was comparable to the one for two ratio of the lumber mill. I see no record of improving on this fixture, plus you're using up your ore and herbs when there's bound to be more you could do with that!

The Heroic Daily- rewards 50 garrison resources once a day, but I won't pretend this doesn't take some effort, particularly right now while everyone has marginal gearscores.

Other renewable sources

Garrison Missions- a number of those missions you send followers on can reward garrison resources, and this can be drastically improved by recruiting followers with the scavenger skill. The thing is: no followers come with scavenger as a standard feature. You're going to have to build an inn. Your going to have to upgrade it to level 2. And then you're going to have the headhunter go out and recruit you some scavenging talent, which she can do once a week, upon your specific request. This scavenging trait stacks as well, so, getting two or three scavengers early on could result in big dividends. There are stories of reddit pix showing garrison resources being reaped by the hundreds through this means. I'm in the middle of executing this plan, but it seems like one of the best means of generating the resources out there. I'll let you know how it goes.



Just say it: "Ka-Ching!"

That Chest- You know the one i mean: it's in your garrison and magically fills up with goodies. That thing has a cap of 500 resources, and fills at the rate of 144 resources a day. Which means, if you have alts sitting in a garrison, be sure you pick those up every 3-4 days or else you start to lose because of the cap. 

Final Word

I like that there are a number of ways to get resources for the garrison, but you've got to be thinking about it for a year from now when all the rarespawn have been knocked off and every treasure collected. If you've already gotten three scavengers on your team who should be allegedly producing 900% more resource, you should have a very sustainable garrison.

One more note I found: there is a garrison cap of 10,000 resources, so if you somehow get close to that, you may consider going on a spending spree, or reconfiguring your garrison to produce something else that may be useful.