Loving those Garrison Invasions!

Come on Draenor - throw your worst at me!  My forces will repel you!

Garrison invasions are actually rather fun! I remember my first garrison invasion and I was running around on my own doing the invasion whilst I was levelling and I thought OMG this is so frantic! Mobs all over the place, and I had to resuscitate my fallen followers/workers - I thought to myself, I am so fail at this!

For a period we weren't getting invasions and I didn't know what people were talking about and then Blizz did something and we started getting weekly invasions.  I saw people helping each other out in invasions and I thought that was pretty cool, would have been awesome if I had help the first time.

Having only successfully repelled an invasion before, I had no idea that there were different scores. Gold is at 1000 points, Silver at 600 points and Bronze at 300 points.  You can get loot bags once a week for invasions, which always contain Apexis crystals, Garrison resources and gold, but sometimes you can get lucky and get epic items in the bags, or even mounts!

So after that first time, I went with Hwired to do a Shadow Council invasion and we got a Silver (and Invasions are better with friends - which you get for having 3 in the group, which is the maximum number of people who can do an invasion in a party) - at the time I didn't realise we missed gold by ONE victory point!

I went with Madcow (Moopie) later and we managed to get gold.

So then after that I was wondering how I get the other invasions. Kyxyn and Moo told me that you have to keep attacking certain factions and it will force an invasion, and I found that to be true.

It's rather uncharacteristically bloodthirsty of me to enjoy slaughtering enemies, but the benefits are threefold. Firstly - bodyguard reputation.  It's a fantastic way to get your bodyguard reputation! Kyxyn has gotten three bodyguards to max already just doing things like that.  Secondly, there is also Frostwolf and Laughing Skull reputation to be had.  Doing Magnarok or Bloodmaul earns me Frostwolf reputation, and doing Everbloom earns me Laughing Skull reputation.  And thirdly, as I already mentioned, they force invasions - Magnarok gets me a Goren invasion, Bloodmaul an Ogre invasion, and Everbloom a Botani invasion.

What about those other invasions, you ask? Found this great picture on the Wowhead's Garrison Guide to show you what areas to target if you want to trigger an invasion.

In terms of hectic, I would list Botani as the busiest of the invasions - there are friggin' mobs EVERYWHERE!  However, lots of mobs equals a good score, and you can easily get gold on Botani as long as you kill a decent number of mobs.  The best score I had was when I did it with Crooked and Luxy and we got a score of 1900+!

The second most difficult one would probably be Ogre - also a decent number of adds running around.

Shadowmoon Clan and Iron Horde are the easiest of the invasions, I think, but you need to make sure you get every add quickly if you want to get a good gold score.  I think my scores have been lowest for those invasions.  Goren was the last invasion I managed to get.

How can you make sure you get a good score?

Kill mobs quickly and not letting your garrison defenders die (you get a little resuscitating blood drop that's timed when your defenders are down). Rescuing your terrified townsfolk who will be marked with a big green arrow - just go up to them (I click them just to make sure) and they will follow you right back to your town hall.  They don't usually take damage as you're fighting mobs along the way, so you can engage and fight as you go back.

• It's probably best NOT to be a healer as you run around in an invasion.  Be a tank or a damage dealer.  And don't stand in bad things - you will still die!
• It helps when you have a Barracks.  Bring a bodyguard with you to your invasion or your friend's invasion - they help A LOT.  Everyone can have their bodyguard come.
• The leader of the invasion can buy things to help. The Innkeeper at your Town hall sells them, and they cost 60 Garrison resources each.  I have never bought them (because I WAS a tightass when it came to spending Garrison resources  but now that all buildings are built that has changed) but I've heard that Enduring Vial of Swiftness and Enchanted crystal of Freezing are good choices. Kyxyn is always using them in his invasions.
• One party member can also get one of the leader's followers to patrol with them which also helps kill mobs faster.
• Get the Forge buff.  That molten ele that comes out to help does a lot of good and it's always nice to have indestructible armour for 4 hours - saves on the repair bills!
• Assign areas to watch.  If you're running all over the place you're more likely to miss mobs and lose score.  Front door, in front of Town Hall, and in front of mines entrance are the spots my friends ans I normally choose.
• Don't discount those Shaman stone buffs! I enjoy using Touched By Ice the best, but every little bit helps even if you don't have all the buffs.

There are a ton of achievements from invasions, and if you get Gold in all invasions that's one (Master Defender - see my Botani pic).  Also if you don't lose any buildings in any of the invasions (which I find you will get if you get all Gold) then you'll get Save Those Buildings.  Finishing 10 and 50 invasions also awards you achievements (Invasion Specialist then Invasion? What Invasion?).

So get on out there and do your invasions!  They really are fun and a great thing to do with your friends :) And mounts are always cool, right? (If they ever dropped)

Crooked and his Smoky Direwolf.  It hates weddings apparently.