Breakfast Topic: Gaining Reputation
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 30th 2008 at 8:00AM
No more collecting huge stacks of Unidentified Plant Parts or Arrakoa Feathers. No more running Hellfire Ramparts half a dozen times before starting in on quests. In Northrend, it seems like there's two basic ways to get reputation with a faction: Either you do quests, or you grab the proper tabard and run a level 80 dungeon. For the most part, I do like the latter option. It's nice not to feel like I have to jump through hoops to maximize my reputation gain. Still, being able to pre-gather stuff is sometimes pretty cool too, and part of me sort of wishes they had kept some of that in, maybe in that way I've talked about before where you can have around 12k max of your reputation be gathered items, but that they can be turned in at any point in the grind, if only to keep options open.
How are you liking the new reputation system?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast topics, Instances, Quests, Leveling, Factions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
dotorion Nov 30th 2008 8:14AM
I like how there's dailies that give rep, meaning it's basicly Netherwing all over again (it'll just take time), and championing is a good way to make people run whatever dungeon they want (in TBC, there was this 'I'd rather go to a y instance for y rep than instance x' feeling).
Plus I'm human, so it has an even greater impact on me.
Trygve Nov 30th 2008 11:23AM
Im human too.
Or wait.
Raptor Nov 30th 2008 8:15AM
I'm just happy they put in a repeatable turn-in for Cenarion Expedition rep. Now I can get my hippogryph without scrounging 12 runs of Underbog.
As a largely solo player, due to the strange off-peak hours I play, the new rep system is a mixed bag. I liked being able to solo rep grind, but I appreciate the idea that they want more grouping to go on.
Jamesisgreat Nov 30th 2008 12:20PM
I play at funny hours and hence solo a lot as well - the more reps that I can do without having to group up, the better.
klink-o Nov 30th 2008 8:16AM
The tabard system is indeed nice but the ones that can only be done with dailies, uggg. I just started grinding Sons of Hodir rep a few days ago and I'm already sick of it.
Viper007Bond Nov 30th 2008 8:37AM
As long as all factions have rep dailies, I'm fine with it (better than farming specific instances!).
My problem is that I can't champion inside raids. I have a grand total of like 20 badges and I'm already moving onto 10/25 man raids. Getting exalted with a bunch of factions is going to be a pain since I don't plan on doing instances every evening, just on off-nights or whatever.
Kryren Nov 30th 2008 12:47PM
I like the tabard system and wish it was available to more factions. It's nice to be able to go to whatever instance is the daily or that I find fun and still get the rep I want.
raec Nov 30th 2008 8:59AM
WTB addon that warns me when I enter a lvl80 dungeon that I'M NOT WEARING MY FRICKING TABARD !!!
I could leave the tabard on all the time, but you have seen the Kirin Tor tabard right?
Trilynne Nov 30th 2008 9:04AM
I LOVE the new system. I detested the item-grinding rep grinds, especially when there was NO other way to get rep for that faction. (Kureni, Scryers/Aldor anyone???) The tabards will make it so easy to get the rep that you want. Instead of gchat requests looking like 'Who wants to run some Sha'tar instances?' and people silently thinking, I'm exulted, I don't need to run those places anymore... >.> It'll be 'who wants to run x/y/z instance?' 'Oh, me! I'll throw on my faction tabard and grab some rep.'
Hesston Nov 30th 2008 9:41AM
I love it! I hated the rep grinding in TBC and the dailies in Northrend are not only rewarding in the rep department, the monetary rewards are great too.
Plus, since the quests have a lot of variety to them it doesn't feel like such an arduous grind. I mean come on, who doesn't feel good after getting seals together for some loving?
Flint Nov 30th 2008 9:47AM
Seeing as I can now gain rep for any faction I want without monotonous boregrind, instead of either having to do the said boregrind or just having to forget the ones that required instance work, I'm all up for the new system.
Chris Nov 30th 2008 9:51AM
I do not like the fact the you have to run level 80 dungeons for rep. I am for the most part a solo player and trying to get a PUG for anything sucks, let alone for rep grinds. Blizzard just hurt my feelings. Here is a concept for them though Normal - Heroic - Solo mode dungeons.
Eisengel Nov 30th 2008 1:56PM
Hear hear!
My guild is somewhat small with a lot of alts. It's likely that there are about 10 people on at any one time.. and that was great in BC. Someone or other would suggest an instance or a raid or a group quest and we'd all converge and get that going. Now I doubt there are more than 3 characters that are the same level. None of my characters are over 72, while there are a group of guildies who can play more that are all 77 or above, and a group in the middle between 73 and 76... and they all want to run different things for different reasons. So, right now I'm pretty much back to solo and duoing with the remaining 73-70 bracket.
That said... I would love it if there were different modes for the dungeons... or special class-specific challenges. Blizz often talks about rewarding skill and not leaving anyone out... but the gear homogenization and class rebalancing has really blurred the lines between different classes. I'd love to see class-specific and class-unspecific challenges. For instance for Rogues have a series of quests that test stealth and pickpocketing/lockpicking/stealing specific items... hunting down and assassinating a specific non-elite mob in a crowded dungeon of elites (or doing these things in an Alli town with the requirement that you never enter combat (i.e. aren't spotted) by anyone but the target)... there should be a challenge that is centered around each tree's theme, so that you can complete any one challenge easily, but the other two require a bit more skill (and you have to keep your spec throughout a tier of challenges). This would be a really fun thing to do I think. I loved the class quests in vanilla WoW. It was great to have a quest that defined me and my class and not: "Welcome, . We have been having trouble with our creature population. Please kill 25 foozles. Return to me when you are done for a reward, ."
While the quests in Wrath are great... varied, balanced humor/drana, good story narrative, often don't take you too far from the giver, good faction-defining activities, magic gold quest-location-finding-arrow (omg I love this thing)... they are quests that everyone is doing that don't test my skill as a .
We have Arena, which GC said is right now the best test of skill for a class... but that's PvP. We do have raids, but they test how well you work with a group... not if you have mastered your class. Are broken, imbalanced, pole-dancing stunfests the best measure of individual class knowledge/skill we have?
Amaxe Nov 30th 2008 9:56AM
It took me until 79 to get my first LK Exalted (Valiance). That will be my 14th in WoW. With that perspective...
Farming rep was always the most frustrating part of WoW for me. Whether soloing Scholo to get Argent Dawn rep, or finding Fel Armaments/Marks of Sargeras, or farming ogres for Consortium, it was tedious. I flat out refused to do the dragon one as it seemed so frustrating.
Here in LK, the fact that it is largely tied to questing (not having hit 80 yet, I can't speak for the tabard system) is a good thing, as it allows me to get a sense of accomplishment, like I am contributing to the War Effort in some way by what I do.
So far I think the new system is a good one.
Balius Nov 30th 2008 9:56AM
I'm honestly having a hard time seeing reasons to pursue reputation with most of the factions. The rewards just seem weak, and the tabardless faction grinds are daunting, with very few daily quests and tiny rep awards for each.
Myria Nov 30th 2008 10:27AM
More homogenization, oh joy.
No one ever had to collect plant parts or feathers, it was a min/max tactic, and we can't be having those. Not to mention that there was so little (well, aside from Earthwarden, which is sad in itself, and the head enchants) rep gave you that almost no one cared anyway.
Nah, much better to trade variety for carrying around a bunch of tabards that you don so the monsters you kill can spread word of your deeds. Or, well, they might if they weren't dead, I guess the tabards have a camera or death counter or some such in them. Whatever.
People will just run whatever they feel the easiest 80 instance is over and over, swapping tabards every once in a while. You don't even have to run different instances to max out rep anymore. Like everything else in Wrath, anyone who cares will be maxed out fast. I guess at least we can trash the tabards then.
Not that the old rep system was perfect by any stretch. There was tons of room and ways to improve it, but this definitely wasn't one of them.
Amaxe Nov 30th 2008 1:17PM
Having exalted helps... to the tune of 20% cheaper to buy training and armor repairs. It's nice to know that when I go to train I can count on that (paying 14g for each new skill... my friend tells me her pally pays 20)
Thrush Nov 30th 2008 10:51AM
Im on the fence. I only do dungeons approx once a week, so rep grinding will be extremely slow for me. I havent hit 80 yet but it seems like each faction only has one or two dailies and they're spread out so that makes things slow and time-consuming. I wish they had added an optional collect-and-turn-in quest for those who dont do too many dungeons. I think that would have added more flexibility for the varying degrees of casual to hardcore players.
Todd Nov 30th 2008 10:57AM
I do miss turning in X of something for rep. This was an easy method of earning something extra, since you were already going to be knee deep in bodies of that zone/instance anyways.
Gimmlette Nov 30th 2008 4:52PM
I just finished turning in Marks of Sargeras and a Fel Armament to get exalted with Aldor. All but 8K of the was my own grinding. My guild gave me a bunch of marks and armaments as a "thank you" and I've received some from guild members cleaning out banks but I did all the rest. Why? Because it's there.
I like that rep comes easier. The harbinger of that was Shattered Sun. Run dailies and not only did you get exalted but you got more than enough money to afford that epic flyer or a couple of Haris Pilton's bags.
But I'm still going to grind rep for those factions I don't have. I'm close to exalted with Consortium and Skyguard. I might be one of the few who savors turning in 100 marks and 35 armaments that I got myself. Even at level 73, I was getting 3-400 xp for each kill. It all adds up.