Nerds at Play

With Lich King on the horizon, I’ve decided to focus on a few distinct goals for the next couple months. Here’s one that I decided to pursue, since I found out how incredibly easy it’s going to be: become Exalted with all of the Alliance faction (Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Exodar, and the Gnomeragon Exiles).

Old School Reputation Grind

I always kind of wanted to become Exalted with these faction… but I never wanted to go through the old school reputation grinds. There were typically two methods for grinding this rep, and neither appealed to me.

Method #1: Complete zone quests. For example, if you want to become Exalted with Darnassus, go do quests in Darkshore and Ashenvale. This is time consuming, if laughably easy. I just don’t want to track down all of the quests I missed, especially since I don’t know most of the zones.

Method #2: Runecloth, runecloth, runecloth. While leveling, I always complete the cloth donation quests (i.e. Donation of Runecloth) for the XP. However, you can continue to donate Runecloth for 350 rep with a given Alliance faction. This is do-able, but somewhat expensive. When I set out, I would have needed about 10k rep with Darnassus - about 90 stacks of Runecloth by itself.

Alliance Grinding in AV

As it turn out, this is unnecessary. You can easily grind this reputation in Alterac Valley. Conveniently, I’m spending plenty of time there grinding honor - so it’s time to kill two birds with one stone.

This is thanks to the fact that gaining reputation with one Alliance faction (i.e. Ironforge) will grant you lesser reputation with all other Alliance factions.

In AV, you can loot a number of objects from dead players and mobs. These items can then be turned in for reputation. Traditionally, these quests awarded Stormpike Guard (AV) reputation and Ironforge reputation. This Ironforge reputation also carries over into the other Alliance factions.

For example, you can gather Storm Crystals. These can be handed in to Arch Druid Renferal (follow the path just to the west of Dun Baldur North Bunker). If you hand in 5 at a time, you’ll gain 18.75 reputation with all of the major factions.

Most of the other items have lower rewards - 2.25 reputation per hand in. You can hand in sets of 20 x Armor Scraps to the blacksmith. You can also hand in the various medals (Frostwolf Soldier’s Medal, Frostwolf Lieutenant’s Medal, and Frostwolf Commander’s Medal) to the various Wing Commanders (next to South Bunker).

This can be a time consuming process if you hand them in manually. I picked up Deadly Boss Mods for raiding purposes, and it turns out that it automate the hand in process. You simply right click on the mob with the blue question mark, and it’ll answer the prompts to complete the quest. This significantly cuts down on the time, although handing in 100 x Medals can take a while!

Tips

In order to maximize my loot, I tend to play defense. I’ll stay in a bunker sometimes (IWB or Stonehearth), and I generally end up back at Stormpike GY or the DB bunkers.

If the Horde isn’t constantly attacking, it helps to run back into the base and hand in your stuff. It can be time consuming, so it’s better to hand it in after looting five or six bodies. If you wait to hand in thirty guys worth of stuff, you’ll be clicking for a long time.

Get your Frostwolf Insignia Rank 6. If I end up on offense and have a lot of loot, I’ll simply recall to the base and try to hand them in. If the Horde is there, I recall and immediately make a bee-line for the Wing Commanders. Sometimes you can get away before they notice you. If you can make it up to the Druids, you’re usually safe too. The Horde are usually more concerned with protecting the flag than hunting down every stray Alliance.

Also, pay attention to the pace of the game. If your team is about to pull Drek… get back to the base and start handing in! There’s nothing worse than having a few hundred rep worth of hand-in, and being unable to use them.

Potential Gains

In the average game, you can expect to get 100 to 200 reputation per game. You’ll be able to kill and loot a few Horde before they completely over whelm your base, and then you’ll scramble to hand in the items.

However, it’s possible to earn much more. Last night, I was in an utter turtle fest. Our entire team ended up back in Dun Baldur, since the Horde took all the GYs. We just slugged it out for a good half an hour, and I looted everything I could. I single handedly activated the Druids (200 x Storm Crystals) and the Wing Commanders (~100 x Medals). I also earned something like 1000 to 1500 rep with the Alliance factions.

At the moment, I need about 6k rep with Darnassus and Exodar and about 10k rep with the Gnomeragon Exiles. It’ll take a few weeks, but it should definitely be do-able by the time Lich King comes out.