Ask WoW Insider: Do you optimize your rep grinds?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Aug 10th 2007 at 6:02PM
It's the end of another week, and you know what that means -- it's time for another edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we post your questions for our readers to answer. This week we have a question from Rylia, who is curious about how many people actually mesh their playstyle around World of Warcraft's reputation system:WoW is my first MMORPG, and really the first computer game I've played for a decade or more -- I used to play things like King's Quest and Hero's Quest and Police Quest. So for me, the natural way to start when I get to a new zone is to fill up on all the quests, and march off to tick them off. Only later do I start thinking about getting my faction reps up. However, basically every guide to faction rep, for every faction, says that to make the most of your efforts, you need to wait to do your quests until you've ground up to honored with instances or turn-in quests.
Interesting! Of course we all know the best way to gain reputation with most factions (Outland factions in particular, because each of those has an associated dungeon) is to run through the instances first, because instances will stop providing reputation gain at some point, while quests will give reputation no matter what your current reputation is. But do you really play the best way, or do you look head straight for those exclamation points, like Rylia does?
Ask WoW Insider couldn't keep posting without a delicious diet of your questions -- so send 'em in to ask AT wowinsider DOT com! Thanks for reading, and we'll be back next week with another of your questions!
Filed under: Ask WoW Insider
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Blake Aug 10th 2007 6:55PM
If I had planned ahead, I would have saved the quests. But as I started a new character with Burning Crusade, I was just leveling to 70 as fast as possible and the fastest way was through questing. So unfortunately, most of those quests were done for XP when I should have saved them for rep. Lesson learned.
So yeah, save those quests! Run the instances, grind the unidentified plant parts until you can grind no more and THEN quest.
wnussbau Aug 10th 2007 6:59PM
I know it's more efficient to wait but that's more effort than I'm willing to put in planning ahead. I just do the quests as they come and enjoy a more "fee-flow" view on the game.
Milktub Aug 11th 2007 11:24PM
If I were smart, I would've saved my quests. But for me, with the exception of Argent Dawn and Timbermaw Hold, rep is an afterthought.
I just hit 70, so now I have nothing to do other than grind for rep. Oh well, it's something to do.
Rob Aug 10th 2007 7:10PM
You can do the quest but not turn it in. Stash the quest item in your bank, or if it's a 'kill x of y' grind, even better. That way you get the quest out of the way first off (but not the phat XP :( ). You'll just need to decide if you want the rep more than the XP.
amasen Aug 10th 2007 7:11PM
The one I did plan ahead with was Cenarion Expidition. I have multiple characters, and on my first one I bought the necessary plant parts to get to honored, then when I ran through Zangamarsh I was able to get enough plant parts for my following alt, and he was able to pass those parts down to my 3rd alt.
Every other faction I've bothered very little to do this. Sadly to do so takes the fun out of it for me.
B Lee Aug 10th 2007 7:26PM
This is not for every one, but I actually do it both ways. For my main I did it the harder, but I suppose more enjoyable way, doing quests as I saw them and really not worrying about my reputation. For example, in Zangarmarsh I just did the quests as I saw them, ran instances when the opportunities arose, etc.
Then my alternate got to Zangarmarsh. This time around, I did it the "efficient way", grinding solely on Naga until they no longer gave rep (Friendly), turning in the plants for rep until Honored (when they stop), and then starting the quests. It was a lot more painful.
It really comes down to what you want out of the reputation. Druids would benefit greatly from the Earthwarden rep reward, but probably not so much the rewards from Honor Hold. Decide whether you just want Honored, Revered, or Exalted. You only need Revered if you want to do those Heroics, or if you want some sort of craftable pattern/ item reward. And you only want to do Exalted if there's a really, really good item that you don't think you'd replace for a long time. For any other case, just enjoy yourself.
BigFire Aug 10th 2007 7:48PM
I'm currently rep-grinding the Skyguard. Everynight, I park my character at the Skyguard station at Apex Plateau. When I login the first thing is to do the bombing quest + the wrangling quest. I then hitch a ride to Sketish and do the bombing run there plus the prisoner escort. With diplomacy, I get 1.7K of Skyguard per day.
Deuce Aug 10th 2007 8:20PM
Lower city rep
At level 63, I spent a weekend (20-24 total hours) grinding for arakkoa feathers. I got around 800 (of the 1080 needed to get to honored). The best part of this repeatable quest is you get a bag with a Boe green (rare blue) 1 or 2 potions and a level V scroll.
After 1080 feathers, do the quests and run Shadow Labs TWICE ONLY to get to Revered.
As these feathers sell for about 50s that is about 500 gold to get to honored. But you would end up with 36 Boe greens or blues and a whack of potions and scrolls. By DEing Boe's and auctioning the works you can probably get 200g's back(?).
Let me do some crude math. 300g's saves you 4.5 Shadow Labs runs. If we say 2 hours(minimum) per run thats 9 hours in shadow labs. Lets say you can make 50g(low end estimate) per hour grinding for motes. That is 6 hours. So buying feathers saves 3 hours (could easily save you 10 hours). I am sure there are flaws in this math but I am not about to play 2 toons though Lower City rep 2 ways to find exact numbers.
If TIME = MONEY then ARAKKOA FEATHERS are the BEST way to grind rep for Lower City. That is if u are after revered or exalted.
Please comment
dotorion Aug 11th 2007 5:04AM
"If I had planned ahead, I would have saved the quests. But as I started a new character with Burning Crusade, I was just leveling to 70 as fast as possible and the fastest way was through questing. So unfortunately, most of those quests were done for XP when I should have saved them for rep. Lesson learned."
QFT.
I know what I'll be doing on the priest alt I'm starting though - instance first , quest later.
figureditout Aug 11th 2007 11:07PM
On my main I paid no attention to the order in which I did things for rep...so at 70 I had to run all the upper-level 5mans for rep long after I stopped needing gear from those instances...
So for my alt I got smart and did the rep grinds as efficiently as possible. Now I'm lvl 68 and very close to revered with lower city and cenarion expedition, more than half way through honored with HH, and honored with the Consortium.
For the record I still have quests to do in terrokar forest and haven't touched Nagrand, Blade's Edge, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon valley so I should have no problem hitting revered with most factions by 70. This leaves me with just Shat'ar rep to worry about (until Kara), rather than all of the above factions. I'm glad I did it this way this time XD
Incendo Aug 12th 2007 6:08AM
I'm doing that on my lock right now which has my rep's looking pretty decent by the time I'm turning quests in. Problem is that instances period are getting harder and harder to find on my server so that's really slowed me down. Still just farming while I wait for groups I'm up to 63 and will have plenty of quests left to get money when I do hit 70.
bonse Aug 13th 2007 6:52AM
after levelling a warrior to 70 with my gf's priest just as tbc hit (got to 60, tbc released and installed the next day) I was keen to level my main which i did fast as possible. This meant that a keen recipe collector such as my self had to go back to get all the rep from argent dawn and timbermaw etc. For all those 70's grinding timbermaw rep at 1pt a kill there is good news to keep you going......70's grinding cultists in silithus get 1pt for 4 kills
needless to say, my alts are honored with thorium at 45 and friendly with timbermaw by 50, aiming for revered with timbermaw and honored with AD by 60....to the point that all other quests are excluded and replaced with grinding. A real shame as the only thing i dislike more than exagerated grinding is the thought of missing out on recipes :)