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Grinding for reputation is a part of the game. Think of it as leveling up with different factions. Last week we looked at the levels of reputation. This week we'll examine some of the reputations that you encounter in Azeroth.

Each of the major cities represent factions reputations that you can grind up with by completing quests and donating cloth. Increasing your reputation with the cities of your faction gives you the opportunity to purchase their racial mounts and tabards, in addition to discounts from vendors. For example if you play a Human, you can rep up to exalted with Darnasus in order to get a Nightsaber mount. Be warned, though because of scaling restrictions some models may not have access to all racial mounts.

There are major PvP factions aligned with the Horde and the Alliance. The Alliance fights for the Silverwing Sentinals in Warsong Gulch, The League of Arathor in Arathi Basin, and the Stormpike Guard in Alterac Valley. The Horde is aligned with Warsong Outriders in Warsong Gulch, The Defilers in Arathi Basin, and the Frostwolf Clan in Alterac Valley. In prior iterations of WoW, there were more benefits to upping reputation with the PvP Factions. Now tokens gained from battleground matches are usually turned in for honor rewards from the Horde or Alliance Quartermasters.

In addition to the major cities there are many other factions you will likely grind up with during your time in Azeroth. Steamwheedle Cartel is made up of the neutral Goblin cities of Booty Bay, Everlook, Gadgetzan/Steamwheedle Port, Mudsprocket, and Ratchet. These cities are all neutral, so you will frequently see Alliance and Horde characters mingling about them. Both factions receive quests from the NPCs of these cities.

Sometimes rival factions don't play nicely in these "neutral areas," but violators are dealt with harshly (killed) by the guards. The area surrounding these cities are often hotbeds of ganking and combat on PvP servers. Occasionally players forgo repping up with Booty Bay in favor of the Bloodsail Buccaneers to get the fabulous Bloodsail Admiral's Hat.

One of the first memorable reputation grinds occurs in Desolace when players must chose to align themselves with either the Gelkis or Magram clans of Centaurs. To raise reputation with one group of centaurs, your must kill members of the other clan. You are given a series of quests in this chain that vary depending on the clan you've selected. This is a kind of practice for what's in store in the future.

While you can get away with skipping the Centaur reputation quests, just about everyone has to grind to "Unfriendly" with Timbermaw Hold. This is necessary in order to use the Timbermaw's system of tunnels to get from Felwood to Winterspring in your character's 50s. This reputation is gained by killing Deadwood or Winterfall Furbolgs and completing quests.

Many players who had nightmares about Ewoks while growing up have taken solace and found healing in this massive slaughter of cute, fuzzy bear-people. While most players only rep up enough get through the tunnel, some level to exalted in order to get the Defender of the Timbermaw Trinket. This item can be used to summon a Timbermaw Ancestor to watch your back.

Prior to the release of the Burning Crusade, when the level cap was set to 60, many players engaged in rep grinds for instances and raids. Although these are less commonly pursued since the expansion, many players continue to rep up with those factions for nostalgia and rewards. Next week we shall discuss the level 60 factions.

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Tags: cities, faction-mount, grind, grinding, mounts, racial-mounts, reputation, reputation-grind, reputation-grinding, steamwheedle-cartel, timbermaw-hold

Filed under: Items, How-tos, Factions, NPCs, WoW Rookie