There are a lot of reputations to grind in World of Warcraft. In fact, one of the ways the game has become more accessible to players with time constraints is by the introduction of daily quests as means to gain reputation, and eventually gear and other rewards (flying mounts, various recipes, other items) from faction vendors.

As an example, last night I finally reached exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive on my third character to do so, my tauren warrior. I saw the green flash of light as I turned in Blood for Blood, headed back to the Isle of Quel'Danas and stocked up on the various exalted goodies I'd been slavering for, the tanking and melee DPS necks, the shield, and the Alchemist Stone patterns in both tank and DPS flavors. And then, as has been the case for my previous two characters to hit exalted (my human warrior and draenei shaman) I got the heck off of that island with my shiny new tabard and ran around in battlegrounds shuddering with relief.

All these factions are very useful for gearing up my growing army of alts, and I am aware that it helps cut down the time I would otherwise have to spend hoping for a random drop from an instance. So why the feeling of glorious freedom and the heated flight to the hills the second I hit exalted?

I never go to Ogri'la anymore. Exalted with them meant goodbye: those poor ogres haven't seen their king (kings, technically) in months. I grind the rep on one character, get him to exalted, and switch to the next character, and as soon as he hits exalted he gets the heck out of dodge. The only time I stop by the Aldor is to get another shoulder enchant, and I haven't been to see the Skyguard since I got my trinket which I don't even wear anymore.

Yeah, it's really nice that all the NPC's are so thrilled to see me but ironic that they really start to like me around the time that I'm sick to death of the sight of them. On any characters that don't need the rep, I usually just do the outland SSO dailies for maintenance cash at this point, since that's still five dailies per 70 (on Norg, that's four characters, 20 dailies, so I may only do it on one or two at most) and if I'm actually grinding the rep that's the only character that does any dailies at all. Is this the intended result of reputation gain, to make me actively dislike the faction that's growing to trust and respect me? Probably not. It's not their fault I have so many alts.

Still, I think I'm done with the Shattered Sun for the time being. Once my paladin hits 70 I'll want the mace and a shield for my tanking set. Well, I'll probably get both shields. Luckily that's still a few levels away, time for me to stop hating the very sight of every single quest giver on that island.

Tags: aldor, exalted, exalted-faction, ogrila, reputation, shattered-sun-offens..., skyguard

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Quests, Factions, Alts