Reputation in Wrath of the Lich King works a lot like it did in The Burning Crusade, except refined. Most of your reputation will come from dungeon runs and questing, and not grinding mobs off in some random corner of the world. At the same time, they've thrown in some 'extra' hooks to some of the reputations that make it pretty different from what it used to be, for better or for worse. That's what we'll be digging into here.

Factions
The Horde and the Alliance each get a set of factions: The Horde Expedition and the Alliance Vanguard. These are a bit unusual, because those two primary factions have four other secondary factions. For the most part, those secondary factions don't have any rewards of their own. As you gain reputation with the sub-factions, your overall Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard reputation goes up, and that determines your rewards. Why did they do it that way? I don't know, but they did!


The Sunreavers and The Silver Covenant are an extra-special case, because they're currently almost entirely unused, along with Crystalsong Forest where they have their base camps. I fully expect to see these two used more in a future content patch, like Ogri'la and Skettis were implemented after The Burning Crusade's release.

A list of factions and where to find their quartermasters is below.

Horde Expedition (Warsong Hold/Vengeance Landing)

• The Hand of Vengeance
• Warsong Offensive
• The Taunka
• The Sunreavers

Alliance Vanguard (Valgarde/Valiance Keep)

• Valiance Expedition
  
• Explorers' League
• The Frostborn
• The Silver Covenant

Neutral Forces

• The Kalu'ak (Mo'aki Harbor, Dragonblight/Kamagua, Howling Fjord)
  
• The Frenzyheart Tribe (Frenzyheart Hill, Sholazar Basin)
  
• The Oracles (Rainspeaker Canopy, Sholazar Basin)
  
• The Sons of Hodir (Dun Niffelem, Storm Peaks)
  
• Wyrmrest Accord (Wrymrest Keep, Dragonblight)
  
• Kirin Tor (Violet Citadel, Dalaran)
  
• Argent Crusade (Argent Vanguard, Icecrown)
  
• Knights of the Ebon Blade (Shadow Vault, Icecrown)

Take note that you can't access all of these quartermasters right away. Some, such as the Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir quartermaster, require a bit of questing to unlock. In the case of the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles, you can only access one of the two, but we'll get to that later.

Championing
Championing was the term used at the Worldwide Invitational this past year to describe the reputation gain system used throughout dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King. Essentially, in level 80 dungeons and Heroics (not raids), your reputation gained is not determined by the dungeon, but rather what faction's tabard you're wearing. You can start buying these tabards at Friendly, and while you're wearing that tabard, all rep gains in a dungeon will go toward that faction. If you're not wearing any tabard at all, the reputation defaults to the Alliance Vanguard or Horde Expedition. If you want rep with one of those two, simply don't wear a tabard. Sub-80 Wrath dungeons give you no reputation at all.

Note that not all factions have this option, so you can't use dungeons to raise all of your reputations. Some of them you'll need to do through questing or whatever else they offer. Only the following factions can be 'championed':

• The Argent Crusade
• The Ebon Blade
• The Kirin Tor
• The Wyrmrest Accord

FAQ
Q: Are there any turn-ins like you had to do for the Aldor and Scryer?
A: Not to that extent, no. The only time this comes into play is something more akin to Netherwing Eggs, a rare drop that the faction will happily take if you happen to stumple upon one. No grinding out thousands of Marks of the Lich King or whatever.

Q: Yo, what's up with the Oracles and the Frenzyheart Tribe? How do I start doing Oracle quests?
A: I said I would get to that later.

Q: Wait, I only get reputation in level 80 dungeons? Wha?
A: That's right, until you start running those, all of your rep gains are going to come from quests. Technically you can go into the 'level 80 dungeons' prior to level 80, and you probably will. Level 78 characters will likely be doing places like Gundrak and Halls of Lightning, and those are considered 'level 80 dungeons.' It's not a hard and fast rule but it's close enough. All Heroics are considered level 80 dungeons as well.

Q: About those Oracle guys...
A: Gah. Fine. Here!

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Factions, Guides, Wrath of the Lich King