Winds of the North achievement getting fixed
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 8th 2009 at 5:00PM
When you log in the day after patch 3.0.8 goes live, odds are that if you've hit 80, you'll be picking up a relatively free achievement. Winds of the North is an achievement that's been more or less impossible to get since Wrath was released -- it requires you to get Exalted with all three of the "starter" reputations for your faction, depending on whether you're Horde or Alliance. But while it's relatively easy to get Exalted with the overall reputaiton for your faction (Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard), it's very tough to get Exalted with the reputations within that faction (Explorer's League, Valiance Expedition, Frostborn and the Silver Covenant for the Alliance, and Hand of Vengeance, Taunka, Warsong Offensive and the Sunreavers for the Horde -- whew). There are almost no daily quests for any of those factions, and even just doing all of the quests is designed to get you Exalted with the major faction, not the minor ones. Patch 3.0.8 will fix this, and only require you to get Exalted with the overall faction. Which you probably already are, since if you don't wear a Champion tabard during the endgame instances, you'll instead earn rep with the starter reputation for your faction. (Not to mention that even before you get there, the mini-factions all add up to the major faction, so if you get Revered with two of the mini-factions, you'll be Exalted with the overall faction.) Got all that? In short, Blizzard built an achievement into the game without realizing how hard it really was to get. And in the next patch, they're going to change it so that even if you haven't been paying attentention, you've probably already gotten it. So enjoy the free points.
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Factions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ty Jan 8th 2009 5:06PM
Cool. where was the queue yesterday?
Kolo Jan 8th 2009 5:11PM
as a rep whore, I would have preferred it had they let us get the other reps more easily. At the moment it will take me 4 months of doing the same daily to get Explorer's League rep. They should make it that once you get fully exalted with your main faction, the Rep that used to carry over to the main faction, now carrys over to other two
wallert Jan 8th 2009 5:12PM
Was this even possible pre-patch? I know that explorers league and valiance expedition can be made exalted, really really slowly with one daily a day - but i've yet to see anyway to gain silver covenant rep...
Thander Jan 8th 2009 5:16PM
It was impossible before. I did every quest in Northrend, loremaster and all that and still was only friendly or honored with some of them. The dailies don't give rep for all three.
Xoshe Jan 8th 2009 5:22PM
Explorers League and Frostborn have dailies, and if you do the quests in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, you'll be Exalted with Valiance Alliance.
But it is true that currently it is impossible to gain rep with the Silver Covenant. It's probably something they'll add in later, since it looks like there's an event of some kind waiting to happen in Crystalsong.
Amaxe Jan 8th 2009 5:41PM
I'm wondering if this change actually means they don't have content for the Silver Covenant. It seems that to develop it, they would have to drop in more quests, which would throw off the Northrend quest achievements in at least some zones
Microtonal Jan 9th 2009 1:33AM
Remember, however, that there are currently no quests in Crystalsong Forest (except for those two quests from Storm Peaks), but there's a flight point for each faction and a bunch of more-or-less pointless mobs wandering around.
If they didn't have any content planned for the zone, why make the zone in the first place? I've just been assuming that something was going to be done with it in a future patch.
y2fatboy Jan 9th 2009 9:14AM
But Crystalsong Forest is soooo pretty! Surely that justifies having a (near) useless flight point and camp for each faction... (It would also help if the beast mobs there would drop Chilled Meat too).
Malkavos Jan 8th 2009 5:15PM
Doing all the quests does not net you Exalted with Horde Expedition by default. I picked up my Loremaster achievement and still had to run 3 or 4 heroics without a faction tabard in order to hit it. And factions like Hand of Vengeance and the Taunka aren't just hard to hit exalted with, they're impossible, making this change even more necessary and appreciated.
Will Jan 8th 2009 5:28PM
I can't be the only one to notice that there is currently no way to gain rep with the Silver Covenant or Sunreavers...making this achievement truly impossible until 3.0.8.
RogueJedi86 Jan 8th 2009 5:43PM
So rather than simply add a few Explorer's League dailies and setting up the Crystalsong camps for some Dalaran Faction Dailies, they just drop Sunreavers and Covenant from the requirement? Come on. It can't be hard to at least slap a few Explorer's League dailies at the Explorer's League Outpost in the Fjord.
Fyve & Boomstick Jan 8th 2009 6:13PM
Hmm, wont be getting this one. I'm exalted with one of the 3, but the explorers league daily was such a pile of gash I couldnt be bothered going to HF to do it every day. And I've got plenty of Tabard reputations that need rep grinding for one reason or another.
I dont really know if anyone HAS been QQing about this, but why not keep it the way it was until they introduce the Sunreavers/Covenant. I'm not that desperate for 20 achievement points.*
Kolo Jan 8th 2009 6:19PM
say what? the Explorers league daily is fun. Who doesnt like getting on a plane and shooting things? Not to mention it takes all of 20 seconds. It was hard the first few times, but once you get used to it, alot of fun.
Thorgrim Jan 8th 2009 6:12PM
Your math is wrong. The overall factions are 2:1 in their gain (every 2 points to a subfaction gives 1 to the overall) so you would have to be exalted with two factions (or an equivalent amount of points spread across all 4) to be exalted with the overall faction, not revered with two.
Abraxxis Jan 8th 2009 6:55PM
I think you have it backwards. I got Valiance Expedition exalted a week or two after hitting level 80, while Alliance Vanguard required a bunch of dailies; I finally hit exalted when I ran a heroic without a tabard last week.
Chebu Jan 8th 2009 11:09PM
You know what, guys, I don't like it.
What is the point of achievements if they are not?
If you don't have to do anything but complete quests, it's not an achievement, sorry.
I am Exalted with several old world factions
Argent Dawn, Cenarion Circle... It took me MONTHS of hard work to get to exalted.
The challenge and thrill of getting exalted with a faction is going to be similar to that of being exalted with Tranquillien...
My take - make achievements hard. Making things easier for the achievement grabbers is dumb.
But then Blizzard made the game stupidly simple now.
No challenge in getting recipes, leveling is easy. Boring
Try to go back to the original game. Look at BRS, BRD, Mara, DM - these were hard, challenging, satisfying.
just my 2Copper
Malkavos Jan 9th 2009 1:08AM
TL;DR version of the above post:
"Get off my lawn you kids!"
Balius Jan 9th 2009 1:22AM
Hey Malkavos, being derisive to others because you don't agree with their ENTIRELY VALID point of view really reflects poorly on you.
Chebu, I absolutely agree that there's no pride to be taken in getting ridiculously easy achievements. When doing something like talking to a vendor earns you an achievement, getting congratulated on any of the achievements really feels that much more hollow.
There are, however, difficult achievements out there that you can pursue, things that genuinely show how good you are at the game you want to play (be it PVP, Raiding, Small Groups, or even playing the market). The thing is, YOU have to make them more special than the achievements for failing to wait for an elevator, because the game itself weights things poorly.
Chebu Jan 9th 2009 6:44AM
Sure there could be fun and easy achievements.... But reputation related achievements should be hard. Getting exalted with a faction should mean something.
What, for example, is the point with the entire Horde reputation drives in North? The only one that gives anything (and lousy at that) is Horde Expedition... Why do the others?
jaxson_bateman Jan 8th 2009 10:38PM
Tbh, I feel that *just* making it Horde Expedition is a little soft. It was never difficult to take the time and get Warsong Offensive, so that should have been included.