Posts with tag Golden-Lotus

I think I've firmly established that I really love doing quests, and that I'm fine with daily quests as a whole. Sure, some of them may have had their moments of extreme frustration, but by and large the daily quest system in Mists of Pandaria is pretty entertaining. But while it's entertaining to me, and it's fine with some players, there are others who cannot stand the system. They hate daily quests. The sight of a blue exclamation point is a source of constant irritation.

And it doesn't really matter how you wrap up that package, it's still going to be annoying content that players feel they must complete in order to be competitive. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to matter what is tied to the system, or if it offers rewards of value, like Lesser Charms or valor points. Adding the value to the daily quest system doesn't make completing the quests any more compelling, it just makes them another chore that must be completed.

Which is why daily quests need to go away.

As someone who plays a guardian/restoration druid, I've had mixed feelings about Blizzard's move to the "dailies model." Of course, you don't need to be playing a tank or healer to feel that way -- it would appear that everyone on the planet has mixed feelings about the seemingly-endless march of Mists of Pandaria dailies -- but there's an special agony to them if you don't have a battle-ready DPS spec. Beefy mob health pools make killing anything as a healer last the approximate length of the Roman Empire, and because quest mobs rarely hit hard enough to make Vengeance a threat, tanks don't fare much better. I will grant that grinding Golden Lotus to revered did give me the opportunity to finish Gone With the Wind after all these years. (Spoiler alert: The North wins the Civil War.)

Now, dual-specs exist for just this reason -- i.e., so you don't have to quest on specs that are really designed for group play -- and I could avoid this problem if I really wanted, but here's the thing: I really like being a tank/healer. Whatever it takes to be a truly competitive DPS, I just don't have it, and I will tank or heal 5-mans and raids, happy as a clam, and hopefully contributing to a lower dungeon queue. By contrast, dailies leave me trying to collect every quest mob in sight to get enough Vengeance to AOE them down efficiently, but it feels really inconsiderate to do this while other players are trying to get the same mobs. And other players are always after them, because everyone's on the same rep grinds. Every day is like being trapped in the starting zone of a new expansion, and I honestly don't know if I have it in me to do this all over again on my alts (who are -- surprise, surprise -- tanks and healers).

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Stop making a mess of our flags, you jerks.

BlazeNor asked:

With this farming aspect added to the game that seem to be done with phasing, do you think this could open the door to housing? For example allowing players to own a piece of land and building on it though reputation and dailies.

I owe you all the reputation gear guide I promised weeks ago, and so, here it is. Never let it be said that I completely procrastinate on stuff I said I would do for weeks on end. I mean, it's true but you don't have to say it. The various quartermasters for the factions can be found here, if you're trying to figure out where to spend your precious points. They are precious, aren't they? Much like your torso. While there's ilevel 458 justice point gear, I'm going to be focusing on the epics, as those will last you longer overall. By the time you earn enough JP's to buy anything, you often have better gear from the dungeons you're running anyway.

Each faction has different items - some helms, others bracers, etc - and so, ultimately, it's most rewarding to work on Golden Lotus first in order to unlock the August Celestials and Shado-Pan, since that will get you access to the most items. The Klaxxi are a good faction to work alongside the Golden Lotus until you get the Shado-Pan and August Celestials unlocked, since you'll probably unlock revered with them before you finish getting Golden Lotus to revered, and can then focus on Shado-Pan and August Celestials. We'll cover Golden Lotus and Klaxxi rewards first, since you'll have access to them first, and then the other two.

It should be pointed out that if you are raiding 10 or 25 man normal Mogu'shan Vaults, you may already have access to gear on par with these rewards. That's intentional - Blizzard wants raiders to gear up from raiding, with valor points more serving the role of consolation prize if you just can't get that drop you need. But if you primarily run heroic dungeons or LFR, then these reputation rewards will be upgrades.

Did you know there are more than just mounts and tabards waiting for you when you reach exalted reputation with the Golden Lotus or the Klaxxi?

It seems like everyone I know is completely exhausted by the reputation dailies in Mists of Pandaria. Many players have even resolved to only get their faction reputations up to revered, since that's all that's needed to buy valor point gear. Those players may want to think again, however, because reaching exalted reputation with either the Golden Lotus or the Klaxxi unlocks a short quest chain for that faction. The reward for completing that quest chain? A piece of ilvl 489 gear (an amulet for Golden Lotus and ring for Klaxxi).

And though a 489 amulet or ring isn't a big deal in the long run, any player who is currently trying to budget their valor point upgrades should probably know they can hold off upgrading their neck and finger slots for a while.

Want to know more? The two quests chains begin with the following two quests.

• The Might of Three
• The Empress' Gambit

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Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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Originally in the Mists of Pandaria beta, all reputation grinds were unlocked at level 90. This left players with a staggering amount of stuff to do, so much that it was immediately overwhelming. There was no clear path of reputation to follow, there wasn't a moment that explained where a player should go first, and why. On live, the Shado-Pan and August Celestials are now locked behind revered reputation with the Golden Lotus. This gives players a slightly clearer path to follow when doing dailies. But even with that change, it's still confusing to players, direction-wise.

If you played in the beta, you have some understanding of reputations at level 90, how to increase them, and how they work. But if you're just now experiencing Pandaria and all it has to offer, you may be wondering where to go, what to do, and most importantly, what's in it for you? If you're dreading the thought of endless daily quests, don't worry -- it's nowhere near as complex as you'd think.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill opens up Shado-Pan dailies and then promptly decides that things like having 4-slot farms for all her alts and leveling her shockadin are more important. What a slacker.

Three weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the rewards from having reputation with Pandaria's factions. Three weeks ago, all I had was beta to go on, and on beta all the factions had dailies open to me independently of each other.

When Mists of Pandaria went live, we found out that it really should have been named the Golden Gate Lotus faction, complete with "You Shall Not Pass into August Celestial reputation" signs. Then we had a hotfix of the Justice Points and Honor Points gear to bring them in line with each other ilvl-wise, a hotfix that removed reputation requirements for justice point gear, and some more hotfixes opened up some of the valor gear behind faction reputation lines.

While your heading was spinning with all the faction-made gear changes going on, I was writing it all down to figure out which pieces I should be questing for.

Okay, if you're running dungeons for justice or valor points, PvPing for honor or conquest, or grinding reputation with one of Pandaria's many factions, one of the questions that you may be asking is where do I go to buy stuff? If you are, then we have a list of vendors for you.

• First up, the Shado-Pan Quartermaster is Rushi the Fox, at the Shado-Pan Garrison in the Townlong Steppes. He sells a variety of items for justice and valor points.
• Commander Lo Ping is an all in one Justice Quartermaster selling every faction's justice point gear, at Niuzao Temple also in the Townlong Steppes.
• Commander Oxheart is a Valor Quartermaster who also sells tier gear for tier tokens at Niuzao Temple in the Townlong Steppes. She's standing right next to Commander Lo Ping, in fact.
• The Klaxxi Quartermaster is Ambersmith Zikk in Klaxxi'vess, right in the heart of the Dread Wastes.
• The Golden Lotus Quartermaster is Jaluu the Generous in front of Mogu'shan Palace in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• The August Celestials have two vendors, one for Horde and one for Alliance. Sage Lotusbloom can be found in the Shrine of Two Moons selling to the Horde, while Sage Whiteheart is to be found in the Shrine of Seven Stars - both are in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• For PvP vendors, both Horde and Alliance can be found on the Serpent's Spine itself. For Alliance, Honor Quartermaster Hayden Christopher, Conquest Quartermastery Lucan Malory, and Glorious Conquest Quartermaster Ethan Natice are all to be found on the Serpent's Spine in the Valley of the Four Winds. The Horde Quartermasters Lok'Nor Bloodfist (Honor), Doris Chiltonius (Conquest) and Acon Deathwielder (Glorious Conquest) are on the wall between Townlong Steppes and Kun-Lai Summit.

Also remember that during the patch 5.0.5 hotfixes, several reputations has their requirements for various Valor point purchases dropped. The Klaxxi now sell necklaces at honored, the August Celestials sell bracers, the Shado-Pan sell cloaks and the Golden Lotus sell rings, all of which are iLevel 489 epics. So check those vendors in case you may have missed an epic you can pick up.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here.

I'm not a fan of gearing up. I hate watching my gear fade into obsolescence. I hate swapping out my legendary Fangs of the Father for a set of blue weapons that were given to me after I washed a few yaks and played the role of a pre-employment drug screener for some amped-up goats.

Bill Gates infamously picks lazy people to do difficult jobs, because they'll find the easiest way to do it. I am that lazy person. I am always looking for the quickest way to get my rogue into raid-ready shape. The quicker that my rogue is geared up, the quicker I can get back to Eviscerating leveling players of the opposing faction. With a couple of weeks of grinding daily quests and some heroic dungeons mixed in, your rogue can be ready for the first tier of MoP raiding.