Guide to Cataclysm Faction Rep Gear for Mages

[Kalcheus]

I know this is a little late in the content level, but I put it together for a new character I was leveling so I thought I'd share it for anyone else who would be interested. Let me know if there are any mistakes. Thanks.

(More information on the factions is available in my rep guide)

There are three tiers of gear available from Cataclysm factions after reaching a certain level of reputation. This guide lays out the items available in order to help build the "quickest" means of acquiring them. Because you can not get reputation/commendations with the Tol Barad factions until level 85, I've put them in a separate section.

i333 Blues
Rare gear of i333 level requires Honored reputation with the faction and a minimum of level 83.
Helm of Temperance, Earthen Ring
Gloves of Aetherial Rumors, Wildhammer Clan or Bone Fever Gloves, Dragonmaw Clan

Mages kind of get hosed that one of their level 83 items isn't available until they hit level 84. Getting Honored is relatively easy, however; once you complete the quest chain with Wildhammer or Dragonmaw you will be Honored.

Earthen Ring is a gimme, as questing in Deepholm (see below) once you hit 82 will get you Honored with them even if you never venture into Vash'jir.

i346 Blues
Rare gear of i346 level required Revered reputation with the faction and a minimum of level 85.
Diamant's Ring of Temperance, Therazane
Cloak of Ancient Wisdom, Earthen Ring
Robes of Orsis, Ramkahen

The ring is relatively straightforward: questing in Deepholm will get you to Honored with Therazane, and it doesn't take many days of dailies to get Revered with them (nor to Exalted, for that matter). Since Shoulder enchants aren't BOA yet in Cataclysm, getting Exalted with them is pretty much a necessity if you want to raid. So no matter what, quest through Deepholm. You may want to use the Tabard of Therazane (although you can't until you've gotten to Friendly with them by questing), but as the other two items make clear, you'll need your tabard slot for other factions. Just complete Deepholm. You'll thank me later.

If you complete all the quests in Vash'jir, Deepholm, and Twilight Highlands, you will get close to Revered with the Earthen Ring. However, that requires completing all the quests in all three zones, and you may be 85 long before that happens. Sadly Earthen Ring has no daily quests so it's going to be Tabard time.

Completing the Ramkahen quests in Uldum (you can start at level 83; if you want to "rush" through it, avoid Harrison Jones as his quests do not give you Ramkahen rep) will get you to about 2000/12000 Honored before rep bonuses. There are then two easy dailies, but they don't give much, only about 400 rep before bonuses. So, yes, again it'll be Tabard time for Ramkahen.

Head Enchant
Arcanum of Hyjal, requires level 85 and revered (also BOA)

If you quest through Mt Hyjal, you will be Revered when you finish. However, Hyjal is a long zone and if you want to maximize your Earthen Ring reputation you'll want to level in Vash'jir instead (despite the paltry ~3000-4000 rep you get there); since it's BOA all you need is one toon with the reputation to get it for you. Note: Before 4.0.6 the Arcanums required you to also have faction reputation to use; that is no longer the case.

i359 Purples
Flamebloom Gloves, Earthen Ring
Desert Walker Sandals, Ramkahen
Lightning Flash Pendant, Wildhammer Clan or Yellow Smoke Pendant, Dragonmaw Clan

I don't know why mages luck out, but hunters only get two purples from faction rep. Harumph. Anyway, let's work from bottom to top.

After completing the faction quest chains in Twilight Highlands, you will be Honored with Wildhammer or Dragonmaw; you will also open up 5 dailies worth 1350 reputation before bonuses. The dailies in TH are nice because they're all concentrated in one area for the most part (unlike the Therazane dailies). It'll take awhile to get Exalted, but that's ok, at least you can make relatively rapid progress there just via the dailies, allowing you to ability to dedicate Tabard time to Earthen Ring and Ramkahen.

Who, of course, you'll need to, as nothing has changed from when you were aiming to get Revered with them. Which tabard you wear first (after you've gotten both to Revered) is really up to you; you may want to go with Ramkahen first, however, since the gear choices at i346 seem lighter for feet than hands (you can purchase Gloves of the Painless Midnight with Justice Points, but there are no boots you can purchase).

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What it all means:
If you're looking to maximize the gear available to you from faction reputation, this is the path I would take:

1a) If you do not have a toon with Guardians of Hyjal revered reputation, level in Mt Hyjal until Revered. While you lose some reputation in Vash'jir, ultimately it's not much and you'll need that head enchant.
1b) If you do have another toon with Guardians of Hyjal, quest in Vash'jir until 82
2) Complete all the quests in Deepholm to unlock Therazane dailies and maximize Earthen Ring reputation; do this even if you ding 83 while there (if you don't ding 83 after doing all of them, go back to Vash'jir until you do)
3) In Uldum, start with the Ramkahen quest chain and ignore Harrison Jones until you've finished it. You should also be doing the Therazane dailies at this point.
4) Once you've completed the Ramkahen quest chain, if you're 84 go to Twilight Highlands, otherwise quest in Uldum (while continuing to do Therazane dailies) until 84.
5) At 84, quest all the way through Twilight Highlands. You will very likely ding 85 while doing so; if you have and you wish to start dungeon running for reputation you can, as long as you've opened up Wildhammer/Dragonmaw dailies.

At 85:
If you're close to revered with Earthen Ring, I would wear their tabard first until Revered, then switch to Ramkahen until Exalted with them, then back to Earthen Ring. If you complete both to Exalted before you're Exalted with Wildhammer/Dragonmaw, then theirs is the next tabard to wear. If you're looking to increase your rep quickly, you may be better off chain-running normal 85s (Lost City, Halls of Origination, Grim Batol) instead of queueing for a random regular or heroic.

At 85 you'll run into an issue with dailies; you'll have wanted to start doing Tol Barad dailies (more on this below) and if you're lucky enough to be winning Tol Barad regularly, you won't have enough space to do Wildhammer/Dragonmaw and Therazane every day. Once you get Revered with Therazane, I would drop them for Wildhammer/Dragonmaw (at least you'll have a lesser shoulder enchant) since they have a nice purple waiting for you. Then once you're Exalted there, go back to Therazane.

If you have time to, you'll want to complete the quests in Uldum and Twilight Highlands. The first reason is if you don't complete Uldum, you won't unlock one of the Ramkahen dailies (which is unlocked during the Harrison Jones quest chain). The other reason is that the later quests in Uldum and Twilight Highlands award i325 and i333 items, so there will probably be upgrades available for you in there.

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Tol Barad and You

Once you get to 85, Tol Barad opens up for you. Questing will get you rep with either Baradin's Wardens (Alliance) or Hellscream's Reach (Horde), and in addition to rep, you'll receive Commendations you can turn in for goodies. You can receive 6-7 Commendations a day completing 6 quests on Tol Barad Peninsula (the 7th comes because killing Tank nets you 2 if it's one of the dailies), and if your faction holds Tol Barad, you will open up 3 dailies and a rotating set of another 3 dailies. Because the rotating set varies after each victory, if your faction wins Tol Barad often, you may be able to complete up to 18 dailies in Tol Barad (this is why I mentioned dropping Therazane above). Besides the maximum 19 Commendations you can get from dailies, you also get 3 for completing the weekly "Win Tol Barad" quest, and another 3 for each victory you participate in.

For gear, you have essentially three tiers: i333 Trinket at Honored, i346 Weapon at Revered, and i359 Trinket at Exalted.

The first piece of gear, Baradin Footman's Tags, costs 40 commendations, is available at Honored, and is frankly probably not worth it unless you're really, really desperate for a Trinket upgrade (in which case you still may want to wait: see below).

At Revered and costing 85 commendations, you can pick up Insidious Staff. The nice thing about Revered is that you'll get there right about when you've received 85 commendations.

That's not the case for Exalted, though; you'll have the 125 commendations you need for Stump of Time a good while before getting Exalted with them. As a result, you may want to go with the Staff when you hit Revered instead of waiting for the trinket. It probably depends on your current gearing what your best option is.

[Dharmabhum]

Great guide to Cata reps for mages. This is just about the way that I proceeded while doing a lot of questing and dungeons along the way.

For me, since you'll pretty much pick up a lot of decent i333 blues along the quest/dungeon route from 83-85, I chose to order my rep by the significance of their i359 epics. This meant Ramkahen (boots, camel and also Robes of Orsis if you don't buy the JP one), Earthen Ring to revered (cloak), Dragonmaw to exalted (neck, also helm though I bought the JP helm anyway), and then back to Earthen Ring (gloves).

I would recommend not buying the Insidious Staff from Tol Barad though. If you get tons of Commendations daily then maybe you've got enough to spare, but it doesn't seem like I will. Plus, heroics can get you a pretty good staff or MH/OH combo and the Crucible of Carnage reward will get you pretty far too, though it is slightly inferior at i333. Still, that's plenty enough until you get something in heroics and you can save up for the Stump of Time anyway.

Anyhow, great guide!

[Deleted]

All good...

I did it pretty much like that... IMO I think you should not bother within anything from TB and make your first purchase the Stump as the hit will transform your damage.

I know when i got it i took off all the reforged hit, made a big diff.

[mordred69]

Stickie with the info already: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...st-%284.0.3%29

Not sure why ppl post stuff thats already been said/done...

[Deleted]

Stickie with the info already: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...st-%284.0.3%29

Not sure why ppl post stuff thats already been said/done...

Only posts I ever seem to read from you are trolling FTW!


This is a guide to the gear and not just a list of gear links. Why cant people be constructive instead of being like you... :P

[Babylonia]

Nice guide. I found this site very useful when leveling my mage.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/12/07/a-...ation-rewards/

[Dharmabhum]

Also a good resource Babylonia but I must say that this being mage-specific really does beat the Wow Insider article. Also, this and the sticky are not the same Mordred; this has the potential to help the non-raiding magi out there organize their time in a way that is specific to their class. Yes, it may have a more limited scope, but it clearly outlines priorities for reputation gains, not just a list of links with available gear.

Hell, now I want to vote for sticky on this.

[mordred69]

If you actually think the two are the same, you either didn't read this one (or that one) or your reading comprehension skills are non-existent. Just saying.

Dont really care, or how to read themselfs? if someone does not understand the concept of dailies, tabards and what each rep offers from the other stickie then they dont have the mental capacity to play this game, but ty...

[Dharmabhum]

Some people aren't veterans of Azeroth or gaming in general, and they can benefit from the insight some of us veterans can provide. So help or please leave this thread to those who are trying to help their fellow players with a quick guide to reputation rewards.

[mordred69]

I challenge you to find something in that stickie that details how much reputation you can expect questing in the zones, the difference between questing in Vash'jir and Hyjal, and more importantly that you and your expert mind knew all of that before 4.0.3 hit based on your mental capacity.

Its like having a battle of wits with a unarmed opponent...

as much fun as it is to repeat myself im going to stop cause you obviously have no clue, best of luck

[Feel The Power]

One thing though, the head enchant from Ramkahen may be boa, but your toons still have to have the appropriate rep to actually equip it.

[Kalcheus]

One thing though, the head enchant from Hyjal may be boa, but your toons still have to have the appropriate rep to actually equip it.

They fixed that with 4.0.6

[mordred69]

Dammit, I've been trolled. I should've realized it with a name like 'mordred69'. I knew I should've given that up for Lent.

w/e you have to tell yourself cupcake, best of luck...

[mordred69]

Best of luck with what, exactly? I'm curious what your actual thought (or lack of thought) process here. I created a guide for my site, and cross-posted it here. Several have expressed approval of it, and then there's only been one troll (EDIT: you, since you have an issue with reading comprehension). I seem to be doing pretty fine right now, you're the one with issues that require luck to get out of.

Think your a lil mad eh? thats alot to reply with for such a short sentence, again, best of luck!

[mordred69]

Not mad at all, I'm genuinely interested what your thought process is here. You seem to think I'm the one on the defensive, but I see no reason to be, and have been supported by others. You're the one standing alone.

So quick to reply! already gave my 2 cents, again, ty! and best of luck!

Oh and RL calls, so i gtg but was a pleasure....

So save your lack of witty comments for another!

[weebit]

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience... Im pretty sure thats how it goes

---------- Post added 2011-03-21 at 09:04 PM ----------

Wooooo! first post! Go me!

[Dharmabhum]

Agreed with weebit, chrth. None of his recent posts have been very helpful, and this is only serving to detract from your guide above. If he can't find it useful or doesn't want to, let him flame. I'm sure plenty of people will find it useful if this is the type of information they're looking for.

Cheers again on a great guide with some useful points and strategy for reputation in Cata.

[Kalcheus]

Y'all are right, I'm sorry. I blame being off my meds. Of course, I did remember that the forum has an ignore feature, so that makes things a lot easier on me. EDIT: Also deleted my non-constructive posts.

BTW, I'm going to add a note about the 4.0.6 change to the Arcanum in the first post so that there's no confusion.