Saturday 15 November 2008

Shaman Wrath reputation rewards and tactics

I have taken a look at the Wrath faction reputation rewards and tried to figure out which ones are of interest to Shaman, at what reputation level they are and how to go about getting such rep levels. Then I've broken down each faction into what sort of rewards (Resto, Elemental or Enhancement) they give at each rep level, to try to get an idea of which ones to go for first. I've not considered any cloth items, only mail and leather. Finally the assumption on the spell gear is that mp5 is for Resto and crit is for Elemental, so any crit based healers should check out the Elemental gear too.



From what I've learnt, all faction reputation, after quests, is earnt from dailies or championing in level 80 instances. There doesn't seem to be any more tactics needed, where you used to do the handins till friendly, then the quests, then finish off with instances. Having said that, some factions cannot be championed, making grinding their reputations harder.


Key C = caster of Elemental spec, H = healer of Resto spec, E = ownage of Enhancement spec, A = all specs.


Quick jumps:
Argent Crusade
Frenzyheart Tribe
The Oracles
The Kalu'ak
Kirin Tor
Knights of the Ebon Blade
The Sons of Hodir
The Wyrmrest Accord
Horde Expedition
Alliance Vanguard
Comparison table


Argent Crusade
Wowhead lists 81 quests for the Argent Crusade, 11 of which are dailies. It looks like you can only do 4 per day, as there is some sort of random factor much like the fishing and cooking dailies. They have a tabard so rep can be gained in level 80 instances.



Frenzyheart Tribe
This is the first of the Aldor/Scryer like factions in Wrath, the other being The Oracles. You can only be exalted with one at once, although there is a daily quest which lets you convert from one faction to the other, via handins which increase faction with one and decrease faction with the other... faction.


There is no tabard for the Frenzyheart Tribe, so you can't champion faction for them. Wowhead lists 21 quests, including 9 dailies from levels 77 to 80.

  • Revered C H: Scavenged Feathery Leggings. These legs give haste, so they are good for Elemental or Resto.
  • Revered E: Azure Strappy Pants. These are leather but may be good for Enhancement.
  • Revered A: Disgusting Jar. This turns into something after 7 days incubation - Wowhead comments suggest a potion which changes appearance. There isn't enough information yet to know precisely what the rewards are, although initially it seems to be fun potions.
  • Exalted A: Frenzyheart Insignia of Fury. This trinket is reminscent of the Skyguard Silver Cross with 71 haste rating and an extra damage upon kill buff, so something good for grinding.


The Oracles
This is the other faction you could chose over the Frenzyheart Tribe. They too have no tabard so rep grinding is done via dailies. They have 20 quests including 7 dailies for level 77 to 80. One quest is to swap factions to Frenzyheart. 3 of the dailies might be a random choice as their titles are very similar. Oh and they resemble Murlocs which may put you off, and actually make you want to get to Unfriendly with them...

  • Revered E: Glitterscale Wrap. A leather belt but again may be useful for Enhancers.
  • Revered C: Sharkjaw Cap. This mail head piece has crit so ideally for Elemental, but a crit-based Resto shaman may want it.
  • Revered E: Toothslice Helm. This mail head is the Enhancement version of the above. According to my scales it is a very good rare headpiece, beats the Swiftarrow one.
  • Exalted A: Oracle Talisman of Ablution. This trinkey restores mana when you kill a target which would give XP, again reminiscent of the Skyguard Silver Cross, so a good grinding trinket for any spec. However, currently my enhancement shaman doesn't have any mana issues, so the Frenzyheart alternative may be better.
  • Exalted A: Mysterious Egg. This egg hatches into one of 4 pets or failure. One for pet collectors. *Cough*


The Kalu'ak
These fishy guys again have no tabard, Wowhead lists 52 quests for them, and they only seem to have 3 dailies of level 71 to 72. So rep grinding will be done via dailies.

  • Honoured E: Cuttlefish Scale Breastplate. This mail chest has a total of 114 attack power with the Enhancement talent. However I replaced it with various crafted ones at 80, so good for levelling only.
  • Honoured H: Cuttlefish Tooth Ringmail. A mail chest with mp5 so suited to a Resto shaman or maybe Elemental if you don't have a critty one.
  • Honoured E: Whale-Skin Breastplate. This is a leather chest with the same 114 attack power as the mail one above. I would go for the mail chest to be honest for Enhancement.
  • Revered C H: Totemic Purification Rod. This 1 handed mace packs 314 spell power and haste!
  • Revered E: Traditional Flensing Knife. This 1 handed dagger does 119dps and has a speed of 1.7. This may be good for Enhancement if imbued with Flametongue and you don't have a good offhand. However I would recommend a slow off hand instead, even if its "paper" DPS is lower.
  • Exalted A: Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole. An epic fishing pole with +30 fishing and free underwater breathing. Essential for fisher ppls.
  • Exalted A: Nurtured Penguin Egg. A penguin non combat pet! Any pet collectors will be after this one for certain. *Cough*


Kirin Tor
The mysterious magic dudes we stormed Karazhan for, now freshly installed somewhere in Northrend with a honking great floating city. They have 29 quests, but the only dailies are the cooking and jewelcrafting ones. Both award Kirin Tor faction plus either cooking awards or JC tokens.


They do have a tabard so reputation can be ground in level 80 instances.


Knights of the Ebon Blade
These Emo guys are still smarting from their encounter with the Lich King, but don't let their sweepy haircuts and dour attitude put you off. Wowhead lists 31 quests for them, 3 dailies at level 80, and they have a championing tabard.



The Sons of Hodir
The Sons of Hodir have no tabard, but have 4 dailies among their 11 quests. They also sell shoulder inscriptions at Honoured and Exalted very much like the old Aldor & Scryer shoulder inscriptions, except we get access to them all!


The Wyrmrest Accord
An alliance of the dragonflights except the blues, the Wyrmrest Accord have 38 quests, 5 dailies at leve 73 to 74, and a tabard for championing. Expect this one to be popular because there is a flying drake mount at exalted.


Horde Expedition
The other factions in Wrath don't have anything for sale individually. They are for the Horde: The Hand of Vengeance, The Taunka, Warsong Offensive and The Sunreavers. However there is in fact a quartermaster for the Horde Expedition, called Gara Skullcrush, who sells items at a certain rep level from Warsong Hold. From reports from guildies, it seems you gain faction standing with Horde Expedition whenever you gain standing with any of the sub-factions The Hand of Vengeance, The Taunka, Warsong Offensive and The Sunreavers. So doing the quests is the way to go. It also seems you gain rep by running level 80 dungeons without any championing tabard.


Alliance Vanguard
The other factions in Wrath don't have anything for sale individually. They are for the Alliance: Explorers' League, The Frostborn, Silver Covenant and Valiance Expedition. Again there is a quartermaster for the Alliance Vanguard who sells rep items. I would assume that gaining rep with any of these sub-factions will gain rep with Alliance Vanguard, so doing the quests is the way to go. It also seems you gain rep by running level 80 dungeons without any championing tabard.




The following table attempts to summarise what is available for each spec at each level. As before, the key is E=enhancement, C=caster, H=resto, A=all. The brackets are for leather items, and x* is for the head enchant for spec x, for example E*. Where there are more than one item I've written 2xE, for 2 items for Enhancement.








Faction/levelHonouredReveredExaltedChampionable
Argent CrusadeECE C (E)Y
Frenzyheart Tribe C/H (E)AN
The Kalu'ak E H (E)C/H E N
Kirin TorC/H 2xEC* C EE (E)Y
Knights of the Ebon BladeC EE* E (C)(E) HY
The Oracles C E (E)AN
The Sons of Hodir(1)E (E)2xE (E) N
The Wyrmrest AccordH* CH (E)Y
Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard C/H (E) N

1 - shoulder glyphs for all specs at Honoured and Exalted.



Choice of faction
So for the choice between The Oracles and the Frenzyheart Tribe, the Tribe have Caster and Resto leggings and a leather item for melee. The Oracles have a head piece for casters, crit-based resto and enhancement. They also have a leather item for melee. The stats on these pieces are fairly similar between the Tribe and Oracles. The trinkets are interesting, I think the one from the Tribe is better for enhancement because thus far I've had no mana issues whatsoever, but I know levelling as Elemental mana is a precious commodity so The Oracle's trinket would be better. Personally I am leaning toward Oracles because of the pets basically.

What to champion first?
Basically it depends on your spec (of course). The Kirin Tor, Knights and Wyrmrest have the head glyphs at revered, so those are worth picking up as soon as possible. The Sons have the shoulder inscriptions, but you can't champion them. So I will be championing the faction which gives the head glyph to revered.


Conclusion
There is a lot of enhancement gear available at various faction levels, plus some elemental and resto items. What I've not done yet is compare the items against quest rewards - in TBC the 5 man quest rewards yielded some very nice items which were ideal for gearing up for raiding and heroics.

8 comments:

CM said...

Exalted doesn't have an H in it.

Anonymous said...

Nice summary. Bookmarked and i'll be linking here too.

Good job.

Anonymous said...

You did sum it up very well. Champion for your head enchantment and grind Sons of Hodir. I personally wouldn't care to much about gear, I'd take up items I afford without grinding rep during leveling but I haven't seen to many pieces that would make me consider going exalted for it.

Anonymous said...

"Honoured E: Unholy Persuader. A 2.5 speed fist weapon with melee stats, ideal for main hand Enhancement with WF."

Unholy Persuader is an offhand. :X

Daggers for Enhancement... /shudder. Offhand w/FT or not, wouldn't catch me dead with one, lol.

Anonymous said...

Er...left out a quote, I was referring to "Revered E: Traditional Flensing Knife" and other daggers mentioned as potential offhands.

Rakhman said...

Thanks for all the comments so far, they've really helped me tweak the post to be as accurate as I can.

Regarding the offhand FT dagger stuff, I am no expert in Enhancement and I'm not sure under which circumstances FT on a fast weapon is better than WF on a slow one. I am assuming that the only way to tell is to run some simulations with Enhsim for your specific gear levels and see what the results are.

Okole said...

Awesome guide - I've reposted this in our guild Shaman forum and linked it back here...I hope that's okay.

Rakhman said...

@Bumwaller no problem with copying the content, if you've credited me with it and provided a link.

Having done more testing on enhancement shaman, I am of the opinion fast off hand daggers with FT are not as good as slow off hand stuff, with FT or WF. This was backed up by testing which showed the Knife of Incision (epic 1h dagger) is slightly less DPS than the Unholy Persuader (rare offhand fist weapon). So I'm using the Persuader and assume the Stalactite Chopper will beat both soundly to pulp. As it were.

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