World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

With the introduction of Northrend came many new Factions associated with the quests and daily quests. As a warlock in Northrend, knowing what rewards are available will help you focus some effort into progressing your reputation with factions that will give you a benefit. WotLK also introduced new ways of gaining reputation never seen in WoW before through the use of tabards. While each faction has rewards, prioritizing factions will help you focus on the most beneficial reputations first.

Location	Name	Faction
Northrend	Alliance Vanguard	Neutral
Northrend	Argent Crusade	Neutral
Northrend	Explorer’s League	Alliance
Northrend	Frenzyheart Tribe	Neutral
Northrend	Frostborn	Alliance
Northrend	Hand of Vengeance	Horde
Northrend	The Kalu’ak	Neutral
Northrend	Knights of the Ebon Blade	Neutral
Northrend	The Oracles	Neutral
Northrend	The Sons of Hodir	Neutral
Northrend	The Taunka	Horde
Northrend	Valiance Expedition	Alliance
Northrend	Warsong Offensive	Horde
Northrend	The Wyrmrest Accord	Neutral
Dalaran	Kirin Tor	Neutral
Dalaran	The Silver Covenant	Alliance
Dalaran	The sunreavers	Horde

As you complete quests you will naturally raise your reputation based on the zone that you are questing in. Each faction has areas, or zones, and quest lines that contribute to certain factions reputation levels. By the time you reach level 80, you should have at least reached friendly with most factions. With only a few exceptions, once you reach friendly you are able to purchase a tabard from the faction’s quartermaster. The tabard, once equipped, will allow you to raise the reputation of that faction while in any level 80 instance. This new system allows you to raise the reputation of your choice as opposed to grinding certain instances as was done in the past. Quite frankly, I like the new system. You are not stuck grinding an instance you do not necessarily need just for it’s reputation. Instead you are free to participate in any level 80 instance and change the reputation gains through the choice of which tabard you wear.

Zone	Faction
Borean Tundra	The Kalu’ak, The Taunka, Valiance Expedition,Warsong Offensive
Dalaran	Kirin Tor
Dragon Blight	The Hand of Vengeance, The Kalu’ak, The Wyrmrest Accord
Grizzly Hills	The Taunka, Valiance Expedition, Warsong Offensive
Howling Fjord	Explorer’s League, The Hand of Vengeance, The Taunka, Valiance Expedition
Icecrown	Knights of the Ebon Blade
Sholazar Basin	Frenzyheart Tribe, The Oracles
Storm Peaks	The Frostborn, The Sons of Hodir
Zul’Drak	Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade

Priorities

As a warlock, some reputations are more beneficial than others. If we put professions aside for a moment, there are some nice purchasable rewards we can get our hands on. Of course each person may have to prioritize this a little differently if you have obtained some gear already but as a generic list goes here is some good suggestion on which order you should try and raise your reputation.

• 1. Kirin’Tor
  
  a.       Two (2) rewards purchasable at only revered, the Flameheart Spell Scalpel and the Arcanum of Burning Mysteries. The Dagger is one of the best pre-epic weapons for warlocks, includes hit and good amount of spell power this is a no brainer. With the weapon you will also have access to the head enchant which will provide 30 spell power and 20 critical rating and can be purchased any time you need.
  
  b.      At exalted reputation you can purchase Robes of Crackling flame. Not a bad item but not as good as some craft able epics. For this reason, I put a priority to raise the Kirin’Tor reputation to revered then move onto the next reputation.
  
• 2. Knights of the Ebon Blade
  
  a.       As early as honored you can purchase the Dark Soldier Cape for only 20G 2S 9C. This is easily one of the best cape obtainable so early. With the relative ease of this reputation you should have this early and enjoy some of the other items as you gain rep.
  
  b.      At revered, the sterile flesh handlers gloves and exalted your get the belt of darkmending. Nice rewards throughout the reputation grind for this faction. Many dailies available and plenty of quests, this shouldn’t be a problem. The pattern for the Abyssal Bag made me stick with this faction till I was revered before I moved on.
  
• 3. Wyrmrest Accord
  
  a.       2 nice rewards, the Ancestral Sinew Wristguards and the Sandles of Crimson Fury. Not as beneficial as those listed above but not to be ignored.
  
• 4. Argent Crusade
  
  a.       The signet of hopeful light is a nice ring, hard to find better unless you are lucky enough to have gotten some drops before you reach this part of the grind.

One of the main reputations not on this list is the Son of Hodir. I would put them first but it can be a long grind and not worth delaying the others. The beauty of the Son of Hodir is that you can start doing their dailies as soon as you open up the quest lines. So by all means these should be done every day in addition to your faction grind. They offer the only shoulder enchants in Northrend. Depending on the reputation you carried over from Outlands, the entry level version of the shoulder glyphs may be equivalent to the exalted version of your Outlands faction, but the exalted Sons of Hodir will be the best. Unfortunately, there is no tabard available for this faction, so you will have to gain reputation through daily quests and a repeatable quest in which you turn in drops from the zone. These drops are not soul bound and can be purchased but this can be very expensive.

Where to Find Quartermasters

To purchase any rewards for an associate faction you have to visit the faction’s quartermaster. Some quartermaster may not be available until you “unlock” them or complete quest lines that allow you to interface with them. Here is a simple list that will help you locate each quartermaster.

Faction	NPC	Location
Alliance Vanguard	Logistics Officer Silverstone Logistics Officer Brighton	Valiance Keep, Borean Tundra Valgarde, Howling Fjord
Argent Vanguard	Veteran Crusader Aliocha Segard	Argent Vanguard, Icecrown
Frenzyheart Trbe	Tanak	Frenzyheart Hill, Sholazar Basin
The Kalu’ak	Sairuk	Moa’ki Harbor, Dragonblight
Knights of the Ebon Blade	Duchess Mynx	Shadow Vault, Icecrown
The Oracles	Geen	Sholazar Basin
The Sons of Hodir	Lillehoff	Dun Niffelem, Storm Peaks
Wyrmrest Accord	Cielstrasza	Wyrmrest Temple, Dragonblight
Kirin’Tor	Archmage Alvareaux	Dalaran

 

How to Increase Reputation

The easiest way to manage your reputations is to go through the zones and open everything available. Even if you hit 80 before you reach all the zones. As you reach friendly, purchase the tabards and have them in your bank/inventory. Equip the tabard of your needed faction and you’ll have it for when you jump into an instance. While it seems manageable to start grinding reputation well before 80 and certainly won’t hurt you, natural progression will happen for the majority of the reputation through regular quests. Advance cooking as you level so you can do the daily cooking quest and gain Kirin’Tor reputation. Cooking is easy to level as you quest and doesn’t cost money other than the cost of training. This will also help you obtain a nice stock of northern spices for inventory control later.

I found the Kirin ‘Tor the hardest to level quickly because of the limited quests/dailies associated to them. Limited to a few non-repeatable quests and the daily cooking, I used them as my first tabard until I reached revered. This faction has the best payoff for increasing but the lowest number of resources for doing it. So I made it my first tabard focus. Luckily, you do not have to reach exalted before you see the benefit.

When I wasn’t in an instance sporting the Kirin’Tor tabard I was doing dailies for the knights of the ebon blade. There are so many available I had no problem getting this faction up quickly. I made some good cash doing it too! Being both a tailor and a warlock I grinded this until revered and never even had to use the tabard.

This guide focuses mainly on the factions and the benefits to progress the warlock class. Therefore I could never give the justice some of the expanded reputation rewards deserve. There are certainly some fun rewards throughout Northrend. The Oracles and Frenzyheart Tribe offer unique purchasable rewards that have a chance to produce a companion pet. Some factions have mounts, and the Kalu’ak have the best fishing pole in game. I haven’t even mentioned the profession rewards available, but that’s a whole different guide. See ya then!