There are several reasons why we choose to grind reputation in WoW, though it's usually for some kind of reward, like a new mount, or special enchants (Sons of Hodir, anyone?), or for achievements. Regardless, nearly all rep grinds start at Neutral and you move your way through the ranks to Exalted. To get fully Exalted with a faction, you have to accumulate points of reputation (Neutral to Exalted). Neutral is 3,000 points and can often be done in a single day, maybe two; Friendly is 6,000 points; Honored is 12,000 points; Revered is 21,000 points; and Exalted is 999 points. You're considered Exalted by the game the moment you get that 42,001 point, but to do it "properly" you go ahead and the the rest of those points. I mean, since you just grinded out over 42,001 points, what's another 998, right?
For me, the hardest bit is getting through Revered. Neutral and Friendly takes very little time, and Honored just twice as long as that, generally. If I'm really focused on gaining rep with a certain faction, getting through Honored goes fast. It's when I get to Revered that I always plateu. It takes forever! Perhaps it's because the daily quests (or, gods forbid, the total killing grind) are stale by this point and 21,000 points are obviously going to take longer to accrue than the 18,000 I had just gotten. Getting to Revered with some factions is all it takes, depending on their rewards, especially in Northrend, but there are some great vanity items at Exalted that I want at some point.
Like the Netherwing Drakes. In fact, there are no other rewards from this faction, just the drake, at Exalted. It's otherwise a completely pointless grind. It's interesting, though, from a lore perspective. Outland is unique in that it is a seperate planet, completely removed from the Old World of Azeroth. It's a little forgotten, to be honest, especially its lore, except by the countless Death Knights that level through there, not that any of them care about the lore. There are other factions in Outland that give rewards, though they are all outdated at this point, aside from the vanity items, like pets (sporebat baby?) and mounts (Cenarion Hippogryph, something I'll get eventually).
I haven't been playing like I used to, haven't had time to spend hours doing daily quests. Still, I much prefer those to simply a kill grind. Getting a nice chunk of rep all at once is nice, and is more satisfying for me, although the constant, slow increase that a kill grind gains is also easily measured. I think the only drawback is, of course, that it's terribly boring and certain classes with nice damage and AoE capabilities have a distint advantage. Pre patch 3.0, my prot warrior would have been the worst possible toon for a kill grind, although it's much better now with shockwave and thunderstomp and cleave. Having a Fury build as my secondary talent tree is nice, too, with whirlwind. But kill grinds are terrible for me, personally, so I'll stick to daily quests.
According to WoWJuJu.com, a lovely reputation calculator site, I have about 5 days left to get to exalted with the Netherwing. That's only if I do all the dailies each day. Probably not going to happen, just because those dailies are actually quite time-consuming. They require a bit of travel and three of them are underground, where I can't use a mount, so they take quite a bit longer to complete. The rest are just generally time-consuming, requiring travel.
Regardless, I'll be done soon enough, and won't ever have to go back there. I'll get my free drake, buy the rest, and put Outlands behind me again for awhile. At some point, I'll go back for Sporregar and Cenarion Circle reputation, but I'm not ready for those, yet. Those involve kill grinds/instance grinds and I just don't want to do it, not right now. I have rep to gain in Northrend.
Like the Oracles, which I still haven't done, and Argent Crusade, Wyrmrest, Kirin Tor, etc. I've been taking my sweet time with everything, and it's time I either stepped up or shut up, especially when it comes to heroics and badges. I say to myself, "Hey! I want to raid!" but I don't put forth any of the effort to actually prepare for it, like gearing up. Supposedly, I could run it now. I'm defense-capped, after all, and I've been told that 10-man regular Naxx is easy mode. Still, I know for a fact I could still use work, and I hardly have the best entry-level raiding gear available. I don't even have my gun, yet, and that's a major upgrade seeing as it's a BiS item for a tanking warrior who hasn't raided, yet. Heck, maybe it's BiS until Ulduar. I don't know. I haven't raided! :/
Whatever. Like I said, it's time I either put up or shut up. Either I start running 5-mans again, or I don't mention it anymore and rely on reputation gear and other such things. Hell, there's still plenty to do if I don't end up raiding. There's my offset to complete. There's rep to grind, which is what this little post is more or less about, and there's still tons of achievements to get. I won't be bored, I won't be quitting, and I won't get tired. But, really, if I'm going to get stuff done, I need to prioritize. Drake? Or PuGing another Heroic run? Oracles Rep, or farming mats for the tanking gun? Decisions to make, and time to make them while I go poison a few more grunts. I mean, really, with only 5 days worth of dailies left, I might as well do them. ;-)
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