Cataclysm’s almost here now, mere hours away, and a lot of you are probably itching to be on their way to 85. But even if you are not a power leveler and want to take your time, you might like some info about Cataclysm factions, and their rewards. I checked out which factions might be the most interesting ones for us at 85, so that you know what rep to focus on, if you want to get your gear in order quickly.
Some basic information: Cataclysm rep epics have item level 359, and the rare gear has 346. I am assuming that to get into heroics, you will need at least full 346 gear. The rep vendors also have lower item level gear (333, level 83), so I will mention them as well for completion’s sake.
Neutral factions:
Earthen Ring:
- Arcanum of the Earthen Ring – our tanky head enchant. Requires Revered.
- Stone-Wrapped Greaves – Level 83 legs, which look quite lovely for leveling.
Guardians of Hyjal:
- Wrap of the Great Turtle – Very nice tank cloak. Oodles of stamina, dodge, mastery, armor. What’s not to love? Available at Exalted
- Mountain’s Mouth – A level 83 tanking necklace available at Honored
Ramkahen:
Cat people in Uldum, whee. Can I just say that I am so freaking excited about Uldum and hope it matches the awesomeness of all other things Titan-related?
- Sandguard Bracers – Hooray, bracers you can get for rep. Bracers got no love in WotLK, so seeing those makes me happy.
Available at Exalted. - Red Rock Band – not necessarily a tank item, as the stats will also be nice for DPS. If you are pressed for expertise, worth a look! Available at Revered.
Therazane:
As lovely as Princess Theradras in Maraudon, we get to deal with the mother matriarch of Earth in Deepholm. Of course it’s understandable why we all start reputation with that faction at Hated, after all we have killed one of her relatives time and again. Therazane is comparable to Sons of Hodir, you need to unlock the reputation by doing a quest chain, and they reward you with shoulder enchants, and rings.
- Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz – at Exalted
- Felsen’s Ring of Resolve – at Revered
- Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz – at Honored
Faction-specific:
There are two faction-specific groups on each side. They have identical rewards, just renamed, so nothing new here. I will list horde and alliance items both.
Dragonmaw Clan/Wildhammer Clan
- Boots of Sullen Rock/Gryphon Rider’s Boots – available at Exalted.
- Grinning Fang Helm/Crown of Wings – available at Revered. Meta socket, dodge and expertise, a pretty nice looking helmet.
Hellscream’s Reach/Baradin’s Wardens
- Mirror of Broken Images/Mirror of Broken Images – These two Tol Barad factions have five different trinkets at Exalted. Four of them provide you with 321 mastery as equip bonus, and an on-use. The trinket I listed offers resistance against magic schools, which might be necessary for magic-heavy fights.
- Unsolvable Riddle/Unsolvable Riddle – alternatively we could hype up our agility, along with the 321 mastery. Like Mongoose on crack, I suppose.
So there ya go, your list of gear you can obtain through reputation. My personal order of reputation grinding: Therazane quests as early as possible, Earthen Ring for the head enchant and the legs while leveling, Guardians of Hyjal for the leveling necklace, and then all the others, in the order of what gear I need to replace the most. Your mileage may vary. Hellscream’s Reach probably last. I don’t PvP, and the trinkets don’t knock me off my socks.
Also, I really really badly want a camel mount from the Ramkahen. CAMEL!
Tanking bracers? Tanking bracers???? Gonna be nice to finally replace the ones I picked up in Naxx….
Ratshag´s last [type] ..Old God- Shmold God
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I love your gear posts. thanks for posting this up. i always print it out and use it as a reference on all my tanks
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kadomi, Vosskah. Vosskah said: RT @Kadomi: New blog post: Cataclysm faction rewards for prot warriors http://bit.ly/gTu8YC [...]
These posts are great and so very helpful for a slow leveler like myself… gives me a really good idea of what I’m supposed to be looking for.
And color me shocked about the bracers! Happily shocked though.
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Awesome list! Thanks so much for this list. My warrior just dinged 80 in time to get some 251 stuff from the elemental invasion so I’m really looking forward to upgrades without having to grind NR content!
(So not sure why Witha is my icon here.)
Rosz´s last [type] ..Witha-lvl80-introjpg
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Thank you for this! Really helpful. And.. BRACERS! Woah!
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what’s with the bracer complaints? there’s crafted bracers from a Toc recipe, that can be had fairly cheap (if you have a stack or so of frost orbs, but who hasnt at the end of the expansion)
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Kadomi Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Bracers have been a very inaccessible slot for the casual player in WotLK. There was only one heroic with a tank drop. Aside from that, you had the options to get ilevel 213 bracers with emblems or get the 245 ToC pattern. But for the first tier of content, you were stuck on running H A-N for bracers, there were no other options before raiding.
I feel like a history teacher now.
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BD123 Reply:
January 19th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Quick correction: Bracers were in H AK, not H AN. Bracers of the Herald. From Herald Volazj.
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