* The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%: Argent Crusade, Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Kirin Tor, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Sons of Hodir, Wyrmrest Accord
* Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.
* Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).
* Reputation commendations can now be purchased for 1 Emblem of Triumph each.
The former change makes sense now that the Emblem of Triumph is the standard dungeon loot; a new level 80 running 5-mans would otherwise have ilvl 245 triumph rewards before they can get at the ilvl 200 faction items.
The latter change relieves alts of the need to repeat the old dungeon rep grinds for best-in-slot enchants that cannot be obtained in other ways. Technically speaking, you still have to have done the rep grinds once per account, so you're only really crying right now if you re-grinded Sons of Hodir rep on alts for no other reason than access to the shoulder enchants.
EQ2 has actually taken the same approach with faction-based crafting recipes; you have to complete each rep grind once per account but the rep reward recipes are now heirlooms. It's as good a way as any to leave the bar for the rep grind high the first time around without really discouraging alt-o-holics. Still, it once again begs the question of whether there is a limit to how fast inflation can happen before players start writing off grinds in the first place to wait for the inevitable nerf.
Updated to add: Blue posts say that they will be working to allow heirloom items to transfer between characters of opposite factions on the same server, hopefully in time for patch 3.3. They are even considering allowing heirlooms to change servers, though that would require more infrastructure work. If nothing else, you could load up a throwaway character with enchants and heirlooms and then send it to another server for a single transfer fee, which is a pretty big change from the present.
This is great news for me. I've only ever gotten the sons of hodir rep to exalted on one character. All these changes though... they are really ready to take fresh 80's through icecrown very quickly.
ReplyDeleteI really am thinking that Cataclysm is sooner then a lot of bloggers are giving it credit. This is pretty similar to the nerf that BC content got when 3.0 was released.
Personally, with 7 alts I love this. I actually did just finish grinding 1 alt to exalted with SoH but the others ones will get to bask in Skar's magnificent exaltedness ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is a bigger nerf then my repeated siggestion of BoA "Letters of reccomendation" whihc allowed alts to get a rep bonus for a certain amount of time.
Skar and Co.
Medivh
I am good with this.
ReplyDeleteUnless you are Rep achievement hunting, it is a pain to have to drop everything (normal questlines etc) to chase a reputation to exalted.
Likewise I was dreading repeating the rep grind on my alt..
thanks for the heads up