Argent Dawn - "Undead/Baron Stratholme"

Time for another installment of Argent Dawn Reputation Grinding. In the last two installments we did a full run of Scholomance and half of Stratholme. Get to the Servant's Entrance of Stratholme (if you're not already there) and clear the initial courtyard. There's a chapel with a paladin here and if you have the Medallion of Hope from the other side of Stratholme, turn that in to him. He'll give us some small amount of help when we fight the final boss.

You should have a couple of quests for here.

• Above and Beyond - Collect the head of Baron Rivendare (follow up from turning in Balnazzar's head)
• The Active Agent - Collect Scourge data (follow up from The Flesh Does Not Lie)
• Menethil's Gift - Use the Keepsake of Remembrance on Holy Ground (follow up from our long Scholomance quest chain)
• Houses of the Holy - Collect Stratholme Holy Water (if you didn't get them all in your live side run)

Head through the gates and begin clearing. This side of Stratholme is generally a large circular path with three ziggurats, each guarded by a boss. Once that boss is dead, the ziggurat doors will open and you can kill all of the humanoids inside. Once each of the ziggurats has been cleared the final pathway to the Baron will be opened. Here's some notes:

• The Scourge Data you're looking for can be inside any of the three ziggurats. It looks kind of like a lunchbox on the ground.
• The Baroness Anastari guards one of the ziggurats. She is a banshee and will silence and mind control if you're not solo.
• Nerub'enkan is a Nerubian (spider) guards another of the ziggurats. There's nothing too tough about him.
• Maleki the Pallid guards the third ziggurat. Dispel/purge his bone armor for best results.
• If this is a "fresh" run of Stratholme and you entered by the Servant's Entrance, Magistrate Barthilas will be just before the Baron instead of by the back door.
• Be careful if you're in a group about heading through the gate. It closes behind you (and can lock other party members out) when the first abomination is engaged.
• From this point on, most of the instance is on a script. Things will continue to happen in a predictable order whether you're ready or not.
• Abominations will "self-pull." This pulling is tuned for a group of 5 level 60 characters, so you're probably okay to pull them to you yourself if you're level 70.
• After all the abominations are dead, Ramstein will come out of the Baron's building. He's a boss abomination and nothing too painful.
• After Ramstein dies, about 3 dozen non-elite undead will run in. These are best dealt with via AOE.
• After the non-elites go down five elite undead come out of the Baron's room. They also are not hard. Kite/control them and burn them down.
• The script is over at this point, and you can ready yourself for the Baron.
• Hug the left wall as you go in, so as not to aggro him prematurely. He has a damaging aura that applies shadow damage every second. At times throughout the fight, he will cast raise dead, summoning some non elite skeletons. If these aren't killed, a few seconds later, he'll cast death pact, killing his summoned skeletons and healing himself in the process. This generally isn't a consideration for a level 70.
• He can drop an epic mount, an undead charger. Don't hold your breath though.
• After the Baron is dead, loot his head and use the Keepsake of Remembrance on the rune on the floor in his room.
• If you've used the Medallion of Faith, the paladin from the chapel at the beginning will aid you during the fight.

Now you can head out, turn in quests and scourgestones. By now you should surely be Honored with the Argent Dawn. Turn in quests and take any quests you like in the area. There are a number of good reputation quests. At some point you should collect and turn in 30 each of Bone Fragments, Savage Fronds, Core of Elements, Dark Iron Scraps, and Crypt Fiend Parts. Initial turn-ins for each of these is worth 1000 Argent Dawn Reputation.

After you've done all the quests you can, it's just a grind to exalted. You're also positioned to go back to Scholomance at some point and finish the Ras Frostwhisper quest line.

If you've ever done some dragon egg freezing quest, from Upper Blackrock, Bettina will offer you Dawn's Gambit which makes the room with all the yellow students inside Scholomance trivial, turning all the ghostly (elite) students into (non-elite) skeletons and giving you a real shot at killing Vectus in that room.

If you keep doing quests and killing stuff in Plaguelands and collecting stones, you'll be exalted in no time flat.

The Argent Dawn & You - Scholomance First Runs

Allegedly, one of the Old World reputations that will matter in the future is the Argent Dawn. For those of us who were in the game when there was no direct flight path from Chillwind Camp to Light's Hope Chapel, this is a familiar faction. We may not have actually visited them in forever, but they still recall us as friends.

The good news is that this is not a hard faction to really amass reputation with when you're already level 70. And to some degree, depending on your trade skills, this isn't a complete waste of time.

It would be possible to have reached Hellfire Peninsula and never gotten reputation with the Argent Dawn. Since the leveling up to level 60 got a boost, it's more likely than ever. However, the reputation flows pretty fast and free at least at first.

If you have no (or low) reputation with Argent Dawn

You should fly your butt out to Chillwind Camp (or I guess The Bulwark if you're on the other side - Undercity will be the closest) and pick up your Argent Dawn Commission. This trinket allows you to collect Scourge Stones (in 3 sizes) from just about everything you kill in Eastern or Western Plaguelands, in Scholomance and in Stratholme. At this level, merely killing things will give you reputation. In good WoW fashion, we're going to maximize our rep by not doing that many quests until the reputation gains from killing becomes minimal. And since dungeons are our best bet in having tons of mobs that are ours and ours alone, we might do some quests associated with dungeons.

Scholomance used to be one of the final non-raid dungeons so there are plenty of longish quest lines that have you go in there MANY times. We're going to pick up three to start our foray.

1. Barov Family Fortune - asks you to collect four deeds inside Scholomance and is available from either Chillwind Camp (Alliance) or The Bulwark (Horde).
2. Plagued Hatchlings - asks you to slay 20 plagued hatchlings inside Scholomance.
3. Doctor Theolen Krastinov, the Butcher - Eva Sarkov is a ghost standing right outside the Scholomance entrance. Talk to her, listen to her story and she gives you a quest to kill someone inside and burn some remains.

Getting into Scholomance can be a problem. We've not done the questline to acquire the key yet (because we want to save our reputation gains). At this point there are several ways to actually get in there and start doing our thing.

• The lock on the door can be picked by 300 lockpicking skill (if you are a rogue or have a rogue friend)
• The lock on the door can be blown open by appropriate engineering explosives (powerful seaforium charge or above)
• The lock can be opened by anyone who already has the key (dig up the crusty old guildies who have been playing forever)
• The door can be opened by manipulating a torch on the wall just inside (if you're lucky enough to find someone there)

I'm not going to step you through each pull and room in Scholomance. There are some tips though, which I'll share.

• Mobs inside can drop Bone Fragments and Crypt Fiend Parts. These can be turned in at Lights' Hope Chapel (along with Dark Iron Fragments (from Blackrock Mountain instances), Savage Fronds (from plants in Felwood, Un'Goro Crater or Dire Maul), and Core of Elements (from elementals all over high-end Azeroth). There is no point in turning in more than 30, so you can sell the extras.
  
• Most of the drops in here aren't much use. Some crafting recipes do drop and the BOE blues can go for a fair amount. If you're an enchanter the BOP blues will turn into Large Brilliant Shards.
  
• The first deed is in the first BIG room you go into. As you first enter, it's in the far left corner. The mobs in this room have annoying abilities like knockback (the ghosts) and fear (the casters) which can quickly get you more than you're bargaining for. Use the CC that's available to you and line of sight the mobs when you can.
• The next major room has six groups of casters. In each group is a summoner who cannot be line of sighted. They'll happily sit there and cast summons for non-elite skeletons who can overwhelm even the most powerfully geared 70. They also run (usually into another pack of mobs) when low on health. Don't head down onto the terrace (to the right as you enter), we'll do that later.
  
• The next major room is chock full of mixed groups of casters and ghosts. The casters run at low health. The ghosts split into three projections. AOE damage will cause them to coalesce into something you can kill. The second deed is in the far right corner of this room. Don't go right (into the basement) or left (into the Viewing Room). Those both come later.
  
• The next room has the dragons we're after. They come in mixed groups of dragons & trainers. The trainers have a knockback and the dragons shoot poisons. There are enough to complete your kill 20 plagued hatchlings quest.
• After the dragons comes Rattlegore (our first boss). Warning: Rattlegore and his buddies hit VERY hard and can easily kill a non-armored sole 70. Pull carefully to make sure you survive the experience. He also drops the Viewing Room key which we need to get deeper into Scholomance. Unfortunately, this key is consumed on use so anytime you come into Scholomance, you'll have to kill him.
• Backtrack to the room where the second deed was and head into the viewing room. Clear it and open the locked door. The skeletons in this room are immune to magic damage and have to be killed by melee. This can prove problematic to some casting classes.
  
• Head across the room full of non-aggro mobs. If you attack things in this room, you'll probably be quickly overwhelmed. So be careful. Don't go to the left, that's for after we kill Ras Frostwhisper.
• Ras Frostwhisper is in the Scholomance Alchemy Lab (originally the only one in the game. Later Blackwing Lair added one and another was added in Shattrath City). He, amazingly uses frost spells and does some knockback. He can also drop the recipe for Flask of Supreme Power (also purchasable from Keepers of Time at Exalted). The third deed is on the right hand side of his room on a ledge.
  
• Backtrack through the room and head down to the headmasters study. There are six rooms here, each with a mini-boss. I always do the rooms on the top floor first, workign counter clockwise.
• Kite the zombies in the first room around the catwalk. Then kill Lorekeeper Polkelt.
• Theolen Krastinov (the target of one of our quests) hits like a truck. Once he's dead, burn the bodies on each side of his room to complete Eva's quest.
• Instructor Malicia has mobs that turn into ghosts. In this form they are immune to physical damage. Be creative in your use of abilities to kill them. (Poisons are nature damage, Arcane Shot does arcane damage. Warriors may need to be engineers (bombs, pets) to kill these.)
• On the bottom floor,Lady Illucia Barov can mind control, but that won't affect us since we're solo.
• Lord Alexei Barov has a nasty aura and two hard hitting adds, but it's doable. The last deed is also in his room.
• There's nothing special about The Ravenian in the last room on the bottom floor. However, don't exit out until you're ready to fight Headmaster Gandling who spawned at the death of the last miniboss.
• Kill Gandling. He's not too bad solo.
• Head out of Scholomance, some pats may have respawned.
• Turn in the Butcher Quest and take the followup to Kill Jandice Barov. Head down to her room (across from the viewing room) and kill her. She splits partway through the fight into duplicates (a LOT of duplicates) A raid targeting icon will help you find the right one as will a hunter or warlock pet since their target is not reset upon the duplication. She spawns a book next to her dead body that teaches tailors a soulbag pattern. There's a movable torch in her room that makes a chest in the viewing room accessible, but it's usually not worth it. Head out and turn in the quest.
  
• Get the followup (we're nearly done) and head back into the room where the summoners were. Take the right down onto the terrace and use the Blood of Innocents (you get one when you take the quest) to summon Kirtonos the Herald. Dispatch him and run out to turn in the quest. You'll get a trinket (which only works if equipped in the environs of Scholomance) to see the Caer Darrow dead. One of them to the left of Eva offers another quest for a forgotten keepsake which sends you to Stromgarde. Another previously invisible guy sells a couple of blacksmithing patterns and the Major Mana Potion recipe.

And we're done with Scholomance. Head back to either Chillwind or the Bulwark to turn in scourgestones (you did have your Argent Dawn Trinket on, right?) but don't use the Argent Dawn Valor tokens yet. You can turn in the deed quest, but don't take the followup yet. Head to Light's Hope and turn in the Plagued Hatchlings. On future trips to Scholomance, the dragons can now drop Healthy Scales which can be turned in to the questgiver. Before your next session get to Arathi Highlands and visit Stromgarde. The book you're wanting can be found in any of the fireplaces.

And that's our FIRST run at Argent Dawn rep. Stay tuned for future Installments!

Reputation Expectation

I wrote a few days ago, in my Guide to Reputation, all the ways to get reputation with various factions. There are a few ways I'd like to see paths to reputation changed and enhanced in WotLK. First, I'll review each of the ways currently in game (very briefly) and write a bit about how they should evolve in Wrath and then I'll discuss a couple new ways I've brainstormed on how to get faction.

Faction Gain Methods - Previously used
Killing Mobs - this is obviously a good method for rep gains. As this is one of the most accessible paths to reputation, it need to stay and be relevant. I'd like to see this at a level that currently exists in the game. Keep up the good work, Blizzard.

Completing Normal Quests- Another awesome method for rep gains. For at least the Aldor/Scryer quests, the quest text had a notice of what faction you were gaining. This would be a nice addition to quest text for ALL reputation rewarding quests. Again, I think this frequency is about right and should stay constant.

Completing Repeatable Quests- Again, not a bad method for rep gains. The only downside here is continually running back to the quest giver to turn-in and get another version of the quest. I might even enjoy a few more of these.

Completing Daily Quests- This seems to be the direction Blizzard has moved. For my tastes there are too many and they're too static. The cooking and fishing quests at least have a chance of randomization from day-to-day, but I know I've caught Zangarmarsh shrimps many times in one week. MORE randomization for those quests would be awesome as well as some randomization for any daily quest.

Turning in Bound Items- this is obviously a good method for rep gains. As this is one of the most accessible paths to reputation, it need to stay and be relevant. I'd like to see this at a level that currently exists in the game. Keep up the good work, Blizzard.

Turning in Unbound Items- Nice method for reputation gain and a nice way to make some cash if you've already outrepped it. However, please Blizzard make some way to turn in multiple instantiations of quests. I spent a good portion of time turning in Incendosaur Scales to the Thorium Brotherhood (and other items to the Scryers, come to think of it). And I'd really like to have that time back.

Turning in Crafted Items- This one really is a disguised "pay cash" version. Unless every trade has something to turn in, it gets to be expensive. The positives are it can reward crafts who don't have as many "marketable" items and gives a place to dispose of unwanted duplicates as a craft is leveled.

Pay Cash- This one is risky. Without awesome gold sinks in the game, it can quickly get to easy to rep. Especially when I know someone who has 28,000 gold on their alt. While it's refreshing from a quest perspective, it would get very old very soon.


Brainstormed NEW Faction Gain Methods

Hidden Quests - It would be very cool to me to have quests that tracked what you had done and when you completed the heretofore unknown requirements, a quest giver would light up and allow you to do a turn in for gold, experience and some faction. What I'm talking about is, like if you kill 100 nagas in Zangarmarsh, the next time you hit Cenarion Refuge you get a quest turn in that wasn't available to you before. Stuff like that.

Time Sensitive Quests (either repeatable, daily or normal) - The idea of getting more reputation for completing a quest in a faster time is awesome. I'd love to get "double" rep if I could complete it in a short time. This method may not work for normal repeatable quests that involve turn-ins, but should work for others.

Mini-Instanced Quests - I'd love the idea of doing a solo or (very) small group quest that was instanced. Long ago in another MMO I played, door-missions adjusted to level and numbers of party members at entrance. The same could be done in WoW and would be a very cool style of reputation grind to do.

Well, that's it for me today. Everyone enjoy the weekend of raiding, PVP, questing, faction grinding and/or Midsummer Festival.

Guide to Reputation

Reputation has been in the game forever. Or at least as long as I can remember. And heretofore, Blizzard has come up with several very reliable ways for players to increase their reputation. I'd like to go over each of the ways and give examples both old and new. As a follow up, I'll post about some thoughts about how Blizzard can enhance reputation in the WotLK expansion.

Bonus: The clickable image above leads you to a reputation calculator website where you can check YOUR reputation.

Killing Things
This is perhaps the simplest in terms of recognizing it. Every time you kill a certain type of thing, your reputation is increased. In the "old world" every Molten Core boss you killed upped your Hydraxian Waterlords reputation. Likewise, killing any pirate in Stranglethorn Vale increases your Booty Bay reputation. And perhaps the greatest time sink in pre-BC was the Timbermaw.

In the Outland, you can see this mechanic at work in Nagrand and killing Ogres (for Kurenai/Mag'har reputation) or in Zangarmarsh as you kill Bog Giants and their ilk(for Sporregar reputation).

Killing things is a well-defined mechanism for increasing reputation and makes a lot of sense. This should definitely stay in.

Quests

Non-Daily non-repeatable Quests
These quests when turned in grant reputation usually with the faction of the quest giver and some sympathetic reputation with factions aligned with that faction. In other words, if you turn in a quest from a human, you will most likely get some Stormwind Reputation and some smaller amount of reputation from Ironforge, Gnomeregan, Darnassus and Exodar.

In the Outland these quests will be everywhere. Most stuff out there grants SOME kind of reputation.

Having some faction associated with a lot of the quests is a great idea. This scheme needs to not be overused though. If the only way to grind favor with any faction is killing, it loses its appeal.

Non-Daily repeatable Quests
The vast majority of these quests are actually turn-in quests more fully detailed below. As I wrack my brain, I cannot think of any of this type of quest still in the game. Back before the great Timbermaw Reputation Reformation, there used to be a quest like this. But it was removed in favor of a more rigorous method to achieve Timbermaw rep. The only one I can currently think of in game now is the collection of diminuation powder and watery cores (both Alliance quests on the Feralas shores.

The one I'm seeing in Outland is "Now that We're Friends/Now that We're Still Friends" quest in Zangarmarsh for the Sporregar.

These types of quests can be completed as many times in one day as you like but require you to have the quest before beginning the killing spree. This kind of quest is fun, and I'd honestly like to see more.

Daily, Repeatable Quests

The typical dailies. They can only be completed once per day. And they're generally the same thing every day. These didn't exist in pre-BC and not even when BC shipped. They were added via patch 2.2 (?) Some of the dailies vary day to day (the normal & heroic dungeon, the fishing, cooking and battleground daily all do).

These are good quests, but honestly, too many have no variation day to day.

Turn In Quests

Non-Soulbound items

These quests ask you to turn in a number of items that are BOE when dropped (or harvested). I think everyone of these is also a quest that is non-daily and repeatable. In general, the objects to complete the quest are gathered and the quest is turned in as a part of taking it.

Pre-BC has quite a few of these. Think of Dadanga (the kodo) at Marshall's Refuge in Un'Goro. She asks for 15 Bloodpetal sprouts. The goblins in Gadgetzhan also ask for Water Pouches in this manner. The Thorium Brotherhood uses this mechanism as do the Timbermaw. Also each of the five Azerothian factions (on each side) want cloth of all kinds from wool to runecloth to increase rep. The Darkmoon Faire also uses this mechanism.

In the Outlands, each of the factions seems to have something to turn in like this. Granted most of these turn ins will get you only to revered. But for instance, Cenarion Expedition wans Unidentified Plant Parts, Kurenai/Mag'har AND Consortium want Ogre Warbeads in Nagrand, Lower City wants Arakkoa feathers and so on.

These quests are also awesome for rep. And the items can be purchased ahead of time on the auction house.

Soulbound Items

Not many pre-BC factions use this method at all. In fact, the only one that springs to mind is the Argent Dawn's acceptance of soulbound scourgestones collected from Eastern & Western Plaguelands and the dungeons within them.

This trend continues to Outland where the Consortium who accepts both Zaxxis' Insignia and Ethereum Prisoner ID Tags.

Again, very good quests for rep and having the items be soulbound makes sure that only the character that actually puts in the work to farm these gets the reputation credit. Being soulbound, the turn in items can't be sold or traded.

Crafter Items

Both the Argent Dawn (through crafting writs) and Darkmoon Faire accept crafted items as reputation turn ins. The writs are actually fairly complex as you must turn in an Argent Dawn Token (from turning in scourgestones) to accept the crafting writ. However, once acquired the writs themselves are not bound and can be sold on the Auction House.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no crafted turn ins in the Outland.

This would be an awesome place for Blizzard to expand into. Having leveled many crafters, I know that at some point the stuff I'm making to level up is just being vendor sold or disenchanted. It would be awesome to have another place for those items to go.

Paying for Reputation

The only example of this that I can find was introduced with the Shattered Sun daily quests. While this quest is very worthwhile for the reputation, Blizzard has to be careful to not over-do it. Gold is freely available in the game now and allowing large sums of it to exit just for reputation might reverse some of Blizzard's actions against gold sellers.

So, that's reputation in a nutshell. Many different factions, each utilizing some blend of the above for advancing a players standing. Next time we'll look at what I'd like to see happen with reputation in the WotLK.

Exalted - Five Factions

I've made some fairly heady posts the past two days, and I thought I'd make a "hooray me" post today that's light and fluffy. I ran Karazhan last night filling a DPS slot in my old guild and was able to hit exalted. That's my fifth exalted faction on (what I used to consider) my alt.

The other factions I'm exalted with are: Scryers, Sha'Tar, Cenarion Expedition, and Sha'tari Skyguard. I'm pretty happy with it.

There are six more factions that I'm Revered with and working towards exalted:

• Honor Hold (20613/21000)
• Ogri'la (15745/21000)
• Consortium (3957/21000)
• Lower City (8337/21000)
• Shattered Sun Offensive (17327/21000)
• Keepers of Time (3961/21000)

I guess, both the Shattered Sun and Honor Hold are laughable. One run of any of the Hellfire instances in Heroic (or a normal Shattered Halls) should get me over the top. And I'm pretty sure the Shattered Sun can be done in a couple days of dailys. Maybe I'm just lazy.

What I did on my Christmas Vacation

Got the rogue to 70. Yes, that makes 5 of them now. Incidentally, it turns out that shaman/rogue combo levels incredibly fast. I'm guessing the only pair that could match would be rogue/druid, but not by much. Whatever Blizzard did to the leveling from 20-60 was sorely missed post 60. If I hadn't had the time off, this would've taken me too long to bear.

Went and said hello to BRK and the rest of the Aetherial Circle gang on Drenden. Still waiting on the concept nee idea.

Mucked around a bit on the shaman. 23 now.

Found out I was dead on right about Cenarion Rep. Never having entered a dungeon for CE rep on the rogue, I was revered at level 68 in Netherstorm. The last few points to tip me over the top were from the Night Elf just outside the Stormspire.

And made out well on the trip to the folks house. For something completely non-WoW.

Getting Ready for End Game

One of my co-workers asked me to write something about "what you do between 60 and the end game." He went on to say "I've got the leveling game down, but I'm not sure what lies ahead of me."

And he does have the leveling part down. At least up to mid forties. He's got (at most recent count) 24 alts of various levels. He has also never played old-world end-game. His newbie druid was merely level 20 when Burning Crusade came out. He never had to worry about attunements for Molten Core, Onyxia, Blackwing Lair & Naxxramas. He never spent too much money on raid consumables. He never spent weeks learning a particular encounter. He is a raid noob.

So, let me answer his questions the best I can. There are a couple things that would-be raiders need to keep in mind. There are also a couple of questions you should already have answered.

Questions:

1. What is my end-game spec? Will I heal or DPS or tank?
2. What are the five most important stats for my end game build? Can I order these hierarchically?
3. Am I ready to be away from the "Old World" cities for long stretches? Can I avoid going to the auction house, bank, trainers in the Old World? Do I have an alt that can perform these duties for me?
4. Have I done some research about what gear I'd like to pick up from various quests, instances, mobs? Someone wrote an awesome guide to having a wish list on their blog and dummy me, I can't find the post. But its out there.
   

Having answered these questions, it's time to take the plunge into Outland Questing. The thing that is most different, and hardest to understand for a player coming from Azeroth is how important reputation is. Reputation rewards offer recipes, enchants, and gear that are the best pre-raid (and sometimes early raid) choices. At least five of those factions also offer heroic versions of their dungeons. For most of the factions there is an early quest that turns into a repeatable quest. As I mentioned when writing about the Cenarion dudes it's important to do those quests at the exclusion of others from the same faction, until you stop getting reputation for the repeatable one. Some of the factions are more optional, clearly benefiting some class or tradeskill over others. Here's a quick list of factions and the items they accept:

• Cenarion Expedition - Unidentified Plant Parts
• Sporeggar - Bog Lord Tendrils, Fertile Spores
• Lower City - Arakkoa Feathers
• Kurenai/Mag'har - Ogre Warbeads
• Consortium - Elekk Tusks, Oshu'gun Crystal Fragment, Ogre Warbeads, Zaxxis Badge, Ethereum Prison Keys
• Scryers - Firewing Signets, Sunfire Signets, Arcane Tomes
• Aldors - Mark of Kil'jaeden, Mark of Sargeras, Fel Armament
• Sha'Tar - Either of the Aldor or Scryer turnins

The next thing to consider is your crafting professions. Everyone should have first aid. And cooking. And probably *ugh* fishing. I'd take the time before heading to Outlands to level cooking and first aid to 300 minimum. Cooking finally makes real sense post 300 giving some of the best food buffs to date.

If you've got a gathering skill, please be 300 skill in it before coming to Outland. That way you can level it as you level from 60-70.

That said, get out there and level. The quests in Outlands are located in a few quest hubs for the most part. Get a bunch, group them as best you can and get out there and do them. Keep an eye out for dungeon quests and do them level appropriate. A nice change from the "Old World" is that most dungeon quests are picked up right outside the dungeon. And there's usually only 2 or 3 for a particular instance.

Here's my guidance on when you can do certain dungeons.

• Hellfire Ramparts & Blood Furnace - 58-60
• Slavepens & Underbog - 61-63
• Auchenai Crypts - 64-66
• Mana Tombs - 66-67
• Old Hillsbrad/Durnholde - 67-68
• Setthek Halls - 68-70
• Shadow Labyrinth - 70
• Shattered Halls - 70
• Steamvaults - 70
• Black Morass - 70
• Mechanar, Botanica, Arcatraz - 70

Another thought. When you hit 68, PLEASE go to Karazhan in Deadwind Pass (by Darkshore/Swamp of Sorrows) and do the pre-requisite quests for Karazhan attunement. You'll very quickly get to collecting key fragments from Shadow Labyrinth, Steamvaults & Arcatraz. If you have the quests the first time you go in there, you'll be better off.

During the 60-70 grind you should be saving money for mounts. If you already have your epic ground mount, you're that much ahead. If not, you'll need to buy that. But at 70, you need to have the 900 gold for flying mount & training. All of the Tempest Keep Instances (Mechanar, Botanica, Arcatraz) are locked out unless you can fly up to them. Summoning doesn't work. Which effectively puts a cap on your progress until you can get the mount. See my articles on mounts for more information

Heroic Hierarchy

What's the hardest heroic instance? What's the easiest? Which one should I do first?
All excellent questions.

I can only share what I know about these instances.

Hellfire Citadel: The only heroic I've attempted is Hellfire Ramparts. This seemed like a pretty straight-forward instance. Nothing too funky going on and no real changes to the fights. If you know regular Ramps and expect it to be the same (albeit with harder hitting mobs) you won't be far off. I've heard Blood Furnace is fairly easy if you have a warlock for CC. Shattered Halls is supposed to be hard.

Coilfang Reservoir: I've been in both Slave Pens and Underbog. I don't find either of them hard. Some pulls get ugly as mobs can be immune to CC. I've even finished Slave Pens where the last druid died and we didn't get the buff. Steamvault is supposed to be hard with a warrior tank, easier otherwise.

Auchindoun: My first heroic attempt ever was Mana Tombs. What a mistake. MT was hard, hard, hard, hard! I ended up spending a fortune on pots and shadow resist for the first boss. By the time we worked up to final boss, we realized we didn't have the DPS to finish. Very disappointing. I've also been in Sethekk Halls but only briefly. My group fell apart somewhere in the neighborhood of the first boss. I've heard Auchenai Crypts is super easy and Shadow Labyrinth is hard.

Tempest Keep: Mechanar and Botanica I've found to be badge piñatas. First boss is just a FUN fight on heroic. Second boss in Mechanar used to be skipped but I've heard she got the nerf. Third boss in Botanica was also skipped two times I was in there. The last time I was in there, the first boss wiped us a couple times with an increasing Arcane Devastation. After about 3 wipes, it stopped increasing and just started out hitting the tank for 4-5K Arcane Damage. We called it. Never been to Arcatraz but supposed to be more long and boring than hard.

Caverns of Time: I've attempted Old Hillsbrad. The patrols with one humanoid and a dog spawned two non CC-able adds. So, um, yeah. It sucked. Bad. I can't even imagine what Black Morass must be like. It seems like sort of a spin on the wipe wheel unless you're group is really good anyway, so I can't imagine it harder.

Yes. I am Exalted.

Last night I ran what is (I hope) my last non-heroic Steamvaults ever. At the end I turned in just a few of my many Coilfang Armaments and hit the magic exalted mark. As a result of my endeavors I got quite a few new little goodies.

Since my priest is an alchemist, I picked up a pair of new alchemy recipes. I got[Recipe: Major Nature Protection Potion] and [Recipe: Flask of Distilled Wisdom]. And of course the piece that made me shiver in all my naughty parts[Windcaller's Orb]. This is just a huge upgrade over the crappy green piece I was toting around before.

I hope to get a chance to make another post later about the upcoming changes to my classes in 2.3 later today.

Your Tree-Huggin' Friends

No, not the feral droods in your guild. Not the OOMkins either. Not even the tree-shaped healybots. I'm talking about the scattered groups of night elves and taurens scattered around the Outlands that give you rep.

I'm talking about the Cenarion Expedition.

My first character to level through the expansion was my priest. I did the quests as I found them. I turned in repeatable quest items when I had a stack. I robbed myself of perfectly solo-able reputation and instead shifted that reputation grind to my end game. In fact, I switched it to the end game virtually requiring a five-man group to get the rep.

The sad thing is I didn't even learn from my bad mistake after the first character. In fact, it wasn't until I was doing these quests for the fourth time that I learned from my mistakes. Some might say I am a slow learner. They would be right.

The last time I worried about reputation I did it in what I consider the "right" way. Here is my basic plan.

1. Ignore all the quests that might give Cenarion reputation except the single quest for turning in the unidentified plant parts. Yes. All of them. Even that tempting little conclave in Hellfire Peninsula a little south of the Temple of Telhamat. Instead grind plant parts. Have your alts grind plant parts. Buy plant parts from the Auction House. Agree to perform future unspecified favors for guild mates in exchange for plant parts. Turn these in at their place in Zangarmarsh until the chick finally says "Bremm, if you bring me another plant part I will kick you in the teeth." (Although, if she calls you Bremm, you need to give me my account back!)

1a. Alternatively, you can be killing nagas for the plant parts. Apparently each one you kill will give you some free Cenarion Rep. However, I avoided this as I wanted to maximize the potential to get an uncatalogued species. See step 2. I believe you can also run Slave Pens & Underbog over and over if that's your thing. But, since I wanted to do this mostly solo, I ignored that route as well.

2. Then and only then, nay you look at what she's returned to you for all those plant parts. Look specifically for an Uncatalogued Species. You may turn these in if you are lucky enough to get any. Unfortunately, these are soulbound and you can't grind them. It's just luck if the draw if you get one in your mad plant-part turn-in frenzy.

3. Do Cenarion Expedition quests with abandon.Make sure you go back to Hellfire and pick up those. Do all the ones in Zangarmarsh. Make sure you hit the place to the west, near Sporregar. Do all the ones in Terrokar Forest (near the Cenarion Outpost).

4. When you get to Blade's Edge Mountain, do all the quests in Sylvannar & Evergrove. Many of these also give CE Rep. Yes. Even do that crappy quest that involves listening the the whispers of the Raven God. It's rep. And that's what you're after.

5. Ascertain your rep standings. On my hunter, the only dude who did this right, I needed about 700 reputation to revered. And he's not human (obviously). A human who follows this should already be revered and not have set foot in Steamvault.

6. Run Steamvault until you're revered. It shouldn't take more than one run, even if you missed a few quests.

7. Look at the rewards available at Exalted. You may have enough reputation for everything you want. They have a nice caster ring, a healer off-hand, the best non-raid (or maybe even period) druid tanking weapons in the game. And they have alchemy, jewelcrafting, blacksmithing and leatherworking patterns at Exalted.

Learn from my mistakes and rectify them for yourselves (if there's still time).

Also, this strategy does not only work for Cenarion. There are repeatable quests for most of the major factions that involve grinding and collecting. Arakkoa Feathers for Lower City. Ivory Tusks and Oshu'gun Crystals for Consortium. Even turning in your Scryer or Aldor items will give some Sha'tar reputation. Use the sites at your disposal and plan out your reputation gains.

It'll only save you time later from doing the eleventeenth Shadow Lab run.