Arcane Brilliance: Wrath reputation rewards for Mages, part 2
Each week Arcane Brilliance cooks up a feast for Mages everywhere, just like your mom does. Well...maybe your mom cooks for Druids--I don't know--but my mom always cooked for Mages. Especially at this special time of year, she wanted her little Mages to eat well and give thanks for the bounty they had been given. She taught us to always be grateful for Pyroblast, and Polymorph, but most of all, for Mirror Image. Oh, and she also taught us to kill Warlocks, but that's a whole other story.
So I assume that you're all about sick of leftover turkey at this point (at least, those of you who happen to live in America, I guess), and are ready for a heaping helping of something...Magier. Fear not, for Arcane Brilliance is here to serve a steaming pile of Mage directly to you. If you top it with enough gravy, it tastes pretty good.
Last week we went over some of the new Wrath factions and the rewards they offer for Mages. If you missed that first part, you can find it here. As quite a few of you pointed out in the comments, the stuff from those factions was a bit...underwhelming. Fear not, fellow Mages, the best is yet to come. This week, we'll hit the rest of the new expansion's reputation rewards and highlight those that you'll want to start grinding for now, if you haven't already started.
Kirin Tor
If you haven't already taken your Mage to Dalaran (and seriously, if you haven't, what are you waiting for, exactly?), get them there and look up the Kirin Tor. As a Mage, you begin at friendly with them, so you have a leg up on everyone else, but you still need to get started. Buy their tabard, and start wearing it when you run a level 80 instance. If your Cooking skill isn't high enough, raise it so that you can do the Cooking daily quests, because they, like the daily Jewelcrafting quests, grant Kirin Tor reputation. You can find this faction's quartermaster in Dalaran, in the Violet Citadel.
The stats on this cloak aren't exactly earth-shattering, but as long as you aren't wearing a high-end epic from the very last of the previous expansion's content, it'll likely be an upgrade at the level. You may be noticing a trend in the caster gear offered in this expansion, and that trend is that apparently we're supposed to be stacking haste rating. You may also notice that we apparently aren't supposed to be stacking critical strike rating. Sorry, Fire and Frostfire Mages, no crit for you. It isn't as if you depend on crits for most of your DPS or anything, right? I really hope Blizzard is planning on adjusting their itemization a bit as we go along here, because all of this spirit and haste just isn't doing it for me. Seriously, guys. not all casters want the same stats. The Boomkin shouldn't be rolling on my cloth gear. He just shouldn't.
You can pick this up at honored and equip it at level 78.
For pure DPS (and really, why would you want anything else?), you want this head enchant. Mmmm...spellpower and crit. I take back everything I just said two seconds ago up there. Not really, but crit and spellpower on my head is exactly what I asked for for Christmas. How did you know, Blizzard? This is purchasable at revered, and you can put it on your head slot item at level 80.
Ok, if you weren't sold on grinding reputation with the Kirin Tor already, this beauty should do the trick. This is, quite simply, the best non-epic 1-hand weapon for a Mage in the current version of this wonderful game. It has pretty much everything we want in a dagger: stam, int, hit, crit, and holy freaking crap 355 spellpower. Get to revered with this faction, check to make sure you're level 80, buy the head enchant and this dagger, and then go find a Warlock to kill.
Again, I'm not a fan of all of this haste and spirit and mana per 5 junk. I guess I understand what Blizzard is trying to do here, I just don't like it. In Burning Crusade, Blizzard had to itemize for every kind of caster. With the spellpower stat consolidation, now they think they only have to itemize for certain broad "roles" instead of for various classes and specs. Somehow, I guess they think that an item like this one would work just as well for Mages, Warlocks, Priests, Paladins, Druids, Republicans, Democrats, and Ralph Nader. No, Blizzard. Just...no. Homogenizing stats isn't going to make the classes balanced, guys, and I think we all know it.
Anyway, if you aren't wearing something with more class and spec-appropriate stats, this isn't a bad upgrade. It does have a ridiculous amount of intellect and spellpower on it, though, so snatch it up, by all means. It requires exalted and level 80.
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Though this faction is made up of rogue Death Knights, they have a couple of surprisingly Mage-friendly reputation rewards for sale. You'll find their quartermaster in Icecrown, at the Shadow Vault.
Available at level 78 and honored, this cloak is quite respectable. It has everything you want, and nothing you don't. Plus, I think it looks cool.
I'm not really including these as a good Mage item. While they are made of cloth, and they do have a sizable amount of spelpower, all that spirit makes them more suitable for healers, really. No, I'm throwing these on the list simply because they have one of the best item-names ever. Bravo, Blizzard's item-naming team. Bravo.
For hitting exalted, Mages don't really have much to look forward to with this faction, but even though this belt has "mending" as part of its name, it isn't terrible. It has a lot of haste on it, but it also has a bunch of spellpower for a waist item. It's absolutely worth a pick-up.
The Sons of Hodir
You're going to want to start grinding rep with these guys as soon as you reach their base of operations way up north in the Storm Peaks. Not only do they offer some very nice shoulder enchants, they are also giants. As my mom used to always tell me before sending me off to school, it's always a good idea to be friends with giants. She used to tell me other things too, but years of therapy have made me forget most of them. Also, Mom? I'm totally just kidding.
You can locate their quartermaster in Dun Niffelem in the Storm Peaks.
Yes, this is the shoulder-enchant faction for this expansion. This is the version you can obtain at honored, and it grants spellpower and crit. As we've previously discussed, we want spellpower and crit. If you don't need the crit, you can pick up the healer-ish version, complete with mana per 5.
And, of course, this is the epic version that you can pick up at exalted. As you may have surmised, it's just like the non-epic version, only with 100% more epic.
Argent Crusade
The new and improved version of the Argent Dawn, this faction's quartermaster can be found in Icecrown, at the Argent Vanguard. And find him you should, because exalted with this faction will earn you a very nice ring...
...and this semi-crappy wand. It isn't terrible, I guess. It has stamina and spellpower and mana per 5. It could definitely be worse. It could also be a whole lot better. You'll need level 78 and revered to buy/equip it.
I know, I know: it sounds like a healer ring. Just ignore that. And yes, it has a whole mess of haste rating. Despite my griping above, haste rating isn't a bad thing. Sure, I'd rather it was crit, but I'm not going to whine about it, because sweet fancy moses, look at the rest of those stats! Stamina and intellect to spare and a big dollop of spellpower. This is an excellent ring to take with you into the end-game content, no two ways about it. You'll have to get to exalted with this faction to purchase it, but this is worth the grind.
I hope this has been of some help to you as you budget your rep-grinding time in this wonderful new expansion. If, like me, you have very little time to spend making all these disparate groups of folk like you enough to engage in commerce with you, or you couldn't be bothered to read the rest of these two columns and skipped straight to the last paragraph, let me sum up all 3,000 or so words of it in three setences:
Grind reputation with the Kirin Tor. They like Mages. We here at Arcane Brilliance fully support that sentiment.
Every week Arcane Brilliance teleports you inside the wonderful world of Mages and then hurls a Fireball in your face. Check out our recent look at how long your gear will last you in Northrend, or our guide to leveling builds to get you through Northrend. Until next week, keep the Mage-train a-rollin'.
