Getting started with reputation at level 90

Originally in the Mists of Pandaria beta, all reputation grinds were unlocked at level 90. This left players with a staggering amount of stuff to do, so much that it was immediately overwhelming. There was no clear path of reputation to follow, there wasn't a moment that explained where a player should go first, and why. On live, the Shado-Pan and August Celestials are now locked behind revered reputation with the Golden Lotus. This gives players a slightly clearer path to follow when doing dailies. But even with that change, it's still confusing to players, direction-wise.

If you played in the beta, you have some understanding of reputations at level 90, how to increase them, and how they work. But if you're just now experiencing Pandaria and all it has to offer, you may be wondering where to go, what to do, and most importantly, what's in it for you? If you're dreading the thought of endless daily quests, don't worry -- it's nowhere near as complex as you'd think.

Gear upgrades

Do gear upgrades sound good to you? Then you'll want to get started with the Klaxxi and the Golden Lotus. If you've done any quests at all in the Dread Wastes, you're already familiar with the Klaxxi. But if you hit level 90 before getting to the Dread Wastes, you'll want to clear all quests in the zone before starting the daily grind -- doing so will put you somewhere in the middle of honored reputation with the Klaxxi, not to mention give you all kinds of quest gold in the process.

To get to the Dread Wastes quests, head to your respective shrine and pick up the quest The Klaxxi. It will send you to the starting chain for the zone. Alliance players can find the quest with Riki the Shifting Shadow, and Horde players can speak to Bowmaster Ku. Once you've started that chain, the rest of the Dread Wastes waterfalls into a series of quests that will eventually get you set with the Klaxxi at Klaxxi'vess, which is where you will pick up all additional dailies in the zone.

As for the Golden Lotus, all Golden Lotus dailies take place in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Head to the Golden Pagoda, located underneath the two giant mogu statues in the middle of the zone. Each set of dailies will send you elsewhere in the zone, but you'll never leave the Vale while you're completing these dailies.

Once you are revered with the Golden Lotus, you unlock the August Celestials and Shado-Pan reputations. The Shado-Pan dailies are all given out at the Shado-Pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes. The August Celestial dailies can be obtained at your respective city shrine -- there is a representative there that will send you to the shrine of the day that needs assistance.

In addition, more August Celestial dailies can be found at the Cradle of Chi-Ji, just south of the Temple of Chi-Ji in Krasarang Wilds. These dailies will have you pummeling champions on the island, and will introduce you to your very own rival. The Cradle of Chi-Ji does not appear to be open for dailies every day at this time, although this may be a bug.

Revered reputation with any of these factions will allow you to purchase all valor point rewards. Continuing the grind to exalted will net you access to mounts, tabards, and other cool items.

Profession upgrades

If you'd like to focus on your professions, there are two reputations that will help you out. The Tillers are located at Halfhill in Valley of the Four Winds. Dailies with the Tillers consist of helping out the citizens of Halfhill, and assisting Farmer Yoon in trying to get his farm in shape. As a reward for helping Farmer Yoon out, he'll let you farm your own materials on his farm. You start with four plots of land to plant in, and as you gain reputation, you'll get more plots of land.

Although you'd think farming would be strictly a cooking activity, you'd be wrong. You can plant seeds for various plants that offer a variety of crafting items. Leather, ore, enchanting materials, cloth, and herbs can all be planted and harvested at your farm along with cooking ingredients. In addition, you can plant Songbell Seeds that will give you Motes of Harmony, a component needed for many crafting recipes.

Exalted reputation will get you 16 plots of land to plant and harvest crops from. Plants grow on a 24-hour cycle starting at midnight server time. Note that your plants don't require 24 full hours to grow -- if you plant them at 11:45pm server time, they'll be ready to pick at midnight. There are also goat mounts available for purchase at exalted, as well as a variety of farm upgrades available along the way.

The Anglers offer fishing dailies and unique rewards related to fishing. All Anglers dailies can be obtained at Angler's Wharf off the south coast of Krasarang Wilds. Exalted reputation will allow you to purchase a water strider mount. While the Anglers dailies aren't necessary to level fishing, each daily quest completed will give you one fishing skill point until you max out your fishing skill.

Just the cool stuff, please

There are two reputations which offer nothing really towards character progression, but they have really sweet mounts as part of the deal when you hit exalted. The Lorewalkers are a group dedicated to preserving Pandaria's history -- it's a lore based group. If you're interested in the story of Pandaria's history, the Lorewalkers should be right up your alley. At exalted, you can purchase the Disc of the Red Flying Cloud, a pretty sweet flying mount.

Getting exalted with the Lorewalkers is the easiest reputation grind in the game currently. All you have to do is find the hidden lore objects around Pandaria. As you complete the various stories, you'll get mail from Lorewalker Cho containing a quest item. Completing a story nets you reputation, as does turning in the quest item -- and you'll be exalted by the time you're done with it all. To make it even easier, we have a guide to all the locations.

Order of the Cloud Serpent will net you two things of interest -- first, you'll get a free cloud serpent mount. Second, you'll gain the ability to ride any of the cloud serpent mounts you happen upon. In addition, jewelcrafters can find the recipes for the new jewelcrafting mounts on the quartermaster for Order of the Cloud Serpent. The dailies are very reminiscent of the old Netherwing dailies from Burning Crusade, including the hidden eggs you can sometimes find around the area that will net you extra reputation. To get started with the Order dailies, head to the Arboretum in Jade Forest.

Pick your poison

Before you dive headfirst into daily quests, figure out what your focus is going to be. Are you looking to improve your gear? Do you want to work on professions? Or do you just want to have some fun and get a couple of mounts in the process? Pick which one is most important to you, and then focus on the ones that interest you. You do not have to do every daily out there for every single faction every day -- you can just choose whichever ones happen to interest you, and work on the others at a later date if you want something to do.

Let me repeat and stress that for you: You do not have to do every daily out there for every single faction every day. In fact, doing so is ill-advised, as it can quickly lead to burnout. We have a good two years of this expansion, if every expansion prior is a good indicator -- you don't need to devour all the content created immediately.

If you are a raider, you'll want to focus on the Klaxxi and the Golden Lotus to unlock better gear upgrades for raiding purposes. You may also want to check out the Tillers and work on a farm -- farming the materials for your own raid food is a bonus. The other reputations don't really matter so much in the long run, and you can complete them at your leisure. If you just want gear upgrades, stop the dailies when you've hit revered. If you'd like mounts, keep going until you're exalted, it's entirely up to you.

The reputation grind may seem overwhelming, but it's pretty simple once you break it down and really look at what's available to you. When you hit level 90, figure out what you'd like to do first, and do that -- the rest will be waiting for you as the expansion progresses.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.