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Hotfix removes reputation requirements for justice point gear
One of the most controversial decisions in Mists of Pandaria was the idea of putting JP and VP gear behind reputation gates, making you grind to honored with specific factions depending on what you wanted to buy. Blizzard has just put a hotfix in place that removes this requirement for justice point gear. You can now visit quartermasters as soon as you like and buy whatever JP gear you can afford, regardless of your reputation. This should allow new level 90 characters to hop into heroic dungeons much more readily. The full announcement is behind the break, along with a quick guide to finding the reputation quartermasters to grab your gear. You can also visit Commander Lo Ping at Niuzao Temple to buy all JP gear at once.
Heroic attunements gone in Wrath
Another interesting thing to note from the Dungeons and Raids panel of the WWI earlier today is the topic of Heroic attunements. We've known for some time that Blizzard has wanted to move away from reputation requirements for Heroic keys, and we saw an example of that in Magisters' Terrace. This was reinforced early on in the panel when Cory Stockton stated that there will be no faction and reputation requirements whatsoever for any of the Heroics. This doesn't particularly surprise me, because Heroic keys at Honored is little more than a formality and way to waste a little gold. You hit Honored with most places just through leveling up, so by the time you're top level you can probably already go into those Heroics. Requiring Honored might as well be no requirement at all.However, the possibility of a Magisters' Terrace style attunement was something I assumed they would do. Run the Normal at least once before the Heroic, or by completing some other type of task successfully. That, too, was shot down later in the Q&A. A question about attunements was answered with the fact that none of the Dungeons or Heroics will have any attunement at all, and neither will the first raid zone, Naxxramas. I don't mind this too much, it leaves it up to the player to judge whether they're ready for Heroics or not. I still would have liked to have seen some attunement quests for Heroics, because I think the added flavor or added challenges those quests could provide would add some depth to things. It seems we're not getting those, and I'll cope with it I'm sure, it just feels like a lost opportunity.%Gallery-5525%
The future of Heroic attunements
Eloren over on WoW LJ wonders if Blizzard didn't go far enough when they reduced the required reputation for Heroics to Honored level. Personally, even though I'm much closer to the casual end of the spectrum, I never had a problem with Revered reputation -- with my normal questing to 70 and a few instance runs in each zone, I didn't really have a problem grabbing most of the Heroic reputation keys. But even with Honored, some people with different playstyles (solo players, for example, since lots of reputation comes from running instances) are still having trouble.The good news is that Eloren is basically going to get her wish -- as we talked about last week on the podcast, Blizzard is planning to mix up the ways you can get attuned to a Heroic instance. Heroic Countenance is the first example -- to get attuned to Heroic Magisters', all you've got to do is run the regular once.In fact, I would be surprised if they didn't play around a little bit with attunements -- for one instance, they might require reputation, for another, turn-in tokens, and for another, a good old-fashioned quest chain. Most of the attunements in Burning Crusade were based specifically on reputation, but there's no reason that has to be the same way in Wrath of the Lich King -- why not give players lots of different ways to reach the different Heroics in the endgame?
WoW Rookie: Introduction to Reputation
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know. As a social game, it's fun to make friends in an MMORPG environment. In World of Warcraft, you must also make friends (and sometimes enemies) with members of various faction groups. Reputation (rep) is gained through killing a faction's enemies and completing quests to assist a particular group. Obviously, killing member's of a particular faction reduces rep. For example, killing Bloodsail Pirates increases rep with Booty Bay (Steamwheedle Cartel), while decreasing rep with the Bloodsail Buccaneers. There are many reasons why we may increase or decrease reputations. You may be asked to do so to as a quest objective or to gain particular rewards. By gaining exalted reputation with the major cities you have access to purchase their racial mounts (provided your they may be scaled to your racial model) and their guild tabards. Higher levels of rep also allow discounts on goods and repair services from vendors, and higher prices for selling useless items. For the next couple of weeks, we'll be taking a look at the ins and outs of reputation on WoW Rookie.
77,000 goblins killed? Party time!
We really love these player-run parties (how did that AzerothCross go the other week, anyway?), so here's another one for you this weekend. This time around, your host is Kernhoof on Silver Hand (finally, the US realms get their own event), who wants to celebrate his unthinkable accomplishment-- not only did he grind up Bloodsail rep to Honored, but he then went back and killed tons of Venture Co. goblins to bring his Steamwheedle Cartel rep back to neutral. So now he can wear the Bloodsail hat with pride, and walk around Booty Bay without getting stomped on by the bruisers. Awesome.Sounds like cause for celebration to me. The party kicks off this Sunday, October 28th on Silver Hand at 1pm server in Booty Bay, and since the guards there aren't going to be drunk or anything (like they are on New Year's Eve), it probably won't turn into a bloodbath. Probably. But even if it does, should be a good time no matter what-- sounds like Kernhoof has even invited a few GMs to show up. As always, if you go and check it out, make sure to send us your screenshots!
Heroic dungeons now require "Honored" reputation
This just in: In addition to the latest Patch 2.3 updates we just noted, the various heroic instance keys will no longer require "Revered" reputation with the various factions around Outland. "Honored" is now sufficient to get you in to Heroic dungeons everywhere.This raises myriad questions: Does this devalue the heroic instances at all, or does it simply open them up to more players? Is it a slap in the face to all those who had to grind their way to revered up to now, or is it just the natural progression of opening up content for more and more people to access as time goes by? Will anyone run regular Steamvents, Shattered Halls, or Shadow Labyrinth when they can just skip to the heroic versions? Will this get thousands (or millions?) of players who got burned out on the rep-grind back into the game?
Phat Loot Phriday: Timeless Arrow/Shell
For sheer ranged damage (anywhere in the world, not just in Tempest Keep), no other ammunition does it better. This is the only Epic ammunition in the game, and it's pretty clear why.Name: Timeless Arrow (or Shell, for firearms)Type: ProjectileDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: Adds 53 damage per second. That's like having an increase of over 700 attack power. The next highest ammo, Adamantite Shells, are +43 DPS, so this is far and above the best ammo you can obtain and use anywhere in the game. How to Get It: And so of course it doesn't come cheap (in either gold or effort). To get these arrows or bullets, all you have to do is buy them-- they're available from Andormu or Nozari in the Caverns of Time. But the first catch is that you've got to be Honored with Scale of the Sands to do it.Just to get Friendly with Scale of the Sands, you've got to obtain Vials of Eternity, so that means that you've got to beat both Vashj and Kael in SSC and the Eye. Yup, if you just stopped reading right now, I can't say I blame you.And after that, I believe the only way to gain Scale of the Sands reputation is to run Mount Hyjal and get rep from kills in there. Work your way to Honored, and you'll be able to buy this ammo. And the last catch on this one? Each stack of 200 is a whopping 2g a piece. Unless you're overflowing with money (and then again, if you've made your way to Mount Hyjal, maybe you are), this is strictly raid boss ammo only.Getting Rid of It: Vendor will give you 25c back for them if you decide you'd rather not pour out DPS like a Hefeweizen at Oktoberfest.
