faction-tabards
Latest
Pandaria faction tabards don't grant reputation
Breaking from the pattern set by Wrath and followed up in Cataclysm, this latest beta patch confirms that tabards for factions based in Pandaria will not grant reputation for wearing them in dungeons. Instead, we'll be going back to the vanilla-style model where tabards are one of the rewards for hitting exalted level with a faction. I'm assuming that this is part of Blizzard's plan to make factions mean something instead of just feeling like an obligatory grind, as stated at the MoP press event in March. While I appreciated the convenience of the rep-granting tabards, I appreciated them because without them, getting rep for those factions was a bit of a nightmare. If the way the system works now lets me gain rep at a reasonable pace without these tabards, hey, I'm all for bragging rights tabards instead. The MoP factions that will be affected by this (read: all of them) are: The Klaxxi The August Celestials The Golden Lotus The Lorewalkers The Order of the Cloud Serpent The Shado-Pan The Tillers The Anglers The Brewmasters It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
City tabards giving reputation in latest beta build
As of the recent beta build (13189) that went live earlier this evening, city tabards sold by racial factions (e.g., Thunder Bluff, Stormwind, Gnomeregan, Undercity) are now awarding reputation in dungeons. With the obvious exception of those offered by Gilneas and the Bilgewater Cartel, these tabards aren't technically new to the game -- you can get them at the Argent Tournament on the live servers right now if you want -- but the reputation gains are definitely a new perk. While you can still get the tabards from Argent Tournament vendors on the beta, each major city also has a faction quartermaster (usually close to the city's flight master and introduced in beta build 13066 in late September, I think) selling both the tabard and a set of level 40 cloaks. The tabards are available at friendly for 8 silver (even at the Tournament -- they no longer require Champion's Seals), but you can't get the cloaks without being exalted. Still, grinding reputation for one of your faction's races should be considerably easier in Cataclysm -- all you'll have to do is get to friendly, buy a tabard and run dungeons as you normally would. This is a great addition to the game. Not only will you have access to cool tabards even at a low level, but it should make getting other races' mounts and faction discounts much easier as well.
[1.Local]: Readers gone Blind
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.You'd have to be "Blind" not to have seen the machinima everyone's been talking about this week. We posted about it not once, not twice but three times – and we're still receiving chastising notes to get busy and run it. (Come on, folks, read the blog!) So what's all the fuss about? This machinima has garnered rave reviews (and even offers to have "man2man babies") from virtually everyone corner – although some viewers aren't fans of the music selection. "I disagree with many of the others about the music choice," observed Fawkes, who took up a midstream position between hotly contested views. "While these weren't my favorite genres to listen to, I must say I found the 'Hide and Seek' song a playful match with the action scenes. My advice to Percula would be to take their complaints into consideration, but still take this your own way."But we didn't hear only from WI readers. Machinima rock star Baron Soosdon and "Blind" creator Percula himself weighed in.
