Insider Trader: Faction recipes for tailors

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You are a newly minted level 58, and you are about to walk through the Dark Portal for the first time. Once you set foot on the other side, and with a bit of wandering, you will surely begin to realize how many factions there are whose reputation you may or may not need to grind.

As a tailor, you will unfortunately not find too many exciting new recipes aside from the threads you will learn to craft from your Scryers or Aldor allegiance. Here is the quick breakdown:

• Honored with the Consortium

• Honored with Lower City

• Revered with Sporeggar

• Exalted with Scryers or Aldor

• Honored with the Ashtongue Deathsworn (Black Temple)

The Consortium
This bunch of traders and swindlers centers their rewards primarily on the jewelcrafting trade. Fortunately, they also sell one tailoring pattern that allows a tailor something to market to the jewelcrafting crowd.

[Pattern: Bag of Jewels] is a 24-slot bag that holds all sorts of jewelcrafting supplies and materials. Once honored, you can snap up the pattern and check your auction house for market saturation. When deciding if it is economically viable for you to craft them with your own materials to sell, keep in mind you'll likely have to purchase the leather required.

Although there seems to be little reason to grind Consortium reputation past honored for the bag pattern, the traders will give you a bag of gems each month, and its value is relative to how much they love you. In fact, although the value of the bags of gems used to be fairly low, assuming you aren't exalted or very lucky in receiving blues, patch 2.4 has increased their profitability.

With the introduction of [Brilliant Glass], the jewelcrafting community was turned on its head. Suddenly all of those green gems that previously sold on the AH for a gold or two, if at all on many servers, began selling for five to twelve gold, depending on the gem.

You can find a concise guide to the Consortium, its quests, its rewards, and a method of reaching exalted at Wowwiki.

Lower City
Honorable friends of the Lower City faction within Shattrath can purchase [Pattern: Cloak of Arcane Evasion] which, combined with [Enchant Cloak - Greater Arcane Resistance], makes a nice resist piece. When disenchanted, the cloak should yield a [Large Prismatic Shard].

Many people take this cloak into Karazhan in order to fight the Curator, and even Tempest Keep dungeons, Ikiss in heroic Sethekk Halls, and other places where arcane resistance is helpful or even, depending on group makeup, experience and gear, necessary.

If you are curious, Wowwiki has an excellent guide to all things Lower City, including a rough outline of how to reach exalted, although you'll only need to reach honored for the pattern, as well as other rewards that the faction has to offer.

Sporeggar
Before patch 2.4.3 (we are currently on 2.4.2), the adorable little Sporelings had nothing to offer the enterprising tailor looking to expand his or her recipe book. Soon, once you are revered by them, you can head over and consult Micah about getting [Pattern: Mycah's Botanical Bag], a whopping 28-slot herbing bag.

Patch 2.4 also introduced gathering dailies, including one for herbalism, encouraging herbalists to spend more time hunting and harvesting, or at least to head out on a regular schedule. If you're looking to earn some reputation, check out our guide to reaching exalted with Sporeggar.

Choosing between Scryers and Aldor
If you are the type of tradesperson who likes the idea of being able to make their own items, then the choice between allying with the Scryers or with the Aldor might just come down to threads.

Healers with this mindset will want to choose the Aldor, as they provide access to [Pattern: Silver Spellthread] at honored and [Pattern: Golden Spellthread] at exalted, both of which are heavy on +heal and offer some spell damage and stamina on the side.

The Scryers, on the other hand, offer [Pattern: Mystic Spellthread] at honored, and [Pattern: Runic Spellthread] at exalted, pitting +heal and +spell damage on equal, though lesser, footing, with some stamina on the side. Tailoring mages and warlocks will often choose Scryer threads for this reason.

Unfortunately, this is where the tailoring patterns dry up from the Scryers, while the Aldor have some resist pieces to offer. At friendly, a tailor can purchase [Pattern: Flameheart Bracers], acquire [Pattern: Flameheart Gloves] at honored and round out the pseudo-set with [Pattern: Flameheart Vest] at exalted.

Fire resistance is used in parts of Kara, and warlock tanks will pick it up for Leotheras the Blind in SSC, as examples. Resistance gear is usually used in raid settings.

Are you having trouble choosing between the two factions? If being able to craft the threads or flameheart pieces, which can be purchased from other tailors, is not weighing heavily on your decision, you can see a full comparison of what the two factions have to offer on Wowwiki.

Raiding factions: Ashtongue Deathsworn
Speaking of raid settings, should you begin grinding reputation using The Black Temple, you'll be able to purchase some nifty shadow resistance patterns from the Ashtongue Deathsworn, the associated faction in Shadowmoon Valley.

At friendly, you will be able to purchase [Pattern: Soulguard Bracers] and [Pattern: Soulguard Girdle]. The items are even bind on equip and can be sold and made for other players.

Once honored, you can pick up [Pattern: Soulguard Leggings] and [Pattern: Soulguard Slippers], as well as [Pattern: Night's End], a high stamina, high shadow resistance cloak. These too are bind on equip items.

If your guild is preparing to tackle The Black Temple, Jennie Lees has been writing excellent walkthroughs boss by boss in her weekly column, Ready Check. So far, you can read up on Gurtogg Bloodboil, Teron Gorefiend, and the Reliquary of Souls.

Further reading:
Recently, Daniel Whitcomb wrote up a post about maximizing your reputation gains, which warrants a read if you intend to be smart about your reputation grind. Many players end up skipping quests or zones, even in Outland, and find themselves hard-pressed later to hit exalted for their coveted pattern, weapon, or piece of gear. There are also many helpful tips in the comments section.

Each week,

Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. For the latest in professions news, check out our complete list of profession changes projected for Patch 2.4.3, as well as a summary of the information available about professions in the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.