My choosen faction – Why am I exclusively Alliance?

Before I start, this is not a Horde bashing post, I have no quibble with the Horde, or Horde players. It is simply a discussion and explanation of why I personally don’t play Horde and probably never will. This is also bugger all to do with resto druids, but that happens sometimes

I have a friend. IRL. Yh, scary I know. However, this friend predates my playing of Warcraft and was actually the first person to introduce me to it back at the end of 2005. Now, some of you may be thinking that I said in my info page that I only started playing at the start of Wrath and that is true. Why did I wait 3 years after trying the game before I actually started playing it?

My first taste of WoW
There are a number of reasons, but one of them is that this friend, who shall remain nameless but knows who he is should he ever read this, is Horde through and through. If you cut him in half he would have “For the Horde!” written down the middle like a stick of seaside rock. He even threatened to get a “Real friends don’t let other friends play Alliance” t-shirt. This meant that when he first introduced me to WoW he made me try a troll. I tried that nasty little troll for a couple of hours and really didn’t enjoy it. I wanted to try out an Alliance character but was informed not a chance on his Horde based account.

So I was rather put off from WoW by playing a class and race I didn’t really like, despite having played Warcraft the RTS when it first appeared in 1994. Fast forward a few years and I am getting repeatedly poked by my sister and brother in law to start playing because they are. I download a trial and start playing one weekend while my wife is away. I made straight for Alliance and created what is my standard (first) character in any rpg – a human warrior (not the most daring combination ever but I don’t care ). I entered Northshire Abbey and suddenly was hooked, the little human church, surrounded by pretty trees and a river was rather impressive. I quickly completed my quests and headed out to Goldshire as I was commanded, but already I was hooked.

Alliance 15 : Horde 1
Ever since then, with the exception of a single undead warrior (who ultimately was faction changed to Katjara, the nelf warrior), all my characters are exclusively Alliance. Having tried Horde (my warrior did make it to level 50), I decided that for whatever reason it just wasn’t for me. I am well aware that it is not as clean cut as Alliance/Horde = Good/Evil because the Horde is not evil and certainly not all Alliance are “good”. Despite exploring all of their cities, and a lot of their lands the Horde just holds no attraction for me, with the possible exception of the Tauren. I am not really into the whole Native American thing, but I quite enjoyed their starting area and such, and they do make damn fine warriors.

All other horde areas though are not really to my liking, I like relatively ‘normal’ places and much prefer forests to open plains, so the likes of the barrens, durotar, eversong and such really didn’t do it for me. Which is also why I don’t like Tanaris or levelling a lowbie Draenai, but doesn’t explain why I like Uldum, it must just be the archaeology side of it with Harrison Jones.

In the beginning….
I first played Alliance way back in ’94 with the arrival of Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans and even then never really took to the Horde. The lands. music and background of the humans seemed to capture me much more than that of the orcs. When in Warcraft 2 they really became the Alliance and the Horde with the introduction of gnomes, ogres, goblins, elves and so on, I still couldn’t get into the Horde. Even now, going into Stormwind I am reminded of epic battles building and defending it all those years ago (17!) on a little 486 with a massive 14″ CRT monitor Now I feel old

Stormwind, Ironfroge etc vs…….
Walking down the Valley of Heroes, it is possible to imagine that my own general from so long ago is immortalised there as a hero of the Alliance (not true I know, but this is a fantasy game ). The music as you gallop into the city is quite amazing and very stirring, reminding me that to start with, mere humans held back the “Tides of Darkness”, until they were joined by Elves, Gnomes and Dwarves. Together they all pushed back the encroaching Horde and reclaimed lost areas of Azeroth, some of those have fallen again – cities such as Stromgarde, Lordaeron and Stratholm, but still we fight to regain them.

As well as Stormwind, the other Alliance cities hold similar thoughts, the sheer scale of Ironforge tunneled into the very mountainside, vast forges and halls filled with hundreds of busy adventurers and tradesmen going about there business. Darnassus, built in the branches of an enormous tree, scouts and lookouts positioned in its higher branches, while an entire city flourishes lower down.

Orgrimmar, Silvermoon and the others
In contrast, the Horde cities are nowhere near as impressive to me. Orgrimmar looks like a giant tent encampment in the desert, Silvermoon is a overly exotic jewel dumped next to its rotting corrupt neighbour, Lordaeron is a ruinous place of decay and disease populated by zombies. Thunderbluff is the only one of the Horde cities that strikes me as being anything other than just meh.

So for me, the choice between Alliance and Horde is easy and obvious. It is the faction I have strived to aid for nearly 20 years. I find that the lore surrounding it is much more engaging for me, the cities are places that I truly enjoy being in (thank you Blizzard for allowing me to fly over a new expanded SW ) and even the music and such are magnificent and rousing. That then is why I now play Alliance exclusively

Kat

Katarnas the Elder….

Not really a resto thing and not much of a post, but you already got the rep post earlier

I got my Elder title today after an epic 16 minute battle against Omen I knew it wouldn’t take much but didn’t fancy trying it on my own so I asked a guildie DK to come and help and because we weren’t sure how hard he would hit I stayed resto and she used blood. We should have gone balance/unholy, I don’t think either one of us dropped more than 10k health at any time during the fight. So, thats another event and title done and dusted hence the happy lunar beams and purple dress above

Kat

Cataclysm Factions; Best items from rep for Resto

In Cataclysm we have quite a few new factions, as before they give give nice shinies depending on your standing with them. However, of all the new factions, which have the best items for us? Which is best to rep grind first? These and other questions will be answered here.

Firstly, something has changed regarding the items that factions give based on reputation. Most important (especially when compared to Wrath) is that epic items are now truly epic. In Wrath reputation epics were iLevel 200 i.e heroic dungeon level. In Cata they are iLevel 359 which is first tier raid gear. This means that if you can get your grubby little branches on some epics from factions then you will probably not replace them soon.

So, in what I consider order of most importance here are the assorted Cata factions and the reasons why you should grind them;

Wildhammer Clan - Highest rep needed: Exalted

• Location – Twilight Highlands
• Tabard – Yes
• Quartermaster – Craw McGraw in Thundermar (TH)
• Rep gained through – Questing, Daily Quests, Tabard
• Resto Friendly Items –
  Mantle of Wild Feathers: honoured, iLevel 333, low level but nice starter shoulders with haste, spirit and a socket
  Belt of the Untamed: exalted, iLevel 359, awesome resto belt, its got haste and spirit and its an epic  
  Lightning Flash Pendant: exalted, iLevel 359, less than ideal stats but still can be reforged and has stacks of intellect

Earthen Ring  - Highest rep needed: Revered

• Location – Vash’jir and Deepholm
• Tabard – Yes
• Quartermaster – Provisioner Arok in Silver Tide Hollow (Vash’jir)
• Rep gained through – Questing, Tabard
• Resto Friendly Items -
  Pendant of Elemental balance: honoured, iLevel 333, not ideal, but has spirit and a good bit of intellect if you are having difficulty finding stuff in dungeons as you grind towards Wildhammer rep
  Leggings of Clutching Roots: revered, iLevel 346, no haste but lots of spirit and 2 sockets, plus you can reforge the crit, good starter legs
  Cloak of Ancient Wisdom: revered, iLevel 346, no spirit but lots of haste, can reforge some crit to spirit

Guardians of Hyjal - Highest rep needed: Revered

• Location – Mount Hyjal
• Tabard – Yes
• Quartermaster –  Provisioner Whitecloud in Nordrassil (MH)
• Rep gained through – Questing, Tabard
• Resto Friendly Items -
  Cloak of the Dryads: honoured, iLevel 333, a good cloak to start with, but will be replaced quite quickly at 85
  Aessina-Bless Gloves: revered, iLevel 346, with spirit, haste and a socket, these are probably the best pre-raid gloves for resto
  Arcanum of Hyjal: revered, the head enchant for resto

Therazane – Highest rep needed: Exalted

• Location – Deepholm
• Tabard – Yes
• Quartermaster –  D’Lom the Collector in Therazane’s Throne (DH)
• Rep gained through – Questing, Daily Quests, Tabard
• Resto Friendly Items -
  Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone: honoured, lower level shoulder enchant but still better than the best from Hodir
  Diamant’s Ring of Temperance: revered, iLevel 346, no spirit but has got haste
  Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone: exalted, the best shoulder enchant for resto

Ramkahen - Highest rep needed: Honoured

• Location – Uldum
• Tabard – Yes
• Quartermaster – Blacksmith Asabi in Ramkahen (Uldum)
• Rep gained through – Questing, Daily Quests, Tabard
• Resto Friendly Items -
  Ammunae’s Blessing: honoured, iLevel 333, a good starter ring, but will probably get replaced quickly in heroics

Baradin’s Wardens - Highest rep needed: Exalted

• Location – Tol Barad Peninsula
• Tabard – Not for rep grinding
• Quartermaster – Quartermaster Brazie in Alliance Outpost (TBP)
• Rep gained through – Daily Quests
• Resto Friendly Items -
  Shimmering Morningstar: revered, iLevel 346, a not bad weapon, but crit instead of haste, get if you need a weapon desperately and have spare marks, but dungeons drops are better
  Mandala of Stirring Patterns: exalted, iLevel 359, lots of spirit and a mastery proc, not bad if you need the regen and have spare marks to redeem, but otherwise I would pass, there are much better available in dungeons

As you can see there are some nice iLevel 333 items as you work your way towards the higher level gear and then we have a good mix of heroic and raid level gear once you hit exalted/revered. Most of the factions won’t require much in the way of grinding except Wildhammer Clan and Baradin’s Wardens. Both of those will need a lot of time spent on dailies (unless you just wear the clan tabard but its advisable to grind asap with dailies as well to get a nice boost for healing). Therazane is a long haul as well, but you can get the lesser enchant without too much trouble and then use the tabard once you have everything else you need from the other factions.

Assuming you do all the quest lines in the new areas, you should easily get honoured/revered with Hyjal, Earthen Ring, Therazane and Ramkahen even without any guild perks buffing your rep. Then a few dungeons with a tabard or some dailies will give you the little extra you need for the goodies.

Kat