In Cataclysm guild achievements were introduced and one of these was United Nations (55 exalted reputations). Now this was supposed to be a group effort but in the early days of cata this achievement was bugged, rather than taking everybody’s exalted reputations, removing duplicates and that being the number, it just went off whoever had the most exalted reputations. Some guilds still got this achievement before it was fixed as it is possible to solo. When Mists comes out part of this has the potential to be irrelevant. New factions will be introduced and these will (in all likelihood) be easier to max out than some of the vanilla factions. So I’ll break the guide up into difficulty level.
Easy as pie
The original cata factions apart from Baradin’s Wardens which takes the total to 5. With these you get rep through questing through the cataclysm zones, there are dailies for all but The Earthen Ring, but by far the easiest way is to slap a tabard on and go dungeon grinding.
- Guardian’s of Hyjal (Molten Front dailies)
- Ramkahen (2 dailies)
- The Earthen Ring
- Therazane (6-8 dailies)
- Wildhammer/Dragonmaw Clan (5 dailies)
Still riding the easy train
All the wrath factions listed you get a start towards exalted through questing in Northrend. The Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition reputation is earned through running wrath dungeons without a tabard and also from dailies at the Argent Tournament. Sons of Hodir can be maxed out easily by doing the repeatable quest to turn in Relic’s of Ulduar. Therefore you can double up your reputation by running Halls of Lightning/Stone while wearing a tabard and collect these to hand in. These wrath factions take the count to 15.
- Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition (4 of them)
- Argent Crusade (tabard)
- Kirin Tor (tabard)
- Knights of the Ebon Blade (tabard)
- The Wyrmrest Accord (tabard)
- The Sons of Hodir (3-6 dailies plus repeatables)
You can’t wear tabards for Burning Crusade factions as you can only purchase them once you’re exalted. However, you get faction reputation through running dungeons much like you do with the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition reputations. Kurenai or Mag’har depending on faction affiliation are grindable. They’re out in the world so depend on respawn timers and if you’re the only one there then there’s usually no downtime. However, given that it’s out in the world, I certainly always tried to be nice, and take a break if a level appropriate quester came around. The Aldor/Scryers are mutually exclusive and you get a fair bit on whichever you choose from regular questing. The turn-in items drop from mobs in the dungeons so much like with the Sons of Hodir you can be working on multiple reputations at the same time. These factions take the count to 25.
- Cenarion Expedition (Coilfang Reservoir)
- Honor Hold (Hellfire Citadel)
- Keepers of Time (Escape from Durnholde/The Black Morass)
- The Consortium (Mana Tombs)
- Sporeggar (The Underbog and repeatable turn in)
- Lower City (Auchindoun)
- The Sha’tar (Tempest Keep)
- Shattered Sun Offensive (Magister’s Terrace)
- Kurenai/Mag’har (Nagrand mobs plus one repeatable)
- The Aldor/The Scryers (3 repeatable turn-ins)
There’s your city factions of course, all of which now have tabards in addition to the generous amount you get questing most place. Then there’s a couple of other vanilla factions. Argent Dawn might seem hard as you don’t get any rep through questing until you get to a certain point, the key is not to panic. When you’ve completed the quest chain you get boosted to revered. Thorium Brotherhood is hard for me to explain, you get started on that reputation now through questing. I had a large amount of Dark Iron Residue stockpiled, no idea why, but I got exalted in about 5 minutes turning it in. It’s boe so can be bought if you’re not sitting on a stash. These factions take the total to 33.
- Argent Dawn (2 repeatable quests)
- Thorium Brotherhood (repeatable turn-ins)
- Alliance/Horde cities (6 of them)
Easy but not grindable so require a bit of dedication
Baradin’s Wardens/Hellscream’s Reach is easy enough as there’s a lot of dailies and the rewards (2 mounts and a pet) are another reason to do them. The Sholazar factions are mutually exclusive but you can switch between them and start from honoured. Regular questing is likely to take your Kalu’ak reputation to the start of revered. Darkmoon Faire used to be insane but now is completed without notice thanks to the revamped faire. Guild is easy enough, for non-raiders do dailies and that will take you to cap, for raiders only a couple of dailies might be required to top it up. Wintersaber Trainers (1 daily for 20 days = mount and exalted) is Alliance only with no direct horde counterpart. I have no practical experience with Horde myself but I think that Tranquillien would be the substitute. These factions take you to 47.
- Baradin’s Wardens/Hellscream’s Reach (6-12 dailies)
- The Kalu’ak (3 dailies)
- Frenzyheart Tribe/The Oracles (3 dailies)
- Darkmoon Faire (5 dailies plus the 9 turn-ins per faire)
- Wintersaber Trainers/Tranquillien
- Cenarion Circle (AQ20)
- The Ashen Verdict (Icecrown Citadel)
- Ashtongue Deathsworn (Black Temple)
- The Scale of the Sands (Hyjal Summit)
- The Violet Eye (Karazhan)
- Sha’tari Skyguard (4 dailies plus killing mobs in Skettis so technically grindable maybe)
- Netherwing (3-8 dailies, or 9 with the requisite profession, plus one repeatable)
- Ogri’la (3-4 dailies)
- Your guild (slap on a tabard and do dailies at max level)
Will drive you to a certain level of insanity
Avengers of Hyjal and Hydraxion Waterlords, both coincidentally battling Ragnaros, only give reputation from bosses after revered so it takes a lot of clears. Stormpike Guard/Frostwolf Clan does ramp up rather quickly, particularly if it’s the call to arms, but you will get so sick of Alterac Valley. Plus it’s pvp and that might not be your cup of tea. Timbermaw Hold and Steemwheedle are very grindy, you will be killing pirates in your sleep by the time you’re done. The goblin reps are less painful if you take a group but it’s still a lot of mobs to kill. These take you to the 55 needed for solo United Nations.
- Avengers of Hyjal (Firelands)
- Timbermaw Hold (kill for repeatable turn-ins, grindable but long)
- Steamwheedle Cartel (Booty Bay, Everlook, Gadgetzan, Ratchet)
- Stormpike Guard/Frostwolf Clan (Alterac Valley)
- Hydraxion Waterlords (Molten Core)
Pure insanity
Raveholdt requires, like the goblin reps, a massacre of Syndicate members. However, then you have to hand in hundreds of lockboxes. So it doesn’t cost the earth rolling a rogue is advised, that way it’ll only take forever. Brood of Nozdormu relies on turn-ins as reputation from kills is gone after neutral. Therefore, it’s advised that any items collected before hitting the end of neutral are saved and used afterwards. Silverwing Sentinels/Warsong Outriders and League of Arathor/The Defilers give very little reputation and are pvp so again not everyones thing.
- Ravenholdt
- Brood of Nozdormu (AQ40)
- Silverwing Sentinels/Warsong Outriders (Warsong Gulch)
- The League of Arathor/The Defilers (Arathi Basin)
Phased out reputations
If you’ve been playing since classic you may well have at exalted these two reputations. If you don’t then you can’t improve whatever reputation you have as with cataclysm they were removed from the game. However, if you do have them you can substitute them for reputations above.
Conclusion
There are more than enough factions in the game to achieve solo United Nations already. Some of them require a lot more effort than others but getting 55 exalted reputations isn’t out of reach for any level 85 player. With the arrival of the next expansion there will be at least half a dozen new factions making it even easier for the casual player to achieve.
Really nice post! I always sort of roll my eyes when I read the we have a taabrd line. It’s like.. oh yeah I’m sure no one else has *that*!Looking forward to reading the next piece