The lovechild of Jessica Simpson and a pile of gravel.  Sexy, no?

Talk about a productive week.

Extremis the Knight of Death got himself to 85 and immediately flexed his impressive blacksmithing muscle by putting hammer to anvil.  The end result was a suit of Vicious Pyrium armor and an Elementium Bonecrusher.  He then bought an Elementium-Edged Scalper (best in slot pre-heroics, according to askmrrobot.com) and will get another if it appears on the market or he grinds his way to the recipe in Molten Core.  He’s already started knocking off regular dungeons and soon may be ready for Heroics.

There’s also talk of raiding.  Me. Raiding in World of Warcraft.

God help us all.

It’s Not Who You Know.  It’s Who Knows You.

While Extremis slogged through Deepholm during his mid-80’s, I started chatting up a guildie and commented how I really wasn’t a fan of questing in the zone.  Deepholm, I said, was an unfortunate circumstance that could not be skipped.  Once the questline was started, I felt it was important to remain there until it was finished.  You could leave sooner and move on to Uldum for quicker leveling, better xp and quest rewards, but the Deepholm questline was the only way to unlock and earn the Therazane rep needed to get the necessary Exalted for the shoulder enchants.  Also, the longer you ran the questline the more Therazane rep you could earn (one round of daily quests under Revered, as it turned out), and the fewer Therazane dailies needed to reach Exalted.

My guildmate, who had patiently been listening to me rant on the zone, sent me a single sentence in response to my plight.  “I didn’t understand a single word you just said.”

That’s when it occurred to me that there are a number of people who simply level up as fast as possible and start looking for gear upgrades.  They’re not really aware how important some of the reputations can be while you’re leveling.  All they know is to quest and run dungeons, blaze through levels, without giving any thought to what reputation benefits they’re passing up.

Reputation can be important you guys.

Sometimes it’s good to be kind of a big deal.

So I decided to be a helpful kind of guy and point out some of the benefits of working on the rep grind of various factions in Cataclysm. Might as well start with the one Extremis is currently working on – Therazane. (Fun Fact – Flowers and candy will not help your rep with her.)

Friendly

• Tabard of Therazane

Good to wear when you’re running 85 dungeons.  Not so great when you’re leveling, unless it matches your outfit.

Honored

• Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone
• Lesser Inscription of Jagged Stone
• Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal
• Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz

These are the lesser shoulder enchants for each class.  Unless you’re an Scribe/Inscriptionator/Whatever, this is where you get your shoulder buffs.

Revered

• Diamant’s Ring of Temperance
• Felsen’s Ring of Resolve
• Gorsik’s Band of Shattering
• Terrath’s Signet of Balance

Some decent bling for your character.

Exalted

• Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone
• Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone
• Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
• Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz

 These are the enchants that players are using at the end game.  Like I said, pound for pound the best enchants for the shoulder slot that you’ll find.  So slap on your Tabard and get your grind on!