This tutorial may have changed over the recent expansion pack changes. I will make my best effort to update this information.
Part 1: Neutral to Revered
The title of this section isn’t totally true, you can actually only go to 11999/12000 into honored by doing the repeatable quests and/or killing NPCs affiliated with the Syndicate. If you are a rogue there is a quest titled [24] Syndicate Emblems (R) which provides 250 rep per turn-in all the way up to Friendly. This quest will no longer provide any reputation increase once you become Friendly with Ravenholdt.
You can also choose to do the quest [50] Junkboxes Needed (R) which gives 75 rep per 5 Heavy Junkboxes that you hand in. Personally, I would save your Heavy Junkboxes until you are 11999/12000 and then start handing them in to get to exalted. This will require a lot less Junkboxes in the end.
The third way to grind this rep is to run around and kill all the NPCs in the area. The only members that do not provide a rep increase are the Footpads. If you watch the video below you will see I show 2 different locations where these mobs actually exist inside of Arathi Highlands. The 2 locations are Stromgarde Keep and Northfolde Manor. When you are killing the mobs at the manor, don’t forget to run around the outside of the crater and kill all of the stealthed mobs. At Stromgarde, you will want to make sure that you don’t forget to clear inside of the buildings.
All of the areas of Stromgarde do not need to be cleared out, only the area closest to the castle, inside the castle, and the first tier below the castle. All together there is around 90 total mobs that spawn. You will gain 5 rep per kill meaning you will gain around 450 rep each time you clear out both areas. Literally the max it could take someone at level 85 would be 10 minutes to clear out both locations on the map so you aren’t looking at all that big of a rep grind so far.
[youtube http://youtu.be/SaruRJcMwQM]
Part 2: Revered to Exalted
You will either need to be a rogue, or have a rogue at around level 66, or have a friend do this portion for you. You could always purchase the Heavy Junkboxes, however on my server they sell for 15g each. This isn’t that bad of a grind, it is actually kinda fun, very rarely do you have to fight, and most of it is done running around stealthed. However the only downside, the Heavy Junkboxes are not stackable, so the most you can hold is probably around 100 or so. That being said, you will probably only get 2-3 runs in before you have to return to a town and offload your bags. This can be avoided if your rogue is an engineer and has a portable mailbox.
My run takes 15 minutes, I know I am not completing the whole instance because one of the rooms at the beginning only unlocks after killing all of the mobs in the area. Of course at my level this is going to be very time consuming to try and clear that room out. So I skipped that part of the instance. During my run I average about 20-30 Heavy Junkboxes and average about 5 gold.
Lets do some math:
Assuming we are not a human class, or in a guild with Mr. Popularity Rank 1 or 2.
You need 5 Heavy Junkboxes to gain 75 rep
You need 21000 rep to reach exalted from revered
21000 / 75 = 280 turn-ins
280 * 5 = 1400 Heavy Junkboxes needed
Assuming we are gathering 20 junkboxes per run we will need to complete 70 runs to accumulate enough junkboxes. Using these numbers you are going to also gain around 350 gold for your time, aswell as some green level gems which depending on your server go anywhere from 3-10 gold a piece. Those have not been factored in, neither has the junk level items.
Now, lets use these numbers and figure out how many boxes / runs you will need to complete as a human. As we all know humans get a 10% bonus to their reputation gain.
75 * 1.10 = 82.5 rep per turn-in
21000 / 82.5 = 255 turn-ins (254.5 but we cant turn in half a quest)
255 * 5 = 1275 Heavy Junkboxes needed
1275 / 20 = 64 runs (I am using the same averages as before)
The previous figures will remain true if you are a non-human race, but you are in a guild with Mr. Popularity (Rank 2). From what I have been reading it appears that the human racial Diplomacy will stack with both levels of Mr. Popularity. I am going to do the math assuming you have both Diplomacy and Mr. Popularity (Rank 2)
75 * 1.20 = 90 rep per turn-in
21000 / 90 = 234 turn-ins to hit exalted
234 * 5 = 1170 Heavy Junkboxes needed
1170 / 20 = 59 runs
Once you have collected up all of your Heavy Junkboxes you will need to head over to the Hillsbrad Foothills and talk to Fahrad. He will be giving you the quest titledwhich you will complete over and over again.
Useful Macro
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,harm,nodead] Pick Pocket
I have this macro bound to my middle mouse button. Using this macro I just have to run up to a mob and press my middle mouse button. You can use whichever key you find comfortable. I found using this macro sped up the run times for each run through the instance.
/run f=string.find;for b=0,4 do for s=1,32 do n=GetContainerItemLink(b,s);if n and(f(n,"25878")) then PickupContainerItem(b,s);DeleteCursorItem();end;end;end
/script SelectGossipAvailableQuest(1)
/script CompleteQuest(1)
/script GetQuestReward(1)
Note: You should only use this macro if you do not plan on selling the knife quest reward. To use this macro right click the npc, use the macro.
Useful Tips:
You can unlock and loot the junkboxes, there is a random epic sword that looks pretty sweet that drops from them. Also there is some money. You will have to leave something in the junkbox otherwise it will disappear from your inventory, so you will HAVE to turn OFF auto loot otherwise you are going to just waste your boxes.
It is helpful to either be an engineer or bring an engineer friend or 2 along when you are handing in your junkboxes. Obviously you cannot hold 1400+ in your bag, so it would be nice to have a mailbox on site to make the process go quicker. The dagger you get as a quest reward is worth 1 gold and some change, this could be another opportunity to gather up some money. The dagger is a unique equipped item so you will need to vendor it every time you turn in a quest. This is the route I took and it paid off, of course I am an engineer.
Below is a video of the path that I took when farming Junkboxes.
[youtube http://youtu.be/rApTWQpf8eY]
Sorry for the lack of sound in the videos, these were my first 2 videos created and I hadn’t put sound into them.