Gear plan for 5.2 revisited

So, this was my gear plan for 5.2 ( ← the link on the left also shows how I was dressed at the end of April)

Head:	Falling Blossom Cowl	tailoring
Neck:	Destroyer's Battletags	Shadow-Pan Assault neutral
Shoulders:	Shoulders of Demonic Dreams	Shadow-Pan Assault exalted
Chest:	Fire Support Robes	Shadow-Pan Assault revered
Cloak:	Shadowspike Cloak	Shadow-Pan Assault honored
Wrists:	Troll-Burner Bracers	Shadow-Pan Assault friendly
Hands:	Flameweaver Handwraps	Shadow-Pan Assault honored
Waist:	Firestrike Cord	Shadow-Pan Assault revered
Legs:	Charfire Leggings	Shadow-Pan Assault honored
Feet:	Falling Blossom Treads	tailoring
Finger 1:	Signet of the Shado-Pan Assault	Shadow-Pan Assault friendly
Finger 2:	Eye of Oondasta (ilvl 522)	It dropped for me last week when killing Oondasta. If you don't have such luck, you can use Restored Hexxer's Signet instead.
Trinket 1:	Volatile Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault	Shadow-Pan Assault friendly
Trinker 2:	Wushoolay's Final Choice (ilvl 502)	A lucky ToT LFR drop last week. Apart from praying for lucky drops, best choice is the Shock-Charger Medaillon from Operation Shieldwall
Main Hand:	Loshan, Terror Incarnate	Tsu-Long in TES
Off Hand:	Inscribed Jade Fan	Inscription
or Staff:	Jin'ya, Orb of the Waterspeaker	Lei-Shi in TES

How am I getting on? Not hard to answer that one. I'm currently honored with the Shado-Pan assault, so nothing for revered or exalted is yet mine. And the headpiece, Falling Blossom Cowl, cannot be had in the market. Not even for ready money. However Horridon was kind enough to drop the Flamecaster's Burning Crown in LFR last week.and I can't really expect to improve much on that. STOP PRESS: I luckily discovered the recipe for Falling Blossom Cowl today, and I'll be making myself one just as soon as I can buy enough Haunting Spirits. I need eight, and they go for upward of 15000g each on my realm, but they still get snapped up quickly at that price.

For the neck, I've got the Destroyer's Battletags, as expected.

As for the shoulders, I've replaced my old Mantle of the Golden Sun with an ilvl 502 LFR drop from Jin'rokh, Fissure-Split Shoulderwraps. Exalted with the Shado-Pan assault is a long way off! Jin'rokh is the easiest boss in the throne of Thunder to kill, so I may be able to get the ilvl 522 version on of these days.

For the chest, I've replaced my Imperial Ghostbinder's Robes (ilvl 489) with Robes of the Lightning Rider, a world drop from Galleon. I also won the LFR Robes of Mutagenic Blood from Primordius, but I haven't gemmed, enchanted and equipped it. I don't think it's worth it, as I'm on the cusp of revered with the Shado-Pan Assault, so I should have the Fire Support Robes as soon as I have enough Valor Points.

Cloak: Shado-Spike Cloak:  ✓

Wrists: Troll-Burner Bracers ✓

Hands: Flameweaver Handwraps ✓

Waist: I'm still stuck with the ugliest belt in the universe, the Belt of Malleable Amber. Oh, how I'd love to get rid of it. as soon as I hit revered with the Shado-Pan Assault, I'm getting the Firestrike Cord, even before I get the Fire Support Robes.

Legs: Even though I'm honored with the Shado-Pan assault now. I'm not yet planning to replace my old Leggings of the Burning Scroll (which I got from Amber-Shaper Un'sok in HoF Normal, by way of a Shadowy Vanquisher token). I think I'm better replacing my waist and chest, first. I just don't have enough VP yet to buy the Charfire Leggings.

Feet: No sign of the Falling Blossom treads on the AH, and I haven't got the recipe yet, so for now I'm sticking with my Sandals of Oiled Silk.

Finger 1: Signet of the Shado-Pan Assault ✓
Finger 2: Eye of Oondasta ✓(I already had this at the start of April)

Trinket 1: Again, my shortage of Valor Points means that I haven't yet bought the Volatile Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault. I'm still sporting my Relic of Yu'Lon.
Trinket 2: Wushoolay's Final Choice ✓ (I already had this at the start of the start of April)

Main hand: I'm in a quandary here. Although I won the ilvl 502 version of Athame of the Sanguine Ritual from Dark Animus in the Throne of Thunder, I'm havering about equipping it instead of my sword, Loshan, Terror Incarnate, which is twice upgraded to ilvl 491, and has the sha-touched gem in it. Usually when I'm vacillating like this, what happens is that I keep both items and wait for something unequivocally better to drop for me, but in this case there is nothing that I can realistically get that is head-and-shoulders above them. I know that the dagger is a bit better, but after all the trouble I went to to get the sha-touched gem, I'm loth to give it up.

Off-hand: I still have the Inscribed Jade Fan, and I'm waiting for something better to drop in LFR.

So there you have it. About half-way through executing my plan. But with 5.3 on the near horizon, and the balmy days of summer with us, I'm seriously wondering if I wouldn't be better off taking it easy and waiting to replace my ilvl 522 gear with 5.3 LFR gear. Certainly, all my hard-won 5.1 gear was no sooner acquired than replaced in 5.2. I have the feeling that the pace of the gear treadmill has picked up. In 5.1 I made a real effort to keep up, because I was guesting with another guild's raid team. But now my guild is raiding, so I'm no longer guesting with the other team, and I no longer feel the same pressure that I might lose my raid spot, being as how my gear is still pretty decent.

Gear plan in 5.2

If you want to skip my waffle, my mage gear-plan for 5.2 is at the bottom of the page.

Back in October, I listed my gear plan to get me into heroics. That worked out very well, and once in heroics, enough ilvl 463 gear showered down on me to get me into Mogu'shan Vaults (LFR edition); and in turn enough gear rained down on me to get me into the other LFR raids. What with that and the VP spent with various vendors, by the end of 5.1, I was geared like this:

Head:
Hood of Focused Energy (ilvl 476) from an LFR drop. That and Firecracker Corona (ilvl 489, 1125VP) seem to be very popular.
Neck:
Wire of the Wakener (ilvl 489) from the Klaxxi, 625 VP. Also popular is Amulet of Seven Curses (ilvl 476 LFR drop)
Shoulders:
Mantle of the Golden Sun (ilvl 489) from the Golden Lotus, 875 VP. Other mages are also wearing Mantle of the Burning Scroll (ilvl 483) or Shoulderpads of Twisted Fate (ilvl 483), both LFR drops
Chest:
I should have been wearing a crafted Robe of Eternal Rule (ilvl 496), but I couldn't bring myself to buy a cloth garment that I hadn't tailored, myself; and the pattern never dropped for me. Instead, I'm wearing Imperial Ghostbinder's Robes, which I got at ilvl 483 from MSV normal, but which is also available from LFR at ilvl 476. Other mages are sporting Vestments of Thundering Skies (ilvl 489, from the Golden Lotus for 1125 VP).
Cloak:
Cloak of Snow Blossoms (ilvl 489) from the Shado-Pan. I see other spellcasters wearing a bunch of fairly similar cloaks from ilvl 476-483 from various LFR drops.
Wrists:
Twisting Wind Bracers (ilvl 483) from Blade-Lord Ta'yak in the LFR version of the Heart of Fear. Minh's Beaten Bracers (ilvl 489 from the August Celestials, 625VP) is more popular.
Hands:
Gloves of the Burning Scroll (ilvl 483). The Burning Scroll regalia comes from tokens dropped by tier 14 raid bosses (tier 14 being the pre-5.2 raids: MSV, HoF, TES). The tokens are called "XXXX of the Shadowy Vanquisher" for mages, and can be handed in to Commander Oxheart for a piece of gear. The tokens dropped in LFR raids are all ilvl 483. Other mages are also wearing Spelltwister's Gloves (ilvl 476, crafted).
Waist:
Belt of Malleable Amber (ilvl 483)dropped for me from Aber Shaper Un'sok. For VP you can buy the Klaxxi Lash of the Orator (ilvl 489, 875VP from the Klaxxi) or Bon-iy's Unbreakable Cord (ilvl 496, 1312 VP from Operation Shieldwall)
Legs:
Leggings of the Burning Scroll (ilvl 483, more Shadowy Vanquisher gear)
Feet:Sandals of Oiled Silk (ilvl 496). These hush-puppies come from Operation: Shieldwall for 1312VP, and are a great boost for anyone wanting to get into the tier 15 LFR raids in the Throne of Thunder (you need an average ilvl of 480 for that). If you haven't yet got them, you should seriously consider them. I upgraded mine to ilvl 504  for another 1500 VP at the tail-end of 5.1, while the upgrade vendor was still around
Fingers:Band of the Shieldwall (ilvl 496), also from Operation: Shieldwall, a mere 937VP, and Simple Harmonius Ring (ilvl 489), 625VP from the Golden Lotus
Trinkets:Relic of Yulon (ilvl 476) is a must. This comes from the Darkmoon Fair Serpent Desk, crafted by scribes. I upgraded mine to ilvl 484 while I still could.Blossom of Pure Snow (ilvl 489), 875VP from the Shado-Pan.
Staff/Main Hand + Off hand:If you're serious about following the Wrathion quest line, you'll have got your "legendary" weapon (by which I mean a weapon capable of holding a legendary sha-touched gem). That's also how come you have so many VP to spend on gear! The Test of Valor quest has some beneficial side-effects. The weapon I got is Loshan, Terror Incarnate (ilvl 483), an LFR drop from Tsulong in the TES.
For off-hand, only this will do:
Inscribed Jade Fan (ilvl 476) made by scribes.
An alternative would be to get Jin'ya, Orb of the Waterspeaker, which is a "legendary" staff dropped by Lei Shi in the TES. 

(VP prices are 5.2 prices, not 5.1. The price has dropped since 5.2 arrived):

So, that was how I was geared at the end of 5.1. Since my average ilvl was above 480, I was able to get into LFR throne of Thunder as soon as it opened. If yours isn't, buy the Operation Shieldwall gear, Band of the Shieldwall and Sandals of Oiled Silk. What next? Well, the first thing is to check out the new factions: the Shado-Pan Assault and the Kirin Tor Offensive. The Shado-Pan Assault has the better gear, but the Kirin-Tor Offensive is the easier to get gear from.

The most important thing here is that the Shado-Pan Assault already have one item that they'll sell to you when you're neutral to them: the necklace Destroyer's Battletags (ilvl 522, 1250VP). You can get to be neutral with them just by finding the Shado-Pan Assault Quartermaster, Teng! This should be your first VP purchase. Once you get to friendly with these guys, you can also get Troll Burner Bracers and Signet of the Shado-Pan Assault. The key here is that you can't get reputation with these guys by doing dailies for them. They require you to go into the Throne of Thunder and kill their enemies there!

The Kirin Tor Offensive, on the other hand, has an immense pile of dailies for you to do on the Isle of Thunder, and it isn't hard to get rep fast with them. You can buy an ilvl 476 belt from them for a few gold if you haven't anything more decent. At revered, you can buy a Static-Collecting Cloak (ilvl 496, 937 VP),  and at exalted you can buy the Restored Hexxer's Signet (ilvl 496, 937VP).

So between the Battletags, the Kirin-Tor Offensive and Operation Shieldwall, you should have no trouble getting enough gear to get into the Throne of Thunder, and start earning rep with the Shado-Pan Assault.

The Shado-Pan assault is the key to gearing up in patch 5.2. Once you're friendly with them, you can buy the Signet of the Shado-Pan Assault (ilvl 522, 1250 VP), Volatile Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault (ilvl 522 trinket, 1750 VP) and Troll-Burner Bracers (ilvl 522, 1250 VP). At  honored, you may buy Charfire Leggings (ilvl 522, 2250 VP), Flameweaver Handwraps (ilvl 522,  1750 VP) and Shadowspike Cloak (ilvl 522, 1250 VP). At revered, you can choose a Firestrike Cord (ilvl 522, 1750 VP) and Fire Support Robes (ilvl 522, 2250 VP), and at exalted, you can get either Shoulders of Demonic Dreams or Frost-Kissed Shoulderwraps for 1000G (not VP).

Crafting produces a couple of ilvl 522 items, at great expense. The head-piece, Falling Blossom Cowl, is a must -there is really nothing equal to in ToT LFR, and most of the better pieces are heroic raid drops. It will be horrendously expensive. The same is true of the footwear, Falling Blossom Treads. I will be spending a fortune on these.

By their weapons shall ye know them. This is ultimately what sets raiders apart from non-raiders. Outside of raids, there are no epic weapons available, even for ready money. Well, actually, there are two for mages. You can get an ilvl 476 Inscribed Serpent Staff if you have a scribe in your pay. Outside of LFR, you can also get Darkmaster Gandling's drop, Headmaster's Will, in Scholomance. But really, you've come this far, you need to have the "ledge", either Loshan or Jin'ya. And that means you just have to keep running the Terrace of Endless Spring until one of them drops.

So, this is my gear plan for 5.2:

Head:	Falling Blossom Cowl	tailoring
Neck:	Destroyer's Battletags	Shadow-Pan Assault neutral
Shoulders:	Shoulders of Demonic Dreams	Shadow-Pan Assault exalted
Chest:	Fire Support Robes	Shadow-Pan Assault revered
Cloak:	Shadowspike Cloak	Shadow-Pan Assault honored
Wrists:	Troll-Burner Bracers	Shadow-Pan Assault friendly
Hands:	Flameweaver Handraps	Shadow-Pan Assault honored
Waist:	Firestrike Cord	Shadow-Pan Assault revered
Legs:	Charfire Leggings	Shadow-Pan Assault honored
Feet:	Falling Blossom Treads	tailoring
Finger 1:	Signet of the Shado-Pan Assault	Shadow-Pan Assault friendly
Finger 2:	Eye of Oondasta (ilvl 522)	It dropped for me last week when killing Oondasta. If you don't have such luck, you can use Restored Hexxer's Signet instead.
Trinket 1:	Volatile Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault	Shadow-Pan Assault friendly
Trinker 2:	Wushoolay's Final Choice (ilvl 502)	A lucky ToT LFR drop last week. Apart from praying for lucky drops, best choice is the Shock-Charger Medaillon from Operation Shieldwall
Main Hand:	Loshan, Terror Incarnate	Tsu-Long in TES
Off Hand:	Inscribed Jade Fan	Inscription
or Staff:	Jin'ya, Orb of the Waterspeaker	Lei-Shi in TES

As you can see, this isn't cheap. There's about four months' worth of VP in there, for a start. I'm hoping for lucky drops!

Problems with commenting on Wordpress sites / Reputation revisited

Am I the only person having problems getting my comments published on Wordpress sites? It seems that for the last two months or so, my comments on most of these sites have vanished into the ether. It's very frustrating when I have matters of immense gravity and import to convey, but I can't comment on Syncaine's site, on Azuriel's site, on Cynwise's site, on Pugnacious Priest's website and a ton of others. I think it's because I don't log on with a twitter account, a wordpress account or a facebook account, and I don't want a gravatar. I just want to publish my comment, so I fill in my email address, my name and my website address in the three fields provided, enter my important comment, and click the "Post Comment" button. From there, the comment disappears off into the clouds (I am not even bothered by a captcha image to confirm the presence of my soul), never to be seen again.

Stop Press!
Azuriel figured out what was going on. My comments were in his spam filter. Erinys at Harpy's Nest tracked the problem down to the Wordpress spam-filter addon, Akismet, which seems to be a tad overzealous. I wrote to Akismet explaining the problem, and after a few days they added me to their whitelist.



Anyway, the last comment to disappear on me was one I tried to make on Azuriel's site, where he was looking forward to the rep changes in 5.2 (okay, he just said he was looking toward the changes, but I know how to read between the lines). Well, I'm not looking forward to them. I already mentioned in my Reputation article some problems with Blizzards reputation system. The changes in 5.2 are a retrograde step that just trivialize it further. Thank the Light that there are no tabards, at least!

Attunement is back

It's not called attunement any more, and it's not a hard requirement now, but attunement is back, in a new guise, and it's called Reputation. Let me come right out up front and tell you I welcome this.

I just finished the questline to earn my Sha-touched gem. It took me 108 raid boss kills to earn the requisite amount of sigils and the chimera of fear required for Wrathion to forge my Crystallized Horror (I could have done in in fewer kills, if I'd known what I was doing). Now he has me on two new quests: Earn 6000VP! and kill horde until I'm revered by him. Why would I do that? And why would I earn reputation with any of the other factions? the short answer is, for their rewards. Great weapons and armour are locked behind these reputation grinds. And why do we want these weapons and armour? Because we're stuck on a particular raid boss. Any edge we can get is worth the grind.

Now we can get into any raid instance without attuning to it. But getting far into the instance is another matter. If you're like me, you'll need to earn the reputation to get the gear. In fact in my case, because I'm raiding with another guild, I need the gear to keep my performance high enough to keep my raid spot!

Gear Plan

Following on from my last post about what to do after reaching level 90, here's my plan for my magely gear. I got the ilvl 476 boots from the Sha of anger, and an ilvl 470 trinket from Coren Direbrew. The rest of my gear is mostly ilvl 410-430. I'm ilvl 432 right now. I have about 3600 JPs to spend (roughly two items), and I'm neutral with everybody. The first two items I'm going to buy with my JPs are a cloak and a ring, which are my lowest ilvl gear at the moment, and moreover they are items that I can't craft replacements for (by the way, you don't need any rep to buy the JP gear, despite what wowhead and Tobold might tell you). I'm not including random drops that I'm hoping for, but not expecting.

Head:
Sunset Silk Cowl (ilvl 437) isn't too bad, and is a guaranteed quest reward. Or skip straight to
Contender's Silk Cowl (ilvl 450). Crafted by tailors, sold for ~500g.
After that, nothing much is guaranteed. Farm instances, world bosses and the auction house in hopes of a good drop, or save up your Valor Points until you can buy the Firecracker Corona (ilvl 489, costs 2250 VP).
I'm not an engineer, and so can't wear Lightwight Retinal Armor (ilvl 476)

Neck:
I'm wearing the Pendant of Orbiss (ilvl 429) right now, a quest reward for helping creatures I probably shouldn't have helped.
Skymage Circle (ilvl 450) is made by jewelcrafters and worth buying for under 1000g

Shoulders:
Get the Dreadspinner Amice (ilvl 450) or the Motherseed Mantle (ilvl 450) from the quest chain (10 quests) started by Deck Boss Arie in the Dread Wastes, or just buy/make the Contender's Silk Amice (ilvl 450)

Chest
Contender's Silk Raiment  (ilvl 450) As I'm a tailor, I can make this for myself immediately. They're also quite cheap at the Auction House (~500G). The Robes of Quiet Meditation (ilvl 458) aren't such an upgrade on this that I'm going to spend 2250JP on it.
On reaching revered with the Golden Lotus, there is an ilvl 463 quest reward, Burning Robes of the Golden Lotus, but I won't need it because I'll already have
Robes of Creation (ilvl 476) I need to be honoured with the Golden Lotus to buy the pattern, but I can buy the robe on the Auction House immediately (~20,000G). As I'm a tailor, I'll hold out until I can make my own.

Cloak:
Cloak of Ancient Curses (ilvl 458) is my first JP purchase.
Cloak of Snow Blossoms (ilvl 589) when I get the Valor Points.

Wrists:
I already have the Mindbender Cuffs (ilvl 434). Another starter would be the Dreadspinner Cuffs (ilvl 437) from the Dread Wastes.
Contender's Silk Cuffs (ilvl 450) are my best guaranteed upgrade right now. Other than that, I need to hope for random drops, and save my Valor Points for
Minh's Beaten Bracers (ilvl 489)

Hands:
I was lucky enough to get Conflagrating Gloves (ilvl 450), so I can skip Contender's Silk Handraps and wait for
Spelltwister's Gloves (ilvl 476) which I can craft for myself when I'm honored with the Golden Lotus, or buy at auction.

Legs:
I already have Deposers Leggings (ilvl 430).
Contender's Silk Pants (ilvl 450) are a cheap crafted upgrade. A better upgrade is
Leggings of Unfinished Conquest (ilvl 458) if you have the JPs to spare. Otherwise
Leggings of the Poisoned Soul (ilvl 489) cost 2250VP.

Feet:
Everyone should easily get the ilvl 476 boots that are a guaranteed reward from your first Sha of Anger Kill. I have, anyway. Nothing more to get here right now.

Fingers:
Lionsfall Ring (ilvl 450), crafted by jewellers, is not a bad choice.
Etched Golden Loop (ilvl 458) may well be my first JP purchase. I'm also assuming that
The Horseman's Ring (ilvl 470) will be easily obtainable at the end of the month. Finally, when I have the Valor Points,
Simple Harmonius Ring (ilvl 483) will be a good buy.

Trinkets:
Zen Alchemist Stone (ilvl 450) is a must for alchemists, but I'm not one. Luckily Coren Direbrew provided me with a
Mithril Stopwatch (ilvl 470) which is pretty good. The account-bound Archeology item
Quilen Statuette (ilvl 463) is also mine if I want it. But the best trinket to buy is the
Relic of Yu'lon (ilvl 476) made by scribes at the Darkmoon Faire, or
Relic of Chi Ji (ilvl 476) also made by scribes at the Darkmoon Faire.


Staff:
Currently I'm carrying the staff Torch of Dawn (ilvl 429). I should go out right now and track down the
Dissector's Staff of Mutation (ilvl 450) waiting to be found in the Dead Wastes.
Scribes will want to make themselves the Inscribed Serpent Staff (ilvl 476). Otherwise it's a slog to get to exalted with the Klaxxi, to buy the
Amber Scythe of  Klaxxi'vess (ilvl 463). Better staves are very dependent on drops.


Main Hand + Off hand:
For main hand, go to into the world and find
Blade of the poisoned Mind (ilvl 450) in the Dread Wastes. Meantime get yourself to elite with the Klaxxi, so you can buy:
Amber Saber of Klaxxi'vess (ilvl 463).
For off-hand, only this will do:
Inscribed Jade Fan (ilvl 476) made by scribes.

On balance, if I were a scribe, I'd equip myself with the inscribed serpent staff. As I'm not, I'll buy the Inscribed Jade Fan, find the Blade of the Poisoned Mind, and work on getting the Amber Saber of Klaxxi'vess.

[Edit: later gear update at Gear Plan Revisited]

Golden Lotus Notes

Questing in Pandaria was pretty good fun. But once you reach level 90, what's the next step? Gearing up, of course!

If you have not already done so, you must open up the gates to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. To do this, you must complete the quest chain that starts with "Temple of the White Tiger" in Kun-Lai Summit, where you meet Anduin Wrynn. If you haven't already got this quest, you can get it in Binan Village (in south eastern Kun-Lai Summit). Once you meet Anduin Wrynn there, complete "A Celestial Experience" at the Temple of the White Tiger, pick up "A Witness to History" and go south for the opening the Gate of the August Celestials into the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

At the gates (on the Kun-Lai Summit side), pick up the start of the Black Prince Wrathion questline "Stranger in a strange Land", if you don't already have it, and start on it as soon as you can.

By the way, while you are in Kun-Lai Summit, listen out for raids forming to kill the "Sha of Anger". Ask the raid leader for an invitation. When you kill the Sha of Anger for the very first time, loot his body and pick up the "Claw of Anger". You can turn this in at the Shado-Pan Garrison later for ilvl 476 boots. This is a forty-person raid, and nobody will care if you aren't well-geared.

Go into the Vale, picking up quests on the way. They'll direct you to the Shrine of Seven Stars (it's in the south-east). This is the most important city in Pandaria (and has portals to the old world). Pick up the flight-point from the flight master on the upper floor. The flight trainer (Cloudrunner Leng) is right next to the flight master: pay 2500 gold to him and learn "Wisdom of the Four Winds". Now you can use your flying mounts again!

Go to the ground floor and pick up all the "reputation" quests there. The most important reputation to work on initially is the Golden Lotus reputation, as it gates all the dailies for other factions' reputations.

If you haven't yet killed the Sha of Anger, go and do so now (see above), and once a week thereafter. His drops are seductive.

Fly over to the Shado-Pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes and pick up your new ilvl 476 boots.

A little further west is the Niuzao Temple, where you should find Commander Lo Ping. He sells ilvl 458 gear for Justice Points. Spend all your JPs here, now! You'll never get better use out of them later.

Now you should be geared for Heroic MoP dungeons. They require you to have ilvl 435 on average. If you're not there yet, you can either queue for normal MoP dungeons, for scenarios, or buy ilvl 450 PvP gear to get your ilvl up.

Once you get into heroics, you'll be picking up ilvl 463 gear, which will get you into LFR raids.

As you're building up rep with the various factions through dailies, you'll also be earning 5 Valor Points per daily. Note that you can't spend these until you have built up sufficient reputation with the faction to which the quartermaster belongs. Different gear requires rep with different factions, so check with Commander Lo Ping (who sells gear for all factions) to see what rep is most important for you, and work on that rep second (first rep you should work on is the Golden Lotus rep, to unlock rep dailies with the other factions).

Reputation

Blizzard recently mentioned they were making changes to how reputations work. I'd really like to see something more radical.

I suppose you know your reputation with the Order of the Cloud Serpent (I'm neutral, 606/3000), or the Zandalar Tribe (I'm exalted, 20/999). You can give me the exact figure. How about your reputation with your manager? Or your colleagues? It isn't so easy to say. You might be able to make a guess, but you have no way of identifying a precise number. You might be able to tell that certain actions on your part increased your reputation with them, but for other actions, you'll probably never know.

I wonder, in Azeroth, whether it is so important that faction reputation be visible. Perhaps if it was private information only known to Blizzard, it might be better. I know Blizzard designers are so thoroughly burnt out that they feel that all they're doing is building a maze for us lab rats, or a Skinner box, where pressing keys in a certain order gives us the instant reward of +141000XP, +400 reputation with the Golden Lotus. And perhaps they are. But wouldn't it be a more engaging game if you helped questgivers because you wanted to help them - you identified with their problems - not because you wanted the XP and rep gains?

The first quests in Kun-Lai summit were in Binan village, where the villagers were fighting the yaungol. The mayor asks me to do stuff for him. But I don't care for him, and I don't see why I would fight for him rather than for the yaungol. I do his bidding, anyway, for fear that I might be unable to progress an important storyline in the zone. But it left a bad taste in my mouth. How great it would be if I would be able to skip helping the villagers, but unknown to me, I lost standing with the villagers, with Loremaster Cho and Admiral Taylor (who I later discover to be in the village) and to have gained rep with the yaungol (I don't know why I was hated by them, anyway).

In real life, when we gain or lose reputation, we may not notice it; or we may notice a difference in the way a person talks to us, or smiles, or stops by. This is a more realistic way of signalling rep than 606/3000, and it would be great if such changes in behaviour occurred in the NPCs.

A digression about attunement
The first epic rep grind (or attunement, if you like) was for Onyxia. The storyline is at first intriguing and then enthralling. You're doing some quests for an average Joe questgiver. Quests like any other. You might have not even bothered to do them and moved on to another zone. But it turns out that unknown to you, he's testing you. He wants to see if you're competent and trustworthy and diligent. If you say you'll do it, but don't, then you've missed out on the greatest quest chain since Frodo's, and you don't even know what you missed. Isn't that how real reputation works?

Once he trusts you to do the job, he draws you into a story that leads to Bolvar Fordragon and the discovery of who is really running Blackrock Mountain, the daring rescue of a captured alliance marshal, the unmasking of a traitor, and at last the final confrontation in Onyxia's lair.

You were doing these things for the epic adventure of it, for the patriotic love of the Alliance, or simply to help your friends; and slowly your standing in the higher echelons of Stormwind rose, and you were more and more trusted. What a fabulous story to have taken part in, made all  the more fabulous by your acceptance into the ranks of greats like Bolvar Fordragon.

But this attunement was as a result of following a particular quest chain, and I know you wouldn't necessarily feel the same epic quality on a second or third alt. What if you could do different things to earn Bolvar's trust? Like the hearts in Guild Wars 2, wouldn't it be great if it wasn't only one quest chain that mattered, but that you could earn reputation by whatever means, and then, when Bolvar trusted you enough, you could (for instance) skip the "True Masters" questline or perhaps be directly offered the key to Onyxia's lair (the amulet)?

The Onyxia attunement series was greatest story in Azeroth. It was killed, in my opinion, mostly by player burn-out. It was only certain players who burned out. But they were the most influential: the developers themselves and vocal top raiding guilds. For both groups, the epic saga of the story paled through repetition, and dwindled to a chore. So now it is forbidden to everyone to do these quests. It would be great if such epic stories could be brought back, but with a way of skipping them once they're no longer epic to you.

Real reputation
We do not measure real reputation as a number. Of course all software is about manipulating numbers, but there is no need to show the internal workings of the fantasy world. It cheapens the world, and gamifies concepts that it should be encouraging, like chivalry. I mentioned in Tesh's article "Closed Fist, Open Hand" that players are more helpful in Tyria than in Azeroth. I don't believe that the players who helped me in Tyria did so because of a selfish cost-benefit calculation, they did it because it was the right thing to do. The honourable thing to do. To me, GW2 is a game that de-emphasizes numbers and emphasizes our common experience. A bond forms between players who don't even talk, based on mutual help. This is the basis of respect, honour, reputation.

By the way, my local primary school no longer encourages readathons (which is an event in which children are encouraged to read books to raise funds for worthy charities). They say that it leads to kids not reading unless there is a reward dangled before them. They stop reading for the love of reading. That sounds awfully like a lot of questing in WoW. We should be doing quests because we genuinely want to help the characters in our story, not because we want to earn something external to the quest (such as fat loot, XP, or rep points), the same way we want our kids to read books because they love the writing, not so they can earn gold stars or money for a charity.

Finally.
Every now and then the Horde come to Stormwind, and there is an almighty fight. Or we go to Orgrimmar. Reputation and honour is earned there. Real reputation, and real honour, on both sides; not "reputation points" and "honor points".