The Word from the Test Realm - 2.2 Preview
Our intrepid adventurers have been scouring the Test Realm for interesting news. You’ve doubtless heard about the improved graphics, voice chat, and (for Mac users only!) movie capture. On the reputation and recipe front, we’ve found a few bits of info (we’ll be updating the recipe tables with the changes as we move towards the next release of ReagentData).
For Reputation, the reputation gains from repeatable quests and kills have been doubled for Cenarion Circle, Argent Dawn, and Timbermaw. As an example, for Argent Dawn, using a Valor Token gives you 100 rep (formerly 50), and every Scourge kill in the Plaguelands can earn you at least 10 rep (up from 5) if the mobs are green. This cuts in half the grinding for these factions, bringing them in reach of even casual players. Normal quest rep gains appear to be unchanged.
The patch notes also say “If you get a positive reputation from combat you also get the corresponding opposite reputation reduction.” This appears to mean that they believe they’ve closed the loophole where a party member who didn’t attack could get positive rep gains without negatives (getting Booty Bay rep for Bloodsail pirate kills without losing Bloodsail rep). This does not affect kills which did not have a negative consequence, so it’s still safe to rebuild Steamwheedle rep by farming Southsea pirates.
For Recipes, the main change is that the recipes formerly dropped in AQ20 are now faction rewards on various Outland vendors. The materials have been updated (Greater Planar Essences and Small Prismatic Shards have replaced Nexus Crystals and Large Brilliant Shards) for their new Outland-ish home. The Violet Eye has also picked up a few more recipes. A summary of what’s new and changed out there:
- Alchemy gains (375) Flask of Chromatic Wonder as a Violet Eye Honored reward.
- Blacksmithing gets (350) Ragesteel Shoulders as a Shadowmoon Valley drop, making it easier to get the Burning Rage set bonus (still only requires 3 pieces of the 4). The Greater and Lesser Runes of Warding have also been restructured to give their damage absorption with a 25% chance when hit.
- Enchanting gains (300) Nexus Transformation (Nexus Crystal to Small Prismatic Shard) and (335) Small Prismatic Shard (converts 1 Large to 3 Small Prismatic Shards) as trained recipes. At Exalted with the Violet Eye, they now get (350) Enchant Weapon - Greater Agility (+20 Agi), which is even better than the (now easier to get) Timbermaw +15 Agi enchant. The AQ20 recipes now transferred and updated with new reagents include:
- (300) Enchant Cloak - Dodge (Lower City Exalted)
- (300) Enchant Cloak - Stealth (Cenarion Expedition Exalted)
- (300) Enchant Cloak - Subtlety (Honor Hold/Thrallmar Exalted)
- (300) Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility (Keepers of Time Exalted)
- (300) Enchant Gloves - Threat (Sha’tar Exalted)
The Cenarion Circle cloak enchants have also had their reagents updated.
- Jewelcrafting gains two BoP gems: (360) Kailee’s Rose (Red, +26 Healing) and (360) Blood of Amber (Yellow, +12 Spell Crit). Socketing either of these gems causes the item to become Soulbound. Both of these are Sha’tar rep rewards (Honored and Revered). And Halaa now has the (350) Steady Talasite cut available (Green, +4 Res, +6 Sta).
- Leatherworking gets some love from the Violet Eye. At Revered, the (365) Shadowprowler’s Chestguard becomes available and at Exalted, a (360) Cloak of Darkness is added to the mix.
Stay tuned! More to come as 2.2 slowly creeps towards release!
