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Intro rep and prizes Non-Badge quests (grinding for rep) Field Duty Logistics and Combat badge quests Tactical badge quests Closing notes Introduction to rep and prizes Before you say "o geez, you need too much rep to get these AQ gears", let me offer you some hope. Unlike ZG, there are ways to earn rep without farming trash mobs in the instance. Plus while you earn this rep soloing or in small groups, you also work your way towards other nifty items. I've gleaned this information from my own experience and from thottbot, so take some of it with a grain of salt, as my memory might have faltered, or whoever posted on thott was wrong. This is as accurate as I know, for version 1.10. The purpose of this write up is to show you that there is a more casual option than an instance raid, and more productive than loitering around IF. If you're a druid, gratz, you're already friendly with Cen(arion Circle). You got that from druid quests, plus a couple of general quests. Anyways, here's the class set items, along with the rep you need to get them. Each also has a number of drops from AQ that you need to get the prizes. Unfortunately, both daggers look the same, as do both axes, and both swords... and all hammers.
These are the rewards you can get without going into AQ, instead of AQ drops, they require badges (Combat, Logistics, and Tactical... and possibly a special one) from Cenarion Hold quests.
Getting rep from non-badge quests There are a number of quests in Silithus that were avaliable pre-gates, and they are still avaliable. Most (or their chains) start in Cenarion Hold (aka CH). One is repeatable, and that's collecting texts from cultists. You get 100 rep for turning in 10 texts. I'd estimate the drop rate at about 10%. Also, each cultist you kill is 1 rep point, up until you're honored. Much like Timbermaw or Argent Dawn, its ideal to hold onto all the turn-ins until you stop gaining rep from murdering. Also like Timbermaw or AD, you still get rep if you are in a group or raid and are near the killing. Looting rules vary wildly. In a PUG, it can be FFA, because you tend to kill your own cultists, and just soak up rep from other players killing their own cultists. Just use your own judgement if you think you're in an equitable looting group. Cultists also drop suits (mantles,robes,hats), which you use to summon elementals at wind stones. Etiquitte dictates that whoever gets the suit gets the crest that the elemental drops, so pass if you get the roll dialogue (unless it's your summon, obviously). Your group decides how the other drops from the elemental are done. Suit pieces and texts sell well on the AH. Suit pieces are all worth the same, more or less, so you can WTT in Silithus and actually be able to sometimes. Getting started: Field Duty Since the gates opened, there are about a bajillion new ways to earn rep, where bajillion = 34. These badge quests get you both rep and badges, which you redeem for badge items (also earning you rep). I have heard that you can repeat the badge redeeming quests, but I have not tested it. Much like the ZG quests, you do not need to hold the badge redeeming quests in your log (unless you want to look at the prizes in your dressing room constantly). In order to do your first badge quest, you need to do Field Duty, which you pick up in CH. Its repeatable, and you will repeat it alot. You take a paper to the Hive Zora Camp and have a dwarf captain sign it, then you return to CH and get a badge quest. If the captain is not present (most likely he won't be), you need to trigger a fight with a giant wasp. The captain comes out and fights it, but will die before the wasp does, if you don't help. You don't need to be in a group, and the wasp doesn't give you rep or xp or drops, so don't worry about tagging it. A healer _can_ solo this fight, I managed to keep the captain barely alive with constant rejuv, and an occasional regrowth... that plus a GotW at the start of the fight (it buffs all the NPCs at once, and there's like 20 of them). Two manning is a lot better. You can do this quest while in a raid, I have tested it. While you're running around Silithus, have Field Duty in your log, so that you can do this quest if the situation arises. Doing Field Duty used to get you 20 rep. Now it gives you 0. :P When you turn in Field Duty, you can get a Logistics Assignment envelope, Combat Assignment envelope, or Tactical Assignment envelope, inside of which is a Logistics (etc) Briefing, which is a scroll. The scroll gives you a quest, if you want to accept it, the quest will always require you to turn in the scroll along with whatever else it has you do. There are about eleven of each type of task, but you can only get half from the normal Assignment envelopes. There are also Follow-up Assingment envelopes, which are part of the rewards for doing tasks from normal Assignment envelopes. Tasks from Follow-up Assignment envelopes typically give you normal Assignment envelopes. All tasks will give you a badge (matching the type of task, or in two cases a special badge). You redeem the badges for the badge items listed above. You should get as many scrolls as possible. This helps in finding a group to do the badge quests in Silithus. You can only have one of each particular scroll (eg: Tactical II) in your possesion, and only one Assignment Envelope of each type and only one Follow-up Assignment Envelope of each type. Use your judgement on when to trash an envelope that contains a scroll you already have. Logistics quests (11 possible): These follow the form: "Bring me this expensive crap". I'm fairly certain you can turn these in while in a raid. As none of the items are 'quest items' you can collect/craft while in a raid. The easiest probably is to make 30 heavy silk, heavy mageweave, and heavy runecloth bandages. Others include: armor patches, boots, swords, food, shards, a mooncloth, grinding stones, etc. There is a special badge for the revered item quest, where you need a cultist robe, 3 abomination stitchings (Strat, BoP) and a Skin of Shadow (Scholo, BoP). Have the quest in your log, so you can link it to the ML. This particular quest will not give you another Logistics envelope. Logistics quests aren't really silithus quests, so don't worry about stock piling them. Logistics Assignment and Follow-up Logistics Assignment Combat quests (12 possible): These follow the form: "Kill 30 of this type of bug in this hive. -hahaha, sucker!" Normal Envelope Assignments are the odd tasks, Follow-ups are the even numbered tasks. I-III,XII are Hive Ashi, IV-VII are Zora, and VII-XI are Regal. Combat quests are a huge pain, its possible to solo one, but it'd take a crazy long time. Combat quests are good to farm from Field Duty, because you want to get a group of three or more people with at least two quests for the same hive (preferably not Regal... Regal has unique dangers). I don't know if you can do these in a raid, I saw a group mowing through a hive before which looked like it was more than 5 people. Combat Assignment and Followup Combat Assignment Tactical quests: These quests are varied, which makes them more interesting, plus they are a lot faster than combat quests. Tactical Assignment and Followup Tactical Assignment I-IV: These follow the form, "summon this particular elemental at a lesser windstone and kill it". When you summon at a lesser wind stone (there're two at each base, and they are on like a 5 minute timer... maybe 10), you get a random elemental templar. So the more of quests I-IV you have, the better your odds are at completing the task. Like I mentioned before, whoever's suit is used gets the crest. Everyone gets rep for killing. I do not know if this is raidable. I,III are from normal envelopes and II,IV are from Follow-ups. They can be soloed, but two-people make it cake, and as many people as possible saves summoning materials (as they are used up). V: This quest is to kill one of each of the four abyssal dukes. To summon a duke, you need a necklace (3 crests + Large Brilliant Shard + friendly with Cen + a quest from CH done) and a cultist suit. You do this at a plain windstone, one at each cultist camp, and on a 15 minute timer. You need a 5 man for this. I do not know if this is raidable. The special badge reward for this one is required for the exalted prizes. You do not get a new Assignment at the end of this one. VI-VIII: These quests follow the form: "sneak into this Hive's tunnels and get a report from a scout." Easily soloable for a rogue or druid. The scout in Ashi is in the North tunnel (IIRC), the scout in Zora is in the tunnel in the middle West, and the scout in Regal is in the tunnel that is NW a little of the SEasternmost tunnel. BEWARE the dangers of Regal. The Regal and Zora scouts are in the same tunnel systems as the crystals people do for "The Calling" quest line (and Maw of Madness in Regal). A two or three man can do it, if you don't have stealth. You might be able to solo the Ashi one, the scout is close to the entrance, but in Regal, there are 5-8 bugs from the tunnel entrance to the scout. In Zora, you need to go through a room full of (non-elite) bugs plus bugs in the halls, whether you take the clockwise or counter-clockwise entrance. You could always corpse hop in Zora. You can do scout reports while in a raid, I have tested it myself. IX Marauders: A bunch of horsemen run around Silithus, I've seen them near Bronzebeard's camp and also the center cultist camp. The idea is to help the CH tiger-riders (found on the road) fight the marauders. I hear that it takes about 4 people to do this comfortably. X Twilight orders from the prophet: The prophet has four melee body guards, like the ones in the cultist camps. I think they wander between the West camp and the center camp. 2-3 people can do this. There're also quite a few texts from this fight. The Dangers of Regal: One of the subterranian bugs is a "slave maker", which has a Mind Control poison. This is the mundane danger. The cosmically horrible danger is thus: when you die and release, you can end up in the Westfall graveyard. I think if you are so far south that the Map button brings up the world map instead of the silithus map, you're in grave danger. haha I made a pun. It takes half an hour to wisp back (you can take the boat from Booty Bay to Ratchet as a ghost). Or you can spirit rez, repair up, and head back in whatever way you can. Sending in a GM report won't help, as those take longer than an hour or so, and they won't help you. The scout is too far South, so don't corpse hop in Regal. PvP: In CH, horde will gank you. Not all of them, just the pricks. If you see who does it, pay attention to the guild name, you'll notice guilds like Warmongers or Rang Rang Liao (obviously) gank, whereas I don't think I've seen anyone in Bahamut grief anyone. Outside of town the fights are typically more fair, and less likely. Sometimes there's a fight over the windstones or whatnot, but chances are that they want to do the quests more than fight, so just move along and grab a different stone than them (or let them move along if you outnumber them). Summary: Do Field Duty as much as possible, helping to kill the bug/heal the captain whenever you see the event in progress (even if you don't have the quest... makes up for the times you find the captain still around after a fight you missed). Stockpile Combat and Tactical scrolls, managing the scrolls between the bank in Gadz and your inventory and your quest log is up to you. Now it should be easy to form a group, PUG or organized. If you have an AH/bank alt, send it non-soulbound drops via the CH mailbox; returning an item through the mail is instantaneous (once recieved), and you might need a fast supply of cultists clothes or whatever. |
