The reputation farming will probably be mandatory again in patch 9.2 of World of Warcraft – and that makes some players really angry.
Patch 9.2 Eternity’s End is already under a bad star. Many players dislike the story with Sylvanas and Zereth Mortis, the new area, feels too alien to really fit into the classic world of Warcraft. But there is another reason causing discontent. Anyone who wants to wear more legendaries has to grind reputation.
What is the problem? With patch 9.2, players will enjoy a small but nice feature. It will be possible to equip and use two legendary items from the “Shadowlands” category at the same time. This is only possible with selected effects that belong to a specific covenant, but the increase in power is obvious.
The problem, however, is that to unlock these “double legendaries,” one must first grind reputation in Zereth Mortis and reach a respectful standing with the “Cipher of the Firsts.”
Respectful is the second-highest reputation level in World of Warcraft and usually requires a certain amount of farming time. Anyone who wants to achieve a respectful standing with a new faction must complete daily quests and side tasks for several days to reach this reputation level.
Why are players angry? Players are quite upset, at least in the comments on Reddit and wowhead, about this detail. This is mainly because Morgan Day from Blizzard had explained in an interview in November that player power is not tied to progress in Zereth Mortis:
If you are a person who is only interested in raiding, then you can basically ignore this system completely.
Morgan Day in “The Starting Experience” on YouTube
In this context, the implication was essentially: Anyone who only wants to raid doesn’t have to care about Zereth Mortis at all and can focus solely on raiding or Mythic+.
This is how the community reacts: As expected, negatively – at least the part of the players who express themselves in the comments on wowhead and the subreddit. Many cynically say: “Alright, see you at the next expansion” or refer to this development quite dramatically as “bullshit”.
Thus, this is a development that is not well-received by many players.
However, keep in mind that this is still the PTR of patch 9.2 Eternity’s End. It is quite possible that Blizzard will make changes here and tie the regulation of double legendaries to other conditions.
At least it currently looks like the reputation only needs to be earned with a single character, as unlocking seems to apply to all characters on the account.
What do you think about this? A typical case of “Blizzard breaks its promise” or was it completely clear in advance that one must farm at least a bit of reputation?
