From wow.incgamers.com

Introduction

A player's reputation is what you earn when completing certain quests or killing certain enemies in order to gain favour with some Faction. The higher their reputation with a faction, the better rewards or benefits their character can receive. A faction is any group or any individual that you may attempt to do quests for, etc. For example, the Cenarion Expedition, Thorium Brotherhood, or Darkmoon Faire. Factions do not appear automatically on your character’s reputation page, however, every time you encounter a new faction group, it will appear there. The moment that occurs you can begin building your reputation with them. You can view this page by pressing U in game. You can also access it by pressing C to view your character, then clicking the Reputations tab at the bottom of the page. If you’re Horde, the pane should have a list of main factions, for example: Horde, Horde Forces, Steamwheedle Cartel and Other. For Alliance players, these factions are Alliance, Alliance Forces, Steamwheedle Cartel and Other. Under each faction heading are sub-factions. For instance, the Steamwheedle Cartel consists of four individual groups: Booty Bay, Everlook, Gadgetzan and Ratchet. Take note that these particular ones are all related: they’re all goblins.

Levels of Reputation

There are several different levels of reputation in World of Warcraft. It ranges from being Hated by a faction, in which case any member of that faction will attack you on sight, through to being Exalted. Exalted means you are viewed as a hero by any member of that particular faction, and you will not be attacked by them. There are exceptions to this, for example, if you attack a player of the opposing faction in a neutral city such as Booty Bay, Gatgetzan, Shattrath etc, even if you are exalted with them, the guards will still try to kill you!

What Are The Benefits of Gaining Reputation with Factions?

Gaining reputation with various factions has its benefits and rewards. As you complete quests given by these factions, or kill their enemies, you are able to gain favour with them. Gaining reputation with these factions is important, because it may be the only way to purchase those much sought after Alchemy recipes or Blacksmithing plans that you will be unable to purchase anywhere else. In fact, sometimes you may not even use a recipe or plan unless you’ve become exalted or revered with a particular faction. Gaining reputation with your Horde or Alliance factions is important too, as it saves you money on flight travel. Neutral status can give you a flight fee of one silver and some copper, however you bring that rep up to friendly or revered, even exalted, and your cost of using the Windriders or Gryphons decreases by a silver or so.

Listed below are the different reputation levels. Generally speaking, you start out as neutral with most factions; gaining friendly takes some effort, but it’s not excessive. Honored is a bit more challenging; Revered and Exalted are monumental accomplishments requiring tremendous effort.

• Exalted The highest level of reputation attainable with any faction.
• Revered Special reputation level reserved for heroes.
• Honored 10% discount on bought items from vendors.
• Friendly Standard reputation level which gives access to certain vendor items.
• Neutral Standard reputation level for factions that are not on a players list and are not * KOS (Kill on Sight).
• Unfriendly Cannot buy, sell or interact, but are not KOS either.
• Hostile KOS
• Hated KOS (all opposing team factions are set on this level).

Affecting one faction can ripple through and affect any and all factions that are connected. For example, killing a goblin in Booty Bay will anger and affect the goblins in Ratchet and Gadgetzan.

Here is an example of what the various levels of reputation status does for you:

Why am I Hated By a Faction?

Some factions are connected to others, so that if you gain reputation with one, then you'll lose it with the other. A good example of this is at Shattrath City, there are several factions inhabiting the city, but two of them - The Aldor and The Scryers are opposed. If you do anything to gain reputation with one of these factions, you automatically lose reputation with the other. You can become hated with one of these factions without ever having raised a fist against them.

The Different Factions

Here is a list of all the factions currently operating in World of Warcraft:

Factions

How Do I Gain Reputation With a Faction?

Gaining reputation with different factions can vary. There are factions that you can only gain a good reputation with by completing PvP objectives, for example, the battleground factions like the Stormpike Guard for the Alliance, and the Frostwolf Clan for the Horde. These factions are impressed by a character's participation in the battleground they are based at, in this case the battleground is Alterac Valley. Other factions require a character to complete quests, or to kill certain monsters that perhaps threaten them, or to kill monsters in an instance.

Daily Quests

The expasnsion: The Burning Crusade saw the introduction of daily quests. This has made gaining reputation easier and more profitable, as the quests not only reward you with reputation, but also money. A character is limited to doing 10 of these quests each day, which means you can earn nice money without having to "grind". Daily quests enable you to of gain reputation in varied ways, not just having to go to the same instance, or keep killing the same monsters over and over again.

Rewards

Each faction is unique in what it can offer you. Some enable you to purchase new armour and weapons, some teach you new items to make with your profession, some simply reduce the cost of repairing items and purchasing new ones.

To see the rewards and benefits to be gained from obtaining high reputation from the different factions, go to our Factions category.