Reputations/GearFollow

I obviously know CE rep is important for earthwarden, Aldor/Scryer for shoulder enchants, and all the 5 factions that give heroics are important for different head enchants. And, of course, raid factions (violet eye, et. al) are important, too.

What I'm wondering is the following:
1. Should I get lower city to honored for the key, or should I go to revered for the enchant (LC enchant is str/int). That enchant seems to me like it'd be good in feral PvP or solo, providing both the extra damage as well as the ability to heal yourself a bit better, but I've heard bad things about ferals in PvP.
2. Are there any other faction rewards (besides earthwarden) that I should try to get, which would be worth the effort until I can replace it? i.e. I don't want to spend the time getting to exalted if I'm going to replace the piece in Kara, but if it's into mag or the T5 content before I'd replace it, it's well worth it.

On that note, I'd like to ask a question about PvP gear. One of my guildies was running heroic something-or-other (something in TK IIRC) and the tank was using the S1 shoulders. Now, these have str, agi, stam, high armor, and resilience, but yet he called them "healing shoulders" because they had some int and healing on them. Are these all that bad for tanking at this level of the game, or am I right in saying "dude, the shoulders are fine, that's not why the tank sucks."

Scryer/ aldor as normal for the shoulder buffs. past that, I'd say the keepers of time rep for the tank head enchant. (for feral) and as you said centurion rep for the earthwarden. past that the rest of the rewards aren't that great unless you're specifically not going for kara ++ or heoric gear.

if you're talking about earthwarden I'd assume you're feral so I'd ignore the other rep unless you have some need for them (ie profession recipies.)

The Cenarion Expedition has the best [wowitem=29192]head enchant[/wowitem] for DPS, a decent [wowitem=25838]chestpiece[/wowitem] & a nice [wowitem=29173]tanking neck[/wowitem] & [wowitem=29171]Earthwarden[/wowitem].

Keepers of Time has the [wowitem=29186]head enchant[/wowitem] for tanking and a decent [wowitem=29181]tanking trinket[/wowitem].

Lower City has a decent [wowitem=30834]DPS ring[/wowitem] (with expertise on it)

Ogri'la has fantastic [wowitem=32647]DPS bracers[/wowitem] and good [wowitem=32654]DPS trinket[/wowitem].

Consortium has a fantastic [wowitem=29119]DPS neck[/wowitem].

Scryers/Aldor have the shoulder enchants.

Sha'tar has a great [wowitem=29177]DPS ring[/wowitem].


That is just the feral gear. If you have a profession there are many worthwhile patterns and rep is also a cheapish way to get some very good healing gear for those times when it is needed.

Don't just grind one faction though or you will very quickly get sick of those instance. Just keep running a variety of instances and you will get there pretty quick.

At the end of the day, you should be doing the instances for gear, experience, practice & badges of justice anyway

Rarebeast, my question though is how far into end-game raids will I replace that gear?

I'm in a boat similar to yours, Scribs - a mid-60 feral looking at a possible respec at 70. But I still found myself focusing my rep grinds on my professions more than armor/glyphs (other than earthwarden, that is). Thinking back on the various lists I've seen for tanking or healing gear pre-kara, I don't remember many rep items (other than earthwarden).

On the PvP side, there are a couple of BG and arena pieces I plan on getting for my tanking kit (the dragonhide helm, bracers and belt, the mercenaries shoulders and gloves). I don't mind the 'wasted' heal and int stats, because I'll be getting a great boost to my resillience which is harder to find in PvE gear. So I'll have a good mix of Clefthoof, PvP and PvE.

Well, from what I know about arenas (never been on an arena team) it still takes time to get the gear (several weeks per piece), and I've heard feral druids for some reason don't fare well in arenas anymore.

The badges of justice thing I do understand, though. Some of those pieces are about equal to ZA/SSC drops, and you get them from heroics and kara. However, I don't think it's simply "uber easy," as you still have to put some work into it, just you can gear up faster.