Some of the best rewards in WoW can only be achieved if you have the appropriate level of reputation with a specific faction. Whether you're a brand new WoW player or a freshly-minted level 70 dipping your first toe into the endgame, you need to educate yourself about reputation (or "rep" as it's usually called). Fortunately, here at WoW Insider, we have a lot of tools that can help you find your way through the rep maze to the piece of loot you desire.

For new players

WoW Rookie: Introduction to Reputation
New players should start with this article to learn what all the terminology means and how rep affects your gameplay.

WoW Rookie: Azeroth Reputations
This article is the next step in understanding rep and how it works for the world of Azeroth. Since you should start worrying about rep long before you hit level 40, this article shows you how to start preparing for getting your first mount -- especially if the one you hunger for is not your toon's racial mount.

Breakfast Topic: Reputation grinding
Here you can see what your fellow players have to say about what it's like to grind rep after level 60.

For new level 70s

Ask WoW Insider: Do you optimize your rep grinds?
Advice from us and other readers on how to streamline your rep grinds in Outland.

Faction frustrations eased in Wrath
A preview of how rep may change in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Rep calculators

Here are a couple of rep calculators we've reviewed.

• Liquidor's rep calculator
• WoW Reputation Calculator

For extra credit

WoW Rookie: Pre-Burning Crusade engame reputations
This is a good primer on how rep worked prior to the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. Rep grinding in Azeroth after level 60 is not overly relevant now, but you may still be curious as to how it worked.

Back before patch 2.3, one of the most repeated calls from players was not for new raiding instances or a particular class balance change, but for new midlevel content. As we've said on the WoW Insider Show, a large percentage of the population of Azeroth is perfectly content hanging around the 30s and 40s and not bothering with endgame PvP or raiding, and previous to patch 2.3, they wanted new content to roll through.

Then patch 2.3 came, and with it, a whole new series of quests, and even a new hub in Dustwallow Marsh. Midlevel players finally got what they wanted, and for a while, the requests for new things for midlevel players to do were quelled.

Until now.

When you finally hit 70, and the swirl of light dies down around your character (I always seem to be fighting something when this happens) you step into what some people call 'Endgame'.

Yes, I call it endgame too. So I should have said "What I call 'Endgame'."

Anyway, last night while running around trying not to be killed by Thaladred it occurred to me that the fight demands a lot out of a shaman. Constant group movement, kiting, proper totem placement (gotta get that Tremor Totem up near the Sanguinar tank) and replacement makes this a very demanding fight for a shaman. That's not a bad thing... it's never boring... but it got me to start thinking about shamans and their roles in raids.

Depending on your spec, your shaman will provide the role of ranged DPS, melee DPS or dedicated healing to any raid you're a part of. But abilities like Bloodlust/Heroism, the special abilities of the shocks and the various totem buffs and group utility auras (fire resistance, poison and disease cleanse, temporary tanking, temporary high DPS) make any shaman more than their raid defined role. Shamans are utility players to a degree, they can almost anything (with the exception of tanking) at varying levels of performance depending on spec. An enhancement shaman can throw an emergency heal but you wouldn't want him main healing your first Kalecgos attempt. If it's desperately necessary to apply every last ounce of DPS and heals are solid a resto shaman can fire off a few reasonable lightning bolts but you're not likely to ask him to be your main source of DPS unless he or she way outgears the run. Between this ability to vary their own abilities and the usefulness of their various class features, shamans often find themselves being asked to do unique or interesting things as they move into raiding.

Let's discuss how you can prepare for 10 and 25 man raids and what you'll find there.

My internet browsings brought me upon this YTMND page, and I thought it was funny enough to share with you all.

Endgame raiding, for those of you who don't know, can get a little predictable at times. Each class has their pre-defined roles, and each has their own unique style to them. Each raider usually carries with him or her (possibly ill) conceived notions of what players of each class are like.

For instance in my guild we usually poke fun at our Mages as being "emo mages," since they like to die a lot. Another one has lately been that I AFK tank, since when I get above 50k threat on the top DPS, there's very little chance they'll catch up to me (and on that note, they joke is on them, because as the main tank I often times do go AFK during phase two of Illidan.)

Take a look at this moderately funny YTMND take on WoW Endgame raiding. And have your volume up a little, because as my girlfriend explained, "That's Little Spanish Flea! You know, Homer sings that all the time."

Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and get mad purpz. Today, we take a look at why endgame guilds die.

This week, world-first guild Death and Taxes made an announcement which floored most of the raiding community: The End. Death and Taxes is no more. For a long time, raiders and non-raiders alike have been following the adventures of those guilds with the time and dedication to be competing for firsts. Seeing a household name disband, and not for April Fool's, is particularly poignant because it brings the message home that even the loftiest raid guilds are human too, subject to the same problems and drama as any other guild out there.

There have been multiple reasons given for the disbanding of D'n'T -- what's most interesting about these is that many people have commented on the same things happening in their guild, or in guilds they know about. Were the problems introduced by The Burning Crusade and other Blizzard-based changes, such as paid character transfer? Or are they fundamentally the result of high expectations, raiding downtime and the ensuing attrition over two years? Let's take a look at some of the problems facing endgame guilds' longevity, and perhaps an insight into how to avoid the same fate.

Raiding warlocks have a very specific role - dealing damage. As we progress further in the high end-raiding game, one thing becomes more and more apparent. Our much-envied range of playstyles diminishes and we seem to be shoehorned, like other classes, into pretty much a single cookie-cutter spec.

The spec in question is destruction or 0/21/40 specifically. This spec capitalizes on the wonderful scalability of shadow bolt and consistently outperforms affliction when good spell hit and crit gear becomes available. For a detailed look at the 0/21/40 build, check out my "A Warlock's descent into Destruction" article.

I've recently respecced back to an affliction spec (40/0/21) just to revisit the good ol' days of mobility (instant DoTs) and an "unending" mana pool (Dark Pact). I know we tend to look back on the past with rose-colored glasses, and true enough, my experience with affliction again was ... less than satisfying. Why the difference?

Hardcore players are frustrated with game changes that benefit more casual players. Casuals are overwhelmed by the amount of play time required to be competitive in the endgame. This brings up the question of who deserves to see the complete story unfold.

Seraphina of Baelgun brought up the issue of accessibility to endgame content on the WoW official forums. Like all of the other Warcraft games, WoW has an interesting and compelling story line, with several sub-stories along the way. While all players pay for the same content, not all of them can experience it. In many role playing games, once you've played through certain story line elements you can access the endgame content. Relatively few players will be able to complete the Sunwell Plateau prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, just as relatively few players were able to down Naxxramas before Burning Crusade was launched.

As far as I can remember, we've never done a cloth belt (although, believe it or not, we have done a plate belt). So here you go.

Name: Anetheron's Noose (Wowhead, Thottbot, Curse)
Type: Epic Cloth Belt
Armor: 133 Armor
Abilities:

• Yellow and blue gem sockets (Socket bonus: +4 spell damage)
• Improves spell critical strike rating by 24, increases damage and healing done by spells and magical effects up to 55
• So the biggest thing about this belt isn't necessarily what it does have (it does have the highest +spell damage you can find on a cloth belt), but what it doesn't have-- spell hit rating. Unlike other high level epic caster belts, this belt trades off spell hit rating for a little extra spell damage. And so if you've already capped off spell hit rating, then this belt is your best bet.
  
• Shadow priests are lucky in this regard-- they get a talent that makes their spells much easier to hit, so they don't need as much spell hit rating. For an endgame shadow priest, your other gear will likely already cap your hit rating, so this is definitely the best belt for you.

How to Get It: It is called Anaetheron's Noose, so it drops from Kael'thas. No, I'm only kidding-- it drops from Anetheron in Mount Hyjal. I thought maybe that Anetheron was hanged before he was somehow turned into a dreadlord (you think you can match the might of one?), but I couldn't find anything like that in the lore, and I don't even think dreadlords are made-- they're probably fashioned from pure evil or something sinister like that.

So odds are the people doing the hangings here are you players. Sure, kill the dreadlord, string up his body, and take the noose from his broken neck to wear around your waist. That's real classy.

Getting Rid of It: As requested, I will not say something like "are you crazy?" or "why would you want to do that?" Instead, I will assume that you are reading this a few years from now, Wrath is out and we are all level 80, and you found this in your bank and Googled it to find out why you still had it. In that case, a vendor will give you 2g 71s and 88c for it, or it will disenchant into a Void Crystal.

Allow me to state the obvious; raiding is an integral part of WoW's design. A lot of people think that's a bad thing. They'll say raiding is only for the elite hardcore, and that it alienates everyone else. Here's a shocker; Damion Schubert -- a renown MMO designer whose games have historically been pretty much the opposite of raider-friendly -- is not one of those naysayers.

He recently updated his blog with a strong defense of Blizzard's decision to emphasize raiding. You should read it for yourself, but the gist of it is that there are more raiders than you think, that players of a PvE game want a PvE endgame (as opposed to a PvP one like the Battlegrounds), and that because raids are re-playable content, Blizzard gets more bang for its development buck.

His ultimate point, though, is that Blizzard focuses on raiding content because that's what players want. But I wonder if a lot of those players, especially the more casual types, would want something different if they were aware of other options. And Schubert suggested that there are alternatives. What are they, and do you want them, or are you perfectly happy with working your way up to Black Temple?

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.

Sweet 70! Time to rest on your shadowy laurels, or press on into "endgame"? Stripping it down, WoW endgame is raiding and PvP. You may have reputations to grind, heroic instances to run and daily quests to complete, but raiding is truly the only way to experience content you haven't seen before, at least from the perspective of a Warlock. Similarly, PvP - with unpredictable opponents, ever-changing scenarios and the thrill of competition - is another way to keep things fresh and challenging.

Most players engage in a little bit of everything, and the choice really lies with you. Since The Burning Crusade, PvP has become a good alternative means of progression, with rewards that rival those from PvE. Many raiders also dip into PvP as a reliable source of gear upgrades to improve their raid performance.

Regardless of what you choose to focus on, the game at 70 definitely involves more group work. If you have soloed all the way to 70, your lone wolf days are over, if you wish to progress further. Let's look at some of endgame expectations for warlocks.

Dreadly of Nerz'hul asks a question that I'd like to know the answer to, also-- will we ever see new zones in Old Azeroth?

I can't say I'm as concerned about this as I was a week or so ago-- the revelation that we'll finally see some new content in Dustwallow Marsh has me content (so to speak) about midlevel content for a while. But it would be interesting to know if Blizzard has any other plans to add on to old Azeroth (either by creating new zones like the Draenei and Blood Elf starting zones, or by developing existing zones like Mount Hyjal and Gilneas).

Bornakk, always the spoilsport, says what you would expect: while it would be cool, there are no plans right now. He also says, however, that Blizzard is "more excited" about working on new continents, like Outland or Northrend, at the moment. As usual, it comes down to the player base-- because Blizzard sees so many characters at 70, they're "more excited" about expanding the endgame than the midgame.

Bad? Good? We do know this: Blizzard has a history of paying attention to what their players do, not necessarily what they ask for. When Molten Core was packed with guilds every weekend, they made more 40 man raids. When Karazhan got super popular, they made Zul'Aman. And hopefully, when Dustwallow Marsh is overrun by players running alts through the middle of the game, Blizzard will finally see how badly players are scrambling for new content in the "old" game.

Welcome again to your weekly dose of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish the questions on your mind for readers to answer. Last week we talked about how to find a good guild, and this week we're waxing nostalgic about some of the pre-BC content that new players might now miss as they're levelling up. Megilion from Crimson Blade on Gorgonnash writes:

I just realized recently that, as my main is only level 62 and I didn't hit 60 until after BC came out, there's still a lot of this game that I haven't seen yet. There are several zones I've never been in, as well as many pre-BC raids that I'll likely never experience. I'm curious what experiences, locations, and even quests WoW Insider readers have missed on their road to level 70 that they're eager to get to someday if at all?

For those of you who made it to 60 before the expansion, what are some of the highlights of then endgame content that new players might be missing? What are some of the best quests, locations and experiences one might miss when rushing off to Outland in the late 50s?

Got questions? Ask WoW Insider can help! Send us what you're wondering to ask AT wowinsider DOT com.

Hitting 70 is an extremely interesting experience, especially if you've never done it before. You work your way up, through the long 50s and the somewhat shorter (thanks to Outland) 60s, and just as you finish that last bar of 69, the golden flash hits, and ding-- you're 70. For a moment, you cheer-- "I won!" you think. "I'm done!" But then you look at your gear-- dressed in greens and a few blues-- you look at the instances you haven't seen yet, and you look at all the epics out there to collect, and you realize, as spellproof on WoW Ladies so eloquently puts it, that you're at "the bottom of the top."

It's not that there isn't more things to do-- there's tons of quests to do after you hit 70, lots and lots of rep to gain, plenty of great PvP, and plenty of instances and raids to run. It's the humbling realization that as much emphasis as both Blizzard and other players place on arriving at 70, it's hardly anywhere near the end of the game. Your level numbers stop rising, but there's still a lot of progression to go.

For some players (somewhat like spellpower, as it sounds like she's finding herself in a bit of a hole), it's discouraging realizing that there's so much more to do. I find it encouraging to hit 70-- while your gear isn't that great, you can finally run all the instances you want to run, and even start appearing in raids, even if you don't hit the top of any DPS charts. But no matter how you react, it is definitely a feeling that is unique to reaching "the top" of any MMORPG game. For the first time, you might realize that these games really never do end.

Every other week, Robin Torres investigates Shaman issues, interviews experienced Shamans and reports her findings in Totem Talk.

First of all, let me get this out of the way. I don't like the sound of Shamans as a plural for Shaman. I much prefer Shaman, but I'm going with WoWWiki, at least for now.

Secondly, I am not a Shaman. I am reporting on Shamans. I am interviewing Shaman veterans. I am provoking Shaman discussions. I am in ur forumz reading ur threadz. You will notice when reading the newspaper or Fark or whatever that these people you are reading are not presidents and soldiers and socialites. They are writing about presidents and soldiers and socialites. And I am writing about Shamans. Regardless, I've been through this before, so my fire resistant gear is equipped.

I am, however, constantly bombarded with all things Shaman because my husband is a rabid, raiding, Level 70 Tauren Shaman. As I write this, he is in Serpentshrine Cavern with his Barbie DreamShield and his cape taken from a little girl and I'm trying to get him to take some screenshots. You may already know him from this story, but right now he is Onnix, the Shammy Healbot from the guild Grim on Daggerspine.

According to Warcraft Realms, the Shaman is the least played class currently among characters played in the last 30 days above level 10. And the Alliance have not raced to make as many Blueberry Shamans as the Horde have made Belfadins. Clearly, the general WoW population considers Shamans the least fun/useful class to play at this time. So I asked Onnix why he thought that was the case. Onnix would rather have answered the question "What is fun about playing an endgame Shaman?", but I was able to put that off to a future column. Instead, he told me the top 5 things that should be changed to make the Shaman a more successful class.

There might be no guild in all of Azeroth that has attracted attention like Nihilum has. They've charged through the endgame, gaining an unimaginable four world firsts in one day. They've downed Illidan. They've beaten the game.

And even out of the game, they seem to be a lightning rod for controversy. They don't like girls. They supposedly cheated on Vashj, and maybe they buy gold. Players have followed Nihilum's exploits like no other guild-- some hate them and some look up to them, but everyone who follows news from the endgame must know who they are.

Now, in their first exclusive interview after downing Archimonde and finishing off the current content, Awake from Nihilum spoke with us to talk about all of these things and more. What did they and did they not like about the endgame they just beat? What's Nihilum going to do now? And exactly how many of them have girlfriends?

Click the link below to read this exclusive interview, and get a glimpse of what it's like to run with the guild that beat the game. Questions were collected from both WoW Insider staff, and from members of our own casual guild, It came from the Blog. Thanks to Awake from Nihilum for doing this with us, and good luck to him and his guild in future content.