World of Warcraft enthusiasts are all excited beyond belief about the new Warlords of Draenor expansion set to come out on Thursday, November 13th 2014. With only a week and a half left until this awesome event, old frozen accounts are now being reactivated as players amass for the new wonders this virtual world may bring. But until the new expansion itself is released, there are plenty of things to be done in the previous expansion’s continent (Pandaria), in order to be better prepared to enter Draenor, or just to collect various pets, mounts or recipes you may be missing.
One of the chief occupations for players waiting for the Dark Portal to open is to grind more reputation gains with the various Pandaria factions, by questing, solving tasks, killing mobs etc. And the best such hunting ground of them all is Pandaria’s Timeless Isle – a newly released area available to skilled players just off the coast of The Jade Forest. This was introduced by Blizzard in order to give players some new content while they wait for the new expansion, and to also give them the chance to better-than-average loot so they can enter Draenor all geared up.
Before we detail what is to be gained by killing mobs and finding treasures for Pandaria’s Timeless Isle, let’s talk a bit about the overall reputation reward system in Pandaria. Once you reach exalted status with each faction of Pandaria, you will have access to their ultimate rewards from their faction vender (the quartermaster of each faction). Websites such as Wowhead and Wowwiki have a pretty useful list of all factions, complete with the rewards they can give and the exact map location for each quartermaster. The basic idea is that once you complete the first few quest storylines with each faction (which you probably already did two years ago, when the Mists of Pandaria expansion was first released), you will have access to 5 or 6 daily quests (on average) with that faction. Some independent tasks such as the first random dungeon or random scenario of the day also grant bonus reputation with the faction of your choice. The best rewards you can buy after you reach exalted reputation usually contain at least one mount and one non-combat pet, though there are plenty of factions which offer 3 mounts or more.
Emperor Shaohao
As for Pandaria’s Timeless Isle, the story is fascinating. It seems that the Timeweavers (including the dragons who mended the broken timelines in previous expansion lores) preserved this island in the continent’s mists, locked away from the normal passage of time, in order to create a safe haven for Pandaria’s last Emperor (Shaohao) to continue living here. That’s right: on Pandaria’s Timeless Isle, you can actually get to meet and interact with the legend himself: Emperor Shaohao is alive and well here, overseeing a celestial tournament where you can raid against 4 new world bosses. But that’s not all you can do here: everything you touch, every mob you kill and so on – they all grant you Timeless coins, which you can then use to buy an epic flying serpent mount and 6 rare pets. There are also 13 rare pets which can drop from various chests or mobs on the island: check here for the complete list of mount and pet rewards you can obtain here.
And that’s not all: on Pandaria’s Timeless Isle, you can also find three new battle pets in the environment, ready to be tamed. Thought you already collected every battle pet outdoors Pandaria had to offer? Well, think again. The only two downsides to all this, since it could be that easy, are that, forst of all, the area is a free-for-all PvP grounds, so prepare to be assaulted by other players competing for the same resources as you; and second of all, the only way to buy these rewards on the island is by reaching exalted status with Emperor Shaohao. But unlike with other factions in Pandaria, you can’t earn this reputation through daily quests, but only by killing a certain type of mobs on the island (every yaungol you see, as a matter of fact). The good news is that even though it may be more tedious to just kill mobs, you’re not limited by a daily amount of reputation you can grind, so you can grasp the rewards of Pandaria’s Timeless Isle in a day or two, once you put your mind to it.
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