Hey all,
So after finally having a chance to test it on BR, I wanted to share with you some very basic information on how to get started with the new Allegiance system. From my understanding, a lot of the best in slot gear is going to come from the Allegiances though I have not been able to confirm this.
What we know so far:
- There are 4 different Allegiances to choose from: The Kingdom of Gondor, The Court of Lothlorien, Durin's Folk & Hobbits of the Company.
- You are able to join more than one Allegiance however only one can be active at a time, and the progression gets more difficult the more you join. Note: To clarify you can be a member of all 4 at once but can only set one as active; the active one is the one you will earn reputation for and progress in.
- It doesn't matter what Allegiance you join, as we have been told by the devs that apart from small variations to fit in with the different races there is no difference in how the factions work. Note: While this was the official word from the devs I have not been able to confirm if this is actually the case so take what I said with a grain of salt.
- You are able to join an Allegiance once you hit 110 and it can be accessed by the reputation panel.
- You use crafting instances & rep item rewards from Mordor deeds to gain experience. Edit: There are also daily and weekly repeatable quests that you can pick up in your respective hall that will give you rep.
- Some quests are gated behind higher tiers of rep.
How it works:
Once you hit 110 you are able to join an Allegiance, so go ahead and open up the Allegiance panel. Once opened you are faced with the choice to join one of the 4 factions:
Go ahead and choose whatever faction you want.
Note: Above is the Allegiance panel once you have chosen a faction, and the green arrow in the corner of the tab shows that it is the active faction.
After you have selected a faction you will need to speak to Eomer at Cirith Gorgor [38.9S 2.6W] (just inside the Gates of Mordor) to get an introductory quest of sorts before you are able to start earning reputation.
After picking up the quest from Eomer, he will direct you to talk to your respective NPC's (Prince Imrahil, Elladan/Elrohir, Dori or Merry) so that you can continue the quest.
- Men: Speak to Prince Imrahil to auto-travel to a solo instance in Minas Tirith. (I won't spoil it by giving details but I will say it was awesome and the artwork is absolutely amazing!) Once you are done with the instance you will find yourself in Hall of the King which is the Allegiance hall for men.
- Elves: Speak to Elladan/Elrohir who will send you to speak to Legolas in the Ruins of Dingarth [48.0S 8.6E], and from there will need to complete a session play. Once you are done with the session play you will be in the Court of Lothlorien (which is absolutely stunning!!) which is the Allegiance hall for elves.
- Dwarves: Speak to Dori to auto-travel to a quest instance in Erebor (!!!!), where you have to run around speaking to dwarves (one is to the right of the entrance, the second up the stairs to the left at the back and the third is up the stairs at the right opposite the second). Once you are done you will find yourself in the Hall Under the Mountain which is the Allegiance hall for dwarves.
- Hobbits: Speak to Merry, who will direct you to talk to both Pippin and Gandalf a few times before you are transported to an quest instance where you have to do some running around for said hobbits. Once done with the quest you will find yourself in Bar Thorenion which is the Allegiance hall to hobbits.
After completing any of the above, you will be given a Return To skill to your respective Allegiance Hall which is a mini town of sorts as it has everything from vendors with armour/jewellery to an auctioneer and vault-keeper. Not to mention there are crafting NPC's and even a barber!
Now that you have finished the introduction you can do crafting instances, which you pick up from Candur at the Udun Foothold [41.3S 0.6W], to gain rep. You will also get some rep items from completing general Mordor deeds (have only seen them on slayer deeds so far but haven't quested enough to see if they are on others as well). Edit: You are also now able to pick up the daily repeatable quests in your allegiance hall. There is a NPC who will give you both the daily and weekly repeatable quest, you then pick up the quests from a nearby board (as you can see in the pictures below).
Above is an example of the daily quest.
Above shows the weekly quest, also one of the reputation items.
Above is a list of the quests that you can get from the board, these ones are all for Dor Amrath.
Above is a list of the quests that you can get from the board, these ones are all for Udun.
Note: The quests you can pick up are all listed as 'Solo' and are level 115. Also all 5 regions (Agarnaith, Dor Amrath, Lhingris, Talath Urui and Udun) have a total of 25 quests. These rotate daily with 5 appearing each day from each region.
And I think that is it. I know it's not exactly detailed but hopefully it is enough to get you started and to make things a little less confusing. Don't hesitate to ask if you need me to clarify anything or have any questions! Also don't forget that this is coming from BR and may change by the time it goes live.
Oh and one last thing! Below is a screen-shot (with some mad Paint skills going on here) with a brief explanation of the Allegiance panel to show what they mean when they say things get harder the more factions you join, it also explains what a few of the different buttons do.
And I think that is it. Hope this helped!
-Miri
