Project Lore: All Things World of Warcraft

The Sons of Hodir is one of those factions that almost all end game players are in the process of grinding or have already tackled. If your goal in Wrath of the Lich King is to melt faces in end game raids, dominate heroics, or PvP your heart out at level 80, then your only option for a shoulder enchant is this faction of frost giants. Shoulder enchants are not the only reason to get moving on your Sons reputation though. Like other Wrath factions the group offers a wide range of purchasable items, including the multi-person Reins of the Grand Ice Mammoth. Oh, and for those of you struggling with your gold income, the daily quests offered by the Sons of Hodir will fill your coffers quickly and easily.

The faction has money, loot, lore and needed end game enchantments (the Honored version of the enchants are as good as the Exalted Aldor/Scryer enchants), so you may be wondering how to go about the task of grinding to exalted. First things first, you need to get to neutral with them before you can begin any dailies. To do this you must run a series of quest chains, a total of 26 quests, that ends with your character becoming neutral. The first chain starts at K3 in Storm Peaks with the quest They Took Our Men. If you are still leveling fear not, for the initial 16 quest chain is accessible to level 77 and higher.

After becoming fast friends with Lok'lira the Crone and her sisters at Brunnhildar Village, you will be tasked with finding yourself a mount to continue in the Hyldsmeet event. With harness in hand your are set to begin your second quest line. This series is half as long, only comprising of eight rather quick and easy goals and leads you to the mightily depressed Thorim. While performing your last task in the line for Thorim, Mending Fences, you will receive Slag Covered Metal. The shiny blue object will start your third and final chain, comprising of a pair of easy quests that will get you to Neutral with the Sons of Hodir (for all non-Humans).

Now you can begin your long, hard grind to Exalted. The rest of the way will mainly be completed through various daily quests that open up depending on your reputation level. Friendly offers us a total of five quests (although Wrath launched with four):

Hodir's Tribute (recently added) – Something to do with all those Relics.
Everfrost/Remember Everfrost! - These chips are hard to spot on the snowy grounds of Storm Peaks.
Polishing the Helm – An easy collection quest.
Blowing Hodir's Horn – An easy kill quest (party to make it even faster).
Hot and Cold – Annoying collection quest due to the spawn rate of the hot metal and ability for other players to ninja loot it from you.

All of the above quests, with the exception of Everfrost turn-ins, net you 250 rep per completion. You need to first locate an Everfrost Chip before you can begin the quest, then the repeatable version opens up. Both quests reward you with some gold and 350 rep. Neither of the turn-ins are marked as daily, so you can turn them in as often as you please. After you work your way to Honored, two new dailies reveal themselves.

Spy Hunter – A very easy kill quest.
Thrusting Hodir's Spear – Vehicle-based quest that is quite awesome. Worth getting to Honored to partake in this daily.

Lucky for us, the reputation gains are bumped up on the Honored quests. You now receive 350 and 500 reputation respectively. We have one final quest added upon becoming Revered, Feeding Arngrim. Another collection quest, kinda, but a bit more interesting than Polishing the Helm. However, no rep bump here as it only rewards 350 rep. The good thing is that all of the quests are completable till Exalted, meaning by the time you hit Revered you can earn 2550 rep a day. That calculation assumes you only do the turn-ins once per day. Removing them from the equation, you can go from Revered to Exalted in 11 days.

This guide originally closed with a recap on the lore surrounding the Sons of Hodir and how you become friendly with them. I decided to remove it so I don't spoil anyone's fun. I will just say that the chains introduce you to a lot of Norse mythology, and that the plot continues after you open up the Sons of Hodir faction.

Personally, I think that Blizzard gave the Sons of Hodir the only shoulder enchants in the game for a reason. The designers probably felt that a quest chain lasting some 40 quests (if you continue the story line) warrants a good amount of attention. By giving the sought after enchants to them, they ensure that many players will go through more than half of the quests. At that point I was very interested in where the plot was taking me lorewise and will continue on to its culmination.

How many of you have already completed the rep grind? Did you do it before or after the Relic quest was added. If before, how pissed were you over the extra time spent? Hopefully you didn't vendor all your Relics and made a killing by selling them off!

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