![estore_purchase_generic_reputation_large[1]](/files/2012/01/estore_purchase_generic_reputation_large1.gif)
Item Name: +5,000 Enhanced Reputation Supply
Regular Price: 225 TP
Store Location: Buffs & Boosts → Advancement → Reputation
Store Description: Gain a bonus to all earned faction reputation until a total of 5,000 bonus reputation has been added. This bonus does not have a time limit, and only expires when the 5,000 bonus reputation points have been depleted.
Store Explorer Report
Day 1:
I find myself in the Eastern part of the Gap of Rohan among Théodred’s Riders. They have been most kind in assisting me in my battle against the forces of Saruman. It seems they too have dealings with the “White Wizard” or whatever that crazed madman calls himself now. It seems that of late all I see are the faces of orcs or crazed Dunlendings the further South I travel and these “Horse Lords” are welcome companions. It is strange how much comfort comfort one can find in the sounds of horses and armored men at times. They are an untrusting sort though, but they have allowed me to stay among them and seem to become more friendly the more tasks and quests I perform for them. All except their Quartermaster who seems to stare at me with suspicion.
Day 2:
I have been performing tasks for the men of Rohan almost nonstop. We find that we both have a common purpose in defeating Saruman and have openly declared our friendship for one another. And although they are willing to share some of their secrets of forging iron with me, they are not comfortable in sharing any of the spare armor or jewelry that their Quartermaster holds. That man seems to have an iron hand around all the supplies and will barely say two words to me.
Day 3:
One of the men of the camp declared me an Ally to them today and my chest swelled with pride. I have been collecting punctured shields and decorative scabbards for the encampment’s smiths for they are always in need of spare metal to be forged anew in to spears and swords. I have been told that there is a certain satisfaction in skewering an enemy with iron that was once theirs. Ironically they have no interest in any weapons of the Third Age that seem to drop like rain from our fallen enemies, but who am I to judge my compatriots? The Quartermaster has also seen fit to allow me the purchase of more goods, but the stingy bugger still doesn’t see fit to grant me access to some of their limitless supplies of jewelry. He keeps pointing out that there are still more tasks that need to be done. I gave him the “evil eye”, but he remain unaffected. I’m pretty sure it will give him nightmares.
Day 4:
I tried to bribe the Quartermaster with some fresh bread from Galtrev and some Sweet Leaf pipeweed, but he just pointed at that blasted task board again and sent me on my way. Did I mention that he smells funny? Well he does.
Day 5:
I think the Quartermaster is a doodie-head. I don’t need his stupid goods anyway.
Day 6:
I bought a trinket off a merchant today called +5,000 Enhanced Reputation Supply. And while I was a bit skeptical of it at first, the merchant gave me a special price and I decided to give it a try. It seems that Théodred’s Riders now consider me to be much more impressive now that I’m wearing it, for their approval for my tasks and quests seems to have doubled. I think that they will soon consider me a kindred spirit much like the Men of Dunland currently do.
Day 7:
My stupid trinket broke, but I do think that Quartermaster is much closer to giving up the last of his goods. He’s still a doodie-head, though.
Summary
The +5,000 Enhanced Reputation Supply works in that it essentially doubles the reputation you earn while it is active. So, if you perform a quest, task, or essentially anything that grants you reputation you gain that bonus. The bonus will be listed in your chat log so you can clearly see just how much reputation was earned from your actions and how much was earned due to the bonus.
In the picture above, I earned 1,000 reputation from a quest that normally rewarded 500, and as you can see 500 of that 1,000 came from the Enhanced Reputation Supply. I will say that the drawback of this item is that while 5,000 may seem like a lot; it can wear off rather quickly if you go on a spree of tasks, quests, skirmishes, or whatever that earns reputation. However, I cannot deny that my reputation bar was much further along that it was previously and that I was tempted to purchase another. That being said, I still would have been able to earn this reputation had I been patient and worked a little harder. All-in-all this item is a time saver and while it’s a good one, it’s not a great one. I can see myself considering the use of one again though in situations in areas where I know I’m going to or have run out of reputation quests such as Nan Curunír; or where I have a limited time to earn reputation such as the Ale Association.
![indifferent1_thumb1[1]](/files/2012/01/indifferent1_thumb11.png){kind=small}
CSTM Rating: Indifferent. While it certainly serves a purpose, the 5,000 bonus just doesn’t last that long for the money that was paid out. We’d really like to see that bonus increased to anywhere up between 7,000-10,000.
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January 11, 2012 at 8:38 am
I bought one on sale too, while in Moria. The drawback there is that you are in a zone for two factions at once, so while I actually only wanted rep for the Guards, I handed in quests that rewarded rep for the Miners too which discounted from my blue bar, so that was a bit of a waste. Next time I will only use it when I am certain about what faction/guild I am going to receive rep for.
January 11, 2012 at 9:13 am
Agreed; that is a definite downside to the bonus is that it doesn’t distinguish between factions so like you said if you don’t focus on just one faction it will give a bonus to whatever faction you receive.
January 11, 2012 at 9:58 am
Thanks for this, I was never fully clear on how it worked.
January 11, 2012 at 10:00 am
If the bonus works for the rep items that you turn in, maybe it’s worth it to farm a bunch of rep items (first age relics, crystal lamp fragments, etc.) and turn them all in at once rather than use the rep bonus on quests.
January 11, 2012 at 4:25 pm
That is a tactic you can take as well.
January 11, 2012 at 10:00 am
Super funny post. Good job Merric!
January 11, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Thank you!
January 11, 2012 at 12:06 pm
I agree, the 5000 seems like a lot but runs out really fast. I was excited to see this item as I’ve been grinding rep lately, but after trying it came to the same conclusion that you did. Maybe good for special situations, but not for general use. Thanks for the write up!
January 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm
You’re welcome.
January 11, 2012 at 1:16 pm
It’s really great if you’re working on both factions with the ale rep quests, because it won’t double the lost faction for doing an opposing side’s quest, but it will double the gained faction.
January 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm
That’s a good tip!
January 11, 2012 at 1:18 pm
I have not played much recently but a while back there was a new item at the skirmish camp that u could buy with meds and marks that did the same as this but for a bonus of only 1000 rep not the 5000 of the store. however as it is brought with in game currency this may be more useful to some. i think it was at the vendor that soild rep items
January 11, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Yup. Consider using your marks/ medallions for some +bonus reputation instead
January 11, 2012 at 1:44 pm
I enjoyed the story and dont really have much problem with rep except in maps where you strictly need to do repeatables to get it. Not planning to use it either.
January 11, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but I’ve been able to use them to accelerate the rep for crafting guilds too.
January 12, 2012 at 5:29 am
Yes, I found it pretty good to accelerate guild reputation – as the reputation items have a cooldown, this is very helpful.
I spent ca. 2.500 Turbine Points (11 x 225) to get quicker access to the guild recipes for my goldsmith and was able to craft jewelry for level 50.
Still it is not cheap, you can do that in-game by grinding the double amount of precious metals and gems and have the patience to wait for the cooldowns.
Alternatively, you buy the stuff from the AH for in-game gold and build guild reputation items for all crafting tiers at the same time – but that will cost you a lot of gold.
So, the Enhanced Reputation Supply is for people without patience. (-;
January 12, 2012 at 5:38 am
Well, after buying the Enhanced Rep. Supply, well I always “consumed” the complete bonus by trading in guild rep items giving at least 5000 in total.
If there had been a remainder of the bonus and I had gone off for some questing, the remainder would have been used up for any other rep I had gained.
So, I only bought one or two Enhanced Rep. Supplies at the time – depending how much guild rep item bonus I could craft at that time. E.g. if I had only items for e.g. 7200 points I bought only one Enhanced Rep. Supply and traded only in e.g. 5.100 (using up the bonus of 5000) and waited for the cooldown to craft further items later on – alway using up the full bonus.
Is that clear?
February 23, 2012 at 5:00 pm
This is pretty much how I’ve used these things. Made a tremendous difference in grinding for the cook guild, especially since the cook requires some farming for a good portion of his supplies as well. Essentially, it not only cut in half the amount of vendor-bought ingredients, it also cut in half the necessary farming ingredients _and_ the time necessary to work my farming toon creating those ingredients. IMO, anyone leveling in the cook guild should use these things as often as they can afford to.
January 15, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Merric,
Thanks for the article. This is a good format, will you be keeping ‘Store Explorer’ as a regular feature?
April 5, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Someone else mentioned it above, but I’ll say it agaain – you can get a bonus rep item from Skirmish Camps for marks/medallions. From recollection it only does 2500 rep, but you could buy two, and save yourself tp….jus’ sayin’. That is certinally what I’ve been doing, at any rate.