Blizzard introduced a new form of endgame progression to World of Warcraft known as Renown with Shadowlands, and it looks like the studio is planning on expanding the system even more in Dragonflight. Previously, the Renown system was tied to the four Covenants of Shadowlands and would lead to cosmetic unlocks, player power upgrades, and new story chapters. This was alongside the classic reputation system that World of Warcraft has used since launch, but Dragonflight is changing the entire thing.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will be removing the classic reputation system and will replace it with a new version of the Renown system. Each faction on the Dragon Isles will have their own Renown tab filled with rewards for players to collect. They will most likely spend a lot of time grinding out these new Renown levels as they adventure across the new zones, and it seems like it will be worth the time. While the feature still shares some similarities with the old reputation system, this new Renown system is a pretty nice replacement to a pretty dated system.

RELATED: The Leveling Experience of World of Warcraft Needs Some Work

World of Warcraft's Old Reputation System Explained

world-of-warcraft-classic

Before World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, players would spend a lot of time grinding out faction reputation to unlock new things to buy. Almost all the factions on Azeroth had their own reputation, and it could be a very tedious grind. Players would have to spend a lot of time doing short daily quests, collecting certain resources, killing the same enemies repeatedly, or running around with that faction's tabard equipped. It was the primary focus of max-level players in-between their dungeon or raid runs, and Blizzard has not done much to make it more engaging.

The reputation was presented as a green bar that would slowly fill up as the player completed tasks for that faction, and it would go through multiple stages before reaching the maximum reputation level of exalted. Each level required players to grind out even more reputation points, and most factions would have five levels to get through. Some factions also had negative reputation, but that was mostly reserved to opposite faction reputations or a select few special factions like the Brood of Nozdormu.

In recent expansions, the reputation grind has been the main focus of the World Quest feature that Legion introduced. This put an assortment of quests across the new zones that players could complete for various rewards and reputation. They could also complete emissary quests that had them complete a set of faction-specific world quests for a faction-specific chest of goodies and a boost of reputation. Once players hit exalted, they could continue grinding out reputation for those factions through the Paragon bar which would give them another faction-specific chest upon completion.

The New Renown System is a Breath of Fresh Air

wow df renown track dragonscale expedition

The old reputation system required a bit of grinding, and players would tend to not see a reward until they hit exalted. Shadowlands introduced another type of reputation grind through the Renown system, and that offered players 80 levels of rewards to unlock. The old reputation system still existed, but the new Renown system gave players a more streamlined progression system for their Covenant of choice. However, the feature had two big downsides in that it was not endlessly grindable, and it was heavily tied to player power.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight will be taking the best of both the Renown system and the reputation system, and will give players a whole new system to progress through. Each faction on the Dragon Isles will have a Renown bar instead of a reputation bar, and each will have a slew of items to collect as players progress. Unlike the Renown system of Shadowlands, this system will allow Renown to be farmed continuously through various activities. Players will have to collect a certain amount of reputation before the Renown level increases, and they will get an instant sense of accomplishment as the new level brings with it new items.

This new Renown system will only be as good as the items that Blizzard offers through it, and it seems to be cosmetic-based for the most part. What makes it even better is that a lot of these cosmetic unlocks in Dragonflight will be account wide, and players who play multiple characters will not feel the need to grind this out multiple times. This feels like a natural progression of one of Shadowlands' major features, and hopefully it works just as good as it sounds.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight will launch November 28 on PC.

MORE: Wrath of the Lich King Classic Developers Discuss Having a Second Chance to Release World of Warcraft