Grinding the Wintersaber Trainers

The Wintersaber Trainers is one of the factions I've forever pushed off doing.  At first it was because I did not want to deal with the horrible drop rate of the meats and the even worse respawn rate of the Shaman.

When 4.0 dropped the drop rate of the meats was made 100% and I figured it might be time to go for it.  I worked them up from the neutral you start with to a tiny bit past friendly and called it a day.  The running back and forth, while not hard, I just was not in the mood for.

When Cataclysm came out I did a couple of quests with flying.  It make it super easy now.  Seeing that I figured, I can do it at any time so I will wait until one day when I had nothing to do on a weekend and some time to spend.

With the advent of the grind to get the mount being changed I decided to grind out the reputation now just in case when 4.1 comes they remove the rep.  We all know by now that they are changing the requirements to get the mount to doing a series of quests, just like the horde version of it, the rep part, no one is really saying for sure if it is still there and just that the quests no longer offer rep.

Thinking that this might be the removal of the reputation because it is no longer needed to get the mount and not a reward for doing any of the quests I decided to do the grind.

I checked online to see what some people say about the grind to get an estimate of the time that would be involved.  From all I read most people said it would be from 10-14 hours.  I guess the time differences depend on things such as competition, mount speed and possible class specials.

Thinking that this Tuesday will see 4.1 drop I had to get it done this week or I might never get the chance to get them to exalted.  All in all, a 14 hour grind would still be really fast in terms of getting a faction to exalted.

So Tuesday I started as soon as I got home.  I was almost half way into friendly when I started.  Three hours and forty five minutes later I was into revered, nicely too, and it was time to stop for the day.

Wednesday I popped on and went right back to it.  One hour and forty five minute later I was 999/999 exalted.  Yes, I had to finish it.  Not having a full exalted bar looks horrible if you ask me.

That means that it took a total of five and a half hours for me to get my Reins of the Winterspring Frostsaber and of course its associated feat of strength achievement.

So how did I manage to do it in five and a half hours when everyone on the forums was saying it would take at least 10 hours?  Glad you asked because I am willing to share. 

The reputation might be removed (not confirmed) when 4.1 comes so if you want to get another faction to exalted I suggest you do it sooner then later.

First things first.  Only take the one quest to get the meat.  Do not go kill shaman and definitely do not do the other one when it appears.  The mobs to get the meat are 100% drop rate now.  They are close and with flying you get to them in no time and each kill is a one shot kill.

Just to explain a little better.  The time it would take just to fly to the timbermaws to go kill the mobs you could have turned in the meat and picked up the quest again.  By the time you have finished killing timbermaw you will have finished killing more animals for the meat a second time. 

You will roughly be heading back from from the timbermaw and the second meat run at the same time.  Being the meat run is closer you will get back from that first.  Same rep for doing the 2 different quests as doing 2 of the meat runs.  2 meat runs is faster.  Thus only doing that one quest is faster. 

The third quest that opens after you get to revered is just out of the question completely.  It is too far away and for 100 extra rep it is not worth the time at all.

The only time you should grab all three is when you are calling it a day.  Take all 3, hearth, when you port into hyjal do all three on your way flying back.  That is the only time doing all 3 is worth it.  Otherwise, keep to collecting meat only.

Tips:
Speed:  I used Aspect of the Cheetah.  If you can boost speed, do it.
Auto Loot: Less time spent looting means more time spent killing.
Ranged:  Kill things at range, target and kill the next thing as you are walking up to loot the previous one.
Bags: Make sure you have lots of space.  More space = less time spent needing to empty your bags.
Vendor: I used my mammoth but there is a vendor you will pass all the time.  Only visit it when near full.
Music/Vent:  Be listening to something or talking to people.  It makes it go by so much faster.

If you are an achievement hunter this is the time to get the exalted rep and the feat of strength for the mount.  The mount will remain in game, not sure about the feat or about the rep but having an easy rep is always a good thing for the next time they make a new rep achievement.  With this you will be one closer and one closer that no one else can get any more.  That is a nice little plus.

Get it now while you can.  As any achievement hunter will tell you, five and a half hours is nothing.