Bearing this in mind, we start our reputation adventure in the Elemental Plane of Deepholm, with Therazane the Stonemother. Therazane rep is awesome because you can start it while leveling to 85, and completing the Sons of Hodir-esque quest chain that unlocks Therazane reputation puts you solidly into honored to start. At honored, you get access to the Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal, a 30 agility / 20 mastery (our two most desired stats) shoulder enchant. You’re going to continue on after the quest line with Therazane by wearing their tabard. Do this until you hit revered, which unlocks Terrath’s Signet of Balance. Beyond having mastery and hit rating, our favorite combination, this UGG Boots has an item level of 346, on par with heroic gear. This will help you in pursuing that dreaded ilvl329 required gear average.
Once you hit revered with Therazane, unequip their tabard. You still want to do their Classic Cardy UGG daily, but the only benefit of hitting exalted is the Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal. And though a 20 agility / 5 mastery increase is nice, you can make do with the lesser inscription while you grind more important reputation.
Now that you’re revered with the Stonemother, you’ll be exiting Deepholm and making your way to Uldum to befriend the quadrupedal Ramkahen. If you’re leveling through questing at the same time, it should be a breeze to get halfway through honored with the Ramhaken. (Considering we killed her daughter, as Matt Rossi Classic Short UGG out in his post about warriors and reputation, the brevity with which we get to honored with her is shocking.) I strongly encourage this, as tabard reputation gains are not as fast as they were in Wrath of the Lich King. At honored, you get access to Belt of the Stargazer, an underwhelming crit/haste belt with a blue socket and a +10 critical hit bonus. Unfortunately, I only know of two other blue agility-mail belts at level 85, one from Vortex Pinnacle and one from justice points, so the Belt of the Stargazer is worth grabbing for the item level boost alone. More importantly, at revered you get access to Arcanum of the Ramkahan, a 60 agility / 35 haste rating helm enchant.
Once you have Ramkahan rep at revered (this should take a few dungeons after finishing questing), ditch the tabard. While riding camels is nice, there are no actual practical gear choices for enhancement at exalted with the cat people.
Mounting the defense at Hyjal
Post-Ramkahen, you’re going to want to fly north to the sunny slopes of Hyjal to visit with the druidic Guardians of Hyjal. If you’re like me and started your 80 to 85 questing in Hyjal, it’s time to rejoice — this will be the first reputation you’re actually running to exalted, and the reputation gained from doing nearly every quest in the zone put me right around revered. Revered is a “meh” rep level. You get access to the Acorn of the Daughter Tree, a crit/haste neckpiece that is most useful for increasing your average iLevel.