Life has been busy and I've been quietly puttering along on my spare time, advancing my Mage to be the next to 70.
After reading for months on the Official Forums about the trek from 60 to 70 for someone who wishes to get Heroics keys "in the most efficient way", I knew that the path to the greatest amount of Reputation was kind of backwards compared to the way a player would initially take on the Outland - especially as a solo, casual player.
Thrallmar - Neutral to Honored
Thrallmar rep was the first I spent time working on.
I did a few quests to get me from 59 to 60 in Outland and then from 60 to 61 and a bit, all I did was log in to this toon to head into another dungeon, or to clean up from the last one and get prepared and repaired for another run of Ramparts or Blood Furnace.
As a Mage, I haven't had difficulties finding parties for these dungeons, and in general the parties have been pretty decent quality for being a PUG full of strangers. I'm super impressed that many people do actually seem to be able to "not break the sheep" by this level, and most often the sheep is the last to fall.
The dungeon parties I've been in have also been very good at handling unexpected emergency situations (extra mobs attacking us before we had a chance to prepare from the last fight, generally) and except for one I can recall, there were no 'dead on the floor coaches' who felt the need to offer advice (or to whine) since they died and everyone else is still fighting.
After some 6 or so runs of Ramparts and 3 or 4 in Blood Furnace, I was capped at 5999/6000 Friendly, which is the point where no more honor is gained from killing the mobs in a regular Ramparts or Blood Furnace dungeon, and Thrallmar quests should be tackled to continue the gain of Thrallmar Rep.
Thrallmar - Honored and Onward
Until level 70, Thrallmar rep isn't really all that easy to "grind" out. If I were a PvP sort I could do the Hellfire Fortifications for 250 rep a day, but I'm not, so I've just opted to do as many quests in Thrallmar as possible.
If you're already level 70, there's a quest line to get the key to Shattered Halls, and the level 70 non-heroic version of the dungeon continues to give reputation right through to Exalted, from what I have read.
Theoretically, by the time I get there my "grind" will have been reduced since I maxed out on mob-kill reputation before doing most of the quests in Thrallmar that also give reputation, but give reputation past where the mob-kill rep leaves off.
Cenarion Expedition Rep - Neutral to Honored
This reputation grind from Neutral to Honored was incredibly easy since I've got a level 70 who has been through all the same areas and over-collected on the Unidentified Plant Parts
Quest Item
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The very quickest way (although it's tedious) to get from Neutral to Honored with Cenarion Expedition is to turn in 360 Unidentified Plant Parts
Quest Item
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Quest Item
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Another way to get from Neutral to Honored is to treat it like Thrallmar rep worked, and run Slave Pens and Underbog over and over until you reach 5999/6000 Friendly, and then start on the quests in the Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh.
However, by doing it the plant-turn-in way, you also get a chance of finding an Unidentified Species which can be turned in once you've reached Honored and it will help boost the path a little bit towards Revered and Exalted. I got 4 of these Unidentified Species to help boost me up before I started on the Cenarion Refuge quests in Zangarmarsh and the Cenarion Expedition ones drizzled around the zones.
Cenarion Expedition Reputation - Honored to Revered and Exalted
Like the Thrallmar rep, right now my best bet as a non-70 is to do Cenarion Expedition quests from the various places they exist in the Outland - Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terrokar Forest and beyond.
At level 70 there's a dungeon called Steamvaults that has both a non-heroic and a heroic version to it, and in the non-heroic mode the mobs give Cenarion Expedition rep right through to Exalted.
How Many Runs To Get A Heroic Key?
Dunno! When I hit 70 I'll give a reputation overview and when I get each heroic key (over time), I'll let you know how many of those lvl 70 dungeon runs it took me after this attempt at efficiency when grinding reputation in Outland!
Stay tuned ;)