STAYING TRUE TO THE CAUSE

What if a Bloodsail Admiral wishes to get back into the good graces with the Steamwheedle Cartel while at the same time remain a loyal Bloodsail Buccaneer?  Is there a way to have the best of both worlds?  You bet.  There are many ways to do it, in fact, but they all involve a lot more work than the easy route offered by the new 1.11 quests.

It's amazing how much bad information gets distributed when people discuss ways to get one's reputation back with the goblins.  People will suggest all kinds of things like killing Bloodsail pirates (unthinkable!), killing Southsea pirates in Tanaris (possible but very time consuming), or killing the Venture Co goblins in Stranglethorn Vale (not as bad as the Tanaris pirates but still time consuming).  But the most frequently cited bad idea is to run the repeatable quests given by the goblin named Zorbin Fandazzle who has made his shop on the coast of Ferales.

Fandazzle starts off by giving two quests -- one to collect 15 Miniturization Residues off the nearby sea giants and the other to collect 10 Water Elemental Cores off the nearby water elementals.  He also gives you a raygun that thankfully causes shrinks the elite giants into nonelite easy to kill versions.  The residues have a 100% drop rate and the Cores have a high but not 100% drop rate -- somewhere around 66%.  When you turn these initial quests in, you get 15 reputation points with all factions of the Steamwheedle Cartel.

After that, you can get the repeatable quests that only ask for 10 Miniturization Residues and 6 Water Elemental Cores.  For these, you get 25 reputation points with all factions of the Steamwheedle Cartel at level 60.  That sounds OK, but believe me, it takes a long time to find the correct mobs, kill them, and then run back to the goblin to turn in the quests and pick up the next set of quests.  The quest items won't drop if you've already collected a set residues or cores, so you have to go back and turn them in each time.  The process is painfully slow for a level 60 player.

However, there is one reason why you might use these Ferales quests to recover your Steemwheedle Cartel faction.  If you are still leveling up your character, these quests are a great way to get repuation with the Steamwheedle Cartel while getting experience and cash at the same time.  There's a group of level mid-30's pirates in Arathi who you can kill to build up one's Bloodsail reputation.  If you plan ahead, you could already be friendly with the Bloodsail Buccaneers by level 40 and then spend your 40's and early 50's grinding pirates in Tanaris and running these repeatable quests in Ferales to get your reputation back with the Steamwheedle Cartel.

For level 60 players, however, there is a much better way:  killing the level 12-15 Southsea pirates south of Ratchet.  You get 1 reputation point with Ratchet and 0.5 spillover reputation points with the other goblin factions for every pirate you kill.  The Bloodsail Buccaneers don't seem to mind if you knock off one of their pirate competitors.  The Southsea pirates south of Ratchet are plentiful, have a fast respawn rate, and best of all, die in one hit.  Don't forget about the seven or so camps just up the hill from the main group of pirates along the coast.

As a priest, I put on all the +damage gear I can find and cast the lowest rank of SW:Pain that is able to kill any pirate in 3 ticks.  In my case, that's a rank 5 SW:Pain.  I run counterclockwise through the pirate camps, up the hill, south along the length of the uphill camps, down to the bottom camps (jumping down), and back up north along the pirate camps along the coast.  Along the way I tab target every pirate I see, cast SW:Pain on each one, and keep running, leaving waves of pirates dying in my wake.  The only thing that slows me down is the need to drink periodically.  Warlocks can do the same thing, and mages can aoe whole camps down.  Melee classes may have a little tougher time, but again, they can still run around and efficiently kill everything in one hit quite.

That's about everything one needs to know about becoming a Admiral of the Bloodsail Fleet and how to get back into the good graces of the Streamwheedle Cartel.  It's great that Blizzard decided to flesh out the Bloodsail quest lines -- first by creating the great pirate outfit and then by making it easier for players to get their goblin faction back.  I suspect that this will be the end of the changes, though.  The new quests seem to be designed to quiet any Bloodsail Admirals who complain about not being able to do new goblin-related content.  From now on, Blizzard can just say, "Well, we gave you an easy way to get your goblin faction back.  Just turn in some cloth!"