Reputation Compendium

Bloodsail Buccaneers

Arrrh! Is a pirate's life really for you? Then ship out with us, me hearty, and get ready for a bold life as a Bloodsail!

The Bloodsail Buccaneers are a pirate faction, currently encamped along the coasts of Stranglethorn Vale, and commanded from the flagship Crimson Veil, anchored off the Wild Coast with the Riptide and the Damsel's Luck. They are the sworn enemies of the Blackwater Raiders, the pirates aligned with the goblins of Booty Bay. You can prove yourself a friend to the Bloodsail and even rise to the post of Bloodsail Admiral. Throwing in your lot with this band of brigands will certainly bring you some fame - this is the rarest faction sought out for reputation.

Unfortunately, such fame comes at a price - gaining favor with the Bloodsail generally means turning your back on Booty Bay. Most quests related to Booty Bay cause a large drop in Bloodsail reputation (equal to the reputation gain with Booty Bay) - the Bloodsails are very unforgiving of aid to their enemies. As these quests usually offer some of the best progression in the mid 30's to low 40's, this is a painful sacrifice indeed. The Master Blacksmith, the neutral Master Gnome Engineer, the NPC who sells the Expert Fishing skill book, and the vendor who redeems Trading Card Game items also reside in Booty Bay, which could impact your progress. The Master Cook and parts of the Tier 0.5 questline (and many others) are Gadgetzan faction, part of the Steamwheedle Cartel with Booty Bay. Ultimately, you will have to rebuild your standing with the Cartel or face (at the least) severe inconvenience the rest of your Azerothian life.

  • At Unfriendly, the Bloodsail NPCs will no longer attack you on sight, giving you easy access to the Wild Coast and other areas they patrol. This is especially useful for gaining access to Cowardly Crosby, a vendor in the southeastern Bloodsail camp who sells the pattern for an Admiral's Hat (240 Tailoring); Crosby's neutral, but surrounded by many Bloodsail mobs. On PvP servers, this also provides some unique opportunities for taking out PCs from the other team who seek to assault your Bloodsail brethren.
  • At Neutral, Fleet Master Firallon will give you the quest "[55] Dressing the Part".
  • At Friendly, Fleet Master Firallon will give you the quest "[60] Avast Ye, Admiral". You can also freely loot the chests aboard the Bloodsail ships and in the camps (stealing from your fellow pirates?!?).
  • There are no bonuses for Honored standing, as the Bloodsail have no vendors (Crosby is actually not Bloodsail faction).

Reputation from Kills

In Faldir's Cove (southwestern Arathi, south of Stromgarde along the coast)

  • Blackwater Deckhands (L38-39) or Deckhand Moishe (L37) yield 5 Bloodsail rep, -25 Booty Bay, -12.5 for the rest of the Cartel. The unnamed Deckhands are the only mobs in the cove who carry loot.
  • Captain Steelgut (L39) yields 5 Bloodsail rep, -375 Booty Bay, -187.5 Cartel
  • First Mate Nilzlix (L39) yields 5 Bloodsail rep, -125 Booty Bay, -62.5 Cartel
  • Doctor Draxlegauge (L38), Professor Phizzlethorpe (L38), and Captain Shakes O'Breen (L40) yield 1 Bloodsail rep, -25 Booty Bay, -12.5 Cartel

In Booty Bay (Stranglethorn Vale)

  • Booty Bay Bruisers and Elites (L57-59) yield 25 Bloodsail rep, -125 Booty Bay, -62.5 Cartel
  • Baron Revilgaz (L60) yields 5 Bloodsail rep, -375 Booty Bay, -187.5 Cartel
  • Most other mobs yield 1 Bloodsail, -25 Booty Bay, -12.5 Cartel (innkeepers, flight masters, and other "infrastructure" NPCs grant no rep; some named mobs grant 5 rep)

There are several neutral vendors allied with Booty Bay scattered throughout Azeroth (Kixxle in the Wetlands and Rigglefuzz in the Badlands, for instance). These appear to be -25 Cartel reputation with no gain to Bloodsail. So piracy does not extend to knocking over shopkeepers.

As with other factions, the full rep gain is only earned while the mobs are non-gray. These rep gains continue through Honored for most mobs. Since Patch 1.10, you continue to lose Cartel rep even after the Booty Bay faction reaches 0/36000.

Killing Bloodsail mobs in southern Stranglethorn Vale earns 5-25 Booty Bay rep and loses 25-125 Bloodsail.

Quests

There aren't many quests which directly yield Bloodsail reputation. In fact, there are only a couple of Bloodsail faction quests - but these are the whole reason you're doing this.

Quest Given By Description Reward
[55] Dressing the Part Fleet Master Firallon Wear 'em with pride, mate! Buccaneer's Uniform
Contains:
Yarrr... If ye be keen on enjoying the company of us experienced sea dogs, you'd best belay dressing like a blaggard! Here, put on something proper 'fore I keelhaul yer hide. - Fleet Master Firallon
This contains chest, legs, waist, and boot items to complete your pirate look. These same items are (or will be) added to the loot tables for Bloodsailors, so this allows you to get the costume without having to loot your mates.
[60] Avast Ye, Admiral!
Blood Parrot
 Fleet Master Firallon Slay Fleet Master Seahorn and Baron Revilgaz. 9950 xp
Bloodsail Admiral's Hat
Yer a pirate of pirates, lad! It warms the cockles of me heart to give ye this hat. ye will ne'er find one like it anywheres, and all that gaze upon ye will see that yer an Admiral of the Bloodsail Navy! Hip hip... arrrr... - Fleet Master Firallon
This is the big payoff - the distinctive red Admiral's Hat allows you to summon a Blood Parrot non-combat pet which is a truly rare sight on any server. This quest requires Friendly with the Bloodsail and Hated with Booty Bay to obtain.

Practical Notes

To put things in perspective, this is actually a lot easier than building Timbermaw (or Wintersaber!) rep; however, this is the only faction where there's such a negative effect to gaining reputation. To become Friendly with Bloodsail and recover neutrality with Steamwheedle will take in excess of 11,000 kills. And you don't even get a vendor discount or a mount - just a hat with a rare pet. Properly warned ye be. Now proceed at yer own risk.

So, you want to be a pirate, eh? Unfortunately, getting the most useful neutral faction upset with you isn't the best way to succeed in Azeroth. If you start early, and you're prepared to grind, there are some smart ways to become a Bloodsail Admiral without being shot on sight in Gadgetzan.

You begin at 35500/36000 Hated with the Bloodsails (500 points from Hostile). Most characters do not discover this until they complete a quest for Booty Bay and drop that rep even more. So be careful to avoid Booty Bay-related quests and killing Bloodsail mobs as you grow up. Some of the earliest Booty Bay quests come out of Ratchet or the Mirage Raceway at Shimmering Flats (deliveries to Booty Bay). Rigglefuzz, the goblin in the Badlands, is Booty Bay faction, so avoid him. The OOX escort quests also give Booty Bay faction, which means they take Bloodsail faction. Even when the quests are gray and no longer grant significant Booty Bay faction or xp, the loss of Bloodsail rep does not diminish.

Soon to be At War with Booty Bay! As soon as you're able, make your way to Booty Bay and Ratchet and get their flight points. It's not bad to get Gadgetzan's, too. The Everlook and Gadgetzan flight points are outside their cities, although guarded by Bruisers. Don't complete any Booty Bay quests as you pass through. You'll make use of that Booty Bay flight point later, though. For Horde, who will usually hit Ratchet at a much lower level, do all the Ratchet quests and level up killing the Southsea pirates south of Ratchet. You will build goblin rep without offending the Bloodsails. Grind here. In your 20's, hit Stonetalon and do the quests; there's a pointer quest out of Ratchet which sends you there. In your low to mid 30's, hit Stranglethorn Vale and grind on the Venture Company Miners (L34-35) in the hills west of Nesingwary's camp (just northeast of Zul'kunda) or on Geologists (L35-36) and other mobs around Lake Nazferiti; every 5 kills cancels out a future Blackwater kill - remember, no questing for those blaggards out of Booty Bay! Nesingwary's hunting quests are fine, however, as are most quests out of Grom'gol (Horde) or the Rebel Camp (Alliance) that don't require getting to Booty Bay. If you're concerned about profession training, you should attempt to level up your skills in Blacksmithing, Engineering, Fishing, and/or Cooking (training for these depends on Booty Bay or Gadgetzan NPCs).

The Harbinger - Booty Bay's last ship - in Faldir's Cove Then, as soon as you can reasonably handle L38-39 mobs, make your way to Faldir's Cove. You can come down by walking around Stromgarde or swimming up from the Wetlands. If you take a griff from Menethil to Refuge Pointe (for Alliance), you'll pass over the cove. You'll notice the cave tunnel leading from the southwest corner of Stromgarde down to the cove. Here, the Harbinger, the last of three Blackwater ships, lies at anchor hiding from Daggerspine Naga and trying to find ancient elven gems. If you've made it to Friendly with Booty Bay, you'll have to open your Character Pane, select the Reputation tab, and click on the Booty Bay faction. Take a deep breath and click the check box to set your status to "At War." Now, start killing Blackwaters. Kill them again and again until they turn gray. At 5 points apiece, it takes 1900 Blackwaters to get you from barely Hated to Friendly (more if you actually did Booty Bay a favor in the past). As you do this, you will be (not so) slowly destroying your Steamwheedle reputation (+9000 Bloodsail reputation means at least -45,000 Booty Bay rep and -22,500 with the rest of the Cartel). To get the best return on your rep losses, stick to the Blackwater Deckhands (including Moishe) who only lose you 25 Booty Bay rep per kill. Moishe spawns on the bridge deck at the rear of the ship. There are 2 Deckhands who spawn on shore and 4 on ship. If you're careful, you can just cycle between these without aggroing any other mobs. Since patch 1.11, the respawn rate has slowed, so you may find yourself waiting on occasion; you can average around 8 minutes for the cycle, or around 225 rep/hour (which compares with most repeatable rep quests). Yes, you're looking at about 40 hours of grinding. The deckhands do drop loot, so this isn't a totally wasted effort.

If you're doing this around L40, you will likely level 4-6 times just killing the Blackwaters. Try to stay in normal (unrested or "purple") mode as much as possible by not going back to an inn or capital city when you log off. This will maximize the rep gain per xp. If the Blackwaters go gray before you hit Friendly with Bloodsail, you can continue to kill them for the rep. While this no longer gains you xp, each kill will earn you 4 rep until you level by some other means. If the farming doesn't excite you, you can start trying to take on the Booty Bay Bruisers. If you have friends to assist, this is surprisingly easy.

If you want to try to slow the slide, take time out to travel to Stranglethorn and kill Venture Company mobs (L34-36) or Tanaris for Wastewanders and Southsea pirates (L40-46, including some named ones that yield additional rep). Because of the way that the Steamwheedle reputation destruction works, grinding Southsea pirates is slightly preferable (it ends up preserving more Gadgetzan rep). The Southsea pirates also drop Wastewander Water Pouches - if you can still turn these in, great! If not, it may be worth holding on to them until you can talk to Gadgetzan again - every 5 pouches can be turned in for 10 Gadgetzan/5 Cartel rep through L49. You might also ask friendly guildmates to send you stacks of Water Pouches (stacks of 20, so each stack is 40 Gadgetzan, 20 Cartel - the equivalent of 8 kills). Every little bit helps. At this point, you can also go back to the pirates near Ratchet - they will only give you 1 rep per kill, but your kill rate will be much higher. These grinding options are also the primary way you'll be rebuilding your rep in the 40's if you choose to leave the damage control until after you've gotten Friendly with Bloodsail. Remember - at this point, you're likely to be in the neighborhood of 5000 kills from being neutral with the Cartel again - and another 3000 on top of that before Booty Bay will stop attacking you on sight.

If you're coming to these chronicles late and are already L60, killing Bruisers is your most efficient course. One of the best kill spots is the entrance to Booty Bay (good respawn rate, room to run away, nearby graveyard). Others prefer the path that leads to the blacksmith (just to the left after entering Booty Bay). You can make it from Hostile to Friendly in 8-10 hours (if you've tanked your reputation with Bloodsail, the grind from will take up to another 32 hours or so). You face a harder grind to recover with the rest of the Cartel, however, since most of the quests and mobs will now be gray to you. Most of the folks who've done this recommend exterminating the Southsea camps near Ratchet - the mobs are easy to kill and there are sufficient numbers to keep a continuous farming cycle going. Still, even at a kill rate of 200/hour, that's 5 hours for each 1000 points of rep.

You only need to get to Friendly for the quests. Just to be safe, grind at least 500 points into Friendly, in case you accidentally do something nice for Booty Bay. If you really want to make Revered, wait until you no longer get rep from kills before visiting the Fleet Master. When you need to finally earn your hat, use the flight point to land you in Booty Bay. Revilgaz and Seahorn can actually be pulled separately with a bit of luck if there are no Bruisers around to pass on aggro. Take out Seahorn first - he has a longer respawn timer than the Baron. Allegedly, the Horde flight point is a good staging ground. Alternately, you can die and rez on the rooftop. You might be able to escape by jumping off into the water after the assassination. Both the Baron and Seahorn are L60 (non-elite), so if you've hit Friendly with the Bloodsails in the 40's, spend some levels grinding Southsea pirates and making nice with the rest of the Cartel.

In the aftermath, you can repair your reputation with the Cartel by killing Venture Company or Southsea pirate mobs, by doing the repeatable reputation quests, or selling out to the goblins (which no true Bloodsail Admiral would ever do!). Note that until you reach Neutral, you won't be able to use the inn or most vendors in the various goblin cities. Until Unfriendly, expect Bruisers to attack you on sight as soon as you fly in to town. Information on gaining goblin reputation may be found on the Steamwheedle Cartel page. A seriously patient person would grind back until Booty Bay became (at least) Unfriendly before going after the Baron and Seahorn, just to delay the arrival of the Bruisers. Note that you must still be Hated with Booty Bay to accept the quest, though!