I finally met my Waterloo, the grind that even I cannot contemplate.
I have a long and grindy history in Azeroth. I thought nothing of doing Revered with the Aldor and then Exalted with the Scryer (requiring a hefty amount of basilisk-killing in the middle) with my paladin because I wanted all the jewelcrafting recipes. I ground my Night Elf priest to Exalted Stormwind faction pre-60 and pre-easy-rep-gains because I wanted a horse. I have maxed-out fishing, for god’s sake.
I didn’t flinch at the idea of grinding my way to Exalted with the Consortium (before all the solo and 5-man Consortium content in patch 2.2, to boot) or the Kurenai. I have every Burning Crusade faction, bar Scale of the Sands and Ashtongue Deathsworn, at Exalted. I’ve just hit Exalted with Stormwind and Argent Dawn, and I’m a couple of days away with Darnassus, Exodar and Cenarion Circle — then comes Timbermaw and Frostspring Wintersaber factions.
But I have met my match: the rep grind that makes me shudder and think “oh god, no“. This terror: the rep grind to get Exalted with the Bloodsail Buccaneers for a swanky Admiral’s hat and parrot pet. This grind would necessitate killing 1,300 level 67 elite mobs (who drop zero loot – not even coins) just to get to Friendly with the damn Buccaneers… and then I’d have to grind my way back up from Hated with all the Steamwheedle factions just so as not to get ganked the minute I set foot in one of their towns.
No. Just no. I don’t care how cool the hat looks. HONEST.
Good luck with that. Imo I don’t think TBC factions are as worth grinding as pre-TBC, mainly due to how much easier and common it is these days. For example, everyone can get the SSO title these days, farm honor for full S2 and get all sorts of ‘unique’ reputatio items and pets without breaking a sweat :(
Maybe I just miss the good old pre-TBC days, when you had to work for everything and you deserve it…
Like when my Banana Shoulders finally dropped after months of playing!
I think if you’re going to do Bloodsail rep, you need to start as early as possible. It’s WAY too time consuming if you aren’t neutral with goblins when you start :P
I thought about doing the Aldor/Scyer one and thats insane enough, but I couldnt stand to have the goblins mad at me.. :(
Note that you don’t have to be exalted with the pirates to get the hat, just friendly. I did the grind for bloodsail rep twice…. (so far), I have an old warlock named Veldock, in which i did the grind. Then I had a healer friend who wanted the rep and since I was already hated with Steamweedle I helped him.
It only takes around 6-8 hours of continual grind… and considering fishing takes about that to get to 300 or so.. its really not too bad.. but it does vary on your current standing with the goblins.. (veldock, had rev. with all but everlook when he started).
That’s an incredible amount of grinding… very impressive. You’re sure you can live without that hat, though? ;)