Get your J Boots!

If you ever played much Everquest in your day then this quest will likely have a special place in your heart. From this quest you'll get yourself a pair of J Boots - a pair of boots with 19 dex and (more importantly) a clickable ability called SOW which buffs you with a 1 hr 25% run-speed increase. The ability name takes after a classic Everquest spell called "Spirit of Wolf". This was a buff that people used to spam /ooc requests offering to pay a bit of plat for. The game was HUGE and this speed boost was a sacred thing for nearly everyone.

"Paying 15pp for SOW pst"

Picking up the quest:

So to start off the quest you'll wanna rift to Kaon's Rush and grab a griffon. You're gonna be flying south-east and it won't be long before you'll be approaching a rope bridge cutting across the canyon. At the direction you're coming from, your headed for the right side of the bridge - or the end on the western side. Land down just after where the bridge ends where you'll see a row of trees. Keep an eye on the 3rd tree. Just under the tree you're  waiting for an NPC named Hastey Bootstrut. He runs laps around his little circuit and stops for about 5 minutes each lap under that tree. This is your quest giver. Apparently his little run takes him about 20 minutes per lap.

The Ancient Cyclops:

You only have 3 steps from here, and this will be as tough as it will get. The rest is cake, but this isn't too bad either. Rift to The Temple of Dailuk rift and grab a wyvern. You'll want to make the following macro:

/target Watcher
/target "Ancient Cyclops"

Now you want to fly around the chunk spamming that macro. It won't take you long before to pick up on one or the other. If you find the watcher you need to kill him because he's the placeholder for the Ancient Cyclops. Once dead either the cyclops or the watcher will respawn within approximately 10 minutes at one of 3 locations in the chunk, each of which are indicated by a shining electric sphere like object floating about 10 feet off the ground. Keep doing this until one of the times it will be the ancient cyclops who spawns. He's a 35 6-dot and you need to kill him, so that's something you'll want to be prepared for.

Loot his little wrist band thing and head and make your way to the Jalen's Crossing rift where you'll want to fly south to Ca'ial Brail in search of a Raki named Cojo. Cojo is a vendor on the main platform of the town and you need to buy 3 "Cojo's Golden Charms."

Once you have your 3 charms, head to misthaven crossing for the last step before you get your J Boots. Head up the giant hill to the northwest and slay the shadowed men at the top until you get a "Shadowed Rapier." This usually tends to take a bit of time as the rapier is a pretty uncommon drop, so be prepared to possibly have to clear the hill a couple times. Once you have your rapier, head on back to Koans Rush and back to Hastey Bootstrut and get your J Boots!

CAPS NAMED Mobs List - killing for plat coin

LEVELS 0-19:

The Effective Use of Input Commands and Macros

Macros can be very useful when used properly. While they aren't always the most effective solution for converting user input into character output, they certainly have their time and place. We're gonna try to take a look at some fairly common implementations here. First I'll start with some popular and fundamental input commands. (exclude "<" and ">" )

Targeting Commands

Parsing Logs for DPS Gain and Efficiency

Be sure to download a log parser. My favorite is YAVGLP (Yet Another Vanguard Log Parser). You can find another good one called Xanadu Parser(download) over at Xanadu Community. To find out more about their parser, download the pdf.

Once you've got a parser installed and ready, log in to the game and create a new chat window and turn on all combat-damage related text for both your outgoing, and NPC incoming damage on the chat window. Now you simply type the /log command and a log starts being created. The log will give itself a name automatically - usually by date & time - and will be written to your logs folder in your game's installation. Kill stuff and try to be consistent. Once you've recorded a decent amount of fighting, you can type /log again to cease logging and then open it up in your parser.

Parse your log and see what's doing what and when and for what percent of your overall output. Figure out combinations that lend themselves well to your play-style given what you're working with. You'll quickly discover what your strongest attacks are and will begin seeing new ways of chaining your attacks to deal more damage and operate more efficiently. Much of this will depend on things like the weapon(s) you're wielding, your monk style, and what level you are, as well as who you're fighting.

Be patient and thorough with this experimentation and it will pay off in big ways. Share what you find with other monks and try to discover what's worked well in their testing. What yields well for you will not always be the same for everyone else, so explore what is working for who.