Cenalorn's Lucky Jboot Guide
Journeyman Boots Quest Guide
The Beginning
There are probably a ton of guides out there that tell you how to be the proud owner of your very own pair of Jboots. While my experience may not offer anything new, someone out there may find it useful. Good luck to you on your own Jboot quest.
You will need the following to complete the Jboot quest:
The Ancient Cyclops and his Precious
From what I'd read before attempting this quest, waiting for the Ancient Cyclops to spawn and drop his "precious" Ring of the Ancients was the most difficult part of this quest. I read about one poor soul who camped the ugly one-eyed monstrosity for over a week.
What worked for me was not even trying to find the Ancient Cyclops. We went in South Ro simply to track and hunt Sand Giants, and collect Terrorantula Silk. It was by complete accident that we crested a hill and saw him running towards us. This was right after killing "an orc warrior", which I read was a possible placeholder of his. We killed the orc, ran over a hill, and there he was. I still didn't realize the import of it, until as he fell he yelled out, "Oh! My precious ring!". I know right now that everyone who camped this mofo for hours, days and/or weeks hates me now. But that's the way it happened. My advice? Look for the "an orc warrior" (the "an" is the differentiating part from all other orc warriors).
The Invisible NPC's and the Shadowed Rapier
There is a choice on where to hunt Shadowed Men for the next part of the quest, and it's entirely up to you. We chose to park our butts at the Shadowed Men camp in the West Commonlands. For one, it is the largest (up to 6 spawns at times) and for the hour or so we were there, we were the only two people in the zone.
The Shadowed Men you want to keep your eyes peeled for are the ones wielding weapons. These are the Warriors - and you may end up with backpacks full of useless, heavy, NO RENT weapons in every variety but Rapier for a bit - but persistence pays off. I believe we camped this for just under an hour, and finally the Shadowed Rapier was ours.
This was done by myself, a 41 Human Warrior, and my girl, a 41 Half Elf Ranger. Some were light blue cons, and most were green - but they were still tough. I wouldn't attempt it without Snare, however, as these guys can outrun SOW, and they're invisible (you can only see their name and what they're holding if you're right up on them) - if they take off, you've lost them. We forgot to Snare one, and though he stayed on track until we left the zone, we never saw him again. The Clerics will heal themselves, and the Necros cast some pretty rough nukes. No problem, really, for the two of us. Right after we finished, a 40 Ranger took them on by himself. It's all up to you what level you try it at, and if you can do it alone or not.
Also, this item is NO RENT - so don't complete this part of the quest unless you plan to stay on and finish the rest of it.
As if the Ring of the Ancients and a Shadowed Rapier weren't enough, the gnome known as Hasten won't give up those Jboots without some serious coinage. I've read in numerous places that Hasten is as accepting of platinum as he is gold, so if you don't want the extra weight, don't fret over converting everything down at the bank.
Hasten Bootstrutter, the Speedfreak
Whether Hasten has a serious crack problem, or he's the offspring of a Lvl 65 Maestro and a large horse, fast doesn't even begin to describe how quickly this gnome moves.
Though this is written to be the easiest part of the entire quest, this part took us the longest. We waited two hours for Hasten to spawn and catching him is another problem altogether. Expect to be running through the zone yelling, "Hail! Hail! Hail" like a mad fool for a few minutes, at least.
The small passageway that separates the hill giant area and the rest of the zone is where you want to sit (facing North). When Hasten spawns he runs right through this spot - then doubles back and runs right through it again. You'll have two chances to catch him - and again after he makes his run thru the zone. He travels the same path; once he's up you should have no problems catching him (eventually).
His placeholders are "a drake" and "Maldyn the Unkempt". Some said basiliks as well, but we didn't kill many of them. Every 8-10 minutes, "a drake" would spawn by this spot and once the unkempt NPC did as well. We killed them, and eventually Hasten popped. Luckily, we never saw Brother Zephyl. From what I've read, if this badass Monk is up, Hasten won't be. Killing him is not so easy, as he's Level 60 and tough.
Conclusion
All in all, my experience with the Jboot quest was a good one. Everything worked out well, and went fairly quickly. It was worth every second of waiting, and the loss of breath trying to catch Hasten.
Here's one Warrior that never has to ask for SOW again.