To buy or not to buyFollow

Ok so I'm going after my blackbelt, and here's the question. Do I buy the 3 items from an HNM shell that bot claims 95% of the time or do I stick it out and try to get the items through KSNM99s. Just wondering what some of you think (those of you that have spent months trying to get your 3 items).

Currently the shell charges 1.5 mil per piece, and like I said they basically claim every time. I'm sitting on enough gil to buy the belt 4 times if I had to, so gil is not an issue.

Just wanted to get some people's opinions, especially those that have worked long and hard on their belt.

Buy it, especially if it's one of the last things you need for your MNK.

No shame in buying it. 1.5m per item actually isn't that bad. The top botting LS on my server charged me 3m for the item i bought from them. If there's less of an endgame presence at NQ Behemoth or Adamantoise pops, you might want to consider low manning those. Then again, there's a good chance that in the time spent camping those, you could have earned the money to buy them anyways. It's not a bad idea if you're camping the ToD everyday anyways, though.

Try to talk them down, most linkshells on my server sell for 1.5mil but I managed to get mine for 1mil each.

Its not the destination thats important. Its how you get there.

I suggest working for it. Itll make you feel a whole lot better about yourself.

I'm gonna buy mine. I just want to have my Byakko's Haidate already when i do.

Go ahead and buy those BB items. These days, buying drops from HNM shells (whether they bot or not) is pretty common. I wouldn't expect any MNK to join king camping shell for this item alone. As you said, some shells tend to dominate the NM pops. So if you can't make it in to that particular shell, you're in for a long wait.

also:


I'm picturing Pahn making a "jedi mind trick" emote here. Now PM me as well *waves hand*.

Why are you being such a prick? It's not even nearly the same as buying gil.

Edited, Jan 23rd 2009 3:22pm by Nilatai

To the OP:
In the end, it doesn't really matter what you do.
Time/moneywise: You can camp the NQs yourself, but 9 times out of 10 you'll get the money in the time you get the claim/drop too.
Ethicswise: I was at the same crossroads last year. But i didn't join a HNM shell. Instead my endgame shell started doing HNMs too. But we refused to bot. And we came to the conclusion that it is simply not sustainable. We claimed maybe 1/15 Fafhogs and maybe a little bit more Behemoths and Adamantoise. Getting these claimrates gets morale down fast. Needless to say that after 3 months we gave up on HNMs.
I got my wyrm beard from Nidhogg. But after the first month my shell didn't even go to Adamantoise and Behemoth anymore. So i had to lowman them. I even dual boxed a few Adamantoises. But i got sick and tired of the HNM scene. Fights over who stole who's king and why shell X CFHed Nidhogg when they lost their grips and getting MPKed by BST from other shells while you're trying to low man Adamantoise.
In the end i gave up on my pride and bought both the tongue and the egg for 1 mil a piece.

If you'd ask me now if i would have done the same if i had to do it again:
No, i would have just bought them straight away.
In the end, it doesn't matter anymore.



To Pahn:
It sucks that Black Sole is only 10k/stack Phoenix, but there are other options. You might not be able to get 250k/day at low level. But 150k/day is easy to make.
You can catch up to 200 fish a day. So if Black sole (or any other fish for that matter) sells for 15k/stack, you can make 250k/day. I'm sure I won't have to tell you how i came up with that numbers.

First of all, make sure you get a Lu Shangs rod. You will NEED this rod if you're serious about getting to 100 fishing.

At low levels (around lvl 18), bring crayfish paste and go to the ferry. You'll catch Nebimonite which sells for 8k/stack.
Around lvl 30, bring a minnow to the ferry. You'll catch Cone Calaramy (4,5k/stack), Bluetail (10k/stack) and Noble Lady (9,5k/stack) if you reel in only the single ! fish.
Around lvl 50 you can to Vunkler Inlet and fish for Trumpet Shells (20k/stack)
Around lvl 65 you can fish for basically every sushi demanding fish. Black Sole (10k/stack), Bastore Bream (11k/stack) and Gigant Squid (2.5k/piece) But flooding the market with 200 squids a day is probably a bad idea if not very inpracticle.

You can also do the "Inside the Belly quest" in Selbina. Turn in your Bhefhel Marlins at Zaldon. And get a shot at a Mercurial Kris (3-4% drop rate, but 3.2mil gil)

So to sum things up, yes it's possible to make 250k/day with fishing.

I hope i was able to do something in return for all your effort for this community.

-Brock-

I know what you mean, plus i'm currently leveling NIN to 75 aswell. I'm just not helping myself

Yeah they hit the nail on the head. Turn everything you catch into food. I have a very popular cooking bazaar that is set up in lower jeuno now that people buy out while I sleep.

I'm about to start fishing with two characters and hopefully double that gil/per number.

And yes I work full time and do not have the time to camp kings. Just this week for example, every spawn was while I was either at work or sleeping.

I just can't do the HNMLS thing.

I am the leader of this 90-95% BOT CLAIM RINKSHELL.


I think you should go the route of KSNM99. As the prices for you are 5 mill each.

Well, thats a heart breaker.

Yeah, thats really the leader. It was made in a sarcastic sense, but hes serious. You can't exactly say that about a linkshell and actually assume your going to be able to buy the items.

Buy them. I did it, and i did it without any second thought after countless hours of camping nq's only to lose claim to bots or not have friends show or tossing in 99 ks's only to have the shell that merced lie to me and give my item to a member, or d/c just as a 6 man party mercs my behemoth ks99, toungue drops, i d/c for 2 hours and cant get back on. Wa wa boo hoo for me, w/e, buy them, you'll save yourself sooo much time. I would have killed for 1.5m each. I paid 1m for wyrm beard, 3m for egg off aspid ( never again will i step foot in valley of sorrows lol, its called that for a reason, my tears made it that way lol) and 2m for toungue off a nq the same night i got the absolute shaft from OrderoftheBlueGarter ks99 run. long story, nuf crying, buuuyyyyyyy eeeet nooooow. And have fun with it. Maybe i had bad luck with ks's, that could be the case, but my belt is still black, even though it should be green for the amount of gil i paid lol

you win "dumbest post of the week" award, good work.

Huh? That was so completely and utterly idiotic I actually have no reply other than: Wha?

Would you like a sticker for that well thought out analysis?

Did this totally get necro'd, and the bumper promptly get sub-defaulted?