Emp Hairpin how necessary is it?

[Hilde]

Subject says it all, how necessary is it that a THF have an an Emperor's Hairpin.

I've leveled mine to 25 with out it, but I keep wondering if I should head out and camp for it.

[Raydeus]

Both DEX and AGI add to your Sneak and Trick (in 5 lvls) damage so it's a good thing to have, also the +Evasion is great.

I don't know about camping the NM (I hate camping NM), farming and just buying it or doing BC fights for either the item or gil has worked the best for me to get stuff I want.

[levish]

If you are not a career thief don't sweat it 1-37 flies by. If you are a career thief: it's neccessary, it's a staple thief piece that is not surpassed by nearly anything furthermore it's pretty much the best piece for 60+ too when you will be doing SA and TA separately making sure you have one piece for both saving precious inv space.

It's only replacement comes in at 73 for dragons cap or Hectacomb cap.

either camp the NM for the rare/ex piece, do the BCNM for the rare piece or farm/craft for it and buy it.

[Malevolent]

If you get snubbed out of parties for not having Bounding boots or emp hairpin...I'd say its pretty needed...and all that.....thats just on Nin...

[raidenn]

I dont have bounding boots or the hairpin but I got 1-37 pretty smoothly. It's a nice item to have if you can manage to but screw those people who say 'it's needed and we hate you for not having it'.

[Maju]

Nowadays the hairpin is so insanely expensive I don't know how any first job levelers are supposed to be able to afford it.

Camping the rare/ex version isn't easy either since the drop rate, the spawn rate and the competition are all horrible. The spawn delay is, according to somepage.com, 30 mins to over 8h. If we assume that there are 5 people including you camping it and the drop rate is 5%, your chance of obtaining it per spawn will be 1%.

...yeah, I hate NMs with a passion.



I don't know about camping the NM (I hate camping NM), farming and just buying it or doing BC fights for either the item or gil has worked the best for me to get stuff I want.

BC fights sadly aren't quite accessible for most people. Thieves aren't used for a single BCNM and even I who have 75 PLD, 47 NIN, 37 WAR and 37 RDM have only done Petrifying Pair a handful of times and that's it. All because I can't find anyone reliable to go with. KSNM30 on the other hand is very popular but it's BLM onry.

[levish]

a little bit of effort into actually camping instead of running headlong and uninformed into it is the best way to go about it

LL is a 5minute to 2 hour spawn with a single placeholder

I've never seen the Emperor go more than 3 hours between spawns, if he did you probably missed him.

Use Allak for camping info they actually have posters commenting and confirming things.

[FranckKnight]

It might be camped, but since they are rare/ex, you can expect that its people that will be using it at least, not just sell it off for a quick buck.

So you'll see people going there in waves. Sometimes none is around, sometimes there is. By the rules of 1 per person only, eventually everyone would have one, or at least those that would have a use for it <.<

[Jaxom]

While I would agree that because it is rare/ex, the person camping the NM is most likely someone who has a use for the item (although not always as I've heard that some GS offer people a chance to lot on a rare/ex item, but I doubt that would be the case on an item that does have some rare counterparts that are sellable...anyways, back to the point), I would disagree that this means eventually everyone who wants it will have it. There are always players leaving, and thus, new players come to the server(s) and these new players need it. Not too mention those old players who return and decide to level a new job and want such-and-such item for their new job choice.

/rant
Personally I think the whole NM situation in this game is a bit ridiculous. Some mobs have really long spawn times, then you have to beat out competition (which includes other parties/alliances and GS) in attempting to get the claim, and then some of these mobs don't even have a 100% drop rate. End result, if you can't stay at least logged on to get ToD, or simply sit and stare at your tv/monitor for 2 days straight, you don't get the item. I could understand this if we were all paying SE by-the-minute rates for our online time.
/end rant

I personally would go along with the advice others gave suggesting you farm, or do a few BCNMs to get the money to buy it. If you are forced or choose to camp VE or any NM for that matter, i would recommend getting help if possible. Not so much for the fight itself, but in getting the claim.

[Eauijhkuu]

Main:
Galka THF 68.

I never wasted time trying to camp Emp. Hairpin or Leaping Boots.

And I still smoked alot of thieves at my level. And I rock even still.
Though I'd probably rock even harder if I had them. :D

If you plan on soloing later on, I could understand the Emp.hairpin.

I personally don't consider it a necessity; Gear doesn't define a superb player most of the time.

[Saidee]

I personally don't consider it a necessity; Gear doesn't define a superb player most of the time.

After playing several jobs to 75, I have to disagree there. The definition of a "superb player" is both a combination of excellent gear and being able to play your class flawlessly. I will however agree that I'd rather play with someone under-geared that plays their class flawlessly rather than someone in excellent gear that totally sucks at their class.

As a Galka though, you should be loading yourself with as much DEX and AGI as possible since Mithra thieves will blow your dex away if you don't. At 75 my THF/NIN has 80 base dex, you'd need gear to compensate to equal up to my damage. Mithra are the same, though. Despite having high DEX, we have lower STR, so I also have a lot of +STR to make up for what other races have.

When it comes to Emperor/Empress Hairpin, I do consider it a necessity for thieves. Once your thief is 40+ you can camp Valkurm Emperor as THF/RNG, basically beat everyone to the pull and have a higher chance of getting the drop. It's all about luck in the end, but it's definitely one of the nicer pieces of thief gear available. The only things better at 75 are Voyager Sallet and Hecatomb Cap in my opinion (Since at 75 you lean more towards STR and DEX than DEX and AGI)

[Eauijhkuu]

When I was post 50, I alternated between ACC and ATT+ gear with DEX and AGI.

I've whored DEX(+30) and AGI (+24) and was able to keep up with alot of Mithra thieves that were around my level, that didn't have near the setup that I had though (Without EH or BB). Overall, Mithra = top potential at thief.

Irregardless. Galka Dex is Equal to that of Hume at 75. The only thing that Galka might really concern themselves with is considering AGI boosts, since we're lacking heavily in that department.

There's room for improvement certainly, but I don't, in any way, consider myself a horrid THF for never having used Emp or Boots. Honestly did fine without it; Would of done even better with it. And I personally don't consider it the determined end-all factor of whether a character is sufficient or not.

I'm currently using the Walkure's Mask for the ATT+ boost;Maybe later once I decide I want to be a hard nose and solo certain NMs, or show off in ballista - for the purpose of Evasion boost, I might consider grabbing a hairpin.

[Loial]

You won't find many first time levelers that have either Emperor/ess Hairpin or Leaping Boots unless they had outside help from a friend. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

However, don't let yourself get in the mindset of "Oh, I can't afford this item, that item, some other item, so I'll just keep leveling without it." At some point you will need to earn some gil to afford upgrades. You simply do not earn enough gil through leveling to buy what you need later on.

Would those items be a help? They sure would. But, you might find yourself getting very frustrated if you continually fail to get the drops.

/rant
Personally I think the whole NM situation in this game is a bit ridiculous. Some mobs have really long spawn times, then you have to beat out competition (which includes other parties/alliances and GS) in attempting to get the claim, and then some of these mobs don't even have a 100% drop rate.
I don't know if WoW does this (I don't believe so, but someone could correct me) but I've seen a good model for "camping NMs" in other MMOs.

Simply put... if the mob checks "too weak" you get no real drops. You might get the "crap drops" but never the good drops. For example, Leaping Lizzy would only drop Lizard Tail/Skin for anyone over level 20 (or whenever Lizzy is too weak).

Honestly, this lets people that want the drop to either go on another job that is the appropriate level (and bring friends if necessary) or they can't get the drop.

But what if you are already "too high of a level?" Either pay for some low level player to get it, level another job yourself and properly equip it to kill it, or suck it up and don't get it.

Leaping Lizzy might not be the best example really. But if you pick some mid-range level NM that is heavily camped... say Mee Deggi, it would probably clear out a lot of RMT and let people that are around that level to camp it themselves.

[Eauijhkuu]

That's not necessarily true Loial.
Because NMs will never check as 'Too Weak'

You have a better chance of grabbing a drop if you have a party only because everyone has a chance to make a roll for the drop to appear. THF has a better percentage than other players do.

Level difference doesn't have anything to do with drops other than crystals.

[Maju]

I don't know if WoW does this (I don't believe so, but someone could correct me) but I've seen a good model for "camping NMs" in other MMOs.

It doesn't.


Honestly, this lets people that want the drop to either go on another job that is the appropriate level (and bring friends if necessary) or they can't get the drop.
But what if you are already "too high of a level?" Either pay for some low level player to get it, level another job yourself and properly equip it to kill it, or suck it up and don't get it.

Having to level up a job for one single NM would suck even more than the current sucktastic system.

FFXI needs a better gear progression. Whose bright idea was it to make L7 boots better than just about anything until end game? And why must getting the claim be harder than the fight itself? Those mobs really need to be instanced so anyone can have a shot at it.

[Icemage]

The vast majority of gear problems in FFXI (and really there aren't that many, relatively speaking) revolve around:

(1) Gear which is way overpowered for its level. Leaping Boots, Emporer Hairpin, Astral Ring, Peacock Charm, etc. These items should never have been low level, and should have been increased in level to 60+ and moved off of stupidly easy NMs a long time ago.

(2) Gear which simply outclasses the rest of the competition. Black Belt, relic weaponry, Kirin's Osode, Speed Belt, Kraken Club, etc. These things hurt the game balance by limiting diversity.

(3) Enemies that drop the best gear are too easy, and drop the gear far too rarely. This causes a lot of competition for a lot of wasted effort. King Behemoth, Aspidochelone and Nidhogg are often the fall guys for this, but NMs like King Arthro, Lord of Onzozo, and other weaker NMs often provide ridiculously good gear for their difficulty.

That said, I don't really think any piece of melee gear is "must have". As long as you have enough pieces of decent gear, you can perform adequately, and adequate is all that's really necessary for XP purposes. More is certainly OK, but it certainly isn't required at anything other than end-game.


Icemage

[Eauijhkuu]

Think SE was trying to resolve those slight issues with certain nuances

Such as putting Emp and Leapings as drops in BCNMs,
And replacing the drops as rare exclusives?

[Karinya]

But that still doesn't fix the problem that the item is far too low level for its power (or far too powerful for its level), putting it far beyond any competition for its level. I'd rather see their power reduced than their levels increased, though. Hairpins +1 DEX/+1 AGI/+5 EVA, boots +1 DEX/+1 AGI, astrals convert 10 HP->MP, etc.

All of this doesn't address the OP's question, though: although these items are more powerful than any others of their level, they really won't have that big an effect on your overall performance. You might see 5-10 more damage per Sneak Attack, which is not going to make or break your party. Knowing what you're doing is much more important for THF; and THF is also often a puller, and knowing what you're doing as a puller WILL make or break a party.

It's commonly stated that Skill > Gear > Race, but especially for a job like THF, that first step (separating skill from everything else) is a big one. Equipment won't make you a good THF or a bad THF. (Well, unless it's *really* terrible equipment, like Beestinger at level 30.) Knowing how to line up SA and TA, manage your TP, pull the right mobs without links at an appropriate pace, etc. will define at least 95% of your overall performance.