I am a casual scum player and I, too, had the same repugnance over my options at ever getting Jboots OP.
On my wizard I thought that this was a very necessary item so one morning I tried and see how hard the infamous quest really was.
7kpp is out of my league. I never have this much pesos, and if I do I have many other things I need to buy before a Jboots MQ. Also, like yourself, I don't really like the concept of buying an MQ.
I had to choose between Sro and OoT myself. Spending 10 hours on an island in OoT didn't sound like fun so I logged in my lvl 53 druid and tried my chance at Sro.
Don't.
Sro AC is a crazy camp. You have between 4 to 12 druids popping in exactly at 9:25 in-game, at 9:30 precisely they (we) all hit Track, and if the first name on top is AC we hope we're closest to it and we run, then trying to cast level 1 DD to FTE it...
Long story short; you will not win that race.
Some druids are just master at Sro AC hunting, and you are a casual scum like me, this ennemy is stronger than you.
So I took the boat.
My IRL best friend is also on a wizard, and was thinking about farming Jboots with me as well. He doesn't have a druid to try Sro, so OoT seemed more natural to both of us.
Woke up early on a weekday, and the AC in OoT wasn't camped.
My friend started farming it, I helped him kill faster and every day at 9:30 I was still trying my luck in Sro, bound on the island to then come back.
It took my friend seven hours to get his ring, then it was my turn, and I got mine in 26 minutes. We went to Nektulos, got the two shadowed Rapier in under 5 minutes. Withdrew 3250gp from the bank and went to Rathe Mtns.
Hasten wasn't up, and some Sro AC Hunter was already there trying to have it spawn. Took about 2 PHs and Hasten was up. My friend logged his wizard and I did the MQ on my druid for him, then I logged my wizard and he did the MQ for me on his necro (level 53 as well).
All in all, it did take us a full day to make it.
But honestly? It is not worth 7kpp. It is very doable, even for casual scum like us
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And the Sro camp is completely crazy, I really don't think you want to get into that game.
You will have to spend a full day off on it, prepare some side activity like Netflix, Reading or whatever kicks you, but get to OoT and just do it, it is not that long/hard
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Good luck! It was a very satisfying moment to quest it and get them boots on my Wizard, I never thought I could ever get such an item in my EQ life hehe.