Talk:One to be Feared

My CoP static is kind of stuck on this, but we've got Mammets down to a science and we've pretty much gotten Omega down too. I've been FRAPSing our battles and saving the battle logs to carefully analyze these bosses, so I'll add a little of what I've learned and what strategies we've been using.

For the Mammets, rather than kiting at all we just have all the melees (and our SMN) grab one and solo them in a corner of the airship while the mages (WHM and BLM for us) run around Silencing and Curing. As Ninja, I pull two of the mammets into one corner, while our DRG, SAM, and SMN each grab one. The DRG and SAM gang up on one of theirs in their corner while the SMN distracts the last one in his own corner. Keeping them separate is important to minimize the toll from AoE abilities and spells. Whenever anyone kills a Mammet, they move on to the next one with the lowest HP. Using this method we always reach the next stage of the battle with 37 minutes to spare.

On Omega, if a Ninja is tanking I highly suggest using Bat Earrings x2 and tanking blind, spamming elemental Ninjutsu to keep hate (I don't recommend using staves, though, as the constant equipment change blink will screw up mages' quick healing). Omega will use a special move about every 20 seconds (although this can vary between 10 seconds and 40). As it says in the article, all melees should /NIN if possible to avoid Target Analysis and Guided Missile, and if possible mages should haste ALL melees to reduce Utsusemi recast. Mages should also be very quick to cure paralysis, petrification, and damage. Mages should take turns resting as this can be a very long battle. BLM nuking is not recommended as Omega needs to be kept far away from the mages.

Omega's attack rate increases as his HP gets lower. This seems to start around ~40% HP and gets especially bad around 25% and even worse at ~10%. Since his attacks have "Additional Effect: Stun" and he hits quite hard, and also uses brutal abilities at this point, it is important to finish him off quickly with two hours. Astral Flow is a really good choice since you can get more than one big blast in. IT IS ESSENTIAL though that you use a CCB Polymer before he hits the 25% mark because "Discharger" will annul magic damage and the Shock Spikes will probably stun melees, making your 2-hours go to waste.

On Ultima, be advised that for the first 30% of his HP, he is only trying to get you to waste MP. Every 20 seconds, he will use either Particle Shield (defense up), Chemical Bomb (Slow+Elegy), or Wire Cutter (physical damage that can be absorbed by only two shadows). If you bother Dispelling every Particle Shield and using Erase+Erase+Haste (76 MP) to get the NIN back up to optimum speed, you're just throwing away MP because he'll probably just use it again in 20 seconds. Erase once, maybe even twice if the NIN has image trouble, but Ultima attacks really slow anyway so Haste is definitely not worth it. At this stage just slowly beat him down.

Once Ultima hits 70% HP he changes battle modes completely, from "Flower Mode" to "Elemental Pushover." Erase all Slowness on the tank, Haste, and Dispel (he won't use Chemical Bomb or Particle Shield again until the 40% stage or lower). Now every 20 seconds, his game is to use Nuclear Waste (-50 all elemental resistances) followed immediately by an elemental+status attack (~500 damage). Use the Bar-status spell that you want to protect against the most (I recommend Barpetra), as well as a Bar-element spell. Keep Ultima facing the tank and ONLY the tank, as these attacks are line-of-sight (or breath area?). He seems to repeat himself a lot, so have a mobile mage (preferably not the WHM, in case he gets inadvertantly Petrified or something) run in and cast a Bar-elementra spell of what he seems to be using the most. Make sure everyone knows which elements cause which status effect, and melees should bring Antidotes and Echo Drops since they can cure these ailments themselves. Keep the tank above 500 HP since the attacks do about this much damage. On my last attempt, Ultima did something unexpected -- at 45% HP he used TWO elemental attacks in a row, without the usual ~20 second wait -- I died.

At 40%, Ultima starts using Equalizer (AoE physical damage), and I think he'll also start using Chemical Bomb, Particle Shield, and Wire Cutter again. I guess just treat him like Omega at this stage -- keep mages away, keep utsusemi up, and you may need to Erase+Erase and maybe +Haste if you can afford the MP, if he's using Chemical Bomb.

At 20% (I think?), beware of Antimatter - it is very powerful. You should just use CCB Polymers at this point, and use what 2 hours you have left. We got him down to about 6% HP on our first attempt, but he was spamming Antimatter 2 or 3 at a time.

I've determined that Omega has about 11,000 HP and Ultima has about 12,000 HP. I determined these numbers by counting exactly how much damage was dealt to these bosses in a given amount of time (except for DoT damage which isn't shown in the log) and measuring his HP bar (by pixels) at the beginning and end of the countings, so they should be pretty accurate. Use this info in determining how much damage you need to do when these bosses start going crazy. In other words, you'll need to count on doing ~3000 damage to Omega when he gets to 25%, and ~2500 damage to Ultima when he gets to 20%.

Hope my info helps.