Ancient Vows

Preparations

 * Assemble a party of six in level 40 gear.
 * It is recommended to bring the following:
 * Two Giant Scales for your party or alliance. (These can be farmed on the way to the BC.)
 * Yellow Liquid for your kiters and tanks. (See below.)


 * The following food and medicine are known to be useful:
 * Jack-o'-Lantern: for kiters (enhances Evasion).
 * Hi-Potions: for melees, tanks and kiters.
 * Juice or Yagudo Drinks: for mages.
 * Hi-Ethers or Mulsum: for mages.
 * Echo Drops: for mages. (Useful in Riverne if silenced on the way to the BC.)
 * Prism Powder (since bombs in area aggro magic)

Walkthrough

 * Head for the Dilapidated Gate in Misareaux Coast at (F-7).
 * After receiving the cutscene at the gate, you will pass through. Run straight ahead to the end of the cliff and click on the Spatial Displacement. You will recieve another cutscene and enter Riverne - Site #A01. This area has a Level 40 cap.
 * Make your way ahead (North-West) toward (L-8), and click on the Spatial Displacement there.
 * If you don't have two Giant Scales, they may be farmed in this area from Wyvern-type mobs named Firedrakes. More are found in the next area as well.
 * Proceed to (G-10) and trade one Giant Scale to the Spatial Displacement to open it for travel. (Make sure your entire party or alliance gathers around the Displacement before the scale is used; it will only remain open for a limited period of time.) Enter the open Displacement before it closes again.
 * In the next area, cast Invisible or use Prism Powder to make your way past the Atomic Clusters&mdash;they are aggressive to magic, as well, so use extra caution.
 * Head to the Spatial Displacement at (E-10). Trade your second Giant Scale to it and head through.
 * The Cloud Hippogryphs in the next area can make problems with their True Sight. Stay against the right side of the path to reach the next Spatial Displacement. upon entering.
 * Head straight forward in the next area to reach another Spacial Displacement, you should see it immediately. Click on it to enter Monarch Linn.
 * You will emerge in an uncapped waiting area (similar to the Spires in the Chapter 1 Promyvions). When healed and ready, trigger the Spatial Displacement in front of you. Select the battle "Ancient Vows". You will recieve a cutscene, then zone into the Battlefield.
 * Buff, eat food, then engage.

Extra note: Do not use RDM for this battle, Gravity WILL NOT STICK, I repeat, WILL NOT STICK. Only Bind sticks for a short period.

Boss Battle for "Ancient Vows"

 * This is a six-person BC fight with a Level 40 cap and a time limit of thirty minutes. You will be facing three Mammets-19 Epsilon. They are humanoid robots, created by the Zilart, capable of changing Jobs at will. They have about 3800 HP each.  The Job being used (and the TP attacks it will use) can be identified from the weapon the Mammet has equipped:
 * "Hand Form" (Initial form. No equipped weapon; seems to shoot from its sleeves)
 * Transmogrification: Converts all physical damage into HP for ~30 seconds. Extremely dangerous.  Everyone should have a macro to call out when they see Transmogrification so people can disengage as fast as possible.
 * "Sword Form" (Warrior-type? Geared toward Weapon Skill-like attacks and TP-based AOE status abilities)
 * Velocious Blade: 5x attack, high damage.
 * Sonic Blade: AOE high damage.
 * Scission Thrust: Directional AOE low damage.
 * "Staff Form" (Black Mage-type, casts AOE -ga magic; suceptible to physical attack, resistant to Silence)
 * Psychomancy: AOE Aspir, drains 80+ MP from everyone in range.
 * Mind Wall: Gives the Mammet the Magic Shield effect, so it 100% resists all spells for ~30 seconds. Astral Flow is unaffected, as are elemental Weapon Skills.  EDIT:  Mind Wall causes the Mammet to absorb spell damage as HP, not just resistance.
 * "Polearm Form" (Dragoon-type, geared toward heavy physical attack; high delay between swings. Most kiters and tanks prefer this form to lock their Mammet into).
 * Percussive Foin: Directional AOE medium damage.
 * Microquake: Single-target high damage.
 * Gravity Wheel: AOE high damage and Gravity.
 * In addition, all forms can use Tremorous Tread: AOE low damage and Stun, absorbed by Utsusemi.


 * Yellow Liquid (dropped from the Mammets, sold at Auction House under Medicines) will lock the targeted Mammet into its current form for thirty seconds, making it unable to change jobs. This is useful for both kiting and tanking. Kiters can start by locking their Mammets into Hand form, though it's bad for the Mammet you're actually fighting because of Transformogrification.


 * No matter what strategy is in effect, your log window should be watched at all times for the use of Transmogrification. Physical attacks (including from pets) should cease immediately, and a weak attacker should "test" the effect's status at their discretion until damage is once again done, at which point it it safe to resume physical attack.


 * Party Tactics
 * The method used the most often for this battle is to send two party members to kite one Mammet each from either side of the battlefield at the start of the fight&mdash;running them around the periphery of the battlefield&mdash;while the tank Provokes the center Mammet and draws it into the entry tunnel for the remaining members to attack. When the center Mammet is defeated, one kiter will bring the next Mammet into the tunnel for the party to fight, and so on with the last Mammet.
 * NINs, or players with a NIN subjob, are favorites for kiting the Mammets. RDM/NIN seems to be a particular favorite for Gravity and Stoneskin/Phalanx as backup for Utsusemi: Ichi. (Chainspell can be used with Utsusemi in emergency situations, or to expedite recovery from Convert, as well.) However, this job combo is not actually neccesary for victory in this battle. BSTs (using Jug Pets and Charm Bind) and SMNs (using Avatars) are also known to be very effective Mammet kiters. (Mammets seem very easy to kite in general, explaining the popularity of this method.)
 * By the time the final Mammet is being fought, your reserves may be close to exhausted. (Most likely there will be little time for rest; many kiters may not be able to last for prolonged periods against a Mammet, particularly without Yellow Liquid.) Don't be afraid to use your two-hour abilities at this point.


 * Another tactic used is to send a PLD in to Provoke one of the Mammets. 4 Summoners then Astral Flow with the Avatar strongest on that particular Vana'diel Day) on the Mammet the Paladin Provoked and leave their avatars out until the Mammets kill them, then use a Hi-Ether and do a second Astral Flow to wipe out the Mammets.  This is a very fast strategy.  One or two of the Summoners can be replaced with Black Mages chain-nuking -ga spells after the first Astral Flow.  In this case, the Paladin will need to Invincible to get hate off the BLMs once the Avatars die, and should use Yellow Liquid to avoid Staff Form using Mind Wall to block nuke damage.  The 6th member of the party is often a healer.
 * A third tactic is for the entire party to use Reraise items (or just for the White Mage to Reraise him/herself). When entering, all members ignore their food and meds; they immediately focus on attacking one Mammet&mdash;ignoring the other two as they do damage&mdash;then run back into the tunnel when the first Mammet is defeated, meleeing the remaining Mammets at the BC exit until the party is wiped. When the Mammets leave and return to their positions, members Reraise (or are Raised). After Weakness wears on all members, they eat their food, rebuff, and engage the remaining two as if the battle was a normal EXP fight (though still watching for Transmogrification). A party will lose EXP with this method (if unprepared, members can possibly delevel), and they won't exactly set any server records; regardless, it seems to be the easiest and most reliably successful method for finishing this battle, though also the least challenging.
 * Yet another tactic is to take 3 Ninjas and 3 Healers (at least one should be White Mage for Haste). The Ninjas each pull one Mammet to different sides of the battlefield to avoid overlapping AOE, while the healers stand in the middle so they can each heal all of the Ninjas.  The Ninjas then proceed to solo their Mammets. Although slow, this tactic is extremely effective if the NINs use yellow liquids to stick the Mammets in polearm mode. Their attacks are extremely slow in this form, and they become very easy to tank. Best version is for all healers to be White Mage, so you have one dedicated healer for each Ninja. The fight takes about 15 minutes that way, but is very safe. Watch out for Sonic Blade in the Sword form though, it really hurts the Ninja.
 * A final tactic is for one player (usually a tank or Thief, though I've heard of a party doing this with a DRG/NIN) to run in and get sight aggro from all three Mammets, but do nothing that would "claim" them, or turn their name red (Provoke, use of Yellow Liquid, etc.). Since the super-kite hasn't done anything aggressive to the Mammets, they have no hate, only aggro, so mages healing them will not recieve hate, either.  One dedicated healer should focus on keeping the kiter alive, while the rest of the party pulls one Mammet at a time off of the train and kills it.
 * Note that anyone resting where the unclaimed Mammets can see them will draw aggro, as will a Summoner or Beastmaster releasing a pet anywhere in the BC (the act of summoning, however, will not cause aggro).


 * Its important to emphasize that this mission can be ridiculously easy or ridiculously hard. If your strategy involves kiting then your focus must be killing the first mammet as fast as you can leaving you with only 2 which is alot easier. Strategies varying a little from the described above also work. 2 NINs, 2WHMs, and 2 SMNs (both kiting 1 of the 3 mammets while the nins solo the other 2) works great.


 * Note for Ninjas: Elemental Ninjitsu spells in combination with eating melon pies and some decent INT gear will inflict 4x more damage per spell then 2 hits of your Katana's. Avg. Katana damage hit with meat is approx.40 per Mammet. However avg. damage per spell was over 70! and with full INT set up close to 80 damage ~ Ninja's can dish out almost 480 damage per wheel round.


 * Another strategy, though risky, that can work really fast is 1 SAM and 5 SMNs. 3 of the 5 Summoners enter and put their avatars agains a mammet. The sam uses a Icarus Wing (100TP bonus) do a WS then meditate and do another so that it forms a SC from the element of the day. 5 Magic Bursts Astral Flows kill them. If not just get another AF ready to finish them.

EDIT : For having tried this strategy, it doesn't work as the Mammets apparently share hate or something. They went straight to the party that was deeply inside the entrance after the reraiser died. I don't know if its something they changed about this fight, but they never returned to their original area. Leaving the strategy there until someone else can confirm this.
 * Good Strategy:

An EXP party configuration: i.e. Ninja, White Mage, Redmage, Warrior, Monk, (And another job) Enter the fight, buff etc.

Red Mage Reraises, runs up grabs hate from all Monsters. Ninja runs in and vokes one, pulling it all the way back to the entrance of the BC. Red Mage pulls back also but just far enough to be able to reraise. Party kills the mamet excluding the weakened Red Mage. Red Mage repeats the pull but with only one Monster left. Party kills it and moves onto the last one. Optional but good idea is to purchase Yellow Liquids. The monsters will change jobs from Hand-to-Hand, Black Mage, Dragoon. The Dragoon is easiest to fight with least worriesome TP moves. When you see the Polearm, quickly use the Yellow Liquid and it will hold the monster in that job for some time, but it will eventually wear off, so a quick kill is best.


 * When you beat BCNM for the first time, you will get transported to South Gustaberg. If you have beat it before you will return to Riverne - Site #0A1. This is something to remember if you have people waiting at Monarch Linn.

Game Description

 * Mission Orders: Follow Prishe to Cape Riverne on the Misareaux Coast. It is rumored a wyrm nests there...