Ancient Vows/Strategies


 * 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 Note again Gravity WILL NOT STICK, See note on "gravity will not stick" above. you can use Chainspell Bind/Utsusemi in emergencies though, .) 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.

Edit: ''Smns and bsts makes the best kiters for this battle. SMN please remember to stay somewhat far from you avatars so you'll have time to recast, Mammets run fast. If using Bst as kiter, remember to let Call Beast timer cool off to an acceptable range (45s would be good) before party starts battle.''
 * 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-Ethers(if you're summoning avatars in a time senstive situation I would not recommend using Hi-ethers due to the delay they cause in spell casting), Ethers or Muslin 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 are gone, 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 is KO'd. 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.