Crustacean Conundrum/Strategies

==Tips==
* Hundred Fists is very effective, but only works for one fight.
* Should you decide to use a Paladin for tanking: Invincible is also effective, but will work for one fight only.
* Summoner two hour Judgment Bolt does 1 damage to each mob. Trying this solo or with two other Summoners is not recommended.
* Destrier and Chocobo Shirt can be your friend!
==Working Job Combinations==
This section is not meant to discourage people from trying different combinations, but to illustrate combinations that have been tried and tested. Please feel free to try this BCNM with any combination you think might work, and above all, have fun!
===Pins and Needles===
This strategy involves 2 Red Mages/Ninja and 1 Ninja/Dancer, utilizing low delay weapons to deal quick, and therefor maximum damage.
Strategy:
*Red Mages equip Platoon Dagger(s) and/or Beestinger; Ninja equip kunai type katanas (lowest delay).
*Everyone equip as much evasion gear as possible. Note that there is more low level evasion gear for RDM than for NIN.
*Enter the battlefield, cast Protect, Shell, and Aquaveil for the Red Mages.
*Run to the edge of the battlefield, Red Mages cast Enthunder.
**Blaze Spikes does no damage, so don't bother with it, unless you fight on Firesday.
** Drain Samba has no effect.
*Everyone targets the Heavy Metal Crab and draw their weapon, but don't move in yet.
*RDMs choose different Metal Crabs, use a Bind <stnpc> macro and move the target cursor to their Metal Crab, but don't cast the spell yet.
* After Binding, use Poison, Slow, Paralyze and other Enfeebling spells.
*The ninja pulls the Heavy Metal Crab with Kurayami: Ichi, then runs back down to the middle of the hall to avoid its first spell.
*The mages fire off Bind on the Metal Crabs, then immediately Silence Heavy Metal and move in to attack.
*After killing the Heavy Metal Crab, take out the Metal Crabs as their bind effects wear off.
**If one of the Metal Crabs becomes unbound too soon, just Bind him again and move out of his melee range.
Strategy Pros:
*Since damage to the crabs is limited to 0-2 damage per normal hit, low delay weapons will have the most opportunity to deal the most damage. The additional effect from Enspells further increases the damage.
Strategy Cons:
*If bind wears off too soon, things could start to go wrong.
Making this Strategy Better:
*Red Mage/Ninja is useful for Dual Wield, which gives 10% faster attacks and up to 4 damage in a single melee round.
*Wasp Sting does the same damage as a normal melee round, but without the Enthunder damage.
*Try to avoid fighting on Watersday. While your enspells will still do damage, the Heavy Metal Crab's Waterga is significantly more powerful.
Contributed by Valyana - February 1, 2006
====Walkin' on Nails====
This strategy relies on the following: [1]Red Mage, [1]Dancer, and [1]Ninja, using low delay weapons and Dual Wield to cause a maximum amount of damage in a short period of time.
Strategy:
*The Red Mage buffs up; Protect, Aquaveil, Enthunder, Barwater.
*Ninja runs in and Provokes Heavy Metal Crab, and uses Kurayami: Ichi. Red Mage Silences Heavy Metal Crab, and Binds one of the Metal Crabs. Red Mage, Dancer, And Ninja attack a non-bound Metal Crab.
*When Metal Crab is dead, concentrate on other Metal crab until it is dead.
*Refresh Bind and Silence on Heavy Metal Crab when necessary via <stnpc>.
*After the second Metal Crab is dead, concentrate on the Heavy Metal Crab.
*Recommended that you bring a few high potions, 3-4 refresh drinks per fight, as fights tend to be lengthy due to metal crab drain.
Pros:
*Reliable strategy with low rate of failure.
Cons:
*Item intensive, bringing lots of meds increases chances of success.
==Other Strategies==
*RDM + RDM + RDM: you won't have Utsusemi to absorb attacks and avoid a 30 HP drain. Kill the Heavy Metal Crab last since the other crabs are much easier to kill.
*My friends and I used Pikashit's strategy, to great success, with RDMx3. Enter, buff (Protect/Shell/Barwater/Enthunder), rest MP. Move up. Assign RDM1 to Bind one Metal Crab (let's say left one), assign RDM2 to Bind Heavy Metal, and assign RDM3 to Silence Heavy Metal. All RDMs engage other Metal Crab (right one). Assign RDM1 to Paralyze, RDM2 to Blind, and RDM3 to Slow the current target being fought. After right Metal Crab is dead, attack the left Metal Crab. Each Metal crab should go down very quickly. On Heavy Metal, keep it Silenced as much as possible. Cure each other as necessary. Medicine: 1 Yagudo Drink per RDM. Food: Two RDMs used Jack-o'-lantern, the other used Crab Sushi. Fiorenzo 20:44, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
*RDM + RDM + THF
*RDM + DRG + NIN: RDM Binds and Silences Heavy Metal Crab, then group focuses on Metal Crabs one at a time. Heavy Metal Crab is killed last. Medicines recommended.
*RDM + RDM + PLD/WAR: Mostly identical to the RDM + RDM + NIN strategy given above, however this strategy must utilize the PLD's 2-hour ability Invincible and the PLD tanks it out. After the Heavy Metal Crab is down, take one metal crab at a time. Because of the use of the 2-hour ability, this strategy may not be best if one plans to make multiple runs in a short period. As above, it is much more effective for the RDMs to sub NIN and dual wield daggers.
*MNK + MNK: Both use Hundred Fists immediately upon engaging the Heavy Metal Crab to kill it quickly, then move on to the Metal Crabs one at a time. Blue Mage sub useful for improving defense with Cocoon. Multiple Hi-Potions needed for each player.
RDM+RDM+NIN Strategy II :
I tested out the strategy involving killing the Heavy Metal Crab first, which resulted in 2 wins and 2 losses...
I found that this strategy works much better with killing the two Metal Crabs first ! You start to bind the heavy metal and one of the metal crab, then silence the Heavy Metal Crab and fight the Metal Crab who is not bound. Then you fight the other Metal Crab (bind the Heavy Metal Crab if he is free too soon and keep him silenced at all times !) and finish off the Heavy Metal Crab.
This strategy works better because of the abilities of the Heavy Metal Crab's additional effect that can drain ~30HP to a player and nearly restore all of his HP. If he does that when you fight him first you can get screwed incredibly fast ! If you fight him last, even if he does that move, it just makes the fight longer, dont put yourself in a tough situation.
With this strategy i'm at 2wins (easy win) and 0loss !
Hope it will help you all ^^
--Pikashit 17:23, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
*Went 2/2 by Killing "Heavy Metal Crab" last, really works. Setup Was: RDM/NINx2 and NIN/WAR. NIN just straight tanked all three crabs (changed from /DNC after changing strategies; helped alot, as Heavy Metal wasn't getting any HP from Drain). RDM's "DD" the crabs using Enthunder and used Bind and Silence as stated. All 3 went down really fast. NIN was hit twice on second run. Remember to use Enthunder as its an extra hit and hitting for 2dmg really goes far on these mobs. MEDs, Refresh, and Food help. --Limes o Sylph 05:41, October 18, 2009 (UTC)
RDM+NIN+PUP
This strategy is very similar to the other X+RDM+NIN Strategies, so I'll be brief. As usual, the NIN gears for evasion; RDM should sub NIN and use two low delay daggers. The PUP should use Cougar Baghnaks for the added ice damage, and outfit his or her automaton with the Valoredge frame and head. Be sure to equip the following attachments: Flashbulb, Shock Absorber, Accelerators I & II, Volt Gun, Stabilizer II, Auto-repair Kit II, and Strobe. Apply other attachments as you see fit, some useful suggestions are Hammermill and Smoke Screen.
Be sure that the Puppetmaster's Activate timer is ready; if it isn't ready, remember to Deactivate the Automaton before entering, or else you will be forced to wait for Activate while inside the BCNM. Once inside, Activate the Automaton while the RDM applies buffs to the party to wait out cool down timer on Maneuver use. Once the RDM heals mp back to full, approach but do not engage the crabs. NOTE: Be sure to allow atleast 3 minutes to pass before engaging crabs, that way the Automaton's Shock Absorber timer will be ready.
Before engaging the crabs, use the following Maneuvers, preferably in this order: Earth, Wind, Light. Once all three are maneuvers are active, have the NIN voke the heavy metal crab. Deploy the Automaton onto one of the metal crabs (I usually did the left), and then have everyone attack the remaining metal crab. The RDM should Silence the heavy metal crab to prevent it from casting spells.
The first metal crab should go down quickly, once it's dead, turn your attention to the second metal crab. Remember to keep Light Maneuver active for Flashbulb, and at least one Wind; two are preferable as the crabs have poor accuracy, so more evasion means less chance of the Automaton getting hit. If the NIN's shadows go down, use a Fire Maneuver to trigger Strobe, this'll give the NIN enough time to recast Utsusemi and voke again.
Once the second metal crab is down, focus on the heavy metal crab. The fight should be practically over at this point, just be sure the RDM continues to reapply Silence as it wears.
Using this Strategy, I've been 5/7 on this fight, losing twice do to some poor luck with Silence sticking on the heavy metal crab, allowing for a couple errant Waterga to kill the party. --Melchaia 05:06, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
RDM/NIN+NIN/WAR+NIN/WAR
Rdm binds & silence Heavy Metal Crab while the 2 NIN's take the other 2 crabs and run back to the burning circle. Then both NIN's attack one until it is dead and then kill other crab. All the while the rdm is kiting, binding and silencing the Heavy Metal Crab. Once both little crabs are dead everyone attacks the Heavy metal crab... Keep shadows up at all times and bounce hate back and forth so the crabs wont heal themselves. --Buz/Zolara 7:32, 17 Feb 2009
MNK+MNK+MNK attempt
Just attempted to do this with three MNKs (2 were level 20, 3rd was 15) but we lost miserably. Both of the level 20 MNKs using 2 hour's took quite awhile to kill the boss because of hitting for 0s and the endrain. We also only had 2 hi-potions per MNK and without cocoon up they hit for almost 40 even with Tavnazian Taco. The 2 weaker crabs were a pain to try and fight, even with the level 15 MNK opening with 2 hour on the first normal crab, it endrain'd twice when it was almost dead. I wouldn't recommend attempting a MNK zerg strategy without having atleast 5-10 hi-potions per MNK, every MNK level 20, and great level 20 gear and weapon so you dont hit for 0.
I don't want to sound like i am knocking your strategy, but were your monks capped at 20 or were their levels actually 20? Capped skills can help a lot during fights like these, and if your h2h was not capped then that could be a reason for hitting for 0. I do not remember the strategy exactly that we used, but with 2 mnk and 1 G-Axe war all using 2hrs we beat this on the first try, also with meds. I would just advise making sure you have okay gear for the level, or even having higher gear level capped, and having your h2h and evasion skills capped. 3 mnks with hundred fists should be able to take these out, especially if you begin landing crit hits. Theode 04:43, October 10, 2009 (UTC)
Category:Strategies
3x Mnk vs.
2x Mnk + Rdm
I've beaten this 2/7 times. Both times were on days the crabs were weak (Iceday first time, Lightning day second time). We used jack o' lanterns and persikos au lait. We each used 4-6 hi pots. The first time, we had 2 mnks and a rdm. Mnks had tropical punches and tropical punches +1. Rdm no special gear. Strategy was each mnk provoke a metal crab, with one mnk getting aggro on heavy metal as well. Rdm silence heavy, both mnks 2 hr on heavy. When heavy down, focus on first one crab, then the next. Pretty rough when rdm caught hate and we had to chase down heavy, next time had rdm stand right up on crabs so we didn't have to chase them down during 100 fists, thus losing time. The times we lost were with this set-up on days the crabs were NOT weak. Set time record with this set-up the one time we won but the second strategy worked better. 3 mnks. Didn't have any special gear this time. Each mnk vokes a crab but all 3 two-hour on heavy. When down, take the other two one at a time. This was fairly easy. Broke our previous record on this set-up. ~Zazhi, sylph