Swift Belts: a lolGuide
Introduction
Since there was interest in this shown the other night I thought I'd try to summarize/consolidate what we've learned/know of the Swift Belt fight so that others can do it. There are other online guides, but the ones we found (like on Wiki) were bullet point overviews. I'll try to give more details, but also keep in mind that it's heavily influenced by what I've seen and my experiences. Your milage may vary :3
So what is a Swift Belt? It's a lvl50 belt wearable by all jobs. It has Acc+3, Att-5, Haste+4% (the important part). It's Rare/EX and drops off of poppable NMs in the Sacrarium. I'll cover how to farm, pop, and battle the NMs I'm familiar with.
I'd like to take a moment to discuss drop rate. I've heard *a lot* of horror stories of 0/9 or 0/11. Our group has a 50% drop rate. I've also heard of other groups doing this with a drop rate like that. I'm not sure what we're doing that is making us lucky, but here it is: Every person who can perform their mainjob without their usual subjob is coming as /THF. That means BRD, WHM, RDM, DD, etc. The tanks have /WAR and that's just about it. We don't have any THF mains along for TH2. I'd suggest getting your THF up to 15 if you don't have it already. You'll be helping out your group to do that.
Update: SE has spilled the beans somewhat on how TH works. They confirmed that the *number* of TH in a party doesn't matter, only the highest level one will count. (So a TH2 will overwrite 5 TH1s.) It's still unclear whether this applies on an alliance basis or if each party with at TH2 counts. So, take the advice in the above paragraph as you will. I know what worked for us, but from the horse's mouth, that's not how it works.
Our group is made up of NIN, NIN, BRD, RDM, WHM, SMN, and BLU. Most everything I read online and speaking with people said to bring NIN tanks. I'm not entirely sure / convinced that a PLD would be unable to do this or if people are just being "NIN lazy". I'll try to point out where I *think* each job may have difficulties and you can decide for yourself what is best for your group. Regardless of flavor, I would suggest bringing at least two tanks to the run for hate bouncing or if one is killed.
Another good suggestion I've heard about this is to go with a smaller group you trust and agree to keep going regularly until everyone who wants a belt gets one. Doing a large alliance outting can lead to drama and headaches if only one or two belts drop across a dozen spawns. These fights can be done with a party if you set up and target wisely. A party that is dedicated to getting everyone a belt and sticks with it will probably be less painful than trying to cat herd an alliance with the same goal. Just my opinion, of course...
Farming Codex
The Codex is Rare, tradeable, but not mailable or AHable. They drop from the Taurus type mobs in the Aquaducts (40 cap) and Sacrarium (50 cap). The first room of Taurus you see in the Ducts are DC and the lowest level ones in the zone (three spawns). The Taurus roaming the hallways before the maze in Sacrarium are DC and the lowest level ones in the zone (two - three spawns). There is also occasionally a Taurus in the maze itself that you can access on certain days, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to hunt it down. Jobs that can solo these lower level mobs without much grief include BST and NIN. I've also seen RANDOMJOB/BST do it in the Ducts. Bringing /THF for Treasure Hunter doesn't hurt either if possible.
Killing the Taurus lowers Fomor hate. I've read stories of alliances building hate up first, farming Codex, then going "o shi" when they discovered they had no hate. So this is an important point to keep in mind.
Building Fomor Hate
You acquire hate by killing Fomor in the CoP zones. The ones in the TAU zones don't count towards this total. The Fomor *outside* give more hate per kill than the ones in the Ducts or the Sacrarium. Also, anyone in party/alliance and in zone will get hate from kills whether they touched the mob or not. From our experience, killing the Fomor in the Meadows for three game days (with having people catch every spawn in the zone and killing them as many times as possible per night) will max hate. We were able to accomplish this with two or three people while others who couldn't make it were in party outside the Safehold idling. There are three spawns in the Meadows. There are two groups of three on the watch towers and then there is a group of four that spawns around the campfire in the Leshy area. The group of four checks as Too Weak, but is higher level than the two tower spawn groups. The Fomor have a 5 minute respawn from when the last one in the group was killed.
Update: Further testing by our LS has narrowed down exactly how many mobs need to be killed outdoors to cap hate. Some people killed as few as 18 while others killed around 25. So if you were crazy with catching all the spawns and killing them quickly (so they cycled 3 times during the night) it's possible to cap or come very close to cap in a single night.
As a sidenote, during this farming / hate building process you may get the items needed to do the quest "Tuning In" out of Windurst. The Spruce Lumber drops from the Taurus in the Ducts and the File drops from the Fomor in the Meadows. The File can be a terribly rare drop though, but you might see one depending on how many times you have to do this to get Belts.
There are two ways to check your hate. The first is to ask the NPC in the Safehold. His message will say something to the effect of "you may soon face a battle for your very soul". This message does not necessarily mean your hate is maxed. The messages stop one level away from maxed hate. The most reliable way to check if you're maxed is to go into the Sacrarium and poke at one of the Stale Drafts in the rooms. If the Stale Draft gives a message like "common sense tells you to leave quickly" then you're able to pop the NM. The Drafts only give three levels of checking. The second level is "your heart is racing".
When CoP came out there was a rumor that Fomor would become True Sound when hate was maxed. This is not true. Keep yourself sneaked and you'll be fine.
Popping and the NMs
You've got your Codex and your hate is maxed, now it's time to get down to business. Through the maze in the Sacrarium there are six libraries. Each library (except one) is populated exclusively with Fomor of a certain race and has a Stale Draft to one of the sides. While the Belt can be worn by any race/job only characters of the same race can pop the NM in that library. (Mithra can only pop out of the Mithra library, etc.) Which NM you get also changes depending upon which race popped it.
When someone pops the NM their hate will be reduced to nothing from the act of popping, not killing the NM successfully. The Stale Drafts have a 15 minute respawn on them. Doing the Stale Draft in one room doesn't affect the others. So if one group is doing Mithra you can mosey over to Hume and pop those while waiting for your turn. Any race can check their hate at any Draft if it's up.
You'll want to clear a path to pull the NM to the hallway before popping it. You'll want to fight in the short halls leading up to the library. Be aware that there are Fomor behind you in the main hall and they could come up to visit if you get too close. As far as we've experienced, the mobs in the library aren't partied, so it's safe to pull them one at a time. You don't need to clear absolutely every single one before popping, just the ones by the Draft and between the door. The Fomor in the libaries seem to average VT-low IT in level. The ones using a two handed weapon (SAM, DRG, DRK) can do a TP move called Grim Halo. This is an AoE move that can be blinked if you have enough shadows up, but otherwise does fairly significant damage to anyone within range. It's also a knockback move. We've had the misfortune of someone with maxed hate being knocked back into a group of Fomor and then being munched. So be aware when fighting the Fomor with 2h weapons. The bats are non-aggro and can be left alone for the most part.
As for the NMs, they're Fomor (obviously) and have two jobs. They only get the two hour of their 'main' job, but all other aspects of the secondary job. In my experience in tanking them, they're difficult to debuff with NIN tools. I think I've only gotten Jubaku to land a couple time. I know our RDM and BRD have both commented on how their debuffs will land and then wear off almost immediately. I'm not saying that a group shouldn't try to debuff them at all, but that you might have the mages do it and NINs focus on casting Ni elementals instead (if they're casting anything at all b'sides Utsu). The elementals can be resisted as well, but overall I've had much better luck once the wheel was started with landing spell after spell for 80~ dmg each. It actually worked nicely as a hate builder with an ENM+ gear build.
Hume (RNG/MNK)
On paper this one looks like it could be evil because of the ranged attacks munching shadows and two melee strikes from MNK. In practice, this Fomor is the easiest one to defeat by far. His ranged accuracy is dismal and often won't hit if shadows are down. The only bad thing Hume can do is Eagle Eye Shot, which I've heard can one shot a full health PLD. I can tell you from experience that it can one shot a full health NIN :D I wish my EES did even half that damage on my RNG75... He does EES very early in the fight, like, at around 80% health. The Hume is using a gun and dagger for his weapons, so no Grim Halo to watch out for.
The Fomor in the room that pops him are SAM, DRG (with Wyvern), and RNG.
Mithra (RDM/NIN)
This is the second easiest one to defeat. Her two hour is Chainspell. She has high accuracy and high evasion, which is a bit of a pain, but not impossible by any stretch. She has access to one -ga spell (Diaga) that if you're lucky she won't cast, but we've had times when she's spammed it. Chainspell has also been a bit weird on her spell choices. At times she's cast Ni elementals over and over, and other times where she spammed Stoneskin and Blink. The Mithra is using a sword and magic, so no Grim Halo.
The Fomor in her room are NIN, RDM, and DRK.
Elvaan (THF/WAR) -- I have not done this one, just relaying what I've heard/read
From what I've heard, this is where things start getting difficult. The Elvaan is THF and WAR, it's two hour is Perfect Dodge. He doesn't sound horrible except that he gets both Double and Triple attack, which can decimate a pair of NIN fairly quickly. The smallest number of NIN's I've heard tanking him is three. I've seen groups with four NIN tackle him without much risk. This is a fight I'd think a PLD would shine at. The Elvaan would also get THF's Evasion bonus, so I'd expect him to be dodgy like the Mithra. From WAR he'd get an attack and defense (I think?) bonus.
Fomor that are in his room (I think) are WAR, THF, and RNG? (I could be wrong on that one).
Taru (SMN/BLM) -- I have not done this one, just relaying what I've heard/read
This one can be a terror from what I've heard. The least of your problems is that it's carrying a staff, so it can use Grim Halo. The Fomor comes with a Dark Elemental pet that'll be happy to whack on your party while you whack on its master. The two hour is really the bad part of this deal. Astral Flow can one shot and wipe out the entire alliance if you're unlucky. You might want to hide a reserve tank and back up healer away until after Flow happens so they can swoop in and continue the fight while people recover.
Fomor that are in his room (I think) are SMN, BLM, and MNK.
Galka (BRD/PLD) -- I have not done this one, just relaying what I've heard/read
I haven't even looked at this one beyond just glacing over it since I don't know that many Galka and don't expect to ever do the fight ^^; He does get Soul Voice and can Lullaby. Go go Poison pots! I'd guess that he also has high def from the PLD.
Fomor in his library as BST, BRD, and PLD (I think).
Conclusion
It's more work for some people, but I would recommend stacking types of fights towards your group's strengths and avoid unfavorable fights. If you have NIN, tackle Hume and Mithra relentlessly. If you have PLD, the Elvaan and Galka are probably your friend (Mithra too). I don't think anyone likes the Taru >.>; Patience and persistance are important! So is bringing as much TH as you can safely manage. You do not need a HNMLS to do this fight. You just need a party's worth of smart players, some careful planning, and a lot of elbow grease for all the prep work involved.
Acknowledgements
Research for this lolGuide was done at Alla (which wasn't helpful other than to read an amusing discussion about how Swift Belts are "free" because you don't pay gil for them outright...) and FFXI Wikipedia. Meo of r0 and Neresh of Doom also provided encouragement and advice to a lolNIN on how to handle the mobs. Many thanks go to Nyiri for arranging our group outtings, and to Nyiri-tachi (Zubis, Nif, Valamir, Yosari) for being an awesome group of people to adventure with. No love to Makoholic for trying to feed me to the Fomor to increase the drop rate, but he is a good NIN partner otherwise ;3
Beanie / FantasyInsanity / Midgardsormr
06.26.07