Hrm...
Because I'm procrastinating?
In short, have good dd/nin (merited weapons preferably) and good support (merited). Take time chests. Then its theoretically possible to do Omega on the 3rd day after starting Apollyon and do Ultima on the 5th (maybe even 4th!!) day after starting Temenos. It goes without saying, the better merited the people are, the easier the zone should become.
Homam gear is obtained by killing Proto-Omega in the Apollyon zone. Nashira gear is obtained by killing Proto-Ultima in the Temenos zone. To get to each zone's respective bosses, chips need to be aquired from the zone in order to enter the boss zone.
For Apollyon, there are 4 zones (NW, SW, NE, SE) that each contain one chip per zone. Thus to get to the Apollyon boss, all 4 chips are needed.
For Temenos, there are 6 zones (N, E, W, Central 1, Central 2, Central 3) that contain one chip per zone. The N, E, W zones contain chips that are used to open the Central 1, 2, 3 zones. The chips from Central 1, 2, 3 zones are the ones used to get to the Temenos boss.
So in total, there are 10 chips needed for one Omega and one Ultima boss fight.
A small linkshell of 12-18 can easily complete all the zones. They can also kill the bosses using a manaburn approach.
Apollyon
NW - Ghost, Buffalo, Bugards, Wyverns, Behemoths.
Chests - can open all chests on each floor.
A competent group of 3-5 blms with 1-3 support can clear this zone. Freely use 2hr in order to speed things up. Skipping all the bosses saves on time and increases the odds of winning.
SW - Fomors, Treants, Mimics, Elemental.
Chests - can only open 1 chest per floor. On mimic floor, can open all chests.
A competent group of 6-8 can clear this zone. The main PT should consist of weapon merited DD/nin in a merit PT style setup. 4 DD/nin + healer + brd. The auxillary group should consist of at least 1 BLM and 1 RDM. Depending on the setup, a small PT can opt to choose only time chest in order to advance.
SE - Slime, Crab, Skeleton, Weapon
Chests - can open all chests on each floor.
A competent group of 6-8 can also clear this zone. The main PT should consist of weapon merited DD/nin in a merit PT style setup. 4 DD/nin + healer + brd. The auxillary group should consist of at least 1 BLM and 1 RDM. The DDs however are required to bring two types of weapon (slashing, piercing, blunt) since on different floors, the enemies are purely resistant to different types of weapon.
NE - Mandy, Birds, Pots, Monkeys, Dhalmels
Chests - can open all chests on each floor.
A competent group of 6-10 can also clear this zone. The main PT should consist of weapon merited DD/nin in a merit PT style setup. 4 DD/nin + healer + brd. The auxillary group should consist of at least 1 BLM and 1 RDM. Because of Mandys on the first floor, it is highly recommended that there be at least two tanks.
Temenos
E - Elementals Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Thunder, Water, Dark
Chests - can only open 1 chest per floor. may have to fight elemental avatars if the wrong item chest is chosen. if defeated, can grab item chest.
A balanced group of 6 (3 DD/nin, brd, healer, blm) can clear this zone taking only time chests up until the boss. It is possible to grab 1 or 2 item chests en route as well. However, be aware it is possible to wipe due to the avatar 2hr.
W - Tiger, Mandys, Beetles, Lizards, Slimes, Pugils, Vultures
Chests - can open all chests that drop from mobs. Affected by TH?
A balanced group of 6-10 can clear this zone. It is recommended that there be a THF in the group. Due to the nature of some of the mobs, skipping some of the mobs might be more favorable than fighting them. Slimes are not good for melees and should be skipped. This zone is one of the hardest zones to lowman due to the fact that chests are dropped by mobs randomly.
N - Moblins, Gigas, Sahagins, Demons, Antica, Tonberries, Goblins
Chests - can only open 1 chest per floor.
A balanced group of 6 (3 DD/nin, brd, healer, blm) can clear this zone taking only time chests up until the boss. Alternatively a balanced group of 6-10 can clear this zone. The main PT should consist of weapon merited DD/nin in a merit PT style setup. 4 DD/nin + healer + brd. The auxillary group should consist of at least 1 BLM and 1 RDM. Each floor of the zone has a group of monsters that need to be killed in order for the chests to appear. Of the remaining monstes on the floor, only 1 will randomly open the gate to the next floor.
Central 1 - Paired monsters. Dragon/Ahriman, Skeleton/Weapon, Ghost/Pot
Requires chip from W. 45 min time limit upon entering.
A group of 12 can clear this zone by killing Ghost > Skeleton > Dragon > Weapon > Pot > Ahriman. It is recommended that Dragon be killed before Ahriman. The group of 12 should consist of 6-7 weapon merited DD/nin, 2 brds, 3-4 healers. An alternative method would be to separate, fight and kill the pair of monster simultaneously. It would be good to fight close enough to each other in order for one group to help the other.
Central 2 - Elements/Avatar
Requires chip from E. 45 min time limit upon entering.
A group of 10-12 can clear this zone. By skipping the Fire elemental, can kill water > thunder > earth > wind > ice elementals in that order. Then return back to fight Ifrit. Recommended again to have 2 brds (1 in each PT) and weapon merited DD/nins. At most 2 BLMs is also recommended in order to sleep/resleep the light elementals. Use the difference in heights to avoid elemtnal 2hr. An extra healer is recommended.
Central 3. - beastmen mobs.
Requires chip from N. 45 min time limit upon entering.
A group of 10-12 can clear this zone. The main party should consist of weapon 4 merited DD/nin + healer + brd. The auxillary PT should have at most 2 blms and an extra healer.
Omega/Ultima
Tank PT:
2 tanks (pld/nin, nin/drk)
brd
rdm
sch
whm or rdm
The rest of the alliance should consist of BLMs with some form of support (RDM, BRD, COR). A third tank should be used in Omega to pull the pods that are ejected (if farming pods) or to become a back up tank in case both tanks die.
Scheduling.
With an LS of 12-18 people, many zones can be split into groups.
Day 1:
NW, SW
Day 2:
NE SE
Day 3:
N E
Day 4:
W N
Day 5:
Central 1
Day 6:
Central 2
Day 7:
Central 3
Day 8:
Omega
Day 9:
Ultima
1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 9
Omega requires 3 days. Two days to farm chips and the 3rd day to enter the zone. It will be AT MOST a 2 week turnaround (if fail some zones).
Ultima requires 6 days. The ability to tackle the Central floors with small numbers limit the effectiveness of farming. If the small floors can be tackled with 6-10, then farming will be cut by two days. It will be at most 3 week turnaround (if fail zones).