Solo at 40? Cripes. I was in Altep for the first time last night (DRK40/WAR20) and saw one of these beasts. Checked as Incredibly Tough. I doubt anyone can solo an IT like this.
I'm curious as to how you managed to solo this at 40. If you did it as a BST how did you manage to keep feeding it enough mobs to eventually kill it without dying yourself?
Anywho, I just soloed it as a 55WAR/NIN. Took me down to about 400/1243 HP and that was with spamming utsusemi and hitting it with Ninjutsu poison [lame as it is].
I was able to solo this in East Altepa in my 40s as a NIN. Can't remember the exact level, but I think it was 46. It was VT to me at the time. I had been planning to use it to Mijin: Gakure back to HP, but found myself doing decently well, so kept going. It took me down to 120 HP or so, but I did manage to kill it. Got 200 exp for it.
Solo'ed it at level 61 whm/blm and a tough fight. It was easy prey to me. Blaze Spikes, Stoneskin over and over. I had 200hp and 100mp left, which I was saving for emergency Warp.
Saw this guy at J-7 in east altepa, conned DC to me [WAR50/NIN25]. I'd say steer clear until awhile after it starts conning too weak. Birds tend to undercon.
Saw this guy at I-10 in East Atelpa. I-10 is a sweet spot for a high 20s group to pull giant spiders too or at least it was until this guy showed up. Maybe an alternate pop to speedy cactuar, although not NM.