Cactuar Suave  

I wanted to try something different from the regular stuff I did, and I kinda drew this one out of a hat. This is very very easy with the right setup. We tried a few ways of doing it but our best setup was...

nin/war
rng/nin
blm/whm
blm/whm
rdm/drk
whm/drk

There are two regular cactaurs, and an NM. We tried this every which way we could. They can't be slept but bind is the key here. The best way we worked it was having the rdm and the rng bind the regular mobs at the start. Then everyone went all out on the nm. Every so often the NM takes of fleeing in circles around the room for 30secs or so, when he comes back he hits 100 needles. He has a high regen about 2% per tic, and when he is running it doubles up. Blackmages full nuked as hard as they could, rng barrage slug shot etc. ninja tanked as well as he could. Whm and rdm watched bind on the other two cactaurs. On the boss stunning 1000 needles is impossible it casts very fast and even if you time it right and stun him right at the start it just keeps going. He also cast Cure 5, so he just has to be zerged down fast.
It is a little difficult on the blms after he dies because they have a slight shared hate, and the other two will go running after the blms until the tank can get hate back. Keep one bound and kill them one at a time, these don't regen nearly as fast as the NM, but they seem to have more hp. They do regular cactus moves but no running or specials spells. 1000 Needles is stunnable on the regular ones.
They don't hit very hard, I as the whm was getting hit 30-50 by the regular ones and 80-150 by the nm. To take down the NM fast stuns will help a lot. The rng wont be able to hit it when it's running around because it will just be out of their sight, and it can easily run out of range of the black mages. Be ready for a lot of curaga's and blms backing up with curaga's.

Extremely fun BC, our best run was around 8 minutes, but they can get sloppy our worst run was 23 minutes. Everyone got fairly good drops; Unji x2, Ziska's Xbow x2, D Cloth x2 and a lot of other random crap. Cactaur ribbon loaded on 5/6 runs.

I'd say this could easily be manaburned 4blms should be able to handle it if they had 2 people to watch binds.

Anyone know the drop rates for these?

Edited, Thu Dec 8 18:52:25 2005

Ok, I have tried this and it took my party 3 times to beat it. Our set up was 71 NIN (me), 75 MNK, 75 DRK, 75 WHM, 75 BLM, 73 BRD.
First thing we discovered is these Mobs cannot be slept. However they are able to be "Bind" and "Gravity."
This is the strategy for our winning run.
Damage Dealers - DRK and MNK use Icarus Wings for instant TP.
Tank - NIN rushed in to attack center mob Sabotender Champeon.
BLM - Bind one Sabotender Amante and Gravity the other.

Note:
Sabotender Champeon has 5000 HP and the ability to Cure and Regen. He is also highly evasive and BRD's accuracy songs will help. He also dissengages from battle to do a Cactrot Rapido type run around the arena every 20-30 sec.
Sabotender Amantes have 10000 HP and will aggro who ever has hate of the Mega Boss.

Once NIN has the Sabotender Champeon and the other 2 are bound/gravity. The DD's set up for Darkness Skillchain.. (idea is to kill the Champeon as quickly as possible) The BLM will Magic Burst (ice or stone) and get a crap load of hate. The Champeon should be dead or near dead. This is where the MNK 2hrs and does hundred fist to finish him off if need be.

The MNK will call the next mob, because most likely he still has his 2hr in effect. Our BLM died shortly after he Magic Burst on the Champeon. The 2nd mob will be the biggest headache because our WHM had to kite the 3rd.

We treated the next 2 mobs very much like normal exp mobs, skillchaining when possible. Even though all three Cactuar are MNK type mobs, they are not that bad for NIN to tank because at lvl 71 I was evading a lot of the attacks.

Note:
To help the WHM conserve MP, be sure to fight each mob, especially the Champeon, away from the other Cactuar. They have an annoying habit of 1000 Needling at once when in close proximity.

When I do this again I will figure some way to add another BLM. Our BLM was very skilled and held a lot of responcibility in the beginning of the battle. Maybe 2 BLM/WHMs to Damge Deal early and play healer towards the end?

There are a whole lot more drops than the ones listed. We got lvl 70 DRG spear and a Damascus Ignot (worth 3.2mil on Cerberus) for our successful run. Not too shaby, over 500k a member. When I get 30 more Kindred Seals I am coming back for my Unji Katana... lol

Good Luck and have fun ^^