Go to Western Altepa, enter QSC from D-12 (entrance 4 from map 3 FFXIAtlas). Go thru the 2 weight doors and jump in pit at F-7, you are now in lower tunnel leading to Chamber of Oracles. One Spelunking Sabotender spawns near the drop down point, 1 or 2 more near the Western Altepa exit (past the room with 2 scorpions).
I guess this would go for any cactaur, but I was soloing these as a SMN72/WHM36 and even though I was out of AoE range of 1,000 needles, it only hit Garuda for 500 damage. No other mobs were nearby. 3 times I saw 1,000 needles and 3 times only 500 damage to Garuda (and none to me).
Make of this what you will.
I am pretty sure that the amount of damage from 100 needles id devided with the amount of people fighting it, so if 2 it is 500 each even when one do not get hit.
I guess this would go for any cactaur, but I was soloing these as a SMN72/WHM36 and even though I was out of AoE range of 1,000 needles, it only hit Garuda for 500 damage. No other mobs were nearby. 3 times I saw 1,000 needles and 3 times only 500 damage to Garuda (and none to me).
Solo'd these guys one by one last night as 75DRG/WHM. Got the star spinel on about the 4th or 5th kill, it was a full moon as well. Since I'm galka, I didn't even need help getting to them either. Also, raised a BST a couple times OMW here. Galka DRG/WHM = |Impossible to gauge|. I wouldn't recommend trying to solo these things at any level with any job if you don't know what you're doing. Things can get very hairy very fast.
My LS hunted these last weekend. If you go to the QC entrance at D-12 in Western Altepa (this area is off the map fyi) you will zone into the correct area of QC where these little guys live. Run down the hall and drop through the big hole in the floor to the second level. They spaw in the tunnels down there.
Originally we tried the area of QC reached through the G-5 zone in Western Altepa. There weren't any Sabotenders there, just a bunch of aniticans, spiders and scorpions. Don't be fooled by the weight sensors in that area :).
It's such an evil spell I want it as a Blue Mage in the future. Anyone within a medium ranged AOE will get hit by needles, this includes: *NPCs (spawned from earrings) *Pets (Avatars, beasts) *Party members *Alliance members *Players outside the party
with that being said if your soloing, it'd be wise to have buffs up and summon your NPc and any pets if possible, can reduce 1000 damage that can be the death of you to something you can survive.
I duoed these with my friend who was THF/NIN 62, me being WHM/BLM 75. Fights were a bit scary at times, but we coped with a fair amount of downtime. Only reason it wasn't really easy was 1000 needles, to deal with that I kept Stoneskin up to soak up some damage, then either cast Curaga III or Cure V on the THF after the move landed depending on how battered I was. The hate from Curaga III was actually a good thing, because my friend could then SA Dancing Edge for some nice damage. It was actually the only way I had of getting hate, Flash and Holy just weren't doing it thanks to enmity -17 on my gear. I spent most of my time spamming debuffs, all of which stuck without any problems.
So yeh, a WHM75 and THF62 can duo these as long as they are on the ball. We killed about fifteen (definitely less than 20) for our two Star Spinels, that being with Treasure Hunter II of course. Hope this helps.
The entrance to Quicksands you want is at D-12 on the Western Altepa Desert Map. Head as far Southwest as you can go and you will come to a tunnel (this is into the edge of the area, not down in any trenchs). Follow the tunnel and you'll go off the map. When you enter back onto an open area you do want to go down in the trench that is right in front of you. Enter the caves from that trench and you'll be at the right entrance. Trigger the first weight sensor (requires 1 galka, 3 tarutaru, or 2 elvaan/humes/mithra, I think) and run to the western exit of the big room, where you want to trigger the other weight sensor. 75s will get agro in this area. Once you go through the western door you will see a hole, fall down it. You should be super-near the 5-spawns at this point, good luck. My party's 75 War/nin drew antica agro in the big room, and she didn't move to a corner, so she linked all the antica on that half of the room. She died pretty early in that battle when a BLM type cast Burst on her. The rest of us were about 60, so we didn't stand much chance, but our 61 DRG/WHM and 59 DRK/WAR lasted quite a while against the 3 antica they were fighting. The DRG spammed Dia while poking the antica, and the DRK sliced away/Drain/Aspired. They killed one before dying, which was pretty impressive considering they had 2 mage antica casting on them.
=x i may just be saying this because most of the people i took this down with were 65+ xD but this little guy was so easy to take down, his pitiful 1000needles did 145 on average damage to me (WHM70) and even less on the others. ^-^ if you want any fast drops THF = needed, even then you're probably only fighting this for the star spinel =p good luck! the drop rate is horrid ;; 2.5-3hrs wielded 1 of 4 needed star spinels ~.~;
The 1000 needles ability is not party-specific. Anyone standing within AoE gets hit with it. I assume in this case there was an alliance involved but even innocent bystanders would reduce the damage received.
none of which would explane how people took different dammage for the same 1000 needles. for the record, shell/protect do not effect 1000 needles. stoneskin will take some, but 1000 needles ignores def. (magic or physical)
Does sleep nuke method work on these guys? I'm planning to solo it with my rdm(i need it for my smn), but a little hesistant because of the 1000 needles >.<, and I don't wanna bother LS since they are busy doing other things. How often do they resist sleep?
Well, Im not completly sure on this, but at the top it says that theyre weak to Darkness, and Sleep is darkness based, so the sleep method should work well I would think.
They are past 3 Weight Sensors, just go past one, jump on the other, go past that one,jump on the other, they are very easy to find if you go into the right entrance into quicksand, after the 3rd sensor you will be able to start seeing them, i would only reccomend fighting them near the back of the cave near the entrance to Altepa. Me, 60 RDM with with a 71 MNK and had no problem at all, 1000 Needles only did like 400-500 damage to us each, Star Spinel dropped off first sabotendor!
Could someone please post an exact location and directions to it to find these. i spent over an hour going in different entrances and i found sabatenders batilla(sp) but was not able to locate these. I would appreciate it if someone could post this soon. thank you
Just gonna make a recent post to let everyone know of my experiences in obtaining the "Star Spinel" Rare/Ex item for the Star Necklace.
I've done this 3 times now and my results are as follows.
1st Attempt - Star Spinel Dropped off the first Spelunking Sabotender killed.
2nd attempt - Star Spinel Dropped off about the 4th or 5th Spelunking Sabotender killed.
3rd Attempt - Star Spinel dropped after MANY MANY Spelunking Sabotenders and this attempt was done during a Full Moon (98%). I would say we killed between 15-20 of them before obtaining the Rare/Ex item this late time we did it.
The mobs in question do have probably just under 4000 HP, but we never really have to hard of a time in killing them. Our PT setup has been as small as 68 PLD / 69 RNG / 67 WHM and as big as the previous 3 mentioned with the addition of a monk or a rdm or a blm..... No Sweat just be patient is all I can say.... Also not that none of the 3 times we obtained this item did we ever have a Thief.
I'm hot to get the MND+5 item fromt the last onion gang quest, but am stuck on this quest first. I have a rdm54, and am having a hard time convincing anyone to go hunt some nasty cactuar. How rough is this fight and what level does my party need to be to have a decent chance of survival? Is this guy a normal cactuar with a special drop or a particularly extra nasty one? not that 1000 needles isnt nasty enough...
Well, I've seen them in the G-5 entrance past the weight sensor doors (Kuftal Tunnel is H-4, not G-5). I went to D-12 since everyone says they are there, and found none anywhere I looked. :/
lol some of these post are funny listen pretty simple anyone who has done ZM 6 should know where these ar and if you havent you should take someone that has since you prolly aint high enough lvl anyway >.< seem you have to pass them on the way to the bcnm are for ZM 6