Final Fantasy 14 P2S Savage: Asphodelos The Second Circle Raid Guide

Final Fantasy 14 P2S Savage: Asphodelos The Second Circle Raid Guide

How to beat the FF14 P2S second raid tier on Savage.

28th Jan 2022 18:22

Images: Square Enix | Mike Williams (Linkshell)

In the Final Fantasy 14 Pandaemonium raid second Savage fight, Asphodelos The Second Circle (Savage), players will find themselves facing off against the Hippokampos, in a very knockback heavy/movement-based encounter. At first glance this fight can seem incredibly overwhelming, with mechanics that will have players shooting across the arena at high speeds, resolving mechanics that are delayed for half of the party, all while more than 75% of the arena space is inaccessible. This guide will breakdown the mechanics and their simplest resolutions that will help maintain up time for the party and get you a clear in the quickest amount of time possible. 

Final Fantasy 14 P2S Savage Raid Guide

The fight overall is considerably straightforward, with only a few variations throughout the encounter that could trip a party in their run. The boss does not require positionals, meaning the biggest challenge with the fight, in terms of damage, is keeping uptime for as many members as possible.

Each mechanic gives a generous amount of time to resolve, and using knockback immunities and invulnerabilities, are sure to make this fight a breeze, for a Savage fight.

Final Fantasy 14 P2S Savage: First Phase

Firstly, it’s important to assign light parties before the start of the fight that consist of one tank, one healer, and two DPS. For waymarkers, assign each raised platform of the arena with A, B, C, or D, starting with the northwest platform and moving clockwise. Next, assign 1, 2, 3, 4, waymarkers to the center of the grates between each platform, starting with the grate to the north, and assigning clockwise from there.

The boss will open the fight with the shared tankbuster, Double Impact, which can be shared by both tanks using heavy mitigation. However, if you have a Warrior in the party, it’s much better for them to Holmgang first this mechanic, as the timings of the tankbuster throughout the fight coincide with the cooldown, and overall, it’s much easier to focus on healing one tank rather than two.

Additionally, the offtank can focus on completing their full opening rotation, without having to weave in mitigation at the start. If there is no Warrior, you can still invuln the first mechanic, however the timings won’t line up as easily, so its important to communicate the timings between the two tanks.

Next is Murky Depths which is a light raid wide AoE, and Sewage Deluge, a heavy raid wide AoE and area transition that covers the arena in water, minus the grates and three raised platforms. Touching the water will apply a damage over time debuff, which won’t necessarily kill you, but it’s still important to avoid the affects as much as possible. Be sure to use partywide mitigation for Sewage Deluge as well, as it does heavy amounts of damage even with proper shielding.

Additionally, one of the four raised platforms will become covered in water and will result in an instant kill for anyone that steps in it. Because of this, during downtime or neutral moments in the fight, the party should regroup and relocate to the raised platform opposite the dead platform, giving equal amounts of space to resolve the mechanic.

Next, the boss will use Cataracts which is an aoe blast, the direction of which is indicated by the arrows on its model. This is similar to the normal version of the fight, but keep in mind that in Savage, it will either be a Winged or Spoken cataract. This simply means the danger zone will either be applied to the back or front of the boss’ head respectively, but only requires a quick adjustment of moving to the next platform to avoid the hit, nothing too complicated! Keep in mind the safe zone for most Cataracts is on the small grate within the raised platform, it’s within max melee range and will always avoid the mechanic.

Afterwards there’s Coherence, which is a tankbuster and party stack. For this, the boss will send out a tether that connects to the player closest to them and hits that player with a tankbuster. After the tankbuster, they will blast the party with a heavy hitting beam. To resolve this mechanic, either tank can intercept the teacher and carry it across the room as far from the party as possible, mitigating the damage on their own. At the same time, the rest of the party should be corralling behind the tank that stays behind, and stacking to share the damage, while the tank mitigates the majority of the damage from the front.

Following this is Ominous Bubbling, which is a split, shared AoE on both healers. At the same time, the boss will jump to one of the safe platforms based on the way he is facing, with a move called Shockwave. To resolve this mechanic, the party should split into their assigned light parties, with party 1, standing on top of the platform that the boss is about to jump to, and party 2 standing on the middle of the grate next to it. It’s important that the entire party uses knockback mitigation here, as it will ensure uptime and allow for the easiest possible resolution of the mechanic.

Then, the boss will perform Predatory Avarice, a mechanic that places a debuff on a healer, tank, and DPS at random. To resolve this, wait until the boss completes its second incoming Cataracts. It will always be the opposite of the Cataracts he used at the start of the transition. After the Cataracts attack goes off, the affected tank will run down the left-side grate, and the DPS to the right-side grate. Make sure to run the length of the attack, as the following AoE attack is massive. The rest of the party should be stacking on the affected healer to share damage. 

With that concluded, the water will go away, and the first phase of the fight is completed.

Final Fantasy 14 P2S Savage: Second Phase

Channeling Flow gives each player a directional arrow, simply stand in the area that makes your arrow point to the center of the arena. Once the mechanic goes off, players will be launched to the center of the stage and collide with another player.

Be sure to stand at least at max melee range to avoid killing the other player, because if they stand too close to one another, the damage will kill them. After this is the second Sewage Deluge, which needs to be mitigated and shielded for.

With the arena now covered in water again, the boss will perform Kampeos Harma, which will assign players either 1-4 squares or 1-4 triangles above their head and will then leap on each player in a certain order. To resolve this mechanic, stand in the areas designated in the diagram, keeping in mind that Squares 1 and 2, should switch spots with Squares 3 and 4, after the respective player is hit with the attack. If needed, Sprint to your assignments.

Now, the boss will follow up with Channeling Overflow, which divides the party with a 14 second and a 28 second debuff arrow, the same as Channeling Flow. The 14 second debuff party members should prioritize resolving the mechanic, by simply matching the directional markers on each side, with enough distance to ensure a safe amount of damage is shared.

The 28 second debuff members will also be marked with an aoe, meaning not only should they resolve the mechanic later, but they should also be standing in an area that avoids hitting other players with the aoe. To resolve, stand in the areas highlighted on the graph, and once the aoe has gone off, move to resolve the directional arrows mechanic.

Final Fantasy 14 P2S Savage: Third Phase

Finally, we have the last set of mechanics that happen before mechanics repeat and enrage. This time the boss will use Predatory Avarice, the tank, healer, and DPS debuff, along with Dissociation, and Spoken or Winged Cataracts. Dissociation will cut off half of the arena with a danger zone.

To get past this, identify the safe platform based on the arrows of Cataracts as normal. Have the tank and DPS stand to the left and right behind the party, as far as possible near the wall of the arena, as its not being covered in water. The rest of the party should stand as close to the boss as possible without being hit by a Cataracts attack.

After this, the boss will use Dissociation that covers half of the arena, along with Sewage Eruption, baited aoes. For this, stand behind the boss on the side that won’t be hit with Dissociation, and run along the safe side as the baited aoe’s come out. Once the final eruption happens, every player will receive a circle aoe, which you will simply have to spread to resolve. There will be another Coherence where a tank will have to grab a tether and stand on the opposite side of the arena to resolve.

Then we have the third Sewage Deluge, that coincides with a Channeling Overflow, however this time in includes a Coherence. Resolve the mechanic as you have before, except this time, the tank with the larger debuff timer, should grab the tether and stand close to the dead platform, and resolve the mechanic from there. It’s also not a bad idea to tank limit break this mechanic, as it is a considerable amount of aoe damage here. 

Lastly, there is another Dissociation and Sewage Eruption, along with another Ominous bubbling and Shockwave. Once these have been resolved, beat down the boss, beat enrage and clear the fight!

 

Sebastian Romero

About The Author

Sebastian Romero

Sebastian is an avid esports fanatic, a freelance journalist for GGRecon, and holds a huge passion for the Overwatch and Dota 2 scenes.

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