Pandaemonium: Asphodelos (Savage) Raid Guides FFXIV 6.11

[P2S] Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage)

Overview

You continue recounting your tale of Pandæmonium, and Nemjiji is so impassioned that you aren’t certain how she can even hear you over the sound of her manic scribbling.

A glance over her work reveals some clear exaggerations regarding the hippokampos, but you can’t find it in yourself to spoil her fun by correcting her.

So long as she gets the general idea…

Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage) is the second encounter of the Pandæmonium: Asphodelos (Savage) raid series released for Patch 6.05.

It is unlocked after completing Asphodelos: The First Circle (Savage).

If you have any suggestions, corrections or feedback for particular phases please let us know at feedback@akhmorning.com.

Loot can be found below.

Video Guide

We’ll bring you something nice once some time has passed and strategies have really solidified themselves. Until then, please make good use of the text guide below.

General Considerations

  • Split your party into two groups centered around healers to deal with Ominous Bubbling.

  • Most everything else assigned in RNG or doesn’t require a role-specific action. Just react to the mechanics!

Enrage & Required DPS

Boss HP Enrage Time
Hippokampos 26,300,152 10:26

Approximately 42,013 raid DPS required to beat enrage.

Role Considerations

There’s not much in the way of role considerations for this fight. Sewage Deluge hits particularly hard, so you should take care to mitigate it well. There isn’t a whole lot for any role to specifically consider outside of their normal duties otherwise.

Mechanics

Here we’ll explain the underlying mechanics throughout the encounter.

Hippokampos Mechanics

Mechanic Effect
Murky Depths Medium raid AoE.
Doubled Impact Shared tank buster.
Sewage Deluge Heavy raid AoE. Covers most of the floor, leaving the sluice gates and three platforms open. One platform is always covered.
Spoken Cataract Hippokampos’s head does a lethal 180-degree AoE in front of itself, and its body does a lethal front-and-back line AoE.
Winged Cataract Identical to Spoken Cataract, but head’s AoE is now behind itself.
Coherence Flare-type tank buster, followed by party split line AoE. The line AoE targets the current tank.
Ominous Bubbling Both healers are targeted for a split AoE attack, which goes off at a later time.
Shockwave Hippokampos jumps to one of the non-flooded platforms and knocks everyone back. Knockback prevention does work.
Predatory Avarice A tank and DPS are marked with Mark of the Tides, and a healer is marked with Mark of the Depths. All three debuffs expire at the same time.
Mark of the Tides Large area AoE. Stay out of its range to avoid damage. Deals no damage to the person it was applied to.
Mark of the Depths Shared damage AoE.
Channeling Flow All party members are afflicted with [Direction] Mark of the Tides. When the debuff expires, you will be afflicted with a heavy water vulnerability, and flung in the indicated direction.
Kampeos Harma A “Limit Cut” mechanic. Four party members will be numbered in blue, and four will be numbered in purple. Hippokampus’s head will jump in ascending order to purple numbers, doing a medium-sized AoE around them. Its body will dash in ascending order to blue numbers, doing a line AoE. Both jumps and attacks leave vulnerability debuffs that kill you if hit twice during the mechanic.
Channeling Overflow Similar to Channeling Flow, but puts two sets of four debuffs out. They are staggered to go off at different times.
Tainted Flood Drops medium-sized puddle AoEs on targeted players. These puddles inflict a water vulnerability debuff.
Sewage Deluge (Enrage) It’s kill or be flushed away!


Timeline

Phase 1 Timeline

Cast Time Effect Time Mechanic
00:10 - 00:15 00:17 Murky Depths
00:20 - 00:26 00:28 Doubled Impact
00:33 - 00:38 00:39 Sewage Deluge
00:53 - 01:01 01:01 Cataract
01:09 - 01:21 01:24 Coherence
01:33 - 01:38 01:40 Murky Depths
01:41 - 01:44 02:00 Ominous Bubbling
01:47 - 01:55 01:59 Shockwave
02:10 - 02:14 02:38 Predatory Avarice
02:23 - 02:31 02:31 Cataract
02:46 - 02:51 03:05 Channeling Flow
03:16 - 03:21 03:23 Doubled Impact
03:26 - 03:31 03:33 Murky Depths


Phase 2 Timeline

Cast Time Effect Time Mechanic
03:43 - 03:48 03:49 Sewage Deluge
03:57 - 04:05 04:09 Shockwave
04:10 - 04:20 N/A Kampeos Harma
N/A 04:22 First Kampeos Harma jump
N/A 04:23 Second Kampeos Harma jump
N/A 04:25 Third Kampeos Harma jump
N/A 04:26 Final Kampeos Harma jump
N/A 04:26 Boss targetable
04:36 - 04:41 04:43 Doubled Impact
04:45 - 04:50 04:52 Murky Depths
04:58 - 05:03 05:19, 05:34 Channeling Overflow
05:08 - 05:11 05:19 Tainted Flood
05:23 - 05:26 05:34 Tainted Flood
05:36 - 05:44 05:44 Cataract
05:59 - 06:03 06:28 Predatory Avarice
06:06 - 06:10 06:28 Dissociation
06:20 - 06:28 06:28 Cataract
06:38 - 06:42 07:01 Dissociation
06:50 - 06:55 07:07 Sewage Eruption
07:05 - 07:17 07:20 Coherence
07:27 - 07:32 07:34 Doubled Impact
07:35 - 07:40 07:42 Murky Depths


Phase 3 Timeline

Cast Time Effect Time Mechanic
07:53 - 07:58 07:59 Sewage Deluge
08:10 - 08:15 08:31, 08:36 Channeling Overflow
08:20 - 08:32 08:37 Coherence
08:54 - 08:58 09:17 Dissociation
09:06 - 09:11 09:18 Sewage Eruption
09:19 - 09:22 09:37 Ominous Bubbling
09:25 - 09:33 09:37 Shockwave
09:42 - 09:47 09:49 Doubled Impact
09:56 - 10:01 10:03 Murky Depths
10:07 - 10:12 10:14 Murky Depths
10:16 - 10:26 10:27 Sewage Deluge (Enrage)


Phase 1

We have divided this fight into three phases based on when Hippokampos changes the usable space in the arena by casting Sewage Deluge.

Phase 1 begins with a raid AoE in the form of Murky Depths, a tank buster with Doubled Impact, and then goes straight into the first Sewage Deluge phase. Note that Sewage Deluge hits harder than Murky Depths, so you’ll want to use some raidwide mitigation for this hit.

When Sewage Deluge is cast, you will have three available platforms to stand on, as well as the drain grates between them. One platform will be unavailable, as will the middle and edges of the arena.

First up in this newly-transformed arena is either Spoken or Winged Cataract. You should always stay to the side of the boss’s body, as it will send a line AoE straight through itself.

  • If it’s Spoken, stand behind it.
  • If it’s Winged, stand in front of the head as well.

You should always have an ample amount of space to dodge.

See our clip below showing Spoken/Winged Cataract:

[P2S] Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage) - Spoken/Winged Cataract

Following this, Hippokampos casts Coherence. The off-tank will need to grab the tether and walk it diagonally away from the party, so you’ll need to use the diagonal with both sides safe. The off-tank hit hurts, so make sure to mitigate it well!

Once the tether goes off, the boss will immediately turn around and fire a shared AoE at the main tank. The rest of the party needs to stack up to share this damage. Make sure to heal up, because next is another Murky Depths.

After that damage is done, the boss will start casting Ominous Bubbling. This will invisibly mark both healers with shared AoE markers, which do not go off for a little bit. Then, Hippokampos will face one of the safe corners and start casting Shockwave. It will jump to this corner and knock back all party members from that spot. Immediately afterwards, the Ominous Bubbling stacks will deal damage. Since the two stacks cannot be grouped together, the goal is to divide your party into two groups.

One group stands directly on the Shockwave landing point and uses their knockback mitigation. The other group stands in a similar spot but does not use knockback mitigation, positioning themselves so that they get knocked back into a safe spot. The end result of this is that one healer’s group stays on the knockback platform and soaks the hit, while the other gets moved to safety and can take theirs without killing everyone.

Next up is Predatory Avarice. This cast will put Mark of the Tides on a tank and a DPS, and Mark of the Depths on a healer:

  • Mark of the Tides will explode into a large AoE that deals lethal damage to anyone else caught in it.
  • Mark of the Depths is a shared-damage AoE.

When it’s time to resolve this mechanic, the party stacks should be standing on a platform, and the large AoEs should be moved as far away as possible. Preferably this is onto another platform, but if that platform is unsafe then just get as close as possible.

After placing the debuffs, but before they expire, the boss wil cast another Cataract. This mechanic will resolve before the debuffs will. Find the safe corner to dodge to, let the mechanic resolve, and then have the marked tank and DPS run out of the party stack.

At this point, the water recedes, and a fun new mechanic begins: Channeling Flow.

Channeling Flow

This mechanic marks everyone with a directional debuff. When that debuff expires, you are flung in the marked direction with reckless abandon. If you don’t hit something, you will fly into the wall and die.

The solution? Use your party members!

For each of the four cardinal directions, two party members are marked. So, you should find a party member who has a debuff in the opposite direction of yours. Line up with each other, and let yourself be flung! However, if you’re standing too close to each other when getting thrown, the force of the impact will kill you.

The distance from the edge of one platform to the far edge of another platform is long enough to ensure survival. Make sure to take a step back!

See our clip on Channeling Flow below:

[P2S] Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage) - Channeling Flow

Once Channeling Flow has resolved, there’s another Doubled Impact tank buster and Murky Depths AoE. Hippokampos will begin casting Sewage Deluge again. Make sure to mitigate it well, and then we move into Phase 2.

Phase 2

Phase 2 begins with a plain old Shockwave, but no Ominous Bubbling. Your knockback resistance abilities should be available at this time, so you may as well use them. The next knockback doesn’t happen for quite some time.

After knocking you back, the second exciting mechanic of this fight begins: Kampeos Harma.

Kampeos Harma

Kampeos Harma falls under what many players call a “Limit Cut” mechanic. This means that players are marked with dots over their head, indicating the order in which they are targeted for the upcoming mechanic.

In this case, there are purple and blue dots, both going from 1 to 4:

  • the purple dots mean that Hippokampos’s head will target you
  • the blue dots mean that its body will target you

Both attacks leave a lingering vulnerability debuff, meaning that getting hit by two attacks will instantly kill you.

The head attacks by jumping, doing a large AoE around you. If anyone is standing too close, it’s curtains for them. The body dashes straight from one number to the next, hitting anyone in its path.

The common solution to this problem is to have the body repeatedly dash the same line back and forth, while the head jumps around to unrelated areas. The setup looks something like this:

  1. Blue markers 1 and 3 stand on one platform. 1 stands in front of 3, while 3 is closer to the outer corner.
  2. Blues 2 and 4 stand on the platform diagonally across from them. 2 stands in front of 4 in the same way 1 stands in front of 3.
  3. The purple markers spread out to various safe spots on the grates and free platform.
  4. When the body dashes from 1 to 2, players 1 and 3 switch places. Similarly, when the body dashes from 2 to 3, players 2 and 4 switch places.

This forces the boss’s body to dash across an empty diagonal space where no players can possibly be standing. Players swap places once it’s safe to do so. The dash immediately stops at the appropriately marked player, so as long as you are standing any amount behind them, you are safe. Meanwhile, the head is jumping around in irrelevant areas, not able to hit anyone else.

This mechanic will take a little while to learn, so don’t get frustrated! “Limit Cut” style mechanics are often one of hardest mechanics to learn, but very easy to pull off once you understand it.

See our clip on Kampeos Harma below:

[P2S] Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage) - Kampeos Harma

Once you’ve successfully handled Kampeos Harma, there will be another Doubled Impact and Murky Depths combo, and then we’ll see a new twist on a mechanic we’ve already done: Channeling Overflow.

Channeling Overflow 1

Unlike Channeling Flow, Channeling Overflow does not give you the luxury of having the entire arena to plan in. The water levels are still high and you don’t have much space to move around. However, instead of everybody getting thrown around at the same time, the debuffs are applied with two different expiration times. You’ll have to handle this four players at a time.

While only four players are getting flung around, the other four are marked for Tainted Flood to go off at the same time. This is a medium-sized puddle AoE that inflicts a water vulnerability debuff on anyone hit by it. This means that you can’t overlap anyone with it, or else they will die.

If someone is flung into you, their damage will kill you. On the flip side, if you hit someone who’s about to be flung, they will be vulnerable when hitting their partner, and die.

The solution to this mechanic is to make an “L” shape with your Channeling Overflow debuffs. Have one pair of players go down one side of the “L”, and the other pair goes down the other side. In the meantime, there is enough grate space next to the unsafe corner that the Tainted Flood players can spread out and not hit anybody.

You can do some interesting things with the puddle positioning, but it’s probably better to play it safe and stay well away from the players who are about to go flying.

Follow this plan to successfully resolve the first set of debuffs, then swap places. The same thing needs to happen for the second group of players, and there will be more Tainted Flood markers that need to go away from them.

See our clip on Channeling Overflow below:

[P2S] Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage) - Channeling Overflow

Immediately after everyone’s debuffs resolve, the boss will begin casting another Cataract. Dodge appropriately, and the water level will go back down again. Hippokampos will cast Predatory Avarice, but this one won’t go off for a little bit. There are a few other mechanics that need to come out first.

First up is Dissociate. The boss’s head will fly off and prepare for a divebomb down one long edge of the arena. Once the head is detached, the boss will begin casting Cataract.

All three mechanics, Predatory Avarice, Cataract, and the Dissociation divebomb will go off at the same time.

Note that the combination of Dissociation and Cataract essentially leave you with only a single quadrant of the room to maneuver in. Locate that quadrant, and send the tank and DPS marked by Predatory Avarice away from the boss, towards the back wall. This should give just enough space for their AoEs to explode without hitting the party stacked right next to the boss.

Once you’ve managed to get it all down, Hippokamos will yet again send its head away with Dissociate. This time, the body will cast Sewage Eruption, which places AoE markers underneath everyone’s feet a total of 3 times.

It’s best to stack and move as a party to reduce the amount of chaos this causes. Between the second and third markers going out, the Dissociated head will do its divebomb. It’s pretty easy to walk in a straight line as a group on the side of the arena where the head isn’t.

This sewage dodging is immediately followed by a cast of Coherence. Exactly like the first time, the off-tank should take the tether and run diagonally away from the party. There’s no reason for the rest of the party to move, so you can stay stacked wherever your dodges put you.

Another Doubled Impact and Murky Depths pair, and then we transition to Phase 3 with another Sewage Deluge.

Phase 3

Phase 3 is relatively short but comes out swinging. The first thing on its agenda is another Channeling Overflow.

Channeling Overflow 2

This Channeling Overflow is a bit different from the first one. It is not accompanied by Tainted Flood, but rather Coherence. As a result, there are actually three rounds of flinging that happen: two pairs, then one pair, then a final pair. The final pair will always have the off-tank in it, as they’re required to grab the Coherence tether.

The first round of debuffs is resolved very similarly to Channeling Overflow 1.

Players not being flung still need to stay out of the way of those that are. Because there are no puddle AoEs, it’s possible to stand on the corner platform, near the outer corner. The big difference is that the Coherence tether will go out before any flinging happens, and resolve itself as players are flying. The end result of this is that the party has a second or two to run and stack together for the upcoming line AoE.

The off-tank needs to be quick to grab the tether and move to an unused section of grating. Once all that damage goes off, the pair of debuffs not containing the off-tank will fire off pretty quickly.

It may be advantageous to precisely place yourselves within the line AoE so that the affected players can quickly run away from each other to set up their fling.

Finally, there will be a few seconds of rest before the final pair of players are violently hurled at each other – there should be plenty of time for everyone to set up for this.

While it can be a lot to handle, most of the movements are the same as Channeling Overflow 1 – it’s really just the timing that’s cause for concern.

Once you’ve successfully made it past this mechanic, there’s nothing new to see in the fight.

Hippokampos will cast one final Dissociation, paired with Sewage Eruption exactly as before. Stack up as a party, and move together on the safe half of the arena to avoid both attacks. After that comes Ominous Bubbling and Shockwave, which should be handled in the exact same way you did earlier in the fight.

There’ll be one final Doubled Impact, this time followed by a shocking two Murky Depths instead of one. After this, Hippokampos will begin a 10-second Sewage Deluge cast. This is the enrage. Beat the boss before he beats you!

Once you’ve successfully downed this aquatic nuisance, you can claim your loot from the chests and make your way on to the third fight of the raid!

Loot

The Hippokampos drops 2 of the following i600 armour coffers:

Additionally, the following items drop:

Items can also be bought via:

Armour

Slot Item Jobs Major Substat Minor Substat
Hands Asphodelos Gloves of Aiming BRD DNC MCH 162 Determination 113 Critical Hit
  Asphodelos Wristbands of Casting BLM RDM SMN 162 Critical Hit 113 Determination
  Asphodelos Vambraces of Fending DRK GNB PLD WAR 162 Tenacity 113 Determination
  Asphodelos Wristbands of Healing AST SCH SGE WHM 162 Spell Speed 113 Piety
  Asphodelos Halfgloves of Maiming DRG RPR 162 Determination 113 Critical Hit
  Asphodelos Gloves of Scouting NIN 162 Determination 113 Critical Hit
  Asphodelos Halfgloves of Striking MNK SAM 162 Direct Hit Rate 113 Determination
Head Asphodelos Headgear of Aiming BRD DNC MCH 162 Critical Hit 113 Skill Speed
  Asphodelos Headgear of Casting BLM RDM SMN 162 Critical Hit 113 Direct Hit Rate
  Asphodelos Circlet of Fending DRK GNB PLD WAR 162 Determination 113 Tenacity
  Asphodelos Headgear of Healing AST SCH SGE WHM 162 Critical Hit 113 Piety
  Asphodelos Faceguard of Maiming DRG RPR 162 Direct Hit Rate 113 Determination
  Asphodelos Headgear of Scouting NIN 162 Critical Hit 113 Skill Speed
  Asphodelos Faceguard of Striking MNK SAM 162 Critical Hit 113 Skill Speed
Feet Asphodelos Boots of Aiming BRD DNC MCH 162 Determination 113 Direct Hit Rate
  Asphodelos Gaiters of Casting BLM RDM SMN 162 Direct Hit Rate 113 Spell Speed
  Asphodelos Boots of Fending DRK GNB PLD WAR 162 Critical Hit 113 Skill Speed
  Asphodelos Gaiters of Healing AST SCH SGE WHM 162 Critical Hit 113 Determination
  Asphodelos Shoes of Maiming DRG RPR 162 Direct Hit Rate 113 Skill Speed
  Asphodelos Boots of Scouting NIN 162 Determination 113 Direct Hit Rate
  Asphodelos Shoes of Striking MNK SAM 162 Critical Hit 113 Direct Hit Rate

Change Log

  • 2022/01/11: Release of this guide.