Introduction
Welcome to the SaltedXIV encounter guide for the second half of Asphodelos: The Forth Circle (Savage). This raid is split into two parts, upon completion of the first half and viewing the transition, subsequent wipes will not require the party to clear the first boss again until they leave their instance. This raid requires an average item level of 580. The approximate minimum required partywide DPS to maintain is 48,000 in order to successfully clear.
Timeline
| 0:11 | Searing Stream |
| 0:26 | Akhantai: Act I |
| 0:35 | Searing Stream |
| 0:46 | Wreath of Thorns |
| 0:59 | Hemitheos Thunder III |
| 1:03 | Nearsight | Farsight |
| 1:18 | Akhantai: Act II |
| 1:27 | Demigod Double |
| 1:36 | Wreath of Thorns |
| 1:45 | Dark Design |
| 1:54 | Hermitheos Elements |
| 2:01 | Hermitheos Elements |
| 2:02 | Ultimate Impulse |
| 2:17 | Akhantai: Act III |
| 2:38 | Kothornos Kick |
| 2:47 | Kothornos Quake + Elements |
| 2:49 | Hermitheos Water IV |
| 2:53 | Hermitheos Thunder III + Kothornos Kick |
| 2:57 | Kothornos Quake |
| 3:01 | Nearsight | Farsight |
| 3:16 | Heart Stake [ST + Bleed] |
| 3:25 | Heart Stake [ST+ Bleed] |
| 3:29 | Akhantai: Act IV |
| 3:38 | Searing Stream |
| 3:47 | Wreath of Thorns |
| 3:55 | Searing Stream |
| 4:06 | Hermitheos Elements |
| 4:13 | Hermitheos Dark |
| 4:18 | Hermitheos Fire IV / Dark IV |
| 4:24 | Hermitheos Fire IV / Dark IV |
| 4:28 | Ultimate Impulse | HF IV | HD IV |
| 4:45 | Searing Stream |
| 4:54 | Akhantai: Finale |
| 5:03 | Wreath of Thorns |
| 5:11 | Fleeting Impulse |
| 5:17 | Fleeting Impulse 1hit/p in succ. |
| 5:27 | Hermitheos Aero IV |
| 5:29 | Wreath of Thorns |
| 5:37 | Hermitheos Thunder III 1hit/p in succ. |
| 5:46 | Nearsight | Farsight |
| 6:00 | Searing Stream |
| 6:09 | Demigod Double |
| 6:22 | Akhantai: Final Curtain Call |
| 6:37 | Hell’s Sting |
| 6:41 – 7:13 | Hell’s Dark x8 |
| 7:13 | Ultimate Impulse |
| 7:27 | Hell’s Sting |
| 7:27 – 8:03 | Hell’s Dark x8 |
| 8:02 | Ultimate Impulse |
| 8:15 | Ultimate Impulse Enrage |
Mechanic Overivew
Heavy raidwide damage
- Spawns 8 towers around the arena that must be soaked by party members.
- Spawns 4 large overlapping circular AOEs on the arena.
- Hesperos will tether to either the north and south towers, or the east and west towers.
The two towers he tethers to indicates which AOEs will explode first, and the untethered cardinals will be safe.
Dual tankbuster: targets the two players closest to the boss.
Dual tankbuster: targets the two players farthest from the boss.
Spawns 4 towers around the arena. Hesperos will first spawn 4 tethers, but only 2 of these will be attached to a tower, indicating which two towers will explode first, and then he’ll tether to the remaining four places (including the other two towers).
Players will have a colored orb appear over their character, indicating which set of mechanics they need to complete.
- Tanks
One tank will receive a purple orb.
One tank will receive a fire orb. - Healers
One healer will receive a fire-colored orb.
One healer will receive a purple-colored orb. - DPS
Two DPS will receive a fire orb.
Two DPS will receive a green wind orb.
The two purple party members will be tethered and need to spread apart to break this tether at the correct time.
Party members with the fire orb will need to soak subsequent stack hits with other party members.
The two green wind orb party members need to stay together throughout the mechanic to avoid exploding.
Tank-swap heavy hitting tank buster. Alternatively, one tank can invuln both hits.
Hesperos will jump to the farthest target, knocking all players near where he lands back across the arena.
Three “eather shaker” style conal AOEs are cast from the boss. These are targeted on the three closest players.
A water-based AOE that will knock back players from the center of the arena. This knockback can be prevented with Surecast and Arm’s Length.
Tankbuster that inflicts a heavy bleed on the target. This is cast twice, and can be tank swapped, or one tank can invuln and take both, making handling easier.
8 towers will spawn around the arena. Players will be tethered to a tower, and receive either a blue or purple orb over their character.
Purple players will stand one position clockwise from the tower they are tethered to.
Blue players will stand across the arena from their tethered tower plus one position clockwise.
Blue tethers will break first simultaneously. Purple tethers will be broken one by one clockwise around the arena while the party dodges the exploding AOE originating from the tower.
Hesperos will spawn 8 towers around the middle of the arena. Two additional towers (thorns) will appear at opposite intercardinals outside of the middle 8.
Four players will be tethered to one of the two outer thorns. Players should spread around the general area of the thorn they are tethered to.
Hesperos will then target every player one by one with an orb attack. After all 8 are fired he will then cast a wind AOE.
He will then begin to tether the center 8 towers in clockwise order, starting with any tower, indicating they order in which they will explode and need to be soaked.
8 thorns will appear on the outside of the arena and tether to a player.
Players will receive a debuff corresponding to when they should break their tether, with two players sharing the same debuff timer. The timers are:
12s, 22s, 32s, 42s
Throughout this phase the boss will cast Hell’s Sting and Hell’s Dark.
This entire mechanic will repeat twice before the enrage.
Hesperos will spawn conal AOEs from the middle of the arena that players must dodge. After the initial set an unmarked set will appear centered on the safe areas from the first set. Players should dodge the first AOEs and then move into the middle of where they appeared to dodge the second set.
Fight Strategy
The second Hesperos fight comes packed with a series of overly dramatic acts that players must before while successfully defeating his monstrous form.
He begins with Searing Stream a heavy hitting raidwide attack. Heal and mitigate accordingly. Then he begins to cast for Act 1.
Akanthai: Act 1
8 towers will spawn around the arena in an X shape. 4 large circular AOEs will go off on each cardinal, two at a time. Hesperos will tether two two cardinals, indicating which AOEs will go off first. The untethered cardinals will be the first set of safe spots.
Players should have an assigned tower spot, with melee taking the central 4 and ranged taking the outer 4.
Stand on the safe cardinal closest to your tower (either north & south, or east & west). After the first AOE goes off, move into your tower until it explodes (it goes off very quickly!) and then continuing moving moving through to the cardinal that just exploded to dodge the second set of large AOEs.
Check out the toolbox below for a visual of how to complete this mechanic!
Immediately after Act 1 completes this boss will cast either Nearsight OR Farsight.
If it’s nearsight, the two tanks should move into the boss’s hitbox (but apart from each other) to be the closest party members to the boss and thus bait the two tankbuster hits on them.
If it’s farsight, the party should stack in the middle the boss’s hitbox. The tanks should be outside and not near each other, thus being the farthest players from the boss and baiting the hits on them. Mitigate accordingly.
This tankbuster isn’t too rough, so it’s not recommended to use tank invulns on it.
Akanthai: Act 2
Four tethers will spawn on the edge of the arena, slightly off from the main cardinals. In the marker setup used in the toolboxes on this page, they always appear on the letters. These are fixed and always appear here.
A demigod double will cast, which is a shared tank buster that a single tank can invuln through.
Thorns will appear next to each of these towers, giving each cardinal a pair.
Hesperos will tether to four of these objects, two towers and two non-tower thorns. This will either be the two objects closest to northeast and two closest to southwest, or the two closest to northwest and the two closest to southeast. (See the toolbox below for visualization)
When the north and south towers are tethered first, the east and west cardinals will explode first. This indicates solving the mechanic in the orientation shown in the toolbox below.
When the east and west towers are tethered first, the party will treat due west of the arena as the “new north.” The entire resolution of this mechanic will shift 90 degrees clockwise, and nothing else will change. If it helps, just picture turning the toolbox 90 degrees to the right. The rest of this section will explain the resolution according to “north.”
Party members will receive a colored orb over their head:
- Tanks
One tank will receive a purple orb.
One tank will receive a fire orb. - Healers
One healer will receive a fire-colored orb.
One healer will receive a purple-colored orb. - DPS
Two DPS will receive a fire orb.
Two DPS will receive a green wind orb.
Each color indicates what must be done to resolve the mechanic:
- The two purple party members will be tethered and need to spread apart to break this tether at the correct time.
- Party members with the fire orb will need to soak subsequent stack hits with other party members.
- The two green wind orb party members need to stay together throughout the mechanic to avoid exploding.
To solve this:
For purple players:
once orbs go out, the tank and healer with purple spread north and south (tank north and a little east, healer south and a little west). This baits a small circle AOE under each player near the end of the arena. After the tether snaps and the AOE drops, these players should move to the tower closest to them (slightly counter clockwise from their AOE spot). Once these towers are absorbed (and the fire AOE nearby has gone off), the tank rotates counter clockwise to share the last fire stack, and the healer rotates clockwise to doge the second AOEs and take another tower. Remember the towers for this mechanic are always on the letter markers. Therefore in the N/S orientation, the movement is:
Tank: [1] > (A) > [4]
Healer: [3] > (C) > (D)
In the E/W rotated orientation:
Tank: [4] > (D) > [3]
Healer: [2] > (B) > (C)
For orange players:
the orange orb means subsequent fire AOEs that must be shared in a stack group (3 people is comfortably survivable).
All orange players should start the mechanic in the middle of the arena under the boss. Once the small circle player baited AOEs appear under the players, the healer with the fire AOE moves to the northeast position (with the two aero DPS), and the tank and two DPS with orange move southwest. These stacks are taken on the non-tower safe spot marker between the two large AOEs going off.
After the first stack, the orange healer moves clockwise to the remaining tower in this direction.
The tank with orange will move clockwise past the tower to the next numbered marker spot to soak the second stack with one DPS and the other tank.
The DPS with orange will split based on a priority system, with one rotating clockwise along with the orange tank, and the other moving counterclockwise to take the last stack with the two green aero DPS. Melee should take priority on rotating with tanks, and ranged priority on rotating to the green DPS. Be sure to set a specific priority with your party.
In the N/S orientation, the movement is:
Tank: Middle > [3] > [4]
Healer: Middle > [1] > [B]
Melee DPS Priority: Middle > [3] > [4]
Ranged DPS Priority: Middle > [3] > [2]
In the E/W rotated orientation:
Tank: Middle > [2] > [3]
Healer: Middle > [4] > [A]
Melee DPS Priority: Middle > [2] > [3]
Ranged DPS Priority: Middle > [2] > [1]
For Green Aero Players:
Make sure you stay together for the whole mechanic. Your only other job is to soak fire stack damage with the orange orbed folks.
You’ll start middle with everyone and wait for the player baited AOE puddles to appear. Move northeast with the healer to share the AOE with them.
Then move clockwise to share the AOE with an orange DPS.
In the N/S orientation, the movement is:
Middle > [1] > [2]
In the E/W rotated orientation:
Middle > [4] > [1]
Toolbox visualization:
After successful completion of all of that, Hesperos will cast Ultimate Impulse a heavy hitting raidwide. Make sure to move into the middle for mitigation and healing appropriately.
Akanthai: Act 3
8 towers will appear, 4 on each side of the east and west of the arena. A knockback from the center of the arena will appear, but doesn’t go off for quite a bit. Split the party into a melee group (tanks + 2 DPS) and a ranged group (healers + 2 DPS)
Hesperos will tether to 4 towers on one side of the arena, and then the other 4. The ranged group should pre-position close to the first side to prepare to take these towers. Have preset spots determined for who is taking which tower.
Next Hesperos will cast Kothornos Kick. This is a large jump that lands on the player furthest from Hesperos. Have a tank* move to the edge of the arena on the side opposite of the ranged group (the side that was tethered to second) to bait this. Make sure no other players are in close proximity to wear Hesperos lands, or they will be knocked into the wall and die.
After the kick, the other 3 members of the melee group should move around Hesperos to bait three earthshaker attacks that are heavy hitting conal AOEs targeted on the three closest players. These players should position within the hitbox to the north, south, and outside edge of Hesperos (so the attack isn’t baited inward). The player who baited the kick will have a magic vuln and cannot be struck by these AOEs, so they should move away accordingly.
*You can have a DPS bait this instead, and have both tanks take an earthshaker.
At the same time, the four ranged players should move to take their respective towers on the other side of the arena.
After this, a water-based AOE will go off from the middle of the arena that knocks players outwards. Either knockback invuln (recommended) or position accordingly.
Another baited Kothornos Kick will go off around the same time, so have one selected ranged party member bait this at the opposite edge of the arena, mirroring what the melee group did previously. The remaining 3 ranged members should be near the middle to avoid the initial kick, and then move to bait the earthshaker-like AOEs around Hesperos to the north, south, and outside edge, just as the melee did before.
Here’s a toolbox demonstration:
After this, the boss will cast another Nearsight OR Farsight. You won’t have time to move the boss back to the middle of the arena yet. Handle as before with tanks moving in or out of the hitbox according to wether it is nearsight or farsight (and the rest of the party move in or out respectively).
Move the boss to the center of the arena and prepare for Heart Stake. This is a dual tank buster that applies a heavy bleed. To handle this properly you tank swap and both tanks mitigate and receive a bleed, however it is recommended to use a tank invuln on this. The invulning tank will still have a single bleed debuff apply, but will overlal take less damage and make this easier to handle.
Akanthai: Act 4
8 thorns will appear around the edge of the arena and each one will tether to a player. Players will receive either a blue orb above them, or a purple orb.
- Players with purple should position near the thorn 1 spot clockwise from the one they are tethered to.
- Players with blue should position across the arena from the thorn they are tethered to, PLUS one spot clockwise.
(So all players are +1 clockwise, purple is close, blue is far. If you need help remembering this, remember blue stuff is cold, cold people are distant, so blue is far!)
First, position accordingly but still close to the hitbox and wait for the searing stream raidwide to go off and wait for a heal. This also helps correctly time when the respective tethers are broken. After this AOE and a heal, move to your respective thorn.
The four blue tethers will break simultaneously, activating the thorn opposite of you that’s then absorbed by the purple player standing in that tower.
The remaining four tethers will need to be broken separately in order to survive the AOE damage going out, and dodging each one’s large circle AOE. Resolve these by having a clockwise priority of breaking, where the player tethered to the tower closest to north/northeast breaks theirs first. This player should move accross the arena (south/southwest) to break the tether. All other players should move in the general south/southeast direction to avoid the AOE. The party should continue rotating clockwise with each respective tethered player breaking their tether in clockwise order, making sure no two tethers are broken at the same time.
AOE damage will still occure throughout all of these tether snaps, so make sure to heal and mitigate.
After all four, another large searing stream will hit the party, so make sure you’re grouped and healed up.
Here’s a toolbox demonstrating the movement:
Akanthai: Finale
Despite the name, this is not the final major mechanic.
8 towers will appear around the middle of the arena and turn into thorns. Two additional thorns will appear on opposing intercardinals just outside of these inner 8.
4 players will be tehtered two each of the two outside thorns. The two healers and tanks will be tethered to the same thorn, an the four DPS will be tethered to the same thorn. pread around your respective thorn, giving priority to melee to spread around the inside and ranged on the edge of the arena.
One by one the boss will cast an orb attack on each party member individually. Count one through eight and remember which number you were struck by.
Hesperos will then cast an aero AOE, and then begin to rapidly tether to the inner 8 towers going clockwise, but starting from any one randomly.
Players should move to the tethered towers in the order they were struck by an orb. So the first player hit with an orb will stand in the first tower tethered. The fifth would be in the fifth towered tethered, etc.
(You do have a tiny bit of leeway if people misread the towers by one, just make sure everyone is standing on a tower to soak it.)
Remain in your towers until all 8 have gone off to avoid being struck by two (as this is lethal). The boss will then cast a nearsight or farsight, so handle this tankbuster accordingly.
Here’s another handy toolbox showing you the visual version of how to solve this phase:
Weirdly maybe the easiest one of the acts
4 players will get tethered to a tower/stake/thorn (the other four players will be tethered to a different one)
Player should loosely spread around the thorn they are tethered to
Turkey man will then randomly throw red balls onto the player (they do create a small aoe)
Count the balls! The number ball you are hit by is the tower that you have to take
Tower one is designated by the boss tethering to it first! (then others will go around either clockwise or counter clockwise)
(Note – you have to pay attention during this mechanic but otherwise it’s pretty simple)
Akanthai: Curtain Call
This is the last major mechanic of of the fight, however this phase repeats twice before enrage. Make sure to be patient and wait your turn, as getting antsy in this phase often leads to unfortuante wipes.
Yet again 8 tethers will spawn around the arena and tether to a player each. Stand opposite of your tether, but within/near the boss’s hitbox so you don’t break your tether early.
2 players each will receive a debuff with the timers of:
12s, 22s, 32s, and 42s
With DPS each getting one of those four, and tanks and healers getting one of those four. These timers will determine the order in which you break your tether.
Each tether breaking will do AOE damage to the party, and two tethers cannot break simultaneously or the party will die from lethal damage. Break the tethers in order from shortest debuff timer to longest, alternating between DPS > support (tank/healer) > DPS > support, etc. There should be about 5s (ish) between each player breaking their tether. The first DPS should move out immediately, healers and tanks will move out around 7s left on their debuff, and subsequent DPS will move out around 12s left on theirs — give or take.
In between popping tethers there will be two casts of a “protean-like” mechanic. These are conal sunray AOEs centered from the boss, with thin slivers of safe areas between them. After the first set appears, a second unmarked set will go off centered on what was the safe areas from the first half. Dodge the visible AOE and once it disappears move into the very middle of it to dodge the invisible set. The AOE cones are wider than the safe spot cones, meaning there is an overlap where you can still get hit when dodging into the first AOE. Hence, make sure you stand directly in the middle. Also make sure not to move out too far as you don’t want to pop your tether yet (unless it’s your turn). There will be two of these double proteans per curtain call.
See the toolbox below. Again both curtain calls are identical.
There will be an Ultiamte Impulse (large AOE) between these as well.
After completing both curtain calls, Hesperos will cast a few Ultimate Impulses of increasing damage until the final enrage cast.
Best of luck!
Contributors
- Levi | Alevia Rohan – full complete guide rewrite
- Zetherea Maxwell – toolbox strat maker
- Vjkta Lascaille – initial rough notes
- Mordred Kishi note corrections & clarifications
