Introduction
Welcome to the SaltedXIV encounter guide for the first half of Asphodelos: The Fourth 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 this boss again until they leave their instance. This raid requires an average item level of 580 to enter. The approximate minimum required partywide DPS to maintain is about 48,000 in order to successfully clear.
Before you begin, set up your party with:
- Clock spots (cardinal and intercardinal positions around the boss)
- Two light parties (4 person parties of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 dps)
- And different clock spots that will be used for the role orb mechanic
Timeline
| 0:09 | Decollation |
| 0:19 | Bloodrake |
| 0:33 | Bloodrake |
| 0:42 | Director’s Belone |
| 0:57 | Inversive Chlamys |
| 1:08 | Decollation |
| 1:17 | Elegant Evisceration |
| 1:36 | Setting the Scene |
| 1:48 | Pinax |
| 2:03 | Element 1 |
| 2:07 | Element 2 |
| 2:11 | [Cardinal] Shift |
| 2:17 | Element 3 |
| 2:19 | Cardinal Cleave/Knockback |
| 2:27 | Element 4 |
| 2:31 | Elegant Evisceration |
| 2:43 | Bloodrake |
| 2:54 | Setting the Scene |
| 3:06 | Vengeful Belone |
| 3:15 | Elemental Belone |
| 3:24 | Bloodrake |
| 3:32 | Belone Bursts |
| 3:38 | Orbs Tether |
| 3:46 | Periaktol |
| 3:59 | Bloodrake |
| 4:06 | Belone Coils |
| 4:13 | Inversive Chlamys |
| 4:23 | Aetheric Chlamys |
| 4:32 | Bloodrake |
| 4:40 | Belone Coils |
| 4:53 | Director’s Belone |
| 5:06 | Inversive Chlamys |
| 5:18 | Decollation |
| 5:27 | Elegant Evisceration |
| 5:47 | Setting the Scene |
5:59 | Pinax |
6:14 | Element 1 |
6:17 | Element 2 |
6:21 | [Cardinal] Shift |
6:27 | Element 3 |
6:30 | Cardinal Cleave/Knockback |
6:38 | Element 4 |
6:38 | Decollation |
6:47 | Decollation |
6:56 | Decollation |
— | Enrage |
Mechanic Overview
High-damage attack on either half the party (all four DPS or all four “supports” of tanks and healers) OR all 8 party members. The players marked for this hit is a visual tell for certain mechanics.
High raidwide damage attack.
Inflicts 4 party members at random with Role Call debuff that can be passed to other party members. Once passed, the player that gave it away is inflicted with a Miscast buff that prevents you from picking up another Role Call debuff from another player.
This debuff will need to be passed to the correct roles (either T/H or DPS) based on a previous bloodrake. This is not necessarily the most recent bloodrake and the strategy section below will detail which ones are the indicator.
Hesperos spawns 4 tethers at random on to players. These need to be picked up by the correct role based on a previous bloodrake (not necessarily the most recent one). Once the cast time resolves, tethered players are hit with a medium-sized AoE dealing high damage – this damage is lethal if taken by the wrong role. Make sure not to be hit by two.
A two-part tank-swap tankbuster. The first hit applies a debuff making the second hit taken deal lethal damage unless a invuln is used.
Indicates the arena will change appearance. Hesperos spreads his cape over the four quadrants of the arena, spawning 4 elemental tiles (water, fire, acid, and thunder) with dangerous circles in the middle that should be avoided.
This cast indicates the beginning of the four tile element phase. First, one tile from either thunder or water will light up, indicating the first mechanic that will go off momentarily. Then a second tile from either fire or poison will light up, indicating the second mechanic that will go off after the first. The mechanics per element are:
- Lightning: proximity damage, be away from the middle of the arena
- Water: large knockback (
Arm's Length andSurecast do work) - Fire: Two four-person shared stack hits
- Acid: Splash AoE on all players (spread out).
Make sure to NOT be on the elemental tile going off as the mechanic resolves (i.e., don’t be on the fire tile when the fire light party stacks are going off)
Indicates that the boss will teleport to the named cardinal and cast either a large conal cleave (his sword will glow) or a raidwide knockback (his cape glows) originating from Hesperos’ position.
Inflicts “Acting [Role]” on all players. Tanks and Healers will always receive an “Acting DPS” debuff. Two DPS will each be randomly assigned either “Acting Healer” or “Acting Tank.”
Applies an Elemental Resistance Down debuff to the whole party. This will make the party take lethal damage from all of the “Bloodraked” elements from the previous Bloodrake cast. Players will later stand on the element tile that was not tethered during this Bloodrake to survive, however this positioning doesn’t occur until after the Belone Bursts are resolved.
Summons 8 orbs (4 on a cardinal, 4 on an intercardinal) that tether to the closest player. Once tethered, the orb will become a “Not [Role]” orb based on the existing role currently tethered. These orbs must be absorbed in pairs, based on the ACTING [ROLE] debuff.
All four tiles explode, with the three previously tethered tiles dealing lethal damage. The untethered “safe” tile will deal high party damage. The arena floor will then revert back to normal.
Summons four towers that must be soaked by players that meet the criteria displayed within. Either “Not Tank/Healer” or “Not DPS”.
Fight Strategy
This heavy hitting door boss provides a tight DPS and heal check for parties. Pay attention to the various boss tells to master this fight! For the remainder of this guide “supports” refers to the four-player combination of both tanks and both healers.
Phase 1: Belone & Chlamys
The boss starts off with a Decollation cast dealing raidwide damage to the party.
Hesperos will then begin to cast Bloodrake and four tethers will appear on half of the party (either the four supports, or the four DPS). The four players tethered will be the only members who take damage. Make not of who is NOT tethered during this cast. This is followed by an Aetheric Chlamys cast which “stores” this information for Hesperos, however you can ignore this cast throughout the fight.
Hesperos will then begin a second Bloodrake cast, again tethering only four players of the party and again only dealing damage to those four. It will either be all four DPS or all four supports. It does not matter who was targetted for the first bloodrake, which group this second bloodrake is targeted on is completely random from the first cast. Again, make note of which 4-player group is NOT tethered.
Make sure to heal respective to the damage going out as the next hits will continue to hurt the party.
Hesperos will then cast Director’s Belone and inflict the “Role Call” debuff on four players at random (however it will always be two DPS, one tank, and one healer). The group that was NOT tethered during the SECOND bloodrake needs to end this phase with the Role Call debuff on them. So the two “correct role” players who did not receive the debuff will need to pick it up from the two “incorrect” players it appeared on. When handled correctly these debuffs do not inflict damage to the party.
After this, the boss will cast Inverse Chlamys which will cast orange tethers on four party members. The four players who were NOT tethered by the FIRST Bloodrake need to pick up these tethers and spread around the boss, making sure not to hit other players. These tethers will deal high damage to the tethered party members when the mechanic resolves (and will kill players if they were the incorrect role).
Remember:
1st Bloodrake determines tethers (which happen last)
2nd Bloodrake determines roll call (which happen before the orange tethers)
To handle this mechanic, we resolve Director’s Belone first. Start by having the group who does NOT want the Role Call debuff clump up and stack tightly together. This will immediately pass the debuff to the other two members of the four party group and that is OKAY. This makes sure they won’t accidentally pick it up from the other member swaps. At this point two members from the group that needs to pick up the Role Call debuff should be the only to players with no debuff at all on them. Have each player move in one at a time to pick up Role Call from the clumped group of four. When handled correctly the group receiving Role Call will all have the Role Call green debuff (this is required), and the group who does not want Role Call will all have the red and white miscast buff (the buff on all four isn’t required, it just eases the passing).
To solve Inverse Chlamys, after debuffs have finished being passed successfully, have the group who does NOT want tethers make a clump outside of the boss’s hitbox, due south. Have the group who NEEDs tethers (the group who was not tethered during the first bloodrake) clump up together inside of the boss’s hitbox, just south of his center. By standing in this orientation, when the tethers from Inverse Chlamys spawn, they will automatically go on the correct four players. Once the tethers appear and the four players have one, spread around the boss and away from the “getting rid of tethers” clump to take each hit.
Toolbox version of handling this phase:
After the tether damage hits, the boss will cast another Decollation dealing high raidewide damage accordingly so make sure to heal and mitigate appropriately.
The boss will finish out the phase with Elegant Evisceration a tank-swap tankbuster that applies a lethal damage debuff to the first tank struck. Either tank swap and mitigate, or have one tank use an invuln and take both hits.
Phase 2: Setting the Scene
Mind the capes! In dramatic flair (of course) Hesperos will change the arena appearance to set up for the next phase of the fight. The arena will be divided into four quadrants with each tile marked as an element. Each element indicates a certain mechanic will occur:
- Lightning: proximity damage, be away from the middle of the arena
- Water: large knockback (
Arm's Length andSurecast do work) - Fire: Two four-person “light party” shared stack hits – these target one healer each
- Acid: Splash AoE on all players (spread out).
The phase starts with two elements lighting up. The first element will always be either lightning or water. The second element will always be either fire or acid.
There are two common positioning methodologies that seem to be prevalent in party finder, one has players position between the fire + lightning tiles, the other has them position between the fire + water tiles. Both are resolved more or less the same. The fire + lightning positioning generally assumes you will always knockback invuln for the cape/sword attack. The fire + water positioning generally assumes you will knockback invuln if the first element is water. Either positioning can be resolved with or without these, however coordinating with your party is crucial to making sure you’re able to share stack damage when needed.
To handle the first element:
- If water was the first element that was cast, players can either position from the middle to be knocked toward the wall, or can use knockback invulns (
Surecast andArm's Length . Make sure not to end up in the water tile as this goes off. - If lightning was the first element that was cast, players should spread around the edge of the arena as lightning deals lethal damage at close proximity.
To handle the second element:
- If the second element was fire, then after the water/lightning element resolves, players will need to group into their two respective light party stacks, making sure not to overlap. Each healer will be targeted for this shared damage hit.
- If the second element was acid, then after the water/lightning element resolves, players need to make sure to spread away from other party members for a splash damage hit.
After these two elements fire, the boss will jump to the center of the arena and then begin to cast a [Cardinal] Shift, such as Easterly Shift. The cardinal in the cast name indicates which cardinal the boss will teleport to. Run to this cardinal and turn back to look at the boss. Either his cape or his sword will glow.
- If his sword glows, Hesperos will do a near-full-room cleave of the arena, with narrow cone-shaped safe slivers at the edge of the wall he jumped. Stand on either side of him for this attack.
- If his cape glows, Hesperos will do a large full-room knockback hit. This CAN be knockback-invulned with
Surecast orArm's Length if these weren’t used on a possible first-cast of water. Saving your knockback invuln here will make positioning for a possible last hit of fire stacks much easier. If you are going to be knocked back, make sure to stand directly in the middle of Hesperos to avoid being knocked into a wall.
After the cape or sword hit, the OPPOSITE two elements from the first half of this phase will occur. So if water and fire were first, the second half will be lightning and acid. Prepare to stack and spread accordingly. If water and acid were first, then it will be lightning and fire, etc.
As a reminder, make sure throughout the whole phase you do not stand on the tile of the element that is going off as it will kill you.
After these four elements go off, there will be another tank-swap tankbuster, Elegant Eviscerations, swap or tank invuln accordingly. After this will be a full party Bloodrake dealing raidwide damage to all 8 party members. During this Bloodrake, Hesperos will also tether to three of the four elemental tiles. Make note of which one he is NOT tethered to! This will become the safe tile in the next phase.
After this cast, the arena floor resets to normal tiles.
Phase 3: Role Orbs
Hesperos will adramatically throw his cape and cast yet another Setting the Scene, again creating four elemental tiles around the arena. However, their positions will be different than the previous Setting the Scene. Pay attention to where the “safe” tile determined from that last Bloodrake cast is, you’ll need to stand in that quadrant at the end of this mechanic. There will be an Elemental Belone cast applying an Elemental Resistance Down debuff to the whole party, making the party weak to the elements that were tethered during the previous Bloodrake.
To prepare for this mechanic, have the party spread around the boss with tanks and healers on the same side such as:
T D T D H D H D
Each party member will be marked with an “Acting [Role]” debuff. Tanks and healers will receive an Acting DPS debuff, and the DPS will receive either an Acting Healer or Acting Tank debuff. In your spread position, the DPS should adjust/swap accordingly so they are positioned directly across the from the role their debuff indicates they are acting as (so Acting Tank should be directly across from a tank).
Another Bloodrake will cast dealing damage to the entire party. Belone Burst will then begin to cast and 8 green orbs will appear around the edge of the arena. At the end of the cast, these orbs will each tether to the player closest to them. Above the orb a role icon will appear according to the player the orb is tethered to, with an X in the middle of it. So the orb tethered to a healer will have a crossed out healer icon above it. This indicates that “not” that role should interrupt this orb. Two players each need to soak all 8 orbs, meaning pairs will take two orbs each. To resolve this, players move directly through the boss and/or through and one position over, so that the pair is taking an orb together. This pair will then rotate clockwise to eat the next of their two orbs together. For example in the positioning above, both healers will move through to the due west orb and soak it together, then quickly move to the northwest orb and soak that one together. Each orb soak deals significant damage, so make sure to heal and mitigate through both hits to survive.
After all orbs are absorbed, players need to quickly move to the “safe” element tile. Hesperos will cast Periaktol, erupting all of the element tiles and dealing lethal damage to all but the “safe” quadrant. Again high mitigation and healing is needed.
Here’s a toolbox version of a slightly different but similar way to resolve this phase:
Phase 4: Towers phase:
After the Periaktol cast, is another Bloodrake damaging all 8 players. Belone Coils will cast, summong four towers around the middle of the arena. These four towers will all have either a “not DPS” indicator in them, or a “not tanks and healers” indicator in them. The role not marked should move into a tower each, i.e. if they are “not DPS” towers, the tanks and heals will each stand in one.
While these are on the arena, Hesperos will cast Inverse Chlamys again, with four orange tethers appearing randomly on players. The group that is NOT standing in and absorbing towres each need to run around the boss and pick up a tether. Once all four tethers are picked up, spread out to take these tethered hits, making sure not to hit players in a tower.
It’s easy for tethers to be mishandled in this phase, so the suggestion for consistency is to pull the boss as far north as possible at the start of this phase. This will make the initial arrangement of all four tethers placed outwards from the south half of the boss, and you have the two melee dps or two tanks sitting in the northern most towers to keep uptime. The group that needs to pick up these tethers can start south of the boss, between the two northern most towers, and spread around the northern half of the arena. If the boss is positioned in the middle of the arena, the picking up group should make sure to circle around at least twice to ensure all tethers are grabbed — hence the aforementioned positioning makes this a bit more consistent. Spread with the tether hits and heal accordingly.
Make note of which group of four picked up this set of tethers, as they will need to pick up the later set.
Another Aetheric Chlamys will cast indicating Hesperos “storing” the information, and then a full 8-person raidwide damage cast will occur.
Hesperos will then again cast Belone Coils and again summon 4 towers around the middle of the arena, which will again have either a “not DPS” or “not tanks and healers” indicator in them. Which role appears is random and not prescriptive from the earlier towers. Have the respective “not” role stand in each tower. Make note of which players are not grabbing towers for this portion.
As these second towers resolve, the boss casts Director’s Belone, applying the Role Call debuff to four players just as he did in the first phase. The players who need to end this mechanic WITH the Roll Call debuff on are the players who do NOT take the SECOND set of towers. Handle the pickup for these just as you handled it in the first phase, with the passing group clumping together.
And similarly to the first phase, next Hesperos will cast another Inversive Chlamys with four tethers appearing on random players. Again handle this just like the first phase, with the players who do not want tethers clumping together south outside of the boss’s hitbox and those picking up tethers clumping close just south of the middle of the boss. The four players who picked up the FIRST set of tethers from this phase (the group who was NOT in the first towers) will need to grab these tethers here. Pick them up and spread accordingly.
This phase finishes off with a Decollation raidwide and then another Elegant Evisceration tank swap tankbuster, so swap or invuln as available.
Phase 5: Pinax, Again
The final phase of the fight is an idential repeat of the second phase Pinax mechanics. Handle these just as done before.
When the elements are all resolved, prepare for a series of three hard-hitting Decollation raidwide hits before the enrage. Hesperos needs to be below 50% HP at this point in order to proceed to the second fight. Best of luck!
Contributors
- Levi strategy rambling and general write-up, my brain hurts, and then later a full rewrite.
- Ky, timeline and small edits, and mechanic overview
