Introduction

This guide aims to provide tips and strategies for defeating the Hippokampos in Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage).

The Second Circle (Savage) is the first raid encounter in the Pandaemonium series, available January 4, 2022 in Patch 6.05. Players must have completed the Quest “Who Wards the Warders?” and talk to Nemjiji in Labyrinthos (X:8.4, Y:27.4). Players must be item level 580 or above to challenge this fight in a non-premade group.

Videos

Reaper POV

Red Mage POV

Drops

Chest One:

One of:

• Asphodelos Head Gear Coffer
• Asphodelos Hand Gear Coffer
• Asphodelos Foot Gear coffer

Chest Two:

One of:

• Asphodelos Head Gear Coffer
• Asphodelos Hand Gear Coffer
• Asphodelos Foot Gear coffer

Both of:

• Discal Tomestone
• Radiant Coating

Token

• Asphodelos Mythos II

Six of these tokens can be traded in for head, hand, or foot gear at a Pandaemonium gear vendor. Four of these tokens can be traded in for a Radiant Coating.

Major Mechanics

The Hippokampos has a hard enrage of 10:28 into the encounter and requires roughly 41.9k raid DPS to defeat before then.

Pre-pull Preparation

Assign the raid into two light party stacks with one tank, one healer, and two DPS each. Place the markers as such, indicating the raised platforms and the drained passages.

Mechanic Overview

Murky Depths

A moderate raidwide AoE that deals magic damage.

Doubled Impact

A magical tank buster on the current main tank that needs to be shared by both tanks or invulned.

Sewage Deluge

A heavy raidwide AoE that deals magic damage. Floods the arena, making the entire arena except for the raised platforms and drained passages inflict a Dropsy DoT to players who stand in the water. In addition, one of the raised platforms will begin to overflow with water, killing any player who stands on it.

Spoken Cataract and Winged Cataract

The head and body of the Hippokampos will do a cleave and a line AoE respectively. The body will always do a line AoE, but the head will do a wide AoE in front if it is Spoken Cataract and a wide AoE behind it if it is Winged Cataract.

Coherence

The Hippokampos will tether to a random player. When the castbar ends, the head will jump to the tethered player dealing heavy damage, and the body will do a line stack AoE. The tether should be taken by a tank and mitigated, and a tank needs to stand in front of the party as the first player in the stack relative to the boss will take extra damage.

Ominous Bubbling

A delayed stack marker on both healers that deals water magic damage inflicts a Water Resistance down debuff, meaning players cannot get hit by more than one.

Shockwave

The Hippokampos will jump to a random safe raised platform and do a knockback from the center of that platform. This deals minimal magic damage and knockback immunities do work on it.

Predatory Avarice

Inflicts a random tank and random DPS with Mark of the Tides and a random healer with Mark of the Depths.

• When Mark of the Tides expires, the player will pulse a large AoE that knocks back players in the radius.
• When Mark of the Depths expires, the player will pulse a large AoE that deals magic damage to all players in the radius.

Channeling Flow

Inflicts all players with Mark of the Tides, which is indicated by an arrow pointing to a cardinal direction. When this debuff expires, players will get pushed in the indicated direction, and must collide with another player with an arrow of the opposite direction. They will receive also receive a Water Resistance down debuff and be stunned. There will always be one tank, one healer, and two DPS with unique directions.

Channeling Overflow

Inflicts all players with Mark of the Tides, but there are two sets with different durations.

Tainted Flood

Marks a tank, a healer, and two DPS with an AoE marker that deals moderate magic damage and inflicts a Water Resistance down debuff. The marked players will be the ones that are not doing Channeling Overflow’s Mark of the Tides at the time.

When the arena is not flooded, all players will be marked with the AoE marker at the same time.

Kampeos Harma

Marks all players with one to four blue or purple dots. Players marked with blue dots will be dashed to by the body of the Hippokampos in sequence from one to four, dealing damage in a line AoE. Players marked with purple dots will be jumped to by the head of the Hippokampos in sequence from one to four, dealing damage in an AoE around them. This deals moderate physical damage and inflicts a physical vuln debuff, so players cannot be hit by more than one dash or jump.

Dissociation

The head of the Hippokampos will separate from its body and appear at the edge of the arena. It will do a divebomb down the side of the arena it appears on.

Sewage Eruption

Three sets of AoE markers appear under all players. Bait these and move together as a group.

Fight Strategy

Phase 1

• The fight starts off with a raidwide, a dual tank buster, and another heavy raidwide. Sewage Deluge deals massive damage, so it’s important to use extra mitigation for it.
• After Sewage Deluge and each subsequent one, players should move to the raised platform directly opposite of the overflowing raised platform, which will be glowing. This is to make moving for mechanics easier.
• Spoken Cataract is the same mechanic as in the Normal difficulty, while Winged Cataract has the head do an AoE behind where it is facing instead of in front. Either way, get in front of or behind where the head is facing based on the mechanic, and then move to the side of the body.
• All players should stand further than max melee range so that the main tank can easily pick up the Coherence tether. After they pick it up, they should move to the opposite side of the arena on the drained passage (but not on the overflowing platform). The off tank should then stand in front of the stacked party to soak the line AoE stack. Both hits need to be lightly mitigated.
• The boss will then cast Ominous Bubbling and Shockwave. All players should head towards the platform that is being Shockwaved, and hit their knockback immunity halfway through the castbar. The raid needs to split into their light parties - one group should be on the platform, and the other group should be on the drained passage leading to the platform. This is to do the light party healer stacks.
• The party needs to move back to the platform opposite of the overflowing platform to make moving for Cataract easier.
• For Predatory Avarice, the party needs to move to the safe spot for Spoken Cataract or Winged Cataract first. After it goes off, the debuffed tank needs to move left away from the party, and the debuffed DPS needs to move right away from the party. Move to the edge of the drained passage. All other players will take magic damage from the healer’s debuff.
• After this, the water will recede.
• All players will get an arrow indicating the direction they are going to be pushed back. Simply head behind the grate of the direction you are being pushed to, but not overlapping with the other player. Ranged can head out a bit, and melee can be max melee as long as they are fully behind the grate. You can do DPS left and H/T right facing the middle, but adjusting is very simple. Players will all get stunned and pushed towards the middle, and collide with the player on the other side, which solves the mechanic.
• Another dual tank buster and raidwide follow this, and then the arena will be flooded again by Sewage Deluge.
• The boss will then jump to a platform with Shockwave, and do Kampeos Harma. It is an intermission of sorts, and the boss is untargetable during this.
• Here is a toolbox diagram showing how to do Kampeos Harma. Essentially, purple marked players will move to their respective numbered marker, while blue marked players need to bait the dashes across the arena. For blue dots, 1 and 3 will go across to where the boss jumped for Shockwave, while 2 and 4 will stay in the corner. 1 and 2 will stand in front, and after they are dashed to, they will move behind while 3 and 4 move in front.

Ability Order

Murky Depths
Doubled Impact
Sewage Deluge
Spoken Cataract OR Winged Cataract
Coherence
Murky Depths
Ominous Bubbling
Shockwave
Predatory Avarice
Spoken Cataract OR Winged Cataract
Channeling Flow
Doubled Impact
Murky Depths
Sewage Deluge
Shockwave
Kampeos Harma

Phase 2

• After Kampeos Harma, there will be a tank buster and raidwide. The boss will then do Channeling Overflow.
• All players will be marked with Mark of the Tides, the arrow debuff from Channeling Flow. However, there will two different durations of debuffs, as the water is still overflowing.
• Players will have to use the drained passages and platforms to resolve this mechanic.
  • To do Mark of the Tides during this phase, players simply have to move to the edge of the platform horizontally or vertically long and safe.
  • The players whose debuffs are expiring first should head to the edge where they will be knocked into another player.
  • Players whose debuffs are expiring second should go to the drained passages not in the path of these players, and spread for Tainted Flood. Players with Tainted Flood are fine as long as they are not hitting any other player or in the path of a marked player. Use the image below as a reference.

• Get together and heal up, and do the same mechanic but with reversed groups - the players that previously had to do Mark of the Tides will have Tainted Flood, and vice-versa.
• The water will then recede.
• Predatory Avarice will occur again, but this time with a Dissociation and a Spoken Cataract or Winged Cataract. This leaves one quadrant of the arena safe to do Predatory Avarice’s debuffs.
• The party should stand directly in front of the boss on the safe spot. The DPS with the debuff should always go to the corner and the tank with the debuff should go to the safe spot at the wall not at the corner. Both players should be as close to the dangerous zone as possible to ensure no players are hit with their debuffs.
• Afterwards, Dissociation will happen with baited AoEs. Players need to stand on a numbered marker. Once the AoEs from Sewage Eruption appear under them, everyone should move towards on the safe side as a group to bait these AoEs.
• Afterwards, spread for Tainted Flood and do Coherence. The party should stack in one corner and the main tank should bring the tether to the opposite side. The off tank needs to stand in front of the stack.
• After another dual tank buster and raidwide, the boss will flood the arena with Sewage Deluge for the final time in the fight.

Ability Order

Doubled Impact
Murky Depths
Channeling Overflow
Tainted Flood
Tainted Flood
Spoken Cataract OR Winged Cataract
Predatory Avarice
Dissociation
Spoken Cataract OR Winged Cataract
Dissociation
Sewage Eruption
Tainted Flood
Coherence
Doubled Impact
Murky Depths
Sewage Deluge

Phase 3

• The final Channeling Overflow is the final challenge in the fight. The party should move to the raised platform opposite of the overflowing platform. All players should stand at max melee range.
• As soon as players receive their debuffs, the players that need to move to position for Mark of the Tides should do so. Right after, the tether will appear. The tank that does not have Mark of the Tides going off first needs to pick up this tether, which is either on the party or outside on a player, and move to the opposite end of the arena just like before (but not on the overflowing platform).
• Players who do not have Mark of the Tides going off first should move to the corner of the platform they were on to dodge the pushed players. Right after the push back, Coherence will go off - the tank that was pushed back needs to stand in front of the group. Players will need to be healed up from the collisions as soon as possible.
• After this, the second set of players needs to do their Mark of the Tides. All other players stand on the corner of the platform. Heal up and stay on the platform opposite of the overflowing platform.
• There is another Dissociation and Sewage Eruption pattern. Players should stay on their current platform and wait for the AoEs to appear, then move as a group to or on the safe side.
• Return to the platform opposite of the overflowing platform. Do Shockwave and Ominous Bubbling the same as before. Afterwards, there is a dual tank buster, so move away from the tanks.
• Do damage and heal up before the enrage at 10:28.

Ability Order

Channeling Overflow
Coherence
Dissociation
Sewage Eruption
Ominous Bubbling
Shockwave
Doubled Impact
Murky Depths
Murky Depths
Sewage Deluge

Enrage is a hardcasted Sewage Deluge that occurs at 10:18 into the fight, wiping the raid at 10:28.

Party Finder Strategies

As the fights have just released, there are no strategies set in stone. I would highly recommend the strategies listed in this guide, as they are simple and effective.

Role Specific Tips

Tank

• Mitigate the tank busters, Doubled Impact and Coherence.
• The boss is omni-directional and the boss will jump to the middle for all mechanics that require it, so there is no complicated boss movement necessary.
• One tank can hold the boss for the entire fight.
• Use party mitigation tools for Murky Depths, Sewage Deluge, and Ominous Bubbling.
• For the second Channeling Overflow, the tank that has their debuffs expire second needs to take the tether.

Healer

• Make sure players return to the platform opposite of the overflowing raised platform between mechanics to receive healing.
• Use heavy mitigation tools for Sewage Deluge, as this does massive damage. However, there is no incoming damage afterwards so healers can rely on healing over time to cover these.

DPS

• The boss is omni-directional.
• Use Addle and Feint for tank busters and raidwides, especially Sewage Deluge.
• This fight has 99% uptime, with the only caveat being that it may be necessary to move early for Kampeos Harma and move out for the second Predatory Avarice.
• Kampeos Harma occurs at around four minutes into the fight. Delay two minute raid buffs until afterwards to get full effect.