Red Mage DPS Tips for Asphodelos Savage — Endwalker 6.2

Asphodelos is the first raid tier released Endwalker. There are four fights total, with the fourth fight having two phases and being split with a checkpoint:

1. Warder of the Condemned: Erichthonios
2. Mythic Creation: The Hippokampos
3. Mythic Creation: The Phoinix
4. Hemitheos: Hesperos

This guide covers Red Mage-specific tips for each raid. More generalized guides on how mechanics work for each fight are linked below in their respective section.

Disclaimer: This page contains fight-specific tips that will make things easier for Red Mage players in commonly encountered situations. They are not always hard or absolute rules, as there are sometimes different ways to optimize or handle specific mechanics depending on the group.

The first fight of the tier is comparatively simple in design, with full uptime from start to finish and less movement requirements than other floors. As such, there aren't many adjustments required to the standard rotation when it comes to optimizing damage output.

Embolden should be used on cooldown, with the two-minute and six-minute buff windows occurring during each Intemperance. For the first Intemperance, we can safely stand on the middle tile and cast Embolden before moving to soak our crystal. Melee combos will naturally align with movement requirements during this mechanic, making any required crystal soaks or tile swaps easier.

It is harder to buff everyone during the second Intemperance if you need to soak the second crystal to swap your element. This is because there will be at least one party member north or south. Try to ensure that everyone stands closer to the center. If possible, the group should try to align buffs between the second crystal and the in/out flails.

If killing close to enrage, potions should be used on cooldown to gain the benefit of three full uses. Otherwise, the general recommendation is to use potions in the opener and then the six-minute buff window due to common kill time ranges. To execute a triple melee combo around raid buffs for the six-minute buff window and potion, we begin our first melee combo around 17 seconds before Embolden comes off cooldown. We can then use a potion after our first Verholy or Verflare. This will ensure our potion buffs three sets of Scorch and Resolution, while also aligning two full sets of finishers under raid buffs.

It is common for the boss to fall between 6:40 and 7:30 in optimized or fully geared groups. In this scenario, it is optimal to align Manafication with two-minute raid buffs every time, as we will not lose a use within this killtime range.

The second fight of the tier has moments of downtime and a few specific movement-heavy mechanics, which require a higher degree of oGCD planning and awareness than the first.

There are various moments of downtime, particularly Channeling Overflow and Kampeos Harma, which makes it important to use Fleche and Contre Sixte strictly on cooldown. If too much drift occurs, these abilities may come off cooldown during downtime which can easily compound into at least one lost use. The general purpose opener will also result in this problem, leaving us two alternatives.

The first option is to double weave an opener potion with Fleche if it can be done without clipping significantly. This will be subject to ping. This moves Contre Sixte earlier in the melee combo, which prevents it from drifting into downtime if used strictly with no drift.

The second option, which is generally preferred in optimization scenarios, is to use a potion at two minutes instead of the opener. This allows a Fleche Contre Sixte double weave in place of the potion in the usual opener, which will make it easier to get maximum uses of these oGCDs across the fight. It also allows us to use more melee combos under our potion buff.

It is common for groups to delay the four-minute buff window until 4:30 due to the downtime from Kampeos Harma. However, it is not advisable to hold Manafication here, because the shorter cooldown timer will make it highly likely to lose a use for most killtimes. The safe range of time to align Manafication with 4:30 raid buffs is around 8:50 to 9:30. Otherwise, it is best to use Manafication on cooldown and align normal melee combos with raid buffs instead.

Many geared or experienced groups will clear the fight faster than nine minutes. In these scenarios, it is optimal to use our potion during the two-minute buff window rather than in the opener, which results in more melee combos being buffed. Moreover, the forced downtime from Kampeos Harma makes our second tincture naturally align with buffs at 6:30, making this a suitable second tincture window. If your group takes longer than nine minutes to clear the fight, however, it is better to use tinctures on cooldown to get three uses.

The first set of Sewage Eruptions occur after a raid buff window, making it not always ideal to save a melee combo for movement. One solution is to start away from the party and bait eruption AOEs separate from the group. There will be less movement required, and the mechanic can easily be handled with a single Acceleration or Swiftcast use.

With perfect GCD uptime, it is possible to gain an extra GCD before Channeling Flow and Kampeos Harma with a GCD recast time of 2.47. This can be achieved by using Thavnairian Chai as our raid food while wearing the standard 2.48 best in slot gear set.

The third fight of the tier presents a relatively noticeable spike in difficulty for many, primarily due to various movement-heavy mechanics requiring good awareness and precise timing. A lot of mechanics in this fight are also hard to recover from if mistakes occur. Adds phase also allows us to build resources for a powerful reopener on the boss, but the extent of this will depend on the group. Adds phase kill speed may also affect subsequent buff and potion timings.

The general purpose opener allows us to get a last usage of each before the transition into adds phase. However, we can also use our potion at two minutes instead of the opener. This allows a Fleche Contre Sixte double weave in place of the potion in the usual opener, which will make it easier to get maximum uses for the phase.

The first Experimental Gloryplume can be handled via slidecasting. Sprint makes this easier, but is technically optional. Later instances of this mechanic can be handled by pooling mana for melee combos, which is especially helpful for spread patterns. Examples of both patterns can be found below.

Due to the cleave damage from our melee combo finishers, it is often optimal to save a melee combo for this mechanic. Verholy, Verflare, Scorch, Contre Sixte and Impact will all cleave the boss if targeted on one of the flames. When lined up properly, Resolution can also be used to hit two fires along with the boss.

Heavily geared or experienced groups will clear the fight faster than nine minutes. In these scenarios, it is optimal to use our potion during the two-minute buff window rather than in the opener, which results in more melee combos being buffed. Most parties will also delay their four-minute raid buffs until after adds phase. For similar reasons as Hippokampos, this delay tends to align our subsequent potion window with raid buffs at slightly after 6:30 around the Fountain of Fire mechanic. There is a small window of time at around 8:30 that works as well. However, if taking longer than 9 minutes to clear the fight, it is better to use potions close to on cooldown to get three uses, with the second use being immediately after adds phase with raid buffs.

During progression or when undergeared, it can be best to expend a melee combo on a large bird to ensure the party can get through adds phase consistently. Once geared or more optimized, however, it is common to build black and white mana to 100 each in adds phase without using a single melee combo. Once the boss becomes targetable again, this allows us to reopen with a strong triple melee combo with both Embolden and Manafication available.

These mechanics, which occur after adds phase, are prime examples of movement-heavy mechanics that are hard to recover from if mistakes occur. They can be handled by saving a melee combo without overcapping and/or planned uses of Acceleration or Swiftcast, as shown in the clips below.

While this fight allows for full uptime, the Pinax mechanic in particular can be tricky to optimize around, as it requires a lot of movement, has an element of randomness to it, and occurs during most jobs' natural burst windows.

The key to optimizing this mechanic for Red Mage is playing around the flexibility of our melee combo. Every pattern can be handled by ensuring our combo finishers are aligned with the portions of the mechanic with heavy movement. A demonstration of this is shown in the video below. Given the usual killtimes and enrage timer for this fight, it is commonly safe to hold Manafication for raid buffs, ensuring we will always have at least one melee combo aligned no matter what.

It is advisable to pool mana for a melee combo here. The easiest way to resolve this mechanic is to start our melee combo as the orbs appear, allowing us to use our enchanted weaponskills while moving through the boss. We then take advantage of the free movement from our three finishers to pop the orbs.

There are three common buff timings for this raid. For most groups that are partially or fully geared, using buffs on cooldown will be best due to killtimes commonly falling around the mid six-minute range. If undergeared or progging to beat enrage (which occurs around 7:12), it is also viable to hold two minute raid buffs until after Pinax resolves. This leads to a 0-2:30-4:30-6:30 configuration, which was a common strategy among early week progression groups, due to less mechanics occurring at those times making burst windows easier to execute. In both of the above scenarios, aligning Manafication with Embolden is optimal.

When sufficiently geared and optimized, some groups may kill the boss fast enough to skip the six-minute buff window and second Pinax. In this scenario, 0-3-5 buff timings are preferable, with Manafication used strictly on cooldown to allow a fourth use before the fight ends.

The second half of Hesperos is also a full uptime fight. While it has a few movement-heavy mechanics, they are arguably simpler to execute than mechanics from some previous floors (i.e. Phoinix and Hesperos Phase One).

Movement for this mechanic can be handled with either a melee combo started after our second use of Contre Sixte (assuming standard opener), or with Acceleration and Swiftcast. If you are assigned to an outer tower and want to hold your melee combo, a single use of Acceleration or Swiftcast will allow you to keep uptime without harming oGCD alignment after.

Starting a melee combo as the tethers appear ensures full uptime for this mechanic, as shown in the video below. Embolden can be used off cooldown in the middle of the arena.

Act 4 is another example of a mechanic that is best resolved by using our melee combos for movement. Conveniently, Act 4 is also the four-minute raid buff window for the party, making it ideal to do two back-to-back melee combos here. However, depending on which tether you get, you may need to briefly disengage from the boss to break it during a melee combo. If you notice it is your turn to break a tether next, be aware of how your finishers align with that movement.

This fight is too short for triple potions, and common kill times tend to make two-minute potions unreliable or prone to misalignment with raid buffs. As such, we tend to use potions in the opener and six-minute buff window. Doing a triple melee combo for the six-minute potion window can also help with movement during the start of the following Curtain Call mechanic.