Sage Healer Tips for Asphodelos Savage — Endwalker 6.2

Asphodelos is the first raid tier released in the expansion FFXIV: Endwalker and consists of four fights, with the fourth fight having two phases and being split with a checkpoint:

1. Warder of the Condemned: Erichthonios (P1S)
2. Mythic Creation: The Hippokampus (P2S)
3. Mythic Creation: The Phoinix (P3S)
4. Himitheos: Hesperos (P4S)

If you are looking for more generalized guides, you should take a look at our Savage guides written by Lyra Rose, linked below each section.

Disclaimer: This document contains suggestions. As with all fights, you should coordinate with your co-healer in order to come up with an organized healing plan that minimizes DPS lost to healing.

The first fight of the raid tier is very light on healing. Even on initial prog, there is not all that much damage, and there are no parts that would qualify as a "heal check". However, should the party fail portions of Intemperance, you may need to throw out extra healing to compensate.

Toxikon: Fortunately, there is not much movement in this fight, so the three stacks you receive at the beginning will typically be sufficient. As an MP optimization, you can shield the main tank pre-pull and use a Toxikon in the opener before the shield is consumed.

• For the left/right and in/out Gaoler's Flail mechanics, learn the hitboxes so that you can do the movement using only slidecasting.
• Good places to use Panhaima include Intemperance #1 (use at about 2:10 - the initial Intemperance cast is not what does damage), and Fourfold Shackles (use it before the party spreads out to make sure it hits everyone). Alternatively, instead of Fourfold, it can be used on Intemperance #2 (you will not be able to use it on all three mechanics).
• Try to use Kerachole on as many raidwides as possible. With 50% uptime, it will provide a lot of value.

The second fight is overall not terribly heal intensive, but it definitely has a few moments where you need to be on top of things. The good news is, the hard downtime gives you an opportunity to build up more Toxikon stacks without a damage penalty.

Toxikon: You can recharge them during the Kampeos Harma downtime, for a total of up to six uses throughout the fight without sacrificing any damage. However, in order to actually get those three extra charges, you can not just heal random targets. There are some options here. You can shield tanks, so that the shield is consumed by the tankbuster after the mechanics. You can shield random people, but only at the very end, since there is a 27-second window between the boss becoming targetable again, and the next raidwide. Finally, you can shield anyone who has not yet been hit by their mechanic, but this requires reacting quickly.

The most heal intensive mechanics are:

• Coherence into Murky Depths (1:15 - 1:40) - Here, there is a flare, a line stack, and a raidwide in that order. Three hits in fairly quick succession makes it a good time to use Panhaima.
• Kampeos Harma (4:10 - 4:26) - This does not require all that much healing, since each person would only take a single instance of damage (and taking an extra hit is a one-shot regardless), but you do need to make sure people are topped off beforehand. In addition, since this is hard downtime, use it as an opportunity to recharge Toxikon fully. Due to only being one hit per person, it is not a good place to use Panhaima.
• Channeling Overflow #2 (5:00 - 5:35) - Between the raidwide before the mechanic, the puddles, and the slides, this mechanic can hurt. People may be too spread out for heals to hit them, so this is a good opportunity to use Panhaima while everyone is stacked. The "slide" and "collision" are two separate instances of damage, so Panhaima gets some extra mileage here.
• Tainted Flood into Coherence #2 (7:00 - 7:21) - Similar to the first Coherence, this one will be three instances of damage. However, the puddles will hurt a bit more than the flare. This is another good spot to use Panhaima.
• Channeling Overflow #3 into Coherence #3 (8:11 - 8:45) - This one will be skipped with a good killtime, so there is no need to save anything for it if you know you will kill before 8:37 when the line stack goes off. However, if you are going to see it, either save a big cooldown or two for it, or use tank LB3. I recommend the latter, as you have still got just under two minutes until enrage.

• Watch your DoT during Channeling Flow #1 (2:46 - 3:05). If your DoT expires right as you get stunned, you may miss a tick or two.
• Pay attention to your group's buff timings. They are likely holding the 4-minute buffs until after Kampeos Harma.

The third fight is where healing really needs to be on point. Your oGCDs will definitely be stretched thin at times, and it also is the first fight where tank healing becomes a concern.

Toxikon: Same as P2S. On top of the three free charges, you get three more during hard downtime/adds. Generating the second set of charges will be very straightforward this time.

Heal-intensive mechanics:

Note: Exact times may vary due to the fact that adds phase is not a fixed length.

• Brightened Fire (1:03 - 1:23) - While it is not that much damage, Panhaima will be up by the next time you would need it.
• Adds Phase (3:00 - 4:30) - This does not count towards your parse, so you should err on the side of safety rather than trying to maximize DPS. In fact, some groups will extend the adds phase intentionally to allow potions to come back up (see the Tips section below). Just safety heal during this.
• Fountain of Fire (6:00 - 6:30) - Make sure people are topped off going into the mechanic, but try to minimize the amount of heals you use to accomplish that. If everyone survives until you have soaked the first tower, then you will have the massive healing up buff, and all of your heals will become of significantly greater value. Depending on your co-healer, using Kardia on them can be a great way to keep them alive through this mechanic, as they will be out of range of most other heals.
• Firestorms of Asphodelos into Darkblaze Twister (7:00 - 8:23) - This section is not the worst in terms of healing, but it is tricky because you likely used several cooldowns on Fountain of Fire. Panhaima gets very good value here, so saving it for this is a good idea.
• Life's Agonies (8:45 - 9:08) - This mechanic lowers everyone to 1HP, gives a healing down debuff, and finishes up with a raidwide that does double damage if someone is not at full HP. If you have an AST, they can solo heal this mechanic with Macrocosmos. If you do not have one, using healer LB3 is not a bad idea. If you do not have LB3 available, you will need to use whatever you have here. The good news is that this mechanic will be skipped as you start killing the boss faster.

• During Darkened Fire, you can use AoE abilities to hit multiple targets. Just make sure that you do not wipe the group by failing to focus down your assigned add.
• Icarus provides a very convenient way to stack with your partner for both of the partner mechanics (Darkened Fire and Trail of Condemnation) as well as for four-person stack mechanics.
• Dragging out the adds phase to the maximum possible length will result in your second pot coming up right before the boss becomes targetable. This lets you do a full re-opener without an awkward pot weave.
• As with P2S, it opens with a raidwide, letting you get three free Toxikon stacks by shielding pre-pull. The downtime into adds phase allows you to generate three more, for six total over the course of the fight.
• Even ignoring adds phase, this is the first fight with intensive single-target healing. You should not need a bunch of GCD heals, but you should try to make good use of Kerachole and Krasis.
• If you use Panhaima during Fountain of Fire right after the first soak, it will not come back up until nearly the end of Firestorms. For most groups, it will be better to hold Panhaima to maximize the damage it absorbs in Firestorms, and use regen tools such as Physis for Fountain of Fire.

Also known as the "Door Boss," this fight has multiple heal-intensive parts, as well as many back-to-back raidwides. In addition, the fact that the opening Bloodrakes may or may not hit the same four people twice in a row adds a level of RNG to healing requirements. Pinax adds yet more RNG.

Toxikon: Three free charges pre-pull, that's it. There is no downtime where you can recharge for free.

Heal-intensive mechanics:

• Initial Decollation and 2x Bloodrake (0:10 - 0:37) - Some pre-pull shields and other abilities can help here without costing anything.
• Tethers and following raidwide (0:55 - 1:15) - You will need a bit of healing here. If tether players went further out than necessary, give time for them to move in before healing. I use Zoe, Pneuma, and Kerachole here.
• The first Pinax (1:54 - 2:27) is not terribly healing intensive, but you do still need to use some heals and mitigation here.
• The next set of Bloodrakes, Belone Bursts, and Periaktoi (2:44 - 3:36) are where the healing gets tough. Zoe + Pneuma should be back up by then, and Panhaima is good value here too. Do not blow everything in this segment, as you will need some cooldowns for the next set of mechanics.
• The towers, tethers, and Bloodrakes (3:59 - 5:13) will require quite a bit of healing. Fortunately, there is time between them for cooldowns to come back up.
• After the second Pinax, there will be several raidwides. Unless you used it rather late, Panhaima and other big cooldowns should be back up. Do not bother healing after the third Decollation, since only enrage lies ahead.

• The fight opens with a raidwide but does not have any hard downtime. Thus, you will have access to three Toxikon stacks without losing damage.
• Be aware of which tank is currently tanking after swapping, and switch Kardia accordingly.
• Plan Rhizomata uses so that you have Addersgall heals when needed, without overcapping.

Like the door boss, the final boss of this raid tier has a several mechanics that require heavy sustained healing. It is divided neatly into four acts, followed by a finale and two curtain calls. However, there is certainly more tank healing than the door boss.

Toxikon: Same as the door boss. Three initial charges, nothing else.

• Act I (0:35 - 1:09) is not heal intensive. There are a couple raidwides prior to it, and the mechanic itself deals minor damage, but there is not much to worry about. The tankbuster may leave the tanks a bit low, and Act II has a tankbuster fairly early on, so use tools such as Soteria to top them back up.
• Act II (1:22 - 2:09) - Starts with a tankbuster, so make sure the tanks are topped off enough from the Farsight/Nearsight. After that, the mechanic is heal intensive. The main challenge here is that during the mechanic, people will be too spread out for heals to reach them. While everyone is still grouped in the middle, you can use Physis, Kerachole, and Panhaima, to keep everyone up. Ideally, after breaking the first set of tethers, the party should move back towards the middle (melee will generally do this anyway for uptime) before moving out to break the second set of tethers, giving you another chance to heal. The mechanic finishes with a raidwide. This is a good place to use Pneuma.
• Act III (2:22 - 3:21) is not heal intensive. You will want to top people up a little bit right about when the knockback happens, but other than that, it is not big at all. After the mechanic, there is a tankbuster with a bleed. Haima is great for counteracting the bleed, and you still have Kardia on top of that.
• Act IV (3:33 - 4:49) is rather heal intensive. Beginning with two raidwides, you will need to top the party up enough to survive the initial four tether pops before everyone moves out of healing range. After that, you have four more tether pops, followed by two raidwides. Effectively, this mechanic can be treated as nine back-to-back raidwides. Be sure to spread out your cooldowns.
• Finale (4:58 - 6:13) is not particularly heal intensive itself, but people will probably be low from the raidwide, so use a cooldown or two to top people back up before everyone has to split up for the mechanic. There is a tankbuster, raidwide, and another tankbuster afterwards.
• Curtain Call I and II (6:27 - 8:24) - This is another very intensive mechanic. The good news is that a good killtime will skip the second curtain call entirely, allowing you to dump everything on the first set. If progging, just play it safe and use some GCD heals while spacing out cooldowns. The entirety of the mechanic, not including the hard enrage which comes after, stretches over more than a minute and a half, so 60-second cooldowns used at the beginning will be back up by the end. There is a raidwide at the end, but you do not need to heal after that since it is followed by the hard enrage.

• Like the doorboss, the fight opens with a raidwide, which can give you three Toxikon stacks.
• Icarus can be used to some effect in Act II, Act III, and Act IV.
• Since there are a lot of mechanics that involve the party spreading out, pay attention to people who may have missed a heal, and be ready to spot heal them.
• Due to tank healing needs being fairly low in the rest of the tier, it is easy to sleep on some of your single-target heals. Make sure you are getting good use out of them here. For example, Krasis combined with Soteria is an 80% boost to Kardia.