Let me preface this guide by saying: Whoever designed this fight hates the Party Finder and wants it consigned to Hell. With that said, welcome to the third Savage raid of the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker patch cycle. The Hippokampos has been overcome and it’s time to ascend from the murky depths to the burning ruin that houses the Phoinix.
You’ll do this fight within a circular arena with dangerous outer edges that you need to avoid at all costs. Be forewarned that the similar red-orange color palette of the battlefield, the boss, and its attacks will make it hard for folks that aren’t paying attention to visual cues.
Also, raid guides contain spoilers. We need to tell you what you’ll face, after all. If you prefer to preserve the surprise of raids for yourself, give them a try first before referring to a guide. Then come back here for some help if you have trouble!
How to Defeat Phoinix Savage – Phase One – Darkened Fire
This is a longer first phase in comparison to some others because I define that second phase as the one in which the adds spawn. But before we get there, we have a lot of mechanics to work through and it’s going to be diagram heavy.
- Scorched Exaltation: A raid-wide AoE. Heal through it y’all. Be prepared for it to happen often during the fight.
- Heat of Condemnation: Tankbusters with a twist! The boss will tether two random party members. Each Tank needs to pick up a tether, drag it away from the group, and use a cooldown to mitigate the damage. Each will get hit with a medium-sized circle AoE, so be sure to stay away from the party and each other!
- Experimental Fireplume: The initial iteration of this attack comes in two flavors, based on the number of orbs around the Phoinix when the cast ends. The party should be stacked in the center to prepare for either outcome.
- One Big Glowing Orb: One random player will be targeted for a large circle AoE. After the marker drops, move out of the center to avoid it.
- Ring of Glowing Orbs: A smaller set of AoEs starting in the east and west sides of the arena and rotating clockwise followed by a last one in the center. To dodge it, stand in the center and then move into the safe space left by the path of the initial AoEs.
- Right/Left Cinderwing: The boss does a huge cleave on the side denoted by the attack name. Move to the other side to avoid this.
- Darkened Fire: This is a two-part attack. The first part places four invulnerable Darkened Fires around the arena, spawning underneath specific raid members, either the Tanks/Healers or the DPS. Pair one of each together and stand on the intercardinal positions around the boss, helpfully marked by the yellow squares on the inner ring. (Remember these pairs, as they’ll be useful later.) Too far and they’ll be hard to take down, too close and they’ll tether and explode.
- Brightened Fire: This is the second part, which like the Normal version of the fight, will help you kill the Darkened Fires. Every member of the raid will be marked with a circle AoE and numbered from 1 to 8, and then the boss will attack each in numerical order. You want to place them on the cardinal directions, so two AoEs will overlap on every Darkened Fire. However, this should be done in a specific sequence/order.
Players with 1 to 4 should get on a Darkened Fire as players with 5 to 8 should stack in the center. As the first set resolves, the corresponding players need to switch positions: After player 1’s AoE drops, the players marked with 1 and 5 should switch positions, and so on. This places two AoEs on each Darkened Fire, but ensures that party members aren’t getting hit twice. If you believe in your healers and don’t want to move, you can just stack 1/5, 2/6, 3/7, etc on the cardinal points and heal through it.
As soon as the Darkened Fires get hit with enough AoEs— four in the total each— they will become vulnerable and you can take them down. If you screw up, they will remain invulnerable and wipe the party. Even once they’re vulnerable, if the Darkened Blaze cast from any add finishes, it’ll hurt a lot. After this, the boss will use Heat of Condemnation and Scorched Exaltation again.
- Devouring Brand: This attack will see lines of fire coming from the edge of the arena at the cardinal directions, moving towards the center. When they meet in the center, they’ll expand into a larger cross-shaped AoE that will divide the arena into quadrants. The boss will cast Experimental Fireplume during this, so stack in the center to bait the large circle AoE if that happens, and then move together to the outer edge of one of the safe quadrants.
- Searing Breeze: This attack is why you want to move together. This will create larger circle AoEs under every raid member. If you’re together, these will all be stacked in one spot and then the party can move closer to the center to avoid all the explosions.
The boss will follow these attacks with a Left/Right Cinderwing, another Heat of Condemnation, and an Experimental Fireplume.
Phase Two – Sunbird Adds
This is the phase where you’ll be attacked by a number of Sunbird adds. It’s rather difficult since a number of mechanics will be going off in tandem. First off, the boss begins with…
- Trail of Condemnation: Phoinix will fly to a random spot outside of the arena and cast one of two attacks. It’s helpful to get with your Darkened Fire partner and line up from closest to furthest away from the boss.
- Center Head Glow: Phoinix will charge through the center of the arena and mark everyone with circle AoEs. Spread out to minimize damage.
- Left and Right Head Glow: Phoinix will spit hot fire on either side as it charges through the platform. The center will be your safe spot, but it’ll also mark either the Tanks/Healers or the DPS with AoEs that need to be shared with a partner. It’s best to use the pairs you set up for the Darkened Fire mechanic earlier.
Afterward, Phoinix will land in the center of the platform and become untargetable, spawning four Sunbird adds. This phase is more complex than the Normal version, so be prepared. These adds cannot die on the same spot, or the boss will get a damage up and the party will wipe.
There’s two ways to deal with this. If you feel confident in your group’s ability to manage DPS on each target, you can have your Tank pick up all four and burn them down individually as you rotate around the arena for each kill, dropping them on the outer edge at the cardinal positions. Alternatively, each Tank can pick up two of the adds then drag them to two of the cardinal positions (North and West, for example), burn down one each and then rotate to the open spots (East and South). During this, the boss will be casting…
- Blazing Rain: This is just light raid-wide damage that gives the healers something to do. Heal through it.
After you’ve killed all four Sunbirds, Phoinix will cast Flames of Undeath. This will deal raid-wide damage and revive the Sunbirds. (If any were still alive at this point, they’ll become much stronger and it’ll likely be a wipe.) With the new version of the Sunbirds, you have to watch out for a brand-new mechanic.
- Fireglide Sweep: During this cast, each Sunbird will tether to two players, one tether connecting the add and the first party member, and a second tether connecting the first to a second player. At the end of the cast, the add will dash to the first target, then the second.
This will generally be split between the same Tank/Healer and DPS groups. These tethers will be red — meaning max damage — until you get far enough away from the other tether target to turn them purple. The first tethered player needs to go to the opposite side of their tethered add, but not in the hitbox of another add. The second tethered player will go opposite them. First, the charge is an invisible line AoE, so after you take a charge, move slightly to prevent taking a second hit.
After this, the Tanks should gather the adds, and as before, the raid should kill each on a cardinal position. Once again, be careful not to let their corpses overlap, or it’s a wipe. Also, this is a DPS check and not being fast enough will cause the adds to enrage. Assuming you killed them all, the boss will then cast the phase-ending action…
- Dead Rebirth: This does a wild amount of damage to the entire raid, so as soon as the adds are dead, heal all the way up and use damage mitigation spells.
Phase Three – Fledgling Flight and Experimental Gloryplume
The boss will begin casting Heat of Condemnation, so the Tanks should pick up the tethers and mitigate. Phoinix will now have the four smaller adds around itself, like the Normal version of the fight. These will auto-attack the second-highest player on the enmity list, which should be the Off-Tank. This is notable, because Healers should keep an eye on both the Off-Tank as well as the main Tank.
- Fledgling Flight: The boss sends the floating adds to four players, either Tanks/healers or DPS. Each add is facing towards a specific cardinal direction and will eventually stop moving and attack in a larger cone AoE in that direction. The marked players need to drag their add to the right spot to aim these AoEs outward. Then everyone can stack in the center to avoid the damage.
- Experimental Gloryplume: This is a combination of two attacks. The first is Experimental Fireplume, which works as detailed above. The second is Experimental Ashplume, which looks like a dark version of the Fireplume attack. These attacks will come one after another.
- One Big Dark Orb: One Tank and one Healer will be marked with a Light Party stack marker. You need to split into two groups of four to share the damage. Tanks and Melee DPS, Healer and Ranged DPS is a good way to separate out, but you can determine how to best stack in your particular party.
- Ring of Dark Orbs: Every party member will be marked with a smaller circle AoE. Spread to avoid stacking damage.
Phase Four – Fountain of Fire
Welcome to the final big barrier to the end of this fight. There’s a lot that factors into these mechanics and positioning is key.
- Fountain of Fire: This action spawns two circle markers, starting at North/South or East/West. These will then rotate clockwise. Standing inside of these markers buffs you with Trickle of Fire, a damage and healing buff. For the purposes of this phase, healers should stand inside the markers for the healing buff and rotate along with them. These will deal damage, so healers, don’t forget yourselves.
That’s not the hard part. While Fountain of Fire is going on, the rest of the raid has to deal with a series of other attacks. Pre-positioning is important, with both Tanks inside the boss’ hitbox and the DPS sitting just outside the hitbox.
- Sun’s Pinion: The boss will mark the two closest players with AoE markers. Once these hit, small Sunbird adds will appear and tether to their marked player. After a short time, they’ll charge along the path of the tether. You need to position to not share the AoE, but also not get hit by the charge.
The diagram will help with this part. The Tanks will take the first two AoE markers, heading North and South on the edge of the inner circle. Once they take the AoE hit, they need to run in the opposite direction to the outer edge, in order to stretch the red tethers until they turn purple. At the same time, the first two DPS will get their Sun’s Pinion markers. They need to go to the intercardinal positions, like Northeast and Southwest, and do the same thing. At this point, the birds summoned on the Tanks will charge with Fireglide, so the remaining two DPS players want to be close to the boss, but not in the center, because the Tanks’ birds will be charging through the middle. Then the final two DPS should be going East and West to drop their AoEs.
(The directions above assume the Fountain of Fire markers start North and South. Rotate clockwise if they start East and West.)
If you survived that, have the party stack on each other afterward. Your healer should still be buffed and they can heal the party up easily. The boss will cast the Scorched Exaltation raid-wide AoE twice in succession.
Phase Five – Firestorms of Asphodelos
More combination mechanics! WOO! The boss will cast Firestorms of Asphodelos, which will summon three Darkblaze Twisters on the outer ring of the arena in a triangle formation. They won’t move yet, but you don’t want to stand in them either. The boss will first cast…
- Flames of Asphodelos: This is a series of three conal cleaves, dividing the arena like a pizza. These will happen in order, so wait in the third marker and then move into the first position after that cleave resolves in order to avoid damage.
The boss will also cast Experimental Ashplume while Flames of Asphodelos resolves, so be prepared to stack or spread. Then Phoinix will cast Flames of Asphodelos again. Then it’ll start casting…
- Storms of Asphodelos: Each Darkblaze Twister now enters the fight for real. They’ll each cast a conal AoE towards whichever player is closest. The party should decide which three players ahead of time — two Healers and one DPS is probably the best for DPS uptime — and they’ll want to hug close to the twisters and bait the AoEs outward.
At the same time, the boss will cast Heat of Condemnation, which the Tanks need to pick up, and three conal AoEs on the three closest raid members, which should be the remaining DPS. These DPS players need to make these AoEs face outward, while also not hitting the Tanks or the players next to the Darkblaze Twisters.
- Darkblaze Twister: The boss will tether to all three tornadoes, but only one tether will be darkened. This is the important one, as it’ll cast a knockback AoE. The other two will cast a donut AoE, with the safe zone inside.
The boss will cast Searing Breeze, which puts four sets of larger circle AoEs under each party member. You want to stack together on the inner circle near the first Twister that’s clockwise from the darkened tether. Together, the party will bait these AOEs in one spot, move a bit clockwise, bait the next set, move again, and repeat until you’re near the next Twister. The boss will then start to cast Experimental Ashplume.
At this point, you should stack into your Light Party groups near the darkened Twister. Each group wants to get knocked back by the darkened Twister towards one of the other two Twisters; The first group in one direction and the second group in the other. The Twister AoEs will hit, and then you’ll need to resolve Experimental Ashplume by continuing to stand in your Light Party group, or spreading out depending on the attack’s visual cue. Then there’s another Scorched Exaltation to end this phase.
Phase Six – Death’s Toll
The boss will begin this phase by casting Death’s Toll, marking every party member with one, two, or four stacks of a debuff with the same name. Then it’ll cast Fledgling Flight. This time you want to place the adds at the cardinal positions of the inner circle, but facing inwards.
This time around, each hit from Fledgling’s Flight will remove a stack of Death’s Toll. They need to all be gone by time the boss does its next attack. Once you’ve positioned the adds correctly, you need to then properly position yourself in order to get hit the right number of times.
- One stack of Death’s Toll: Stand behind a single add.
- Two stacks of Death’s Toll: Stand on an intercardinal on the inner circle.
- Four stacks of Death’s Toll: Stand in the center.
If you cleanse all your stacks, you’ll get a debuff called HP Recovery Down, which does as it says. Then you need to stack up and heal up to full HP, because the boss will cast…
- Life’s Agonies: A hard-hitting raid wide AoE.
That’s mostly it. You’ve nearly finished the fight. The boss will cast Experimental Gloryplume, then Trail of Condemnation, then Devouring Brand, then Experimental Fireplume, then Left/Right Cinderwing, and then two Scorched Exaltations back-to-back. Once the boss starts casting Final Exaltation, you need to throw everything you got, because this is the raid-wipe enrage mechanic.
If you make it through all that, congratulations! You’ve finished the Savage version of The Third Circle of Pandaemonium Asphodelos. Hopefully this guide helped. If you wound up in the wrong guide, here are links to our guides for the normal versions of the Asphodelos fights and previous Savage fights.
- FFXIV Raid Guide – Pandaemonium Asphodelos: The First Circle
- FFXIV Raid Guide – Pandaemonium Asphodelos: The Second Circle
- FFXIV Raid Guide – Pandaemonium Asphodelos: The Third Circle
- FFXIV Raid Guide – Pandaemonium Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle
- FFXIV Raid Guide – Pandaemonium Asphodelos: The First Circle (Savage)
- FFXIV Raid Guide – Pandaemonium Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Savage)
If you need help getting prepared for the Pandaemonium raids, be sure to check out our endgame gear guide. And if you want to get different Jobs to level 90 and raid-ready, you can use our fast leveling guide for alternate Jobs. Pandaemonium isn’t the only endgame content available in Endwalker, make sure you’ve unlocked and played through the optional level 90 dungeons Smileton and The Stigma Dreamscape.
