09 October 2023
UPDATED 11 November 2023
Contains Spoilers for FFXIV: Endwalker and the Pandæmonium raid series.
This is my first blog post, so apologies if this is written weird or anything. I thought a neat blog post would be to talk about Pandæmonium savage!
A small note before we begin, this post will likely be updated when I fully complete P12S. I took a break after P11S, so I only have thoughts up to about halfway through P12SP1. I've cleared!
Additionally, clear dates are from my FFLogs and may not be fully accurate.
This is my first fully cleared tier!
Which is funny, because back in Stormblood I randomly cleared O3S and O6S?
Pandæmonium: Asphodelos (Savage)
I did this tier as Scholar.
Asphodelos: The First Circle (Erichthonios)
Cleared: 31 Jan 2022
This fight might honestly be my favourite from Asphodelos. It's a very solid intro into Savage if you're coming into it from the start of the expansion!
Ancient Shackles is a good first mechanic that sets up a lot of future fight theory as well. (This raid series in particular loves it's personal debuffs!)
I think healing this fight was pretty cruisy too, outside of Intemperance. But that's not a bad thing. I think the fight being pretty calm to heal outside of a main mechanic, for the first fight of the raid series, is very good. I remember finding really nice spots to use a Critlo (critical Adloquium) spread, which was fun!
That's honestly all I really remember from this fight; to be fair, this was nearly two years ago! But I think it's pretty solid, and I still have fond memories of it.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 13 / 20
Asphodelos: The Second Circle (Hippokampos)
Cleared: 3 Feb 2022
For the longest time, while trying to clear this fight (and if I remember correctly, even after clearing) I didn't know that there was a difference between the roomwide cleaves (Spoken/Winged Cataract) so that was fun.
Healing optimisation for this fight was pretty fun too! There were a lot of moments where I could decide to not heal and save it for later, which was fun!
Oh, and all the knockbacks were really silly and really fun. OH and also the kiss mechanic! That was fun too!
I remember the Limit Cut mechanic here sometimes being a bit finnicky and that was kinda annoying.
Overall, this fight was fun and I didn't mind it at all.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 12 / 20
Asphodelos: The Third Circle (Phoinix)
Cleared: 21 Feb 2022
THIS FIGHT. Okay so like, this was the first fight I actually stepped into for this tier. My friends were struggling to clear it, so I offered to come join. We did end up going back and getting P1S, and then P2S done for me. And as you can see, it took nearly a month to clear this fight...
I also didn't like this fight nearly as much. The middle add phase was actually pretty enjoyable to heal, and I don't have any complaints there EXCEPT for DPS being silly and not killing the adds in time, or tanks being silly and not picking up the adds in time. Though honestly I think a lot of the tank oopsies were from general fight jank and this fight had a LOT of jank to it.
Also, the colours here?? It's all bright orange. The AOEs are also bright orange. While I didn't really struggle with it, it does kind of hurt your eyes after a few hours of looking at it.
Fountain of Fire was pretty fun to heal though, I'll give this fight credit for that.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 8 / 20
Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle (Hesperos)
Cleared: 6 May 2022 & Jun 3 2022
I think this is the fight I recall the least about.
Director's Belone was a neat idea, if not a little bit finnicky at times with the passable debuffs. Same with Inversive Clamys with the tethers!
Pinax was pretty cool though. I felt smart when I did that perfectly.
Part 2 was also alright. It's another fight I barely remember anything about. I think the last half of it was very healing intensive but also really fun! It reminded me of Garuda in UWU; Friction specifically.
I'm sorry that I don't have terribly much to write about here because I honestly barely remember anything about it...
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 17 / 20
Final Thoughts
I think Asphodelos was a very good intro tier with the exception of P3S. P3S had a lot of problems, not just visual, which I think really brings this tier down. I'm also in the minority with really not liking the music until Hic Svnt Leones. Hic Svnt Leones is an absolute BANGER though.
Total Rating: 50 / 80
Pandæmonium: Abyssos (Savage)
I did this tier as Black Mage, Scholar and Astrologian.
Abyssos: The Fifth Circle (Proto-Carbuncle)
Cleared: 5 Sep 2022
Carbuncle! Carbuncle was a lot of fun. This was my first savage fight as Black Mage and it was an amazing learning experience. Figuring out how to optimise my movement and damage made me feel SO big brain.
I also sometimes healed this fight... which was a lot less fun, honestly. Less complex movement and the healing here was pretty cruisy, outside of the first Caustic Pools. Healing that sucks. You close your eyes and the tank is at 10%.
However, I think Devour was too hard for a mechanic for the first floor of this tier. It's a very good mechanic, but it's also a very hard wall, especially if this is where you started and not P1S.
Thankfully, Devour isn't hard once you figure out the trick for it (unlike a certain other first fight... P9S...) so it's not too bad!
Oh and this makes me so angry. This is about the normal mode, but I saw a post where someone did an edit of the music. During the phase transition, where he jumps down, the music changes from Silent Scream to Scream. It goes SO hard and it's so cool! I can't find the original Twitter post, but I found this Youtube Link which has the same idea. I dunno how you'd make that song transition work in Savage though.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 16 / 20
Abyssos: The Sixth Circle (Hegemone)
Cleared: 15 Sep 2022
Hegemone was a really interesting fight, with a puzzle that's the crux of the entire fight. Once that puzzle is solved, the fight becomes extremely easy and a bit of a snore.
Which is a shame, because Hegemone had a lot of potential as a fight! It's back-loaded nature isn't as bad as the next fight, but it's still bad here. It also has the issue of every mechanic feeling very samey, so it's super easy to forget which part of the fight you're at.
This fight was also... alright to optimise on Black Mage. There's a bit of randomness, which is unfortunate, and there's times where you can't get 100% Leylines without potentially dying to AOE damage, or missing on buffs from being out of range. There was some fun movement. Cachexia is a neat mechanic, which is also very trivial once it's solved.
I think this fight needed something to spice it up, because it really suffers from feeling the same until Cachexia I and II happen.
Scream is SO good though. Great track.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 14 / 20
Abyssos: The Seventh Circle (Agdistis)
Cleared: 22 Oct 2022
This sure is the backloaded fight of all time. Nothing happens until the last 2 minutes or so.
Optimisation on Black Mage was a bit better this time. Lots of moments to squeeze out extra damage before you need to move.
Figuring out how to optimise Inviolate Purgation was absolutely the highlight of this tier for me! Getting full uptime on Black Mage during that part? Amazing. Lovely. Favourite.
The 3 Harvest mechanics at the end are good, but they really should have been spread out rather than all at the end. It makes the fight a snooze until the end where you suddenly now need to pay attention.
Also, where's the 4th Harvest?? Conquest/Pestilence?
Scream still bangs though.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 14 / 20
Abyssos: The Eigth Circle (Hephaistos)
Cleared: 9 Jan 2023 & Feb 25 2023
There is a reason this fight took 2 months to clear. I think in retrospective, there's nothing too wrong with this fight. I dislike how much memory retention you need here. Not because memory mechanics are bad, but because the tell for them is extremely easy to miss. I wish the tell was more obvious and that it lasted maybe a second or two longer! Conceptual Flare in particular suffers from this. I think the idea with Centaur and Snake is fun.
However. Part 2. Part 2 for this fight. This nearly made me quit the game with how radically different this fight is when you're healing and when you're doing literally anything else. I think this video summarises it well. Doing part 2, for TWO MONTHS AS A HEALER will make you want to die. Like; okay, healing this fight isn't actually bad or anything, but it's VERY intensive. It gets annoying when you're stuck in a run for like 2 hours continuously wiping due to someone else making a mistake and you literally can't do anything about it. High Concept is a completely different mechanic for healers.
Once I cleared this fight on Astrologian, I went back and did it on Black Mage. I'm not kidding, Part 2 on Black Mage is extremely easy outside of some awkward movement you need to do.
(Also I'm really sorry for my friends who will absolutely read this: I love you, but me and my cohealer wanted to die at the end of every raid night. The things that Jones and I saw and talked about will never leave us.)
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 12 / 20
Final Thoughts
This tier starts extremely strong and then goes downhill. P8SP2 made me want to die. The music is super good though. Visual design was better this time, but I think that's mostly because of the big tree and slimy gross woman.
Total Rating: 56 / 80
Pandæmonium: Anabaseios (Savage)
I did this tier as Black Mage. I'm planning to do P12SP1 & P2 on Dancer, due to static constraints.
Anabaseios: The Ninth Circle (Kokytos)
Cleared: 1 Jun 2023
This fight is brutal if this is your first step into Savage this expansion. Limit Cut here is unforgiving and one tiny mistake will wipe the entire party.
I actually really enjoy this fight, but I think it's a bit too difficult if you're new to Savage. I found it okay, but a lot of my friends really struggled when we tried to do a friend static, and I don't blame them.
Black Mage optimisation is really fun. There's a lot of movement you can do (especially Limit Cut) which makes this fight super enjoyable.
I also cleared this fight on Scholar. Healing is pretty easy for this fight. It can be a bit spiky but it's nothing terrible.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 16 / 20
Anabaseios: The Tenth Circle (Pandæmonium)
Cleared: 11 Jun 2023
Fun but brutal! Black Mage here was not fun to optimise though. There's a lot of randomness to it; if you get one of the lasers during Bonds 1 then you can go pre-position yourself on the platform, which gives you a bit more uptime.
If you don't get a laser though, you do have to leave your Leylines very early. If I was in a static, I could ask someone to stand perfectly on the web bridge to dash to, but you can't do that in randoms, so you lose a lot of time. If you delay until after, you miss raid buffs, which isn't terrible but it's very unfortunate.
I didn't heal this fight, so I'm not sure how tough Harrowing Hell is. For me, I just use Addle and pray I don't die.
Every PF is a Bonds 3 party. I didn't enjoy PFing this at all.
The boss design gives me nightmares. It's really cool.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 15 / 20
Anabaseios: The Eleventh Circle (Themis)
Cleared: 23 Jun 2023
Honestly? I think this is the only fight I don't have problems with.
I think it's paced very well, I think optimising it on Black Mage is really fun, the visual design is gorgeous, the music is wonderful...
It's hard to say something is perfect, but this is close! I think the final mechanic at the end, Letter of the Law, can be a bit funky at times, but it's a lot of fun.
I did some prog on this as Red Mage and I made a strange discovery: Black Mage is easier on this fight. I think Triplecast really helps, as with Red Mage you need to keep stopping and starting and this fight doesn't really allow for that.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 20 / 20
Anabaseios: The Twelfth Circle (Athena)
Cleared: 14 Oct 2023 & 11 Nov 2023
UPDATED for P1 & P2 CLEAR
Now that I've cleared the first half of the fight, my opinion has really improved of it! I really enjoy a lot of moments here, but there's still a part of it that bugs me. I think it's because a lot of the difficulty comes from visual overload and not from the mechanics itself. But that's okay, it's the last fight of the tier. I still dislike Para3 and it's for the same issue. I wish you could zoom out a little more, just so I could see what's going on and what's causing a possible wipe there more easily.
The limit cut here is fine. It's not too hard, it's not too easy... but I find myself randomly dying at times to damage, despite having more HP than about half the raid. It's frustrating that mistakes aren't super obvious. Fight is still, overall, really fun! Also, my static is absolutely insane. We went from "fresh P12S P1 prog" to a clear within three 3-hour sessions.
P2 is a fun fight! I really enjoy the puzzle-y nature of it. My static this time also really improved my opinion of this; they were super wonderful throughout prog. There's a few points that really suffer from lack of information; specifically when you wipe. There are times we wiped to Pangenesis for seemingly no reason, and there wasn't a way to tell who or what caused.
I think the puzzles were really fun, too! Classical Concepts 1 & 2 are really cute, if that makes sense... The enrage is super forgiving too, which I'm really okay with! It feels very rewarding.
Ratings
Mechanic Design
Visual Design
Music Design
Overall Fun Factor
Total: 19 / 20
Final Thoughts
Anabaseios might be suffering from recency bias, but I do really enjoy it so far! After clearing the entire tier, this is absolutely my favourite! The boss designs are all really nice, the mechanics are really fun, and the people I cleared P12S with are very wonderful. (Hello if you're reading this!) I also got the mount first; we had a sub come in, so we did FFA loot and I got lucky!
Total Rating: 70 / 80
Closing Thoughts
This was my first raid tier to completion. I'm really happy that I finished it!
When I look back on the fights like this, I think my sort-of-hatred from Savage comes from the social aspect of needing 7 other people. The fights themselves are (mostly) wonderful, but I really wish I could be the other 7 people at times.
There was a lot of good and a lot of bad, but I think a 100% perfect raid series would be kind of boring, in a way. I'm excited for what Dawntrail will bring, and maybe next expansion I'll clear my first Ultimate, too!
(Back in Shadowbringers, still not over getting to Ultima in UWU and never getting that clear. I miss my friends.)
I want to offer a big thank-you to everyone along the way who I raided with. I'll hold onto the memories ~ the bad and good; forever!
Thank you so much!
Thanks for reading!