The Arcadion raid series in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail has some tough fights in its normal encounters, but the Savage difficulty versions take things to a whole other level.AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savagepits players against the charming Honey B. Lovely, and I hope you like her theme music because you’re going to be listening to it for quite some time.
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How to unlock AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage in FFXIV
To unlock AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, you need to complete thenormal mode of the AAC Light-heavyweight tierof the Arcadion raid series. After you defeat Wicked Thunder in Light-heavyweight M4 and complete The Neoteric Witch quest, you’re able to speak toGabbro (X: 22.3, Y: 17.1) in Solution Nineto unlock the Savage tier. There’s a minimum item level requirement of 705 for M2S, so you’ll need some decent gear before you can even enter the encounter.
All AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage mechanics explained
The Savage version of the Honey B. Lovely fight features most of the mechanics from itsnormal counterpart, but there’s much less room for error. Your party needs to coordinate to avoid getting charmed, and just like in the normal version, there are a ton of rapid-fire AOEs during this Savage raid.
Opening Phase
Honey B. Lovely kicks off the encounter with araid-wide Call Me Honeyattack. It’s pretty standard stuff, so use heals, mitigations, and shields to keep everyone’s HP bars topped off.
Spash of Venom
After that, she’ll useSplash of Venomto mark the first real mechanic of the raid. This enhances Honey B. Lovely’s attack withpoison damagejust like in the normal version of the raid, only there’s no pop-up to warn you.
Tempting Twist
After imbuing her weapon with poison, Honey B. Lovely will then castTempting Twist. This is aring-shaped AOEthat you can dodge by moving underneath Honey B. Lovely just like in the normal version of the raid. The difference this time is that she’ll spreadpoisonous globsaround the arena after she strikes. These are the same ones from the normal version of the raid, they just show up sooner in Savage.
The poison globs afflict you withPoison Resistance Down, so you definitely don’t want to get hit by them. During this phase, Honey B. Lovely also drops a glob of poison onto every player, so you’re getting the debuff regardless. If you stand in the blast radius of one of the poison globs, though, the stacking of both debuffs will cause you to take lethal damage.
Drop of Venom
Drop of Venomis the next attack on the list. You’ll hear the announcer warn you about Honey B. Lovely’s “fearsome venom strike” when it’s about to hit. She’ll then castHoney Beeline, which is alinear AOEthat you’ve seen from the normal version of the raid. This one is augmented withpoisonous globstoo, though, and they’ll be launched to the outskirts of the arena.
Head to the edge of the arena to dodge Honey Beeline and then return to the center to avoid the poison. Again, Honey B. Lovely will drop poison onto everyone’s heads regardless, so you can’t risk taking the AOE blast from one of the globs.
Killer Sting
The battle continues withKiller Sting, atwo-person stack marked colored in red. Both tanks should team up to take this one. Make sure you’re healed up and prepared at this point, because the next phase of the fight is about to begin.
Honey B. Live: 1st Beat (Phase 1)
The second phase of the fight begins when Honey B. Lovely castsHoney B. Live: 1st Beatand tries to steal your heart with a raid-wide attack. This marks the beginning of the heart charm mechanic that you’ve seen in the normal version of this raid, but everyone hasfour hearts in their gaugethis time.Two players will begin this phase with two filled heartsandtwo other players will have completely empty heart gauges. Everyone else begins with thestandard single heart.
Centerstage Combo
This phase kicks off withCenterstage Combo, a new attack introduced in the Savage version of this raid. This is similar to Black Cat’s cardinal and diagonal AOEs from M1S. The attack begins with a cross shape underneath Honey B. Lovely. She’ll launchconal AOEs along these linesand also perform a spin attack that creates aring-shaped AOEaround the edge of the arena. Move close to her and stand in the spaces between the pink lines.
She’ll immediately follow up with another set of cross-shaped AOEs, only this time in thespaces between the lines. There are triangular safe zones along the edge of the arena that begin a short distance past the end of the pink heart lines underneath Honey B. Lovely. Move out to dodge this attack.
Finally, Centerstage Combo concludes with a repeat of the conal AOEs along the pink lines plus acircular AOE directly underneath Honey B. Lovely. You should only need to perform a small sidestep to avoid this attack. Do not move closer to Honey B. Lovely or else you’ll get caught by the circular AOE.
Love Me Tender
Now it’s time forLove Me Tender, the charm mechanic that everyone loves so much. Just like in normal, giant heart icons will appear throughout the arena that must besoaked. These soaks add one heart to your gauge, so coordinate with your party to avoid anyone becoming charmed.
Loveseeker
Honey B. Lovely caps off the soaking phase withLoveseeker, a large pink circular AOE underneath her. Just don’t stand in it. During this phase,heart projectileswill spawn beneath Honey B. Lovely and slowly coast to the outskirts of the arena while more hearts will appear at the edge of the arena and coast toward the center. Getting hit by one will add one heart to your gauge.
attempt to stay in between Honey B. Lovely and the edge of the arena so you’re able to avoid hearts going both ways. Formeleeplayers, go as far out as you can while remaining in melee range.Castersshould have oGCD abilities ready to go so they can remain mobile (Pictomancer‘s Holy in White, for example)Ranged DPSshould have the easiest time during this phase since they can stay on the move.
During the Loveseeker phase, afour-heart stack markerwill be placed on a tank. These hearts will be divided between every player in the stack, so you should haveexactly four peoplein it. After the heart stack, Honey B. Lovely will castOuterstage Combo.
Outerstage Combo
This is just like Centerstage Combo,only in reverse. It begins with conal AOEs along the pink lines and a circular AOE directly underneath Honey B. Lovely. Then, extra thick linear AOEs will appear along the pink lines. Finally, conal AOEs will appear along the pink lines once again with a ring-shaped AOE hitting the edge of the arena. you’re able to dodge these exactly like the AOEs from Centerstage Combo, just remember that the order is reversed for the circle and ring-shaped attacks.
Stinging Slash
Honey B. Finale caps off the heart phase with a basic raid-wide. Once the arena goes back to normal, Honey B. Lovely will cast a tank buster calledStinging Slashon both tanks. This launches huge conal AOEs, so bothtanks should go in frontof the boss while theparty hides behindher.
Alarm Pheromones
To transition to the next phase, Honey B. Lovely will castAlarm Pheromonesand summon her army ofGroupbees. Just like in the normal version of this raid, they will dash across the entirety of the arena with wide linear AOEs telegraphed by green lines.
This first set of Groupbees goesone at a time, so move with your party to avoid them. Take care to avoid getting trapped at the arena’s edge.
Honey B. Live: 2nd Beat (Phase 2)
Honey B. Live: 2nd Beatmarks the beginning of the next phase with yet another raid-wide that gives four players one heart to start with.Love Me Tenderwill then spawn several circular AOEs throughout the arena that drop hearts onto players.
Heart Stack Markers
They’re easy enough to avoid, but thepair of four-heart stack markersactivated during this phase complicates things. The best strategy here is to have the players with zero hearts team up and take the stack markers in pairs so they end up with two hearts each.
Heart Soaks and Spread
After the stack attacks go off,two heart soakswill appear. Two players will also be marked with aheart spreadicon above their heads. The people with the spread marker should find a private corner of the arena while the remaining party members with a single heart should soak the circles. Ideally,everyone in your party should have two hearts each after this section.
Honey Beeline Pairs
After dealing with that stressful section, Honey B. Lovely will castHoney Beelineyet again. Remember, this is a wide linear AOE that you can dodge by moving to the sides of the arena. Hearts will spawn in the safe areas and detonate into circular AOEs afterward. In addition, hearts will drop on the heads of each player so your party needs topair up in groups of twowhen moving back to the middle of the arena.At this stage, everyone in the party should have three hearts.
Groupbees Poison
Honey B. Finalemarks the end of this phase and the arena will transition back to normal.Splash of Venomwill imbue Honey B. Lovely’s weapon with poison yet again, andGroup Pheromoneswill summon another set ofGroupbees. The Groupbees will repeatedly attack in a#-shaped patternand two players will be targeted with markers above their heads.
Themarked players will have a circular poison AOE dropped at their location, so it’s very important that they do not leave it in the center with the rest of the party. The marked players shouldmove to the edge of the arena in the safe spaces between the Groupbees’ AOEsto drop the poison. The poison markers will target every player once, so there are four pairs in total.
After the poison AOEs have been dropped, Honey B. Lovely will castBee Sting. This placestwo four-person stack markersfor the party to deal with while the Groupbees continue to attack, so you’ll all have to get uncomfortably close to the boss and each other to safely resolve this mechanic. Once the Groupbees disappear, Honey B. Lovely will useKiller Stingand place atwo-person red stackon a tank to end the phase.
Honey B. Live: 3rd Beat (Phase 3)
After Honey Beeline and some more poison globs, the next phase of the fight will begin withHoney B. Live: 3rd Beat. For this phase, all players start with a clean slate and no hearts.
Honey B. Lovely kicks things off withOuterstage Combo. This one starts with a circular AOE underneath Honey B. Lovely’s feet and conal AOEs along the pink lines, followed by thick linear AOEs along the pink lines, and finally conal AOEs along the pink lines and a ring-shaped AOE at the edge of the arena.
Four-Person Heart Soak
Next, fourheart soakswill appear and aheart will be dropped onto the heads of both healers and both tanks. The fourDPS players should remain in the centerof the arena to grab the soaks while thetanks and healers should spread outto different corners of the arena to avoid giving other players any hearts.
Centerstage Combois up next, and you should be fairly comfortable with dodging that by now. After Centerstage Combo, the soaks are back but theroles are reversed. The tanks and healers should soak the heartswhile theDPS need to spread out away from the party while they get hit with one heart each.
After the second set of soaks,Honey Beelineis the next attack. Remember, dodge the linear AOE by moving to the side of the arena, then move back into the center to avoid the exploding hearts.Make sure your party divides into pairsto take the hearts that drop onto everyone’s heads after the fact. After this last set of hearts,Honey B. Finalewill transition everything back to normal.
Stinging Slashis up next, a pair of tank busters that launch conal AOEs at each tank. Just like last time, the party should go behind Honey B. Lovely while the tanks deal with the tank busters in front of the boss. After this, it’s time for something completely new to Honey B. Lovely’s Savage version.
Rotten Heart (Phase 4)
Fed up with your party’s success, Honey B. Lovely will castRotten Heartto transform the arena into a new form. The raid is nearly over at this point, so lock in and finish strong.
Clock Spots Debuff
At this point, the party should assumeclock spotsaround Honey B. Lovely’s red targeting ring. If you’re unfamiliar with that strategy, just putone player on each of the lines near the red ring surrounding the boss.
Each player will have aticking debuffplaced on them withdifferent timers. For example, some players will only have12 secondswhile others will haveover a minute. You have to get rid of these debuffs or else you’ll die.
During this phase, Honey B. Lovely will repeatedly cast a raid-wide calledBig Burst. The party needs topair up and have two players soak the raid-wide at a time directly underneath Honey B. Lovely.Soaking the raid-wide underneath her willremove your debuff. Thankfully, the debuff timers applied to the party have done the pairing for you. The players with theshortest debuff timersshould soak Big Burst first, followed by the next shortest, and so on.
In between every Big Burst, the boss will repeatedly cast another raid-wide calledCall Me Honey. This is a bighealing check, so use whatever mitigations you can do to help your healers and stop them from hating you.Enragebegins shortly after this phase, so that’s all there is to AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage!
FFXIV AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage rewards
Upon clearing AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage and defeating Honey B. Lovely, you’ll receive the following rewards.
There will also be a treasure coffer with the following rewards if your party has not cleared the raid this week.
That’s all you need to know about AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage in Final Fantasy XIV! There are still many more tough fights awaiting you in the Arcadion, however. If you need a break from Savage raiding and hit a wall with your progression, don’t forget to take a break and explore some ofDawntrail’s other optional content like Hunts.
Diego Perez
Currently serving as a Senior Staff Writer at PC Invasion, Diego Perez has been writing about video games since 2018, specializing in live service games like Destiny and Final Fantasy XIV. His work is featured at publications like Game Rant and Attack of the Fanboy (where he served as Associate Editor), but PC Invasion is home to his best work. When he’s planning content or writing guides, he’s yelling about Ape Escape or grinding Lost Sectors in Destiny. Plus, he has a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication Media Studies for Texas A&M University.
