AAC Light-heavyweight M2 Savage Raid Guide

Honey B. Lovely is the second boss fought in AAC Light-heavyweight (Savage).

AAC Light-heavyweight M2 (Savage) can be unlocked at level 100 after completing the Normal difficulty of the Light-heavyweight raid and talking to Gabbro in Solution Nine (x22.3, y17.1). It requires a minimum item level of 705 to queue, but this requirement can be bypassed when entering with a full party.

With her irresistible charms, your victory against Honey B. Lovely was hard-fought. Yet Gabbro's words linger in your mind: what if the sweet songstress revealed a side of herself more vile than you had ever imagined? How might the battle have gone then...?

If you would prefer to watch a video that covers the fight, take a look at Hope Productions visual guide.

Honey B. Lovely is fought in a circular arena with a death wall. Markings on the arena show cardinals and intercardinals. This is a heavy execution-based fight with simple mechanics and few body checks. The fight is divided into three Honey B. Live phases, with mechanics in-between.

Honey B. Lovely has an enrage cast at 10:11, restoring her HP and incapacitating all players before wiping the raid shortly after. She requires at least 137,425 raid DPS to kill, but this can be higher due to the Infatuation mechanic.

Begin by pairing all supports with one DPS. Have tanks partnered with ranged and healers partnered with melee. Clock positions may be helpful for the final mechanic of the fight. Each pair needs to be assigned one quadrant of the arena to play with, and this can be colour-coded using waymarks.

    {"Name":"Imported","MapID":988,"A":{"X":100.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":90.0,"ID":0,"Active":true},"B":{"X":110.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":100.0,"ID":1,"Active":true},"C":{"X":100.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":110.0,"ID":2,"Active":true},"D":{"X":90.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":100.0,"ID":3,"Active":true},"One":{"X":105.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":95.0,"ID":4,"Active":true},"Two":{"X":105.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":105.0,"ID":5,"Active":true},"Three":{"X":95.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":105.0,"ID":6,"Active":true},"Four":{"X":95.0,"Y":0.0,"Z":95.0,"ID":7,"Active":true}}

The primary mechanic during the Beat phases of the fight is Infatuation. Certain attacks colour-coded with pink and identified with hearts will increase the Heart Gauge, up to four. Infatuated players take damage-over-time, increased based on the amount of hearts a player has. If a player reaches four stacks they will become a Drone for six seconds, unable to move or perform actions. Every time a player becomes a Drone, Honey B. Lovely will restore roughly 1% HP and gain a stack of Queen Bee, increasing her damage dealt.

In addition, she uses certain mechanics throughout the fight that players need to be familiar with.

• Call Me Honey: Honey B. Lovely deals roughly 135,000 magic damage to all players.
• Honey Beeline: A line AoE across Honey B. Lovely that hits in front and behind. This spawns blobs on the east and west on the outside, forcing players to move in.
• Tempting Twist: A donut AoE. This spawns blobs on the cardinals and inside, forcing players to move out to intercardinals.
• Drop of Venom: Honey B. Lovely coats her weapon. After the next Tempting Twist or Honey Beeline, four players of one role will be targeted with AoE damage that must be shared. This deals roughly 260,000 magic poison damage split between two players and inflicts a poison resistance debuff.
• Splash of Venom: Honey B. Lovely coats her weapon. After the next Tempting Twist or Honey Beeline, all players will be targeted with an unmarked AoE. This deals roughly 130,000 magic poison damage and inflicts a poison resistance debuff
• Stinging Slash: Wide conal tank busters on the two players with the highest enmity. Deals roughly 280,000 physical slashing damage and inflicts a slashing vulnerability debuff.
• Killer Sting: A shared tank buster on the main tank. Deals roughly 500,000 physical damage split between two tanks.

During the 1st Beat, players are introduced to the basic mechanics of the fight.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase one.

• Honey B. Live: 1st Beat: Honey B. Lovely deals roughly 135,000 magic damage to all players. She gains the Top of the Hive buff, meaning all players gain the Heart Gauge. From this point on, certain mechanics will increase the gauge.
• Centerstage Combo: Honey B. Lovely does a donut AoE with cardinal conal AoEs, a wide plus-shaped AoE, then a point-blank AoE with intercardinal conal AoEs. Getting hit by any of these increases the Heart Gauge.
• Centerstage Combo: Honey B. Lovely does a point-blank AoE with intercardinal conal AoEs, a wide plus-shaped AoE, then a donut AoE with cardinal conal AoEs. Getting hit by any of these increases the Heart Gauge.
• Love Me Tender: Spawns Fracture towers. The second time, spawns floating hearts that increase the Heart Gauge if hit.
• Fracture: Towers spawn on the arena that must be soaked. Soaking a tower increases the Heart Gauge by 1; if not soaked, all players take massive damage and everyone's Heart Gauge increases by 1. This deals roughly 12,000 magic damage.
• Loveseeker: Large point-blank AoE that increases the Heart Gauge by 1 if hit.
• Heartsick: Stack marker on a random players with 2 or less hearts. Gives four hearts spread equally to all players in the stack. If there are less than four players, random players will gain multiple hearts. This deals roughly 240,000 magic damage split between the stack.
• Honey B. Finale: Honey B. Lovely deals roughly 145,000 magic damage to all players. This removes her Top of the Hive debuff and the Heart Gauge from all players.

The fight begins with Call Me Honey, a raidwide that needs to have some mitigation on it. She will then cast either Drop of Venom or Splash of Venom, and players need to remember which one it was. After the next mechanic, Honey Beeline or Tempting Twist, she will do the Venom mechanic. There are four possible configurations: corner spread, corner stack, inside line spread, and inside line stack. All players will stick to their quadrant of the arena and either spread or stack with their partner.

Afterwards, she will do the opposite pattern from before. Players will be able to learn how to dodge these four mechanics prevalent throughout the fight. This is followed by Killer Sting or Stinging Slash. Tanks need to mitigate and stand with each other for the stack or away from each other and the party for the cleave. Mitigate and prepare for the first Honey B. Live phase.

In the 1st Beat, four players will begin with one heart, two players will begin with two hearts, and two players will begin with zero hearts. This phase has quite a bit of leniency with heart collection, and a few players can make mistakes without healing the boss.

Honey B. Lovely will begin with either Centerstage Combo or Outerstage Combo. These will do three AoE combinations in quick succession, and give one heart if hit. The diagram below shows the safe spots for each hit; note that while max melee range is safe for the outer hit, all players need to run out for the giant plus-shaped AoE.

This is followed by Love Me Tender, spawning Fracture towers on the ground. Eleven towers total are spawned, meaning the raid gains eleven hearts total once all towers are soaked. Players with lower hearts should prioritize soaking towers, with melee staying close to the boss and ranged getting the far towers. After all towers are soaked, there shouldn't be any players left with less than two hearts.

Honey B. Lovely finishes this phase with Love Me Tender again, spawning floating hearts. Unlike normal mode, there aren't any AoEs so these hearts are easier to dodge. However, one random player with two or less hearts will receive Heartsick stack. At least three other players with two or less hearts need to stack with them to share damage as well as the hearts given. Players with three hearts should avoid being in the stack unless absolutely necessary. After this, there will be another Stage Combo, so avoid getting hit as almost everyone will be at three hearts. Heal up as Honey B. Lovely will cast her Finale, dealing massive damage and ending the 1st Beat.

The 2nd Beat has more involved mechanics as well as execution-based mechanics.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase two.

• Alarm Pheromones: Summons groupbees at the edge of the arena, which do line AoEs on random players. These line AoEs knock back players if hit, inflicting a damage down and piercing resistance debuff.
• Honey B. Live: 2nd Beat: Honey B. Lovely deals roughly 135,000 magic damage to all players. She gains the Top of the Hive buff, meaning all players gain the Heart Gauge. From this point on, certain mechanics will increase the gauge.
• Spread Love: Honey B. Lovely uses Splash of Venom, but the hit now increases the Heart Gauge by 1.
• Drop of Love: Honey B. Lovely uses Drop of Venom, but the hit now increases the Heart Gauge by 1.
• Love Me Tender: Now spawns AoEs underneath players.
• Heartsick: Deals less damage in this phase: roughly 170,000 split between players. Still gives four hearts total.
• Heartsore: Two random players are marked with an AoE, which deals roughly 90,000 magic damage. This increases the Heart Gauge by 1.

Phase two begins with a Stinging Slash or Killer Sting, so tanks will need to mitigate it and stand away from the group. The first mechanic is Alarm Pheromones and it functions the same as normal mode, although getting hit by an AoE is more punishing. Players can choose to start north and rotate together, or the melee can stick together and dodge together while the ranged stay on the outside and dodge by themselves. Because the location the groupbees spawn is random, this is a heavy execution-based mechanic and requires high awareness.

Next, the 2nd Beat will begin. Two players in each role will start with one heart, and the other two players in that role start with zero hearts. Mitigate and watch her cast: she will either use Spread Love or Drop of Love, indicating a spread or partner stack after the main mechanic.

There are multiple ways to solve the 2nd Beat's main mechanic, which involves two Heartsick stacks on players with zero hearts, Heartsore AoEs on two players with one heart, and two Fracture towers that must be soaked, ideally by players who originally had one heart. We recommend splitting the party into two groups, with players having zero hearts in the south and players with one heart in the north. Players will rotate clockwise until the Fracture towers spawn and the Heartsore AoEs appear on two players.

Keep in mind the towers can spawn north/south or east/west. This means that the players soaking the towers need to rotate further or double back: have the tank always keep going to the next tower and the DPS rotate back to soak the tower the group passed. Meanwhile, the players with the stack will take them together, dividing the hearts between them. All players should have two hearts at the end of this mechanic sequence.

Finally, Honey B. Lovely will cast Honey Beeline or Tempting Twist. Players must dodge the first AoE, then either stack or spread with their partner in the safe spot in their quadrant. The stack or spread depends on the Spread Love or Drop of Love cast at the beginning of the phase, so it may be a good idea to type it down in chat as a reminder. If done correctly, all players will have three hearts as Honey B. Lovely casts her Finale, ending the phase.

The 3rd Beat is a dance-like phase that is simple to execute but requires players to be practiced with previous mechanics.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase three.

• Alarm Pheromones: The line AoEs now are static, creating a square in the middle of the arena and safe spaces on the outside.
• Poison Sting: Marks one player from each role with a prey marker. This drops a poison puddle on their location and deals roughly 70,000 magic damage, inflicting a magic vulnerability debuff.
• Bee Sting: A stack marker on two random players, one of each role. Deals roughly 520,000 physical piercing damage split between all players in the stack and inflicts a piercing resistance debuff.
• Honey B. Live: 3rd Beat: Honey B. Lovely deals roughly 135,000 magic damage to all players. She gains the Top of the Hive buff, meaning all players gain the Heart Gauge. From this point on, certain mechanics will increase the gauge. Additionally, all players are inflicted with the Poison 'n' Pop debuff, which explodes in a large AoE when the debuff expires, giving all players hit one heart.

The phase begins with Splash of Venom or Drop of Venom, and like previously players need to remember which cast it was for later. Alarm Pheromones will spawn safe spots on the outside of the arena and box players on the inside. Players targeted with Poison Sting need to drop their puddle on the outside. Have supports drop them on the north side and DPS drop them on the south side. While it is preferred to have them dropped in order, players can eyeball the space and head to a safe space, as long as the support and DPS do not go to the same spot.

At the end, there will be a stack. Have the supports stay on the north side and DPS stay on the south side of the box in the middle, which will get smaller as the AoEs continue. There's a random tank buster after, so tanks need to get in front and either stack or spread. Afterwards will be a Honey Beeline or Tempting Twist with the Splash or Drop from the beginning of the phase. Do this like normal, then heal up for the 3rd Beat.

All players will begin with zero hearts in the 3rd Beat. All players are inflicted with the Poison 'n' Pop debuff, which is a large explosion when the debuff expires. One role will have their debuff duration be shorter and the other role will have it be longer. Honey B. Lovely will cast Spread Love or Drop of Love again; remember it for later.

First, players need to dodge either Centerstage Combo or Outerstage Combo. The role with the shorter debuff has them expire right after, so they need to go to the edge of the arena at intercardinals to spread out. Meanwhile, four Fracture towers spawn with one in each quadrant of the arena. The role that did not go out will stay in the very centre of the arena, then quickly head to their towers.

The role that went out can immediately go back in after the explosion, because immediately following this is another Stage Combo. The roles are then reversed as the longer debuff will be expiring right after and four more towers spawn. The role with the expiring debuff will run out to the intercardinal edges, and the role without debuffs will stay in the middle then soak towers after. If done correctly, all players should have two hearts.

This is followed by a Honey Beeline or Tempting Twist with the Spread Love or Drop of Love from earlier. Again, handle this like usual, heal up, and mitigate the 3rd Finale.

Honey B. Lovely reveals her true self, gaining the Rotten Honey debuff.

The following mechanics are introduced in phase four.

• Rotten Honey: Deals roughly 150,000 magic damage to all players. All players are inflicted with either Beeloved Venom: Alpha or Beeloved Venom: Beta. Players with these debuffs who touch explode in a Big Burst, dealing roughly 70,000 magic damage to all players and inflicting a magic vulnerability debuff. Expiry of the debuff will kill the player.

The final phase serves as a ramping damage soft enrage. The difficulty of this phase will increase the more stacks of Queen Bee Honey B. Lovely has, so it's essential to keep stacks low in previous phases. She will begin by casting the final tank buster of the fight, either Stinging Slash or Killer Sting.

This is followed by the Rotten Honey cast, dealing massive raidwide damage and giving all players either the Alpha or Beta debuff with four random players having each debuff. All players need to spread to their clock position, though spreading out and not being close to other players is fine, making sure there are no players in the middle.

These debuffs will start with four varying lengths: 12s, 28s, 44s, and 1m. The two players with the shortest debuffs need to go to the middle to explode, removing their debuffs and dealing moderate magic damage to the raid. They need to do this with six or more seconds remaining on the debuff, as Honey B. Lovely will cast Call Me Honey soon after. If players explode too late, the magic vulnerability debuff will still be active for that raidwide, wiping the raid.

This will occur four times in total. Healers need to top all players off between each debuff explosion and Call Me Honey, and all players need to spread out their mitigation. At least 2 10% mitigations for each Call Me Honey is recommended. After the fourth cast, focus on damage as Honey B. Lovely will cast her essentially hard enrage Sheer Heart Attack at 10:06. This will grant her sixteen Queen Bee stacks and heal her up, and wipe the raid shortly after. Defeat the bee before she finishes you off!

Depending on the data centre and strategy used, party finder pugs may use different strategies for the fight. Here are the following differences that may happen.

1. As Alarm Pheromones 1 is quite random, many strategies exist to dodge the line AoEs. Mario Kart requires players to all start north as the cast bar starts and rotate clockwise, staying or moving faster depending on where the AoEs came from. Alternatively, players can bait four directly in the middle of the arena and then spread or rotate. Otherwise, players will all dodge by themselves.
2. 3rd Beat can be done on clock spots or quadrants. Clock spots creates more difficulty for the OT as they have to switch, but may be more convenient for everyone else. Quadrants makes sure all outside spread mechanics in the fight has a consistent position.

When Honey B. Lovely is defeated, a treasure coffer will appear that contains Dark Horse Champion's Head, Hands, and Feet Coffers. When opened by a player, these coffers contain an item level 730 Dark Horse equip for the job the player is currently on. The amount of coffers that appear depend on how many players have already cleared during the weekly lockout. If no players have cleared yet, all three coffers will appear, as well as a Surgelight Glaze and Universal Tomestone. If one to four players have already cleared, two random coffers will appear and a random upgrade item. If five or more players have already cleared, no treasure coffer will appear.

Players who defeat the encounter for the first time during the weekly reset will also receive an AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition II token. Four of these can be traded in for a Dark Horse Head, Hands, or Feet gear of your choosing at an Arcadion gear vendor.