The second Arcadrion raid in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail features a battle with Honey B. Lovely, a sweet but deadly idol who forcibly charms her fans to achieve victory. It’s one of the most unique fights that FFXIV has seen in quite some time, and you can easily wipe if you don’t know what you’re doing.
How to unlock AAC Light-heavyweight M2 in FFXIV
You’ll unlock AAC Light-heavyweight M2 automatically as you play through the Arcadion raid series in Final Fantasy XIV. After completing the Dawntrail MSQ and defeating Black Cat in the AAC Light-heavyweight M1 match, you’ll reach a quest called Sweet Poison which will bring you to this encounter.
All Honey B. Lovely mechanics in Final Fantasy XIV
In addition to the usual raid-wide attacks, tank busters, and stack markers, the charm mechanic is the primary focus of AAC Light-heavyweight M2. Each player will receive three empty heart icons above their head after Honey B. Lovely casts Honey B. Live, and getting hit by most of her attacks will fill one of those hearts.
If you collect three hearts, you’ll get charmed with the Fatal Attraction debuff which prevents you from moving. Getting charmed almost always results in death, so you can only take three hits during this fight.
Tempting Twist and Honey Beeline
Honey B. Lovely has two spear attacks in the form of Tempting Twist and Honey Beeline, which she’ll use periodically throughout the fight. Tempting Twist summons a ring of spears that circle around her. To dodge it, just head into the center of the arena to avoid this ring-shaped attack.
Honey Beeline, on the other hand, summons spears that rotate vertically over Honey B. Lovely. This attack is a thick linear AOE instead of a ring, so just move to the sides of the arena to dodge it.
Later during the fight, Honey B. Lovely will modify these attacks by adding exploding yellow poison globs into the mix. These will spawn throughout the arena and explode with small circular AOEs. You’ll have to find a safe space that avoids both the explosions and the spears to survive. To make things worse, spread and stack markers will also be placed on random players during this phase as well.
Love Me Tender
Love Me Tender is the main mechanic in AAC Light-heavyweight M2. The first time that Honey B. Lovely casts it, the heart gauge will appear above everyone’s heads and spread markers will be placed on everyone. These spread markers will add one heart each to your gauge, so don’t overlap with other players.
Four towers will also spawn in different parts of the arena that need to be soaked by one player each. These will add one heart to the players that soak them, but failing to soak a tower will give everyone a heart so it’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
During this phase of the fight, Honey B. Lovely will continually launch various telegraphed AOEs that will increase your heart gauge as well, so stay on the move. She’ll keep casting Love Me Tender to activate new traps as well, such as the addition of slowly moving heart projectiles and
The next time that Love Me Tender is used, a sequence of nine circular AOEs will appear throughout the arena. This is an exact copy of mechanics that you’ve seen countless times in previous battles. Just head into the first AOE after it goes off to avoid the rest of them.
Finally, Love Me Tender will spawn two stack markers the third time it is used. These stack markers should be split between the group with four players taking each of them. The stack markers inflict a total of four hearts split between players, so having fewer than four people in a stack will cause someone in the stack to receive more than one heart.
Splash of Venom
Honey B. Lovely also has a minor poison mechanic in the form of Splash of Venom. When she uses this, you’ll see a pop-up that says “Honey B. Lovely coats her stinger with poison.” This will buff her next attack, so healers and tanks should be prepared. Some of Honey B. Lovely’s attacks (like the poison globs) inflict Poison Resistance Down, which can make Splash of Venom lethal for tanks.
Alarm Pheromones
The final unique mechanic that you need to watch out for during AAC Light-heavyweight M2 is Alarm Pheromones, which summons a swarm of Groupbees to aid Honey B. Lovely. These Groupbees will spawn outside of the arena and perform linear AOEs denoted by green lines that cross the arena. These will not only damage you but also knock you back.
How to beat Honey B. Lovely in AAC Light-heavyweight M2
Although it may seem complicated at first, this is really a simple fight at its core. There are just a lot of AOEs to dodge and the punishment for getting hit is much harsher than usual because of Honey B. Lovely’s charm. Your team can also mess things up and make things worse for everyone by spreading unnecessary hearts, so a wipe or two isn’t out of the question.
There aren’t any special tips that we can give for this fight since a lot of it is just dodging AOE attacks. The only section that will give most players trouble is the Groupbee phase since the AOEs get incredibly chaotic, but Honey B. Lovely stops attacking during that section so you can just focus on avoiding damage. Don’t worry about maximizing your DPS during these hectic moments. It’s better to stay alive than to get a few more hits in.
Healers and tanks bear the brunt of the mechanics in AAC Light-heavyweight M2. Honey B. Lovely has multiple raid-wide attacks that healers must be prepared for, and since the charm mechanic and the poison attacks can quickly kill players, it can be tough to keep everyone’s HP topped off. Tanks have to watch out for several tank busters, too, which can be lethal if healers have their attention diverted elsewhere.
All Light-heavyweight M2 raid rewards in FFXIV
If you manage to defeat Honey B. Lovely and emerge victorious in Light-heavyweight M2, you’ll be rewarded with the following treasure coffers before you continue your journey along the Arcadion ladder.
- Treasure Coffer 1
- Light-heavy Holohelm
- Light-heavy Holoarmor
- Light-heavy Holograves
- Light-heavy Holoearring
- Treasure Coffer 2
- Light-heavy Hologauntlets
- Light-heavy Holochausses
- Light-heavy Hologreaves
- Light-heavy Holoearring
- Treasure Coffer 3
- Bee My Honey Orchestrion Roll
The Orchestrion Roll is a rare drop and the third chest won’t always appear, so be sure to roll for it if you see it. After Honey B. Lovely is defeated, there are only two more fights left in the Light-heavyweight bracket of the Arcadion raid series. After you’re done farming your weekly drops, it’s a good idea to prepare for the Savage version of these raids by completing Dawntrail’s other endgame content and gearing up. You can also take a break to wait for rare FATEs to earn cool mounts and other rewards.
