Meat Hook

Meat Hook

Stats [Compare Stats] [View/Edit Data]
HP	240
Speed	3
Death Armor	2
Resistances
Bleed	30%
Blight	100%
Burn	20%
Stun	70%
Move	50%
Debuff	20%
Low ▪ Medium ▪ High
Other Attributes
Types	Beastman
Size	3
Turns	2

Description

The patriarch of the Beastmen, the colossal Meat Hook appears to be an oversized Rot Claw, one arm lost and the other armed with a weighty hook from which he appears to take his name. Alongside him in battle is a supply of meat for him to feast on, gorging heedlessly as carnage blazes all around him.

Meat Hook is a fairly straightforward battle of endurance and token management. He deals constant high damage, , and to the heroes in front, and tries to get vulnerable heroes into his reach by disrupting party formation with his hook and forceful roars. In between, he takes bites from his meat post, providing himself with a steady supply of offensive and defensive tokens which the meat post generates for him every round. The meat post can be stripped of its tokens before the boss steals them - but if not at least one token is left, the boss generates additional enrage tokens. The boss has multiple turns per round, so the damage resistance part of is less important, but the empowered abilities can be devastating.

Skills

Skill Name	Target	DMG	CRIT	Self	Effects
Gouge		14-20	10%	• Gain on CRIT: • Gain on Miss:	• 4 • 2
Malignance		14-22	10%	Requires Self	• 4 • 2
Butchery		11-17	10%	• Gain on CRIT: • Gain on Miss:	• Pull 2 • (66%)
Earsplitter		11-17	5%	• Shuffle • Gain On Hit:	• Shuffle • +1 + +1 (75%)
Thunderous Fury		11-17	5%	Requires Self • Shuffle • Gain On Hit:	• Shuffle • +1 + +1 (75%)
Gorge	Meat Post			Performed on Round End when Self not	• Steal 2 Positive Tokens If Meat Post has no Positive Tokens: • Gain 2
Exhaustion	Self			Performed after using a Berserk skill	• Heal 10%

NOTE: Due to being encountered exclusively in Escalation 3, this table displays the damage Meat Hook will deal with the Escalation 3 DMG buff applied (the actual base damage is lower).

Enrage and Berserk

Enrage

+1 DMG dealt per
Round End: Become Berserk when stacked to 3
Duration: Until end of combat
Limit: 3

Berserk

Enables powerful Skills.
-100% DMG taken
+20% RES
Duration: 1 Turn
Limit: 1

Notes

On turn end, an enemy with will gain two negative tokens that cannot be resisted, including up to 2 Weak , 1 Vulnerable and/or 1 Daze.
The -DMG taken modifier only to direct attacks (not Damage over Time), and it stacks additively with Vulnerable.

Meat Post

Meat Post

Stats [Compare Stats] [View/Edit Data]
HP	Invulnerable
Speed	0
Resistances
Bleed	Immune
Blight	Immune
Burn	Immune
Stun	Immune
Move	0%
Debuff	Immune
Low ▪ Medium ▪ High
Other Attributes
Types	Beastman
Size	1
Turns	0
Permanent Condition(s)
Combat Start: Gain 2 of the Following: , , , Round Start: Gain 3 Positive Tokens Gain when hit: Destroy 1 Positive Token More likely to gain , in rank 1 More likely to gain , in rank 4

Strategy

To begin with, the battle requires a durable frontline. Meat Hook has the stats of a Confession boss and has many turns, so bursting him down quickly, while viable, is impossible without taking some hits back. As such, either traditional tanks or pseudo-tanks that can use (such as Duelist or Grave Robber) are well suited for the first two ranks. Move resistance is very valuable; while not as pivotal as on the Leviathan, Meat Hook has multiple pulling and shuffling attacks that can easily get squishy backliners up front.

The Meat Post, while invulnerable, loses positive tokens each time it is hit, so simply attacking it is viable - rank 1/2 or 3/4 cleaves are very good for this, as they also pile steady hits onto the boss. You cannot rely solely on one or the other if you choose to do this however, as the boss will constantly move the Meat Post between rank 1 and 4 as he repositions himself with his abilities. The Meat Post can, dangerously, generate crit tokens, but because it also generates many Dodge+ tokens, skills that remove crit (such as the Bellow of Man-at-Arms) are not on their own a reliable counter.

So long as his shuffling and pulling is managed, the backline heroes are under very little threat in this fight, so fragile damage dealers are free to shine. Note, however, the 100 resistance of the boss; while this is not a flat immunity, RES piercing effects are required for heroes like Flagellant and Plague Doctor to thrive. Additionally, while it is possible to Meat Hook out of his as with any other Beastman, it is difficult due to his rather high resistance there as well.

Hero selection

Plague Doctor: Due to Meat Hooks extremely high Blight resistance, Plague Doctor can struggle to deal consistent damage in this fight with her own Blight skills without RES piercing from things like her Alchemist path, trinkets, or ideally both. Plague Doctor is best suited to playing as a support unit for the fight with skills such as Battlefield Medicine and Ounce of Prevention for either removing Damage Over Time or preventing its application in the first place. Alternatively, she can use her Surgeon path to deal Bleed damage rather than Blight while still focusing on supporting her allies, though for any path she's played on care should be taken to avoid her being shuffled out of position by the boss

Grave Robber: Grave Robber can serve as a flexible offensive and disruption focused unit for this fight, utilizing skills like Repartee to draw fire to her while she has Dodge+ or Stealth to draw fire to other, more durable units while she heals or prepares her next attack. Her ability to ignore tokens while in Stealth is also quite useful in this fight, particularly mastered Lunge is able to ignore both Dodge and Block, and can be used either to damage Meat Hook himself or remove a huge number of tokens from the Meat Post if it can be targeted.

Highwayman: As is the case with many token-oriented fights, Highwayman's ability to consistently remove or steal tokens shines in this fight. Due to Meat Hooks size, he will always be in range for Highway Robbery, making it a fantastic choice for this fight regardless of Highwayman's path. Highway Robbery can also be used to steal tokens from the Meat Post itself, and can effectively destroy 3 tokens with one singular action. The Yellowhand version of Highway Robbery is especially potent as a debuff tool due to it reducing how much Bleed Meat Hook can deal, completely nullifying the Bleed dealt by both Gouge and Malignance. Outside of Highway Robbery, Highwayman serves as a solid damage dealer, though care should be taken if he's frequently targeted by the boss due to his lack of ability to heal himself

Runaway: Runaway offers a good deal of Damage via Burn and disruption with Blind. Meat Hooks low Burn resistance means that Runaway can readily apply it with her primary damage skills like Firefly, Dragonfly and Controlled Burn. Controlled Burn especially shines vs him due to his multiple turns per round, enabling it to activate several times in a single round to quickly stack Burn onto the boss. Smokescreen is also very potent as a tool for preventing him from using his Berserk skills due to its Blind application, though this only reduces the chance of his skills hitting, and players should still be prepared to recover in case he does hit their heroes with Blind.