Matthias Lund is one of the first boss NPCs players can meet in Wartales. He can deal and absorb ludicrous amounts of damage, and a single swipe from his gigantic mace can send several mercenaries flying. This boss is an optional encounter. However, if players want to clear out the Stromkapp Inn's bounty board, then Matthias will need to die.
Beating this boss is going to be a challenge, but players don't necessarily have to rely on using the best starting classes in Wartales or overpowered gear to see this fight through. With the right tools and enough familiarity with the enemy's behavior, even a four-person party can take Matthias Lund down without suffering any casualties.
Matthias Lund's Attack Pattern and Mechanics
Matthias will always focus on attacking the party member that's closest to him, and he will do so by casting Lucilla's Judgement and Lucilla's Revenge. The former is an indicator that tells which party member Matthias has his eyes on, and the latter is a two-staged attack that deals extreme damage in an arc. Juggling Matthias' aggro and managing the delay between the aim and hit portions of Lucilla's Revenge is crucial to winning this fight
Unlike most of the other enemies in Wartales, Matthias Lund cannot be engaged, and he is immune to all knockback effects. Skills like Recoil Shot are useless in this fight, and players have no choice but to avoid or mitigate the damage from Lucilla's Revenge.
Tips on How to Beat Matthias Lund
There are a ton of possible strategies on how to beat Matthias Lund, and all of them rely on mastering the mechanics listed above. Players can find success with any team composition, but there are some party setups that are more effective in this fight than the rest. Be sure to bring decent gear and 5-6 party members before taking this boss on.
Matthias' stats scale with the player's level and party, which means he's always going to be tanky one way or another. With this in mind, players will want to have some damage-over-time effects like Bleed, Poison, and Burn ready. Rangers with poisoned daggers, Brutes with hammers, and anyone with an off-hand torch can help chew through the boss' thick health and armor bars. In a similar vein, Archers are very valuable in this fight since they can deal damage without worrying about doing much during their turn.
In terms of defending against Matthias Lund, players should bring 2-3 frontline fighters equipped with shields and as many damage-mitigating effects as possible. Swordsmen or Brutes with the Defensive Stance and Weakening Blow skills are mandatory for this fight since they can keep the boss' attacks from one-shotting party members.
During the fight, always pay attention to spacing. Matthias will always attack the closest party member, which means that close-range damage dealers can easily get caught in his crosshairs by mistake. Always keep the group's tanks near the boss and make sure they are on opposite sides of each other. This way, when Matthias knocks back one tank, the other will be ready to take his aggro.
Wartales is available now on PC.