How to deal with Kingdoms final boss?

[The_YellowBacon]

I just got the Meat Hook for the first time with a team I thought was really good. But between his Constant block and dodge tokens, and his heal, I barely do any damage to him. Whats the plan for him?

[Gal Kraft]

Dodge:
HWM Tracking Shot (removes and prevents)
VES Illumination (removes and prevents)
VES Mace Bash (DMG + ignores when 2 conviction)
OCC Curse of Vulnerability (removes)
ABM Slam (DMG + removes)
BH Mark of Death (removes)
BH No Escape (ignores)
BH Hurlbat (DMG + ignores when combo)
GR Thrown Dagger, Flashing Daggers, Lunge (DMG + ignores when stealthed)
DUE Flick (DMG + ignores when in defensive stance)

* general offensive combat items help strip dodge.
* For this fight, cleaves (DMG or not) such as Rake or Bellow, also help strip dodge tokens ahead of time, so that there's less dodge tokens on the totem to pull from

Block:
LEP Break (removes, and with Inevitable End trinket, also prevents)
HEL Breakthrough (prevents)
Carcass HEL Wicked Hack (removes when combo)
HWM Double Cross (DMG + removes + vuln after)
OCC Curse of Vulnerability (removes + vuln after)
GR Pick to the Face (DMG + ignores + removes when CRIT)
GR Lunge (DMG + ignores when stealthed)
ABM Maul (bonus DMG + ignores)
VES Mace Bash (DMG + ignores when 2 conviction)
DUE Flick (DMG + ignores when in offensive stance)

* any skills or trinkets that inflict vuln help strip/prevent block, such as RUN Smoke Screen, BH Mark of Death, Antagoniste DUE Touche when in offensive stance, etc.
* cleaves with DMG help strip block off of the totem he pulls from

Any Token:
HWM Highway Robbery (steals 2)
Moribund ABM Instinct (steals 1)
Confessor VES Illumination (removes 3)
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I'll be honest. So far I've taken Yellowhand Highwayman to every boss fight. DoubleCross, Highway Robbery, and Tracking Shot+ are on my bar every time. Yellowhand can use all of these skills in R1 or R2, and Duelist's Advance not only helps unshuffle the team and keep him in front, but also inflicts bleeds with Riposte (a Bleed PEN trinket is recommended).

Helion should have Breakthrough+ on the bar
Vestal should have Illumination+ on the bar
etc etc

[Gal Kraft]

I should mention other tactics for this fight which work in general against all Beastmen: countering Enrage.

Blind has a 50% chance to mitigate the Enraged attack. RUN Smoke Screen, PD Blinding Gas, JES Fade to Black are great for this.
Stun has a 100% chance (minus stun resistance chance) to mitigate the Enraged Attack.

Debuff penetration is nice here. There's a Sluice trinket for your blind-inflicting hero, or vuln-inflicting hero. If you can save and store an Owlet Pet and a few Tinker Stagecoach Items for the final region, this is also ideal.

There's a couple stun penetration options I can think of. One is Bulwark MAA, which I haven't actually tried yet. He would need help maintaining his block tokens, so someone with Guard like VES or BH, or someone to give him extra defense like CRU or DUE, or a block generating trinket like Calibrating Censer from Tangle (must have <=2 SPD) will help that. The other stun penetration is from defeating the Librarian, the Charred Litany. If your stun inflicting hero has this and also happens to have taunt or guard, you are very likely to keep the enemy burning. Otherwise having another source of burn on the team, especially RUN Controlled Burn, will ensure that your stunner can land the stuns.

A note on stunning: make sure you don't stun Meat Hook before his last turn of the round, when he has 3 enrage tokens. Otherwise, you will be dealing with extra stun resist when he snaps out of it and enrages.

While most stuns require setup, you only need to worry about it when he Enrages, so it's not as hard as it sounds. Timing matters though. [EDIT]Make sure a combo token is there after Meat Hook's final turn with 3 enrage tokens, and before your stunner's turn comes up. Don't let another hero soak up that combo[/edit]. Have someone setup the combo token, such as HWM Tracking Shot, and someone land the stun, such as PD Disorienting Blast. Having multiple stunners and/or combo generators help. PD, CRU, MAA, HEL, Antagoniste DUE, all have stuns on combo. Alternatively have OCC save his unchecked power to use Daemon's Pull+ or Abyssal Artillery+ on the enraged boss. Confessor can save her 3 Conviction for stunning him with Judgement at the end of the round when he has 3 tokens.

If you don't have any blind or stun options for the boss fight, at least bring weakness. DD2 math does not always mitigate 50% of the damage, assuming it lands, but at least it helps.

EDIT: alternatively, mitigate his primary threat with poultices and protection trinkets against Blight and Bleed. I did this once with a stun-less team and it worked fine. The biggest mistake I find with boss fights is maintaining the "optimal damage is optimal team" mentality. Trade out your +damage and gimicky trinkets for more protections and debuff infliction. This is a boss fight, not a trash fight.

EDIT: almost forgot, CRU should have Reap on his bar, if the healing is your problem.

[Sadra]

Thank you so much for this write up!! Very comprehensive, Gal Kraft!!!

[White Shadow]

So far only beaten him once, but with how he applies so many positive tokens to himself every turn, he's simply asking for HWM's highway robbery to be used on him (and I intend to do so in my next attempt).

Also from my only one fight with him, I noticed most of the damage I dealt to him was through DOTs (as his guard and dodge tokens can be a huge wall to you dealing direct damage). His bleed and burn resists are manageable. Blight is very high, but with resistance piercing trinkets, it can be overcome. I'd say better to focus on bleed and burn though.

Lastly, his attacks can hit pretty hard and crit often, so it's not uncommon to be hit for damage high enough to send any of your people onto Death's Door from high HP. So I think any trinkets or items that give you advantages at Death's Door can be highly valuable here. Invigorating Intoxicant for example would be a good choice, as in addition to Death's Door bonuses, it also alleviates some Fatigue (which he deals with one of his attacks).