Mathias Blackflail — guide

In short

Mathias Blackflail is a Legendary from the Sacred Order, HP role, Force affinity. All of his damage scales off HP: his A1 hits three times and strips buffs, the A2 is an AoE that heals the team, and the A3 hands out Resistance and Damage Reflection while putting Taunt on himself — where his passive turns incoming hits into counterattacks. Build him as an HP bruiser: HP first, then SPD, ACC and crit.

Strengths

• A1 hits three times, each with a 30% (40% booked) chance to remove a random buff, and heals him for 20% of damage dealt.
• The AoE deals an extra hit on enemies with no buffs that ignores 20% of their DEF, and every hit heals the team for 20% of damage dealt — damage and support in one button.
• A3 is a rare package: +50% Resistance and 30% Damage Reflection on the whole team for 2 turns.
• Passive: while under his own Taunt he counterattacks with his A1, so more buff strips, more self-healing.
• One stat does both jobs — HP is his damage and his survivability, so gear is efficient.

Weaknesses

• Only 100 base SPD: without speed gear he moves last and his A3 lands after the enemy nuke.
• Taunt on himself means every hit comes his way; without shields, heals or Stoneskin he folds fast.
• No enemy control and no damage buff — he is a bruiser, not a do-everything support.
• On Hard content his rating drops to 2.0; his healing and passive can't keep pace there.

Where to use

Hydra (3.5) and Faction Wars (3.5) are his best homes — his damage-based healing and Taunt/counterattack loop actually matter there. Next come Classic Arena, Tag Team Arena, Live Arena, Tainted Fyro and Shogun Akumori (3.0), where he works as a tanky stripper in a second-wave team. Dungeons and Clan Boss are average (3.0), and Doom Tower (2.5) and especially Hard (2.0) give little reason to bring him.

Stats and gear

Priority: HP > SPD > ACC > C.RATE / C.DMG. Rough targets: 80,000+ HP (up to 100,000), 190–220 SPD, 200–250 ACC so the A1 strips actually land, 70%+ C.RATE and 150%+ C.DMG. Sets: Savage or Lethal for damage, Perception when you need ACC and SPD together, Protection / Bolster / Stoneskin if he keeps getting focused down in Arena.

Masteries and blessings

Support and Defense trees: Blessed Heal, Invigorated, Unstoppable, Power Reset, Heal 'N' Go, Bolstered Defense — the whole point is staying alive under Taunt and cycling the A3 back faster. Blessings: Crushing Rend for damage, Polymorph or Heavencast for safety. Relics: Hallowed Hilt, Hand of Uncreation, Perched Shadow.

Tomes

Book the A2 first: level 4 cuts its cooldown by 1 turn, which means more AoE damage and more team healing per fight. Then the A3 — two cooldown reductions give near-permanent Taunt uptime and better buff rotation. A1 last; its only real gain is +10% strip chance at level 5.

Verdict

A solid niche bruiser for Hydra, Faction Wars and mid-tier Arena: damage and support in one slot, but without speed and protection he is just a big target. Not mandatory, genuinely useful if you want a self-healing buff stripper.