Matthias Gabrel

Enrage: 10 minutes. When Enraged, Matthias will deal 200% damage.
Requires: Reflects, Condition Cleanse
Advised: Forsaken Thicket Waters mastery

Matthias does not require a toughness tank but does require ready sources of reflect and crowd control. Commonly groups rely on Mesmers using Feedback, Guardians using Wall of Reflection, or multiple Firebrands using Chapter 3:Valiant Bulwark.

Matthias has many moving mechanics, so players may benefit from increasing their model limit and LOD distance.

Players without the Forsaken Thicket Waters mastery should either warn their supports or be prepared with their heal skills.

Mechanics

In this fight, players must handle randomly timed and assigned mechanics and attacks.

While Matthias will channel a few extra shards, care should be taken to ensure enough shards are reflected to break the shield. Avoid projectile destruction such as Sublime Conversion (Druid Staff 5) or body blocking the shards as these prevent the reflect from stripping Matthias’s invulnerability and will heavily delay the fight.

The sacrificed player is vulnerable to the squad’s attacks. Players should avoid dropping large DPS attacks on the center of the arena and prioritize breaking their ally out of sacrifice quickly.

Any skills used by the sacrificed player will become hostile as well. This means players cannot break themselves out or deal with the reflect mechanic; instead, these skills would stun their squadmates or reflect damage away from Matthias.

Once a fountain has been used it will turn red, and be unusable for the next 1:30. This means that if players are cleansing as soon as they gain the corruption there will be at least one clean fountain available at any time. Once a player gains corruption they should first glance around the room for a clean fountain, then prioritize running straight to that fountain.

Outside of the above, Matthias has four phases based on his current health. Each phase is associated with a weather pattern in the room and a different set of additional mechanics.

Snowstorm (100%-80%)

During Snowstorm, players will gain Chilled every 10 seconds. Condition cleanse is vital for players to successfully reach cleansing fountains. Additionally, Icy Patches will spawn, chilling and knocking down players walking through them. Finally, Matthias will have a special attack during this phase, Oppressive Gaze.

Heat Wave (80%-60%)

During Heat Wave, players will gain stacks of Burning if they stand still. Everyone should keep wiggling around to avoid this. Additionally, Flame Tornados will spawn, CCing and damaging players for 2.5 seconds. Finally, Matthias will have a special attack during this phase, Unstable Blood Magic.

If the targeted player goes down, waits too long to place it, or uses the special action key they will drop an area of effect that damages the squad. Players should take care to avoid dropping this field in the center of the arena or on a fountain and instead run to the wall between fountains to drop the field.

Downpour (60%-40%)

During Downpour, players will gain stacks of a movement debuff that knocks the player down after 10 stacks. Players should try to avoid moving unless absolutely necessary. Additionally, a Storm Cloud will slowly circle the center of the arena, damaging and adding stacks of the movement debuff to players. Finally, every 20 seconds, five players will be targeted with Zealous Benediction.

Abomination (40%-0%)

When Matthias reaches 40% he will transform, throwing shards and fearing players. Any players in Matthias’ hitbox during his transformation will be downed. During the Abomination phase, the weather will cycle between Snowstorm, Heat Wave, and Downpour every 30 seconds. All previous mechanics except for sacrifice may occur, with the following changes:

• Zealous Benediction (Spread): All players will experience the spread mechanic
• Shards of Rage (Jump): Shards will be fired across the room