Thoughts on Abomination?

[The_YellowBacon]

I've been trying to get him to work and i feel like im missing something, he's either constantly having meltdowns, or causing the team to be high stress. Anyone got any thoughts on him?

[Velvet Waltz]

incredible in a dance comp with Unchained path

[Ashtrails]

Originally posted by Can Throne:

incredible in a dance comp with Unchained path

Can second that.

Otherwise, having him pop Beast Mode is probably for occasions where you know you can control and manage team stress (getting rid of anti corpse powder etc), it's thematically a curse and last resort for a reason.

Having an understanding party full of good relationships also helps.
There's probably a message / metaphor in there : D

[FizzMan]

Yep they need to buff the other paths besides unchained, that seems to be the most viable one right now.

Takes too long to unlock his skills, can weaken your team greatly before you've done so.

Not entire sure if constantly stressing your whole party is worth it even once it's upgraded.

[4D]

I also prefer his support role where he rarely transforms, which is a bummer because his beast mode is a fantastic visual and concept. That said, I do love that he has another function that buffs and assists the team.

Some people were annoyed that he only starts out with two abilities, but I thought it was very thematic to unlock new moves as you learn his backstory.

[Lujo]

I used to never transform him back in DDI, in part because stuns as such were silly and his one was one of the better ones and 99% of the time I never made a different move with ♥♥♥ then just hit the chain stun. The only other move I ever used was the self-heal.

Now... I do the same. Pos 3, spam the old chain that's a pull and a mark, pay abosultely no attention to any of his other skills except self heal when obviously needed and the targeted blight when I figure it'd do more damage / I can't target rank 1 with the chain.

Otherwise it's just spam chain.

I transformed him here and there, when someone else happened to die and I needed to shift team focus, but ideally this would never happen. And it's a bit difficult to appreciate the transformed side when the only time I see it is when I'm already a man down.

Also, it's not that I don't like or appreciate having the guy around, even if he feels one-dimensional the way I play him. Occ - ♥♥♥ - Fla - Leper is something he really fills out for me, can't complain. Especially since this is the first time in DDII that I felt like there's a concept where I actually want to use the Leper over a different front-liner, with double pulls in ranks 3 and 4, and a pull with a combo mark. I got all the achievements before this patch (other than "1000000 miles" and "die at every boss") before this patch, and barely even touched the Leper or felt like I have a good reason to.

Ultimately, though I think his concept is flawed because if you're putting Abomination into a team, you have to assume that you'll be spamming the chain pull 90% of the time and the self-heal 10% of the time. And none of his transformed moves are (or seem) better than that. So tranforming him feels like it can't possibly be getting you more value than losing access to those two moves costs you.

*It's a flavor win, though, as your team gets stressed out when he transforms because "OH S***T HE CAN'T CHAIN-PULL AND SELF-HEAL ANYMORE, WE DOOMED!" XD

[No One]

transforming was boss-only DD1, and he's been ported over almost faithfully

The party stress has been lowered slightly, I guess. DD1 jester heals for 12, abm costs 6, DD2 jester heals for 3, abm+ costs 1.

Manacles is still basically a stun. Shuffles are like a stun on many targets; two enemies doing half-damage attacks. Then you have backlash which is shuffle+stun. Finally he can casually hit row 4 now.
Very mastery-hungry character, which I find to be bad design in general. The game is already hardest in the first region, you don't need characters who invest in the first region for a payoff in the easier later regions.

--

Wanderer transform gets you a fast accurate leper with reach and range, provided you build your whole party around it.
JES-OCC-ABM-FLG
virtuoso-ritualist

The OCC is using vulnerability hex, the virtuoso ballad/encore. Try to land a finale for the AOE soothe, but you have endure as a backup. If the FLG's stress is high you can do i.tune/encore before the transformation. The ABM is doing 7.2-7.5 amortized damage per action, plus you're getting extra STR tokens and the OCC has spare turns. The ABM is doing 18 damage, exactly like three normal damage dealers, except you have a healer spec plus support (solo+-encore). A roughly fair trade.

Alt: virtuoso-antagoniste-ABM-chaplain
Bonus: unlike a leper, Bigby's ability bar isn't cramped. Always have hew, always have break.

If you don't build the whole party around it you're taking AOE stress to slowly do exactly 6 damage per action. Instinct-rage-rage-tune+, total 24 damage. +3 speed is very good but not that good. If you have a hellion hitting the manacles combo point, it's not even more damage. All risk, no reward.

You can also just take a tempest and not transform the ABM, as he fixes leper's accuracy and reach issues. Then, in extremis, you get two lepers. Kill disease-spreaders ASAP, for example.
Why have one guy with solemnity, when you can have two of them? Maybe CRU-GR-ABM-LEP. Everyone has a no-threshold soothe.

--

Once you're swimming in mastery points, you can do instructrice-moribund, where she fuels his otherwise unreliable damage. Hands out extra turns and crit tokens instead of doing (probably) nothing.
Note that the block/taunt is a win-more thing. You have to plan on him not getting it, meaning, when you get it, you were going to win anyway.

--

The fiend is also functional with party support. Use anamnesis, then instinct. There you go. Rage is okay I guess...rend+rage-execute isn't terrible...

If you don't mind spending your relationships, virtuoso again. Let the fiend get to 7 stress, then make him immune to his own downside for two turns.
Almost certainly better to stay below 4 stress, but the option exists.

--

You could deliberately alter the ABM to pop someone at 4 stress up to 5 so you can [inspire] them.

--

soloist-sharpshot-unchained-GR

HWM relies on solemnity for health problems, while the JES exploits take aim and solemnity for stress.

For lulz, you can have the jester ballad himself, while the ABM transforms to use instinct, then mega-nuke with finale. The math juice isn't worth the squeeze, but it's very amusing.

-

Something like chaplain-antagoniste-ABM-MAA should also work. Command+, touche, and mantra+.

Physician is also available. In this one instances, not completely horrible. Guaranteed turn 1 party-wide stress resistance, then emboldening rather than ballad.


tag: [z-z-z-z]

[Zabu]

Honestly a bit bummed out that half his kit seems relatively unusable atm. Its simply too much stress damage on your team. You could build solely around that but it seems a waste as its not really that good. Having to transform him every single combat is just too much stress in the long run. As for his support spec - i find it boring + there are better alternatives.