Abomination (Butcher's Circus)

Combat Skills
The Abomination has two different sets of abilities, which changes whenever he switches form using Transform. Transforming into Beast form does not count as an action, allowing the Abomination to use Transform and another skill on the same turn. Additionally, he will return to Human form if he suffers an Affliction while in Beast form.

The Abomination will suffer 12 Stress for every turn he is in Beast form, not counting the turn he transforms.

(All buffs and debuffs last for 3 rounds unless otherwise specified.)

Beast form
* Transform can be used four times in total, twice to transform into Beast form and twice to transform back to the Human form.

Using an Abomination
The Transformation is not as risky as before, as the Abomination no longer inflicts Stress on the party and himself. Instead, he becomes a source of Horror on the entire enemy party, and this lets him be a flexible unit in a Stress team.

In his human form, the Abomination is used mostly for controlling the enemy's actions. Manacles backed up with his Spiked Chain trinket give him a long-reaching Stun that can smack around opponents and deny opening plays. Beast's Bile spreads Blight and inflicts Stress, on top of enabling a Riposte on him that threatens a Blight retaliation should the opponent attempt an area attack. Absolution contributes to his longevity, combining good numbers of healing and Stress relief to let him withstand attacks on both body and mind.

His beast form is built on raw damage and can help burst down squishy targets with Rake and Rage. Slam sees a lot more use here as movement is a lot more valuable in this game mode and its newfound Guard-breaking ability can counter enemy Men-at-Arms and Houndmasters.

Choosing when to Transform is up to your discretion. If you notice the enemy has stun-vulnerable units going first, it might be more valuable to delay Transformation in order to deny one action with Manacles. Otherwise, a common opening move is to Transform rightaway and optionally Slam away any vulnerable frontliners. Many players then choose to revert to human form either as an emergency or as the enemy's Horror is about to expire, so that they can optimally Transform again for maximum Horror duration.

Fighting an Abomination
For all his utility, the Abomination has his fair share of weaknesses. He's got relatively low Stun and Move resists, so you can Stun him yourself to prevent him from locking down your units. If you have the jump on him and he's in position 2, you can knock him all the way to the back of the formation where he's forced to spend turns getting back into position.

If the enemy Abomination has just transformed and has a reasonable amount of Stress accumulated, you can focus your Stress attacks on him to turn him Afflicted. If he does go Afflicted, he is forced to revert to his human form and gets Dazed on top of that. You then have the luxury of focusing him down before he can recover.