Abigail Williams (Summer)

“Before you know that will disappear too, and in this completely dark world, only the feeling of intertwined fingers will remain.”

Back from the beyond, Abigail has descended to strike terror in those who oppose her (literally). As an AoE Buster Foreigner Servant she primarily serves as an anti-defense attacker, especially against Berserker Types.

Abi’s primary focus is on decreasing and enemy’s Defenses, through use of The Rose’s Slumber B, Mass Hysteria B+, and her Noble Phantasm, Dreamlands A. That’s not the only way she can disable enemies either with a guaranteed 2-turn stun on The Rose’s Slumber to one target which breaks on damage, and a chance-based one on all enemies with Mass Hysteria. She also has quick access to her Noble Phantasm thanks to a strong charge on Those Who Guide A.

That said, she is going to struggle against most waves of enemies. She lacks any defenses of her own, meaning she’ll be relying on her stuns to stay alive. These stuns are also hard to keep up and rely on. Her damage is also rather poor even again Berserkers.

Masters would situationally use Abi in battles with two large HP enemies in order to stall out one of the two threats for two turns with a sleep, and attack the other one. But most people know the true reason people summon Abi… her black cat!

Defense Destruction

It will be impossible for enemies to put up defenses against Abi. Beyond her Noble Phantasm clearing all and any defensive debuffs (including Anti-Enforcement Defense) before damage, she can essentially lower a single enemy’s defense up to a whopping 70%! This gives her potential support abilities with other single target allies who could use the extra damage boost. Keep in mind that 50% of this defense destruction comes from her first skill’s sleep, so it will break as soon as that enemy takes damage. 

Enemy Disabling

Abi has two tools to disable enemies. One is a chance based stun on Mass Hysteria which has about a 50/50 chance to stun any enemy over 3-turns. The second is her sleep of The Rose’s Slumber which is guaranteed to work (against non-immune Servants) and could in theory keep an enemy stunned for 2-turns. With careful and lucky usage, she could allow a party to recover and fight another day.

Quick Charge

Thanks to her third skill, Abi can instantly pop a 50% battery whenever she wishes. This is especially helpful as her NP gain isn’t the best with only one Arts card and a Buster Noble Phantasm.

Poor Defenses

Despite being able to attack enemy defenses, Abi has none of her own. She will take all enemy damage without a hard evasion, defense boost, or ability to lower the enemy’s attack. She does have a high HP to make up for it, and most all incoming damage is going to be neutral due to her Foreigner classing, but she’ll likely not live through an enemy Noble Phantasm.

Unreliable Stuns

While Abi’s stuns are great in theory, in practice they are often worthless. Her kit is oriented around Single Target attacks, yet her first skill breaks on damage. So against single-enemy bosses if she uses this skill, it’d break right after anyone attacked. Her other stun is entirely chance-based and unreliable. 

Poor Damage

Abi’s kit relies on Defense reduction but offers her nothing in the way of attack boosts besides a Buster Resistance down on an enemy. Her damage is easily outclassed by most AoE Servants in the game for a much smaller cost against Berserkers, leaving her only real attack advantage as one against a wave of Foreigners. These are exceedingly rare. Further, Defense will only affect the current wave, so her damage will be severely neutered if used in multiple waves.

Abi’s skills are all about disabling and debuffing Defenses, with most leveling being about increasing the Defense Down attribute. Masters typically will use her second skill at the start of the boss battle, her first on the turn they wish to unleash damage, and her third on the turn they wish to use Abi’s Noble Phantasm. All skills except the third are situational at best and can be left at level 6 or so, while her third should go to max.

• The Rose’s Slumber B is Abi’s biggest support potential, giving a massive 50% defense decrease and removing all enemy buffs from a single target. This allows another Servant to swoop in and deal large chunks of damage despite the fight’s mechanics. However, this 50% defense decrease comes from a sleep which is broken the first time the enemy receives damage, so it’s a one-trick pony. This should be leveled second due to better scaling than Mass Hysteria, but could be left at level 6 to take advantage of the cooldown reduction.
• Mass Hysteria B+ is a standard terror skill where all enemies have a chance to be stunned at the end of each turn. This chance cannot be increased to max for a guaranteed stun, making it extremely unreliable. Leveling this skill boosts the stun chance as well as lowering an enemy’s defenses for three turns. This scales worse than her first skill so should be leveled last.
• Those Who Guide A is an NP charge. Like all charge skills, there are massive benefits to leveling this to max, scaling from 30% to 50% at max. This also gives her a small damage boost in the form of a Buster resist down on an enemy. Note that this skill’s debuff success rate increase will not make Mass Hysteria trigger more often. Without a chance-based debuff application skill, this is pretty much worthless against all except debuff resistant Servants. Level this first to max for the charge.

Abi is a standard damage dealer as far as Craft Essences are concerned, so she uses the standard recommendations. Without supports, she is best with a Mixed Damage / Starting NP Gauge CE as she has instant access to a 50% charge with her third skill. With supports, she can boost her own damage with a NP Damage Up CE. Or one could go for a quicker Noble Phantasm with a Starting NP Gauge CE.

• Aerial Drive / Partake with the King / Starry Nights / First Sunrise / Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: As Abi has a 50% charge skill, a CE with at least 50% charge will give her instant access to her Noble Phantasm. This could be especially powerful to clear an early wave and use her defense debuffs on later waves. 
• The Black Grail: If using Abi’s Noble Phantasm damage as a feature, a Black Grail is always the best option.  
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: If a Master lacks a mixed CE or wants to try to get multiple Noble Phantasms out of Abi using a higher starting charge, giving her CEs based purely on starting gauge will help make that possible.