Difference between revisions of "Astaroth/Strategy"

Astaroth is a very interesting unit whose main gimmick is to cycle between {{Weapon|None}} and {{Weapon|Magic}} weapon types through the activation of their CS. The ☆3 and ☆4 rarities are tailored for different roles, with the former being a fantastic support when {{Weapon|None}} typed and the latter being one of the best attackers in the game as a {{Weapon|Magic}} type. However, both rarities start off as the other weapon type, making it desirable to charge their CS as quick as possible. While in this charging phase, each rarity can perform the other's role to a lesser extent but still rather decently. Ultimately, as a free unit, Astaroth acts as one of the best mixed supports/attackers in the game, and the different rarities switch the balance of the two roles.

===☆3 Astaroth===

{{Companion icon|Astaroth|rarity=3}} has extremely potent support skills that activate when missing but begins as a {{Weapon|Magic}} type unit and only changes into a {{Weapon|None}} type with the activation of their CS. These skills include +500 HP, +20 CP, {{Status effect|攻撃強化}}, and {{Status effect|防御強化}} that are bestowed one square away from ☆3 Astaroth. This flexibility in range combined with {{Status effect|連撃}} from ☆3 Astaroth's CS makes them one of the best healers/CP batteries/mixed buffers in the game. The main downside is that ☆3 Astaroth needs to charge CP to get to such a point, which can be done through their LB2 which gives CP when attacking. Thus, this rarity of Astaroth will appreciate some form of sustain/protection or external CP charging to be used at full potential.  

===☆4 Astaroth===

On the other hand, {{Companion icon|Astaroth|rarity=4}} is an extremely powerful attacker but begins as a {{Weapon|None}} type and only changes into a {{Weapon|Magic}} type unit with their CS. As an attacker, they effectively have consistent access to three offensive buffs through the extra damage from their LB1 and {{Status effect|弱点}} and {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} from their LB3. As such, ☆4 Astaroth is a premier attacker who will easily be compatible with most offensive buffers in the game. Moreover, as a {{Weapon|None}} unit, ☆4 Astaroth has a skill which gives +50 CP after missing, meaning that it will take two turns or less to get them up to speed. Similar to the other rarity, ☆4 Astaroth will desire some team support to facilitate this early phase of battle.

===☆3 Astaroth===

+ able to give {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} and {{Status effect|防御強化}} which are rare and last long in duration

+ CS grants {{Status effect|閃き}}, {{Status effect|連撃}}, {{Status effect|武器種変更：無}} to facilitate effects

+ has {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} and 1.5x damage against {{Status effect|猛毒}}

===☆4 Astaroth===

+ has {{Status effect|攻撃強化}}, double damage against {{Status effect|猛毒}}, can spread {{Status effect|弱点}}

+ has {{Status effect|防御強化}} and self-healing when attacking enemies

+ able to give {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} and {{Status effect|防御強化}} which are rare and last long in duration

+ CS grants {{Status effect|閃き}}, {{Status effect|連撃}}, {{Status effect|武器種変更：魔法}} to facilitate effects

As mentioned above, both rarities of Astaroth operate as attacker and mixed support with ☆3 Astaroth being a better mixed support while ☆4 Astaroth is a better attacker. As such, the roles of Astaroth can be neatly divided along such categories.

===☆3 Astaroth===

{{Companion icon|Astaroth|rarity=3}} is an excellent mixed support due to their ability to grant {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} and {{Status effect|防御強化}}, two rather rare and long-lasting buffs, to allies in a relatively large area of effect of one square away. This makes Astaroth suitable for support of most units in the game due to aforementioned rarity of said buffs and flexibility in positioning. A possibility of concern is that the proc rates in Astaroth's LB2 and LB3 are rather low. However, this is not really much of an issue for several reasons. First, Astaroth's CS grants {{Status effect|閃き}} and {{Status effect|連撃}} to Astaroth. This means that an unseeded Astaroth effectively has an 84% chance of proccing either buff (100% - (40%)^2). The second reason is that the duration of both buffs is rather high, so Astaroth needs to only supply the buffs once and then wait another four turns. This effectively mitigates the effect of consistency issues which would happen with other buffs such as Limit. Lastly, the buffs are decoupled, making the chance of not receiving any buff to be quite smaller.  

The other aspect of Astaroth as a mixed support is their healing/CP charging. Like above, Astaroth has the ability of healing/CP charging from one square away as opposed to directly adjacent, which is very rare among such archetypes. Furthermore, the amount which Astaroth heals/CP charges can be rather large. With Combo, Astaroth can heal up to 1000 HP and 40 CP if both effects proc. For comparison, the best CP chargers on move only charge up to +20CP at a time (although usually with an extra +8 CP from {{Status effect|加速}}). On the other hand, this is comparable to hitting four units with [[Hoster of Feasts]] which would give 800 HP and 40 CP albeit to enemies as well. As such, Astaroth may not take the title of best CP battery from units such as {{Companion icon|Choji|rarity=4}} or {{Companion icon|Licht|rarity=5}}, but Astaroth does have the advantage of a more flexible range and the aforementioned buffs to allies.

Since Astaroth's CP charging is dependent on the number of enemies hit, it's recommended to draw back ☆3 Astaroth when enemies are sparse in order to activate their support skills rather than go for CP. As a {{Weapon|Magic}} typed unit, it's always possible to miss or attack, but it's never possible to attack as a {{Weapon|None}} unit. It's a reminder that being a None unit only guarantees missing, so if the opportunity arises where ☆3 Astaroth can miss even as a Magic unit, it should be greatly considered.

As Astaroth is a free unit, it's easily possible to level their Sacred Artifact to level 100, making their CS do considerable damage for a unit primarily focused on support. With SALV100, {{Status effect|攻撃強化}}, and extra damage from {{Status effect|猛毒}}, ☆3 Astaroth does 11.8k damage per square, and these are all effects which Astaroth can easily achieve by themselves. As a point of comparison, this damage is similar to {{Companion icon|Kalki|rarity=4|variant=Christmas}} with all three offensive buffs triggered and his CS damage. Thus, if using ☆3 Astaroth, it's possible to get a decent chunk of damage done with the right offensive support through their CS.

===☆4 Astaroth===

{{Companion icon|Astaroth|rarity=4}}'s main role is dealing damage through an innate application of {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} to self, an extra 2x damage multiplier against enemies with {{Status effect|猛毒}}, and most importantly of all, {{Status effect|弱点}}. With Combo, triggering all these effects makes an unseeded Astaroth's damage to be 1388 * 2.2 * 2.4 * 2 * 1.2 = 17589 per square. And due to Glint from CS, having all such effects occurring is rather consistent. Finally, the reason why Weakness was singled out for being important is that as a debuff which affects defense, it can also be thought of as an intrinsic offensive buff for the rest of the team for that unit. So even if an enemy were to survive such an attack, Astaroth's teammates have a much easier job of cleaning up afterwards.

As a free unit, Astaroth's CS damage can be doubled by having SALV 100. Referencing the chart below, this means that her actual CS damage would be 8326 per square, which is a fairly decent amount for a {{Weapon|Magic}} of ☆4 rarity. However, since Astaroth also applies Combo to herself with her CS, the second hit of Combo will also happen, making Astaroth perform an extra 8795 damage per square in the best case scenario. This means that Astaroth will actually do a total of 17121 damage per square with their CS unlike what the chart would otherwise imply. What is also important to consider is that this can be further increased by ATK Up for the second CS and onwards. This makes Astaroth's CS damage to be 18317 per square, and including the extra hit from Combo boosts this number further to 27112 per square. As such, ☆4 Astaroth is an extremely powerful attacker by themselves and can easily be supported due to the rarity of the statuses in their kit.

One note of importance is that ☆4 Astaroth charges CP by missing while ☆3 Astaroth charges CP by attacking enemies. This is a good thing, since it gives ☆4 Astaroth the ability to charge CP regardless of their weapon type, which is not true for ☆3 Astaroth who needs to wait out the weapon change before being able to charge CP by themselves again. This allows for strategic maneuvering where you can choose to have ☆4 Astaroth intentionally whiff in order to access their CS again earlier and access their support role skills.  

Likewise, ☆4 Astaroth also has some abilities as a mixed support, even if it's less impressive than their ☆3 version. They have the same ability of healing and CP charging, but the ranges are reduced to directly adjacent and the procs are reduced to 60% from 80% at skill level 100. Furthermore, the CP charging is reduced from +20 CP to +12 CP, making ☆4 Astaroth to be a merely average CP battery. Lastly, the chances of receiving {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} or {{Status effect|防御強化}} is reduced to 30% at skill level 100. This makes having Combo on ☆4 Astaroth a great boon and should be achieved whenever possible.

It might not look like it at first, but ☆4 Astaroth has great tanking capabilities which mostly stem from their LB2. Having {{Status effect|防御強化}} to themselves is already a great boon since it allows for easy stacking with other common defensive buffs which allies can supply, but the main point of interest is that ☆4 Astaroth receives +400 HP for each enemy hit when attacking. This is an enormous amount of healing which is currently only rivaled by the likes of {{Companion icon|Chernobog|rarity=5|variant=Beachside}} and {{Companion icon|Shino|rarity=5|variant=Valentine}} which even then ☆4 Astaroth is more likely to win out against due to the range of {{Weapon|Magic}}. To demonstrate, an unseeded ☆4 Astaroth has 6236 HP according to the below chart and by hitting five enemies can heal up to 2000 HP, which constitutes approximately a third of their HP. With Combo, this effectively doubles if ☆4 Astaroth hasn't killed the enemy in the first hit. Thus, it's very easy for ☆4 Astaroth to sustain themselves which ☆3 Astaroth is unable to with lack of access to self-healing or DEF Up.

It is highly recommended to skill seed Astaroth for gameplay reasons. Astaroth has a plethora of sub-100% procs which skill seeds would help tremendously with. In particular, guaranteeing ☆4 Astaroth's +50 CP when missing is extremely desirable for consistency reasons. Afterwards, it's best to invest ATK seeds into Astaroth, since it'll give a nice boost in damage especially for the ☆3 rarity who can actually do a surprising chunk of damage with the right help. HP seeds are also nice since both units can benefit from more bulk.

Since Astaroth's skills trigger when attacking or missing, {{Status effect|連撃}} is a highly treasured buff and teammates who can give it to Astaroth are extremely valuable for speeding up the process of charging Astaroth's CP. It's most effective on ☆4 Astaroth in order to continually retain {{Weapon|Magic}} type, whereas it's impossible for ☆3 Astaroth to do such a feat with {{Weapon|None}} type. There are only a limited number of such units so far so consider using {{Companion icon|Seth|rarity=4|variant=Beachside}} and {{Companion icon|Volos|rarity=4}}.

This applies mostly to ☆3 Astaroth since their method of CP acquisition is somewhat inconsistent, but CP batteries benefit Astaroth quite a bit since their main power is locked behind their CS. This is particularly useful for charging CP after Astaroth has already activated their CS, since the ☆3 rarity has no way of self charging their CP while None typed and the ☆4 rarity would also rather be attacking as much as possible while Magic typed. Some good CP batteries include {{Companion icon|Chernobog|rarity=5|variant=Beachside}}, {{Companion icon|Choji|rarity=4}}, and {{Companion icon|Snow|rarity=5}}.  

This is a problem more for ☆3 Astaroth due to their lack of self-healing and {{Status effect|防御強化}}, but Astaroth would generally benefit from some form of healing/protection, especially for the first few turns to charge CP. Classic defenders like {{Companion icon|Snow|rarity=5}}, {{Companion icon|Aizen|rarity=5}}, and {{Companion icon|Surtr|rarity=5}} apply here.

This mostly applies to ☆3 Astaroth, but CP boosting ARs which are commonly ☆3 will benefit Astaroth in general. Consider using [[Oath of Pioneer]] if you have it in the case of ☆3 Astaroth.

Both rarities of Astaroth desire to use their CS, so most forms of CP reduction greatly hinder this goal. Common ailments such as {{Status effect|恐怖}} are very annoying for Astaroth, although thankfully they don't really need to move. For the level 80 dungeon quest in particular, Slimes are an issue due to their CP reduction when damaged. This is an issue for the ☆3 rarity in particular, since their method of CP charging depends on attacking enemies.  

Since an integral part of their kit is changing their weapon, they can easily be countered by removing/nullifying such buffs. This arguably would also extend to enemies who may in the future be able to change weapons similar to Licho, but in some cases ☆3 Astaroth might welcome such a change.

This is the main team that I use for dungeons and initial tries for challenge quests, and it's a favorite of mine due to the synergy between teammates. The foundation of this team is {{Companion icon|Seth|rarity=4|variant=Beachside}} who synergizes well with the other three members of the team through application of {{Status effect|連撃}} and {{Status effect|守護}}.  

For {{Transient icon|Astaroth|rarity=4}}, Combo makes ☆4 Astaroth charge their CP fully in one turn, making their CS available by turn 2 rather than turn 3. Furthermore, Combo makes ☆4 Astaroth having {{Weapon|None}} type less of a handicap; with Combo, an unseeded ☆4 Astaroth effectively has a 51% chance of giving {{Status effect|攻撃強化}} and {{Status effect|防御強化}} to allies directly adjacent to them. Furthermore, this gives an expected value of 600HP and 14.4 CP to allies. Thus, ☆4 Astaroth becomes a competent mixed buffer for the benefit of the team. These same points apply if ☆4 Astaroth whiffs while being {{Weapon|Magic}}. Astaroth also has a dislike buff from Seth, so their damage is boosted although this is a relatively minor effect. After CSing, ☆4 Astaroth can then continually plow through enemies with {{Status effect|弱点}} notably allowing other allies following them to hit harder.  

For {{Transient icon|Licho|rarity=4}}, Combo makes triggering one of Licho's debilitating effects ({{Status effect|武器種変更：打撃}}, {{Status effect|S封印}}, {{Status effect|呪い}}) much more consistent. Moreover, since Licho deals extra damage against enemies who have had their weapon changed or been skill locked in a way that stacks, Combo has the potential to increase Licho's damage output. If the situation permits, moving Licho also grants a Friendship buff to Astaroth which is particularly useful considering the activation rates of Astaroth's skills.  

For {{Transient icon|Chernobog|rarity=5|variant=Beachside}}, Combo gives the ability to double Chernobog's already considerable healing/CP charging while making his skills more consistent and stacking more flat damage. This is particularly useful since everyone on the team has charge skills with useful effects. Also the combination of Beachside Seth and Beachside Chernobog is particularly notable for the tankiness of having both {{Status effect|聖油}} and {{Status effect|守護}} and Chernobog's considerable healing methods. Finally, Beachside Chernobog can also increase the damage output of the team by supplying {{Status effect|熱情}} to teammates and {{Status effect|凍結}} to enemies. If he has his CS charged, he can also extend {{Status effect|CT}} as well.