people know the traditional ascent comp. it is
info initiator-usually fade or sova
duelist-jett, raze, or a pseudo duelist like a kayo
smokes- omen or astra, brim after stim nerf is not viable
sentinel- kj or chamber
flex- comfort pick, rn its breach sage kayo yoru and even fade if sova is the initiator pick.
so, where does astra really fit in a comp where you already have omen? ill give the traditional smoke pick to omen because rechargeable smokes. so, to me astra has to be in the flex pick, because traditional sentinels need to be picked on ascent otherwise youre asking them to walk to your spawn for free.
now, how does this work?
suppose the comp is fade raze omen kj astra.
ATTACK
now, on the attack you can suck A main off the bat without any repercussions and defeat the amain one way, after the star nerf it was kinda costly for astra to do that for free, with omen using his smokes, astra can freely use her stars selfishly and recklessly.
you can always throw a cat smoke or a market smoke and deny info, maybe throw both and make astra ot kj lurk while building pressure, with constant lack of info, drawing out util.
you also have decent executes as astra stun and suck along with omen blind can somewhat make up for the lack of kayo but youll be better off defaulting most of the time.
you have 10 times better post plant as astra can actually save atleast 2 stars for post plant almost every round, use it to resmoke or put both of spike making defuses extremely hard. of course astra has synergy with killjoy and raze and omen has synergy with fade, this can lead to some great combos.
astra can also recall a star where raze satchels or use it as misinformation for where raze is going in (it probably works ive tried it in customs ) making the raze entry a little more like jett entry.
DEFENSE
now, on defense you can also be very reckless with smokes and deny info for long times, making the opponents waste a ton of their util to get through, for example you can still throw the A main one way using omen every round but now you can insta smoke mid link using astra for even more info denial, you can always combo the a-main one way with an astra suck to punish people disrespecting it.
you can always use survival smokes in the middle of the site and anchor site for a LONG time
astra sucks- with execute heavy comps running wild with kayo fade sova breach and yoru, one astra suck can stop full rushes, and astra doesnt even have to be on site for that, making kayos suppress kinda invalid, kj can put her mollies on the site astra is playing in and play off site for helping astra if she gets suppressed.
raze nades with astra sucks and fade seize, you always have an option now, great defensive tools.
chaotic retakes with omen flash, astra stuns, kj ult and the entire kit of raze and fade, retakes will be over in a second.
CONS
now here are some cons, every comp has them
-sacrificing kayo or a 2nd initiator is really costly, kayo has shown his value on ascent, and definitely makes life easier, you could replace raze with kayo but that makes attacking really hard without a dive character.(unless you wanna do what fpx was doing and entry with omen)
raze- jett smoke dash is clearly a better entry and raze can be left vulnerable sometimes
flashes- you really have only the omen flash and fade prowlers, ops can be an issue but with ample astra stars and a shit ton of smokes, you can somehow deal with it.
fade-fade is relatively new and her kit can be made infinitely easier to use with a kayo or a breach flash making her util hard to destroy, but having different fade reveals will really help.
no killjoy lockdown counters (unless you wanna learn raze satchel lineups)
no op agent
ALTERNATIVES
kayo,breach for raze, recent games have proved you dont really need a duelist on ascent but you'll have to play really specifically to get value out of this, while breach has insane synergy with astra and makes up for lack of flashes and anti killjoy setups, you lose the paintshells which can also be used with astra, i dont need to explain kayo, hes pretty great.
chamber for killjoy- if youre comfortable you get an oper but you sacrifice extra info and better anchor
breach/kayo for killjoy- sacrifice flank protection and play extremely aggressive on one side and you can somehow get away with no info sentinels.
jett for raze- but why?
sova for fade- sova is a great character and has better info but you sacrifice good retake potential (sova is good on retakes too but fade is way better)
yoru for killjoy or raze- insane synergy with fade and with 2 smokes you can really capitalize on misinformation and lack there of.
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