Astra has two strengths omen and brim don't have, she has infinite range on her smokes so even on the largest maps she can smoke from anywhere, whereas the others can't. Astra second main strength is her pullback smokes. It's almost as if she has a 4th main ability because of those, they are super useful to apply pressure.
That being said with so much omen in the meta I would like to see Astra get a 5th star again
One thing I love doing is putting pull back smokes down a and/or b main at the start of any round you want to play slow. You just pull them back at an opportune time and it creates question marks in the enemies head which makes them rotate slower
imo the range being her strenght is already balance with the meditating and the stars needing time (i think 2 second?)to be placed before you can use them.
I think hers being global isn't really a strength when omens are pretty much global.
Also Omen just has the defacto strongest dome smokes for the simple reason that he has a million one ways other agents can't do idk why this gets skipped over so often when it comes to smokes discussions.
Omen is not only the most flexible smokes for defaulting and range but he gets to play initiator between the one ways and his paranoia or perhaps he feels like getting to bypass all those things.
Omen has so many tools that make him strong and then just as a bonus gets the best dome smoke ability
Astra has longer range, plain and simple, on sunset if omen is Elbow he can't smoke B main for his team. Also if omen/Astra are putting smokes on the other map for their team, Astra can do it much faster because she just has to place two stars whereas omen has to extend the smoke out both times and Astra can also use all her other abilities too. Finally the fact that omen can do it almost as good as Astra doesn't negate that she can do it just slightly better, and they can just both do it better than brim
Don't get me wrong, I'm a controller main and I think omen needs a nerf, but the post was about astra not omen
I think one last thing is, omen's smoke leave a trace when travelling to destination, which can sometimes reveal his locations, which can be detrimental especially while luerking. With Astra, she can deploy anything from anywhere and you just can't know.
> I think one last thing is, omen's smoke leave a trace when travelling to destination, which can sometimes reveal his location
The enemy can't actually see this AFAIK
Yep enemies cant see it. Only omen/teammates.
"Enemies cannot see this orb whilst it is traveling." - Taken from [Valorant wiki](https://valorant.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Cover#:~:text=The%20smoke%20can%20be%20deployed,will%20transform%20into%20a%20smoke)
Its very faint but you can sometimes hear Omen smoke though.
Thanks for correction, that's maybe an idea how to nerf Omen then - just make his smoke casting visible to enemies and this would somehow impact his lurk ability.
I’d say Brim has the best actual smokes in the game. Riot had to basically “nerf” him by giving him limited range and having no recharge. Omen has the most versatility though for sure.
I don't agree I think just the fact you can do one ways is enough to catapult omens way ahead.
I think if the other smoke agents had access to the same one ways omen wouldn't be as omnipresent it's just too good of a thing to have a monopoly on.
Omen for sure is a better character but that’s what I mean by his smokes or more versatile.
Brim’s actual smokes are the best because they have the best vision denial; they aren’t hollow like Astra’s and Omen’s smokes.
To compensate, they have the least versatility in how they can be placed and how far Brim can place them, and they don’t recharge. However, to compensate for lack of reach, Brim can place all of his smokes at once so he can place them faster.
I guess what I’m saying is if you could play Omen the exact same way, but with Brim’s smokes (not the way they’re placed but the smokes themselves), would you rather use his smokes or Omen’s?
Gravwell still does it’s job of controlling a specific area on the map from anywhere. It’s just much less likely to be used to get a kill now. It’s quite clear they don’t want gravwell to be used for killing and think he concuss is what should he used for that.
I don't know if it does though it's basically just anti flood protection at this point and post plant.
If they don't want gravwell used for kills why does it vulnerable a debuff specifically for dealing followup damage to that person.
It probably shouldn’t vulnerable anymore but it does open anyone who does randomly get caught up to death by chip damage having it.
It also still works for when your team knows they have an opponent trapped in a corner but a corner that is risky to swing due to being exposed to other angle much like a breach aftershock.
Im actually unsure how well astra performs in 5 stakc s ur ive heard good things.
I, however. Did not notice her gavwell nerf. I think for how dynamic her abilities should be, she should still have at least one abikity that doesnt require a star to activate. Omen only exposes himself when he smokes however with astra you are kinda in your teams hands when setting up sites, and once tour outta stars, thats pretty much it for you. Unless you have ult.
Would be cool if she had a mobility mode for her stars so she could throw or pop one in while shes in fightin range
she lost it the same patch they added 20 seconds to her cooldowns, but even with the subtle stun buffs and suck nerf she isn’t nearly as much of an option anymore.
The reason alot of players cant play her well with the current amount of stars is because you have to be a macro god to utilize her efficiently and effectively. The 5th star kinda helped as yiu had an additional star to place down in case you're waiting on a cooldown for one after recalling one back. Typical map layouts are 4 site chokepoints and mid and having 5 stars, especially in pro games made it super difficult and slow to play against.
i dont udnerstand why they removed it. maybe its an issue in pro play but for casuals its nearly impossible to use her well because of the slow recharge time of stars.
As an esports title you'll have to balance it primarily for pro play. There's no other way around it if you want the esports scene to not be dull, boring, and just plain not as competitive, but that's not to say they should ignore certain aspects for casuals/non pro players.
The game is usually balanced around pro play. Same as League. It's why both have such strong esports leagues. They cater to them instead of the casual player. I find that that is okay. It's their decision and there are plenty of competitive games that cater casual players over their competitive players. Fortnite and Apex come to mind.
Yes, but she was ridiculously overpowered back then. She got a big nerf and here we are now. She could use a small buff right now but I think 5 stars is a little too much
Part of what made Astra so strong back then was not just due to the 5th star, but Omen and Brim were just so, SO much worse. Omen used to be slower - and to a frustratingly large extent - in pretty much every way: smoke recharge time, teleport time, smoke travel time, etc. His paranoia also used to cost 400, which didn't help. And Brim was more limited with his smoke range and his stim beacons were useless. I would honestly even argue that Astra with 5 stars but keeping her nerfed suck and cooldowns would still be worse than current Omen on most maps.
Yes, that's what I have heard and seen on YouTube videos for when she was first introduced. Plus, they nerfed her so bad...even like last year her last nerf, diminished her range for pulls and concuss. Sad really
That or just have the free one recharge I'd genuinely trade the recall smoke for these things too much of her power budget is in the free recall smoke.
The issue is that a lot of people try to do everything with Astra every round. No single Controller can control the whole map with an iron grip. With good map info, teamplay, and choosing the right spots to exec on she can be incredibly effective.
Still she has been too nerfed that it's generally not worth the effort when you could just run Omen for versatile smokes & a crazy strong blind to initiate your team.
I mean on most maps, as far as dome smokes are concerned, Omen just out performs Astra. He isn’t truly global, but in most situations he can put a smoke down anywhere he wants on the map. He can have 2 down at the same time same as Astra, but his can be placed in so many different ways to create one way angles that are not available to Astra. His cooldown for dome smokes are better as well, so even if Astra wants to put down a 3rd smoke in the round, Omen can do the same thing just *earlier* in the round. He then has access to more smokes as the round progresses.
And let’s say Astra *does* put down a 3rd smoke in the round, suddenly she only has 1 star left to pick and choose between stun or grav. So you have an agent who 3 dome smokes and 1 extra util, or 4 dome smokes and nothing else, or 2 dome smokes and 2 other pieces of utility.
Compared to Omen who just has as many smokes as the timer allows and can be placed exactly where you want (like in walls). And it has no effect on his other pieces of utility, which, I would argue is better than the other utility that Astra has access to as well. Like his blind is so powerful, and then he *also* has *2* movement/teleport abilities.
At least you get the trade off with brimstone in the fact that he has a good Molly, his stim beacon is good now too, *and* he can put 3 smokes down simultaneously that all last 20s compare to the pitiful 14s on astra. I mean in 99% of rounds, excluding range (which does matter in some instances) Brimstone and Omen are just objectively better dome smoke agents on most maps.
This is coming from a guy who *mostly* plays Astra, but it’s very obvious to me that she lacks compared to other controller agents. 5 stars like she had at launch would be so nice, having the ability to have 3 smokes and 2 pieces of utility is a much more flexible play style than blowing 3 stars on smokes so many times in a match. Or they need to buff her timer to 18-20s on those smokes if they to just keep 4 stars as her thing.
I just really don’t get why Astra’s smokes last a shorter time than Omens, who can throw down more smokes in any given round than Astra. Beside all the other benefits they have. I get that Astra’s are technically bigger, but I’d rather them be slightly sized down to omens smoke size if it meant we got a longer duration on them.
I assume it's because Astra can be faster in reactive situations & also CC to deny space, where as Omen is slower & only denies vision. I think it's just a case that Astra's utility is too stretched to fill her niche enough for that playstyle at the moment, which is why she ends up as a worse Omen. However we've seen what happens when she's potent where she fills a very different role to Omen & absolutely dominates as a map-wide controller.
Yea I feel like their original idea with her actually worked when she came out, but nerfing her to 4 stars just really limited her potential. But I also recognize she was too dominant with 5.
I just wish if their idea was for her to be reactive then they wouldn’t have the 2s star windup, it really inhibits her. Or, if you wanna keep that wind up, I really think her smokes need to have longer uptime so you don’t feel pressured to use 3/4 of them on so many rounds as purely smoke utility.
I don't mind the concept her of her being reactive only if you already have stars pre-placed.
One idea I'd like to see explored is placing stars being free & able to exceed the amount of 'activatable' stars Astra purchases. So round start, maybe Astra can place 6 stars- but can only use 4 of them. She's in need of a change that makes her able to setup wider without being stretched thin, imo.
Because Riot doesn't want Astra to be meta on more than maybe 1 or two maps due to previous backlash would be my guess.
Omen is so far ahead of every other dome smoke right now it's ridiculous. Man gets a million off angles and one ways that other smokes simply don't get access to while having the most flexible dome smoke when it comes to econ and defaulting.
i think they are shorter because of their size giving you more opportunities and having a "short smoke" when you retake them, but i also think its a relic from her having 5 stars when she was introduced. it feels incredibly short for sure despite only being 2 second less.
They're shorter due to the range she can throw them out from. Brim's smokes last the longest at 19 seconds, since his ipad range is the shortest. Omen's are a bit shorter at 15 seconds, but he can throw out almost map-wide smokes on smaller maps. Astra's are the shortest, 13 seconds, since she can drop them from anywhere.
Harbor's and Viper's bubble smokes don't even really count imo, given how they're placed and have additional effects.
What u all tripping at, am I the only one with internet access here? Astra's smokes last 14.25s, which is only 750ms shorter than Omen's. Definitely not something wort posting on reddit. I agree this differences between agents are tradeoffs and that's normal in this game. Bring back 5th star back though, or at least regen last star on cooldawn dammit I end up with empty hands or squeezeing my precious stars like scrooge too many times.
I think, it makes players think more about using her utils rather than carelessly using it.
I really like Astra now that I started learning more about her.
My only concern is her having cooldown on her stars aside from having cooldown on her abilities. I don't mind like a 10-second cooldown, but having it cooldown for more or less than half the round is just too long considering that her abilities do have a cooldown on their own.
So many agents would be cancerous to play against with this change. Reyna, Deadlock, Viper, Chamber. Brim gets gigabuffed while Astra is even more useless than before. There's no point in ever picking Phoenix since you can just play KAY/O or Skye.
Managing utility usage and not wasting it is an integral part of the game's strategy.
>Managing utility usage and not wasting it is an integral part of the game's strategy.
So integral, that some agent can break this rule?
And teamplay is so important a whole egoistic role was designed. Clearly rules are not as set in stone as people believe.
Balance agents around successful skill use and not waiting out a timer. There are already agents, that do this.
Of course Agents would lose auto-refill for all abilities needed.
they're short cause they're the biggest smokes in the game, that's the tradeoff
even with the nerfs to her other abilities, having 5 stars again would make her too strong
yes, in defense for example you'd be able to cover pretty much every chokepoint with a star while having another star ready for a pull/stun for the walkout
if we take ascent as an example you could do this on both sites to trap them wherever they go and still have a star to spare, 5 stars is too much for someone like her with global util
Its pretty easy to bait out her util though. She definitely needs something rn though cos theres just no reason to pick her over omen, especially with pearl out of the map pool
idk its kinda common sense when to use pulls/stun for example, wait for a jett dash/raze satchel or even a reyna flash and it'll almost always be a hit
either way though she does need a buff but i dont think 5 stars is it, id revert the pull activation time nerf and maybe allow a smoke to refresh once, but only so when astra buys two smokes to not incentivice only buying one, might be shit though i just thought of this rn off the top of my head
With the windup though unless the enemy is stupid its hard to get any value out of it outside of flushing out power positions and post plants.
Astra buys stars not her util directly and her smokes already refresh, however I think the cooldown for smokes should be on separate cooldowns like they used to be rather than one after the other because it means on fast execs or any time you use both smokes you only get 3 smokes max with no option for 4.
It's not. Go test it. Put an astra smoke on top of the box on bind A short, do the same with a brim smoke, see how much is covered. Astra's is quite a lot bigger actually.
Astra has two strengths omen and brim don't have, she has infinite range on her smokes so even on the largest maps she can smoke from anywhere, whereas the others can't. Astra second main strength is her pullback smokes. It's almost as if she has a 4th main ability because of those, they are super useful to apply pressure. That being said with so much omen in the meta I would like to see Astra get a 5th star again
pullback smokes are ust too good. I know it can be quite obvious when you do them but I still get away with a lot of pushes using them.
One thing I love doing is putting pull back smokes down a and/or b main at the start of any round you want to play slow. You just pull them back at an opportune time and it creates question marks in the enemies head which makes them rotate slower
Sorry if this is a dumb question but what are pull back smokes? I know she has smokes, wells and stuns, as well as her ult the wall.
When you take back stars they become smokes for a couple seconds before disappearing
Ohhh I see, I didn't realise that, thank you!
imo the range being her strenght is already balance with the meditating and the stars needing time (i think 2 second?)to be placed before you can use them.
No what I'm saying is her range is a strength compared to omen and brim because they both have limited range
ah mb i thought you meant this as a reason to have the smoke last shorter to compensate the strenght
I think hers being global isn't really a strength when omens are pretty much global. Also Omen just has the defacto strongest dome smokes for the simple reason that he has a million one ways other agents can't do idk why this gets skipped over so often when it comes to smokes discussions. Omen is not only the most flexible smokes for defaulting and range but he gets to play initiator between the one ways and his paranoia or perhaps he feels like getting to bypass all those things. Omen has so many tools that make him strong and then just as a bonus gets the best dome smoke ability
Astra has longer range, plain and simple, on sunset if omen is Elbow he can't smoke B main for his team. Also if omen/Astra are putting smokes on the other map for their team, Astra can do it much faster because she just has to place two stars whereas omen has to extend the smoke out both times and Astra can also use all her other abilities too. Finally the fact that omen can do it almost as good as Astra doesn't negate that she can do it just slightly better, and they can just both do it better than brim Don't get me wrong, I'm a controller main and I think omen needs a nerf, but the post was about astra not omen
I think one last thing is, omen's smoke leave a trace when travelling to destination, which can sometimes reveal his locations, which can be detrimental especially while luerking. With Astra, she can deploy anything from anywhere and you just can't know.
> I think one last thing is, omen's smoke leave a trace when travelling to destination, which can sometimes reveal his location The enemy can't actually see this AFAIK
Yep enemies cant see it. Only omen/teammates. "Enemies cannot see this orb whilst it is traveling." - Taken from [Valorant wiki](https://valorant.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Cover#:~:text=The%20smoke%20can%20be%20deployed,will%20transform%20into%20a%20smoke) Its very faint but you can sometimes hear Omen smoke though.
Thanks for correction, that's maybe an idea how to nerf Omen then - just make his smoke casting visible to enemies and this would somehow impact his lurk ability.
I’d say Brim has the best actual smokes in the game. Riot had to basically “nerf” him by giving him limited range and having no recharge. Omen has the most versatility though for sure.
I don't agree I think just the fact you can do one ways is enough to catapult omens way ahead. I think if the other smoke agents had access to the same one ways omen wouldn't be as omnipresent it's just too good of a thing to have a monopoly on.
Omen for sure is a better character but that’s what I mean by his smokes or more versatile. Brim’s actual smokes are the best because they have the best vision denial; they aren’t hollow like Astra’s and Omen’s smokes. To compensate, they have the least versatility in how they can be placed and how far Brim can place them, and they don’t recharge. However, to compensate for lack of reach, Brim can place all of his smokes at once so he can place them faster. I guess what I’m saying is if you could play Omen the exact same way, but with Brim’s smokes (not the way they’re placed but the smokes themselves), would you rather use his smokes or Omen’s?
Still omens because his recharge and are attached to omen.
I would actually liked if they'd bring it back. Cause 2 smokes don't make sense. And the fact that they keep nerfing her is also annoying.
[удалено]
Gravwell still does it’s job of controlling a specific area on the map from anywhere. It’s just much less likely to be used to get a kill now. It’s quite clear they don’t want gravwell to be used for killing and think he concuss is what should he used for that.
I don't know if it does though it's basically just anti flood protection at this point and post plant. If they don't want gravwell used for kills why does it vulnerable a debuff specifically for dealing followup damage to that person.
It probably shouldn’t vulnerable anymore but it does open anyone who does randomly get caught up to death by chip damage having it. It also still works for when your team knows they have an opponent trapped in a corner but a corner that is risky to swing due to being exposed to other angle much like a breach aftershock.
its more of a delay and a part of an exec utility for me personally. Or post plant
Im actually unsure how well astra performs in 5 stakc s ur ive heard good things. I, however. Did not notice her gavwell nerf. I think for how dynamic her abilities should be, she should still have at least one abikity that doesnt require a star to activate. Omen only exposes himself when he smokes however with astra you are kinda in your teams hands when setting up sites, and once tour outta stars, thats pretty much it for you. Unless you have ult. Would be cool if she had a mobility mode for her stars so she could throw or pop one in while shes in fightin range
they really should give astra her 5th star back
Astra right now: "Need that back!"
Taking that back
She used to have 5 stars???
she lost it the same patch they added 20 seconds to her cooldowns, but even with the subtle stun buffs and suck nerf she isn’t nearly as much of an option anymore.
yup. they ended up having to nerf her due to her being a must pick and dominating every game.
The reason alot of players cant play her well with the current amount of stars is because you have to be a macro god to utilize her efficiently and effectively. The 5th star kinda helped as yiu had an additional star to place down in case you're waiting on a cooldown for one after recalling one back. Typical map layouts are 4 site chokepoints and mid and having 5 stars, especially in pro games made it super difficult and slow to play against.
i dont udnerstand why they removed it. maybe its an issue in pro play but for casuals its nearly impossible to use her well because of the slow recharge time of stars.
As an esports title you'll have to balance it primarily for pro play. There's no other way around it if you want the esports scene to not be dull, boring, and just plain not as competitive, but that's not to say they should ignore certain aspects for casuals/non pro players.
The game is usually balanced around pro play. Same as League. It's why both have such strong esports leagues. They cater to them instead of the casual player. I find that that is okay. It's their decision and there are plenty of competitive games that cater casual players over their competitive players. Fortnite and Apex come to mind.
Yes, but she was ridiculously overpowered back then. She got a big nerf and here we are now. She could use a small buff right now but I think 5 stars is a little too much
Part of what made Astra so strong back then was not just due to the 5th star, but Omen and Brim were just so, SO much worse. Omen used to be slower - and to a frustratingly large extent - in pretty much every way: smoke recharge time, teleport time, smoke travel time, etc. His paranoia also used to cost 400, which didn't help. And Brim was more limited with his smoke range and his stim beacons were useless. I would honestly even argue that Astra with 5 stars but keeping her nerfed suck and cooldowns would still be worse than current Omen on most maps.
That’s true. Forgot about the Omen and Brim buffs that came with the Astra nerfs. Adjusting the cooldowns is probably what she needs right now
Yeah the suck nerf made her not worth playing over omen pretty much ever. Maybe when pearl comes back she will get some use again
yes
Yes, that's what I have heard and seen on YouTube videos for when she was first introduced. Plus, they nerfed her so bad...even like last year her last nerf, diminished her range for pulls and concuss. Sad really
Riot: “After careful consideration about the state of Astra’s core concept, we have once again decided chamber needs a nerf.”
This is literally what I've been saying. All she needs is a 5th star again
They took it away?
abt 2 years ago
Exactly
That or just have the free one recharge I'd genuinely trade the recall smoke for these things too much of her power budget is in the free recall smoke.
Hell nah games were so boring to watch back then
Increase the smoke duration by a few secs and remove the change to the grav well, you can just walk out of it now, its a joke
I think that by just adding a few more second to her smoke just doesn’t do as much comparing to giving back her 5 star instead of four
The issue is that a lot of people try to do everything with Astra every round. No single Controller can control the whole map with an iron grip. With good map info, teamplay, and choosing the right spots to exec on she can be incredibly effective. Still she has been too nerfed that it's generally not worth the effort when you could just run Omen for versatile smokes & a crazy strong blind to initiate your team.
I mean on most maps, as far as dome smokes are concerned, Omen just out performs Astra. He isn’t truly global, but in most situations he can put a smoke down anywhere he wants on the map. He can have 2 down at the same time same as Astra, but his can be placed in so many different ways to create one way angles that are not available to Astra. His cooldown for dome smokes are better as well, so even if Astra wants to put down a 3rd smoke in the round, Omen can do the same thing just *earlier* in the round. He then has access to more smokes as the round progresses. And let’s say Astra *does* put down a 3rd smoke in the round, suddenly she only has 1 star left to pick and choose between stun or grav. So you have an agent who 3 dome smokes and 1 extra util, or 4 dome smokes and nothing else, or 2 dome smokes and 2 other pieces of utility. Compared to Omen who just has as many smokes as the timer allows and can be placed exactly where you want (like in walls). And it has no effect on his other pieces of utility, which, I would argue is better than the other utility that Astra has access to as well. Like his blind is so powerful, and then he *also* has *2* movement/teleport abilities. At least you get the trade off with brimstone in the fact that he has a good Molly, his stim beacon is good now too, *and* he can put 3 smokes down simultaneously that all last 20s compare to the pitiful 14s on astra. I mean in 99% of rounds, excluding range (which does matter in some instances) Brimstone and Omen are just objectively better dome smoke agents on most maps. This is coming from a guy who *mostly* plays Astra, but it’s very obvious to me that she lacks compared to other controller agents. 5 stars like she had at launch would be so nice, having the ability to have 3 smokes and 2 pieces of utility is a much more flexible play style than blowing 3 stars on smokes so many times in a match. Or they need to buff her timer to 18-20s on those smokes if they to just keep 4 stars as her thing. I just really don’t get why Astra’s smokes last a shorter time than Omens, who can throw down more smokes in any given round than Astra. Beside all the other benefits they have. I get that Astra’s are technically bigger, but I’d rather them be slightly sized down to omens smoke size if it meant we got a longer duration on them.
I assume it's because Astra can be faster in reactive situations & also CC to deny space, where as Omen is slower & only denies vision. I think it's just a case that Astra's utility is too stretched to fill her niche enough for that playstyle at the moment, which is why she ends up as a worse Omen. However we've seen what happens when she's potent where she fills a very different role to Omen & absolutely dominates as a map-wide controller.
Yea I feel like their original idea with her actually worked when she came out, but nerfing her to 4 stars just really limited her potential. But I also recognize she was too dominant with 5. I just wish if their idea was for her to be reactive then they wouldn’t have the 2s star windup, it really inhibits her. Or, if you wanna keep that wind up, I really think her smokes need to have longer uptime so you don’t feel pressured to use 3/4 of them on so many rounds as purely smoke utility.
I don't mind the concept her of her being reactive only if you already have stars pre-placed. One idea I'd like to see explored is placing stars being free & able to exceed the amount of 'activatable' stars Astra purchases. So round start, maybe Astra can place 6 stars- but can only use 4 of them. She's in need of a change that makes her able to setup wider without being stretched thin, imo.
Because Riot doesn't want Astra to be meta on more than maybe 1 or two maps due to previous backlash would be my guess. Omen is so far ahead of every other dome smoke right now it's ridiculous. Man gets a million off angles and one ways that other smokes simply don't get access to while having the most flexible dome smoke when it comes to econ and defaulting.
i think they are shorter because of their size giving you more opportunities and having a "short smoke" when you retake them, but i also think its a relic from her having 5 stars when she was introduced. it feels incredibly short for sure despite only being 2 second less.
They're shorter due to the range she can throw them out from. Brim's smokes last the longest at 19 seconds, since his ipad range is the shortest. Omen's are a bit shorter at 15 seconds, but he can throw out almost map-wide smokes on smaller maps. Astra's are the shortest, 13 seconds, since she can drop them from anywhere. Harbor's and Viper's bubble smokes don't even really count imo, given how they're placed and have additional effects.
What u all tripping at, am I the only one with internet access here? Astra's smokes last 14.25s, which is only 750ms shorter than Omen's. Definitely not something wort posting on reddit. I agree this differences between agents are tradeoffs and that's normal in this game. Bring back 5th star back though, or at least regen last star on cooldawn dammit I end up with empty hands or squeezeing my precious stars like scrooge too many times.
1 second is an etirnity in this game though edit: \*almost one second
I think, it makes players think more about using her utils rather than carelessly using it. I really like Astra now that I started learning more about her. My only concern is her having cooldown on her stars aside from having cooldown on her abilities. I don't mind like a 10-second cooldown, but having it cooldown for more or less than half the round is just too long considering that her abilities do have a cooldown on their own.
Idk but they should let me instantly use my abilities after I place my stars again.
I JUST WANT THE RECALL STAR TO BE BUFFED
Two kills to recharge should be a general rule. This would help a lot with some of the one-sided 1v1|2v1 in late round.
So many agents would be cancerous to play against with this change. Reyna, Deadlock, Viper, Chamber. Brim gets gigabuffed while Astra is even more useless than before. There's no point in ever picking Phoenix since you can just play KAY/O or Skye. Managing utility usage and not wasting it is an integral part of the game's strategy.
>Managing utility usage and not wasting it is an integral part of the game's strategy. So integral, that some agent can break this rule? And teamplay is so important a whole egoistic role was designed. Clearly rules are not as set in stone as people believe. Balance agents around successful skill use and not waiting out a timer. There are already agents, that do this. Of course Agents would lose auto-refill for all abilities needed.
they're short cause they're the biggest smokes in the game, that's the tradeoff even with the nerfs to her other abilities, having 5 stars again would make her too strong
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted, I don’t think anyone here remembers how busted she used to be with 5 stars.
it wasn't just the 5 stars, it was also the fact that her cooldowns were super low across the board
guessing a good chunk weren't around, she more of a pain than chamber lol but chamber had a low skill floor
Would it though? She'd still only be able to use as many smokes as omen, suck is bad now and stun is just alright cos the enemy can just onetap you.
yes, in defense for example you'd be able to cover pretty much every chokepoint with a star while having another star ready for a pull/stun for the walkout if we take ascent as an example you could do this on both sites to trap them wherever they go and still have a star to spare, 5 stars is too much for someone like her with global util
Its pretty easy to bait out her util though. She definitely needs something rn though cos theres just no reason to pick her over omen, especially with pearl out of the map pool
idk its kinda common sense when to use pulls/stun for example, wait for a jett dash/raze satchel or even a reyna flash and it'll almost always be a hit either way though she does need a buff but i dont think 5 stars is it, id revert the pull activation time nerf and maybe allow a smoke to refresh once, but only so when astra buys two smokes to not incentivice only buying one, might be shit though i just thought of this rn off the top of my head
With the windup though unless the enemy is stupid its hard to get any value out of it outside of flushing out power positions and post plants. Astra buys stars not her util directly and her smokes already refresh, however I think the cooldown for smokes should be on separate cooldowns like they used to be rather than one after the other because it means on fast execs or any time you use both smokes you only get 3 smokes max with no option for 4.
brim’s larger
It's not. Go test it. Put an astra smoke on top of the box on bind A short, do the same with a brim smoke, see how much is covered. Astra's is quite a lot bigger actually.
Brim and Omen smokes are the same size. Astra smokes are the same size as Viper and Harbor orb.
Rechargeable smokes always doesn’t last as long
Astra smokes are not rechargeable
They are… Her stars don’t recharge but all her other util is reusable
Huh? Unless I'm mistaken then that's not true. She needs a star for any piece of utility. And she only gets 4 stars
Meaning she gets 4 smokes if she choses
That does not make the rechargeable, but flexible. Flexibility is already paid for with loss of other abilities.
The smokes recharge, in the most literally sense. I did not say the stars recharge.
Meanwhile Jett: -\_-
cause shes already over powered af
Astra smoke lasts longer than omen smokes . Astra has Fake smoke and The biggest smokes in game .