Astraeus - my horrible review

So I was really bored the other day and bought 2 of them even though I didn’t like their concept to start with. I picked them up mostly because how incredibly cheap they are at the moment as well as well as just wanting something different. These are horribly bad though and I should have seen that in the pricing. The only thing they seem to be good at is opportunistically kill stealing already half dead already burning enemies from across the map while doing damage to yourself. I tried to raid with them and found them way to slow even using a Hadron cab and Ka-2 flywheel. Please fix them lol…

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That’s your problem. The Astraeus uses HP as ammo, that means you have to use it on heavier builds for them to shine. Look up AAM9Astrae5 on the exhibition, it’s my primary Astraeus build and it’s down to it being high enough in HP to eat damage while still using the charged shots. Ideally it’s a sniping build but it can fight in closer ranges when necessary.

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I don’t want to be a HP brick though… I’ll look it up. I named mine “pretty worrthles” it’s just under 10k ps and around 1.5k hp well under weight and parts if you want to see what I did with it. I’m not disagreeing that it’s good for sniping but it would be better if the reload was speed up just a little. It’s too slow for waves of bots.

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With Astraeus you really don’t have a choice not to pack on the HP.

Yeah, those kinds of builds really do not work well. There is a way in which you completely negate the self-damage with pass through parts but that kills the part your weapons are on quickly enough that I tried the idea and gave up on it early on. That’s why I leaned into the “have enough HP to just eat the cabin HP for the charged shots” route.

As a whole, the Astraeus isn’t good for raids. With higher HP it can do well enough to not be a complete loss but it’s a PvP focused weapon. If the reload speed was increased for a lower reload time, the damage you could put out with them would be too strong for PvE or PvP.

I messed with a few other concepts before landing on that one, mounting it directly to frames actually works pretty well too surprisingly. I tried the pass though parts too but didn’t really like it. The HP eating really just kills the concept though.

2 of them scores less then 1000 on the timed damage meter without the charged shots (with the reloading perks I have on the build). 1.7k with charged shots. Which means they do even less normally… Without the charged shots they do about as much damage as 2 upgraded explosion damage judges on a harpy cabin in the same time period. For an epic weapon that’s pretty sad. I don’t think a little (not a lot) reload time would put them into OP territory.

They probably are good for low PS pvp though. I try to play fair ps’s though so I haven’t given that a shot yet with it.

If you’ve already seen my build, I use half and half. Half just eating the self damage and half using pass through parts.

The HP eating is fine as far as I’m concerned because without that they’d just be scorpions without the perk. As is they currently outdamage scorpions when armor penetration isn’t considered. At the prices they’re sold at, I’m surprised that they aren’t more popular.

That’s why they’re a sniping weapon. They’re very strong for killing weapons, targeting specific parts like a generator (It’s never not fun nailing a generator from almost across the map.), and everything else a sniping weapon does so their limited damage isn’t nearly bad in that consideration.

I run double Astraeus on a lighter, non-hp-brick build, and I seem to do ok with them, but only ok. I’d say that they are all around super medium, not exceptionally horrible, but not exceptionally good either. I’m not raking up any MVP’s with these that’s for sure and I’d call it a purely support weapon rather than a full on attacking weapon. And mine are fused for reload speed and damage, and even then it feels like this is how the base weapon should be, rather than needing to fuse to get even this mediocre performance out of them.

But I do much worse on slow hp brick builds than this rinky dinky fast little thingy, sure I can only do about 6-7 charged shots before my guns fall off but you just have to accept that you need to stick more to the sucky non-charged shots and stay back and support rather than directly attack.

Many people say that it’s an epic scorpion, but I don’t agree. It’d be kind of like saying a Phoenix is an epic Toadfish because they are both bow guns, but both work and behave differently and should not be played the exact same way.

A triple set of AC50 storms or even a triple set of AC43 Rapiers out damages them at close range not using their perks. The Astraeus are underpowered for its PS rating. What’s nice about them is their durability and accuracy that’s about it.

This I would really agree with…

Not if you’re charging them. While this is using Falcon and the Astraeus are fused for damage, this is their potential damage output at any range.

That’s aggressive overkill for storms or rapiers through, for tsunamis or mammoths it’s not however. That’s 2 charged shots and a non-charged shot for 1 mammoth. It’s not underpowered unless you’re not fully charging them.

They’re ideally used as a sniping weapon, snipers in XO are support builds.

I’ve been using them with Jay for the larger dmg bonus have you tried it with him or do you just prefer falcon for the explosive highlights?

Both AC’s come in round about 500 dmg points under when comparing them to the charged shots. I’m not saying they need a lot of work either just a little less time on the reload. As they sit right now it really doesn’t feel like an epic weapon to me.

I was referring to the MVP portion more so then the support role but yes sniper is a support role.

I use Falcon because it’s far easier to get the active going. 2 seconds of aim time is far less difficult to keep than Jay’s charges.

And have other downsides like the slower projectile speed, damage dependent range and lower HP that makes them easier to lose. The astraeus is worthy of being an epic weapon but it is also an unorthodox weapon.

The only thing I really don’t like on Jay is shots under 80m resets the bonus the same as misses. I don’t normally have to much of an issue keeping the charge up unless it’s close quarters fighting. I have Falcon but haven’t managed to do a good damage test on his perk via the wording it’s either only to the explosive modules or the entire vehicle. I just really don’t trust their translations sometimes.

It almost doesn’t matter on most of the maps as they tend have cover before the distance gets that far. 300m doesn’t have much drop on an AC (it’s just slight).

I didn’t use the perk when I did the test if I sat across the range it would have been even higher.

This I mentioned earlier in reverse. I would agree here… I don’t tend to lose my AC’s though unless I’m really getting clobbered though.

I’m not saying it needs much I’m talking about inking out 1 to 2 more shots in that 10 second span.

I did read through everything and I was hoping I was going to find some kind of tip that makes these things worth playing.

Sadly I did not.

This gun is outclassed.

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That’s why I use Falcon on that build, the active is too easy to lose.

300 meters is within short range, 80 meters is “long range”. I’m also referring to projectile speed, not drop.

But you will in practical usage.

I’m not saying it needs much I’m talking about inking out 1 to 2 more shots in that 10 second span.
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That would be too much. With the potential damage of the astraeus, it’d be far too strong.

Use Jay there is no upside lol…

Another point of interest is that I have the most success with these not when I’m sniping (excluding a few maps that are ideal for long range shootenings) but when I am running around on my light and fast, oppressor equipped build and shooting people at medium to close range in a more hit and run kind of gameplay rather than purely long range sniping.

But I don’t know if that’s because of the gun itself or the general mobility of all combats in the modern day of crossout where if you stop moving and don’t drive around like you’re having a seizure across the keyboard, you die.

And I have not tested these on hovers because I don’t want to give up on trying to actually get good and just use the instant git-gud kit 4000

Aggressive play styles trump everything.

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That’s like the only thing that wins matches, can’t sit in the ranks forever…

I remember when aggressive playstyle was not about a Hulk build ramming right against you and pushing you into a wall while firing, or a light machine gun build ramming right against you and pushing you into a wall while firing, or a shotgun build doing the same, or a scorpion build, and if sideways mandrakes were a thing I bet that they too would ram right against you and keep firing while trying to push you into a wall

I do agree with you.

But I think that everyone has figured out that their “car” is the best weapon in this game.

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