Asta [Black]

General info

Look up in the sky! It's a bird...it's a plane..no, it's Black Asta, coming down like a Black Meteorite and storming through the global meta like a Hurricane!

Black Asta is a very peculiar defender who doubles up as a DPS when he activates his 'Anti-Magic' state. All his skills will change when under [Anti Magic], so we'll try to summarize the difference as clearly as we can.

Skill 1: Single target attack on the enemy.

• When under the effect of [Anti-Magic], Black Asta will grant himself [+8 Special Points] to use for Combined attacks and Special Skills

• When [Anti-Magic] is not present, he will inflict 2 turns of [Block HP Recovery] on the enemy.

Skill 2: Attacks the enemy team

• When under the effect of [Anti-Magic], Black Asta will attack after [Dispelling Barrier] from the enemy

• When [Anti-Magic] is not present, he will grants allies an [Increased DEF buff] for 2 turns.

Additionally, if you have Black Asta's skill card, he will grant his allies two turns of [Total Defense], turning all incoming attacks in blocked hits, massively reducing the damage received.

Special skill: Single target attack on the enemy

• When under the effect of [Anti-Magic], Black Asta will attack after [Dispelling Barrier] from the enemy

• When [Anti-Magic] is not present, Black Asta will [Taunt] the enemy team for two turns.

Lastly, his combined attack will inflict [Stun] on the enemy team for 1 turn.

We spoke of [Anti-Magic] a lot, but none of Black Asta skill will actually provide it, since it comes from his LR passive: he will receive [Anti-Magic] only when his HP is equal or lower than 40%, losing this state when his HP goes above this treshold. When in [Anti-Magic] state, Black Asta gains [15% Increased Damage Dealt] for every 1.500 points of DEF, as well as [Status Aliment Immunity].

Asta will be a very annoying tank to deal with while his [Anti-Magic] is not active, capable of inflicting devastating damage in the right conditions when his HP reach the designated threshold.

So, on the paper, Black Asta IS a very strong unit that can adapt to the stage of the battle, but there's a big elephant in the room.

Black Asta is not some guy who can't use magic. He's some guy who can't use magic and needs powerful warriors as teammates in order to be actually good. Considering he has no way to activate [Anti-Magic] himself, he needs some way of reducing his HP. And he also lacks immortality compared to other units that are very competitive in the PvP meta. If only there was a unit that could provide this currently available in global....

And this brings us to the biggest issue with Black Asta, currently: He's probably the biggest victim of the current accelerated timeframe. As our standard banner release schedule is a bit over the place thanks to Chapter 7 releasing early, he's currently missing a CRITICAL support character that will be released in the near future, Queen of Witches.

Global also doesn't have gear trascendence yet, meaning a character like Black Asta who is extremely stat hungry suffers a lot from the current global environment. Lastly, he's a character that needs a lot of investment - he wants specific teammates, he needs good gear and he also needs to be maxed, ideally. As of now, there's no way to pity a festival character skill page in global and while you can use Universal Skill dupe materials, you need to pull a copy in order to do so.

Without Queen of Witches, Black Asta is unfortunately just a good tank that will feel pretty underwhelming. And the later Witch Queen releases, the worse it will be for Black Asta as he will lose his spot in the sunlight. Of course, this doesn't mean Black Asta is bad - if you can assemble his team, he is going to be a juggernaut. But mono power is an expensive team, so you should consider carefully if you want - and can - afford going for it.

With the recent announcement of Mereoleona, free-to-play players might want to consider saving up for her, considering she'll be pouncing on the global timeline sooner than we'd like to.

Dupes

Black Asta is a unit that really needs dupes, for both the stats and the effects. At Enchantment 2 he will inflict [Taunt] on every enemy after triggering [Anti-Magic]. This means that, without Witch Queen, you have to be very careful as you might get your Black Asta killed and quick.

At Enchantment 5 he will give [Status Aliment Immunity] to his allies, giving his team a MASSIVE help in ensuring they can help Black Asta unleash his power without getting stunned in the process. However, if on a budget, E2 can work, especially if you are short on universal dupe shards and get him and his skill card early.

Skill page

Black Asta skill page will add two turns of [Total Defense] to his Skill 2. This alone is already worth the slot, but it gets better. If [Anti-Matter] is present on the target, it provides a 10/25% Damage Increase buff for every 1.500 DEF on the character. That's right, it's the same conversion he gets from [Anti-Magic], basically doubling up on the gains.

As this is the only offensive steroid in Black Asta's kit, he benefits SIGNIFICANTLY from every dupe you can obtain. It's also why Black Asta is very stat hungry.

PvP

Black Asta can be used as a normal tank in PvP outside of his dedicated teams, providing status immunity (if E5), defense buffs and a good comeback potential if the enemy triggers his [Anti-Magic].

But if you are investing heavily in Black Asta you probably want to run him on his dedicated teams. To get the most out of Black Asta, you want to pair him in a Mono Power team with the Queen of Witches.

When running a mono-power team, she will give [Defender] allies the [Crimson Blood] buff, allowing them to activate [Immortality] for one turn when falling below 30% HP. Her Special Attack will also inflict Bleed for 3 turns on the enemy, but most importantly will set the HP of the ally with the highest DEF to 30%, enabling the DPS portion of Black Asta. It also gives the rest of the team 50% lifesteal to get back to safety, because why not?

Given you are running a Power Team, the next teammate that comes to mind is obviously Asta's rival, Golden Dawn Yuno. A full power team will trigger his [Increased Mobility] buff and he will be quick to silence anyone calling Black Asta mid. Finally, the last slot is flexible, you can run for example S2 Noelle if you want AoE damage and barriers, Halloween Charmy if you want to add more pressure(or S3 Fuegoleon, but he might be best used in other teams) or most likely Finral, as our debaucherous support coupled with Yuno will give you total control over the flow of battle.