Introduction
Welcome to my guide for Astral Ring Mechanics for patch 7.5!
I know this is a bit late but I wanted to put it off until we got more units instead of doing it in patch 7.3 when we only had 3.
General Mechanics
Astral Ring is the new combat system added in Version 7.3 bringing a new way to play, for a quick summary...
- Astral Ring mechanics will only be present on characters released post version 7.3 ( Part 2 Characters )
- Astral Ring Mechanics will only be activated if the Party leader has Astral Ring.
- Astral Ring gives you access to "Stellar Outburst" a form similar to "Burst Mode" where you gain greatly enhanced effects!
- Astral Ring comes in many forms referred to as "Specialization", all with different varying effects .
Astral OP
Astral OP is the new system that "replaced" ELF, what this means is they will no longer be running the ELF Supply Gacha anymore. Don't feel bad, you can still obtain ELF from various spending events every 2-3 patches!
You can still use ELF's with Part 2 characters, and they will still be the only option for teams where Astral Ring isn't activated.
When the team leader has Astral Ring then the Astral Ring System will be activated for the entire team.
This lets you use an Astral OP or ELF to be added as an Astral OP to provide Astral Ring effects.
ELF's now have an "Astral Ring" page added letting them be viable and sometimes competitive options in Part 2 teams.
If the leader does not have Astral Ring then the "ELF System" will be activated.
Only ELF can be added to the team for their Skill effects.
Astral OP's only have the one skill page and it is not possible to put them into teams without the Astral Ring system activated.
They do not have the "Skill" tab so they won't be able to provide any "Skill Effects"
If multiple people with Astral Ring system are in a party then the leader is who decides what Specialization is activated.
Stellar Outburst
Before we talk about Stellar Outburst It's only fitting we cover "Astral Ring Intensity" first.
Astral Ring Intensity can be seen as the "energy" or the "SP" needed to activate "Stellar Outburst"
Astral Ring Intensity can be regenerated in multiple ways such as...
Attacking Enemies
You will gain Astral Ring Intensity from simply attacking enemies.
Using Ultimate Evasion and evading enemies will restore 1 Astral Ring Intensity.
Note:
Thelema will restore more energy due to her weapon passive.
This makes it so that when you aren't in Stellar Outburst but have the Astral Ring activated, you will restore 2 additional Astral Ring Intensity if you use Ultimate Evasion, this can let you pull off some fun tricks such as the video below.
Songque SS Rank passive will restore Astral Ring Intensity after Stellar Outburst ends.
The Astral Ring Intensity restored depends on how many team members has the "Domain Resonance" trait.
You will restore 10 Astral Ring Intensity per team member with a maximum of 30.
Astral Ring Intensity Packs are new additions to the game, they practically function like SP packs but well, with Intensity.
So far only Raven has this, but it restores 10 Astral Ring Intensity if you pick it up.
Certain character passives or Stellar Drain effects can provide an Astral Ring Intensity bonus.
One of the reasons that Part 2 characters really want to be paired up with other Part 2 characters is due to them having significantly higher Astral Ring Intensity regeneration through their abilities, letting you use Stellar Outburst faster and frequently.
Stellar Outburst
Now that we covered the Astral Ring Intensity it's time to talk about "Stellar Outburst"
I like to think of Stellar Outburst as an "Enhanced Ultimate" but others like to consider it an alternate "Burst Mode"
The "ELF" skill some of you may have gotten used to is replaced with the "Stellar Outburst" button.
If you look closely you can see there's an energy requirement, that's the Astral Ring Intensity we just covered.
This is what it looks like when you have the max Astral Ring Intensity and can use Stellar Outburst.
After triggering Stellar Outburst characters will do a cool magical girl transformation animation during which timers are paused.
Stellar Outburst provides you with various buffs that can cause you to deal more damage, some character abilities are altered.
The duration of Stellar Outburst will vary depending on the character just like the Astral Ring Intensity cost does.
The amount of Astral Ring Intensity needed to use Stellar Outburst varies from character to character.
Senadina - 150 Astral Ring Intensity
Helia - 150 Astral Ring Intensity
Coralie - 150 Astral Ring Intensity
Thelema - 140 Astral Ring Intensity
Lantern - 140 Astral Ring Intensity
After activating Stellar Outburst the button will be changed and you cannot restore your Astral Ring Intensity while Stellar Outburst is activated.
The blue ring around the Stellar Outburst button signifies how much time you have left on the Stellar Outburst Duration.
Note:
Despite having some similarities is not considered Burst Mode.
Activating this will provide no benefits to Stellar Outburst, don't worry about activating Fire DMG Gene if that's what you need.
Astral Ring: World Star Mechanics
The World Star Specialization of Astral Ring focuses on "Domain Resonance" during Stellar Outburst a character drops an "Energy Mass" then you use "Resonance Attacks" on other characters to trigger it dealing insane amounts of damage.
This specialization also seems to have an emphasis on "Weapon Active" damage being a main focus point for them.
Character Roster
Senadina is the "poster girl" of part 2. Not only is she an amazing Lightning/ Stardust DPS but she doubles as a crucial support for Wheel of Destiny DPS such as Thelema and Lantern. In this team you don't want to switch to her but use her "Phantom"
The buff she provides to her teammates will be removed on her entry, as in if she comes on field buff is gone for the whole stage!
While she's a DPS she can drop her Domain Resonance to be triggered by other characters, the damage done is her damage.
She is the only DPS from this specialization and she set a high bar with the insane numbers she can put out.
Helia is the other member from the World star specialization and is best summarized as a Support / Sub DPS for Senadina.
Helia has many support effects tailored to fit Senadina and can additionally drop her own Domain Resonance ( Energy Mass ) to be triggered by the third teammate, this results in her dealing around 20% of the teams total damage output!
She can also trigger the Domain Resonance of Senadina once with her Domain Resonance Attack.
Energy Masses
Senadina Energy Mass
After activating the "World Star" specialization and triggering Stellar Outburst, World Star characters can use certain attacks to leave "Energy Masses" with a "Domain Resonance Mark" on the field, it can then be triggered by other teammates by using their "Resonance Attack"
Helia Energy Mass
You can have both Energy masses on the field at once, and a single character can trigger both simultaneously.
This is generally done by a character who can use "Quantum Mech Energy" to trigger their "Resonance Attack" many times.
Quantum Mech Energy
Coralie Quantum Mech Energy
When Stellar Outburst is activated and the leader is from the Astral Ring: World Star Specialization, characters that can support Astral Ring: World Star will get their usual energy replaced with Quantum Mech Energy instead providing various effects.
This allows them to use their "Quantum Mech energy" to trigger their "Resonance Attack" and trigger the "Energy Mass"
Coralie Resonance Attack with Quantum Mech Energy
If a character has Quantum Mech Energy it will be prioritized over their normal attacks such as Moment of Indulgence.
Domain Resonance Mark - Senadina and Helia
Resonance Attack - Literally all of them.
Astral Ring: Rite of Oblivion Mechanics
The Rite of Oblivion Specialization of Astral Ring focuses on becoming a "Wildcard"
You don't want to set them as the team leader, but you can probably find a slot for them in any team as a support.
They don't have any special effects of their own but they have synergy with every Astral Ring branch.
Because of "Omniscient Star" they can activate any type of Astral Ring leaders skill effect by being placed in the team.
For example, Thelema has the Leader passive listed below.
It is possible to activate and gain the effects from the "3 members with Harmonized Shadow Star" because of Coralie.
It's best to think of her as the "Wildcard" character where she will be the "Jack of all trades but master of none"
Characters here will most likely be good in every team as an alternative, but not the best in any given team.
Character Roster
Coralie is currently the only known character from the Astral Ring: Rite of Oblivion branch.
She is a universal support that can also trigger the Domain Resonance of World Star characters if needed.
Astral Ring: Wheel of Destiny Mechanics
The Wheel of Destiny / Wheel of Fortune Specialization of Astral Ring has an emphasis on becoming a "hyper carry"
They want to be a Selfish DPS hogging all the field time to the point that they lose passive buffs if they switch to Senadina.
Finally, they have the "Phantom" mechanic allowing them to replace the "QTE / Switch" buttons with Phantoms
Character Roster
Thelema is the first character released from the Astral Ring: Wheel of Destiny branch that debut in Patch 7.4.
She is a Melee Ice DPS that has strong synergy with Senadina being her best in slot support and needing her to DPS.
I don't have the same picture for Lantern, sad
Lantern is the new character released in Patch 7.5 also from the Astral Ring Wheel of Destiny branch.
She is a ranged Fire DPS that has strong synergy with Senadina as her core teammate with the other teammate being flexible.
Phantoms
After activating the "Wheel of Destiny" specialization and triggering Stellar Outburst, the team leader can morph herself or teammates into "Phantoms" This makes it so that characters on standby cannot be switched to anymore, instead triggering Phantoms to aid you in combat, similar to Elysian Realm mechanics where you don't actually switch into your supports anymore.
The characters will be transformed into Phantoms of the party leader, in this case that's Thelema.
If you press the button then a Phantom of the team leader will come on field attacking and triggering special effects.
Other characters will not be transformed into a phantom, instead staying as their character but getting a "glow" around them.
If you press the switch button instead of actually switching to the character they will come attack and trigger special effects.
Senadina Phantom
Lantern Phantom
One of these effects is known as the "Rondo in the Shadows" buff which will be covered in the next section.
Rondo in the Shadows
After using a Phantom the on field character will gain the "Rondo in the Shadows" buff for a certain amount of time depending on the character that was used to activate the buff.
Senadina - 11 seconds
Lantern - 11 Seconds
Thelema - 11 seconds
Helia - 5 Seconds
Coralie - 5 Seconds
During "Rondo in the Shadows" the Phantoms will come on field to assist you in battle and trigger certain effects depending on the phantom in question, most of these effects have to do with increased energy.
As you can see, Valkyrie attacks are triggering "Phantoms" of Thelema to come on field and assist in combat.
These phantoms trigger passive effects, using Thelema as an example Phantoms are able to accomplish the following.
- Restore Extra Baanquet Enjoyment ( energy )
- Deal bonus damage
- Boost Thelema's Attack multipliers
Will they powercreep Part 1?
I know there are rumors going around that this is just an "excuse" to powercreep Part 1 units but I don't find this to be true at all.
It's true that some Part 2 characters have powercrept older Part 1 characters but Part 1 characters have done the same thing.
Natural powercreep was inevitable and has the same end result regardless of if Part 2 existed or not.
If they didn't create Astral OP's they would have just released stronger ELF's in the future, look at the older ELFs as an example.
Tesla Zero -> Blade Durandal -> Project Bunny
Book of Fuxi -> Sirin -> Kiana ELF
Bella -> Klein -> Kiana ELF
Selune's Elegy -> Water's Edge -> ELF Elysia
The same is true for the characters with them having a much longer history of being replaced after 2-3 years.
Did Thelema just replace Herrscher of Reason? Yes
Did Herrscher of Reason replace Goushinnso Memento in the past? Yes
Because of this, I wouldn't blame Part 2 for characters being replaced when it would have happened regardless.
I stand by the opinion that Mihoyo doesn't plan to make Part 1 characters obsolete, quite the contrary.
They even added this weather in Part 7.5 to make sure that Part 1 characters still have a place that they can shine!
This Weather gives you 15% more Total DMG if you don't have Stellar Outburst on, and an additional 30% If you don't have Astral Ring System activated at all. Because of this 45% Total DMG boost to Part 1 characters they are the best choice for it.
Lunar Vow Is the problem
I also need to call Lunar Vow into question, when she released she managed to powercreep many of the characters who came before her yet she was praised for being so strong despite being arguably worse of a powercreep than Part 2 units.
I know it's true that she has fallen off compared to Senadina / Thelema and is no longer considered the "Best DPS,"
We should still take a minute to look at all the damage she was able to cause to the other Part 1 Valkyries on her release.
Abyss:
- She stole every single bit of coverage from Herrscher of Thunder, this is fine because she's a PSY DPS Valkyrie though.
- She stole practically every boss that Aponia had, Type Husk / Hitcount Husk / Lightning Husk / Paralyze Aponia.
- She stole Bloodlust Homu from Herrscher Trio, this would have been done by Brick regardless but still.
- She stole Cruising Tribunal from Herrscher of Rebirth who had just came out recently.
She became the "Best" for Memorial Arena on like half the bosses.
- She stole SSS Heimdall from HoH Elysia.
- She stole Tank / BKE from HoT
- She stole RGBenares from Herrscher Trio
- She stole Andrius from Herrscher Trio
- She stole Wardens from HoH Elysia
- She's good on practically every SS boss
She was able to do all this while still being a Lightning Support.
Now I have to ask, why doesn't Senadina and the other Part 2 characters deserve the same treatment?
Why was Part 2 a problem when Lunar Vow was not, her release had a bigger impact and damaged more Part 1 characters.
Luna managed to raise the "bar for comparison" meaning all future characters would now be compared to her and future characters would now need to either be on her level or even stronger than her following the natural progression of things.
Even if Part 2 did not exist this would have happened with the next Part 1 characters made to be stronger than Luna.
Luna was already too strong and is honestly what caused the downfall of other older Part 1 characters, not Part 2.
Closing
Thanks to everyone that follows or leaves a like I really appreciate it!
If you have any questions feel free to message me here or on discord "Kithicide"
