[emoji] TABLE OF CONTENTS [emoji]
Overview
Analysis and usage
How to obtain
Differences compared to its non-PRI version
Recommended battlesuits
Spina Astera weapon comparison
Should you pull
[emoji] OVERVIEW [emoji]
Astral Divide: Pisces is the new PRI scythe introduced with the 5.5 version. It’s the signature weapon for Rita’s new battlesuit Spina Astera. SpA is the first scythe user that deals fire damage and her weapon is the first scythe in the game that deals fire damage. So, let’s dive in to see what this unique weapon is capable of!
[emoji] ANALYSIS AND USAGE [emoji]
The active skill is cast instantly without the need for the user to spend any time doing an animation. It can be used during most attacks, including SpA’s charged attacks.
Besides dealing damage, the active skill inflicts the Flared debuff on enemies for 10 seconds. It makes them take 20% bonus fire DMG. Additionally, SpA’s charged attacks deal 15% ATK of bonus fire damage on Flared enemies. Thanks to the weapon’s passive skill, charged, basic and combo attacks will deal 25% bonus total damage on Flared enemies. The same passive skill also recharges 20 Astrum (purple meter) per second for SpA, which is important for her. The Flared state is shown with a purple mark over the enemy, shown in the picture below.
The scythe’s second passive skill increases the damage of charged attacks by a further 20% and gives SpA the ability to inflict Flared state with any of her attacks for 10 seconds after using charged attack or ultimate. This means that she can keep her enemies Flared 100% of the time.
So when should you use the active skill? Because its cooldown is 16 seconds, you can use it once per rotation. SpA can inflict Flared state without the active. If you use 1 of her charged attacks before the weapon skill, this will debuff the target and when you use the active it will deal more damage. I like to use it while casting SpA’s second charged attack.
[emoji] HOW TO OBTAIN [emoji]
To craft the PRI weapon Astral Divide: Pisces, first you have to pull its non-PRI version Astral Rend: White Dwarf, which is gacha only. During 5.5 it will be available both in Special Supply and FOCA select. FOCA select is a type of Focused supply, but you do NOT want to pull this weapon from there. You want to pull it from the special supply! This is what it looks like:
This is a limited-time offer that will allow you to complete SpA’s gear with a huge discount. You are guaranteed to get a new piece of her gear every 30 pulls. And not only that, but for every 10 pulls, you will get 5 focused supply cards back. This is going to help you hit your milestones for the 5.5 spending event. It’s worth noting that during 5.5 captains will get a free option box that allows you to pick a piece of SpA’s signature stigmata of your choice.
You can’t pull her weapon from it. You have to pull it from the supply. But having this box means that if you pull the weapon and 2 of her stigmata pieces from the supply, you will have SpA’s full gear.
DIFFERENCES COMPARED TO ITS NON-PRI VERSION
Astral Divide: Pisces’ non-PRI version is called Astral Rend: White Dwarf.
Its weapon skill costs 6 SP and deals only 1000% ATK of fire dmg instead of 1400%. The passive skill only recharges 10 Astrum per second instead of 20. The second passive is gone: no 20% extra total damage for charged attacks, no 25% fire damage. And SpA is only able to inflict Flared state via her weapon active. The other differences are in stats. All in all it seems that the PRI version gets several important bonuses that the non-PRI doesn’t have. No surprise there.
[emoji] RECOMMENDED BATTLESUITS [emoji]
Spina Astera is the only fire user that wields a scythe in the game as of 5.5 and Astral Divide: Pisces (and its not-PRI version) is the only fire scythe. Like most valkyries, SpA really needs her signature weapon and can’t even get close to her full potential without it.
Fallen Rosemary is primarily a lightning support, but she can buff all elemental damage for her team. If you’re a new player and don’t have Azure Empyrea but you have FR, you can use her as a fire support. FR’s signature scythe does not offer any fire buffs, but if you put Astral Divide: Pisces on her, she will be able to inflict 20% fire vulnerability on enemies for 10 seconds, which is quite nice.
Phantom Iron is a support valkyrie whose team buffs increase all elemental damage. If you decide to use her as a fire support, Astral Divide: Pisces is going to be the best weapon you can put on her.
SPINA ASTERA WEAPON COMPARISON
For this weapon comparison I am going to use the following team:
Support gear: AE and MA used their signature gear with no offensive affixes.
SpA gear: she used her signature stigmata “Ragna” with no offensive affixes.
AE is rank SSS because that’s what all accounts get on the beta testing server.
SpA’s rank here is S0. Her attack is 1139.
MA had the same amount of stacks on each attempt: 20 (full stacks).
I have not taken SP regeneration into account.
Enemy: Training dummy (2200 Physical DEF and 40% elemental resistance).
The rotation I used:
MA ultimate > AE ultimate + weapon skill > SpA QTE > 1st charged ATK > 2nd charged ATK + weapon skill > 5 basic ATK sequences > 3rd charged ATK (finisher) > ultimate > charged ATK (finisher)
For every weapon I tested, I repeated the rotation several times and took the average values.
Note: When I tested Sanguine Gaze: Union, I didn’t use its weapon skill because it has an animation and consumes time. Skadi of Thrymheim has 2 charges with no animation so I used them both.
I already pointed out that Astral Divide: Pisces and its non-PRI version are the only fire scythes in the game. So it comes as no surprise that Pisces is by far the best weapon for Spina Astera. For the record, when I was testing the top weapon, my team scored an average of 9 051 445 damage. White Dwarf comes second at 80,7%. Of the older scythes, Sanguine Gaze: Union scored highest at 78,3%. It has higher attack, compared to other PRI scythes, and also a total dmg bonus. The other 3 PRI scythes showed almost identical performance. The most f2p-friendly option – Onyx Iron – scored 69,1%. And keep in mind that the Onyx Iron I used was level 50, not 35.
One thing I want to point out is that the DPS test here doesn’t take into account SpA’s Astrum recovery. Astral Divide: Pisces and Astral Rend: White Dwarf both passively restore Astrum for her, so in real fights they will have an even bigger advantage over the other scythes.
[emoji] SHOULD YOU PULL [emoji]
If you want to use Spina Astera, you have to pull at least her weapon. If you don’t plan on using her, don’t pull any of her gear. If you are not sure whether you want to invest in her, take a moment to consider the following things. Admittedly, SpA’s boss coverage is small: top score on abyss Argent Knight and good scores against a few other bosses like SSS Andrius in MA, Abyss HoD and Abyss type counter Andrius. But... she’s a free valk and her special supply in 5.5 will refund half the supply cards you spend for it and it guarantees a new piece every 30 pulls. Considering that you will get a free stigma option box as well, this means that you will be able to fully gear SpA by spending less than 10k crystals (on average, but you might need more if you get very unlucky). And you will make good progress towards the spending event milestones while doing it. If you are not too low on crystals or if you are a Rita fan, I recommend that you pull. If you’re new or low on crystals and want to get something more important, you can skip this banner.
