Samurai LB and frontlines

[Sunhwapark]

Also you can not 1 shot BH5 macrocosmos spaming premade astro with that combo reliably.

Except you can ? Given the extremely higher of being hit by stray shots of damage/dots when engaging a fight, they aren't sitting at 100% health gracefully unless your alliance and the third alliance is afk accepting death. The only thing granting someone such immortality would be being pocketed by a PLD covering the AST specifically to pad Macrocosmos casts, similar to the PLD synergy with DNC players to cover them during their LB + Spin.

Otherwise machinist would be a new meta.

2x Machinists is something that already can be used against those players, so it wouldn't be new.

. SURPRISE! Astros cant shield. *deadge* What should i do then?

Ah, but they can.

The regular Aspected benefic grants a heal+regen effect, but when used as a Double Cast action, it instead gives you a heal+barrier.

And yeah, if you hit the Chiten barrier, you're at the samurai's mercy as to whether they have LB or not - this of course doesn't apply so heavily if the samurai in question is being dogpiled with damage in addition to unpurifiable CC from WHM,MNK,RPR etc.

The samurai's goal is to catch you out unaware, you get some options on how to approach them under the assumption that LB+Chiten is available:
1. Respect it and do nothing that could trigger the debuff.
2. Disrespect it and ignore it. (By use of Barriers)
3. Intentionally bait an LB use. (Only available to some classes)

While AST can't do the last option, it can still provide support while ignoring the samurai, the barrier can be used not only on themselves but can be given to others to potentially save them from a OHKO. I'd recommend tossing yourself 1 Double Cast shield if you were a bit wary about getting surprise clipped by a Chiten enjoyer, or more typically if you have already died once to that strategy in the current match.

While it's okay to want to be a full support, PvP has already shifted away from that style after Shb where healers were far more impactful in terms of support and enabling their team mates, and really drag out fights. Healers can only save their allies so much in terms of health, but of course Astro is really good at it due to the damage compiling functionality of Macrocosmos.