She has different play style from other classes, but she can be quite strong when it all clicks.

As you said, claws can be detrimental to use, but that is something you learn to play around and plan accordingly. Either you leave small amount of cards when ready to transform, or use cards to reset your stress level.

There are a few ways to play with Charge cards:
- Take 0-cost cards to use as a fuel
- Take snacks as they are actually being played when used for a Charge spell
- Use speed buff cards that reduce amount of charge needed (there is even inner skill that gives you 1 stack each turn after 4th).
There is one very useful inner skill related to this mechanic which gives 1 strength for every card you completed charging for, and claws benefit greatly from it.

A lot of her spells are quite strong, both single target and aoe ones. I usually pick up mostly defensive ones with a few offensive sprinkled in.
There is that one jade card with a giant wave for 50-60 damage which is quite strong when you have some means of drawing extra cards (and your default skill can do that as well).
Fire spell with 3-charge can singlehandedly win the 1st floor by itself, and is even stronger when you have fire buff to use for it. Book spell which gives you choice 1 of 3 cards is a must as it gives you huge flexibility.

I do not recommend picking dragon form skills as they are extra cards you cannot play half the time.
If you want to focus on dragon form, it's better to either pick inner skill which increases claw damage every 25 claws played (and it works retroactively!), or the one which gives you strength when using charge spells, both can ramp up claw damage quite high.
Even 4 completed charged spells can give you 70 damage from claws when using full hand draw card spell to go into dragon form (alternatively, wind spell 2/3 card draw or tornado channel one).

As for ancestor cards, I usually skip them as they hard to work with in my opinion.

Overall, I'd recommend trying several different builds to see their strengths and downsides and then you can mix and match them as needed in the specific situations.
She can be really good and was my 2nd character after Azi to go for 20 Aura, I think I like her even more than Azi (which was my previous favorite character).

I found she was one of the easiest to get going. She's "combo" and RNG heavy I suppose and that probably makes her worse at higher levels in deck building games, but her individual effects aren't hard locked into archetypes. The different effects will always do something to help without a dedicated build around them, even if they'd be much stronger with synergy. Like even just being able to apply FrostShiver with one card can save you sometimes.

Dragon Form is obviously harder to work with since it's not reliable without certain elixirs (relics), but there is stuff that gives armour in Dragon Form that negates the counter attacking foes as well as healing cards that offset. For example going for Ancestor cards alongside Dragon Form cards can be quite effective since they're generally easy to play and offer relatively high armour + healing in exchange for rng taking the reigns a little.

For Charge Spells there's Snack cards that activate effects when used for Charge/Channel, zero cost cards and a Windswept build that just casts them all for free. You can also dump cards that you weren't going to be able to play that turn anyway, whereas other characters would have just discarded them for no benefit and/or had to use a lower cost card with a weaker effect. Essentially she's got failsafes against bricking to a degree.

She's quite strong and often able to burst down the troublesome enemies with the right cards. Full disclosure though, I am no expert at deck building games. This is just the layman's perspective to go with the other guy who knows what he's talking about more. Also Ao Yu is the cutest and the summoning lady is way harder anyway, so you'll still play her.

I agree with all of that - on paper; in theory. But in practice, this character is so inconsistent and unreliable. I'll just stop playing her for now, because losing 9 consecutive runs or so really demoralizes me, you know?

I do not have these problems with any other character - I at least won a single match with everyone else. So it's not like I don't understand the game mechanics or anything.

It's a damn shame, because she's really cute and conceptually interesting.

Well everybody has their preferences, I can't stand ShaEr myself. For these types of games there's also an element of randomness to the game for the majority of players who don't care to figure out the win rate statistics of individual cards and do the 99% success win streaks at max difficulty, so at average level play where the player just takes things as they come the more RNG reliant characters are going to be a lot harder to win with than someone like MoSan who just vomits damage + healing.

But yeah, I would agree that Ao Yu has a rough start as well. Although once you unlock some stuff it covers her weaknesses a bit more, I do find that Azi, Chuan and Mosan are a lot easier to set up.

Besides, someone does have to be the worst character in the game. It might as well be the autistic dragon girl that you want to succeed the most, that way you're motivated to play them.

yes you could, but she really depend on some card and really rngbased,

DRAGON CARD
if you want dragon form you really need to get
- claw sharpen
without it her dragon form is very weak, this is not optional,without this the run is over

other dragon card you want some is
- tough shell
since armor is important especially against counterattack boss like the boar

although rare
- fierce shout
is the best you could get for dragon form

as for tail whip and charge forward is ok but not really important most of the time

SPELL
spell is only meant to draw from deck and get her transform going, the key card is
- breeze blade
- concuss
- rising tide

other optional card to fill your deck is
- waterball
- snap freeze
- artic crystal
- frost convergence
- fire punch

INNER SKILL
- Hit the roof
-1 stress will makes you transform faster

the other inner skill is optional, if you got claw training early its really good, but as long as you have multiple claw sharpen card the run should be ok

Ao yu is the second strongest character. She's super consistent because she has high damage right out of the game and infinites/near infinites are easier to build on her than anyone else

Originally posted by Freshdaxx:

So it's not like I don't understand the game mechanics or anything.

lol

Originally posted by stun:

Originally posted by Freshdaxx:

So it's not like I don't understand the game mechanics or anything.

lol

Care to elaborate?

Been climbing the Auras with both Ao Yu and Sha Er recently and Ao Yu is super consistent. Even when I mess up with her by, say, choosing an Inner Skill that proves to be subpar for that game because I was afraid of getting one I'm not used to (and would've been way better in that situation), things turn out to be fine.

She has mad damage, good sustain and healing and, to top it off, can deal easily with those annoying curse cards that enemies add to your deck. She has it all really. Went back to my Ah Zi, whom I had left in Aura 14 back during EA and, oh boy, how I missed Ao Yu. Sure, the higher Aura makes a difference but Ah Zi, despite being really good when she gets going and/or lucky, has an extremely rough start in comparison.