Let $G$ be a connected graph having more than two vertices and let $d_i$ denote the degree of vertex $v_i$ in $G$. Let $E(G)$ represent the edge set of $G$. Then, the augmented Sombor (ASO) index of $G$ is defined as $ASO(G) = \sum_{v_i v_j \in E(G)} \sqrt{(d_i + d_j - 2)^{-1}(d_i^2 + d_j^2)}.$ It is known that the cycle graph $C_n$ uniquely minimizes the ASO index in the class of all $n$-order unicyclic graphs. In this paper, we prove that the unique $n$-order unicyclic graph of maximum degree $n-1$ maximizes the ASO index in the aforementioned unicyclic graph class. We also prove that $ASO(G-v_iv_j)<ASO(G)$ whenever neither of the graphs $G-v_iv_j$ and $G$ contains any isolated edge. Utilizing this edge-deletion property, we characterize the unique graph maximizing the ASO index among all fixed-order connected graphs with a specified vertex connectivity (or edge connectivity).