Azuris

I wouldn't mind being not almost there, yet. But good to see you won't leave anything undone. Really good job on the abyssal using their choke point completely against them, to get huge hits with Pain and Morgan's tome. Pretty obvious which side had the better strategy there. You also keep getting me with Miracle. I should know better by now but still got scared when I saw that hit Priscilla was about to take. Also neat theme for the second one. I couldn't believe at first you would try this map with four tome users, no dance, no heal, you want to bait that map with a tome? But wow did Morgan deliver again, and when the dust settled it was pretty much over.

Really nice. Manipulating the Legions to move a certain way so you can hit your aoe special and then get rid of them all at once to deny reinforcements. Good strategy and nice clear, well done.

Everything is fine, then. I wasn't serious with that part, but after rereading it, I was worried it could come across like I was complaining.

Yes, I know. It wasn't meant a criticism. I am sorry.

Today is the best day in Aether Raids I had in some time. I don't have to play a single match. Yes! My defense fell apart spectacularly as always and I did get attacked over ten times already, so tier 20 is out of reach, but I made enough lift to not be able to fall out of tier 19 any more. Just have to remember to get the first game bonus sometimes. Too bad the next light season falls on the holidays so I'm not sure I'll find time to play. That is so true. I keep reading some people wanting to play more, but I would be so glad if I didn't have to play every single day. Even worse if you are really tired or unwell and still have to force yourself to play and then may destroy your whole season by lack of concentration, which at the moment could mean waiting two weeks for the next try. Aw, I'm so sorry to hear that, you would have deserved it. Can't help you with being a ninja though, as apparently I'm free lift and everyone heard the tale. At least I could cherry-pick rematches. That's rough. But good job getting your defense to do things, I am way past that point. In light season my offense can score enough for tier 20 and then I'll have to see, maybe I have to wait for defensive blessings or a real good bonus unit, Eir as a bonus is nice but may be gone again when it comes to this. But as long as it's not impossible, you can still do it. I believe in you.

@Zeo The opening on the first one was interesting, with Morgan running into the blue mage and Amelia attacking the red mage, but it made sense with the following turns. The star for me was Ninian. Without her dancing a lot of moves wouldn't be possible, but she may be somewhat overshadowed by the other units then clearing a lot of enemies. But on top of her support she took out the boss on her own after taking the fully charged special. This are the four units that weren't in the other crossover if I remember correctly. So it is nice to see they managed to come out of the shadow of their more prominent team members this time and got the map cleared. Good clears yet again. Well done.

Looks like you got a lot of motivation left for the end. So all abyssal this time. Let's see. That was some really aggressive opening with Matthew, but it worked out and got rid of the mages pretty fast. And if you can't take out Xander fast just let him sit there until everyone else is gone, nice idea. Interesting, that this was the first Morgan abyssal. It looked like the battle was decided pretty fast. Especially having Morgan 1 turn half of the map was amazing. What? Matthew ditched his team for Rein & Co. Aw, and I thought they worked so well together. Congratulations on the abyssal clears. Well done.

So the "crap" seal is Atk/Spd. That is pretty good. I want to upgrade all three of them, but then I wouldn't have coins left for the next TT. Decisions, decisions. Ah, ok. The one bonus unit I use still gets maxed and I prefer modes without stamina to HM farm, but if you like it that way, that's good, too. If you have that time there, I can see you using it that way, but I still wouldn't make it through this. That's good. Keep that up. That's really impressive and it's good to see you got a character you love.

The blessing we get this week is really nice, especially for people that had no luck with Eir, but also good for backup to bless a bonus unit once in a while. Hope they will continue to have them every week. Ah, ok. I figured, it is most likely not your biggest interest.

Finally the Drive Res Seal, there have been a few times where I would have needed that. So it is good to finally get and instantly upgrade it. Fierce Stance is also useful. Would have also loved another HP/x seal, but maybe next time. For Bonus units it might be a bit of Winter Robin into Cecilia for me. Isn't that really overkill? Something around 240k should have been enough. You what? You got my respect for that, doesn't that take forever?

Thanks a lot to both of you. If you both did it, it can't be a bad idea, so I go with offense as well. Yes, that was it. Normally I like when they wall in some of their units, but these debuffs were really annoying while dealing with the Surtr gang on top of the stat disadvantage.

Well, you are a top 10 player now. Congratulations on T19 and even with only one Eir, you were so close to me on the rankings I can give you a hug, despite you having worse scoring opportunities. And good luck with summoning, I hope you can get at least one Eir. Did someone here commit to a 1000 dew fortress yet? I fought someone with a defense fortress 3+1 and 3 Surtr, with bonus stats on his side it took me to the last turn to get the aether buildings and his last unit down, despite axebreaker Aversa and axebreaker bladetome Summer Tana, which did already cost me score to bring. I think I might just go with the offense fortress, because my offense has brought me to this point and T20 is reachable with lift from offense during light season. I am even thinking about upgrading the ladder instead of getting a 6th defender, because I just don't have the units that could really cause problems for attackers and the people in tier 19 didn't get there because they lose againt bad defense teams.

I hope your free ticket tomorrow might get you an Eir even if the chances are small. And I totally get you. It's bad enough, that they pretty much force you to summon for Eir (or later mythic heroes) if you want to be competitive, it's even impossible to reach the highest tier without, but even worse if the banner then just treats you this way. I am only a tier ahead of you because of the one season were you kept getting attacked, while I just barely made a tier. And now there is a second time where you get really thrown back by bad luck. You have my respect for keeping at it despite these setbacks. Let's just hope, we will get some blessings another way soon, so you can at least get some blessings up. Really surprised you are actually behind me in this mode. You have some really impressive one turn and Galeforce strats, and I saw people using Galeforce to great effect in AR as well. But I guess you may not be interested too much in this. Then I wish you the best of luck and maybe we can go up to t20 together when light season returns. And I guess you could always go back to tier 18 if you don't like it, but I think you will manage. I guess I will have to finally set up Pain+, Savage Blow as some ward armor stall got me pretty close to the turn limit with 5 units. Thanks, that is kind of you, but while Maaka will most likely charge ahead, you and I will probably meet in tier 19 next week. And congratulations on your catch-up, you should have a nice starting spot for getting top 3k this time. And another congratulations on the two Eirs. While I might be a little bit jealous, that you got them so fast, I am more happy you didn't have to go through the same sadness.

@mcsilas You controlled the map really well to deal with those abyssal stats. The fights happened on your terms and you could keep yourself from being overwhelmed. Gravity is really nice and you utilized it beautifully. Also Lucina's assist skill is great and you made good use of it, I should bring her out more. Nice clear, well done.

Don't worry, I went back and found it. You really keep humiliating Soren. First you show that Ike without Soren is better than Ike with Soren, then he gets taken out by a unit that doesn't even have skills equipped and at last you made a strategists clear and he isn't allowed in it. Also he keeps boasting at the start of every map only to lose to every team you bring. Really nice, enjoyable theme clears. Well done.

@Maaka Thanks and good luck with tier 20 next week, you deserve it. Congratulations on tier 18 and good luck with tier 19 next week. Seems like you love fliers as well. The team you showed earlier is close to one of the teams I used this week, only with F Grima instead of Camilla. But seems you are in a better spot as you can bless Camilla while I have to replace Grima. Oh, I am so sorry for you. That's bad. I had to spend 400 orbs for 2 Eir, which was annoying, at least I could bless Aversa, Bride Ninian and Loki. But I need one more for Myrrh if I commit to her and some for bonus units for the final push to tier 21, whenever that will be. So I hope we can get some for TT or a mythic hero battle with Eir. I hope you will get your Eir so you are in a better spot.

No fliers. Check. Binding Blade. Check. I was so close to completely skip this banner but then they had to put Ephraim and Eirika on it. Couldn't they just put Tellius or SoV on it, fans of these games would have deserved something anyway. Oh well, this banner will be around for some time. The legendary banner comes an goes, the New Year banner comes and even the January new units banner, while this will still be around, so I will wait and see. At least there are just 3 units on it, so it won't be as annoying to get something.

Phew, another season done, 8406 mean tier 19 is safe. But wow, are the matches getting annoying, I wish I could fight Reinhardt and Veronica again. Next week I will just try to keep tier 19 and wait, my defense won't save enough points that tier 20 is even possible and top 3k should be safe. Then I may go for tier 20 with the next light season, but it may be better for me to wait until a few thousand players catch up so I am not fighting players far above my own skill all the time. @Maaka I am really impressed. Top 10 and I think I even saw you at rank 2 at one point, I bow deep before one of the best players in the world.

Yes! Go Hector! Hector defeating half the enemies by himself. That's how it's supposed to be. Also really nice using Galeforce on Azura to have her fight and then sing as well. I really liked that one, and not only because it had Hector and Azura. Good job.

@Zeo Wow, you have been doing a lot these days. You are right, it looks like your Morgan team was way too strong for this map, but you earned that by building it. Abyssal and the really high stats again, so Matthew can't just kill most enemies in one battle, but he still refuses to die and takes on abyssal enemies like it is nothing so they have to die sooner or later. Nice job. And the last one doesn't count because that's not OG Hector. Just kidding, it's good to see the FE7 trio together. They don't work that well together so that is a rare occurrence. Funny how Lyn looked like she won't do anything only to suddenly go on and defeat everyone left and finish the map. Good work.

@Zeo Morgan keeps surpising me with how much he can survive, taking on everyone again and when your second turn came there were only two guys left and it was pretty much over. The highlight of the second one clearly was Celica getting ferried all the way down to get the kill. And I really like the theme of the last one. Good job getting these blade tomes to work with these annoying start locations. But why no Bride Tharja?

@Zeo Oh yes, this battle was really annoying when I first did it with the second ghb rotation and my teams weren't that good, yet. But Morgan was really good at dealing with him and Ninian was also really important, even without going in a fight. Also poor Morgan never gets healed and barely survives that one hit, just so other can use him for wings. Good job and hey, we get a special clear to look forward to.

@Zeo Morgan did really good here. Taking on both Seliph and Julia was impressive. When another of your units saw battle, half the enemies were already gone. And good job with the other one. Getting one of these teams that are just thrown together, and underused units on top of that, to beat this map is no easy feat.

Really late for this one. I have been busy, so I mostly watched the ones tagging me and some on the first page, but I'm sure everyone else did great as well. @Nanima Good to see the Takumis back. Soren's strategy was nothing compare to yours, he even brought an armor, cavalry and a healer, that should counter archers, but you are just way better than him. Good job getting all of them down while keeping your Takumis healthy (three of them were even untouched). I hope you had fun with it again. @LordFrigid Nicely done. I guess BHB aren't that much of a challenge for you. Using Lucina to get Peri over the trench and then warping in later to defeat someone was really clever. You even had a move left when the map was already done. @Alexmender Ah, you got your Spd Tactic for the whole set. Eirika was amazing, she dispatched most units easily and a fine use of sing and movement skills to make the battle go your way. At the end the blue armor seemed scary but Eirika prevailed even there. Good job. @mampfoid Nice to see Hector again. The enemies thought they were safe having trenches to stop cavalry and being far away. But Hector just threw a unit across the map to get things started. Afterwards it was just cleanup for your experienced team. Well done as always. @Zeo Haha, when the battle is so easy for you, that you don't even remember how you beat it. Genny did get thing started nicely, but Matthew soon took over doing Matthew things again, looks like you are way too good with this team now. Wow, Priscilla was amazing here, doing most things by herself with the others only helping with the cleanup and of course Miracle saves the day again. It really shows how well thought out your team is, as different units are the most important ones for different maps but it is still the same team as together they always prevail and have an answer. And for the wind theme I thought you were lucky, that the enemies had only one red unit. But after seeing what Lewyn did, I think you wouldn't have had that many problems, at least apart from Lewyn hogging the spotlight.

Ah, thank you again. And here I thought I read all the news. Then I see how this week will go, tier 19 can still be achieved next week, even if it is not 100% in my own hand with offense, especially when the elite players like you are already gone. But there is no way I get tier 20 without help of blessings or fountain upgrades. Yes, I'm fine with that as well. Too bad the defensive ones will take some time with the next mythic hero in January. I hope it is the shadow one and not the other offensive kind. Really strange they have the seasons rotate already when the last blessing type seems to take until May. Yes more Eir are better but unless you want to go really crazy with merges and get 3 to +10, 2 unmerged ones and 3 blessed units or 3 unmerged ones and 2 blessed units won't make a difference in scoring. So I will keep a second one unmerged and then start merging the first and try to keep getting away with running both but taking only one if I get in trouble with the map. As for which units to bless, Aversa and Loki might be good choices as units that are really good in Aether Raids and won't be missed that much in other modes unless you got them to +10. Find a team you are really confident you can beat most maps with and bless them, or if you get Surtr you might get away with just throwing him and 3 Eir at everything. I thought I read the next mythic hero will get released on the banner at the end of January and then mythic heroes and legendary heroes will take turns, but as I already missed something else, I wouldn't be surprised if I got that wrong.