Aether Raids General Thread

[Johann]

39 minutes ago, DarkAlf said:

3 people made it to T20

It'll be interesting to see the matchmaking work here. I suppose it might force these three people to constantly fight each other, which might make it near impossible for them to advance to T21 without a considerable amount of extra Eirs pulled and merged.

Not looking forward to fighting teams of 6 this week, but after pulling off a perfect week this week, I'm optimistic. Will be interesting to see the Defense replays too.

[DLNarshen]

@mampfoid@DarkAlf Thanks!  Good luck to you guys promoting next season.  Hopefully it won't be too bad with Eir and light season back.

 

[Venmi]

@DarkAlf - Thanks...  I really haven't been playing my best in this mode.  I've been so busy lately that I've been rushing to get my runs in.  And since I'm rushing, I often make mistakes.  That, and I prefer to use units I want to use, not units like Lyn/Reinhardt on everything.  I'm still doing okay, but not as well as I probably could be.  Anyway, having Eir next week should make getting into the next tier a breeze, since I was this close without her.

[Othin]

1 hour ago, Johann said:

It'll be interesting to see the matchmaking work here. I suppose it might force these three people to constantly fight each other, which might make it near impossible for them to advance to T21 without a considerable amount of extra Eirs pulled and merged.

Not looking forward to fighting teams of 6 this week, but after pulling off a perfect week this week, I'm optimistic. Will be interesting to see the Defense replays too.

It does seem to keep track of who you fight (for rematches) and allow occasional matching with other tiers, so they'll probably fight a lot of tier 19s once they're done with each other.

[Azuris]

10 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Sorry you couldn't promote to tier 19, bet you'll promote easier than me. Seeing how close it was this week I'm pessimistic myself for next week. 

I was in tier 19, but couldn't promote to 20. With only 3 people making it, I didn't stand a chance from the start, so no need to be sorry.  I'm actually pretty happy I got half the week off instead of failing on the last day.

But you just got a tier without blessings so it is likely you get another one with blessings, while I have to rush my games during the holidays if I find time at all, so you could already have closed the gap when I'm trying to climb again.

 

8 hours ago, Alkaid said:

Oh! I didn't realize, so I figured it was an impostor while you were still further up somewhere. Jealous of that +10 Hector. And thanks, good luck to you too! I might do similar to you and just maintain top 3k if tier 20 doesn't seem possible for me yet(which it probably isn't). It's true that some days off from AR would be nice, especially over Christmas.

Oh well, Hector seemed to love me on the L Lucina banner, but I like him and he was on my list, so I am happy with what I got, instead of bemoaning what I didn't.

I wouldn't rule tier 20 out yet, if you still have only one Eir and 2 blessings you can't make it completely on your offense and would need a day without attack or some defeated units from your defense. It would likely stay close the whole week and will be a lot more difficult than for people who can score 160, but I still believe in you.

Also nice screenshot leading your friends, you would actually lead mine, too. That reminds me I would need to finally clean up my friend list, half the people aren't even playing the game any more. But finding active people, without an already full list sounds like so much work.

 

5 hours ago, Raven said:

Today I finish on 7540, after starting with 6500 in T17. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up momentum and make it into T19 before next week is over.

Congratulations on going up a tier. You just need the same score again and you even have blessings this time, so you have a good chance. Good luck.

 

3 hours ago, Stroud said:

Thanks, hopefully I can make good use of Eir and we get Light Blessing again on Friday.

Yes, would be really nice if they kept the light blessings for people that didn't get Eir, instead of rotating the ones in we don't have the hero for. So let's hope for the best.

 

10 hours ago, DLNarshen said:

I got hit with the full -80 four days in a row, requiring me to get both Aether pots in my free match to ensure enough stamina to play a second.  One match wouldn't have been enough.  It was close, but it looks like I'm good for tier 19 with 8,240 lift.  I think I'll be investing in the sixth defense slot once the rewards come in.  

Congratulations on making tier 19. Good luck for next season, and seeing your avatar I might have an idea what you need grails for.

 

2 hours ago, DarkAlf said:

Update: 3 people made it to T20.  Proof:

I was actually hoping more of these players would get out of the tier I'm in, but well, I guess it's time to see some of these defenses again.

[DarkAlf]

1 hour ago, Venmi said:

@DarkAlf - Thanks...  I really haven't been playing my best in this mode.  I've been so busy lately that I've been rushing to get my runs in.  And since I'm rushing, I often make mistakes.  That, and I prefer to use units I want to use, not units like Lyn/Reinhardt on everything.  I'm still doing okay, but not as well as I probably could be.  Anyway, having Eir next week should make getting into the next tier a breeze, since I was this close without her.

I find that it's best to look at the map first before you select the team.  Take at least a minute or two to examine the map and its enemies, then pick the team you think will best clear the map.  Rushing usually does no good.  It is more fun to play with your own units, though, so keep trying!  It can be constraining being forced to use certain heroes that you don't want to.

1 hour ago, Othin said:

It does seem to keep track of who you fight (for rematches) and allow occasional matching with other tiers, so they'll probably fight a lot of tier 19s once they're done with each other.

IIRC, I remember being at the upper scores of a tier and facing teams one tier higher than me, e.g. battling a T15 team with a high score in T14.  I could be wrong, though.  I also believe that they'll have to face T19 players, otherwise they'll cannibalize one another and nobody will reach T21 that week.

17 minutes ago, Azuris said:

I was actually hoping more of these players would get out of the tier I'm in, but well, I guess it's time to see some of these defenses again.

Hopefully there will be a little more variety with some T18 players making it to T19, and hopefully not as many defense matches with the additional teams.  How often did you face 6-hero defense teams?

[Alkaid]

2 hours ago, Azuris said:

Oh well, Hector seemed to love me on the L Lucina banner, but I like him and he was on my list, so I am happy with what I got, instead of bemoaning what I didn't.

I wouldn't rule tier 20 out yet, if you still have only one Eir and 2 blessings you can't make it completely on your offense and would need a day without attack or some defeated units from your defense. It would likely stay close the whole week and will be a lot more difficult than for people who can score 160, but I still believe in you.

Also nice screenshot leading your friends, you would actually lead mine, too. That reminds me I would need to finally clean up my friend list, half the people aren't even playing the game any more. But finding active people, without an already full list sounds like so much work.

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't get more Lucinas then. At least he's still a real nice unit to have around. (I'd of loved L Lucina merges off that banner too, but didn't have the orbs so I settled with my 1 copy)

Perhaps if I get really lucky with defenses.. Maybe the 6 unit defense team will help things a bit, though at the same time maybe I'll start getting smacked trying to fight teams like that too. I appreciate the confidence, though, you're too kind.

You just took the week off, so you'd be way ahead of me haha. And same here, I've cleared out a few people gone for 2-3 weeks lately. If you need some replacements later I'd be happy to add you.

[Johann]

4 hours ago, Azuris said:

I have to rush my games during the holidays

This is the top reason why I could see myself goofing up this week

[LoneStar]

I'm curious is Harsh Command still in effect if your unit is getting further? I had my Hrid Harsh Commanded after he got de-buffed from my opponent's Hrid. Then mine was able to take him on along Veronica, and another unit.

[Rinco]

Made it to T18. Now with Light Season I think it will be easy to go up to 19.

It's really funny how 2 Eirs + Surtr with Blessing trivializes this mode. Just throw him in range of something, let him tank, Eirs heal him, his buff/AOE triggers and he destroys stuff.
Pretty easy matches today.

[Alkaid]

I'm really surprised, I just got my first defense success in like.. 3 weeks? And it was the first one of the new season, so 80 lift saved by the grace of naga!

Somehow my mostly unmerged defense team beat a whale team of 2 Eirs(one +10), +10 Surtr, +10 Rein and +10 S.Micaiah. Seems like he mainly misread the dancer AI pretty badly, but I'll take it. I got to see how my +2 Rein killed his Rein since mine's -hp instead of -spd and Laevatein happened to buff him with Spd Wave, so he quadded. The super Surtr got toasted by Laevatein after Skylivia danced her for +3 across the board too. That was satisfying.

It's just one win and doesn't mean I'll get any more this week, but it's been so long since my last one that it felt worth posting about.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Alkaid

[mampfoid]

6 hours ago, DLNarshen said:

@mampfoid@DarkAlf Thanks!  Good luck to you guys promoting next season.  Hopefully it won't be too bad with Eir and light season back.

Thanks!

I wasn't optimal in my choice of blessing though. 

4 hours ago, Azuris said:

I was in tier 19, but couldn't promote to 20. [...]

But you just got a tier without blessings so it is likely you get another one with blessings, while I have to rush my games during the holidays if I find time at all, so you could already have closed the gap when I'm trying to climb again.

Ah, ok I was wondering how I could get into the same tier so fast. ^^

This week I'll have to collect 1,000 lift instead of 700, add 8x 80 for defense losses every 20 hours which makes 1,640 lift to collect while Aether cost will be higher. 

Problem is, while having two blessings distributed to dancers (Summer Micaiah, Minizura) my bonus unit can't get a blessing (Hrid) and my main killer (Cordelia) got already an Earth blessing. Also haven't found out how to profit from one/two Eirs on my team yet. 

 

 

[Hilda]

non surprisingly i lost all 3 offense attempts in the new Tier due to Surtr. Welp there is only so many counters you can pack in a Team of 4

[Nanima]

So, this morning in Aether Raids, I was gifted with these two beautiful maps:

Besides a third, rather cancerous one, these really made my morning that much more pleasant and easy going. Whoever set these up has my sincere thanks. :)

[Maaka]

Bit late on posting this, but ended at 9240 Lift, rank 8. 7 lift losses made a total of 360 lift lost on defense throughout the week. Perhaps I should have taken the week off like Azuris did. Looks like I will have over 1k lift to spare this week if I play perfect offense again, so defense is useless. Too bad I'm only saving 50 stones from not having a defensive armor school. 

@DarkAlf Sorry to hear you didn't make it to T19... the defense losses are brutal sometimes.

Congrats to everyone who promoted and good luck to all in this light season! Hopefully no one has to deal with +10 super buffed Surtrs running through their entire defense teams like last light season.

[DraceEmpressa]

Say, is there anyone who ever make it to tier 19, buy the 6th defense team slot and then got dropped again? And if you do,  say, is the 6th slot locked again when you drop to tier 18? 

[Johann]

55 minutes ago, DraceEmpressa said:

Say, is there anyone who ever make it to tier 19, buy the 6th defense team slot and then got dropped again? And if you do,  say, is the 6th slot locked again when you drop to tier 18? 

From my own experience, the 6th slot stays unlocked, it's just that the unit in that slot won't be deployed until you regain Tier 19. You don't have to buy the slot again, you don't even have to set the unit again.

Strangely, I haven't faced anyone with a team of 6 yet, which makes me wonder if there are a lot people who didn't hold onto their stones?

2 hours ago, Alkaid said:

It's just one win and doesn't mean I'll get any more this week, but it's been so long since my last one that it felt worth posting about.

Right on, you never know if that one defense win is what brings you into the next tier

[Stroud]

This week started good so far. 2 Won offensive rounds. one with 120 Lift and the other with 100 Lift (I used a more save team for this one).
I guess I will give Deirdre Light blessing in future. Her raven Build works just well, she even blocks old B!Lyn with lacking def and a bit support. 

Also got a win on defense. Now I try to stall a bit until Friday with my Aether, even if its just around 1 additional round I could do with 3 light blessings...

I like my def team, its not the best. But it does some confusing shenanigans and moves a bit before the opponent makes any attempts to bait or attack.

 

Edited December 24, 2018 by Stroud

[mampfoid]

Ok, took some risk by using two Eirs which got me three times 140 lift. My first defense match got me a kill (WoM Cherche still surprised people), only 60 lift were docked.

Sounds like a perfect start into tier 18 if I didn't use my two ladders already ...

Also I met this nice person:

Since one offensive win was a present, I'm not sure if I should continue taking so many risks. Taking out the free win, I lost 2 of 4 matches. 

One defense team was full armor (Tiki, Eirika, Myrrh, B!Hector, Fae), all +10, all with ward armor near a healing tower. Lost. 

[Stroud]

8 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

Ok, took some risk by using two Eirs which got me three times 140 lift. My first defense match got me a kill (WoM Cherche still surprised people), only 60 lift were docked.

Sounds like a perfect start into tier 18 if I didn't use my two ladders already ...

Even with using 2 ladders it sounds like a good start. I mean with 420 Lift you got 1 Ladder covered. I mean you can always play like this, taking risks as long as you have ladders and playing more save if you do not have them. As long as you reach T19 and maybe top 3k everything is alright. 

Sadly it will take a while until we get the second light blessed hero. xD I don't dare to use 2 Eirs. Maybe if I see a free attempt.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Stroud

[Azuni]

2 hours ago, DraceEmpressa said:

Say, is there anyone who ever make it to tier 19, buy the 6th defense team slot and then got dropped again? And if you do,  say, is the 6th slot locked again when you drop to tier 18? 

I was in T19 at the start of this season, and ate a -40 on defense, so I'm technically back in T18. However, it has not locked my 6th slot it seems, the 6th unit still gets fielded at least when I go to test my own defense. Perhaps it only gets locked if you unlock your defense team, or if you start a new season at below T19. I'll find out if it is the former later tonight.

EDIT: A friend just told me he got a new defense replay after already getting hit for the day (so he got knocked below T19) and his 6th unit merely didn't show up for the enemy. So I guess that clears that up.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Azuni

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, Stroud said:

Even with using 2 ladders it sounds like a good start. I mean with 420 Lift you got 1 Ladder covered. I mean you can always play like this, taking risks as long as you have ladders and playing more save if you do not have them. As long as you reach T19 and maybe top 3k everything is alright. 

Tier 19 is my goal for this week. Top 3k would be cool, never made it into to top 10k (no throne yet). 

Problem is, even with my "save" team I wouldn't have beaten those über-armors. Should've used my anti armor team. I may have to calculate 1-2 offensive losses per week since I'm out of ladders. 

I'll save my last blessing for the tier 20/21 promotion to bless a bonus unit. 

 

[Othin]

Yeah when you're buying the sixth defense slot there's a notification saying if you drop to Tier 18 or lower, the sixth unit won't be deployed until you get back up. (Technically it says if you drop to Tier 19, but that seems to be a typo.)

[DehNutCase]

4 hours ago, Johann said:

From my own experience, the 6th slot stays unlocked, it's just that the unit in that slot won't be deployed until you regain Tier 19. You don't have to buy the slot again, you don't even have to set the unit again.

Strangely, I haven't faced anyone with a team of 6 yet, which makes me wonder if there are a lot people who didn't hold onto their stones?

I had 300 exactly, so I spent it on the offensive armor school instead.

(From a pure performance standpoint, until I have more Eir the defense armor school is better than +1 slot, but I'm going to buy the +1 slot over defensive school anyway since, unless I fuck up hilariously this season---in which case, oh well, I get 2 relaxing weeks before I have to focus again---I should make T20 no matter what.)

[Azuris]

12 hours ago, DarkAlf said:

Hopefully there will be a little more variety with some T18 players making it to T19, and hopefully not as many defense matches with the additional teams.  How often did you face 6-hero defense teams?

As I already told others, I did only 7 matches this week, so my sample size was not that big. It was easily more than half of them, and as I only played at the beginning of the week, it may have become even more, especially as the current bonus structures are cheaper than the early ones.

I went for the upgrade to the ladder instead, as there are some really annoying defense setups and with now more people coming up I hope for more that may have focused more on offense instead, so I rather have an extra reset button for matches against someone who put a lot of time into making his defense. But I bought the bonus structures for this week and tomorrow I will have enough stones again to go for the 6th unit if I desire, so unless someone went really crazy with upgrading structures, I expect nearly everyone to have the 6th unit.

 

10 hours ago, Alkaid said:

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't get more Lucinas then. At least he's still a real nice unit to have around. (I'd of loved L Lucina merges off that banner too, but didn't have the orbs so I settled with my 1 copy)

Thanks, I don't like summoning to begin with, so I would prefer some results closer to the average. But my luck seems to only jump between really good and absolute abysmal.

I would say let us save for next Lucina together, but if we get a dark mythic next I might need some and if Grima finally has a good legendary banner in February, I might need that as well.

 

10 hours ago, Alkaid said:

And same here, I've cleared out a few people gone for 2-3 weeks lately. If you need some replacements later I'd be happy to add you.

That's a kind offer. I'll take you up on that. Thanks.

 

7 hours ago, Alkaid said:

I'm really surprised, I just got my first defense success in like.. 3 weeks? And it was the first one of the new season, so 80 lift saved by the grace of naga!

That's great. Congratulations. It may have already put the season back into your own hands, unless you get really unlucky with attacks immediately after 20 hours.

 

6 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Problem is, while having two blessings distributed to dancers (Summer Micaiah, Minizura) my bonus unit can't get a blessing (Hrid) and my main killer (Cordelia) got already an Earth blessing. Also haven't found out how to profit from one/two Eirs on my team yet. 

If you don't have full blessings and Eirs, it is closer but at least with 1000 to go it's still entirely up to you. And at least for me it is always better to be able to do it on my own. If I fail, it's because of my mistakes. If defense gets something done for once (or not attacked) that's a nice bonus, but having to rely on it ist just ugh.

Good luck.

 

5 hours ago, Maaka said:

Bit late on posting this, but ended at 9240 Lift, rank 8.

Congratulations on top 10 again. So sad, that it still wasn't enough, you would have deserved it.