Aether Raids General Thread

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I don't know if using as little Aether as possible helps that much, as I've often had starts to the season where I don't spend until late in the day and get hammered by four people in a row. There definitely seems to be some truth to probability of being attacked being lower the higher the total amount of times you've been attacked. I usually get significant gaps after getting hammered like that, to the tune of 30-40 hours going by after the first match before I get attacked again.

Falling 25 points short of T27 this season because I had to rush Thurs and decided to accept a couple double matches with deaths since I didn't have time to dick around laddering single deaths all night. Making it doubly not worth fretting over was that I could easily have just lost enough to push me out in defenses (stupid game not giving me a second Thrasir or a Duma despite an excessive amount of orbs spent chasing them). Still top 1000, though.

[Vicious Sal]

2 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

I don't know if using as little Aether as possible helps that much, as I've often had starts to the season where I don't spend until late in the day and get hammered by four people in a row. There definitely seems to be some truth to probability of being attacked being lower the higher the total amount of times you've been attacked. I usually get significant gaps after getting hammered like that, to the tune of 30-40 hours going by after the first match before I get attacked again.

Falling 25 points short of T27 this season because I had to rush Thurs and decided to accept a couple double matches with deaths since I didn't have time to dick around laddering single deaths all night. Making it doubly not worth fretting over was that I could easily have just lost enough to push me out in defenses (stupid game not giving me a second Thrasir or a Duma despite an excessive amount of orbs spent chasing them). Still top 1000, though.

It’s also about matchmaking itself, doing the least amount of matches means you are in a lower tier than you could be if you used max lift all the time. If you are in the lower tiers, you get matched with lower tier players. This means less chance of getting whales and others that play for front page and use all aether immediately. You tend to have easier defenses and easier matches on offense.

[TEKWRX]

I'm feeling really dejected. I won a match yesterday and that moved me to T14, so almost at T15 so I can complete the Heroes Path quests finally. I had enough aether to do two matches today, and I got absolutely stomped twice in a row. I was able to only kill one unit each map, and they were both towards the end after it was clear I was gonna lose. First team was all armors w/ a healer. My buffed Tharja did 0 damage when initiating, and 0 damage countering. Only H!Hector was able to take down a green armor before he was surrounded by blues and had no chance. The second map was all mages (only 4 of them!). I wasted turns trying to to have Tharja step on a bolt trap and get into vantage range and of course I picked the fake one, but at least she was no next to a bolt tower. Well turn 3 rolls around and it didn't hit her. I guess I really need to figure out the proper range 😕 I couldn't get my Galeforce into range, even with smite. It was just a disaster. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, at all. I'm sure my team comp is bad. What could I have done against either of these teams, if anything? Or who should I have on my team instead of what I have? I love my cc/vantage Tharja, but am annoyed I have to waste a slot on Corrin to keep her effective because I don't think he can hold his own unfortunately.

Also, on defense I've been attacked 5 times this week, and lost every one. Only was able to kill two foes across all the matches. I'm just getting really frustrated, sorry to vent 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2019 by TEKWRX
removed pics due to file size

[Landmaster]

34 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

I'm feeling really dejected. I won a match yesterday and that moved me to T14, so almost at T15 so I can complete the Heroes Path quests finally. I had enough aether to do two matches today, and I got absolutely stomped twice in a row. I was able to only kill one unit each map, and they were both towards the end after it was clear I was gonna lose. First team was all armors w/ a healer. My buffed Tharja did 0 damage when initiating, and 0 damage countering. Only H!Hector was able to take down a green armor before he was surrounded by blues and had no chance. The second map was all mages (only 4 of them!). I wasted turns trying to to have Tharja step on a bolt trap and get into vantage range and of course I picked the fake one, but at least she was no next to a bolt tower. Well turn 3 rolls around and it didn't hit her. I guess I really need to figure out the proper range 😕 I couldn't get my Galeforce into range, even with smite. It was just a disaster. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, at all. I'm sure my team comp is bad. What could I have done against either of these teams, if anything? Or who should I have on my team instead of what I have? I love my cc/vantage Tharja, but am annoyed I have to waste a slot on Corrin to keep her effective because I don't think he can hold his own unfortunately.

Also, on defense I've been attacked 5 times this week, and lost every one. Only was able to kill two foes across all the matches. I'm just getting really frustrated, sorry to vent 

A Pain+ Healer is what most people use for Armor Stall, other than just units with Armor slaying weapons like Micaiah. 2nd team would be one for a Supertank~ Just grab the pots first and they would all kill themselves into your tank. I see your Tharja is running Threaten Atk. That's not going to be very useful for her. I would give her Savage Blow instead. You can also run the Savage Blow Seal or just run a Brazen Seal~

[TEKWRX]

1 minute ago, Landmaster said:

A Pain+ Healer is what most people use for Armor Stall, other than just units with Armor slaying weapons like Micaiah. 2nd team would be one for a Supertank~ Just grab the pots first and they would all kill themselves into your tank. I see your Tharja is running Threaten Atk. That's not going to be very useful for her. I would give her Savage Blow instead. You can also run the Savage Blow Seal or just run a Brazen Seal~

Thanks. I'll have to see what I have for armor slaying. I know I don't have a Micaiah 😕 There's no way to update your team comp once you see the enemy units, right? So I guess my issue is assembling a team that can check common threats. Now I kinda regret using my only CC fodder on Tharja because of the need for a buffer. Would have probably been better on a different unit. I can just use L!Azura, but then she can't help anybody else. I guess that's better than wasting a slot on Corrin. 

I actually am going to put Savage Blow on Tharja as I do have a few spare 4* Bantu. It's just a matter of spending the 20k feathers. Are there any other C skill I could use temporally that is available on a 4* unit?

[Landmaster]

2 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

Thanks. I'll have to see what I have for armor slaying. I know I don't have a Micaiah 😕 There's no way to update your team comp once you see the enemy units, right? So I guess my issue is assembling a team that can check common threats. Now I kinda regret using my only CC fodder on Tharja because of the need for a buffer. Would have probably been better on a different unit. I can just use L!Azura, but then she can't help anybody else. I guess that's better than wasting a slot on Corrin. 

I actually am going to put Savage Blow on Tharja as I do have a few spare 4* Bantu. It's just a matter of spending the 20k feathers. Are there any other C skill I could use temporally that is available on a 4* unit?

Yes, you can view the opponent team, and then scroll through all your teams and choose the one you want to use~ You can't change their Skills, no, but you don't have to use the team you are on when you select "View Map".

I would just wait until you summon a 4* Camilla and use her for Savage Blow fodder than waste 20K on a Bantu~

[Rinco]

So, right now I'm using +10 Lilina, +0 Lewyn and +0 Ophelia for mages on my Anima def team. I'm thinking about switching Lewin and Lilina for +10 Tharja and +10 Nino. Nino has Even+Odd Atk Wave combo and Tharja could go with a Vantage B Slot and I could set them both up with Ophelia on a Rally Trap pattern with Flying Olivia and 2 Dumas. I think that would work better than Lilina and Lewyn

[TEKWRX]

6 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

Yes, you can view the opponent team, and then scroll through all your teams and choose the one you want to use~ You can't change their Skills, no, but you don't have to use the team you are on when you select "View Map".

I would just wait until you summon a 4* Camilla and use her for Savage Blow fodder than waste 20K on a Bantu~

Oh, cool. I didn't realize you could do that. I think I only have the one team setup. I'll have to come up with a few different ones. Is best to have a core of three units that are the same, then mix up the other two slots to cover different things?

I guess I could wait for a Camilla, but I don't know when I'll be summoning again after spending too much money the last two weeks. I think I can get addicted to the gatcha and it could be dangerous 😕

[Landmaster]

10 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

Oh, cool. I didn't realize you could do that. I think I only have the one team setup. I'll have to come up with a few different ones. Is best to have a core of three units that are the same, then mix up the other two slots to cover different things?

I guess I could wait for a Camilla, but I don't know when I'll be summoning again after spending too much money the last two weeks. I think I can get addicted to the gatcha and it could be dangerous 😕

There's no need to rush~ Whenever you get a Camilla is fine, or just use the Seal for now~

It's definitely best to have as many varied teams as possible

Here are my teams for Light Season~

Spoiler

Team 1: Nowi Tanking with Leo if the team has lots of Blue or Colorless threats

Team 2: Nowi Tanking with HS!Elise if there's Green Armors

Team 3: Nowi Tanking with a Bonus unit for Scoring if I don't need the other two

Team 4: DC Vantage Keaton for Flier Balls or if the opponent does not have Hardy Bearing

Team 5: CC Vantage S!Elise and a Bonus unit if that's something I am potentially able to pull off.

And Astra Season

Spoiler

Team 1: Omega Tanking with M!Kana

Team 2: Galeforce with L!Eirika and Raven

Team 3: Anti Armors with S!Lyn and Pain+ Elise

Team 4: Dual Omega tanking with Nah and M!Kana if the opponent forgets Blue is a color or has a lot of Greens for whatever reason

Team 5: Galeforce with L!Eirika and Yarne, same as Team 3, just Yarne in case I need the Movement or Horse killing option~

I would recommend watching @LordFrigid's Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/FrostLordFrigid/videos

He has a very helpful series for how he tackles his matches with a lot of different team comps. They may be a bit above your level at the moment, but seeing the different teams that you can use for different maps can help you come up with your own team comp~

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

32 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

Oh, cool. I didn't realize you could do that. I think I only have the one team setup. I'll have to come up with a few different ones. Is best to have a core of three units that are the same, then mix up the other two slots to cover different things?

I guess I could wait for a Camilla, but I don't know when I'll be summoning again after spending too much money the last two weeks. I think I can get addicted to the gatcha and it could be dangerous 😕

Depending on how well you want to score, you're going to end up with a bit of a core for each team slot. My offense teams all end up looking like this: Mythic, Mythic, bonus, carry, flex. The bonus obviously has to shift every two weeks, which may cause things to need to shift a little for the Mythic/Mythic/carry core. The carry will be different for every team, but generally not get swapped out beyond that. The flex the one slot that ends to change the most drastically, in order to accommodate the bonus unit while still allow the rest of the team to work. This is why my Mythics also tend to end up as my invested buffers (in addition to the problematic fact that they can't pick up each others' bonus, so it's better for other units to handle the fight).

1 hour ago, Vicious Sal said:

It’s also about matchmaking itself, doing the least amount of matches means you are in a lower tier than you could be if you used max lift all the time. If you are in the lower tiers, you get matched with lower tier players. This means less chance of getting whales and others that play for front page and use all aether immediately. You tend to have easier defenses and easier matches on offense.

I was just addressing the discussion about defenses, but that's a fair point about being in a lower tier meaning a higher likelihood of easier defenses.

[XRay]

I ranked 3,100 something. I guess I will try next next week for Gold Throne, although A Monstrous Harvest Hector would no longer be a bonus unit, so maybe I should wait until Naga is bonus if she is not bonus next next week.

1 hour ago, TEKWRX said:

Or who should I have on my team instead of what I have?

You have too much going on in your team. Teams are generally divided into 2 distinct overarching play styles: Player Phase and Enemy Phase. You generally do not want to mix Player Phase units and Enemy Phase units together as they require different types of support. You can mix and match different Player Phase tactics together on a team (or mix different Enemy Phase tactics on a team), but it is generally a bad idea to mix Player Phase and Enemy Phase tactics together since you simply do not have enough slots to support both play styles.

— — — — — — —

For creating a Player Phase team, I recommend kicking out AMH!Hector and M!Corrin since they do not gel with the other three. AMH!Hector is used when you want to make Counter-Vantage the center piece of your team. M!Corrin is not very useful with Counter-Vantage since he needs to be in close proximity to his Support partner to work, so he does not work with Player Phase units well.

Since you already have a Galeforcer and Counter-Vantage, I recommend building a Firesweep nuke next. Firesweep Bow is rare and expensive, so the next best option would be using your Arrival of the Brave Veronica or Brave Echoes Camilla. They are not as easy to use as Firesweep archers due to their lack of Reposition, but they will do for now.

The last unit would be your second Dancer/Singer. I lean towards Adift Azura since she is green.

While this team composition does not feature any Mythics so it scores pretty low, it is very easy to use. Once you get better, you can then decide which unit to be replace with Mythics.

If you find Mareeta difficult to use, then I recommend switching over to either using Cordelia or Peri as your Galeforcer. Cordelia can fly over obstacles. Peri can move farther with 3 spaces, but she is hindered by trenches.

Tharja needs the following adjustments in red as soon as you can afford to change it:
Tharja's Hex [Atk]
Reposition
Glimmer
Close Counter
Vantage
Res Smoke — Savage Blow
Brazen Atk/Spd
Tharja does not need her special Refine; the only stat that matters for a Counter-Vantage unit is Atk; everything outside of the A and B slot should be devoted to cranking up that Atk as high as possible. I recommend running Reposition over Draw Back on nukes. I prefer Res Smoke due to less chance of triggering unwanted Wings of Mercy, but Savage Blow is so much cheaper and stackable; if you can afford Res Smoke, then great, and if not, do not worry about it as it is mostly down to preference. Tharja should NOT be running Flashing Blade nor Heavy Blade; Flashing Blade needs to go to Mareeta. Tharja should be running Brazen Atk/Spd to crank that Atk stat up higher.

Not sure what your VS!Azura is running, but I recommend the following:
Prayer Wheel
Gray Waves
(Any Special) — Moonbow — Miracle
(Any A) — Fury
Wings of Mercy
Atk Tactic
Earth Dance — Torrent Dance — Hone Spd

— — — — — — —

For an Enemy Phase team, I highly recommend using a Sharena super tank team if you want to climb to Tier 21 on a budget. It costs 80,000 Hero Feathers, 600 Divine Dew, and enough Orbs to summon Distant Counter and a second Eir. You need 20,000 each to promote Sharena, 2 M!Corrins, and Titania to 5*; Titania supplies Guard 3 to Sharena. You need 200 Dew to get Refines for Sharena and 2 M!Corrins.

Sharena
Fensalir [Spd]
Reposition
Ruptured Sky — Moonbow
Distant Counter
Guard
Atk Smoke — Pulse Smoke
Distant Def

M!Corrin ×2
Yato [special]
Reposition
Moonbow
Triangle Adept — Death Blow
Axebreaker
(Any Drive)
(Any Drive)
Between the 2 M!Corrins, I recommend running one of each Drive, so they can provide a total of 12/12/12/12 buffs to Sharena.

Eir ×2
Lyfjaberg
Reposition
Moonbow
Swift Sparrow
Mystic Boost
Sparkling Boost
(Any Drive)

Aversa
Aversa's Night
Reposition — Reciprocal Aid
Moonbow
HP+5
Axebreaker — Renewal
(Any Drive) — Panic Ploy
HP+5
If you do not have 2 Eirs yet, you can use Aversa in place of Eir. Aversa is a really strong debuffer. If you really like her, you can even use her to replace one of your M!Corrins, but keep in mind that her debuffs is slightly less reliable than M!Corrin's buffs since Aversa's Night needs to meet both an HP and positioning requirement from the enemy.

1 hour ago, TEKWRX said:

I guess I could wait for a Camilla, but I don't know when I'll be summoning again after spending too much money the last two weeks. I think I can get addicted to the gatcha and it could be dangerous 😕

An easy budget to stick to is to only spend money on Special Orb Packs. They usually come only once a month and they offer extra goodies.

[TEKWRX]

Wow @XRay, that's a lot of good info. Thank you.

I'll start working on creating a player phase team you suggested, seems more affordable at the moment (remember, I've been playing for a little over a month so far). But I will keep your enemy phase ideas in mind going forward though. I would like to get a second Eir, but can start working on Aversa now though.

Regarding Tharja, I already planned to give her Savage Blow ASAP as I've been farming feathers with an auto clicker. I'd prefer Res Smoke, but that isn't happening unless I get a lucky summon. I've already refined her tome with the effect (-4 Atk/Spd during combat), and I'm about 100 dew short of being able to refine again after recently doing M!Corrin's Yato.  I do have enough coins to get started on the Brazen Atk/Spd seal though. I should also have a Reposition available for her.

As for a second dancer, you suggested green Azura (I have young Azura, is that who you mean?), but I do have a +1 Reyson who already has WoM. Should I just use him? I also have a 4* Reyson so I could have a +2 one very soon (unless it's better overall to have two Reyson's on one team). My L!Azura also has WoM, so I just need to give her a better A skill and a dance seal.

Mareeta already comes with Flashing Blade 4, so she'll keep that until I can afford something better in the A slot and give her the seal. If Mareeta doesn't work out as my Galeforcer, can I use Cherche as a flying Galeforcer? She already has it and I have quite a few copies of her for merges. If so, how should I equip her? Her refine adds panic, right? Is that useful for a Galeforce unit? I'd assume she'd want the Heavy Blade seal. Right now she has Death Blow 3 and Quick Riposte, so I think I'd need to revamp her kit. Her Axe is a brave axe, so do those two hits use two cooldowns towards Galefore, or just one?

And yeah, I do buy the special orb packs but last week I went a little silly trying to get a second H!Hector and I really wanted a H!Myrrh so I also bought the $75 pack. Only ended up with a 5* Swordhardt, Ryoma, and a second copy of H!Mia. It wasn't a good feeling 😨

Edited November 12, 2019 by TEKWRX

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Reyson should be fine as a dancer. He may need Triangle Adept if he needs to duel particularly hardy blues, but that shouldn't come up too often.

Cherche can be a Galeforcer, but the setup is a bit awkward for her, since she'll never quad and she's pretty likely to kill her target with the first two hits anyway. She'd need Heavy Blade (either A or Seal), plus the aid of another accelerator like Velouria, L!Hector or the Quickened Pulse Seal. Yes, both hits of the brave weapon will add charge. Her weapon almost doesn't need a refine because Panic doesn't do a ton to help with Galeforcing and boosting the other stats also aren't going to do much for her.

Yeah, you need to whale pretty hard if you want to brute force the gacha with money—especially if you're targeting multiple characters. $75 is but a drop in the bucket.

[XRay]

 

1 hour ago, TEKWRX said:

As for a second dancer, you suggested green Azura, but I do have a +1 Reyson who already has WoM. Should I just use him? I also have a 4* Reyson so I could have a +2 one very soon (unless it's better overall to have two Reyson's on one team). My L!Azura also has WoM, so I just need to give her a better A skill and a dance seal.

Reyson takes Tharja out of Vantage range, so make sure he is not running his highest tier Weapon.

1 hour ago, TEKWRX said:

Mareeta already comes with Flashing Blade 4, so she'll keep that until I can afford something better in the A slot and give her the seal. If Mareeta doesn't work out as my Galeforcer, can I use Cherche as a flying Galeforcer? She already has it and I have quite a few copies of her for merges. If so, how should I equip her? Her refine adds panic, right? Is that useful for a Galeforce unit? I'd assume she'd want the Heavy Blade seal. Right now she has Death Blow 3 and Quick Riposte, so I think I'd need to revamp her kit. Her Axe is a brave axe, so do those two hits use two cooldowns towards Galefore, or just one?

Problem with Cherche is that she needs support to trigger Galeforce, so that will eat up a valuable support slot. Heavy Blade will only give Cherche 4 charges while Galeforce needs 5.

1 hour ago, TEKWRX said:

And yeah, I do buy the special orb packs but last week I went a little silly trying to get a second H!Hector and I really wanted a H!Myrrh so I also bought the $75 pack. Only ended up with a 5* Swordhardt, Ryoma, and a second copy of H!Mia. It wasn't a good feeling 😨

If you are using USD, I recommend purchasing the $39.99 pack as that is the most cost efficient.

[Hilda]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

 

Reyson takes Tharja out of Vantage range, so make sure he is not running his highest tier Weapon.

Problem with Cherche is that she needs support to trigger Galeforce, so that will eat up a valuable support slot. Heavy Blade will only give Cherche 4 charges while Galeforce needs 5.

If you are using USD, I recommend purchasing the $39.99 pack as that is the most cost efficient.

Quickened pulse if you just run 1 Galeforce unit to set up. But in my Opinion Cavs and Infantrys (with Times pulse) are the better Galeforce units.

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Hilda said:

Quickened pulse if you just run 1 Galeforce unit to set up. But in my Opinion Cavs and Infantrys (with Times pulse) are the better Galeforce units.

Cherche running Heavy Blade on the A slot and Quickened Pulse on the Sacred Seal slot is not very reliable in my opinion for Galeforce, since she also needs Death Blow to help activate Heavy Blade.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

9 hours ago, XRay said:

Reyson takes Tharja out of Vantage range, so make sure he is not running his highest tier Weapon.

Not necessarily—especially if he's only ever jumping in for WoM assists. Besides that, I'm not really sure Tharja would require a second refresher. Multiple dancers is more of a straight nuker or Galeforce thing and most of those either don't mind the healing or having 7HP healed would be so insignificant that they wouldn't care (Peri being the one exception I can think of since she gets more stats for being even slightly hurt).

 

10 minutes ago, XRay said:

Cherche running Heavy Blade on the A slot and Quickened Pulse on the Sacred Seal slot is not very reliable in my opinion for Galeforce, since she also needs Death Blow to help activate Heavy Blade.

It's not like she has a whole lot of other easy-to-get choices, though. Most of the support units that could help her are 5* exclusives. Even with, they start to crowd up team slots that are at a premium. Granted, with only one Mythic, there's a bit more room for finagling, but let me tell you, trying to do 2x Mythic + Bonus + 2 Galeforcers is a real pain. There's no room for dedicated support, so the most logical option is to run a Heavy Blade flyer/cav and a Flashing Blade infantry. And if the infantry isn't Velouria, there needs to be something done to make up for it, whether it be slaying weapons, Blazing Durandal or being a unit with a good enough stat line to run the Blade in your A and Quickened Pulse in your S.

[TEKWRX]

So I started playing around with my 4* Cordelia last night, just leveling her up a bit in the training tower and earning some SP. She seems pretty cool, I don't hate her. So maybe I should promote to 5* and start building her as my possible Galeforcer? What build would be good for her in AR?

[Landmaster]

39 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

So I started playing around with my 4* Cordelia last night, just leveling her up a bit in the training tower and earning some SP. She seems pretty cool, I don't hate her. So maybe I should promote to 5* and start building her as my possible Galeforcer? What build would be good for her in AR?

It would be better to use Cavalry or Infantry units, IMO. It can be a bit harder to set up Fliers for it.

[TEKWRX]

11 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

It would be better to use Cavalry or Infantry units, IMO. It can be a bit harder to set up Fliers for it.

I figured Cordelia would be the cheapest option if Mareeta doesn't work out (although I think she still might). Looking at my barracks, maybe Eliwood would be my best cav choice if I went that route? He is -HP +Spd. I like Ares too, but it seems like he is better as a vantage unit, not galeforce?

[Landmaster]

12 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

I figured Cordelia would be the cheapest option if Mareeta doesn't work out (although I think she still might). Looking at my barracks, maybe Eliwood would be my best cav choice if I went that route? He is -HP +Spd. I like Ares too, but it seems like he is better as a vantage unit, not galeforce?

Eliwood is a fantastic Galeforce choice, especially with his refined weapon. Ares is better for DC vantage, yeah~

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Yeah, Eliwood is pretty much the best budget choice, thanks to being to steal his son's ridiculous refine.

Cordelia would also work, but she's getting a bit dated. I actually have a +10 of her, but I've never felt as comfortable fielding her as, say, Peri, Tibarn or Velouria.

Also, while inconvenient, getting a 2-Move Galeforcer started is typically as simple as having someone else Smite them in. That said, being able to initiate with a 3-Move Galeforcer, have them get injured and then WoM the 2-Move Galeforcer in saves a lot of headaches in the long run.

[Vicious Sal]

Didn’t get to record my defenses sadly from last season. However, I had only three failures, all of which were 3 or more enemies defeated, so with a perfect 0 loft loss on defense I am quite satisfied with my defense teams.

[XRay]

Ugh, my head is still a little dizzy. I forgot to put my Escape Ladder back on and wasted like 200 Aether surrendering.

[Rezzy]

@mcsilas Hey, I crashed your party!