Aether Raids General Thread

[XRay]

1 hour ago, TEKWRX said:

Thanks everyone for the feedback on Ares. I have already given him Bonfire since that works best for him. Now I'm not sure what to do regarding DC. The only DC fodder I have right now is Byleth and Nagi. Nagi should go to an armor that would like Special Fighter as well as DC, and Byleth goes to someone who would utilize Ruptured Sky, and neither of those options apply to Ares. So I guess I should wait, but who knows how long it will be until I pull more DC fodder because it is somewhat rare. Kinda frustrating.

Love Abounds Hector comes around during Valentine's Day. A Monstrous Harvest Hector comes during Halloween. Regular Hector comes around twice per Weekly Revival cycle, assuming the cycle stays permanently. Assuming Weekly Revival stays, that means you get pure Distant Counter at least six times a year.

This page shows the current schedule. Here is a list of them; it is missing 18, 19, and 20 on the categories page, but you can just click on any of Foci and scroll to the bottom of the Summoning Focus page where you can find all the Summoning Foci ever released.

 

[TEKWRX]

53 minutes ago, XRay said:

Love Abounds Hector comes around during Valentine's Day. A Monstrous Harvest Hector comes during Halloween. Regular Hector comes around twice per Weekly Revival cycle, assuming the cycle stays permanently. Assuming Weekly Revival stays, that means you get pure Distant Counter at least six times a year.

This page shows the current schedule. Here is a list of them; it is missing 18, 19, and 20 on the categories page, but you can just click on any of Foci and scroll to the bottom of the Summoning Focus page where you can find all the Summoning Foci ever released.

Cool, thanks for the link. If I'm reading it right, it looks like DC will next be available on January 19th, if the 2020 schedule is the same as 2019? I guess, because all the dates show 2019, even though it cycles through all the months? It's confusing. Anyway, I still have to decide if I want to wait over a month to finish building Ares. Maybe I'll look for another project in the meantime who will benefit from both DC & Ruptured Sky or DC & Special Fighter. I really like Byleth, and I have a +Spd one, so I was thinking about merging at least once (I have 3 total copies), and I'd like to eventually +10 him one day. Who knows?

On another note, I built W!Cecilia with CC & Special Fighter today, and I won my first match with her already. I didn't lose one unit, so that was nice. Since it looks like I'm committing to her now, should I just go ahead and spend the grails to start merging her up right away? I have 219 grails at the moment, so I could get 1 more copy now. The only other "grail project" I have going on is Aversa who is already +1. 

And regarding Cecilia's weapon, should I stick to Goodie Boot and refine it (thinking +Def or +Res, which is better?), or maybe spend the feathers to get Barb Shuriken+? Other daggers I have at the moment are The Cleaner+, Kitty Paddle+, & Tropical Treats+. What's my best option at this point? And what's her best special? Sol or Noontime? Aether? Or just stay with Glacies?

Edited December 9, 2019 by TEKWRX

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

If you're committed, then no harm in merging her up. As a super tank, +1 is the most important one, since it's 5 stats instead of 2. Pretty much all the heavily invested ones I've seen come at me run Barb Shuriken+ with Sol. I think the only time I saw Goodie Boot+ was when she was on bonus rotation.

[Azuni]

45 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

And regarding Cecilia's weapon, should I stick to Goodie Boot and refine it (thinking +Def or +Res, which is better?), or maybe spend the feathers to get Barb Shuriken+? Other daggers I have at the moment are The Cleaner+, Kitty Paddle+, & Tropical Treats+. What's my best option at this point? And what's her best special? Sol or Noontime? Aether? Or just stay with Glacies?

If you want more input, I've been using her since she came out last year, to great effect. At first I used a budget set of:
Def refined Goodie Boot with DD3/Dull Ranged3/filler C/QR3 seal and Aether/Iceberg

After L!Alm came out though, I switched to this build, and never looked back:
 

Spoiler

It's still serviceable with Atk Smoke3 C, but you'll of course not work well against IP teams. I chose FDR for the A instead of CC since she's supported to Surtr (who holds armor march now), which increases flexibility for grabbing pots if there is only a melee enemy left alive.

[XRay]

55 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

Cool, thanks for the link. If I'm reading it right, it looks like DC will next be available on January 19th, if the 2020 schedule is the same as 2019? I guess, because all the dates show 2019, even though it cycles through all the months? It's confusing. Anyway, I still have to decide if I want to wait over a month to finish building Ares. Maybe I'll look for another project in the meantime who will benefit from both DC & Ruptured Sky or DC & Special Fighter. I really like Byleth, and I have a +Spd one, so I was thinking about merging at least once (I have 3 total copies), and I'd like to eventually +10 him one day. Who knows?

For Special Heroes Focus reruns, you can expect their rerun dates to be around that time of year, but you will not know the exact dates until they confirm that info on the monthly calendar or something.

For Weekly Revival reruns so far, you can project that schedule into the future assuming they restart the cycle over and over.

[TEKWRX]

35 minutes ago, Azuni said:

If you want more input, I've been using her since she came out last year, to great effect. At first I used a budget set of:
Def refined Goodie Boot with DD3/Dull Ranged3/filler C/QR3 seal and Aether/Iceberg

After L!Alm came out though, I switched to this build, and never looked back:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

It's still serviceable with Atk Smoke3 C, but you'll of course not work well against IP teams. I chose FDR for the A instead of CC since she's supported to Surtr (who holds armor march now), which increases flexibility for grabbing pots if there is only a melee enemy left alive.

Thanks for posting your build. Good to hear you've had success. I only have 1 copy of Igrene for Pulse Smoke right now, and I like her too much to fodder right now. We'll see what happens in the future. I don't have Surtr, so I can't pair my Cecilia with him but I do have her supported with M!Corrin at the moment (S-Support/Yato refine). Will that work for now, or are there better choices? Also, she's running Armored Boots seal and I'm sure it's not ideal. What are some better choices? I'm reluctant to give her QR3 because B!Ike is using it now, but if he doesn't benefit from it as much as her, I will switch it.

I know it belongs in a different thread, but since we were talking about my Byleth/DC dilemma earlier I figured I'd ask here. Would DC/Ruptured sky be a good fit for B!Lucina? Her weapon has dragon effectiveness, but in using her extensively during Forging Bonds, I've noticed she still really struggles with green dragons. I wonder if Ruptured Sky would help her patch that weakness up? Plus with DC she'd have much more utility. Good idea? Terrible idea?  

[Azuni]

1 minute ago, TEKWRX said:

 I don't have Surtr, so I can't pair my Cecilia with him but I do have her supported with M!Corrin at the moment (S-Support/Yato refine). Will that work for now, or are there better choices? Also, she's running Armored Boots seal and I'm sure it's not ideal. What are some better choices? I'm reluctant to give her QR3 because B!Ike is using it now, but if he doesn't benefit from it as much as her, I will switch it.

Corrin is fine, I know a few other people who run similar WCecilia builds but with Corrin/Lancina sitting safely 2 cells behind her to buff. Just be aware of the less flexible mobility due to no armor march, so you'll be relying on smite/repo a lot more to get her where you want her.

If QR seal isn't an option, I'd recommend Fierce Stance for more single hit power or DD3 for more ranged bulk. Watch out for enemies with guard effects, as without QR she will fail to kill them.

[Diovani Bressan]

I got this success yesterday. I still don't know what this player tried to do... My idea was that this player didn't check his unit's skills before going to AR, adn forgot to equip Vantage on Lugh, but I am not sure.

 

[XRay]

After a week of trying to use Kronya, I came back defeated. I think I managed to get maybe one or two good wins with Kronya. I guess I will need to shift my focus back to Light Season since I got 2 Peonys so maybe I will have more success during Light.

[Landmaster]

Finished with 7 Successes and only 4 Failures~ -20 Lift Loss is my best so far, I'm pretty sure~ Really not sure why but I'll take it, I guess~

I didn't really see a need to record the matches for the Compendium since almost all of them were just someone letting their tank get Panic'd, die and rage quitting, and I didn't find it particularly interesting~

[Othin]

Managed to briefly get into the top 1k over the weekend, wasn't able to stay there but I stayed in the top 3k to pick up my 10th gold throne. Made it into Tier 26 in the process, I think this is the first time I was able to do that.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Despite some really dumb screw-ups (covered by Ladders, but I was sweating a little after losing two in a row), I got T27 for the first time this week. My Vantage team was hilariously versatile, since I've got it on F!Takumi, Nino and Altina. One of my last matches actually ended up being me setting up triple Vantage off of the enemy's fully upgraded Bolt Trap, though it got a little crowded and not everyone was contributing fully. F!Takumi actually got three snipes, two of which were Vantaged, over the enemy buildings, which is highly unusual.

[Diovani Bressan]

Fjorm is doing a great job this first day of the season.

She was able to tank units like L!Alm, L!Julia, Brave Micaiah and Ophelia without problems, and having a dancer with Peony is pretty good as well.

I just a tiny mistake in the first match, that resulted in my Eir being killed, but at least I got both pots.

[mampfoid]

Lost directly 2 ladders today ... 

@Zeo Met this awesomeness in AR:

Preventing Desperation was especially evil for my Galeforcers. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

That's some pretty intense durability. I don't think my Tibarn could one-round him with the Def/Res Bond active. Fjorm would also need two rounds, though he'd be largely harmless to her.

[Landmaster]

72 HP CHAD, I'm crying~

Anyway, timed someone out on Defense, so that was nice~ He honestly just got unlucky with the AI at the end~ Ike is proving quite useful for stalling people who forget Red is a color they can use on Offense~

Offense was okay, wasted one ladder but just ended up using Keaton today for both matches and didn't have any trouble otherwise~

[TEKWRX]

So now that I've built up W!Cecilia (Barb Shuriken+, Aether, CC, Special Fighter), I have a 2 decent omnitanks, should I start thinking about blessings now so I can start getting more aether when I do win? But I'm not sure who to give what. I assume during light season I should have both Eir and Peony on the team along with other light blessed units, right? Which tank should I give light to? B!Ike or Cecilia? As far as CC/Vantage users that are built and ready, I have Altina and Tharja. Since Altina is an Astra mythic, it makes sense to use Tharja on light season, right? I see it's also dark season and I have 2x Sothis, where should I be using them? And should I merge them, or is having 2 copies good for anything? I'm still confused about the blessings, and I don't have a lot to give out so I don't want to waste anything on the wrong unit. Here is a list of units that I've been using in my raiding parties, let me know what blessings are safe to give out.

• W!Cecilia (Summoner support)
• M!Corrin (Ally support w/Cecilia)
• Tharja
• B!Ike
• B!Lucina (Ally support w/B!Ike)
• Velouria (Ally support w/Altina)
• F!Tiki
• Nagi
• M!Byleth
• B!Veronica

That's who I've been mostly using along with L!Azura and sometimes a bonus unit.

Again, here is a link to my roster, if anyone wants to take a look and let me know if I should be using anybody else in some parties, I'd appreciate it. You can sort just by star rating to make it easier to look at. My Roster at FEHKeeper

 

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by TEKWRX
link

[Vicious Sal]

Light: Eir, Peony, B!Ike, B!Lucina, Tharja

Astra: Altina, Velouria, W!Cecilia, M!Corrin.

 

Ike wants the res, so he moves to light, that means your other tank goes to astra, which is where W!Cecilia does well anyway. Velouria needs to stick with Altina, so astra. Lucina and Corrin just follow their tanks and take the same blessing.

using two sothis on defense gives you max or one tier below max rewards for defenses, so that’s useful to keep.

[Landmaster]

48 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

So now that I've built up W!Cecilia (Barb Shuriken+, Aether, CC, Special Fighter), I have a 2 decent omnitanks, should I start thinking about blessings now so I can start getting more aether when I do win? But I'm not sure who to give what. I assume during light season I should have both Eir and Peony on the team along with other light blessed units, right? Which tank should I give light to? B!Ike or Cecilia? As far as CC/Vantage users that are built and ready, I have Altina and Tharja. Since Altina is an Astra mythic, it makes sense to use Tharja on light season, right? I see it's also dark season and I have 2x Sothis, where should I be using them? And should I merge them, or is having 2 copies good for anything? I'm still confused about the blessings, and I don't have a lot to give out so I don't want to waste anything on the wrong unit. Here is a list of units that I've been using in my raiding parties, let me know what blessings are safe to give out.

• W!Cecilia (Summoner support)
• M!Corrin (Ally support w/Cecilia)
• Tharja
• B!Ike
• B!Lucina (Ally support w/B!Ike)
• Velouria (Ally support w/Altina)
• F!Tiki
• Nagi
• M!Byleth
• B!Veronica

That's who I've been mostly using along with L!Azura and sometimes a bonus unit.

Again, here is a link to my roster, if anyone wants to take a look and let me know if I should be using anybody else in some parties, I'd appreciate it. You can sort just by star rating to make it easier to look at. My Roster at FEHKeeper

 

 

Keep your two Sothis units unmerged for your Defense Lift Loss to be less. Bless Ike for Light and Cecilia for Astra~

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

24 minutes ago, Vicious Sal said:

Light: Eir, Peony, B!Ike, B!Lucina, Tharja

Astra: Altina, Velouria, W!Cecilia, M!Corrin.

 

Ike wants the res, so he moves to light, that means your other tank goes to astra, which is where W!Cecilia does well anyway. Velouria needs to stick with Altina, so astra. Lucina and Corrin just follow their tanks and take the same blessing.

using two sothis on defense gives you max or one tier below max rewards for defenses, so that’s useful to keep.

 

51 minutes ago, TEKWRX said:

So now that I've built up W!Cecilia (Barb Shuriken+, Aether, CC, Special Fighter), I have a 2 decent omnitanks, should I start thinking about blessings now so I can start getting more aether when I do win? But I'm not sure who to give what. I assume during light season I should have both Eir and Peony on the team along with other light blessed units, right? Which tank should I give light to? B!Ike or Cecilia? As far as CC/Vantage users that are built and ready, I have Altina and Tharja. Since Altina is an Astra mythic, it makes sense to use Tharja on light season, right? I see it's also dark season and I have 2x Sothis, where should I be using them? And should I merge them, or is having 2 copies good for anything? I'm still confused about the blessings, and I don't have a lot to give out so I don't want to waste anything on the wrong unit. Here is a list of units that I've been using in my raiding parties, let me know what blessings are safe to give out.

Only 4 defense slots means that reduction is only going to be -20 per match for the moment, but that's still better than -16 for a Sothis + 1. Just keep the two copies on a defense setup dedicated to Light/Dark and rotate 2 on-season Legendaries in with her every time it comes around.

I second that offense roster placement, plus put B!Veronica on Astra. Eir brings passive regen, so W!Cecilia will appreciate having the back-up healing there more than B!Ike will on Light.

[TEKWRX]

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Only 4 defense slots means that reduction is only going to be -20 per match for the moment, but that's still better than -16 for a Sothis + 1. Just keep the two copies on a defense setup dedicated to Light/Dark and rotate 2 on-season Legendaries in with her every time it comes around.

I've already unlocked the 5th slot. So I will just use 2x Sothis and then the rest with proper legendaries. Looks like I have lift loss down to -50. Also using Alm, Julia, and for my water legendary, I can choose between Azura, Ryoma, or Fjorm. Which would be the most beneficial? Leaning towards Azura. I know I don't expect to win anything, but each kill will save me lift.

 

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

I second that offense roster placement, plus put B!Veronica on Astra. Eir brings passive regen, so W!Cecilia will appreciate having the back-up healing there more than B!Ike will on Light.

Thanks, I will do that. How should I decide when to field my tank, or my vantage sweeper? Is it just a matter of looking for things like Hardy Bearing? What other things should I look for that shuts down vantage? Also, what sort of things is B!Ike afraid of?

And I love Thraja, but I almost regret making her my sweeper. The problem is on the following player phase if she's deep in enemy territory she's much weaker if she's not able to get any buffs for her tome and sometimes doesn't survive. Is there anything I can give her so she can self buff if I can't get the proper teammate close to her? Or is there anybody who can buff a unit from more than 2 spaces?

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Ah, nice. Whenever you get the sixth slot, you can bring it down another 10. Definitely run L!Azura. She trips people up way more than Ryoma or Fjorm ever could (and she can be a serious annoyance teamed up with L!Alm).

As to what to keep an eye out for, you also want to watch out for Dragonslasher (and its seasonal ilk), Dazzling staves and Firesweep weaponry. If Tharja can't get rid of those before EP, she's going to have a bad time. Of course, with B!Ike having Null C, he should generally be able to gut the latter two. B!Ike himself is afraid of AoE specials, since Urvan doesn't reduce any of that damage. 90% of the time, this will be Ophelia, but keep an eye out just in case someone tries to sneak one in with someone like Lilina or Sonya. You'll always want to be aware of where B!Ike's and W!Cecilia's Def and Res stats are going to lie. Check that against the enemy attacks and if they're not running Infantry Pulse, do some quick math to see if your tank can easily shrug it off. This tends to (though not always) be simpler than jumping through hoops to make the Vantage sweeper work by needing to eliminate 1 or 2 problems enemies.

Tharja could carry self-buffing C or Seal abilities like the Wave skills, but you can get a similar effect that's also more conducive to the turn she initiates with Savage Blow/Res Smoke in the C; and Savage Blow or Brazen Atk/whatever in her Seal. General options for all allies remote buffing are fairly limited, almost exclusively to premium units, as they're the X Opening abilities (Cormag does offer Def Opening, though). I think your best bet here is actually probably giving Peony Wings of Mercy and either the Earth or Torrent Dance Seal (whichever one L!Azura isn't using). This lets her give a respectable +3 Atk, +3 Spd and +5 Def/Res to Tharja (plus the +3 Atk from Peony's weapon if Tharja stays in a cardinal direction). L!Azura is an even better situational option in that she can jump in and give +5 to all stats, but you obviously don't want to be using her off of water season. You can also combine the two to have Tharja sweep away the remainder of the enemy. If things still look too dangerous to re-engage right away, you can have Tharja move away, get refreshed, then Draw Back/Reposition L!Azura or Peony to safety.

[TEKWRX]

Thanks. Good info. I can't believe I didn't think using WoM to rebuff Tharja. Yeah, pretty simple. I actually already gave WoM to Peony, but I forgot because when i click on her skills it didn't show up because she hasn't learned it yet. Duh, now to grind some SP for her.  I'll buy her a dancing seal once I have the spare coins.

And I just won my first match of the season. I used B!Ike/Lucina and it was almost flawless. I didn't lose a unit, but I could only smash one pot. What's the deal with the bonus units? I was gonna bring Igrene, but I was able to get the same amount of lift by bringing a light blessed H!Hector and he was more useful. Is there any reason to use a bonus unit over a properly blessed unit? Would I have gotten even more lift if the bonus unit was light blessed?

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Yes, non-Mythic bonus units can double dip for +40 by also being blessed (or an in-season Legendary). This particular season is a great time to run Fjorm because she's quite tanky (especially with the bonus stats) and doesn't require a Light Blessing.

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Light: Eir, Peony, B!Ike, B!Lucina, Tharja

I personally do not recommend mixing Counter-Vantage units with supertanks. Super tanks need a lot of supports, so running Counter-Vantage units takes that support away; additionally, the supports that work with supertanks is not always applicable for Counter-Vantage units.

Tharja simply is not strong enough to warrant a spot on this team in my opinion. She is missing 15 points in Atk due to running Peony over Azura: Vallite Songstress which means she cannot Counter-Vantage reliably, and she is taking up a valuable support spot that could be filled with either Aversa or M!Corrin.

3 hours ago, TEKWRX said:

I've already unlocked the 5th slot. So I will just use 2x Sothis and then the rest with proper legendaries. Looks like I have lift loss down to -50. Also using Alm, Julia, and for my water legendary, I can choose between Azura, Ryoma, or Fjorm. Which would be the most beneficial? Leaning towards Azura. I know I don't expect to win anything, but each kill will save me lift.

If you do not care about winning, I would not worry about using Legendary Heroes on your defense teams. If you are using Legendary Heroes, you have to switch them out frequently, and that could be a hassle. I would just Bless crappy units that you are not going to use and put them on your defense team.

Dark and Anima Blessings are generally in much lower demand since you really only need one or two defense teams, so you can afford to throw a few on crappy units now as a temporary solution before you invest in defense later.

3 hours ago, TEKWRX said:

Thanks, I will do that. How should I decide when to field my tank, or my vantage sweeper? Is it just a matter of looking for things like Hardy Bearing? What other things should I look for that shuts down vantage? Also, what sort of things is B!Ike afraid of?

When to field a certain strategy mostly comes down to practice, but there here are some quick generalizations that I have.

- Defense stall teams are weak to offensive Player Phase teams, especially to Player Phase teams that run a combination of Firesweep and Blade nukes.
- Infantry Pulse teams are very, very, very difficult to tank, even with super tanks. If you want to use a super tank against them, you want to bring along debuffers like Aversa, Mordecai, or Brave Echoes Micaiah. It is probably easier to just Galeforce them. Loki and Bridal Belonging Fjorm might also be helpful since those two can severely restrict the defense team's mobility.
- Flier balls can often be super tanked, just be mindful of the ones on maps with lots of open spaces, as it might be difficult to establish choke points to protect your buffers in the back line.
- Cav line is a pain in the ass if you are not used to playing without Structures (O). The best and easiest solution I have seen so far against cav line is to run an armor Galeforcer, but that is not exactly cheap. You can also try to Galeforce them if you have beast fliers.

When you are using Counter-Vantage you want to mostly watch out for Firesweep and Hardy Bearing (this includes Festival in Hoshido Micaiah and others like her), but also watch out for really bulky Player Phase units running Impact-Dull/Lull combo as there are a few of those. You also need to pay attention to debuffs like Panic Manor (D) and Shrines (D).

For super tank teams, I advise against using them to handle Infantry Pulse teams unless you know what you are doing. Blazing mages hit super hard on their Blazing hit while Glacies mages easily reach over 100 Atk. You also want to watch out for teams that run Impact-Drag Back that can take your tank out of Drive support.

Edited December 11, 2019 by XRay