Aether Raids General Thread

[Othin]

Fallen Lyon's extra Atk and defensive stats from inverting his +Spd/-Atk trait and loading him up on dragonflowers has already started paying off in today's match, it helped him OHKO an opposing Legendary Chrom and survive getting doubled by a Dancer Micaiah.

5 hours ago, Erchamion said:

Speaking of which I finally got my first gold throne! I've been really close several times before but I've always had too many unlucky defense losses, got rank 3002 once... but anyway Brunnya carried as always during wind season, with L!Eliwood bonus doubler support, and the extra Mila/Brammimond merges I got from the last legendary finally pushed me over the score threshold needed to stay in the top 3000.

Congrats!

Edited September 22, 2020 by Othin

[LoneStar]

I just had a crazy match against someone with this sort of cav line team with some melee guys like +10 Sigurd and Roderick. Lachesis ended up being MVP because she baited out the Roderick and ends up living because of Courtly Fan. Fjorm stopped the dance from their Leanne, bolt tower goes off, I pick off the rest of the cavs, then stall Leanne with Lucina so I can grab the aether. I wish I had a recording, but something went wrong with the app I'm using oh well.

The other crazy thing is I lost my first match because I forgot to factor in the opponents Eliwood when baiting. Then decided to make this team (Lachesis, L!Lucina, B!Fjorm, Altina x2) that ended up letting me beat a heavily invested cav team. Of course this excitement died down because a mister whale just trivializes my defense team immediately afterwards. I could barely get data on how to improve my team.

[kradeelav]

7 hours ago, Erchamion said:

Speaking of which I finally got my first gold throne! I've been really close several times before but I've always had too many unlucky defense losses, got rank 3002 once... but anyway Brunnya carried as always during wind season, with L!Eliwood bonus doubler support, and the extra Mila/Brammimond merges I got from the last legendary finally pushed me over the score threshold needed to stay in the top 3000.

Daaang, congrats! I bet that felt so good when the results came in. :D

17 hours ago, Landmaster said:

Just clinched the T27~

Missed two pots on day one so I was paranoid the entire week about not having enough Aether by the end. Then I kept getting nuked by Brammis today, but thankfully managed to get it~

Congrats also! ❤️ I will never not find that impressive.

.

And looks like I did manage to secure tier 19 after all! [ wheww... lays flat on the floor ] I suppose for a casual F2P that's barely been playing for a quarter of a year, that's not too bad, heh. 

16 hours ago, XRay said:

Yeah, just take your time. When Aether Raids started, it took me about half a year or so to make it to Tier 21, and it took me about a bit more than year to get my first and only Gold Throne.

If you are trying to get into Tier 21, I recommend trying it during Light season, since that is the easier to season score high.

If you are trying to get a Gold Throne though, I did it during Astra season since the ranking is much less competitive. However, I have not really paid much attention to ranking lately, so I am not sure if Astra is still as easy to obtain a Gold Throne in as before.

That's reassuring!  Appreciate the tips as always~

[Landmaster]

2 hours ago, kradeelav said:

 

Congrats also! ❤️ I will never not find that impressive.

.

And looks like I did manage to secure tier 19 after all! [ wheww... lays flat on the floor ] I suppose for a casual F2P that's barely been playing for a quarter of a year, that's not too bad, heh. 

 

Thanks! Nice getting to T19~ The road to T21 is not too far away!

[zoologicwoo]

So after clearing the final Blessed Garden map (that final Wind map with unkillable Black Knight was a big obstacle for me until getting Brave Edelgard), I finally starting investing in AR defenses. It's pretty fun seeing what works, I even was able to get Mirabilis's Def/Res Gap to boost multiple allies without much finagling. Also figured out how to use Tactic skills, and honestly when I was setting it up yesterday my thought process was "Tactic skills are awesome, why doesn't everyone use them?"

Panic Manor... Fast forward to this morning, and the first test of my defenses saw someone obliterating my team with ease through mass debuffs. 

So has panic made Tactic skills irrelevant now? What's a good way to watch out for panic? 

Edited September 22, 2020 by uhmuzing

[Othin]

56 minutes ago, uhmuzing said:

So after clearing the final Blessed Garden map (that final Wind map with unkillable Black Knight was a big obstacle for me until getting Brave Edelgard), I finally starting investing in AR defenses. It's pretty fun seeing what works, I even was able to get Mirabilis's Def/Res Gap to boost multiple allies without much finagling. Also figured out how to use Tactic skills, and honestly when I was setting it up yesterday my thought process was "Tactic skills are awesome, why doesn't everyone use them?"

Panic Manor... Fast forward to this morning, and the first test of my defenses saw someone obliterating my team with ease through mass debuffs. 

So has panic made Tactic skills irrelevant now? What's a good way to watch out for panic? 

Panic is common enough on offense teams that buffs on AR defense are really risky. On offense, you can keep an eye out for opposing panic ranges and intentionally avoid giving yourself buffs if you know it'll be an issue, but on defense you don't have that option. I tend to avoid field buffs on AR defense.

[Landmaster]

Well, it was a good attempt at a run for T27 this week but it's over. I wasted 2 Ladders and in order to not waste my last one, I had to take a match with no pots and one unit left. The one unit being Dancing Lachesis because no one could touch her Res. I can't even be mad at the outcome considering how she killed almost every unit on the team.

[Diovani Bressan]

Getting Tier 27 this time. Thanks to Lachesis being the bonus unit. I usually don't use bonus units, but since it was a dancer this week... I decided to use the bonus unit.

But I almost didn't get T27 because some of my teams didn't have the bonus unit.

[Vicious Sal]

I miscalced early this week and because of the 5 damage rule Phina attacked kronya resulting in a team wipe before I could get the pots. Played perfectly after until this morning where I fatfingered and lost units. 

I got T27 but my defense lost to a B!Hector putting me in almost T27 

 

[Othin]

Ended with 13,491, with two ladders left. Lost 40 points on offense, early in the week so I didn't want to burn a ladder, and 77 points on defense across three matches. (I have 3 offense merges and 1 defense.) Should be set for top 3k.

Duo Sigurd did some good work this week, as did Fallen Lyon with the trait fix and dragonflowers I finally gave him last week. 

[daisy jane]

my defense put in some work this week. only losing a net total of 39 lift and 2 successes and i actually played really well up until yesterday (honestly i play just so i don't demote. and i consider me not being completely wiped out a victory), but i wanted to reward my defense for being so awesome. that with the massive help of @Diovani Bressan, i got my 2nd ever Golden Throne.  still not capable of doing it all by myself but - maybe one day. 

so that was my golden throne for the year. so see ya guys next year. 😉

[Vicious Sal]

Turns out my lack if T27 put me at 498 grails. 2 short of being able to +10 V!Titania. 

Now I have to wait two days =[

[kradeelav]

Managed to hang in at Tier 19~  my offense is doing pretty great as long I'm not matched up against fortresses that are 5/5+ (and some of those I can even win now, despite it only being 3+1 as of now). Think it's the defense team I need to work on ... can consistently usually kill at least one of the opposing team but usually never any higher. :<   Think it's BIke, Midori, BraveClaude, Peony, and Reyson for that sweet ranged .... range.

Maybe I should mix it up with a Flierball.  Do have Galeforce on Jill and PirateTibarn....

Edited October 1, 2020 by kradeelav

[XRay]

10 hours ago, kradeelav said:

Think it's the defense team I need to work on ... can consistently usually kill at least one of the opposing team but usually never any higher

I would not worry about defense too much yet. If you want to work on defense right now, I would aim for something cheap. How well you score is primarily based on how well you do on offense. You want to focus your resources onto offense first.

A player phase defense team is really cheap to build and it does decently well against lower Tier players. From my experience, cav line is dirt cheap and the price-performance ratio is pretty good for lower tiers. Cav line does worse the higher you go above Tier 21 though, so you will want to replace it with something better eventually. During weeks when I do poorly on offense, my cav line does really well because Tier 21 and lower players have trouble dealing with it since they fill up their back row completely and they do not usually build their super tanks properly.

Edited October 2, 2020 by XRay

[kradeelav]

On 10/1/2020 at 11:04 PM, XRay said:

I would not worry about defense too much yet. If you want to work on defense right now, I would aim for something cheap. How well you score is primarily based on how well you do on offense. You want to focus your resources onto offense first.

A player phase defense team is really cheap to build and it does decently well against lower Tier players. From my experience, cav line is dirt cheap and the price-performance ratio is pretty good for lower tiers. Cav line does worse the higher you go above Tier 21 though, so you will want to replace it with something better eventually. During weeks when I do poorly on offense, my cav line does really well because Tier 21 and lower players have trouble dealing with it since they fill up their back row completely and they do not usually build their super tanks properly.

Hugely appreciate the advice especially given your experience!  I ended up researching and experimenting with a flierball since all of my merged/best fighters are fliers and I had a few Goads/Wards/Fortify's on hand (so it ended up not expensive at all).  Already did decently well against a 5+1 fortress user (even when defense is 3+1) so feeling confident about it. :3  

(For anyone curious about it: it's arakiss's layout with Hel / Valter / B!Claude in the front row, and PirateTibby, Reyson, and Sigurd in the back.  When you can't even defeat your own defense with your standard team of nuke archers... well! not bad. ) 

edit: just had a match with the flierball that was another 5+1 archer/dancer team comp and managed to nuke 3 of them including merged B!Lyn! Awyiss i think this is onto something.  

Edited October 3, 2020 by kradeelav

[Vicious Sal]

6 hours ago, XRay said:

I trained up all three of my Plumerias and she is ready to blow out defense teams! Ha! My Astra BH!Ike is only +3+10, but he is +Spd, so hopefully that should suffice for now until I get him more merges in February. I cannot wait to test the team out next season. Hopefully it will go as smoothly as my Light BH!Ike team.

I expect it won’t. Peony will be able to grant far more speed with her weapon. Anima mythics are also a lot stronger than Dark mythics aside from Bramimond. 

Thrasir will often attack first and apply Panic on B!Ike and Eliwood is incredibly common on Anima. Eliwood easily surpasses 60 speed on decent defense teams. Cav lines are also more common, which is no bueno for B!Ike’s support. 

Plumeria used as a speed stackinh unit just falls flat compared to Peony. It might get some wins, but I expect far less than Light season. 

Besides, for an effective scoring team you’ll only be able to get two plumeria’s and B!Lucina unless you have Plumeria as the bonus.

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

I expect it won’t. Peony will be able to grant far more speed with her weapon. Anima mythics are also a lot stronger than Dark mythics aside from Bramimond. 

Thrasir will often attack first and apply Panic on B!Ike and Eliwood is incredibly common on Anima.

Thrasir is decent, but she is in the same situation as Bramimond in that they are not threatening unless they get Pulsed. Panic does not matter if the player does not use bonus buffs. Plumeria does not have to Dance/Sing BH!Ike.

Mirabilis is good, but BH!Ike super tank teams do not usually care about how many Dancers/Singers the defense team has.

4 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Eliwood easily surpasses 60 speed on decent defense teams.

My BH!Ike can reach 62 Spd. Pulse Smoke should also stop Galeforce from triggering as long as the enemy does not have Wings of Mercy or something. If Eliwood can get significantly faster than 62 Spd, then defense is probably running a Líf or two, and Líf honestly is not that bad.

In the off chance I still lose to Eliwood, I still got 4 Ladders to go.

4 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Cav lines are also more common, which is no bueno for B!Ike’s support.

I have a relatively empty backline. Fortress (O) to the far left, Ladder to the far right, and the bonus Structure (O) usually next to the Ladder.

4 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Plumeria used as a speed stackinh unit just falls flat compared to Peony. It might get some wins, but I expect far less than Light season. 

That is why I bring three Plumerias. The extra 4 Spd is a little less than two Peonys' Drive-Ploy 6 Spd effect.

4 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Besides, for an effective scoring team you’ll only be able to get two plumeria’s and B!Lucina unless you have Plumeria as the bonus.

Bonus unit is overrated. If the player only cares about scoring well and having an easy time, and not necessarily ranking well, bonus unit is not needed. If you can fit a Smiter on the team, bringing a bonus unit is fine, but if you need that team slot for someone else, it is no big loss if you do not bring a bonus unit.

I can still get into Tier 25 pretty easily without a bonus unit and missing Structures during Light Season, so as long as I cans still get into Tier 24 or Tier 25 easily on Astra, I am not too worried about not maximizing score. I already got a Gold Throne, so ranking does not really matter too much for me.

[Rinco]

Easy Tier 27 this week. Not using a support unit (B!Lucina in this case) went really well to be able to run the 3 mythics and a bonus unit along B!Ike. Mila and Peony can act as support for Ike and the extra HP from the 3rd mythic is pretty useful. 
 

I'll try that with Brunnya on Astra. She's probably going to like a 3rd mythic.

[Landmaster]

Did manage T27 this week with Lachesis. I'm more interested in how next week plays out with Plumeria's addition to the squad. I'm mainly using this as data collection to see how much I lose due to not having CC on B!Claude.

[Vicious Sal]

T27 here as well. that's a nice result for losing all ladders day one. =D I just want my Feh Channel. I have 34 fodders that I want to milk for the new Hm increase that we reaaaaalllly need. =[

[Vicious Sal]

Perfect Offense, -40 on defense. 

 

Rank 96 currently, seems like a gold throne to me. Time to say goodbye to plumeria+duo sigurd, such an easy week because of those.

[XRay]

Got Tier 26 in Astra last Season! Have not been in Tier 26 in a while even during Light Season.

[Landmaster]

Managed T27 despite a pretty poor Def week (-100) and I took a unit loss on the last match because I was pretty sure I'd still get it and I did~

This was the first time since like my T19 days I've used a Bonus unit that wasn't a carry or dancer or something. Used L!Marth and he was really helpful in pretty much every match. It was pretty refreshing and fun fitting him into the teams so I'll have to actually use the Bonus Unit more often, LOL~

[Othin]

1 hour ago, Landmaster said:

Managed T27 despite a pretty poor Def week (-100) and I took a unit loss on the last match because I was pretty sure I'd still get it and I did~

This was the first time since like my T19 days I've used a Bonus unit that wasn't a carry or dancer or something. Used L!Marth and he was really helpful in pretty much every match. It was pretty refreshing and fun fitting him into the teams so I'll have to actually use the Bonus Unit more often, LOL~

Yeah, the +10 HP and +4 to other stats can make even weak bonus units into combat powerhouses. I had Shinon as my bonus unit on my four backup teams (since all of those had other red units), but used Marth alongside my main team of Mila/Peony/L'Arachel/Cecilia, and almost always just used that one. He was quite strong, and made short work of the axe units like Brave Ike and Brave Edelgard that could stand up to my mage cavs.

Finished with a perfect offense score and ladders to spare, and my new defense team only lost 60 points, for a total score of 13,500. That might be the best I've ever done, at least on Light season.

[Rinco]

Screwed up hard early in the season and only managed to get tier 26