Johann

Oh right, wrong chart, it's this one: Has "threatens enemy" or "threatened by enemy" status If debuffs are being reversed by Sacrifice, must not be healed by it and cannot have action

It does. Going from this extremely comprehensive AI guide, for a unit to use a Rally, their target must meet one of the following: Has its action Has the "threatening enemy" or "threatened by enemy" status If receiving a rally skill, can be buffed by at least 2 points in one particular stat by the rally If receiving Harsh Command or Sacrifice, must have a stat debuff Keep that in mind if you see an enemy map that has Restore and someone with a Rally, they might be pulling a similar plan to get the jump. This is something I don't think works as well on a terrain like Spring Breeze due to how it limits the range of an advancing unit, and also that most players box themselves in, allowing you to block off their only approach.

With that kind of positioning, Takumi won't make the jump. Him using Rally depends on the player have a unit in Clarine's attack range after she moves, which is most of the map. I could move the snowman and catapult to slightly expand her attack range, but I don't think it's necessary given how successful this has been. Part of the challenge for the player is that their own structures work against them by limiting where they can put 5 units.

Oh it's good, don't worry. The sequence I wrote out above is exactly how it plays out as long as Robin is debuffed. The beauty of this setup is that, if Clarine can use Restore on Robin, she will, and Takumi will always follow up with Rally, and Azura with Sing on Takumi. The whole point is that it triggers on Turn 1, even if the player is out of normal attack range. Even if you put a strong DC unit like Fjorm or Robin on the forest tile, there are very few places that you can safely put a flier like Eir, and so far nobody has been able to anticipate that. Takumi makes his move from the spot directly below the pot with +1 to movement and +6 to all stats, notably his 60 Atk which will easily take out Eir or most other fragile fliers. What usually happens is that the player begins to clear some of the structures in preparation for moving in on their own terms, and then get jumped. One player actually sent their Eir in and killed Marth from the defense tile, but that gave Takumi the chance to kill that Eir and then their Azura who was "safely" just below the Fortress (D). Part of the challenge to this map is that even with an AI guide, you can't 100% tell which unit Clarine is going to Restore, since that's based on slot order (lowest), and you only see the first unit. I should also add that I'm not fond of using mages during Light season since most player units are getting a massive Res boost. To make things worse, since mages like Ophelia, Lilina, Reinhardt, etc are common defense units, most players are putting Distant Def, Dull Ranged, etc on their tanks. With the huge buffs Robin gets, nothing I use short of Falchion will stop her anyway, which is why most of my Def results are 1 or 2 kills (which is plenty).

Got away with no Def challenges yesterday and only -40 today with my new setup, which I'm really happy with. I've got 300 Lift worth of wiggle room to get to T21 (plus 2/2 Ladder uses available) so I don't need to worry about it from here on. Anyway, here's my new Def map: Looking at some of the character builds, this might seem pretty unusual, but there's a very simple goal here: I'm not worried about getting a full Def win, but rather just ensure a kill or two for the Lift loss reduction, which this map does very well. A breakdown of the core strategy: Since most people bring Aversa with plenty of HP, and barring that are very likely to have their Flier School in the middle area, Robin is almost always going to get debuffed. This is what sets off the chain reaction. Funny enough, only one player this whole week would have avoided this chain reaction, which was our own @DehNutCase who didn't bring Aversa and had his Flier School in a safe spot. Clarine's position and Robin's slot order (last) make Clarine use Restore on Robin in the position directly below Robin. The only other thing that can prevent this is if the opponent has a level 3 Tactics Room in the right spot, or Loki in a similar location. Due to Clarine's new position, she's very likely in range to attack the player, which triggers Takumi to Rally her. With Fujin Yumi, he can warp to her (ignoring Gravity), and because of the Feh Statue placement, he'll go to the spot left of her. Also, if the player puts a weak enough unit in the spot where the Catapult is, he'll attack them. More often than not, though, he'll just Rally Clarine. Thanks to Aerobatics, Robin's position and the placement of the pot, Azura will then Sing Takumi. With Atk Tactic, Takumi has +6 to stats and can move far enough to hit nearly any spot where the player is starting. He can even get through the tree space if necessary. Since everybody has an Eir or two, and Aversa and Azura are very common, he's almost certainly going to get a kill in there. So far, he's managed to get at least one kill in every time. Build ideas: Azura: Standard kit with Flier Formation ensures that even if the enemy has Loki or a properly placed Tactics Room, she'll be able to move around. More importantly, she's locked in a spot that's not only rather safe, but minimizes the chance that she'll waste her Sing on Clarine after she uses Restore. The real goal is for her to Sing Takumi or Marth. Frederick: He's just here to scare people from using armored units (especially Surtr), and to trick them into thinking it's safe to approach on the side with mages or whatever. He rarely gets to do anything, but that's ok. His role as a diversion is essential to making everything else work. Takumi: The best character in the game! No, really, Fujin Yumi is extremely underrated in AR Defense, and I haven't seen anyone anticipate his ability to travel. He always gets a kill in there, so I decided he deserved a merge for his hard work (using the free 4* Takumi). Vantage is there in case he ends up getting damaged and the player's only units in range are the same old soft ranged fliers. Clarine: This probably looks like I had zero resources to spend on Clarine, but she's actually someone I've invested in heavily. I originally had her using Candlelight in my old map, but with Nailah's B skill, I figured to skip that plan. Restore and having very high HP are essential here, and the rest is sort of extra fluff. A key point is that she has the weakest staff and deliberately lowered stats and Hone Spd so that her Atk/Spd/Def/Res total is lower than Takumi's-- a tiebreaking calculation that determines who Azura will use Sing on, if both happen to be in range. Lastly, I've decided there's extreme value in giving up Dazzling Staff, since most player units have the ability to counter ranged units. This prevents them from keeping her alive while they safely reach the pots. Marth: With his sword and Atk Tactic, Marth easily rips apart any Robins that try to get close to tank everything else (even if they're buffed and sitting on the defense tile). This prevents the player from just sending Robin in. Better yet, if Azura happens to dance him, he'll have +12 to his stats, making him extremely hard to kill. Robin: Her primary purpose is to get debuffed and have Clarine Restore her. Other than that, her extreme bulk prevents most players from safely running in and killing her at the start (though I'm not sure how safe that would even be given how hard it is to retreat after that). I left Cancel Affinity on her so she makes people think twice about Cecilia, etc.

The specifics are debatable, no question about that, but the main idea is that players should have the ability to pick easier AR fights since nearly all other game modes (including Arena, AA, and GC) feature difficulty options of some sort, usually at a score cost.

Could work, my own strategy has been to just build a map where the fliers can't hide and give my archers a way to track them down. I'm currently using original Takumi with Legendary Azura to pull that off, and so far it's worked quite well.

For what it's worth, players with Surtr are going to be near impossible to stop without using specific builds to directly hit him. With the Light Blessing active, an Armorslayer build is probably your best bet, but even that's shaky since it depends on that unit reaching him. I think a better strategy might be to focus on physical units since most player units are getting a big Res boost. Archers in particular are great since they can put pressure on Eir and other fliers.

Man, FE really needs more people of color. Some of those are debatable. Could make a case for Gray, Boey, and Grieth, though. At least Three Houses has Claude. Anyway I actually expect that this'll either be a random wintertime fun banner or maybe Chinese New Year

Hell yeah MLK seasonal heroes! Also Pair Up quests is pretty interesting, wonder if we're getting a Pair Up mechanic next month or if that's just a nod to other games

Definitely a Legendary of some kind. Their utility is too good to pass up. Surtr might be a popular pick if only because of AR and Arena, but I think he's overrated and doesn't serve as much utility as a Legendary can. Not to mention, people who don't have crap for blessings benefit greatly from getting a new Legendary if only for Blessed Gardens and AA. Shortlist that comes to mind: Legendary Hector: He probably seems less impressive next to Surtr, but Ostian Pulse can be used in a lot of interesting ways. DC and Vengeful Fighter are also phenomenal skills to inherit even for whales. In terms of color/movement type, a new player would have a great deal of options factoring in Fjorm, Ike, and Eir. Legendary Azura: Gotta be the best Dancer and one of the most valuable units. Her A skill is also excellent if you decide you hate her Hrid: Extremely versatile and has great synergy with many other units. Also carries DC. Tibarn: If only fliers are extremely limited, Tibarn is going to prove to be an incredible unit against some of the more popular melee units in the meta, notably Surtr. Also Sturdy Impact! Nailah: The Firesweep counter alone makes her extremely desirable, whether to use or inherit. Giving her out for free would really change things up

I'd say go ahead and bless her, the Res and HP boosts are huge, especially with everything else you can do. Adding in S Support would get her to 72 HP, 35 Def, and 39 Res before any buffs, skills, the weapon refine, or Fortress boosts. Also note that next Light season will also be Fire and Water, so you can bring Fjorm along and she'll have the HP/Res+10 as well.

It's a pretty solid map. Kinda surprised you only have 5 slots, are you not Tier 19? Anyway, with being able to use Robin and Azura to full scoring potential, I'd feel safe taking that layout on by either having Robin tank in that spot south of Ephraim, or use Smite + Gray Waves to have her attack him where he starts (though I'd be hesitant since she could end up counter killing everybody immediately). Best strategy in the game! I freakin' love this update

Update is go!

Grand Conquest Pick the area you "Help Out" in, instead of it being random Add a "Refresh Map" button, silly to have to exit the mode and re-enter to see changes to the map Areas next to the base always get the starting point bonus that is normally given to areas owned by that army Change the area scoring system so that instead of being 1 point every 5 areas rounded down, it gives 0.2 points per area Allow player reinforcements to spawn at chosen fortresses I guess, at least on lower difficulties Every Grand Conquest, add a new 3-4* unit to the game and give them out as a quest reward, and then add them to the summoning pool after the event (as they did with Kaze) Aether Raids Add a difficulty option before starting a battle, allowing players to weaken an opponent they deem too challenging at the cost of some Lift. Like with Grand Conquest, the lowest difficulties will even remove enemy skills and levels. Players who have Defense failures from matches on lower difficulties will also lose less Lift. Add an incentive to using other map terrains, such as having a "bonus terrain" or two every season which reduces the amount of Lift lost on Defense by like 20% or something Limit both sides to one dancer Grant a partial score when timing out, based on enemies defeated Freely test maps of people on your Friend List for no cost/gain If a player loses Lift on Defense, any successes or partial successes in that same time period will restore the lost Lost by the amount that match would have preserved. Basically, you can win your Lift back, making Defense matches after the first have meaning beyond replay footage Increase the horizontal range of Tactics Room (O) by one in both directions (I'm guessing they thought it was too powerful otherwise) If a dagger unit steps on a trap, it breaks the trap but negates its effects BGM can be set by the player for their Defense map Arena Assault Increase the sizes of the highest scoring tiers Maybe make items be used in other modes like Tempest and Forging Bonds, I dunno, might be fun Buy/sell items for Arena Medals cuz why not Tempest Trials Increase the sizes of the highest scoring tiers and increase the feather rewards for lower/middle tiers Tap Battle Turn off the red ! on the menu already jeez Voting Gauntlet I don't really care anymore, VG is dumb aside from the jokey jokes. At the very least, I wish that they made the battles actually matter and that your rank didn't hinge on your availability Make VG quests where you need X amount of wins with X color unit give multiple clears if a player uses more than one unit of the same color in a given fight (so if you go in with 2 reds, you get 2/5 added to your quest progress) Forging Bonds Add some unique random map objectives, right now this is straight up Training Tower with hats

Looks like it won't be a problem then, thanks chief. I'll probably just have Robin tank everything depending on what kinds of skills we're looking at here. I've been using Tactics Room in the second from the left so Ethlyn probably won't even come near me. I really should just toss a Light's Blessing on someone who can help out with this since I'm effectively being given a free win here

Huh... you down with sharing your Def map? If it's not super frustrating, I'd be grateful for the stress-free run

Betcha didn't even check to see who the player was for that map! Unfortunately for me, I had nobody face me today until you did, so I felt the loss. I was in the middle of giving my map an overhaul in anticipation for the anti-Firesweep skill, so there are some things not quite in the ideal locations. This layout was a holdover from last week's and hasn't done well enough for me this time around and I think I have may have no choice but to abuse Restore trickery. Fortunately, if I'm doing well enough on the final day, I can give you a free Defense win

I'm having pretty good results with mine, but my luck is shit so the first fights of the day have been total failures, with every fight after being the ones that I need to see. Incidentally, when the update changes were announced, I had (for some reason) assumed that it'd take place on like Sunday night, giving us the whole 8 days of the extra blessings and Aether. This screwed up my calculations a bit and I didn't really think too hard about team building or giving out extra blessings. I'm still reasonably safe to get into T21 this week, but I've realized that, except for losing Robin as the bonus unit, I'll have even more wiggle room in the next Light season (which, by the way, is also going to be Fire/Water).

I don't think it'll be a major setback for you to have only done 2 fights yesterday, it's like at best going to cost you 1 Aether. But yeah, having those really brutal map layouts that require you to think and move very carefully is downright exhausting and the worst part about this mode. It feels like I have worse luck with match-ups in Light season weeks, too-- last week consisted of all easy maps even though it didn't matter.

At the very latest, it'll come Thursday night since the Laguz banner is Friday, so if you have the time for it, waiting til after the update to do those runs is a good idea.

@Azuris @Hilda Dunno about the rest of you, but so far I've only seen level 3 Fortress (D). Really wish the update was last night instead of probably Thursday night cuz I'm dying to bring Legendary Azura back into the fold The partial scoring for timeouts alone make GC way better

@Garlyle This, basically. I tend to mix up Legendary Lyn and Lucina cuz my brain is stupid. Defensive tiles can be a huge help for your enemy, especially if your own units have little to no way of using them due obstacles or trenches.

Hmm... fair point, I personally see far more tanky builds or one-shot oriented approaches than riskier low HP strategies. Small sample sizes and all that, I suppose.

I don't think Desperation is as common a strategy as you think it is, at least I haven't seen anyone bother using it in forever. Seems like everyone's setting their big offense units with Breaker skills and other things that will help them take out crap like Surtr. Conversely, the "bulk up your bulkiest bulkburger" strategy is ever popular and doing 10 more damage from Bolt Tower is helpful if you can set it.