Azuni

Yeah, Winter Cecilia is one of the stronger mega tanks for Astra, due to her naturally high res. I know a few people who are planning to use the build below for one shot counters (just add 10 or 15 hp/def onto it to account for the Nagas present) Unfortunately it's incredibly expensive, requiring not only Special Fighter, but also DD4 or Fort Def/Res and Pulse Smoke if you want her to hard counter the annoying IP teams.

If you ever tried armor units, they can do special fighter combined with a slaying weapon and bonfire/iceberg to one shot counter. Infantry with a DC weapon and steady/warding breath+wrath + moonbow/glimmer might work too, but it'd be much closer to failing.

Yune gains +6 atk and a follow-up attack if your unit is debuffed, so she packed quite a punch against units that don't have a truckload of res. She's also a bonus unit right now, so her bulk is high enough to survive a lot of physical attacks she wouldn't normally live.

This might be confirmation bias, but I feel the same for sure. Every memorable 4 unit banner that I've tried to pull on (CYL1, CYL2, Velouria, Caineghis, Fallen2) has ended as a catastrophe, either filled with offbanner units, incredibly high orb-to-5* costs, or both. Heck even now I'm getting bodied by my own greed, trying to pull a single Bride Fjorm who is probably one of the most broken support character ever released, to no avail. Back on the topic of refines, I hope Oscar doesn't get something specific like bonds, but I would be ok with a gem prf since I already use him as a solid gem-breaker unit for AA. Seth/Titania/Sully's prfs drastically increased their kill power for me, which was most appreciated.

Hoping Kagero gets a crazy anti-infantry prf dagger, that would be an incentive for me to build her (finally got a +atk IV one just last month, after pulling 12-20 of her since launch). Wouldn't mind something cool like a prf refine which neutralizes Hardy Bearing effects, making her a superb counter to annoying IP teams.

Did you mean you guess all the upcoming banners should have all possible colors? Since this isn't true for some past banners (Binding Blade had 1 Red, 1 Blue, 2 Green).

Ending at 13105 lift (Tier26), and top1k. Still amazed that this is possible, since I don't have the lv4 Amphorae for a 16th game, and I got completely destroyed by defense loss order RNG. Lost -340 on defense, if the order was more favorable it would've been only -120. Winter Cecilia and Surtr still proving that omega tank plonk strats work like a charm against most people, and even worked against this one IP team I faced that had triple anti-armor.

This is a reasonable attitude for people who don't want to deal with the mode much imo. Even someone like me, who has had max Red Thrones since they came into existence, has finally thrown in the towel per say for Astra season. I refuse to buy into the Astra mythic mechanic (even if I ignore the horror stories of people getting 0 Nagas in hundreds of orbs), however I've gladly sunk a few hundred orbs so far into trying for Bride Fjorm, since her utility would cut most maps down to a handful of minutes to set up a win. Granted, my opinion on the matter probably is biased since I've already completed my main goal in AR (+10 Winter Cecilia), who I enjoy using in both AR and many other modes.

Definitely one of the easiest Abyssal LHB/MHBs I've ever done. At first I was worried about the map due to remembering how the reinforcements would surround you in F!Grima's LHB, but it turned out to be a blessing. That gorgeous Windsweep Manakete proved to make a fine chokepoint, blocking all the other melee units as the other units slowly got picked off.

Not sure whether these maps are getting easier, or if I'm just getting more accustomed to the play style. Perfect run in only 2 attempts this time (first one just to size up the enemies to determine what skills my Eliwood needed) 944 score, with my usual team of Leg Alm+Eliwood, Sheena, Effie, and Surtr+friend Micaiah.

Sniped Blue and Colorless, 108 orbs netted me an offbanner Thea (yuck) and an offbanner Brave Hector (didn't have him yet so that's nice, but still yikes at no Fjorm/Pent). This banner is turning into Fallen2 for me, which was also Offbanner City

Sacked pretty hard on defense this week, taking only -40 on defense total; I guess upgrading the D fort to lv4 has started to help quite a bit these last 2 weeks. Perfect offense as usual for a light week, and managed to sneak into tier27 for the first time ever (13405 end score), even with my handicap of lv3 Amphorae. Only used one team for all 15 matches: Winter Cecilia/Surtr/3 Eirs I dread the coming Astra mythic which is sure to increase the top3k threshold for non-Light, and probably make me fall out of the Max-Golden-Chair Club. At least that will relieve one piece of stress that this game mode brings.

That was my thought too, that Alm's release was hinted at by the Picnic banner, and so a possession-based Mythic could line up with the current Fallen2 banner. Considering F Corrin's inclusion in this one, it wouldn't be surprising to see an Anankos-based M Corrin later (although any possessed character is fair game).

It's not a bad idea to change out your real team to a free one after you enter immunity each day, it could help rack up some easy-looking rematches to save for the last few days of the season, and could bait people you've attacked into using their rematch on you when you're already in immunity.

0 problem with the Tiki/Corrin alts for the reasons above; only part that irks me is that Corrins now seem to be labeled as trainee units for no decent reason (since Adrift), but I'll shrug it off. The inclusion of FFCorrin makes me expect an Anankos-related Fallen MCorrin soon, whether as the upcoming Mythic or next month's Legendary. The avatar genders are rarely unbalanced for more than several months. It's still easily one of my favorite banners from this year so far, even if I didn't get any of the focus units. The art on Berkut in particular is just godly.

Used up all the free circle/4 ticket circles, usually taking all colors except green. The results were very bizarre (although I won't complain about the rate in the slightest, for 72 orbs)

I was worried when I saw Maribelle on my first attempt, but she didn't show up for any of my next 3. Managed to get a perfect run (945) on the 4th attempt with +10 Surtr/Sheena/Effie and +0 L!Alm; the pair-ups were my galeforce Eliwood again, and a friend's CC Vantage Micaiah.

People who bought the New Years Aether Stone pack can already have 5O/4D yes, as can anyone who didn't buy it or the lv4 Amphorae who has ranked highly in AR all this time (for example I have 5O/3D right now, but I have 500+ stones and 1k dew so I could buy the 4D). However, I think the majority of the population doesn't have enough, so I always rematch 5O fort people anyways unless their defense lead looks too dangerous.

Pretty surprised to see Lukas get a prf, although I guess they have given already-great units prfs in the past (most notably Nino). Sully and Stahl's prfs will have to be absolutely bonkers for me to see them worth building beyond their basic TA-breaker budget unit sets for AA.

Sounds about normal. I tried going into team Fae with a lv1 fae, and practically every match was 2 other greens on my team. Just gave up and used my own low lvl red/blue/colorless leads to get all the quests done quickly, since flags are still only dumped on the 2nd day after the VG mechanics change.

Blazing Durandal, Reposition, Fury3, QR3, Attack Smoke3, QP seal (he is in front on turn1 so the charge goes down to 4), so he galeforce kill some greens, and EP the Myrrh

Took only 3-4 tries to figure out how to do it, so it wasn't that bad. Managed to get my perfect 940 total score with +10 Sheena/Effie/Surtr and +0 L!Alm, with the pair up units being my galeforce Eliwood and a friend blue unit (+10 CC Vantage Micaiah). Very nice to have a game mode that takes so little time overall.

It is possible without LRoy/LAlm, it requires 4 solidly high bst units (a little below or above +10 f2p armor level) and getting all the WTA pair-up bonus kills possible with your 4th unit+friend unit, while grabbing the other 2 wta bonus points on your non-paired units. I had 912 with it, and I know a friend who got ~925, also without a pair up legend of their own.

If you want to be in top1k (50 flowers), yes you do. If you're fine settling for top3k (40 flowers), just take your typical high scoring point sticks that are used in Arena Assault Team1. Frankly I don't think it's worth it for most people to dive in to grab an Alm unless he comes really early, or you like the character/unit.

Initially got a 912 score yesterday, with a team of +10 Sheena/Effie/Surtr and +9 WCecilia with score builds (and I took a red friend unit I believe). Later in the evening I managed to pull a Legend Alm so I tried again, and a perfect run with +10 Sheena/Effie/Surtr (paired to a blue friend) and +0 Alm (paired to my Eliwood) got me a 939. Judging by how the rankings are falling, looks like a +0 Pair Up legend is only necessary if you want to shoot for top1k (50 flowers), while a +40 core should guarantee you top3k without any legends (40 flowers). And even if you do reach top1k with a +0 Pair Up legend, you're still locked out of the ~950 score section without some combination of dual rally+ skills and high merged on-season legends to boost your base score. Luckily all you lose is 500~1500 feathers so that's not a big deal.