Tree

Yeah, I expected that the Level 5 Fortress (O) would probably require the extra 1,000 dew of the Level 3 Fortress (D). I never considered that it might be symmetrical though. I thought they were trying to limit offensive capabilities, but it's definitely possible that the defensive fortress also has a dependency on the offensive fortress. Used two ladders too. I got 140 on the first two that counted, but lost a unit on the third for 120.

They likely also use the results for new characters too, like far-fetched heroes, etc. I think the recent Radiant Dawn banner characters were influenced by the previous poll.

Major disappointment - the Level 4 offensive fortress requires the Level 2 defensive fortress. I don't remember seeing that requirement before, but I just got enough dew today. I don't understand the reasoning. They could have just waited to introduce the Level 4 fortress later if they didn't want players to upgrade their offense too fast.That is a big increase in all future offensive fortress upgrades - an extra 500 dew now and an extra1,000 for the next most likely. It's a large expense for something I don't use. Was really looking forward to that upgrade. I've gone through two ladders already. (I would guess 90% or more of my current Aether Raids difficulties are caused by legendary Azura alone. Flying movement, aerobatics, major stat buffs, and the movement bonus are rough. The other refreshers, even flying ones, don't come close.)

But then he'd be the Gold Knight. @Zelgius It would probably be better to pick one or the other for best results, not that it matters all that much. I'm guessing Zelgius will get a legendary alt anyway.

I said awesome, not awful. Actually, that combination will probably be possible someday. I imagine the red armor will be used for a legendary version, possibly with the Wishblade lance. Forging Bonds accessories would be the regular version (Black Knight Helm) and the slashed/damaged version (Black Knight Helm EX). @ILikeKirbys @Interdimensional Observer I really don't know what a Black Knight alt would be. The interesting part is that they specifically mention that these units will have different clothes/costumes, so they can't just take the Black Knight and change the weapon or movement type alone...

According to their new rules, the Black Knight is considered to be a separate character from the version without a helmet because of the name difference... Black Knight it is then. I have no idea what kind of alt he would get, but I want to find out. (I'm sure it would be awesome.)

Oh, OK. I always play with animations off so I didn't see that.

I'd like a renewal seal so I can keep units alive easier during future TTs.

Other than the Black Knight, Naesala is the only grails unit I'm really interesting in merging right now. I think he'll get at least one rerun and should also appear in a yearly rotating quest (if they repeat that from last year), so we should be able to reach +4 easily even without grails. I like Winter Cecilia, and some of the other armors too, but probably won't spend grails to merge them. (If they introduce a Black Knight helmet accessory, I might merge Zelgius instead though because his stats are better.)

I do think it's odd that none of the staves in Heroes are actually used for healing.

True, it's just that I don't want to have to focus that hard on an Aether Raid battle every single day. At least with most other modes, I have a full week to tackle it. If a strategy doesn't work out, I can try something else with minimal penalty (except for Grand Conquest which has a similar issue).

I still hope they will someday create content that is more like Fire Emblem lite rather than the Fire Emblem mini-games we have now. One way would be to use the larger RD maps for story modes (story, GHB, BHB, etc.)

All the Legendary Azuras in Aether Raids are worse than Surtr. Losing to a unit you can't damage is annoying, but it can be accounted for in future runs. I don't have any counters for Legendary Azura. I try to bait, but another unit (often Veronica) always attacks first and then gets refreshed. I guess if I had that "null staff damage" skill, Azura would attack instead of Veronica, but I don't have that. I can usually still win, but with major losses. It's probably enough to hold Tier 19 for awhile though. I might be able to get to Tier 20 this next light season, but I probably would regret it.

Yeah, blue tome GHB for Sephiran is the most likely possibility. As for the mythic, I think it actually could happen (eventually), because the roster for potential mythics (at least popular ones) is mostly female (unless they plan on including all of the end game bosses). Sephiran is better looking than a lot of the potential male mythics, so I still think he has a chance. They will use his other name of course. Plus, they need someone to outdate Naesala at some point after players have +10 merged... [edit] Shouldn't this thread have "spoiler" in the title? The third poll option isn't exactly understood until near the end of Radiant Dawn. [edit2] There is a spoiler tag now. Perhaps I missed it earlier.

I haven't gotten a Bow Cordelia, so I don't know for sure. Most of the time I encounter Cordelia, she has a Brave Bow, which she uses to good effect. Firesweep weapons work well with high speed units; if she will reliably double enemies, I don't see why she wouldn't be good with a Firesweep Bow. One thing to note about firesweep weapons - they disable your own counter attacks. You won't be able to bait units while it is equipped. There was a new skill introduced recently that changes this behavior though. (I think it might have been on Nailah.)

Free-to-play videos that use Bow Lyn will either use her default skills or some easy to obtain skills. I don't think there will be a free-to-play video that requires 5* exclusive skill inheritance. Bow Lyn uses almost any bow well. However, not counting guides, she would put a firesweep bow to good use with her cavalry range. If Faye were demoted at some point, then we could see firesweep on guides, but we don't know if that will ever happen.

@Anacybele If you upgrade the Aether Pots, you can store up to 200 Aether. This gets refilled at the start of the season, so the larger capacity means an extra run or two on the first day. As of the last update, you can also upgrade the Aether Fountain for a maximum refill of 70 Aether per day. The only way to get more than that is to break the other player's pots and fountains during a match. Right now, it's 96 Aether per match for me, and it only goes up from there. However, it's good to note that the grail rewards for the amount of work gets disproportionally bad in the higher tiers. Even if you don't care to reach the higher tiers, you can still get almost as many grails just by maintaining a middle level tier (which is pretty easy for now). @Chrom-ulent During light season, I highly recommend using Eir and putting some light blessings on four units that work well for you in the mode. I'm just using the one free Eir and four light blessed heroes and I reached Tier 19 with a decent safety margin last week. Light blessings won't help this week because it isn't light season though. I've stopped upgrading defensive structures and only upgrade offensive items. My current raiding party team is Eir, Bow Lyn, Reinhardt, Alfonse (with triangle adept refine for Surtr), and Leanne (who replaced flying Ninian). No expensive skill inheritance or super rare units (except for a flying singer, but you could probably use a non-flying one just fine). Lyn has a brave bow and Reinhardt uses the quickened pulse/moonbow combination - they do 90% of the work. In Tier 19 most players don't seem to be playing seriously this week due to the lack of mythics/blessings for the current seasons. I did encounter one of my first easy three unit theme teams yesterday. The other teams are easier too even though they have six units. I'm guessing that the good players made it to Tier 20+ last week. I decided awhile back that the mode is more fun if it's not taken seriously. I've had one unarmed unit for my defense team for awhile, so I calculate -80 loss per 20 hours as an automatic thing. I haven't gotten a pity surrender (which is perfectly fine with me as the point is to give free lift anyway). However, I did just "upgrade" my defense to my own theme team to retell parts of the stories. I hope players have fun with it and get a chance to relax. (Mine is an easy three unit team using weak weapons, easy access Aether pots, and a friendly map layout.) Currently, I am in a high enough tier that I can give guaranteed free lift to other players that can actually make use of it. (The lower tiers really don't benefit much from this.) Probably can't maintain this tier long-term unless I get lucky with defensive mythic blessings. I'm safe for this season though because I already have enough lift to stay in Tier 19 even with the automatic defense losses factored in. I really hope they remove the daily play requirement at some point. I can't play when I want to, and also have to play even when I don't feel like it.

Well, they'd have to auto-promote everyone up to the 4* equivalent in that case. If they only wanted to have two tiers of star rarities (4-5*), they still might auto-promote everyone to 4* anyway. (They did upgrade the Askr trio to 4* for new accounts, so they might be planning some changes to the rarity system at some point.)

Yes, it is mostly the way it is know. The 2,000 we have to spend for each 3* isn't too bad as far as merges are concerned, but it really starts to add up when skills are factored in. I still think it is unlikely they will remove rarities. If they did, then I think they would get rid of stars entirely rather than just have 4-5* units.

That's the problem we have with 1-2* units currently. I think you're suggesting having just two rarities: promoted (5*) and unpromoted (everything else)? That's rather unlikely. I'd prefer something that makes the lower rarities worth using, but I think those days might be past. Ideally, I think it would have been nice if skill points (SP) had been an attribute like in traditional games. Characters that have lower attack and defense stats could make up for it by having more skill points. This would allow them to equip more skills simultaneously. A sacred seal could have provided additional SP allowing a better skill or even extra skills to be equipped. The SP attribute would have provided more unique stat combinations for characters which could have slowed the current powercreep. They can't really do that retroactively though. I'm not sure what they will do, but I'm hoping they offer more than just mass demotions for the anniversary.

I doubt they will do this. It would make the current 3-4* units have a lower appearance rate than 4-5* units. The 4* rate would become 58% (plus some part of the off-banner 5* 3% rate) compared to 36% for 3* only. Also, it would mean that a lot of useful skills would become more expensive. For example, Attack +3 on Cherche, Hone Cavalry on Gunter, Fury 3 on Hinata, etc. would require a full 2,000 feathers every time since the 4* variety would no longer be available. I always found it odd that 1-2* units were the rarest. Perhaps they could find a use for them. I wish there were a mode that required upgrading weapons over time so that the elite weapons seemed special. Most 5* units already have their best weapon available and equipped so there is no reason to ever use anything else.

Locking most of the ally menu would probably remove the benefit of pausing the mode in the first place. Technically summoning can give you new units, so that could affect the outcome too. I only get minimal rewards there because I don't enjoy the mode. I'm surprised they haven't shortened it to five battles. Seven battles implies a week, yet it all has to be completed at once. At least you can retry as much as you want in Arena Assault. Aether Raids is quite stressful because it provides unique rewards, and you have to play every single day with very few second chances.

Does anyone else think it is odd that the AR Current Standing ranking score seems to be slightly more up to date than the AR Rewards ranking score?

Currently at 8800 lift, so I should make Tier 19. At rank ~8500, it looks like I have a decent chance of my first ever chair too, although I won't be able to actually use it because of the Tier 21 restriction. I hope I can stay without too much effort since I can't use blessings every season. Not having a defense team makes it harder, but I do get many friend requests. @Ice Dragon The mode needs some work for sure. I'm really not sure what would fix it. Removing the competitive aspect or at least the daily playing requirement would help somewhat.