Aether Raids General Thread

[Azuni]

Most of the ones I fought last season were annoyingly 3+1. So far only 1 out of 3 was 3+1 for this week, and one of the others was only 2+0.

I'd expect most people in higher tiers are smart enough to not waste Aether Stones on Horse School D when it won't help them climb up a tier (chill week for T20 people at least, since it's impossible to get to T21 without Eir's support).

[mampfoid]

4 hours ago, Azuris said:

Do you mean 2+1 or 3+1? I don't think that many have 3+1 yet. I fought maybe one the last week, but I spent the second half of the week going through replays and rematching people that attacked me with Fortress (O) 3+1 so they were guaranteed to not have that on defense. But as Johann already mentioned the time when people can get both might be here soon.

I mean 3+1.

I met at least two today with also 6 defending units. One had a Ward armor theme:

(Cordy is +10 +ATK but had no buffs active) 

[Rezzy]

I saw the most cancerous team I've encountered so far.  6 Armors huddled around the Healing fountain, stacking 6 Ward Armors, all with Fort Def/Res 3.  They aren't even trying to kill you, just waste your turns.

[DehNutCase]

Sigh, I fucked up the easiest Reinhardt run of my life. Literally all I had to do was make sure Inigo was caught in the Savage Blow, and I somehow manage to fuck up a 2 range AoE. It was the first run of the day, too, so getting the Aether Pots did all of jack all for me.

 

Edit: You can tell by my 5 minutes of doing nothing that I realized I fucked up so hard it's not even funny. Skip to like 5:20 for when I start playing again.

 

See, this is what Reinhardt was suppose to do, I'm just playing so bad these days. (I could've got pots, of course, but fuck effort.)

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by DehNutCase

[Azuris]

5 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

I run into 3+1 pretty consistently, on whales.

 

I think the idea is that since they have +10 units already they don't need the fort (O) levels, so they'd rather make their defense teams a bit better.

Yes, it makes sense, that when you can have everything at +10 anyway you already have that boost.

 

5 hours ago, Azuni said:

Most of the ones I fought last season were annoyingly 3+1.

 

5 hours ago, mampfoid said:

I mean 3+1.

Ok, now I'm starting to get really worried if I can even hold my tier this week. But then I already have three 3+1 offense Forts on my "Look who beat you this time"-list so maybe I can hang on with these.

 

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

You can tell by my 5 minutes of doing nothing that I realized I fucked up so hard it's not even funny. Skip to like 5:20 for when I start playing again.

Don't be so hard on yourself, at the worst it is just one more match until you are done with the week.

[XRay]

3 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

Sigh, I fucked up the easiest Reinhardt run of my life. Literally all I had to do was make sure Inigo was caught in the Savage Blow, and I somehow manage to fuck up a 2 range AoE. It was the first run of the day, too, so getting the Aether Pots did all of jack all for me.

1 hour ago, Azuris said:

Don't be so hard on yourself, at the worst it is just one more match until you are done with the week.

Yeah, I would take it easy on Aether Raids. I do not think it is something worth stressing out too much over. I copied your FV!F!Robin idea in the Questions thread, and it turned out pretty well. I still lose a unit in half my matches like before, but as a Distant Counter unit, she is so much easier to use compared to running nukes with Dancers/Singers.

[DehNutCase]

11 minutes ago, XRay said:

Yeah, I would take it easy on Aether Raids. I do not think it is something worth stressing out too much over. I copied your FV!F!Robin idea in the Questions thread, and it turned out pretty well. I still lose a unit in half my matches like before, but as a Distant Counter unit, she is so much easier to use compared to running nukes with Dancers/Singers.

This is me taking it easy, oddly enough.

 

CC Reinhardt is a set that I only run if ease of use is a concern, since that particular set is only 8.5/10 for me. (The team is Reinhardt & 4 supports, not even Galeforce Cordelia needed that much support, although his upside is even more outrageous.)

[Chrom-ulent]

I too am getting bodied. Legendary Azura was the worst thing to happen to this mode.

I just realized that calling the Fjorm bonus pack the "ice pack" is doubly appropriate. Since we're getting burned in Aether Raids by the players who had no qualms buying it.

Edited January 1, 2019 by Chrom-ulent

[DLNarshen]

Urgh, had to use my Escape Ladder today because I forgot I put Smite on Narcian instead of his usual Reposition. >_>  It may not have mattered too much anyway, since my opponent had an absolutely insane defense team.  Lv. 3 fort, with not one but two +10 Ophelias, along with a +10 S!Micaiah with Luna charged on turn 1.  Also a Lv. 3 Bolt trap for good measure.  Even with full flier buffs and DD seal I don't think F!Grima could have handled all that.  

[XRay]

I thought my old defense setup was cancerous, but half the players can win against it with no loss. I changed it to a new set up and it got some pretty good results

Here is my new set up.

Spoiler

The old set up usually killed 1 unit at most, so I was a bit surprised when a player got 2 of his units killed. With my new set up, players got 3 losses!

Spoiler

 

[DehNutCase]

Feels like T20 has a lot more whales than non-whales, that's... unexpected. (Ran into 2 6 unit +10 teams with premium fodder and stuff. I misplayed the second one badly and lost Reinhardt---forgot to account for Surtr's C slot buff and debuff, so he couldn't Vantange kill everyone.)

 

It's still a +160 lift day and I got all 4 pots this time, though, so I'll take it.

[Raven]

I think creating an armour defense team with 6 Ward Armours is a nice, cancerous idea. If I can get such a competent team together, I may just implement it.

[eclipse]

34 minutes ago, Raven said:

I think creating an armour defense team with 6 Ward Armours is a nice, cancerous idea. If I can get such a competent team together, I may just implement it.

Note to self: Run Azama with multiple dancers with armor-slaying weapons.

[Hilda]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

I thought my old defense setup was cancerous, but half the players can win against it with no loss. I changed it to a new set up and it got some pretty good results

Here is my new set up.

  Reveal hidden contents

The old set up usually killed 1 unit at most, so I was a bit surprised when a player got 2 of his units killed. With my new set up, players got 3 losses!

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Not to nitpick and i dont think many people are on to it. But my Team of Legendary Hector with Obstruct 3 and Bride Lyn would basicly kill your entire Team :X. Those are the usual setups I see and Legendary Hector with Bride Lyn Purgativ + Dancer + Bonus unit + random unit i want makes quick work of those maps, because Hector can bait with Obstruct 3 and not get doubled and even if they get redanced those horses are stuck while he advances kills them and gets healed by Bride Lyns Purgativ.

[XRay]

4 minutes ago, Hilda said:

Not to nitpick and i dont think many people are on to it. But my Team of Legendary Hector with Obstruct 3 and Bride Lyn would basicly kill your entire Team :X. Those are the usual setups I see and Legendary Hector with Bride Lyn Purgativ + Dancer + Bonus unit + random unit i want makes quick work of those maps, because Hector can bait with Obstruct 3 and not get doubled and even if they get redanced those horses are stuck while he advances kills them and gets healed by Bride Lyns Purgativ.

Nice idea! I think I will give Obstruct a try on my FV!F!Robin.

Yeah. I just copy my current setup since I see it so often elsewhere.

[Hilda]

1 minute ago, XRay said:

Nice idea! I think I will give Obstruct a try on my FV!F!Robin.

Yeah. I just copy my current setup since I see it so often elsewhere.

Obstruct 3 only works well on Legendary Hector because his weapon basicly prevents any form of doubling. Its also not a fail proof way. A fully charged Ophelia with AoE Special or a strong red mage can still make quick work of him. besides i run the new Eirika staff on Bride Lyn and Drive Res 3 so Hector benefits from an additional 5 def and 8 res on top of distant def seal.

[LordFrigid]

@Alkaid

I see you on the leaderboard. I like how our reps both have basically the same set.

[Garlyle]

Looks like I might not go up in Tiers this week again. Not because of the lack of bonuses, but the lack of my offensive performance - I'll see how I can tweak this team for next week, I wonder if I can squeeze in Veronica somehow.

[Lewyn]

I wish for defense it would take into account merges, like totally unfair a team of +10 merged units...of course that is -80 points for me on my no merge/low merge team.  I did armors at first, and it was okay occasional wins partial losses, but wasn't cutting it later so switched to ponies.  That was doing real well, but at tier 18 they got slaughtered consistently.  Now I tried dragons, and that doesn't look to be great either.  Back to drawing board.  

[Javi Blizz]

As others have said, since I arrived T18-T19, my defenses are -80 every day -.-

And today I even lost 2 matches (1 was the escape ladder). Damn you Ophelia :(

[NekoKnight]

I have to say that since arriving in T19, I haven't been having much fun with the mode. More often than not I get paired up with whales, like my last match that had five 5* +10 characters and Legendary Azura vs my low merge raid team. It's rare I can win any matches without at least 1 casualty when I was able to win flawlessly in most matches in T18. Maybe I just need to wait for the whales to rise to T20? I don't think I'll be leaving T19, it's all i can do just to stay in the tier. 

[Stroud]

Dang, I think I will be close to not reaching T20.
I got 2 def wins this week and one time only 40 Lift loss.
But I just struggle a bit on offensive so I could not make a perfect win one time and only with 80 Lift.

So I have 140 Lift to go for T20... But my def team does surprisingly good. My new idea seems to work, or people are getting tired in T19.

I don't know if my def team is just a bit luck. But I just made use that most players tend to do similar builds and made a different approach. My Units have all the place to move but the opponent is restricted at the start and forced to move. While other def maps are more defensive mine is more offensive. 

Edited January 2, 2019 by Stroud

[Garlyle]

Any ideas what should I change in my AR defense?

http://imgur.com/a/cjUeom4

[Johann]

1 hour ago, Garlyle said:

Any ideas what should I change in my AR defense?

http://imgur.com/a/cjUeom4

Might need a complete overhaul.

• All of your traps can be safely activated unless the player has a catapult in spots that allow Veronica to get out, so they're not going to be much help. Ideally your traps should limit the amount of approaches the player has, unless you're using Lunge in a very meticulous way
• All of your units are completely blocked off and will inevitably get caught on obstacles (especially Reinhardt and Veronica)
• Lyn can be baited from the top right Bolt Trap; even if it's real, there are plenty of units that can safely bait her
• Actually all of these units are fairly baitable (particularly by armors and dragons) from that path
• Veronica's offense is wasted if she can't get danced, and unless the player tries an extremely direct approach (clearing the obstacles and structures, baiting Veronica, followed by Lucina using FV), Azura won't reach her
• With the defensive tiles open to the player, it's very easy for them to place a unit with plenty of Res who can take Veronica's hits, even if she's danced, and not be bothered by it. The rest of the team would then kill themselves on this unit if they've got DC or are a ranged unit
• The trench might seem like a great way to keep your units on a controlled path, but in reality it's opening you up to a flier or infantry unit who can do any number of things to your group, including pick off Veronica with Eir or whoever

I know a lot of people say "just use Spring Breeze", but I think it's good to explore what the other terrains are capable of. In the case of Snowdust, it's primary advantage is the wall on the lower left being able to force players to approach through the center and right (if you place your Fortress by that wall, like next to the tree). With Veronica, Lucina, and Reinhardt, you definitely have the potential to trick out a player and force your units to advance before the player is ready. Here's something you can try:

Give Veronica regular old Restore staff if you have a 4* Nanna to spare. Most players bring Aversa into the mix, and barring that, the bonus structure is Cavalry School, so odds are at least Reinhardt will get debuffed. Staves are unique in that the AI will use them if they can, even if the enemy hasn't been "activated". With Restore, Veronica will use her staff on an all-- I believe it's whoever is in the first slot on the Edit Defense Team screen, or next down the line if that's her or if she can't reach them for whatever reason. Anyway, if Veronica has to move to a space below where she starts to Restore that unit, she may be in range of an enemy attack, in which case Azura or Lucina may use Sing or FV (Sing takes priority if both are available). If you've set this up properly, you can get Lucina and/or Azura to assist Veronica, which will cause either Veronica or Lucina to advance on the enemy. The key here is restricting who Veronica will restore, and giving her, Lucina, and Reinhardt the space to advance on the enemy.

If this sounds like a real cheap move, it's cuz it is; slowly but surely, more players are adopting a Restore strategy as a means of punishing the use of Aversa and getting the jump on players who are unfamiliar with the more subtle and parts of the AI. Getting prepared for this yourself is a good idea because you're bound to see other players do this at some point.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Garlyle said:

Any ideas what should I change in my AR defense?

http://imgur.com/a/cjUeom4

Here are a few additional minor things:

1. Separate your Aether structures. Spreading them apart forces your opponent to spend more turns to reach both of them. I would place one in each top corner.

2. Place your Heavy Traps closer towards the bottom and Bolt Traps towards the top. Bolt traps are a double edged sword in that they are good against players running Enemy Phase teams, but are absolutely horrible against Player Phase teams. Bolt Traps are still useful for halting players' movement, so you want to put them closer towards the top since the player would have likely reached Desperation range already by the time they get there, so damaging them would be less of an issue.

3. By the same token, I would swap out Bolt Tower (D) for something else to prevent Player Phase teams from having an easier time reaching Desperation range.

Edited January 2, 2019 by XRay