Aether Raids General Thread

[Garlyle]

Day 1 it was already decided that I'm not getting into AR21 this week. But now that it's out of the picture, I am able to do 140 and 120 lift runs.

[Johann]

23 minutes ago, Garlyle said:

Day 1 it was already decided that I'm not getting into AR21 this week. But now that it's out of the picture, I am able to do 140 and 120 lift runs.

Do you do your runs early in the day? I find it helps get more favorable match-ups if you delay your fights til later, as the more dedicated players tend to advance upward. Likewise, if your schedule permits it, save the bulk of your Aether until later in the week. Players who are more casual with the mode will advance at a slow and steady pace, while the diehards and super whales are generally more interested in seeing the high scores appear sooner.

Granted, this is all anecdotal, but I think that sort of "laying low" strategy has helped me immensely, including getting days where nobody attacks me, perhaps due to having an unusual score.

[Garlyle]

16 minutes ago, Johann said:

Do you do your runs early in the day? I find it helps get more favorable match-ups if you delay your fights til later, as the more dedicated players tend to advance upward. Likewise, if your schedule permits it, save the bulk of your Aether until later in the week. Players who are more casual with the mode will advance at a slow and steady pace, while the diehards and super whales are generally more interested in seeing the high scores appear sooner.

Granted, this is all anecdotal, but I think that sort of "laying low" strategy has helped me immensely, including getting days where nobody attacks me, perhaps due to having an unusual score.

I usually do AR runs as early as possible, and this actually worked before T20. Still, when I see the difference between T19 and T20 defenses, it's actually much bigger than before.

[DehNutCase]

13 hours ago, Javi Blizz said:

Also, in another topic. @DehNutCase, could a DC unit do something similar to the CC-Vantage strategy? I have been thinking about DC Effie with Atk Refined Silver Lance + (I think is the generic lance with more Atk in the game, and she has it by default), with a low CD special (moonbow-glimmer) and either Fierce Stance or Heavy Blade SS (asuming she is neutral +5)

Mind the Atk isn't actually the main reason I use Reinhardt.

Every time you hit someone with a Pain staff with double Savage Blow that's 24 AoE damage (and if your staffer has enough Atk the main target takes quite a bit too---they don't lose the 14 hp from Savage Blows but you don't need a lot of Atk to make them take 14 damage on top of the Pain damage). Which is more or less +24 Atk for your Vantage DC/CC guy, so you don't actually need a lot of Atk on them to enemy phase sweep.

 

I use Reinhardt because his 3 move + 2 Range lets me snipe the problem units like Hardy Bearing Ophelia and Firesweep units. (And it also lets the team play like a 'normal' player phase team if that's the best way to deal with a defense team---to be honest I don't do this enough, a lot of teams get swept if I just play like a normal player phase team, but I haven't been bothering to pilot my teams properly lately.)

[Rezzy]

I wish the Defense matches told you what day they were from, so I would know whether I still have to worry about getting challenged today or not.

[Stroud]

Try to delay my offensive rounds until tomorrow so I hopefully get easier match ups on def and offensive. Guess it worked? Def looked pretty good. Would like to have a look at how matchups are made from which lift range to which. Or if its Tier based.

But starting tomorrow I must use lift. I guess I will do all 6 rounds I have stocked up tomorrow. If all works perfectly I should be close to T21 tomorrow and reach T21 the day after.

[Lewyn]

18 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

I wish the Defense matches told you what day they were from, so I would know whether I still have to worry about getting challenged today or not.

This seems so logical and easy to implement I don't know why they haven't already.  

[DLNarshen]

8 hours ago, Johann said:

Do you do your runs early in the day? I find it helps get more favorable match-ups if you delay your fights til later, as the more dedicated players tend to advance upward. Likewise, if your schedule permits it, save the bulk of your Aether until later in the week. Players who are more casual with the mode will advance at a slow and steady pace, while the diehards and super whales are generally more interested in seeing the high scores appear sooner.

Granted, this is all anecdotal, but I think that sort of "laying low" strategy has helped me immensely, including getting days where nobody attacks me, perhaps due to having an unusual score.

 

7 hours ago, Garlyle said:

I usually do AR runs as early as possible, and this actually worked before T20. Still, when I see the difference between T19 and T20 defenses, it's actually much bigger than before.

To add to this, it also helps to pay close attention to the players challenging your Keep.  Specifically, their fort level.  Especially for folks in tiers 19 and 20, a Lv. 4 offense fort almost certainly means their defense is only at 2.  Might be worth rematching them instead of playing the odds and winding up with Lv. 3, or god forbid, Lv. 4 defense forts.  This will change over the coming weeks as more players get both a Lv. 3 and Lv. 4 fort, in which case you'll want to stay clear of anyone whose offense fort remains at Lv. 3.  

[Rezzy]

How do they calculate who you go up against?  Is it only people in your own Tier level?  I've seen the same fort a few times, more often than purely random would suggest.

[Azuni]

17 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

How do they calculate who you go up against?  Is it only people in your own Tier level?  I've seen the same fort a few times, more often than purely random would suggest.

At bare minimum, you can be matched up against anyone within 1000 Lift of yourself. Not sure if people ever did enough data collection to see if you're more likely to wind up against people with a closer score to your own.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Lost my first match today, and I have 45 Aether for the mega kick in the balls. 10400 Lift, two more days to go. T21 is basically hopeless again this week.

Man, fuck this game mode. There's just zero fun from this. The only reason I'm still playing is because of Grails, but I'm burning my sanity for this. I fight a team that's just a mishmash of meta units (with fort bonus, even), lost a unit because of danced Ophelia, and then I get stalled out by a team that isn't even stall because 7-turn limit is such a great idea.

[Othin]

Finished 9 out of 16 fights for the week. My defense team hasn't killed a single unit in any relevant battles, but I was lucky enough to avoid getting any fights one night (perhaps due to slow-rolling my fights) and I've only had one offense death (forgot to watch out for Guidance), so that leaves me with 140 points of leeway to make it to T21, assuming two more complete defense losses. I've had to use one of my escape ladders, but still have two in reserve.

I did miss both aether structures in one fight, though, which is an issue since missing more than four before the final fight means losing an entire offense battle. I need to be more careful about that, since I have much less leeway on them than unit deaths. I think I could have gotten both of the missing ones by sacrificing a unit to delay by a turn, but I miscalculated the damage and thought my opponent's Fjorm would survive a counterattack from mine.

My new main team of Eir/Fjorm/Micaiah/Loki/Cecilia has been proving very effective. Loki surgically disables a key part of the opponent's defense, allowing the others to set up favorable matchups and smash through pretty much anything. My other teams replace Loki in matchups where she isn't very relevant in favor of Camus, Eirika, Surtr, or Nailah. Nailah less so than the others: I hoped to use her a lot in AR when pulling for her, but she hasn't been very effective, especially when she's competing with Fjorm and Camus.

Seasons where I can actually use these teams will get less common as more mythic heroes get added, so I'm hoping I can make it to T21 soon one way or another.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Othin

[Stroud]

9/16 matches, 
10440 Lift,
3 Ladders left.
170 Aether left

I really feel blessed with Deirdre, Almost each round is full of dragons or mages who she easily beats up. Tomorrow i will use up all Aether, I think I will reach T21 safely. But I shall not get overconfident. My Defense team does well this round I don't get wins. But I get some defeated units which is enough for me. Tharjas refine just hit the spot and sometimes my team does hard predictable shenanigans. 

[Chrom-ulent]

Today's full defense loss and rematch loss was a Ward Armor stacking clown. Turns out he's in Arena Tier 17, so he's suffered enough. I'll accept him beating me.

On defense: I think I'll have a Galeforce shenanigans team. Spring Alfonse survived the "Park Surtr" test, so I'm now training my Tibarn for my second test match.

[Diovani Bressan]

10 Defensive Battles: 5 Successful results (one being a rematch) and 5 Failure results (only 2 -80, which I won both rematches).

I am with 9,420 Lift (reached Tier 20 today) and I still have my three escape ladder uses. I believe I will end this season in Tier 20 but I am not celebrating my victory yet.

[Raven]

I'm at 10,660 Lift right now, and I get 160 per deathless battle.

I've got 3 runs remaining, 4 if I can destroy all the aether storage in all 3 battles. It might be worth using my ladder resets to secure the 4th battle even with a couple of deaths, which would still secure T21 better than 3 deathless runs.

[Stroud]

Just did my remaining runs, 10,940 Lift. 3 rounds guaranteed and 3 Ladders remaining. I think its save to say that I will reach T21. I have to play abysmal to not reach it. 
 

[Chrom-ulent]

Yet another player who wipes me on both matches. He's using H!Kagero +3 with some Solo skill - and is Arena Tier 17 (and losing orbs for it) just like the last guy. (My F2P alt has a seasonal at +3 too.) Playing to win must be a soul-crushing lifestyle.

I can't wait to get the offense upgrade. Maybe then I'll have a chance at reaching AR Tier 20.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Chrom-ulent

[Rezzy]

Currently at 11,314 Lift with tomorrow remaining.  Even with a Defense loss tomorrow, and no more offense wins, that should be good enough to plant me in Tier 21 for the week.  The annoying thing is I will be 5 Aether short of being able to do a second match tomorrow.

[Javi Blizz]

Currently at 11054 lift. I think that just winning the match I’ll be safe, but I’m scared that I still have to win >.<

If I break both pots, I’ll have a second match, though

[Rezzy]

4 hours ago, Javi Blizz said:

Currently at 11054 lift. I think that just winning the match I’ll be safe, but I’m scared that I still have to win >.<

If I break both pots, I’ll have a second match, though

Good luck

 

I'm hoping to get a second Duma on the Banner tomorrow.  It's useless now, but once we get the other half of his bonus week, cutting down the Lift loss will help a lot.

 

Why is it that it's always Light/Dark and Astra/Anime?  The Legendary bonuses cycle so that it's not always the same pairs together.

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

Why is it that it's always Light/Dark and Astra/Anime?  The Legendary bonuses cycle so that it's not always the same pairs together.

Probably to always guarantee that there will be one Lift boost and one Lift loss reduction element every week.

And they were lazy and didn't want to specify it by character, so they decided to specify it by element instead.

[Rezzy]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

Probably to always guarantee that there will be one Lift boost and one Lift loss reduction element every week.

And they were lazy and didn't want to specify it by character, so they decided to specify it by element instead.

They could always make sure it was Light/Astra and Dark/Anime, but then again, back to laziness would explain it.

[Ice Dragon]

12 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

They could always make sure it was Light/Astra and Dark/Anime, but then again, back to laziness would explain it.

There'd be no real point in doing that because there'd still be only four combinations (compared to twelve for Legendary elements), so they'll still end up with a fairly repetitive order.

You'll either have Dark and Anima trading off weeks

• Light-Dark
• Light-Anima
• Astra-Dark
• Astra-Anima

or Light and Astra trading off weeks

• Light-Dark
• Astra-Dark
• Light-Anima
• Astra-Anima

or both sets running two weeks at a time, but staggered,

• Light-Dark
• Light-Anima
• Astra-Anima
• Astra-Dark

and all other possible orders are identical to one of the above three with a phase shift (starting from a different point in the same order) and/or with the order reversed.

 

EDIT: Anything based off of the first two is pretty much never going to happen because it's asymmetric. One of the pairs switches weekly whereas the other pair switches every other week, meaning the only possible options are what we currently have (Light always paired with Dark) or the third set above.

Furthermore, there's a problem with getting the same element two weeks in a row, which is that new releases that are unfortunately timed would either be useless for possibly two full weeks or would require the schedule to be changed to match the new release.

And having to manually set the schedule has the one drawback (from IS's side) that you'd need to hard-code the schedule somewhere on the game client, making it more predictable what is going to be released in a particular month.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Ice Dragon

[Othin]

Well, I thought I'd be able to skip another entire day's worth of defense matches, but I got a -80 defense loss just now, so I guess there'll be like a 20-minute window right before the season ends where I might end up losing more lift? That's unlikely, but annoying that I'll have to worry about it if it comes down to an 80-lift margin.

Hopefully that won't be an issue, though. I'm at 10,520 lift right now, and I've got five matches left as long as I get 6 of the 8 aether structures from the first four. So even if I do get another last-minute 80-lift loss, I still have 140 lift of margin. I've got two ladder uses left and I've been doing pretty well so far, so hopefully that's enough.