Aether Raids General Thread

[Anacybele]

6 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

You can use Nino, they can help deal with Flier Balls because you can chip away at their health all at once but you'll likely need a way for her to charge it quickly since only Ophelia can easily enter a map with Blazing Wind or Blazing Light ready to go.

Okay then, though I do have other AoE units as well. They could probably do it too.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

I did forget about having several teams, but I have no idea what I'm going up against, so I have no idea what counters/skills/seals I'm supposed to put in. How am I supposed to know what offense teams to set up?

You should build up several different teams. It is less about countering specific defense units and more about countering defense strategies. Instead of looking at Surtr, look at the map layout and the defense team's skill set to see what the defending player is trying to accomplish. Is the defense team trying to stall you with lots of Wary Fighter and Ward Armor? If so, then pick a Player Phase team to counter it.

When you create a Player Phase team to counter stall teams, only run units with Player Phase potential since you need to kill your targets quickly and then Reposition back out and then you can take your time killing the unit in the corner. Since you only have a limited amount of team slots, it is good idea to field a team that can utilize multiple different strategies (provided the strategies mesh well together). For example, Counter-Vantage units have mixed phase potential and it meshes well with a Player Phase team, so when you create your Player Phase team, you can run 2 Dancers/Singers, one Counter-Vantage nuke, one Firesweep nuke, and leave the last slot empty for the bonus unit. If you specifically have trouble with Surtr, THEN you assign the red unit on the team with anti Surtr duty.

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

I don't have some of that. I don't have any units with Galeforce and I don't really use any units that are from Blazing Sword except for Nino (and only because she's good). I don't know what being from FE7 has to do with anything anyway? I don't have any Firesweep units with Savage Blow either.

54 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

But I don't have Lewyn or Ophelia. And since I can't stand Ophelia's design, I'd never use her anyway.

Unfortunately, Aether Raids is not free player friendly past a certain point and you need to invest in expensive units and game play strategies that do not appeal to you.

If you do not like Ophelia, Tailtiu and Ishtar can spam Blazing Specials and run Hardy Bearing, but you will need quite a few Infantry Pulse support to get them going.

Edited April 2, 2019 by XRay

[Anacybele]

4 minutes ago, XRay said:

You should build up several different teams. It is less about countering specific defense units and more about countering defense strategies. Instead of looking at Surtr, look at the map layout and the defense team's skill set to see what the defending player is trying to accomplish. Is the defense team trying to stall you with lots of Wary Fighter and Ward Armor? If so, then pick a Player Phase team to counter it.

Except like I said, I don't know what defensive strategies I'm going up against, so how do I know which units to put in which teams? I can't put together a new team after choosing to enter a battle.

6 minutes ago, XRay said:

Unfortunately, Aether Raids is not free player friendly past a certain point and you need to invest in expensive units and game play strategies that do not appeal to you.

Then this mode definitely needs changes, because up to this point, everything else has been doable with F2P stuff, even if it requires a little SI or whatnot. Suddenly becoming pay to win is not cool.

[Icelerate]

Is Serra with wrathful absorb a good candidate for omega tank in AR due to being colourless and not having armour, flier, cavalry or dragon effectiveness weakness? I have a large number of Serra copies lying around and she worked very well in TT. 

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Except like I said, I don't know what defensive strategies I'm going up against, so how do I know which units to put in which teams? I can't put together a new team after choosing to enter a battle.

When you commit to enter a battle but before starting the battle, you can preview the enemy team to see what the map layout and what the foes' skill sets are and you can choose one of your teams to counter their defense team.

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Then this mode definitely needs changes, because up to this point, everything else has been doable with F2P stuff, even if it requires a little SI or whatnot. Suddenly becoming pay to win is not cool.

Not every mode has to be completely free to play, and Aether Raids is technically free to play, it is just that free players are less likely to score as high as paying players.

[Seafarer]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Then this mode definitely needs changes, because up to this point, everything else has been doable with F2P stuff, even if it requires a little SI or whatnot. Suddenly becoming pay to win is not cool.

Aether Raids is one of the pseudo-PvP modes. The whale players paid their way to the top, so it's only fair that they have some advantages.

For what it's worth, I'm in Tier 20 while being wholly free-to-play, so it is doable with free-to-play stuff (and I don't have Ophelia, either). You just have to make up the paying players' advantages by being good at putting your units in the right places to make the enemy move how you want.

[Zelgius]

Last night I got round to putting together a dark defence team with Yune, though I'm one dark blessing short of a full team. It'll be interesting to see how they do.

I've also started using my brigade team spaces to group together my defence and offence AR units. This way I can quickly change to the right skillsets when required. It's also handy because you can set it to the right team member order for unit behaviour when a new season starts.

[Vicious Sal]

4 hours ago, Anacybele said:

Except like I said, I don't know what defensive strategies I'm going up against, so how do I know which units to put in which teams? I can't put together a new team after choosing to enter a battle.

Then this mode definitely needs changes, because up to this point, everything else has been doable with F2P stuff, even if it requires a little SI or whatnot. Suddenly becoming pay to win is not cool.

I got in T21 in december or maybe January or so with my only merged unit being Aversa, who was +4 at the time, and no units had 5star inherited skills.  So this mode is possible while staying F2P. 

Also, whales are not the ones on top. They have an advantage, yes, but they usually think their +10 tanks can just facestomp a map. I have had multiple instances where a user with +10 Winter Feh, Halloween Myrrh and Legendary Tiki tried to attack my 0 merge defense team and just got wrecked because they don’t check skills. They think they can outstat people, and AR is a lot more complicated than just stats. 

So no, the whales are not always on top. They are high because of their inherent advantage of having a lot of resources but the truly skilled players are at the top, and some of those are completely F2P.

This mode rewards insight, knowledge of the AI, attention to detail, strategising and careful planning. 

(Regarding that last paragraph, I do none of that nowadays, I do not have the time to maintain top 1K and the difference in rewards between Top 1 K and top 6 K is negligible for me considering the time investment) 

Just staying T21 is enough for me. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Vicious Sal

[Javi Blizz]

Being T21 F2P, while not easy, is possible @Anacybele. As long as you use Eir during Light seasons, you should arrive here. Although pulling a second Eir is useful, one user here made T21 with only one (don’t remember who). 

And I really don’t need more than one team. Maybe you find something useful here. I’ll put the skill inheritance between () and sacred seal between []: Eir (reposition) [guidance], Eir, Aversa (Axebreaker) [HP/Res 1], Surtr* [Brazen Atk/Res], Bonus Unit/Legendary Hero. 

As you can see, they have almost their vanilla skill set. When Eir is a bonus unit, I use a Legendary in the fitfh slot. When she isn’t, I use a Legendary as the bonus unit. I haven’t faced yet a week where neither Eir or one of the legendaries I have were bonus. 

*BUT, I know you hate Surtr (I have read you in several threads), so you could change him for another unit. However, that unit may require some major skill inheritance, since it’s not Surtr, after all. My Surtr does not run DC, so maybe your Frederick could work, although by the time I imagine that he will be blessed for your Arena Core. So, the best way I can think to emulate Surtr here could be Sheena**, maybe like this:

Sheena: +Def +1 merge (to have the same defense as neutral Surtr, and the same Res)

Assist: Swap

Special: Aether (self sustain)

Hack-o’-Lantern+ [Res]: to have the guard effect and to improve her ability to ploy.

A: Steady Stance 3/Steady Breath. While the breath would be better, the stance is cheaper. Maybe if you have a spare Surtr, you can give her Steady Stance 4 and use another weapon.

B: Wary Fighter. Just like Surtr.

C: Atk Ploy. Since you don’t have access to Surtr’s Menance, and you can’t rely on having Aversa’s Night active every turn, this is the nearest way to imitate it. Debuffing attack is the best stat to debuff for sustainability.

S: Def Ploy. With this, you try to imitate the offensive use of Surtr’s Menance. Although not improving your stats, at least you debuff oponnents, so your other units can make it useful, and Sheena herself takes advantage to make up her lower Atk, since the ploy debuff is higher. 

Allies: In my current set up (replacing Surtr for this Sheena), you could give [Drive Atk] to the second Eir for helping Sheena (imitating the bonus from Surtr’s Menance) and Drive Def to the bonus unit. Having Rally Def/Res (from a 4* Roderick) to that Eir or the bonus unit could be useful, as long as there’s no Aversa in the other team.

 

** If you neither like Sheena, then, I can’t think on any other way to help. 

 

Edit: also, just try not tu push yourself too hard. Try to get your O Fort to level 4 while practicing in T19 (I think you can reach it safely) and don’t improve defense until you think you can try for T20 and T21. It’s usual to lose matches when starting a mode like this. Also, not making perfect wins is not a drama. Sometimes I need to sacrifice 1-2 units, and even then, you can climb in the ladder. Make sure than you max your Escape Ladder and Aether Structures and you will end up climbing by natural path. At the end of the day is not an IF, is a WHEN 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Javi Blizz

[Chrom-ulent]

I was wondering why I was still struggling despite upgrading my offense fort. Turns out I forgot to put the Savage Blow seal back on Nanna after shuffling it around trying to solve maps, and also forgot to put on the bonus structure on offense.

[Diovani Bressan]

9 hours ago, Seafarer said:

For what it's worth, I'm in Tier 20 while being wholly free-to-play, so it is doable with free-to-play stuff (and I don't have Ophelia, either). You just have to make up the paying players' advantages by being good at putting your units in the right places to make the enemy move how you want.

Yeah. It's doable. I am in Tier 20 too, and I reached this tier without using units like Ophelia and L!Azura (I just got Azura in the Yune Banner). For F2P players, Light Season is the best season to try to reach next tier, because Eir is a F2P unit.

We need to be calm and make a good strategy against the enemy team. AR isn't a mode that we can use a bulky unit and tank all damage. This may not work. Skills like AoE Specials, Vantage and Hardy  Bearing are very common in this mode, we need to think twice before do a move.

[Anacybele]

6 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

I got in T21 in december or maybe January or so with my only merged unit being Aversa, who was +4 at the time, and no units had 5star inherited skills.  So this mode is possible while staying F2P. 

Also, whales are not the ones on top. They have an advantage, yes, but they usually think their +10 tanks can just facestomp a map. I have had multiple instances where a user with +10 Winter Feh, Halloween Myrrh and Legendary Tiki tried to attack my 0 merge defense team and just got wrecked because they don’t check skills. They think they can outstat people, and AR is a lot more complicated than just stats. 

So no, the whales are not always on top. They are high because of their inherent advantage of having a lot of resources but the truly skilled players are at the top, and some of those are completely F2P.

This mode rewards insight, knowledge of the AI, attention to detail, strategising and careful planning. 

(Regarding that last paragraph, I do none of that nowadays, I do not have the time to maintain top 1K and the difference in rewards between Top 1 K and top 6 K is negligible for me considering the time investment) 

Just staying T21 is enough for me. 

 

5 hours ago, Javi Blizz said:

Being T21 F2P, while not easy, is possible @Anacybele. As long as you use Eir during Light seasons, you should arrive here. Although pulling a second Eir is useful, one user here made T21 with only one (don’t remember who). 

And I really don’t need more than one team. Maybe you find something useful here. I’ll put the skill inheritance between () and sacred seal between []: Eir (reposition) [guidance], Eir, Aversa (Axebreaker) [HP/Res 1], Surtr* [Brazen Atk/Res], Bonus Unit/Legendary Hero. 

As you can see, they have almost their vanilla skill set. When Eir is a bonus unit, I use a Legendary in the fitfh slot. When she isn’t, I use a Legendary as the bonus unit. I haven’t faced yet a week where neither Eir or one of the legendaries I have were bonus. 

*BUT, I know you hate Surtr (I have read you in several threads), so you could change him for another unit. However, that unit may require some major skill inheritance, since it’s not Surtr, after all. My Surtr does not run DC, so maybe your Frederick could work, although by the time I imagine that he will be blessed for your Arena Core. So, the best way I can think to emulate Surtr here could be Sheena**, maybe like this:

Sheena: +Def +1 merge (to have the same defense as neutral Surtr, and the same Res)

Assist: Swap

Special: Aether (self sustain)

Hack-o’-Lantern+ [Res]: to have the guard effect and to improve her ability to ploy.

A: Steady Stance 3/Steady Breath. While the breath would be better, the stance is cheaper. Maybe if you have a spare Surtr, you can give her Steady Stance 4 and use another weapon.

B: Wary Fighter. Just like Surtr.

C: Atk Ploy. Since you don’t have access to Surtr’s Menance, and you can’t rely on having Aversa’s Night active every turn, this is the nearest way to imitate it. Debuffing attack is the best stat to debuff for sustainability.

S: Def Ploy. With this, you try to imitate the offensive use of Surtr’s Menance. Although not improving your stats, at least you debuff oponnents, so your other units can make it useful, and Sheena herself takes advantage to make up her lower Atk, since the ploy debuff is higher. 

Allies: In my current set up (replacing Surtr for this Sheena), you could give [Drive Atk] to the second Eir for helping Sheena (imitating the bonus from Surtr’s Menance) and Drive Def to the bonus unit. Having Rally Def/Res (from a 4* Roderick) to that Eir or the bonus unit could be useful, as long as there’s no Aversa in the other team.

 

** If you neither like Sheena, then, I can’t think on any other way to help. 

 

Edit: also, just try not tu push yourself too hard. Try to get your O Fort to level 4 while practicing in T19 (I think you can reach it safely) and don’t improve defense until you think you can try for T20 and T21. It’s usual to lose matches when starting a mode like this. Also, not making perfect wins is not a drama. Sometimes I need to sacrifice 1-2 units, and even then, you can climb in the ladder. Make sure than you max your Escape Ladder and Aether Structures and you will end up climbing by natural path. At the end of the day is not an IF, is a WHEN 

I do have to level up my O fort, that much is true. And I see. Though my biggest problems are getting around ridiculous traps and such more than actually killing enemies. Though some of the time I can't kill the enemies either. But traps and the turn limit more often hurt me. I at least still think IS should change it to where you're not allowed to box in one unit behind a bunch of objects. How do I deal with unavoidable traps and my units being dropped to 1HP or everyone's movement constantly being limited to 1?

I don't even have Surtr, tbh. I foddered the only one I ever pulled.

I'm aware it's okay to sacrifice units here. I'm fine with it if I have to do so to get a win, yeah.

If I reach tier 21, I'm fine with staying there too.

[Usana]

Well apparently I wasn't paying enough attention and dropped to 19 after last week, must have gotten knocked down in the last few hours. I was safe before I left for work. Which sucks cause rising to 20 was such a pain in the ass in the first place. I would have been happy just maintaining it, but last week all defense forts were 4+1 which combined with it not being light season meant no bonus stats for my units. And when every map I get is an anti-EP player map, well I get burned out fast. Really don't enjoy this mode, but want Grails. I don't even have enough to merge up one yet. And I like more than one of the units.

[NekoKnight]

10 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Is Serra with wrathful absorb a good candidate for omega tank in AR due to being colourless and not having armour, flier, cavalry or dragon effectiveness weakness? I have a large number of Serra copies lying around and she worked very well in TT. 

I had someone tank my choke using a +10 CC Vantage Absorb Sera with Corrin support. She had Summoner Support too but she might work for you. That said, I don't know how well she will handle some of the nukes you'll face like Ophelia. There are of course weaknesses to this. This build assumes she'll be able to counter and heal herself which means against Dazzle and Firesweep (or Hardy Bearing units that disable your Vantage) she might not get off that crucial self heal to save herself.

Edited April 2, 2019 by NekoKnight

[Landmaster]

Loss of the day is -65, not a huge reduction but anything is better than eating 80s every day.

[Anacybele]

One more good win and I should finally reach tier 17. Though I feel like I actually generally got mostly easy battles despite that I made two more teams and changed up my old one (see that map I ran into that had four Surtrs and a healer lol. Bunny Palla made short work of that. So glad I wanted her and got her! She has saved me so much agony because of fucking Surtr since she usually kills him in one go!). I built a Water team, Wind team, and Light + Dark team. Eir is my only (viable) bonus unit though, so she had to be included in all three. But at least she works for the Light/Dark team along with Yune.

Still, glad I got a good number of wins, finally. Now I just need to wait for my Aether to restore lol.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Anacybele

[Diovani Bressan]

45 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

Loss of the day is -65, not a huge reduction but anything is better than eating 80s every day.

I got -64, because my Yune is +1. Way better than a -80, that's for sure.

[Landmaster]

2 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I got -64, because my Yune is +1. Way better than a -80, that's for sure.

Does merging reduce lift loss more than two separate Yunes?

[Ice Dragon]

First challenge of the day was a victory. The challenger surrendered after my danced Eir killed their tank.

 

6 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

Does merging reduce lift loss more than two separate Yunes?

Each merge is -1 Lift loss. Each additional Yune is -5 Lift loss multiplied by the number of Dark blessings. I forget what the maximum Lift loss prevention is.

It's more efficient to run 2 copies of Yune instead of merging, but that takes up an additional unit slot that could be used for another combat unit.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Ice Dragon

[Rinco]

4 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

Does merging reduce lift loss more than two separate Yunes?

No. 2 Yunes with the other units with dark blessings lower your lift loss by 40 points. 1 Yune +1 gives you 26 reduction. 

[Landmaster]

That makes sense, thanks for the answers~

 

[Diovani Bressan]

23 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

Does merging reduce lift loss more than two separate Yunes?

I decided to merge my Yunes to nullify her bane, which was -HP (a super bane). I did the same with my Duma, which also is +1.

I don't know if two Yunes would make a good defensive team. They would cover all the battlefield with her C-Skill, but she is pretty fragil. I was thinking to give Yune Mystic Boost, so she can tank dragons, but her main opponent is still Eir.

And like @Ice Dragon said about the 2nd Yune unit slot, I prefer to use a different unit instead of another Yune, to make the team more diversified.

Edit: A team with 2 Yunes could work if you have a Hríd in your team, for example.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Diovani Bressan

[Rinco]

I'm using 2 Yunes, Aversa, L!Azura, Ophelia and Celica this week. First attempt to attack my map was a def win, so that works for me

[Johann]

3 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I don't know if two Yunes would make a good defensive team. They would cover all the battlefield with her C-Skill, but she is pretty fragil. I was thinking to give Yune Mystic Boost, so she can tank dragons, but her main opponent is still Eir.

The funny/sad thing about Yune's C-Skill is that it's generally up against players getting +5 or +10 Res and buffs, so there are plenty of units that won't be affected, and even still, -5 to a single stat isn't a big deal compared to stuff like Aversa's Night. The real strength is the HP being competitive against Aversa/Loki/Tactics Room

[Icelerate]

I fought someone who copied Akariss' set up and ended up beating them flawlessly. I thought I was screwed there for a second.