Aether Raids General Thread

[Stroud]

Already feel the difference between T20 and T21. First 2 rounds have been soso. At least I cannot position my Deirdre mindlessly here. I'll try to take it slow and adapt a bit here. At least I am save in T21-upper. 

[Icelerate]

I am now in the top 3k of Aether raids. Corrin buffing Surtr is a strategy that almost always works. 

Edited February 26, 2019 by Icelerate

[XRay]

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

I am now in the top 3k of Aether raids. Corrin buffing Surtr is a strategy that almost always works. 

What is your team composition like?

I am still waiting for Sharena to be back as a bonus unit, but I have her carry the team along with 2 M!Corrins and 2 Eirs when I need to use that team to climb. My Sharena runs Distant Counter-Guard-Quick Riposte to shut down buffs and Specials.

[Rezzy]

I got into Tier 22 today.  I missed an Aether Pot, so I'm 5 Aether short of being able to do the last match.  I've been lucky enough to get my first 3 Defense matches as successes, which is lucky for me, since the only real though that went into the Team composition was Duma+Legendary units.

[DLNarshen]

I got hosed today.  Used up all three of my Escape Ladders, another full loss, and neither of my wins were deathless.  Either I'm unlucky with my matchups, or the defense teams up here are on a whole different level.  Full buff F!Grima is no longer functioning like it should.  

[Icelerate]

42 minutes ago, XRay said:

What is your team composition like?

I am still waiting for Sharena to be back as a bonus unit, but I have her carry the team along with 2 M!Corrins and 2 Eirs when I need to use that team to climb. My Sharena runs Distant Counter-Guard-Quick Riposte to shut down buffs and Specials.

Surtr has default kit + distant def SS. Corrin has his Yato refine, fury 3, renewal 3, res tactic 3 and def tactic 3 SS. 

L!Lucina has Swift Sparrow 3, attack/speed link 3, distant guard 3 and drive speed 2 SS. 

Veronica has close counter, wrathful staff, close guard and drive def 2. 

Eir has her default kit + reposition and drive res 2. 

I think I'll swap drive speed and drive res 2 SS around because Lucina is better off buffing Surtr's defenses while Eir is better of buffing Lucina's speed. 

Keep Surtr close to Corrin, Veronica and Lucina and he'll have massive def and res on enemy phase. 

My Surtr is +3 merged with HP asset and I have summoner supported him. At base he has 61 HP, 58 atk, 20 spd, 47 def, 36 res. Assuming Corrin, Lucina and Veronica are within two spaces, on enemy phase, Surtr gets +4 def and +res thanks to close guard and distant guard. He gets +4 def and +4 res from Corrin's Yato. He gets an additional +1 def and +1 res from allied support with Corrin. Finally he gets drive def and drive res for an additional 3 def/res. That's a total of 47+12 = 59 def and 36+12 = 48 res without accounting for skills. With steady stance 4, he gets 67 def if getting attacked at close range and 73 def at long range thanks to distant def 3 SS. If attacked at range, Surtr has 54 res which is pretty respectable. With Eir's blessing, he gets 59 res. I guess bold fighter dragons are his biggest weakness but those aren't as common as ranged threats. I forgot taking into account the +6 def and res Surtr gets from def and res tactics from Corrin.  

I'm looking for a res asset Surtr to merge and want to give him DC so that he can retaliate because right now he can't counter majority of the threats and sometimes I get beat due to stalling. He loses guard effect which is a bummer but giving him a slaying axe and noontime will be nice. Eventually, I want to give him special fighter and wo gun so that he can improve his offensive power while also recovering more HP. 

Sharena seems like a good unit for AR thanks to her ability to cancel out buffs.

I change my teams and their kits whenever bonus units change. 

My other team is Tibarn with default kit + heavy blade 3 SS and gale force supported by the two herons and Naesala. 

[Othin]

Got up to 11,320 so far. I don't plan on taking Aether Raids too seriously anymore, really just want to maintain my Tier 21 spot, but it's nice to already be close to the threshold where I should be safe. I'm in the top 1k for now, which is neat but I don't expect it to last.

[XRay]

2 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

My Surtr is +3 merged with HP asset and I have summoner supported him. At base he has 61 HP, 58 atk, 20 spd, 47 def, 36 res. Assuming Corrin, Lucina and Veronica are within two spaces, on enemy phase, Surtr gets +4 def and +res thanks to close guard and distant guard. He gets +4 def and +4 res from Corrin's Yato. He gets an additional +1 def and +1 res from allied support with Corrin. Finally he gets drive def and drive res for an additional 3 def/res. That's a total of 47+12 = 59 def and 36+12 = 48 res without accounting for skills. With steady stance 4, he gets 67 def if getting attacked at close range and 73 def at long range thanks to distant def 3 SS. If attacked at range, Surtr has 54 res which is pretty respectable. With Eir's blessing, he gets 59 res. I guess bold fighter dragons are his biggest weakness but those aren't as common as ranged threats. I forgot taking into account the +6 def and res Surtr gets from def and res tactics from Corrin.  

Those stats look pretty crazy. I think I will give Distant Guard and Close Guard to my M!Corrins if I get those skills.

[Icelerate]

2 minutes ago, XRay said:

Those stats look pretty crazy. I think I will give Distant Guard and Close Guard to my M!Corrins if I get those skills.

I was thinking of using two male Corrins instead of one but don't know how well the team would work since having two average sword units doesn't seem like a smart idea. It'll be hard to pull of tactic buffs when two infantry slots are taken by the two Corrins. 

I was thinking a Null C disrupt unit infantry unit could eventually support with three M Corrins and annihilate the entire map without needing a strong player phase presence. But I'd rather not waste divine dew and feathers on more M!Corrins when I could instead go for other characters like Marth and Titania.

BTW what tier are you on? I'm on tier 20. 

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Icelerate said:

I was thinking of using two male Corrins instead of one but don't know how well the team would work since having two average sword units doesn't seem like a smart idea. It'll be hard to pull of tactic buffs when two infantry slots are taken by the two Corrins. 

I was thinking a Null C disrupt unit infantry unit could eventually support with three M Corrins and annihilate the entire map without needing a strong player phase presence. But I'd rather not waste divine dew and feathers on more M!Corrins when I could instead go for other characters like Marth and Titania.

BTW what tier are you on? I'm on tier 20. 

Yeah, it felt kind of painful to spend 400 Dew on two M!Corrins with an effect that has such narrow use. It did help immensely when I was climbing, so at least it is not something I regret.

I want to give Null C-Disrupt to Sharena too once I get the fodder for it, but I am not sure if I should replace Guard with it once I do. Guard is not particularly flashy, but it does disable a lot of hard hitting Specials.

I am in Tier 20 too. Right now, I am just waiting for Sharena to be back as a bonus unit so I can finally make the last climb to Tier 21.

— — — — — — —

@DehNutCase how do you feel about carry teams featuring quad Kadens? So instead of a carrier with 2 M!Corrins and 2 Eirs, quad Kaden can provide up to 24/24/24/24 in combat buffs and an additional 6/6/6/6 in bonus buffs with Dual Rallies and Def Tactic and Res Tactic Sacred Seals. The carrier is missing out on healing from 2 Eirs, but with 30/30/30/30, maybe healing is not necessary. If the carrier is Eirika, she can push it up to 36/36/36/36, so that is pretty bonkers. Laevatein gets it to like 54/30/30/30.

Setting up buff formation:
[_][C][_]
[_][K][K]
[_][K][K]
C = Carrier
K = Kaden

Enemy Phase formation:
[_][C][_]
[K][K][K]
[_][K][_]
This is ideal formation, preferably with the carrier being the only unit sticking out into Enemy Range. Alternatively, Kadens can all run Distant Counter so it does not really matter if they are in Enemy Range either.

I was reading the Ultra Instinct Marth thread and they have some pretty bonkers numbers there with HK!Marth running Bonus Doubler, so I thought there has to be an easier way to get big buffs.

Edited February 27, 2019 by XRay

[DehNutCase]

4 hours ago, XRay said:

 

@DehNutCase how do you feel about carry teams featuring quad Kadens? So instead of a carrier with 2 M!Corrins and 2 Eirs, quad Kaden can provide up to 24/24/24/24 in combat buffs and an additional 6/6/6/6 in bonus buffs with Dual Rallies and Def Tactic and Res Tactic Sacred Seals. The carrier is missing out on healing from 2 Eirs, but with 30/30/30/30, maybe healing is not necessary. If the carrier is Eirika, she can push it up to 36/36/36/36, so that is pretty bonkers. Laevatein gets it to like 54/30/30/30.

Scores like shit + uses 4 units that are currently 5* exclusive. (And the fifth will probably want Null C-Disrupt in at least one of your teams, so that's 5 5* exclusives used up.)

 

And not significantly better compared to stuff like Nailah + Witchy Wand (to stop the Pulse Skill/Ophelia non-sense) + mobility support + stat support. Although, admittedly, Witchy Wand is a lot less pilot friendly to run. You'd also get ruined by Panic+ if Kaden becomes at all popular, drive positioning means your whole team is just screwed.

And I wouldn't use Eirika, I'd use someone with better bases. 26/28 bulk is pretty easy to beat even if you lose 6 each (and you won't, thanks to refines or your own Prf) & if you're failing to ORKO with 30/30 extra Atk/Spd your issue isn't offensive stats.

 

That said, the team comp is very good at being lazy, but then, 2 Eir + hard carry is also very good at being lazy. And, assuming IS is in the business of making money, the next offensive Mythic should also be pretty good at being lazy.

 

Off-topic Edit: Looks like most of the 'new' T21 people don't have as min-maxed defense teams as the old ones. All my fights so far had Reinhardt casually Vantage CCing everyone to death after sniping 1 or 2 Hardy Bearing or Firesweep users.

(The problem isn't that Reinhardt could do that, it's literally his job, the problem is that they're not positioning properly with their other units to snipe my dancers if I tried that crap. If they were running min-maxed teams I'd be forced to use stuff like Shield Pulse Aegis Olivia, but they're not, so I can just run whatever.)

Edited February 27, 2019 by DehNutCase

[XRay]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

Scores like shit + uses 4 units that are currently 5* exclusive. (And the fifth will probably want Null C-Disrupt in at least one of your teams, so that's 5 5* exclusives used up.)

 

And not significantly better compared to stuff like Nailah + Witchy Wand (to stop the Pulse Skill/Ophelia non-sense) + mobility support + stat support. Although, admittedly, Witchy Wand is a lot less pilot friendly to run. You'd also get ruined by Panic+ if Kaden becomes at all popular, drive positioning means your whole team is just screwed.

And I wouldn't use Eirika, I'd use someone with better bases. 26/28 bulk is pretty easy to beat even if you lose 6 each (and you won't, thanks to refines or your own Prf) & if you're failing to ORKO with 30/30 extra Atk/Spd your issue isn't offensive stats.

 

That said, the team comp is very good at being lazy, but then, 2 Eir + hard carry is also very good at being lazy. And, assuming IS is in the business of making money, the next offensive Mythic should also be pretty good at being lazy.

Hm... How about replacing two M!Corrins with 2 Kadens? One of the Kadens run Atk/Def Link, and one with Shove and one with Swap. The carrier can also run Shove.

[_][C][_]
[_][H][W]
[_][_][_]
H=Shove Kaden
W=Swap Kaden

[_][C][_]
[_][W][H]
[_][_][_]
Swap Kaden uses Swap.

[_][C][_]
[W][_][H]
[_][_][_]
- - - - - - -
[_][C][_]
[_][_][H]
[_][W][_]
And then the carrier or Shove Kaden uses shove to move Swap Kaden out of enemy range.

You get 13/13/13/13 over M!Corrin's 9/9/9/9, although it is not as easy to use. If the carrier uses Shove on Swap Kaden, then that is an extra 12 stat points distributed depending on Swap Kaden's Link.

Edited February 27, 2019 by XRay

[Johann]

After spending nearly all my orbs on the Legendary banner, I was thinking how useful it would've been for Fjorm if I got a Surtr, ya know, for Steady Stance 4, mostly since I can barely ever use Atk/Def Bond in AR. Then I remembered I had a bunch of Silases doing nothing and figured Steady Stance 3 is good enough. The guard effect would be wonderful but +6 Def is in itself a big help.

[Diovani Bressan]

1 hour ago, Johann said:

After spending nearly all my orbs on the Legendary banner, I was thinking how useful it would've been for Fjorm if I got a Surtr, ya know, for Steady Stance 4, mostly since I can barely ever use Atk/Def Bond in AR. Then I remembered I had a bunch of Silases doing nothing and figured Steady Stance 3 is good enough. The guard effect would be wonderful but +6 Def is in itself a big help.

Another option could be Sturdy Stance. It has a similar effect to Atk/Def Bond, just with 1 less Atk/Def, and in comparison to Steady Stance you trade 2 Def for +4 Atk.

[Johann]

48 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Another option could be Sturdy Stance. It has a similar effect to Atk/Def Bond, just with 1 less Atk/Def, and in comparison to Steady Stance you trade 2 Def for +4 Atk.

No way, Legendaries aren't fodder in my book. Surtr is fair game though.

[Diovani Bressan]

4 minutes ago, Johann said:

No way, Legendaries aren't fodder in my book. Surtr is fair game though.

You can get Sturdy Stance from Halloween Dorcas. I don't see any problems to use Dorcas as fodder because I don't plan to +10 him, but I don't know about you.

I wouldn't fodder Legendary Ephraim for Sturdy Stance too.

[Johann]

10 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

You can get Sturdy Stance from Halloween Dorcas. I don't see any problems to use Dorcas as fodder because I don't plan to +10 him, but I don't know about you.

I wouldn't fodder Legendary Ephraim for Sturdy Stance too.

oh yeah, forgot about him. Still, I'm reluctant to use something as limited as a TT unit when ideally I'd end up pulling a Surtr at some point anyway

[Diovani Bressan]

12 minutes ago, Johann said:

oh yeah, forgot about him. Still, I'm reluctant to use something as limited as a TT unit when ideally I'd end up pulling a Surtr at some point anyway

Yeah, I undestood you. I become less reluctant about fodder GHB/TT units when the Heroic Grails were introduced (I foddered Young Azura to Soren). With the exception of Groom Marth, Panne, Aversa and maybe Xander and Winter Cecilia, I don't mind to fodder the others GHB/TT units now, especially Hot Springs Camilla (Hone Fliers is needed, and I can't wait for her appearance in the Heroic Grails).

[Johann]

39 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Yeah, I undestood you. I become less reluctant about fodder GHB/TT units when the Heroic Grails were introduced (I foddered Young Azura to Soren). With the exception of Groom Marth, Panne, Aversa and maybe Xander and Winter Cecilia, I don't mind to fodder the others GHB/TT units now, especially Hot Springs Camilla (Hone Fliers is needed, and I can't wait for her appearance in the Heroic Grails).

Most of them, I actually don't mind foddering many of them, but I'm indecisive about certain skills, particularly weapons, since you never know who'll get something in each update.

Regarding Aversa, I realized that I might have to promote a second one for Astra blessing since I'm so accustomed to having her around.

[Diovani Bressan]

5 minutes ago, Johann said:

Regarding Aversa, I realized that I might have to promote a second one for Astra blessing since I'm so accustomed to having her around.

I am having the same thought. I also need to build another healer and dancer for Anima Season. Maybe Halloween Mia and Flying Olivia will do the job.

[Johann]

6 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I am having the same thought. I also need to build another healer and dancer for Anima Season. Maybe Halloween Mia and Flying Olivia will do the job.

Yeah I hear that. I got lucky and pulled Micaiah on today's banner, which is perfect really. Gave PA Azura a Light Blessing and I'm fortunate to have Legendary Azura too. Worst case scenario though, I could've used a 4* Sylvia or hoped to pull Reyson before the Astra hero shows up

[DehNutCase]

15 hours ago, XRay said:

Hm... How about replacing two M!Corrins with 2 Kadens? One of the Kadens run Atk/Def Link, and one with Shove and one with Swap. The carrier can also run Shove.

Mind, Kaden is definitely better for throughput than Corrin, although Corrin happens to have the better color for a cheap-ass team. Nailah being blue and being stacked to the gills with stats in the Corrin-Nailah pair means that if you're running the  pair you can safely give Corrin TA-3 Axe-breaker, because that's the only thing he's ever touching. This is less of a factor if you just fodder Nailah off for DC & Null C-Disrupt, though.

 

Main issues with Kaden is that he's less reliable + requires more setup. I'd probably run him over Corrin if I had some copies---especially since he doesn't have to only support 1 person, meaning I can run 'carry me' teams with different hard carries---but he gets hosed by more stuff than Corrin does (Panic staves being the biggest one), so the teams he's on don't actually end up being that much more reliable despite your ability to choose between different hard carries. (Between Null C-Disrupt, Dull Ranged, and Null Follow-up users as the carry, for example.)

 

Also, if you run swap and shove then your entire team is completely enemy phase focused. Since you don't get to leverage stuff like draw back and reposition to hit and run anymore*, even if that would make the map easier. I would just practice a bit more with repo so you can use it even while positioning for enemy phase.

*Personally I mostly use reposition to move my units forward, but that's just me. A lot of maps are far easier if I bothered trying to play like a normal hit and run PP team rather than hyper offensive or mix-phase.

[Rezzy]

This is the highest I've been ranked before.  Not sure if this is sustainable.

I've missed a few pots, since parking Reinhardt in range accidentally killed everybody on counter attack a couple times.

[Nanima]

This was the second day in a row where I didn't win any battles. It's such a humiliating and joyless experience that I would probably quit it here, if it wasn't the only way to +10 some of my favs.

First round today was especially infuriating, since I only lost due to a misclick. One Galeforce!Tibarn and Leanne later and I was toast.

All I'll say of the second battle was that it featured two Azuras and a Legendary!Lucina.

Hope those guys enjoy watching me fail. I'll probably drop to Tier 18 again this week. Maybe fights there will be actually winable.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Nanima

[Johann]

10 hours ago, Rezzy said:

This is the highest I've been ranked before.  Not sure if this is sustainable.

I've missed a few pots, since parking Reinhardt in range accidentally killed everybody on counter attack a couple times.

Can miss up to 4 pots before you miss out on a run (assuming maxed out resources), but yeah if you keep playing that well, you're very likely going to get in the top 1k. No doubt you'll make top 3k at least.