Aether Raids General Thread

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

12 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Yeah... performance based scoring systems* are pretty much only for die-hard fanatics like me, and even I don't enjoy the mode as much as, say, Tactics Drills. (I don't mind the difficulty of the mode, really, I mind the fact that unlike basically every other fire emblem, you get punished hard even if you restart the map after losing.)

*Since performance based scoring is what brings out the actual cancer teams out of the woodwork---if I didn't lose lift on defense I'd be fine running easyish defense teams like melee flying teams rather than my CC Vantage Rein & Leo combo (Leo's in there to snipe the people who think TA Raven Cecilia counters horses).

It's not just the cancer units, honestly. Rein + BLyn + Veronica is dumb, but stat-boosted Young Azura is also dumb. And the biggest problem is probably the structures that are in the way, but if you break them you unleash hell on the same turn.

[Alkaid]

17 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

Edit: Like, everything is so much easier when I'm comfortable enough with the team to do stuff like this all the time. (It was a 5 unit team, so I crushed it with this---it's only a 2 turn clear because I needed to break rocks.)

This is why I'm sticking to fliers, since that's my thing and I'm comfortable with them. I never use Rein or Lyn for anything so I don't bother bringing cav teams. (sadly their neglect means they're too shitty to use on my defense teams too, though. Rein with no merges and no +atk IV is pathetic) The one cavalry I've got is Galeforce Peri, who I have on one team as a backup option.

[Raven]

Cav team + dancer cancer is ridiculous so I decided to do the same thing and make my own defense team run the ~same strat, and have started work on my own Cecilia to specifically counter the cancer.

Maybe if literally everyone is doing the same shit, IS will take a second look and maybe add some restrictions to defense teams (e.g. no more than two units of each movement type per  team, only one dancer or healer per team (cannot have both), etc.). I have 5 units in my offensive team and I'm still struggling to come out unscathed in most cases precisely because of this, even when fighting against just 4 defenders. When more people unlock 5 and 6 defense slots, it's going to become a royal shitshow.

[Johann]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

Mind that it'll probably be best to bounce between tiers 17 and 18 if you want to take things slow, at T19 6 unit defense teams unlock and I'm pretty sure we'll be stuck with 5 unit offense teams, meaning T19 is when the real cancer starts.

Keep in mind that there's no need to drop a rank in this mode, unlike Arena. Only reason you could ever go down is because your Defense losses outweigh your Offense gains, which requires you score less than 560 Lift from Offense a week.

12 minutes ago, Raven said:

Cav team + dancer cancer is ridiculous so I decided to do the same thing and make my own defense team run the ~same strat, and have started work on my own Cecilia to specifically counter the cancer.

Maybe if literally everyone is doing the same shit, IS will take a second look and maybe add some restrictions to defense teams (e.g. no more than two units of each movement type per  team, only one dancer or healer per team (cannot have both), etc.). I have 5 units in my offensive team and I'm still struggling to come out unscathed in most cases precisely because of this, even when fighting against just 4 defenders. When more people unlock 5 and 6 defense slots, it's going to become a royal shitshow.

I think restricting dancers to one per team might become something they'd change, though I think the real problem people are having is that they haven't prepared units who can withstand multiple hits from units like Veronica/Lyn/Reinhardt. I definitely think the Tactics Room (O) needs a wider effect to better handle those units, since it's very easy to manage them when you take their movement from them. As people begin to build stronger structures, I think there's going to be a shift in the common builds, as hyper offensive units like those can't keep up with the negative effects imposed by structures and are easily dispatched when they're in range of an attack. A 6-unit Defense team will also not be able to easily cram all those units into an unapproachable corner on Spring Breeze, and must instead think of a way that doesn't let the AI unravel the setup.

[DehNutCase]

41 minutes ago, Johann said:

Keep in mind that there's no need to drop a rank in this mode, unlike Arena. Only reason you could ever go down is because your Defense losses outweigh your Offense gains, which requires you score less than 560 Lift from Offense a week.

Don't you lose lift if you lose offensive games? If 6 unit teams become as cancerous as expected there's a serious risk of being dumped down for losing too many offensive matches. And according to the tutorial your defense fort loses a level for that, lul. (Hopefully you get it back after you rise again, without having to pay the cost.)

[Johann]

2 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Don't you lose lift if you lose offensive games? If 6 unit teams become as cancerous as expected there's a serious risk of being dumped down for losing too many offensive matches. And according to the tutorial your defense fort loses a level for that, lul. (Hopefully you get it back after you rise again, without having to pay the cost.)

Nah, if you lose, your Lift doesn't change. You only lose Lift if your Defense map gets a loss, and you can only lose 560 a week, assuming you lose a match in full every day. Provided you earn at least that much from Offense, you won't go down a tier. You'd have to lose rather consistently to have that happen.

The Defense Fort loss thing isn't clear, but from the sounds of it, there's likely a Tier requirement for certain levels of Fortress (D). It sounds like your Fortress will be hit with a penalty if your rank drops to lower than that requirement, but not actually demoted. It goes back to normal when you rank back up.

[Ice Dragon]

9 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Don't you lose lift if you lose offensive games? If 6 unit teams become as cancerous as expected there's a serious risk of being dumped down for losing too many offensive matches. And according to the tutorial your defense fort loses a level for that, lul. (Hopefully you get it back after you rise again, without having to pay the cost.)

No, you don't. An offense loss is no change to your Lift. The only way to lose Lift is to lose defense matches.

[Maaka]

Ran into a mega whale team this morning for my first battle.

Spoiler

All of them were +10 and they had the fort at level 3. Thankfully they put the aether structures right in front, so I didn't have to worry about them and was able to play a bit less aggressively. Thankfully, Soleil is here and laughs in the face of armor units and minizura was easily able to take down L!Tiki. Had Nowi tank the 4 hit double moonbow from Jakob and proceeded to run through everyone else with Soleil.

Spoiler

Pretty terrifying team, but this is why I love Soleil so much.

[DehNutCase]

6 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

No, you don't. An offense loss is no change to your Lift. The only way to lose Lift is to lose defense matches.

Huh, guess I misunderstood the tutorial line:

"If your lift is under 4,000 a failed attacked or defense will not lower your total lift."

Since that implies above it a failed attack would.

[Thane]

Gosh darnit, I've had several defensive victories and some losses where I take out at least one unit, and only lost two matches without taking down a single foe...and of course they were the first games that day to maximize my loss of Lift.

Anyway, I'll be able to buy a fifth defensive unit next week and I don't know who to add. My Keep looks like this:

Spoiler

I'll also have 800 Dew by then, so I'll only lack 200 for the next Fortress upgrade. I suppose the Fortress (O) is more important, huh?

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, DehNutCase said:

Huh, guess I misunderstood the tutorial line:

"If your lift is under 4,000 a failed attacked or defense will not lower your total lift."

Since that implies above it a failed attack would.

I mean, strictly speaking, it isn't wrong.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

One other thing they could do is make offensive schools stronger. -5 all stats at base for the unit type at rank 1 would help make people think twice about just cramming as many ranged cavalry into a corner as they can manage. As is, I don't know if anyone even cares to use them, since everything else other than maybe the Catapult provides far more utility than a paltry -2 all stats.

[Raven]

31 minutes ago, Thane said:

Gosh darnit, I've had several defensive victories and some losses where I take out at least one unit, and only lost two matches without taking down a single foe...and of course they were the first games that day to maximize my loss of Lift.

Anyway, I'll be able to buy a fifth defensive unit next week and I don't know who to add. My Keep looks like this:

  Hide contents

I'll also have 800 Dew by then, so I'll only lack 200 for the next Fortress upgrade. I suppose the Fortress (O) is more important, huh?

I'm in the same boat. I'll probably stick to cancer strats and throw a Surtr in the corner behind a ton of structures.

[Hilda]

3 hours ago, Raven said:

Cav team + dancer cancer is ridiculous so I decided to do the same thing and make my own defense team run the ~same strat, and have started work on my own Cecilia to specifically counter the cancer.

Maybe if literally everyone is doing the same shit, IS will take a second look and maybe add some restrictions to defense teams (e.g. no more than two units of each movement type per  team, only one dancer or healer per team (cannot have both), etc.). I have 5 units in my offensive team and I'm still struggling to come out unscathed in most cases precisely because of this, even when fighting against just 4 defenders. When more people unlock 5 and 6 defense slots, it's going to become a royal shitshow.

i think this is the point of a strong defense. denieing you your win and the other one the loss of points. I am faceing those teams too and I dont make it out with all units, there is nothing wrong with that. In the process of building a smite Galeforce Team with Valter, Hrid, a Dancer, a Bonus unit and Legendary Hector. Though i need to open up the 5. Slot in my offense Team.

Besides Cecilia there are different counters for those Teams a Double distant def Micaiah can work great too.

[daisy jane]

okay now that i am on level 12 i have to invest in my defense i suppose.
or i can just be nice and let people have free access to my aether pots

[Tree]

38 minutes ago, daisy jane said:

okay now that i am on level 12 i have to invest in my defense i suppose.
or i can just be nice and let people have free access to my aether pots

Yeah, currently at tier 13. I just have a nice winter holiday scene with easy access to the aether, and Lyn holding a pretty present with a bow (not the dangerous kind). I hope it makes someone happy.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I dunno how some of you are shooting up the ranks lol I'm only on Tier 14 and I seem to be having a hard time just maintaining that, there's way too many cancer teams.

[Venmi]

Running dancer and regular Micaiah as well as the fifth offense unit has made the raids easier.  Still lost one unit this week, but only one so far.  Most used team is mini Azura, dancer Micaiah, Micaiah, Sothe, and Zelgius.  Might switch out Zelgius- he hasn't been too useful yet.  Maybe Ike?  I'd like to keep the team as Tellian as possible.

[daisy jane]

52 minutes ago, Tree said:

Yeah, currently at tier 13. I just have a nice winter holiday scene with easy access to the aether, and Lyn holding a pretty present with a bow (not the dangerous kind). I hope it makes someone happy.

Game should reward us with some free 5*'s when we pull. 
i have the winter scene too. basically. people can come in and kill my people and get the pots. I am nice. 

49 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I dunno how some of you are shooting up the ranks lol I'm only on Tier 14 and I seem to be having a hard time just maintaining that, there's way too many cancer teams.

me either. i was surprised i was at 12. i basically want enough grails to get some of the units I didn't get the first time like arden or elliwood or finn or something.
it's bad enough i have to deal with Reinhardt and Veronica and Lyn and a Dancer all the time in arena, dealing with them in Aether raids is tiring and it's (once again). not fun for me.  i legitimately would rather have maps where you can win them, vs. this. 

[Tree]

12 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I dunno how some of you are shooting up the ranks lol I'm only on Tier 14 and I seem to be having a hard time just maintaining that, there's way too many cancer teams.

11 hours ago, daisy jane said:

me either. i was surprised i was at 12. i basically want enough grails to get some of the units I didn't get the first time like arden or elliwood or finn or something.
it's bad enough i have to deal with Reinhardt and Veronica and Lyn and a Dancer all the time in arena, dealing with them in Aether raids is tiring and it's (once again). not fun for me.  i legitimately would rather have maps where you can win them, vs. this. 

It was really frustrating at first, and then I realized it wasn't worth playing if it wasn't fun. So I took the casual approach and bought the fifth unit which sometimes gets sacrificed to get the enemy moving so I can set things up better. (This makes it much more likely that I'll at least get 80 lift to compensate for losses. Going for full wins on hard maps often results in no lift at all.) I've seen some say that the lift is reset to the bottom of your current tier for each season, but that doesn't seem to happen. Maybe that only occurs in upper tiers? Eventually I'll reach the point where the teams are too hard and I lose more points than I gain in a season. At that point, I'll just stay below that tier and collect the rewards.

[redlight]

Sacred Spear made a nice vid about AR with one of the topics being the horse cancer issue as well as touching upon the stamina issue (the entire video isn't only that as it's really a overview of the mode)

Spoiler

 

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by silveraura25

[Johann]

2 hours ago, Tree said:

I've seen some say that the lift is reset to the bottom of your current tier for each season, but that doesn't seem to happen. Maybe that only occurs in upper tiers?

It only applies in Tier 11 and up. For half of the tiers after that, it's still 400 Lift between tier, so even if you're playing rather casually, it should be easy enough to get up to at least like, Tier 16. In any case, you shouldn't lose a tier unless you're getting absolutely destroyed on Defense (a full loss every single day, which is very rare to have happen) and you can't make up that much in Offense score. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

My defense recently lost to a team where the player really seems to hate colourless. TA Blarraven+ Robin, Naglfar Lyon and Gronnraven+ Inigo all on the same team. It very quickly cleaned up everyone other than Azura, then he started sandbagging to go get my Aether stuff, which is where being too fast actually killed someone. Everyone in range on my Azura could tank a hit from her... until the Bolt Tower went off and suddenly their Azura couldn't.

[Johann]

Bleah, my defense results are all from absurd whales, I doubt I'll be able to maintain Lift over 7200 (from 6000 start) unless I can either get some better results, or go two days without anyone attacking. Guess it means I don't have to think too hard this week if it reaches a point of impossibility.

[Vaximillian]

3 hours ago, silveraura25 said:

Sacred Spear made a nice vid about the mode that resonates with my opinions of it

How about putting, y’know, a summary of the video when you’re linking to it?