Aether Raids General Thread

[mampfoid]

10 minutes ago, Azuris said:

If you don't have full blessings and Eirs, it is closer but at least with 1000 to go it's still entirely up to you. And at least for me it is always better to be able to do it on my own. If I fail, it's because of my mistakes. If defense gets something done for once (or not attacked) that's a nice bonus, but having to rely on it ist just ugh.

Good luck.

Same to you!

Yeah it's up to me, last week it worked but I went with my best units (Cordelia and Cherche) - so this week will be totally open. 

[Stroud]

2 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Tier 19 is my goal for this week. Top 3k would be cool, never made it into to top 10k (no throne yet). 

Problem is, even with my "save" team I wouldn't have beaten those über-armors. Should've used my anti armor team. I may have to calculate 1-2 offensive losses per week since I'm out of ladders. 

I'll save my last blessing for the tier 20/21 promotion to bless a bonus unit. 

Oh damn =/. I really hope that you have a place in top 3k this week. 

At least it should be possible and I guess if you just reach T19 you should be at least in top 10k or 6k. And 140 Lift still gives you a little help, maybe You also get some free pass rounds. 
And good Idea with blessing promotion for a bonus unit for Tier 20. I guess I should also use the last blessings like this. 

Also did my third round. And again I needed to use a back up team. But only because it was the only one which had something against Surtr, who almost stalled 7 turns. The fun thing is the other 4 units got buried from Raven Deirdre. It was more a battle about how fast I can chip down Surtr with 10 Damage starting turn 4. And I really think about giving my third blessing to either Loki or Elise...

 

[Robert Stewart]

Made it to Tier 18 this week. Hopefully I manage to stay in that tier, but I'm not sure - I played a few matches and already lost an escape ladder use.

Ran into two teams with Ophelia - hope that doesn't become a trend, I don't really have a way to deal with her. :/

[Rezzy]

I outfitted my team with my 3 Light Blessings.  Getting 131 points as opposed to 100 is probably what caused my rank to really tank a couple weeks ago.

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, Stroud said:

Oh damn =/. I really hope that you have a place in top 3k this week. 

Wouldn't bet on it, but thanks. ;-)

1 hour ago, Stroud said:

And 140 Lift still gives you a little help, maybe You also get some free pass rounds. 

Had exactly one until now, so my expectations aren't high. If I have some easier maps I'll try the 140 team. If at the end of the week I would need a miracle, I'll go all in with the 140 team. 

1 hour ago, Stroud said:

Also did my third round. And again I needed to use a back up team. But only because it was the only one which had something against Surtr, who almost stalled 7 turns.

I was lucky with my +ATK summer Micaiah, she was the first to receive a light blessing. 

[DLNarshen]

16 hours ago, Azuris said:

Congratulations on making tier 19. Good luck for next season, and seeing your avatar I might have an idea what you need grails for.

Thanks!  I'm excited.  At the end of this season I'll have enough grails to get him the final merge.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Decent start to the season: all three defense losses consistently took units away from my attackers. Turns out that a +0 defense team built to try to stop itself from being rolled by super whales gives non-super-whales a rough time.

[mampfoid]

21 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Decent start to the season: all three defense losses consistently took units away from my attackers. Turns out that a +0 defense team built to try to stop itself from being rolled by super whales gives non-super-whales a rough time.

How does it look like? 

I use some harder to kill units (Sigurd, Galeforce L'Hector) with Elise and L'lucina. WoM/GF Cherche hides in a corner like a vulture to bream in and kill 1-2 units. 

To my surprise I worked today, Cherche killed 1 unit. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

13 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

How does it look like? 

I use some harder to kill units (Sigurd, Galeforce L'Hector) with Elise and L'lucina. WoM/GF Cherche hides in a corner like a vulture to bream in and kill 1-2 units. 

To my surprise I worked today, Cherche killed 1 unit. 

It's basically "all-in on killing +10 Surtr", which actually usually ends up killing other stuff. Spring Breeze with horse Chrom, Gunnthra +2 (-Atk, so worse Atk than if she was +0 neutral...), Axebreaker DB6 Lilina +1, Veronica and Y!Azura. Beefy Surtr tanks are pretty much guaranteed to pick up the Chill Def and Res debuffs. Veronica usually provides another -4 Atk and Spd. Between Gunnthra and Lilina, this can sometimes kill Surtr. Sometimes.

More often than not, though, Surtr shrugs off any prospect of death, then they misposition another unit that gets maimed by sung Veronica.

[Lewyn]

Pretty sad that IMO the best mode in the game revolves around one unit, Surtr.  He excels in other modes like arena as well, but in aether raids with the much more cramped space and the turn limit as well as how blessing can stack he stands that much further above all other units.  Thank goodness he isn't a bonus unit anymore.  

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he's still a bonus until next season.

Also, Surtr, while probably the easiest to squeeze into that role, isn't the only unit that the mode revolves around. There's a number of mixed tanks that just plain break the game when you can stack that much durability on them. Hell, even Odin, King of Bad Statlines, can do well with an Eirful of help. Of course, this is also in a mode where you can pack an absurd amount of burst damage into one corner of a map. This is basically the exact same cycle of rocket-tag-into-absurd-durability that Arena went through, but compressed into the span of a month.

[mampfoid]

18 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

It's basically "all-in on killing +10 Surtr", which actually usually ends up killing other stuff. Spring Breeze with horse Chrom, Gunnthra +2 (-Atk, so worse Atk than if she was +0 neutral...), Axebreaker DB6 Lilina +1, Veronica and Y!Azura. Beefy Surtr tanks are pretty much guaranteed to pick up the Chill Def and Res debuffs. Veronica usually provides another -4 Atk and Spd. Between Gunnthra and Lilina, this can sometimes kill Surtr. Sometimes.

More often than not, though, Surtr shrugs off any prospect of death, then they misposition another unit that gets maimed by sung Veronica.

Interesting. Hmm, I could add my Summer Micaiah to the defense team and give her Axebreaker. 

Not sure who could provide chills though. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Summer Micaiah may not require help from Chills (the Chills and other debuffs are actually there on my team to help Gunnthra be useful, though Chill Res is obviously also nice for the red mage) if you run TA3 alongside the Axebreaker. Unless Surtr runs Svalinn Shield, he's going to be in trouble. This also has the added effect of being pretty scary for Myrrh (and reasonably threatening to H!Myrrh).

[Azuni]

42 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

Interesting. Hmm, I could add my Summer Micaiah to the defense team and give her Axebreaker.

Unless she's +spd or you have a large amount of consistent spd support, she's not breaking Surtr's Wary Fighter due to not winning the speed check.

[mampfoid]

48 minutes ago, Azuni said:

Unless she's +spd or you have a large amount of consistent spd support, she's not breaking Surtr's Wary Fighter due to not winning the speed check.

Mine is even -SPD, but most Sutrs don't have DC. She needs to attack him twice. Or Hrid or Minizura finishes him. 

Next week will be interesting. Don't have any of the Winter units (ok I have Cecilia), but Eir is the obvious bonus unit on her season. The other week I could run Alfonse to kill Sutrs. 

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Summer Micaiah may not require help from Chills (the Chills and other debuffs are actually there on my team to help Gunnthra be useful, though Chill Res is obviously also nice for the red mage) if you run TA3 alongside the Axebreaker. Unless Surtr runs Svalinn Shield, he's going to be in trouble. This also has the added effect of being pretty scary for Myrrh (and reasonably threatening to H!Myrrh).

If a merged H!Myrhh has some support and DC/Lightning+, Micaiah can't touch her without chipping beforehand. 

Chills are helpful also for Hrid, but this is his last week. 

 

[Alkaid]

7 hours ago, Azuris said:

Thanks, I don't like summoning to begin with, so I would prefer some results closer to the average. But my luck seems to only jump between really good and absolute abysmal.

I would say let us save for next Lucina together, but if we get a dark mythic next I might need some and if Grima finally has a good legendary banner in February, I might need that as well.

Same here. I either do really well or get destroyed instead. I'm hoping for a good lineup with Grima too, since I'm still rolling with a -atk one despite summoning 2.. (It'd be nice to have a decent one to use in AR sometime)

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he's still a bonus until next season.

Also, Surtr, while probably the easiest to squeeze into that role, isn't the only unit that the mode revolves around. There's a number of mixed tanks that just plain break the game when you can stack that much durability on them. Hell, even Odin, King of Bad Statlines, can do well with an Eirful of help. Of course, this is also in a mode where you can pack an absurd amount of burst damage into one corner of a map. This is basically the exact same cycle of rocket-tag-into-absurd-durability that Arena went through, but compressed into the span of a month.

I can confirm this works pretty well even with a unit like Camilla. Mixed tanks are just great in this mode with how much overlapping color and damage type situations there are. Even without multiple Eirs or bonus stats she's been doing by far the heaviest lifting in my AR matches.  I even had her tank a +10 A.Tiki the other day and shrug it off, then killed a buffed up Hrid right through his red coloring and 47 defense. Flier buffs, wards, goads and Eir's blessing all together are pretty nuts. It's no broken Surtr + 3 Eir setup, but it's still been very effective.

[a bear]

Gonna be nice if weekly blessing prizes are always a thing. I keep forgetting bonus units exist, so running a 160 team means a regular supply of em. Shame we can’t bless legendaries though since Ephraim is my only bonus unit this week.

As much as I’ll enjoy not having to give a shit about this mode during off-seasons and the eventual T21, I’m still more excited for that “nullify -sweep skills” skill to come out. Not that I can’t deal with Veronica or anything right now but boy am I sick of having to tip-toe around her.

Edited December 25, 2018 by a bear

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

3 hours ago, mampfoid said:

If a merged H!Myrhh has some support and DC/Lightning+, Micaiah can't touch her without chipping beforehand. 

Chills are helpful also for Hrid, but this is his last week. 

 

While fair, on defense, having Micaiah suicide isn't that much of a concern so long as she does enough damage. If it puts Myrrh in a precarious enough position that she need to be wary of your other units, then Micaiah has still contributed greatly to the effort. Besides, Micaiah suiciding may also provide a strategic opening for one of your other units to hop in her spot and finish off Myrrh.

[Othin]

Today didn't go great. Burned my Escape Ladder use, got a -60 defense loss, and had a death on both of my non-ladder games. Could have done a third, but I want to save extra aether for later in the week, to use once I get the week's blessing and can start doing 130-point fights.

I tightened up my defense team a bit, but I think sufficiently sturdy tanks still break through it.

[Hilda]

I started recently to use my Legendary Hector +10 with... Obstruct 3, distant def seal on his B-Slot in conjuction with my new Bride Lyn +10 and the new Christmas buffs and Purgativ... It has made alot of Aether maps alot more easier. Hector basicly cant be doubled due to his weapon and the Enemy cant pass even when danced due to Obstruct 3. Meanwhile Clair Axezure and Hrid wait on the backline after baiting to just go in and obliterate everything.

I never thought the day would come where Obstruct 3 would be usefull ._.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I think Obstruct 3 being useful was almost inevitable with the way the game's bulk situation has been headed. It was really only a huge joke before because no one had enough bulk make it useful (thanks, Rein).

Tonight's runs included a match where the defending team didn't bother to deploy an Armor School. Surtr with an +8 stats stacked on top of the bonuses I was already running is just really dumb. Their Hrid was hitting him once for 7 damage (on the round before Menace activated, anyway). 71 Res left him completely impervious to Aversa and Y!Azura. The silliest highlight of it was that they deployed Lucina as part of their team and Surtr had so much Def stacked up that he one-shot her with a Bonfire counter.

I actually almost got timed out by a +10 Ward spam blob that was huddled around a Healing Fountain simply because 3 Eir can't do much to penetrate their defenses and -Atk Surtr's raw damage output is pretty bad (Sinmara did 90% of the work). Odin once again proved his worth by unraveling it from the side by trashing their Winter Tharja +10. That let my Surtr push his way in and start burning things. They also had a Surtr (with Miracle, no less), but made the mistake of giving him Ward over Menace, so once my Menace was in place, my Surtr could actually do raw damage.

[mampfoid]

5 hours ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

While fair, on defense, having Micaiah suicide isn't that much of a concern so long as she does enough damage. If it puts Myrrh in a precarious enough position that she need to be wary of your other units, then Micaiah has still contributed greatly to the effort. Besides, Micaiah suiciding may also provide a strategic opening for one of your other units to hop in her spot and finish off Myrrh.

With my current defense layout I don't think I can initiate twice on one unit. I'll give it a rehaul once I can upgrade the Fortess (D) to level 2. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Today I met a team with a level 3 Fortess (D). They had a Blarblade Eirika, DB4 Reinhardt, Firesweep B!Lyn, Aversa and TA3 Axezura. 

Good thing I could bait/tank Lyn with Hrid and Cordelia could bait Axezura to move first (and to not dance the mages). I didn't dare to enter with double Eir, so it's basically 20 lift lost. 

(Second match was 140 + double pots, can't complain. Defense match was -80 after -60 yesterday. )

 

[Zelgius]

On Sunday I completely redone my castle defences to try and create better results. So far the team has done quite well so I'm quite happy with it (although I'm going to make a couple of adjustments), and this morning I got to see how my anti-bait worked against Surtr when somebody parked this Surtr in range:

Spoiler

 

Edited December 25, 2018 by Zelgius

[Stroud]

Wow, my TA Deirdre just tanked Axura. Of Course it was because of my Fortress advantage. But today I could pull of a 120 Lift, even with the little mistake.... After I saw my Lift attacked by 80 I just had to try.
I will keep the next round for tomorrow. Today I am just not that relaxed to believe that I could easily make a win again.

And that the opponent build himself in made it easier for me, with that my Deirdre could easily bait L!Lucina and Sothe.

[Raven]

With a Light Blessing and 2 Eir, Nowi is pretty much 1v1ing everything. Any greens she can't take care of can be dealt with by either of the Eirs, Surtr, or Loki.

Getting at least 140 points per fight, I'm simply blasting towards T19.