Aether Raids General Thread

[Azuris]

13 minutes ago, Johann said:

I'm so pumped for this. I also just pulled a second Eir, but even without her, there are a lot of things making the week after next a perfect chance to get to T21. Since the update is the same day as the season start and also includes the Aether Fountain upgrade, T21 can be reached with +30 score even if you have -80 Lift loss on Defense every day.

That is great. But also a chance, that won't come back, so I'm really nervous about that.

And congratulations on Eir.

[Johann]

23 minutes ago, Azuris said:

That is great. But also a chance, that won't come back, so I'm really nervous about that.

And congratulations on Eir.

Yeah I don't expect we'll ever get an extended Aether Raids week unless there's some kind of emergency day long maintenance that results in giving us a super long season. Anyway here's the normal potential T20 high score breakdown by blessing bonus (before Defense losses):

• +10: 11150
• +20: 11200
• +30: 11350
• +40: 11500
• +60: 11640 or 11800*

What's interesting is that you actually end up losing a possible run from having a +60 team during the whole season, unless you lose enough Lift on Defense that your Aether cost goes down juuust enough (we're talking 6 Aether by the end of the week, so that criteria would probably be met after 2 or 3 losses at -80).

Edited December 28, 2018 by Johann

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Just watched a replay that's a demonstration of how greed kills. The attacking team deployed two Surtr +10s with Hack'o'Lanterns and they were indestructable, but got themselves choked up. Seems they realized they were running short on turns to get the Aether stuff, so they made a questionable move to snipe just the one pot with an injured Eir, who ended up in range of Lilina. I guess if that 10% Aether regen was key to getting another run, then it might be worth the 20 Lift loss, but I get the feeling that it wasn't planned, since the player also tried to futilely move Eir away from Lilina afterward.

[Baldrick]

7 hours ago, DarkAlf said:

Eek - I'm sorry to hear that...  There is an 8-day season coming after next season, so that'll be a golden opportunity to try for T19 then.  Good luck!

Maybe if they announce some really good offensive structures, but otherwise, I'm not going to try at all and just maintain my tier.

5 hours ago, Azuris said:

Why wouldn't you aim for 19? Unless you need a really high investment to get the remaining score for this week.

Six-man forts, and the matchmaking means the higher I score, the more optimised formations I run into. The stress from trying to consistently produce perfect runs isn't worth the extra grails, I don't care when I +10 Ethlyn.

I technically could have made it with 7 perfect runs at 130, which doesn't require investment but does require using an even more sub-optimal team.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Baldrick

[Hilda]

2 hours ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Just watched a replay that's a demonstration of how greed kills. The attacking team deployed two Surtr +10s with Hack'o'Lanterns and they were indestructable, but got themselves choked up. Seems they realized they were running short on turns to get the Aether stuff, so they made a questionable move to snipe just the one pot with an injured Eir, who ended up in range of Lilina. I guess if that 10% Aether regen was key to getting another run, then it might be worth the 20 Lift loss, but I get the feeling that it wasn't planned, since the player also tried to futilely move Eir away from Lilina afterward.

you know whats sad? all of my defense losses were only because of Surtr. That unit is just busted. I mean when a fully buffed up Hrid +10 +Atk/-SPD (on top of it Tactic buffs) with bonus unit buffs cant even hit an unmerged Green Axe Armorer Surtr for more then 50% of their health then something is seriously wrong.  At least they suffered 1-3 occasional losses.

[Lewyn]

12 minutes ago, Hilda said:

you know whats sad? all of my defense losses were only because of Surtr. That unit is just busted. I mean when a fully buffed up Hrid +10 +Atk/-SPD (on top of it Tactic buffs) with bonus unit buffs cant even hit an unmerged Green Axe Armorer Surtr for more then 50% of their health then something is seriously wrong.  At least they suffered 1-3 occasional losses.

Whatever offense losses I've had was against a team with Surtr, and most of my defense losses were against a team with at least one Surtr.  He is definitely busted, especially in Raids.  That is why in the other thread I said not having him is like a severe handicap, you're right in that strong reds can many times not even get him out of wary fighter range in a single round which is absolutely ridiculous.  I might just take my Sanaki which already has TA3 on her, and give her axebreaker so I don't have to deal with his BS anymore.  It is just sad that I have to use one of the hardest hitting red mages in the game, give her TA3 and axebreaker just for that purpose of killing a single green unit.  I mean Jesus Christ.  

[Azuris]

1 hour ago, Baldrick said:

Six-man forts, and the matchmaking means the higher I score, the more optimised formations I run into. The stress from trying to consistently produce perfect runs isn't worth the extra grails, I don't care when I +10 Ethlyn.

Ah ok. I totally get not wanting to stress yourself too much with this mode. You could always just play your matches without trying too hard and if you make it up great get the reward and take the next week off to drop again, or try it a bit, it might not be as annoying when more people are gone to higher tiers.

[XRay]

I do not think I will make it to Tier 19 this week. I think I will need to go create a whole new team just for a single mode, and once I reach Tier 21, that team would basically be useless as I will just switch back to my core units. I got two Eirs, four Light Blessings, and like no one to put it on since everyone else that is powerful got a Blessing already.

Fuck this scoring bull shit.

[Baldrick]

4 minutes ago, Azuris said:

Ah ok. I totally get not wanting to stress yourself too much with this mode. You could always just play your matches without trying too hard and if you make it up great get the reward and take the next week off to drop again, or try it a bit, it might not be as annoying when more people are gone to higher tiers.

Yeah, playing it by ear sounds like the best thing for me. If I ever try to promote, it'll be at the beginning of a season when I can have enough resources to put together a high-scoring team that I like to use (Eir doesn't synergise with those teams).

[DarkAlf]

I'm nearly to T19: I notched two +140 battles today, with the Escape Ladder still available.  I'm now at 8,180 with a -80 defense loss today.  I only need 180 points to safely secure T19, which assumes two more -80 defense losses; I still have four battles left, so as long as I don't blow it, I should make it.

3 hours ago, Baldrick said:

Yeah, playing it by ear sounds like the best thing for me. If I ever try to promote, it'll be at the beginning of a season when I can have enough resources to put together a high-scoring team that I like to use (Eir doesn't synergise with those teams).

This is a good idea.  I went crazy last week in my failed attempt to get to T19 in a non-light season, so I decided to relax and just maintain T18.  It's honestly not worth working yourself up if you can't make it work.  More opportunities will come.  Good luck!

[Hilda]

4 hours ago, XRay said:

I do not think I will make it to Tier 19 this week. I think I will need to go create a whole new team just for a single mode, and once I reach Tier 21, that team would basically be useless as I will just switch back to my core units. I got two Eirs, four Light Blessings, and like no one to put it on since everyone else that is powerful got a Blessing already.

Fuck this scoring bull shit.

Dont worry. IS will force Mythics and their blessings down our throat in some form. If not with AR then with something else or with changes to regular Arena or AA.

[Baldrick]

8 minutes ago, DarkAlf said:

I'm nearly to T19: I notched two +140 battles today, with the Escape Ladder still available.  I'm now at 8,180 with a -80 defense loss today.  I only need 180 points to safely secure T19, which assumes two more -80 defense losses; I still have four battles left, so as long as I don't blow it, I should make it.

Nice work. Don't be afraid to be aggressive; even if you win with four units killed, that's still 60 points and means you only need one more run to secure T19.

[Johann]

6 hours ago, Hilda said:

you know whats sad? all of my defense losses were only because of Surtr. That unit is just busted. I mean when a fully buffed up Hrid +10 +Atk/-SPD (on top of it Tactic buffs) with bonus unit buffs cant even hit an unmerged Green Axe Armorer Surtr for more then 50% of their health then something is seriously wrong.  At least they suffered 1-3 occasional losses.

What's nuts is how the best strategy is to simply give him Light Blessing and add some Eirs. I mean it's bad enough that he's more than likely getting HP+10 and +8 to everything else (or 15 and 10 if they knew to S support him), but then tacking on the extra 10 HP and Res is just absurd.

I kinda think the ideal strategy would be to create an archer based team and map that has the range to go after the Eir(s) they try to tuck away, since most units that kill Surtr are either high investment or frail mages like Lilina that Eir herself can handle. Having Lyn, bow Hinoka, and Azura would be huge for something like that, or otherwise utilizing tricks like Firesweep Lunge > Bolt Trap > WoM archers.

[Baldrick]

16 minutes ago, Johann said:

What's nuts is how the best strategy is to simply give him Light Blessing and add some Eirs.

It's so good, they made a movie adaptation of it.

Spoiler

 

[DehNutCase]

9440 lift, so I have to be almost braindead tomorrow to not make T20, since I have 2 fights and 2 escape ropes left. (102 aether today with 104 aether for next fight, lul).

 

I see a lot of Ophelias in T17+, but she's straight up hard countered by the amount of raw RES Eir & Co. can stack, so I'm not sure why people keep running her.

 

Edit: Will probably start chilling at T20, might start dropping tiers if it looks like daily wins are too annoying (I'll be low on free time after January). The 8 day season comes at a really bad time for me, unfortunately.

Edited December 29, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Hilda]

all right my next defense Teamnis ready to go since its Earth season (i think) the Wind Team Hrid Gunnthra Azama Clair and L.Lucina will back down. Welcome FGrima, Felicia, Leg. Ike, Sigurd and Brave Lyn. gonna run all my Earth units ar +10, though i am debating to swap Lyn out for Reinhardt or Spring Camilla. I have no LTiki so double blessings will do :X

[Stroud]

8120 Lift. The suspense is killing me. xD I have 2 fights tomorrow. In theory I could have an additional fight if I gathered the Aether today. But I ignored that, because I need to make 2 clean wins tomorrow anyway. And I just concentrate on winning. If I should lose around 80 lift again tomorrow I just need to gain 160 lift. So I can lose 4 units tomorrow. It should be ok to deal with. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Stroud

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Lost too much Lift on defense to go up two tiers (which, honestly, I don't find a problem because going T18->T20 in one week without spending would be kind of silly), but I did get pleasantly surprised by a successful defense today where my anti-Surtr setup actually paid off. Surtr, boosted by 2 Eir, tried to disrespect my team by walking right up to them. He was actually too fast for Lilina to Axebreaker due to Aversa debuffs and him apparently being +Spd, but jumping right in there like that let Lilina hit him, then get sung and hit him again, which let Chrom finish him off with a piddly 8-damage hit. This was with Gunnthra doing absolutely jack all, so I probably had some leeway there. The attacker promptly surrendered the next turn (even though he probably could have picked my team without a terrible amount of difficulty, I guess he decided to evoke the Escape Ladder).

[Hilda]

1 hour ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Lost too much Lift on defense to go up two tiers (which, honestly, I don't find a problem because going T18->T20 in one week without spending would be kind of silly), but I did get pleasantly surprised by a successful defense today where my anti-Surtr setup actually paid off. Surtr, boosted by 2 Eir, tried to disrespect my team by walking right up to them. He was actually too fast for Lilina to Axebreaker due to Aversa debuffs and him apparently being +Spd, but jumping right in there like that let Lilina hit him, then get sung and hit him again, which let Chrom finish him off with a piddly 8-damage hit. This was with Gunnthra doing absolutely jack all, so I probably had some leeway there. The attacker promptly surrendered the next turn (even though he probably could have picked my team without a terrible amount of difficulty, I guess he decided to evoke the Escape Ladder).

again it required 2 of the hardest hitting red units to take Surtr down who has weapon triangle disadvantage... actually 3 if you count the danced attack individually. That unit should have never been green lit ever.

Edited December 29, 2018 by Hilda

[XRay]

3 minutes ago, Hilda said:

again it required 2 of the hardest hitting red units to take Surtr down who has weapon triangle disadvantage... actually 3 if you count the danced attack individually. That unit should have never been green lit ever.

Have you gotten the fifth slot yet? It helps a lot to be able to run a 3-member-core team of the old Arena days with a 4th member as counter and a 5th member as bonus. I have created two nearly identical teams so far, with the first being my core team and the second team with Cecilia running a Raven set to counter Reinhardt and BH!Lyn.

[Hilda]

1 minute ago, XRay said:

Have you gotten the fifth slot yet? It helps a lot to be able to run a 3-member-core team of the old Arena days with a 4th member as counter and a 5th member as bonus. I have created two nearly identical teams so far, with the first being my core team and the second team with Cecilia running a Raven set to counter Reinhardt and BH!Lyn.

I have a 5. slot on defense and offense but i wont bow down to the menace that is Surtr and rather like to run my Elemental Blessing Units together with the corresponding Legendary heroes. So next week will be F!Grima L!Like + 3 earth blessed units i have.

Offensively i am running Clair, Bride Lyn, Legendary Hector, Hrid and a Dancer (now newly L!Azura). Yes I am not using Eir and yes i havent handed out any light blessings because i cant be arsed to split my barracks into 2 categories: one for AR and one for Arena/AA/PVE stuff. On the offense i have no problems to deal with full Armor Team or Surtr.

[XRay]

3 minutes ago, Hilda said:

I have a 5. slot on defense and offense but i wont bow down to the menace that is Surtr and rather like to run my Elemental Blessing Units together with the corresponding Legendary heroes. So next week will be F!Grima L!Like + 3 earth blessed units i have.

Ah okay. I assume this is for defense. I gave up on improving my defense and I see the -80 as inevitable. I get matched with pretty decent players now, so they are much more prepared to handle my ponies. About half the players that go against my map can win perfectly, while the other half loses 1 unit at most.

[Alkaid]

I started getting surgically hit for -80 lift at the earliest times possible over the last 2 days, so by getting hit early today it's possible I could get hit twice before the season ends tomorrow. If I get 2 more losses, I'm screwed out of tier 20. If I play my last 2 offense runs well and only get -80 one more time, I'll just barely manage to move up.

Still hate this new blessing system. Doing just as well as anyone else but I may still be left out due to "only" 120 lift a match. Had I not gotten lucky with that first defense of the week I'd already be barred from tier 20 despite almost perfect offense all week.

[a bear]

3 hours ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

The attacker promptly surrendered the next turn (even though he probably could have picked my team without a terrible amount of difficulty, I guess he decided to evoke the Escape Ladder).

Had someone surrender to me last Monday just for losing one unit on turn 1 or 2 even though they were otherwise in good shape. Thought it was really early to use the Escape Ladder, but eh. People definitely overestimate the need for perfect runs even on non-Light weeks.

[mampfoid]

I think I did it! Less than 20 hours remaining and I'm 100 lift above the treshold to remain in tier 19!

... I'm curious how many people will buy Aether stones to update fountain and Fortress ... :-(