Aether Raids General Thread

[DehNutCase]

Ranked ~500, so there should be about ~1k people in T20. (Unfortunately I had work, so I couldn't check whether I got hit on defense or not. If I did then 1k is a bit too high of an estimate.)

 

Looks like a lot of people are just taking it easy/got screwed by the gacha in AR now, considering I skipped a run and still made top 1k. In a month or so the field should get easy enough that I can make T21 without trying, but there's a risk I actually have to try to maintain rank for now if the top ~1k end up making good defense teams.

[DehNutCase]

15 hours ago, Alkaid said:

Maybe with the fountain upgrade and slightly-extended AR week coming up I might actually have a shot at 21, but I dunno. Going from 1200 points to 1600 to advance is still steep. If many people buy the NY bundle with AR stones we could see more lvl 3+1 defense and/or offense forts and that may make consistent offense matches and occasional defenses harder. But on the up side, Eir as the bonus unit(I assume she still will be during that week) means my team flexibility will be up some, so I can bring better teams. Things have been stiff with only 1 slot really having wiggle room for me this past season. Being able to have a team with both Loki + Aversa again will be very helpful.

The first couple of +lift is a lot more important than the last couple, since we have to assume that we lose 80 lift/day from defense losses. This means that 140 lift/fight is a lot closer to 160 lift/fight than, say, 120 lift/fight is to 140 lift/fight. We have one more week before the extended season, so it'll hit right on time for you to max out at 4 blessings, assuming you made no mistakes in blessing assignments. (If happens to be earth season you can also just F!Grima and have her carry your ass, thanks to the new legendary rule.)

 

Also, a lot of respect for you managing to make T20 despite being only 120 lift/fight, you had it so much harder than I did it's not even funny.

[Stroud]

4 hours ago, Maaka said:

Don't give up on T20 this next week just yet. It may be hard, but if you can play perfectly on offense, you can still get 1400 lift. That leaves 200 lift to lose on defense. If you have some confidence in your defense (and your luck in dodging attacks), you can still make it. Only 3 people may have made it from T19-20 last week, but that was with all the top tier players in T19. There are far more people in T19 now and a lot of them may be relaxing this next week or may just not have the units they need for your defenses, so you may get some good defense matches this week. At least don't give up on it until you lose 200 from defense, because you never really know.

Yeah, at least I can try. I am not that confident of my def team though. I often come up with something where I think it might do it and it gets crushed instantly. xD. But I also get def wins or ninja mode sometimes. This week I had 2 wins and 1 ninja mode day. So I lost 4 times 80 and 1 time 40 Lift. 

Also another merrit is to get a bit better on offensive. If I play good this week I think that I will also do better next week. I also try to come up with a defense team which makes use of L!Azura.

[Othin]

Didn't even get close to advancing to T20, I think my final score was about 8880. Still enough for another gold throne, though, plus enough stones for a level 2 Escape Ladder. Also an offense Flier School: now the only basic structures I'm missing are the defensive versions of the Flier School and Healing Tower.

I wonder how much dew the aether upgrades next month will cost. I'm getting close to another fortress upgrade, but that seems more important.

[Alkaid]

@DarkAlf Congrats to you too on tier 19! It's definitely going to be nice having a week to relax after this one.

3 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

The first couple of +lift is a lot more important than the last couple, since we have to assume that we lose 80 lift/day from defense losses. This means that 140 lift/fight is a lot closer to 160 lift/fight than, say, 120 lift/fight is to 140 lift/fight. We have one more week before the extended season, so it'll hit right on time for you to max out at 4 blessings, assuming you made no mistakes in blessing assignments. (If happens to be earth season you can also just F!Grima and have her carry your ass, thanks to the new legendary rule.)

 

Also, a lot of respect for you managing to make T20 despite being only 120 lift/fight, you had it so much harder than I did it's not even funny.

I have Camilla, Ninian and now Aversa blessed so far.  I'll probably do Loki next, but I often switch between teams depending on the map I face rather than sticking to the exact same one. While I'll have a team of those five, sometimes I don't want Aversa's debuffs against Restore shenanigans, or I need Galeforce Peri, or maybe the double dancer team, etc. So I'll still probably remain at 120-130 on average rather than the max 140 for now.

And thanks, though it's really just due to some decent defense luck right when I needed it. Another week of near-perfect offense wouldn't have mattered alone. I'm not sure if I had it easier or harder on offense than the super Surtr-using people did. I didn't have to lug extra Eirs around but my Camilla also suffered from the same anti-Surtr setups. And she basically does his same baiting role but with way less stat bloat or Wary Fighter. (bless buffs and QR for letting me still tank and kill Axebreaker Aversas all over the place. Those roided Axebreaker Lilinas with Infantry Pulse'd Glimmers were another story, though)

[Azuris]

23 hours ago, mampfoid said:

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

Congratulations, you really achieved a lot after not caring much at the start.

 

23 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

9,520, so I'm completely safe now for T20 even with a fight left.

Congratulations as well and I don't think you will have that much of a problem to maintain the tier until you have more time and motivation again.

 

@Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi @DLNarshen

I'ts sad you both missed it so closely. Good luck next time and maybe you even manage the feat of getting up without light season.

 

21 hours ago, Alkaid said:

Managed to finish my last 2 fights safely, so with 14 hours left and 130 lift I can afford to lose I think I'm actually safe for tier 20.

It was really impressive to see you keep up all week even with your score disadvantage. Congratulations, you really earned it.

 

20 hours ago, Johann said:

Last couple fights for me all had Restore with dancers and super offense units, Guidance, WoM, Dancers, etc. It's a pretty sneaky strategy since it can force units like Legendary Lucina to get the jump on you, and I almost walked right into it.

Yes there are some really mean setups out there and I imagine a lot of people, that aren't too good at predicting AI yet, may fall for that.

And congratulations on making it up to tier 20.

 

10 hours ago, DarkAlf said:

made to T19!  I actually clinched yesterday with 8,300, but Top 3K was still up for grabs.  Today: I won 2 +140 battles with double Eirs!  My final score for this season is 8,520, currently at a rank of 2,507, which shouldn't fall out.

Congratulations on tier 19 and also really happy to see you completed the final goal of your catchup by making top 3k. Now just two more tiers and you can constantly compete with the top.

 

8 hours ago, Maaka said:

Finished the week off at 9860 lift.

Congratulations, I even saw you on the ranking when you didn't care for the last days. What's with the Soleil? Not liking your dragons any more?

 

@Raven @Stroud @Vicious Sal

Congratulations to all of you for tier 19. Well done.

[eclipse]

And I'm in Tier 14 somehow.  I'll take it!

[mampfoid]

@Azuris Thanks! Yeah, to be honest I underestimated the mode a little in the beginning.

Congrats to everyone!

I just read the description of my shiny new throne and it seems there will be tiers above tier 21 in the future. 

[Vicious Sal]

Sadlife, started the day and lost both my ladders, my free win and a regular match. No tier gain for me this week.

[Alkaid]

What happened to the guy who was rank 1? I thought he'd made it to tier 21, but seems he didn't. In the meantime, I'll savor the fact that I'm now first place (tied with everyone else who got 3 perfect runs) until I take a defense loss. At least I'm 3rd on the board, though.

@Azuris Thanks! It's nice we get a relaxed week now until light week is back.

[Vicious Sal]

He hasn’t played yet and is therefore unranked. Though his starting lift will be 11000

Edited December 31, 2018 by Vicious Sal

[mampfoid]

@Alkaid Woa, awesome!

 

/Edit: Why does everyone have Fortress (D) at level 3?? Together with 6 defenders that's going to be pretty hard next week. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by mampfoid

[Stroud]

4 hours ago, Azuris said:

Congratulations to all of you for tier 19. Well done.

Thanks!

I wish I could give my def team a different moveset. I always end up using them in different modes and have something like a Healer without healing skill. Or another unit without support move. And if I change them back they do some shenanigan on def I don't want them too...

 Def started ok. I got only 40 lift loss today. Sadly my def team is still a bit weak to loki. Hopefully I see how it does against other units. I have a match layout which forces the opponent to move fast. No hiding. 

[Maaka]

5 hours ago, Azuris said:

Congratulations, I even saw you on the ranking when you didn't care for the last days. What's with the Soleil? Not liking your dragons any more? 

Thanks! My not caring just means I throw my units in without calculating too hard, and with a super buffed Myrrh with double ward fliers, not much can go wrong. Soleil is just there for grand conquests. Don’t have an armored unit built up, but I do have a good armor killer. I do like to offer my friends something useful since they were kind enough to add me and let me leech off their units lol.

[Johann]

4 hours ago, Vicious Sal said:

Sadlife, started the day and lost both my ladders, my free win and a regular match. No tier gain for me this week.

I find it helps to wait until later in the day to do your runs, especially at the start of the week. The players who have the best defenses should, in theory, be somewhat higher, and may have already completed their runs sooner, leaving the more base scoring players around your matchmaking range if you're fortunate.

side note, we should be getting more ornaments tomorrow, which is interesting since we're currently 3/4 on placement

[daisy jane]

3 hours ago, Johann said:

I find it helps to wait until later in the day to do your runs, especially at the start of the week. The players who have the best defenses should, in theory, be somewhat higher, and may have already completed their runs sooner, leaving the more base scoring players around your matchmaking range if you're fortunate.

side note, we should be getting more ornaments tomorrow, which is interesting since we're currently 3/4 on placement

 

will remember that for next time. aas i lost both my ladder uses
 

[Azuris]

8 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Why does everyone have Fortress (D) at level 3?? Together with 6 defenders that's going to be pretty hard next week.

Do you mean 2+1 or 3+1? I don't think that many have 3+1 yet. I fought maybe one the last week, but I spent the second half of the week going through replays and rematching people that attacked me with Fortress (O) 3+1 so they were guaranteed to not have that on defense. But as Johann already mentioned the time when people can get both might be here soon.

 

5 hours ago, Stroud said:

I wish I could give my def team a different moveset. I always end up using them in different modes and have something like a Healer without healing skill. Or another unit without support move. And if I change them back they do some shenanigan on def I don't want them too...

Do you mean your AR defense? If that's the case, then when you edit your defense team, there is a "Lock" button below your team which will save the setup and skills of your team for defense, even if you switch them around for other modes.

 

4 hours ago, Maaka said:

Soleil is just there for grand conquests. Don’t have an armored unit built up, but I do have a good armor killer. I do like to offer my friends something useful since they were kind enough to add me and let me leech off their units lol.

Aww, that's so sweet of you to care for your friends.

I'm not sure if I should dare to ask, but an elite player like you, that is also so nice on top of that will have had a full list month ago, so I won't even bother you.

[Maaka]

16 minutes ago, Azuris said:

Aww, that's so sweet of you to care for your friends.

I'm not sure if I should dare to ask, but an elite player like you, that is also so nice on top of that will have had a full list month ago, so I won't even bother you.

Lol hardly an elite player, but in any case, I would love to add you if you don't mind being friends. I prefer to just add people here on SF so my list isn't full. Feel free to send me a request whenever! Also applies to everyone else reading this, maybe pm me if your ign isn't the same as your forum name

(If you can't see signatures: my friend ID is: 6260881519)

Edited December 31, 2018 by Maaka

[Azuris]

11 minutes ago, Maaka said:

I would love to add you if you don't mind being friends.

That is really kind of you, thanks a lot.

But I was such a disappointment this GC, forgetting to keep track of the movement types and by the time I was awake and changed them, most would have already made their brigade. So I am not sure I even deserve this and won't hold it against you, should you change your mind.

[Raven]

Thanks to everyone for the 'grats on T19.

It's safe to say that I won't be reaching T20 this week, for sure. Now that everyone's got 6 units in defense, I've lost one unit in two of my three runs for today.

With Surtr out of the bonus, the "lock Surtr in the corner behind a bunch of structures" cheese def strat is nowhere near viable now. I do at least think I can hold on to T19, until next week rolls around and I can take advantage of double Eir once more.

[Javi Blizz]

Same as @Raven, time to wait until next week for climbing a tier. I just hope not to demote, six unit teams are a bit annoying

[DLNarshen]

@DarkAlf @Azuris Thanks for the words of encouragement, and good luck to both of you as well!

I designed a team around F!Grima for this bonus cycle, and as expected she is absolutely monstrous with +10 and bonus stats.  This must be how Surtr players felt like the past three weeks.

[LordFrigid]

Squeaked into T20 with 9420 Lift, so I get a week to “relax” before the run at T21 during the long season.

Since I’m safe in T20 as long as my Lift gain outpaces my Lift loss, I ended up changing my defense setup to have all the buildings off to the side, and the units clustered in one corner (one of the winter maps). I thought it was a reasonably free setup, but someone actually lost a unit to it this morning. Probably an exception, and not the norm, it just struck me as odd.

For some reason I confused Legendary Azura’s Blessing symbol for the defense one initially. I think I’m going to try out some matches using Azura with water-blessed units (to simulate Eir’s blessing reasonably closely) as practice for next season.

[Stroud]

1 hour ago, Azuris said:

Do you mean your AR defense? If that's the case, then when you edit your defense team, there is a "Lock" button below your team which will save the setup and skills of your team for defense, even if you switch them around for other modes.

Oh no. xD Thanks, there are some things I just miss a bit. Need to improve my japanese more.

Also had a good start. But I have 2 rounds to go on offensive. I thought over 20 minutes on my first match and thought that I would offer my Infantry Ephraim for the win, but he tanked Sigurd and festival Micaiah. And Surtr was chipped by Savage blow. Feels good to have a perfect win on a 6 unit team. 

At least this was a proof that Galeforce Infantry Ephraim is worth it. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by Stroud

[DehNutCase]

3 hours ago, Azuris said:

Do you mean 2+1 or 3+1? I don't think that many have 3+1 yet. I fought maybe one the last week, but I spent the second half of the week going through replays and rematching people that attacked me with Fortress (O) 3+1 so they were guaranteed to not have that on defense. But as Johann already mentioned the time when people can get both might be here soon.

I run into 3+1 pretty consistently, on whales.

 

I think the idea is that since they have +10 units already they don't need the fort (O) levels, so they'd rather make their defense teams a bit better.

Whales are probably on average better than low budget players---you're not going to invest in a game you're terrible at, after all---but there's a ton more low budget than high budget players, so a lot of good players are still low budget. Since the skill levels are similar, and it's not like we have gigantic problems with offense, they don't really need another +4 all stats on top of what we have, so they can just be down a fort level and pretend their +10s are +1s or something. (4 hp is probably worth a merge or two.)