Aether Raids General Thread

[Johann]

@Azuris @Hilda Dunno about the rest of you, but so far I've only seen level 3 Fortress (D). Really wish the update was last night instead of probably Thursday night cuz I'm dying to bring Legendary Azura back into the fold

22 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Hell, I think even Grand Conquest is better-designed, as much as I hate the mode.

The partial scoring for timeouts alone make GC way better

[DehNutCase]

42 minutes ago, Johann said:

@Azuris @Hilda Dunno about the rest of you, but so far I've only seen level 3 Fortress (D). Really wish the update was last night instead of probably Thursday night cuz I'm dying to bring Legendary Azura back into the fold

The partial scoring for timeouts alone make GC way better

I saw a 2+1 just this match, and the match before that was +0s (and I didn't pay attention to the fort level since it was a freebie).

 

It might be because I got hit down to T19 and didn't do my matches until now, though.

 

Edit: I'm also Ice Dragon now, I'm running a Tri-color armor emblem team with 2 Eirs. Feelsweirdman.

Edited January 7, 2019 by DehNutCase

[Othin]

This is off to a much better start than previous weeks. Defense was a complete loss, but the only issues on my three offense battles were one missed aether structure and one death. 140-point games are fun.

I'd been planning on using Ephraim for the legendary pseudo-blessing, but noticed right before starting my first battle that my team was only set to score 130 lift and remembered that isn't implemented yet. Gave Camus a light blessing to take his place, and he worked out quite well. He was one of my first upgrades forever ago (I think fifth after Sharena, Anna, Xander, and Reinhardt) but he's been on the bench for so long that he didn't even have a blessing until now. He even got to reunite with Cecilia, who'd had a blessing to override for Aether Raids a couple of seasons ago but still had their S support.

Tomorrow I'll get enough stones that I could upgrade my Tactics Room for the dew to get the next Fortress D upgrade, but I'm hesitant to spend dew right now without knowing how much the aether upgrades will cost. Also I'd rather save up to 500 for the next Escape Ladder, anyway.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

Edit: I'm also Ice Dragon now, I'm running a Tri-color armor emblem team with 2 Eirs. Feelsweirdman.

How does it compare to running nukes and Dancers/Singers? Is it easy to use?

[DehNutCase]

1 minute ago, XRay said:

How does it compare to running nukes and Dancers/Singers? Is it easy to use?

It's hilariously inconsistent.

 

If you go to the general thread you'll see that I lost 3 games in a row, 1 because of a misplay since I'm just doing whatever, but 2 because firesweepers kind of dumpster that lineup unless you can stack enough stats, and I don't have the resources for that.

 

Definitely easier to use than my main team, though. Win or lose I don't think much.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Checked my replays after not having a chance to play until later and I had the most amusing useless successful defense (useless because I'd already lost Lift, of course). I took a hit on Lift at the start of the season, which dropped me back into T18 and erased Reinhardt. Someone then proceeded to YOLO in, heedless of Lilina's raw power and essentially lose two units to her. Took out Surtr and an Eir before they forfeited.

Somewhat similar amusement on offense: Surtr's Atk isn't really overwhelming or anything, especially for my +0 -Atk one. This, however, allowed me to finish up a match where I had to kill the entire rest of the defending team to prevent casualties on my side, but I could let NY!Azura ram into him and not die, allowing me to pick up the last Aether pot.

[Hilda]

5 hours ago, Johann said:

@Azuris @Hilda Dunno about the rest of you, but so far I've only seen level 3 Fortress (D). Really wish the update was last night instead of probably Thursday night cuz I'm dying to bring Legendary Azura back into the fold

The partial scoring for timeouts alone make GC way better

seeing D3 too but thats ok because i run a D3 +1 myself. I dont see LAzura is very nice but not needed on my offense Team. L.Hector with Obstruct isvputtingvin all the work with Bride Lyn and Hrid.

Defense L. Azura has opened up alot. Won 2 out of the 3 defenses and the lost onevthe enemy lost 2 units at least. I really like my new map layout and team setup. its for opponents very tricky to win without loosing 2-3 units. its a mixed team with L. Ephraim, Leavatine, L. Hector, L. Azura and Bride Lyn.

[a bear]

Didn't realize how close having only one Eir (+140) would make things. Think there were around 7k people starting in T19 or so, but 3 perfect runs and -80 on defense only puts me at Rank 3,328. Meanwhile my wife's +160 team is sitting at Rank 1,407. At least getting to T20 is gonna be easy with the extra day.

The update is sometime this week, right?

[DehNutCase]

This is actually the first time in a long time I've had to make a total overhaul of my main team.

The last time that happened was actually pretty much exactly one year ago, when NY!Azura joined the lineup. (And finally let me bring Cordelia permanently into my main team.)

 

Finally ended up making the swap from NY!Azura to Flying Olivia, and swapped around some ally supports too. Lyn got dropped for Legendary Azura (CC Reinhardt needs so much support that double dancer is pretty much mandatory even in a 4 unit area team), and I decided that I'll just chill and use 1 copy of Eir (with an actual combat build) for my 'main' AR team while I run the 2 copy versions for AR teams I can just cheese with CC Reinhardt or Armor Emblem.

 

Pity that I need a S-seal Atk Tactic so that I can run Hone Atk 4 in Legendary Azura's C slot. As is running Atk Tactic in the C-slot means that Olivia never gets buffed, and she does kind of need to kill the greens the rest of my lineup has problems with. (I can't even do the Legendary Azura B-slot Dance Buff trick to buff her because she's a dancer, LUL.)

That's what I get for running two totally selfish hard carries, though. (Dire Thunder Reinhardt wouldn't mind carrying Hone Atk or whatever, but CC Reinhardt and Cordelia both want Savage Blow for personal reasons.)

Edited January 8, 2019 by DehNutCase

[XRay]

5 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

It's hilariously inconsistent.

 

If you go to the general thread you'll see that I lost 3 games in a row, 1 because of a misplay since I'm just doing whatever, but 2 because firesweepers kind of dumpster that lineup unless you can stack enough stats, and I don't have the resources for that.

 

Definitely easier to use than my main team, though. Win or lose I don't think much.

Sounds like letting FV!F!Robin face tank everything with M!Corrin supports is the easier way to go since she got the stat boost during the current seasons.

[Stroud]

The second day just started and I already have -60 def loss. T19 is very motivated this week. As long as I can reach T20 everything is ok. 

Wish the week would have started a bit better. I still need to make some adjustments to my def team. But I cannot complain about offensive.

Edited January 8, 2019 by Stroud

[Javi Blizz]

Yay, it seems that even with light blessings I won’t be able to reach T20 -.-

[Nanima]

Still in Tier 17 and I honestly don't care about getting any higher at this point. The battles right now are usually tough but manageable. I don't feel like stressing out over this mode.

[Garlyle]

This morning I made 280 Lift with 2 raid attacks - only bonus unit in offense is Eir, it's the same budget raid team I used last week. This puts me at 7.820 Lift in total, already half way to Tier 19.

Seems like Ophelia is becoming a popular defender. As scary as she was, Minizura was able to tank her with the Res boost from the Light Blessing. She's doing more damage than Rein before. Surtrbreaker Lilina is still magic, and Rein is still the best to clean things up. Honestly, Eir was only here to break obstacles and give the blessing boost to the others.

[mampfoid]

Lost my first ladder today. Better than last time where I lost both ladders on day 1. 

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, mampfoid said:

Lost my first ladder today. Better than last time where I lost both ladders on day 1. 

I accidentally dozed off after getting home from work, woke up with only 30 minutes left before the reset, and ended up burning both of my ladders due to still being half asleep. Wonderful start for the week.

[mampfoid]

59 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I accidentally dozed off after getting home from work, woke up with only 30 minutes left before the reset, and ended up burning both of my ladders due to still being half asleep. Wonderful start for the week.

Yeah I know that feeling. After AR being introduced, it took me a while before I realized that I need to be fully awake and concentrated to beat this stuff. Not like Story, TTs and so on, or beating armors around in arena. 

[Othin]

Gah. Lost my first ladder to forgetting to use Atk/Spd Bond to get the damage I needed to finish off a Surtr on the last turn. I'd already had one death and lost an aether structure, but on my replacement fight, I got wrecked by a legendary Azura and ended up with four deaths and both aether structures missed. Thought about using my other ladder but I think I'm better off saving it in case of another complete defeat.

[DehNutCase]

8 hours ago, XRay said:

Sounds like letting FV!F!Robin face tank everything with M!Corrin supports is the easier way to go since she got the stat boost during the current seasons.

F!Grima is a legendary, so no light blessing score. (Patch hasn't gone out yet, I think.)

 

If I didn't care about score I'd just run my main team.

[Johann]

17 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

F!Grima is a legendary, so no light blessing score. (Patch hasn't gone out yet, I think.)

At the very latest, it'll come Thursday night since the Laguz banner is Friday, so if you have the time for it, waiting til after the update to do those runs is a good idea.

[Azuris]

17 hours ago, Johann said:

@Azuris @Hilda Dunno about the rest of you, but so far I've only seen level 3 Fortress (D). Really wish the update was last night instead of probably Thursday night cuz I'm dying to bring Legendary Azura back into the fold

Only level 3 for me as well. But then I only did 2 games yesterday, because I couldn't be bothered with a third, even though I know it is going to cost me. And I would really appreciate the update as soon as possible, as well. L Azura will be nice but I miss F Grima even more right now.

My motivation for AR is really low this week, which is unfortunate, because I know I should try, but just can't help it. I guess it will depend on which opponents I get, both games yesterday ended well but they were radically different in their difficulty and I don't think I have the patience for figuring out 2 really long and difficult matches every single day.

 

 

6 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Lost my first ladder today. Better than last time where I lost both ladders on day 1. 

Hooray for improvement. Keep that up and next week you may not need any at all.

 

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

I accidentally dozed off after getting home from work, woke up with only 30 minutes left before the reset, and ended up burning both of my ladders due to still being half asleep. Wonderful start for the week.

Oh, I am so sorry. That is why I really don't like, being forced to play every single day.

[Johann]

1 hour ago, Azuris said:

My motivation for AR is really low this week, which is unfortunate, because I know I should try, but just can't help it. I guess it will depend on which opponents I get, both games yesterday ended well but they were radically different in their difficulty and I don't think I have the patience for figuring out 2 really long and difficult matches every single day.

I don't think it'll be a major setback for you to have only done 2 fights yesterday, it's like at best going to cost you 1 Aether. But yeah, having those really brutal map layouts that require you to think and move very carefully is downright exhausting and the worst part about this mode. It feels like I have worse luck with match-ups in Light season weeks, too-- last week consisted of all easy maps even though it didn't matter.

[mampfoid]

2 hours ago, Azuris said:

Hooray for improvement. Keep that up and next week you may not need any at all.

Yeah, if I make it to tier 20, I'll take a brake. Perhaps I'll put some more energy into map building. 

[Stroud]

After the second day it feels a bit like the week started a bit worse. On most of my offensive rounds I lose 1 unit and already used 1 Escape ladder.
I still have a chance though. The additional day helps. I will try to come up with some new things later anyway. Not long until Deirdre gets her refine. Which means I will search for a raven replacement anyway. H!Henry does not sound to bad for that. I barely see Archer Hinoka.

[Azuni]

Decent week so far for offense (3 160 matches, and 1 140), bad on defense though (2 -80s).

Defense would probably come out better if I wasn't too afraid to upgrade the Fort D to lv3, due to the Fountain upgrade possibly coming out before this season ends. The Fountain upgrade could allow 1 extra game, so if only 140/160 point games are played, -80 every day won't stop someone from reaching Tier 21.

That NY Fjorm bundle with the 400 Aether Stones is going to taunt me forever.