Aether Raids General Thread

[Rezzy]

26 minutes ago, Johann said:

Loki's one of the best AR offense units, up there with Aversa. I'd do it since there aren't many units with such consistent use to warrant a permanent slot on a team.

Regarding bonus heroes, the rotation always goes like this:

• 1 Mythic hero on rotation (judging by Eir's return in that slot), so currently Eir and Duma til late March
• 5 new heroes (so next is Keaton, Velouria, Kaden, Selkie, and Panne)
• If there are less than 5 new heroes, they'll substitute the extra slots with seemingly random 3-4* units
• 2 GHB/TT heroes going down the line of their release, viewable from the Grails menu. Next should be BK/Arvis > Arden/Joshua > Oliver/NY Corrin and so on
• 1 Legendary hero going down the line of their release; after Lucina, it should be Marth > Tiki > Eirika > Hrid > Azura and so on
• 1 of Askr Trio/Fjorm on rotation, the order being Alfonse > Sharena > Anna > Fjorm

So the next lineup will very likely be Duma, Keaton, Velouria, Kaden, Selkie, Panne, Black Knight, Arvis, Legendary Marth, and Sharena. March will also likely be primarily Fire season, which will be pretty nice if you have Marth.

 

5 minutes ago, Othin said:

Huh, I'd been thinking of Aversa as primarily a defense unit, but offense makes a lot of sense as well.

The only issue with Loki is that I'd already wanted her with a regular blessing to use C Duel Infantry in arena. Although it's not like I've been caring much about arena in a long time, or even given her a B skill to prepare for actually using her there. So it seems like a good call.

That's useful to know about the bonus hero rotation. Unfortunately, I don't have Marth, so that lineup doesn't look great for me. (Or any of the other post-Lyn legendary heroes, for that matter.) I'll probably end up having to give a light blessing to either Panne or Sharena, which is a bit irritating. At least if I go with Sharena, she'll be insurance for future rotations with her.

Looks like the Valentine's rotation will be from February 26 to March 11, then the 3DS beasts rotation will be from March 12 to March 25. There's no way to be sure, but elemental hero banners are never that early, right? So the Binding Blade rotation (March 26 to April 8) will probably start before the March mythic and therefore have Eir again. That's handy, although she'll be out of the picture for a while afterward.

Hopefully soon they'll start switching between light and anima blessings for the weekly rewards, rather than just anima like we've been getting. I wonder if tonight's datamine will have any information about that?

I had Aversa on my team for quite a while, but needing to use two Eirs to score well gives me no real room for her currently.  It's basically 2 Eirs, Dancer, Bonus unit, Reinhardt for me now.

[Johann]

26 minutes ago, Othin said:

Huh, I'd been thinking of Aversa as primarily a defense unit, but offense makes a lot of sense as well.

The only issue with Loki is that I'd already wanted her with a regular blessing to use C Duel Infantry in arena. Although it's not like I've been caring much about arena in a long time, or even given her a B skill to prepare for actually using her there. So it seems like a good call.

That's useful to know about the bonus hero rotation. Unfortunately, I don't have Marth, so that lineup doesn't look great for me. (Or any of the other post-Lyn legendary heroes, for that matter.) I'll probably end up having to give a light blessing to either Panne or Sharena, which is a bit irritating. At least if I go with Sharena, she'll be insurance for future rotations with her.

Looks like the Valentine's rotation will be from February 26 to March 11, then the 3DS beasts rotation will be from March 12 to March 25. There's no way to be sure, but elemental hero banners are never that early, right? So the Binding Blade rotation (March 26 to April 8) will probably start before the March mythic and therefore have Eir again. That's handy, although she'll be out of the picture for a while afterward.

Hopefully soon they'll start switching between light and anima blessings for the weekly rewards, rather than just anima like we've been getting. I wonder if tonight's datamine will have any information about that?

I never got much mileage from Aversa as a defense unit since players always have a dancer or two, and she's pretty bad at actually killing, so I opted instead for the true hero of AR defense, which is regular ass Takumi.

The thing about Loki in regular Arena is, even with her A skill she's not going to outscore most units unless you have her merged up like crazy, and even still her staff only helps if you're up against ranged units. Much more common that you'll see dangerous ranged foes in AR compared to Arena, where you're also outnumbered and need to have options due to the time limit. A lot of super popular strategies fall apart if the player has Loki (especially since her high HP ensures her staff's effect will work), which can make the mode significantly more bearable.

That list of bonus heroes is rough for me too, I mean I have Marth but my preferred strategy involves super bulky DC units. I wouldn't recommend giving a Light Blessing to anyone you don't plan on using for more than 1 season though, since you might find you'll never have use for them again, and you said yourself that you don't have many left.

Also yeah the next new Mythic will probably not be a bonus unit til the rotation after they've debuted. Here's hoping we see more Light Blessings though.

20 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

I had Aversa on my team for quite a while, but needing to use two Eirs to score well gives me no real room for her currently.  It's basically 2 Eirs, Dancer, Bonus unit, Reinhardt for me now.

Right now, I'm using Eir x2, Fjorm, Legendary Azura, and the remaining slot varies between Legendary Robin, Legendary Ike, Aversa, Performing Azura, and regular F Robin (Light Blessing on all the non-legendaries). Having Aversa as an option is too important for me to not include her on at least one team, regardless of the season or bonus units.

[Othin]

2 minutes ago, Johann said:

I never got much mileage from Aversa as a defense unit since players always have a dancer or two, and she's pretty bad at actually killing, so I opted instead for the true hero of AR defense, which is regular ass Takumi.

The thing about Loki in regular Arena is, even with her A skill she's not going to outscore most units unless you have her merged up like crazy, and even still her staff only helps if you're up against ranged units. Much more common that you'll see dangerous ranged foes in AR compared to Arena, where you're also outnumbered and need to have options due to the time limit. A lot of super popular strategies fall apart if the player has Loki (especially since her high HP ensures her staff's effect will work), which can make the mode significantly more bearable.

That list of bonus heroes is rough for me too, I mean I have Marth but my preferred strategy involves super bulky DC units. I wouldn't recommend giving a Light Blessing to anyone you don't plan on using for more than 1 season though, since you might find you'll never have use for them again, and you said yourself that you don't have many left.

Also yeah the next new Mythic will probably not be a bonus unit til the rotation after they've debuted. Here's hoping we see more Light Blessings though.

Right now, I'm using Eir x2, Fjorm, Legendary Azura, and the remaining slot varies between Legendary Robin, Legendary Ike, Aversa, Performing Azura, and regular F Robin (Light Blessing on all the non-legendaries). Having Aversa as an option is too important for me to not include her on at least one team, regardless of the season or bonus units.

I've gotten tripped up by her a lot. I have Micaiah to dance away her effect, but having to "waste" Micaiah's dance like that tends to really screw things up.

Good point about Loki. I do like the novelty of having a healer who can score as well as my armors, but it's not much more than novelty.

Sticking to units I'm using for more than one season makes sense. Problem is, in terms of using them on bonus units, that seems to mostly imply Askr units. I could give them all light blessings eventually, but then I won't have any of them left for if I ever get an astra hero, lmao.

I only have the one Eir myself, so I'm running her, Fjorm, Micaiah, Cecilia, and a flex slot. Trying to fit multiple mythic heroes plus a bonus unit sounds rough.

[Johann]

10 minutes ago, Othin said:

I've gotten tripped up by her a lot. I have Micaiah to dance away her effect, but having to "waste" Micaiah's dance like that tends to really screw things up.

Good point about Loki. I do like the novelty of having a healer who can score as well as my armors, but it's not much more than novelty.

Sticking to units I'm using for more than one season makes sense. Problem is, in terms of using them on bonus units, that seems to mostly imply Askr units. I could give them all light blessings eventually, but then I won't have any of them left for if I ever get an astra hero, lmao.

I only have the one Eir myself, so I'm running her, Fjorm, Micaiah, Cecilia, and a flex slot. Trying to fit multiple mythic heroes plus a bonus unit sounds rough.

I guess I'm used to players (including myself) having way more HP than Aversa, especially during Light Season. Of all the tricks to pull on Defense, Aversa's Night is one of the least consistent.

For Arena, the other way to look at it is that any infantry healer with Loki's A skill is just as good, if not better, since they're easier to merge, and you have more flexibility with their staff. After all, you'd probably want something like Pain or Gravity for Arena, and Loki herself would need Dazzling Staff to do more than heal in most fights.

Yeah I'm concerned about what to do when an Astra hero shows up. I mean, I guess even without the full score boost I'll be doing better than I am currently, what with it being +0 points, and I can't imagine I'll have a lot of Astra blessings to go around anyway, so I guess it's not a huge deal. Still, with only 1 Eir or Astra hero, a bonus unit with no blessing is better for score than a fully blessed team with no bonus unit, and I can always remind myself that I don't need to get the best score every week.

[Othin]

1 hour ago, Johann said:

I guess I'm used to players (including myself) having way more HP than Aversa, especially during Light Season. Of all the tricks to pull on Defense, Aversa's Night is one of the least consistent.

For Arena, the other way to look at it is that any infantry healer with Loki's A skill is just as good, if not better, since they're easier to merge, and you have more flexibility with their staff. After all, you'd probably want something like Pain or Gravity for Arena, and Loki herself would need Dazzling Staff to do more than heal in most fights.

Yeah I'm concerned about what to do when an Astra hero shows up. I mean, I guess even without the full score boost I'll be doing better than I am currently, what with it being +0 points, and I can't imagine I'll have a lot of Astra blessings to go around anyway, so I guess it's not a huge deal. Still, with only 1 Eir or Astra hero, a bonus unit with no blessing is better for score than a fully blessed team with no bonus unit, and I can always remind myself that I don't need to get the best score every week.

My own team is heavy on mage cavalry and only has one Eir, so I guess those are factors.

I only have the one Loki and I don't pull for duplicates, so what another healer could do with her skill isn't really significant to me. I just like doing what I can with what I have, and trying to expand that set of options.

And yeah, the same thing occurred to me about potentially only going for 130 rather than 140.

[Javi Blizz]

Today’s results:

121+161

Potions missed: 1/4

Remaining Escape Ladders: 2/3

Defense Loss: -40 Lift (yesterday -60, yay)

Current Lift: 10347

[Chrom-ulent]

Today's match : Guy sweeps my team when he's at a -2 fort disadvantage and no merges. Good old Gronnblade (Flying) Nino. Apparently his defense map was a free win map, though, so I still came out ahead.

[Garlyle]

There was something in today's datamine about upcoming season:

Spoiler

Eir and Lucina may be concerns. I'm ok with the Schools.

 

[Stroud]

Funny to see the difference in my ranking comparing Light/Dark to Astral/Anima season. 
Last week I was around 2k and this season I am around rank 2,5k. 2 Eirs really do the difference here. Nevermind.

Another good day, I got a def loss with only -40 lift and offensive was good again. 9 Matches to go with 100 Lift I can lose on offensive remaining.  

Edited February 20, 2019 by Stroud

[Icelerate]

I had to fight a team with 3 +10 Surtrs, 2 +10 Dumas and a +10 Winter Eirika. All the Surtrs had Fortress res/def. 

[Johann]

5 hours ago, Garlyle said:

There was something in today's datamine about upcoming season:

  Reveal hidden contents

Eir and Lucina may be concerns. I'm ok with the Schools.

 

Weird that they felt the need to "datamine" that since it was clearly visible in game well beforehand. Anyone observing the patterns can easily tell what's coming up, with the exception of Eir returning in that slot

[Thane]

So, about those four losses yesterday - I forgot the bonus building in offense. I thought I did it when I prepared for next season's defene, but then forgot that I had a match left so I never did it. That explains quite a bit.

[XRay]

17 minutes ago, Thane said:

So, about those four losses yesterday - I forgot the bonus building in offense. I thought I did it when I prepared for next season's defene, but then forgot that I had a match left so I never did it. That explains quite a bit.

Yeah, that happens a lot for me too. I remember changing the Bonus Structures for this week, but most weeks I just keep forgetting to change it until after I do my first battle.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I make a point of changing the structure as soon as I collect my prizes, since it can still be altered while AR is closed. Of course, I then make up for that by forgetting to change Fjorm's skill set.

[Stroud]

Same, also adjusted to changing my structures after collecting. Also helps a little bit on defense, especially of someone forgot to change their offensive structure. 

[Javi Blizz]

Not so good day today, but still great:

161+161

Missed pots: 0/4

Remaining Escape Ladders: 0/3 (missed 2 today)

Defense Lift: -80

Current Score: 10589

[Rezzy]

I keep forgetting to check, and I'm out of aether to battle.  Has anyone noticed enemy units getting Dragon Flower bonuses in Aether Raids?

[Azuni]

34 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

I keep forgetting to check, and I'm out of aether to battle.  Has anyone noticed enemy units getting Dragon Flower bonuses in Aether Raids?

They do show up, sadly

[Chrom-ulent]

Used up all three ladder uses. Much salt.

At least I got defense wins. One was somebody trying "Park Surtr And Win" but getting stalled out, and another was a Flying Nino / Legendary Azura - the same duo that gave me a full loss last time.

[Javi Blizz]

Today’s results:

141 + 161

 Missed pots: 0/4

Escape Ladders Left: 0/3

Current Points: 10.891

 

This means that I need to achieve in the following 3 days 108 lift (plus possibly 240-320 from def losses). With 75 aether per day, and 10 current aether left, I’ll have 1 battle and 35 aether tomorrow, 2 battles and 10 aether the following day and 1 battle the last day, asuming that I can’t break any pot. So, with 3/4 full wins (161), I’d be in T21 :O

Taking 3/8 pots gives me another run, and I think the other 5 are useless, so I can pass them so that I don’t risk my units for that. 

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it, however. If I’ve done the math correctly, I can lose 215 points in attack and still reach T21 (which means I can afford a full loss considering I don’t break any potion in the 4 matches), but still...

Also, in another topic. @DehNutCase, could a DC unit do something similar to the CC-Vantage strategy? I have been thinking about DC Effie with Atk Refined Silver Lance + (I think is the generic lance with more Atk in the game, and she has it by default), with a low CD special (moonbow-glimmer) and either Fierce Stance or Heavy Blade SS (asuming she is neutral +5)

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

I've had some success setting something similar up with L!Hector. I don't think he or Effie are quite as potent as CC blade Rein. Hitting Def instead of Res and then not having a blade weapon means you'd have to watch your calculations quite carefully—Laevatein would be the better choice, but even she has to deal with hitting Def. To ease this, I've been toying with the idea of upgrading my Bolt Tower and fielding Fallen Takumi on off-seasons. However, I'm a little hesitant to rely on that. Hardy Bearing Ophelia is everywhere and aside from dancer!Micaiah, I've seen a number of Sothes around with inherited anti-Vantage, anti-armour daggers (the anti-dragon one shows up every now and again, but that would be a lot less threatening to Effie or Hector).

Edited February 22, 2019 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Sylphid]

So I got 3 Defense wins where it mattered and was stoked this could let me get to the next tier this week... Except I only realized yesterday that Eir isn't bonus hero anymore and I ran all my attacks without a one. Whoops. Fjorm replaced Nailah today.

Still, the defense wins make me happy especially since I, uh, haven't actually worked on my defense team since I did a bit some weeks ago.

[Chrom-ulent]

Today's match: Couldn't beat this horrible troll team of pretty standard builds.

Spoiler

I think I'll steal this map if I start to struggle. BRB, I threw down my 20k feathers for Galeforce, now to grind out 1000 or so SP on Tibarn. 

Edited February 22, 2019 by Chrom-ulent

[XRay]

4 hours ago, Javi Blizz said:

Also, in another topic. @DehNutCase, could a DC unit do something similar to the CC-Vantage strategy? I have been thinking about DC Effie with Atk Refined Silver Lance + (I think is the generic lance with more Atk in the game, and she has it by default), with a low CD special (moonbow-glimmer) and either Fierce Stance or Heavy Blade SS (asuming she is neutral +5)

Counter-Vantage units at 5*+0 needs a unit to constantly reach at least 75+ Atk in some way, shape, or form against non-armor, non-merged enemies. Effie can hit 78 Atk, but her damage output is pretty much capped; she can go up to 82 with merges, but that is not really enough against armor units and other merged units.

Here are other high Atk Counter Vantage units for comparison:
Effie 82
Laevatein 100
Keaton 73*2
WOT!Reinhardt 66*2
Ares 97 (97=72Atk+25Bonfire)
A!Camilla 94
Ophelia 95
NS!Elise 93
NYOFAI!Laevatein 83+ (83=59Atk+24PainSavageBlowSavageBlow)
While Pain-Counter-Vantage units do not have super high Atk, their Atk is also the only one that keeps "increasing" over time via additional Pain damage.
Except for NYOFAI!Laevatein, you can squeeze an additional 7 damage out of them against the second initiating foe and beyond if you run Smoke skills.

Challenger List: (Both sides are +10 and have 6/6/6/6 bonus buffs, with Laevatein getting an additional 24/0/0/0 combat buffs to reflect Pain-Savage Blow-Savage Blow damage.)

Spoiler

CHALLENGER LIST  
Effie (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Reprisal Lance+  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Distant Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
S: Brazen Atk Def 3  
Upgrade Path: 1  
 
Laevatein (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Laevatein  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Distant Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
C: Odd Spd Wave 3  
S: Brazen Atk Def 3  
 
Keaton (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Wolfskin Fang  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Distant Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
C: Beast Valor 3  
S: Brazen Atk Def 3  
 
Reinhardt (WT) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Meisterschwert  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Distant Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
C: Spur Atk Def 2  
S: Brazen Atk Def 3  
 
Ares (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Dark Mystletainn  
Special: Bonfire  
A: Distant Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
S: Brazen Atk Def 3  
 
Camilla (A) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Raudrblade+  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Close Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
C: Goad Fliers  
S: Brazen Atk Res 3  
 
Ophelia (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Blarblade+  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Close Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
S: Brazen Atk Res 3  
 
Elise (Summer) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Gronnblade+  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Close Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
C: G Tome Valor 3  
S: Brazen Atk Res 3  
 
Laevatein (NYW) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Pain+  
Special: Miracle  
A: Close Counter  
B: Vantage 3  
C: Savage Blow 3  
S: Savage Blow 3  
Upgrade Path: 6 

 

[Javi Blizz]

So @XRay, how would you build Effie to reach that 82 atk?

Edit: sorry, missed the spoiler xD

Edited February 22, 2019 by Javi Blizz