Aether Raids General Thread

[Diovani Bressan]

Today was a "ok" day. Did 6 battles, got between 100-140 in each, and I had a -80 in a defensive battle. For defensie battles, 7 battles: 4 wins, one being a rematch, and 3 losses with only 1 negative lift result

[Sylphid]

So my new defense team has had 2 total losses (during the current season) and 2 losses where they beat 3 and 4 enemies (last season). Overall pretty happy with the results this far, though It's a bit concerning I'm getting the losses on the season that's generally easier to increase your AR rank. I swear I'll post a pic once I figure out how to.

What's extra amusing about my second loss is that apparently it happened in the less than a minute window where I was tweaking something, and the person attacking had a Tiki and Infantry Pulse less to worry about. Good for them! Though I have no idea what I would have been tweaking today that made me remove her lol.

Using Arvis as my bonus unit this season for now, but having 2 red mages (Micaiah is a mainstay) is somewhat of an issue.

[Tree]

I was a few points short of top 10,000 last season (due to four losses in a row). I think it's time to just settle for top 20,000 which will be significantly easier.

[Javi Blizz]

So today 161 lift, 2 pots broken and 0 ladders used. -80 defense lift, though, but this keeps being my best season un T20 comparing the day to day results. Let’s hope this time it’s enough. 

Also, while my blade fliers are doing better than expected, I’m considering to move to a team of fliers with goads and teleporting skills just to be more annoying

[XRay]

I am not sure I can make it to Tier 21 this week. I used up all three ladders yesterday and I lost my only battle today. Sharena does not do so well against flier balls.

[colossus86]

I was forced to stop playing FEH due to some life circumstances for a bit so i dropped from T20 to 18 and man... it's just so easy down here. I almost don't want to go back... Almost

[Nanima]

56 minutes ago, colossus86 said:

I was forced to stop playing FEH due to some life circumstances for a bit so i dropped from T20 to 18 and man... it's just so easy down here. I almost don't want to go back... Almost

This is a big fat lie. I can't get a single victory in Tier 18 anymore. I'll be lucky to keep it. Everything is just cancer. And awful map set ups. I used to be Tier 19 before, but getting there again is simply impossible. Period.

Or maybe I am just trash now. I feel like everyone just keeps advancing in heroes while I get worse and worse at it despite still investing a lot of time. What is even going on? I wish this shit mode hadn't been invented so I could still live under the delusion that I was an alright player. Fuck everything.

[colossus86]

4 minutes ago, Nanima said:

This is a big fat lie. I can't get a single victory in Tier 18 anymore. I'll be lucky to keep it. Everything is just cancer. And awful map set ups. I used to be Tier 19 before, but getting there again is simply impossible. Period.

Or maybe I am just trash now. I feel like everyone just keeps advancing in heroes while I get worse and worse at it despite still investing a lot of time. What is even going on? I wish this shit mode hadn't been invented so I could still live under the delusion that I was an alright player. Fuck everything.

What do you usually run on offense? Fortunately I've sought out a number of units specifically for AR so alot of maps just come down to very simple baits or a simple smite setup.

While there are similarities, T20 maps have much tighter design at least from what I remember. I've also seen some straight up dumb stuff in T18/19 like running 4 melee armors, 3 of which didn't even have DC

[Nanima]

4 minutes ago, colossus86 said:

What do you usually run on offense? Fortunately I've sought out a number of units specifically for AR so alot of maps just come down to very simple baits or a simple smite setup.

While there are similarities, T20 maps have much tighter design at least from what I remember. I've also seen some straight up dumb stuff in T18/19 like running 4 melee armors, 3 of which didn't even have DC

I usually run OG!Micaiah, a Dancer (either P!Azura or L!Azura), the Bonus Unit (currently L!Marth), Tibarn (Sutr killer), and Bunmilla (as a Raven Mage). Others include HS!Sakura (Wrazzle!Dazzle + Pain) and Summer!Takumi (Firesweep Archer). My biggest problem are dancers, which are ubiquitous. I can't find the right way to approach, without getting shredded on enemy phase. I've tried setting up a more defensive team, but with the crazy stats being run there, it feels like I can't let anyone touch me. My +Res Micaiah with Distant Defense gets shredded by Reinhardts 9 times out of 10.

[colossus86]

7 minutes ago, Nanima said:

I usually run OG!Micaiah, a Dancer (either P!Azura or L!Azura), the Bonus Unit (currently L!Marth), Tibarn (Sutr killer), and Bunmilla (as a Raven Mage). Others include HS!Sakura (Wrazzle!Dazzle + Pain) and Summer!Takumi (Firesweep Archer). My biggest problem are dancers, which are ubiquitous. I can't find the right way to approach, without getting shredded on enemy phase. I've tried setting up a more defensive team, but with the crazy stats being run there, it feels like I can't let anyone touch me. My +Res Micaiah with Distant Defense gets shredded by Reinhardts 9 times out of 10.

Okay lets see. First off I'd recommend building/blessing Aversa. Alot of people, including in T20, don't bother Aversa proofing their map because of how annoying it can be and her ability to panic pretty much every ranged and alot of melee units helps a ton. Additionally if you just give her Axe breaker and a bit of team support she kills Surtr too.

As far as dancers go, the only consistent solution is to just kill everyone before they can be danced and that's often not as hard as it sounds. For example, my "holy trinity" of AR is Eir (even in non light season, though that'll change), Aversa and Titania. Titania is there for triple tactics buffs and very importantly, she runs smite. Many standard "Cluster" set ups are protected from being player phased by traps, but when a unit gets moved onto a trap via assist it doesn't burn their action. Also important is that Eir runs Vantage. The general plan is to buff Eir to the point she cant get one shot, Smite her forward to kill a dangerous unit (priority depends on map but generally you want to kill a unit Eir can't one shot on enemy phase) and then she just rides Vantage through the rest of their team. This is all greatly aided by Aversa since many maps rely on visible buffs and even the ones that don't go overboard still often get hit by the -3 to all stats.

Keep in mind you don't need Titania specifically. If you can give two +6s to your bait unit (in this hypothetical Eir) via double tactics or an Emblem buff, you can run a Link skill on your smite unit to get +6 to all stats.

Also as far as long term considerations go, I would recommend seeking out units uniquely good for AR such as: Loki, Ophelia, and Nailah

[Lemmy]

Got 3 defense losses because my current team can’t damage Surtr, that’s going to be an annoying hole to patch. It might be Ike’s time to go :(

[Nanima]

@colossus86

I see. I had considered upgrading Aversa before, but had ither priorities at the time. I don't even care about being highly ranked in AR, I just want to get enough coups to fully merge my favourites (currently just F!Takumi and Naesala) within a reasonable amount of time.. 

That Eir plan does sound pretty good. Are you just using the standard neutral one or did you get any merges?

Also I do have Ophelia, but I rarely use her because of bad IVs. Maybe I'll change that if I can find some way to make up for it.

in any case, thank you for the very reasonable advice in response to my childish tantrum there. haha

[Ice Dragon]

27 minutes ago, Nanima said:

Also I do have Ophelia, but I rarely use her because of bad IVs. Maybe I'll change that if I can find some way to make up for it.

Ophelia kills things regardless. Even with an Atk flaw, she still has 59 Atk with Life and Death 3 and a buff from Atk Tactic 3.

If her flaw isn't in Atk, then it matters even less because Atk is the only stat she cares about.

[Nanima]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

Ophelia kills things regardless. Even with an Atk flaw, she still has 59 Atk with Life and Death 3 and a buff from Atk Tactic 3.

If her flaw isn't in Atk, then it matters even less because Atk is the only stat she cares about.

It's -Spd. I figured she'd be doubled a lot, but I admittedly didn't look too deeply into it before. Will use her more now.

[Ice Dragon]

56 minutes ago, Nanima said:

It's -Spd. I figured she'd be doubled a lot, but I admittedly didn't look too deeply into it before. Will use her more now.

Yep, then there shouldn't be any problem. The "usual" build for Ophelia is a one-hit kill build:

Missiletainn
Draw Back / Reposition / [whatever]
Blazing Wind / Blazing Light / [or the other two Blazing AoE Specials]
Life and Death 3
Special Spiral 3
[whatever]
Hardy Bearing 3

Life and Death 3 beats out all other A skills right now because AoE Special skills deal out-of-combat damage and therefore aren't affected by in-combat skills like Death Blow. And even Death Blow 4's numbers aren't high enough to make up for it.

If you don't have Special Spiral, you can still make do by making sure the first hit lands on enough enemies and that you can kill the splashed enemies before they heal back up. The important part is just to make sure you land a good first hit with the AoE. If you do happen to have a spare Lewyn or Keaton and are on the fence with using them for Special Spiral, note that no other unit in the game has as much synergy with the skill as Ophelia does.

[Nanima]

39 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Yep, then there shouldn't be any problem. The "usual" build for Ophelia is a one-hit kill build:

Missiletainn
Draw Back / Reposition / [whatever]
Blazing Wind / Blazing Light / [or the other two Blazing AoE Specials]
Life and Death 3
Special Spiral 3
[whatever]
Hardy Bearing 3

Life and Death 3 beats out all other A skills right now because AoE Special skills deal out-of-combat damage and therefore aren't affected by in-combat skills like Death Blow. And even Death Blow 4's numbers aren't high enough to make up for it.

If you don't have Special Spiral, you can still make do by making sure the first hit lands on enough enemies and that you can kill the splashed enemies before they heal back up. The important part is just to make sure you land a good first hit with the AoE. If you do happen to have a spare Lewyn or Keaton and are on the fence with using them for Special Spiral, note that no other unit in the game has as much synergy with the skill as Ophelia does.

Most of that build is doable for me, but the only Special Spiral I got went straight to my current +10 project: Soren. 

I'll still go with the rest of the set up, and if I ever pull another Lewyn (or two Keatons) I know where to put it. Thanks for the advice. 

[Johann]

26 minutes ago, Nanima said:

Most of that build is doable for me, but the only Special Spiral I got went straight to my current +10 project: Soren. 

I'll still go with the rest of the set up, and if I ever pull another Lewyn (or two Keatons) I know where to put it. Thanks for the advice. 

Her default Chill Res is really great too. Most people use Ophelia alongside Lilina though (especially on Defense), in which case literally anything would be better in Ophelia's B slot since Forblaze does the same thing. 

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

It's not completely useless, though. Having redundancy means that the attacker can't just pick off one unit and be safe from Chill Res.

[Nanima]

41 minutes ago, Johann said:

Most people use Ophelia alongside Lilina though (especially on Defense), in which case literally anything would be better in Ophelia's B slot since Forblaze does the same thing. 

I lost my Lilina under regrettable circumstances, so that won't be an issue. Will keep in mind if I ever find another +Atk copy though. 

36 minutes ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

It's not completely useless, though. Having redundancy means that the attacker can't just pick off one unit and be safe from Chill Res.

Maybe not, but it takes up a perfectly good B-slot most of the time.

[Landmaster]

Thank Naga for the damn Pegasus Carrot~ Surtrs, Hectors, ARMORS in general just became so much easier to deal with~  Now if only I could figure out how to stop eating -80 every day on defense, I might stand to get to T20 (not that I want to, but would be nice)~

[Shoblongoo]

Grey Waves Azura is so dumb on these maps.

*All of my hate* 

Edited March 22, 2019 by Shoblongoo

[XRay]

3 minutes ago, Shoblongoo said:

Grey Waves Azura is so dumb on these maps.

*All of my hate* 

Sharena can tank a lot of stuff during her Bonus week. Fensalir completely shuts down buffs.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Even non-bonus Sharena with two Eir and a Light Blessing is enough to cause issues for them. I'm legitimately considering running her for non-bonus Light weeks just because Dull Everything makes a lot of buff spam negligible without having to rely on Aversa (such as when I don't want to be giving the opponent Panic to springboard Restore+ off of). Never thought there'd be a day where I considered DC, QR3, Aether and one of DD3/Warding Stance 3 Seal on her. Actually, I'm almost tempted to not run DC, since I don't always want to kill everything with my main tank and I'd got a spare Celica I could use to give her DD3 (or Sigurd for CD3, if her ranged defenses end up looking overkill, I guess). Suppose I'll also probably want to replace her C with Atk Smoke.

[Lewyn]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

Sharena can tank a lot of stuff during her Bonus week. Fensalir completely shuts down buffs.

The problem is that is 200 dew, 22,200 feathers, a light blessing, Distant counter fodder, Null disrupt C fodder (so you need a spare Nailah).  I'm assuming run with 2 Eir with not everyone has.  Then relying on bonus weeks on top of that.  

2 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Grey Waves Azura is so dumb on these maps.

*All of my hate* 

Yup.  It was to be expected with such braindead bone headed design.

Anyways upgrading offense fort has helped a lot, things are much easier.  Things that are supposed to die, do, and units survive much better as well.  

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

She really doesn't need the DC or Null-C Disrupt. I'm just using her with Fury 3, Renewal 3, Drive Spd 3 and HP+4/Res+2 and she works just fine as a wall. I also have her with Smite, so one of her 2-range teammates can snipe something, then she can punt them out of enemy range.

I guess an alternative is if you have a Julia or Deidre and are only facing magic attackers (or have some way to seriously buff their Def, I guess), you can just throw a Light Blessing on one of them and bait with them. They'll even counterattack the ranged units.