Aether Raids General Thread

[Diovani Bressan]

10 minutes ago, Landmaster said:

Tactics Room did increase, the update it out~

Oh, we already have the update? That's good.

[Lewyn]

Tactics room rules!  Hey guys now I am at T21 it was a devastating climb, I never want to fall out of it.  So I have almost enough dew to upgrade my Defense fortress to lvl4, but should I instead save up so in the near future I can upgrade Offense fortress to lv5?  

I also don't know how I'll handle the megawhale teams, which I suspect at least the early days since all points reset I could be put against.  I am proud that I came up with different offense teams using units most aren't except Eir, but I don't want to take too many chances on T21.  I don't want to run into all +10 seasonal or 5 star focus with all tier 4 skills and find I can't tank or kill what I used to.  I have no high merged units myself except Aversa at +5.  So anyways what are cheap options for the scariest teams.  

I normally would like to figure out most of this myself, but again never want to fall out of T21, so any tips are greatly appreciated.  

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Lewyn said:

So anyways what are cheap options for the scariest teams.

Reinhardt + Brave Lyn + 2 dancers can actually get you decently far even at the top.

Naesala + Tibarn + 2 Herons is also pretty good, it seems, though it does require Tibarn.

A Close Counter Vantage archer with Def Smoke or Savage Blow can handle flier balls reasonably well as long as you can snipe anything with Hardy Bearing (or weapons with built-in Hardy Bearing). The free Takumi is probably sufficient for that job if you don't have anything else and haven't foddered him off.

Kaden and vanilla male Corrin are some of the better support units when running a tank, though Kaden is a 5-star exclusive and Corrin needs his weapon refined.

@Johann has a guide going in the analysis board here:

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Ice Dragon

[Johann]

56 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

Tactics room rules!  Hey guys now I am at T21 it was a devastating climb, I never want to fall out of it.  So I have almost enough dew to upgrade my Defense fortress to lvl4, but should I instead save up so in the near future I can upgrade Offense fortress to lv5?  

I also don't know how I'll handle the megawhale teams, which I suspect at least the early days since all points reset I could be put against.  I am proud that I came up with different offense teams using units most aren't except Eir, but I don't want to take too many chances on T21.  I don't want to run into all +10 seasonal or 5 star focus with all tier 4 skills and find I can't tank or kill what I used to.  I have no high merged units myself except Aversa at +5.  So anyways what are cheap options for the scariest teams.  

I normally would like to figure out most of this myself, but again never want to fall out of T21, so any tips are greatly appreciated.  

It's best to prioritize Offense over Defense; you want to give yourself less stress in this mode by making your Offense runs easier, whereas focusing on Defense might maybe help you save a little Lift.

Note that T21 isn't drastically different from 19-20, so if you've reached it, you're not really at risk of demoting assuming you keep playing as well as you have been. I'll be updating my thread a bit more tomorrow, and don't be afraid to ask any questions there as well.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Lewyn said:

Tactics room rules!  Hey guys now I am at T21 it was a devastating climb, I never want to fall out of it.  So I have almost enough dew to upgrade my Defense fortress to lvl4, but should I instead save up so in the near future I can upgrade Offense fortress to lv5?  

Offense contributes to your score far more than defense does, so I would focus on Fortress (O).

1 hour ago, Lewyn said:

I also don't know how I'll handle the megawhale teams, which I suspect at least the early days since all points reset I could be put against.  I am proud that I came up with different offense teams using units most aren't except Eir, but I don't want to take too many chances on T21.  I don't want to run into all +10 seasonal or 5 star focus with all tier 4 skills and find I can't tank or kill what I used to.  I have no high merged units myself except Aversa at +5.  So anyways what are cheap options for the scariest teams.  

The only teams that I cannot think of a strong, easy counter to are Ward Flier balls, especially if it is Hardy Bearing Est who spearheads the formation. I try poking them with an archer, but often times they run 5 or 6 copies of Ward Fliers so my BH!Lyn cannot really kill her or anyone.

Counter-Vantage is still relevant in Tier 21 and Tier 22, although it seems like Tier 22 has less defense teams vulnerable to it. Ares, Keaton, WOT!Reinhardt (a lot less powerful than Keaton due to lower Atk), Laevatein, Blade mages, Pain healers are the most common candidates. Outside of merges for 5* exclusive units, the most expensive components are Distant Counter or Close Counter and maybe VS!Azura (she is only necessary for Laevatein and Blade mages; Ares, Keaton, and WOT!Reinhardt can be supported by any Dancer/Singer running Atk Tactic and Def Tactic; Pain healers just need Atk Tactic). 

I recommend building up some Galeforce units and Wings of Mercy Dancers/Singers to take out high mobility defense teams. I recently finished Cordelia and I am planning to work on Raven next. I have Tibarn as well but he is only +1, but I do not plan on getting more of him outside of being pity broken.

You also want a carry team/super tank team. You want some kind of bulky unit to be the super tank and carry the team, and the idea is to stack as much buffs on them as possible. The cheapest composition I can think of consists of 2 M!Corrins, 2 Eirs, and either Distant Counter Sharena or Close Counter HS!Camilla. So you only need to spend Orbs on a second Eir and one copy Distant Counter or Close Counter fodder. Sharena's problem is that she cannot be merged, so she is not usable outside of her bonus week; for HS!Camilla, she may be Orb cheap, but she is very, very, very Grail expensive.

You might also want some debuffers to neuter foes. Yune, Gunnthrá, NYOFAI!Gunnthrá, and Hríd are great, and Aversa is the cheapest. Hríd can also double as a carrier/super tank.

You also want a regular Player Phase team with 2 Dancers/Singers for quickly nuking down stall teams.

You generally want each offense team to utilize at least one of the above tactics, ideally two or more. For example, you can mix Player Phase teams with Counter-Vantage units, or mix a carry team with debuffers.

Edited April 9, 2019 by XRay

[Rinco]

Lost my first defense of the season but killed 2 units, so 0 lift lost. I like how easy it gets to mitigate lift loss with Duma/Yune. 

[Johann]

With Dark and Anima heroes existing, I'm increasingly frustrated by how regularly my first Def match is a total loss and the second a total win

[Diovani Bressan]

I had a pretty "meh" first day of this season, but at least I got enough lift to not get demoted to Tier 20. I believe my spot in Tier 21 is safe.

[Rinco]

Two more defs where I killed 2 units. Starting good this week. 2 rally traps + L!Lucina is funny. 

[Tree]

Didn't get a single Yune or Bow Lyn, but got two Lewyns, two Mias, a Kagero, and an Eir on the Legendary banner. Tier 21 wasn't too hard to reach with two Eirs even with a 1* Wrys defending. Have double Duma and relevant legendaries defending this week, but I don't think anyone in Tier 21 should have trouble with that.

(Have to decide who to give Kagero's Bold Fighter to since it's my first spare copy of the skill.)

[Lewyn]

16 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Reinhardt + Brave Lyn + 2 dancers can actually get you decently far even at the top.

Naesala + Tibarn + 2 Herons is also pretty good, it seems, though it does require Tibarn.

A Close Counter Vantage archer with Def Smoke or Savage Blow can handle flier balls reasonably well as long as you can snipe anything with Hardy Bearing (or weapons with built-in Hardy Bearing). The free Takumi is probably sufficient for that job if you don't have anything else and haven't foddered him off.

Kaden and vanilla male Corrin are some of the better support units when running a tank, though Kaden is a 5-star exclusive and Corrin needs his weapon refined.

@Johann has a guide going in the analysis board here:

 

Despite playing since launch I have no Reinhardt, or to be more accurate I have pulled a ton of him but no +atk one so I've never built him.  I do have Brave Lyn at +3.  I do have a full bird team (Herons, Tibarn, Naesala) some with multiple merges.  Only thing my Tibarn is unmerged and -atk, and I always see him with galeforce which probably want +atk or at least neutral nature.  Though I have used this team a few times in aether raids.

I don't have Kaden or a built Male Corrin, nor any CC/Vantage archer.  

On non blessing weeks I have mostly been using Aversa, Eir, NY Azura, L! Ryoma, Cordelia, or a full horse team of Hrid, Gunnthra, Camus, Bow Lyn, Veronica.  Other mixed teams, something with Miciah or dancing Micaiah other tech counters.  

On Light blessing weeks my main team is Eir+1, Eir, Zelgius, LA Hector, and Azura (regular).  This week I finally blessed a few other units. Surtr, Julia and Arvis.  The latter two mostly did help a lot in getting me to tier 21.  

Johann thread I guess is where gameplay discussion/team building and such should be discussed I guess I should have brought this up there.  

16 hours ago, Johann said:

It's best to prioritize Offense over Defense; you want to give yourself less stress in this mode by making your Offense runs easier, whereas focusing on Defense might maybe help you save a little Lift.

Note that T21 isn't drastically different from 19-20, so if you've reached it, you're not really at risk of demoting assuming you keep playing as well as you have been. I'll be updating my thread a bit more tomorrow, and don't be afraid to ask any questions there as well.

I have been til now, upgrade offense one level then upgrade defense one level. Thing is though I recently got L! Azura, I don't have Ophelia and I don't have a +10 special spiral Lilina or any other super nuke sweepers.  No supermerged units, or the resources to create flier balls atm.  So I need those extra stats.  Like first match today killed 3 foes and thus got 0 lift loss, that was the one that counted.  (I have one Duma, all anima blessed unit team).  The second match was 2 foes defeated.  I got several victories last week and several partial losses, if I had just eating -80 every time I would not have made it here.  I guess the other thing is I can upgrade Defense fortress to 4 tomorrow after getting those stones, but if I want to save for Offense fortress 5...I would only get that a couple of weeks later.  

16 hours ago, XRay said:

Offense contributes to your score far more than defense does, so I would focus on Fortress (O).

The only teams that I cannot think of a strong, easy counter to are Ward Flier balls, especially if it is Hardy Bearing Est who spearheads the formation. I try poking them with an archer, but often times they run 5 or 6 copies of Ward Fliers so my BH!Lyn cannot really kill her or anyone.

Counter-Vantage is still relevant in Tier 21 and Tier 22, although it seems like Tier 22 has less defense teams vulnerable to it. Ares, Keaton, WOT!Reinhardt (a lot less powerful than Keaton due to lower Atk), Laevatein, Blade mages, Pain healers are the most common candidates. Outside of merges for 5* exclusive units, the most expensive components are Distant Counter or Close Counter and maybe VS!Azura (she is only necessary for Laevatein and Blade mages; Ares, Keaton, and WOT!Reinhardt can be supported by any Dancer/Singer running Atk Tactic and Def Tactic; Pain healers just need Atk Tactic). 

I recommend building up some Galeforce units and Wings of Mercy Dancers/Singers to take out high mobility defense teams. I recently finished Cordelia and I am planning to work on Raven next. I have Tibarn as well but he is only +1, but I do not plan on getting more of him outside of being pity broken.

You also want a carry team/super tank team. You want some kind of bulky unit to be the super tank and carry the team, and the idea is to stack as much buffs on them as possible. The cheapest composition I can think of consists of 2 M!Corrins, 2 Eirs, and either Distant Counter Sharena or Close Counter HS!Camilla. So you only need to spend Orbs on a second Eir and one copy Distant Counter or Close Counter fodder. Sharena's problem is that she cannot be merged, so she is not usable outside of her bonus week; for HS!Camilla, she may be Orb cheap, but she is very, very, very Grail expensive.

You might also want some debuffers to neuter foes. Yune, Gunnthrá, NYOFAI!Gunnthrá, and Hríd are great, and Aversa is the cheapest. Hríd can also double as a carrier/super tank.

You also want a regular Player Phase team with 2 Dancers/Singers for quickly nuking down stall teams.

You generally want each offense team to utilize at least one of the above tactics, ideally two or more. For example, you can mix Player Phase teams with Counter-Vantage units, or mix a carry team with debuffers.

I don't have the resources to super buff (Kaden, M Corrins) but I have been using debuffs a lot and tactics buffs to get as much advantage as I can and it does make all the difference.  I hope not to run into flier balls, cause that is scary if Brave Lyn (I assume yours is +atk and +10?) can't kill anyone.  Full Galeforce/WoM sounds like the most fun and most thrilling but yeah that will have to be future project.  

[Tree]

2 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

Despite playing since launch I have no Reinhardt, or to be more accurate I have pulled a ton of him but no +atk one so I've never built him.

If you merge him to +10, give him Death Blow 3 and Moonbow, add the Quickened Pulse seal, and Hone Cavalry buffs, you probably wouldn't miss the three attack points very often. You could spend flowers to get one extra attack point if needed.

[XRay]

1 minute ago, Lewyn said:

I hope not to run into flier balls, cause that is scary if Brave Lyn (I assume yours is +atk and +10?) can't kill anyone.

Yeah, my BH!Lyn is +10 +Atk with Firesweep and can double Ests. I felt pretty smug when I first encountered a flier ball until I saw Est surviving with a few HP left, so I had to immediately Dance/Sing-Reposition the hell out. I also tried Counter-Vantage Laevatein, but Est just plows through her even without Hardy Bearing. I think I only won against flier balls maybe once or twice with heavy losses.

[Lewyn]

1 hour ago, Tree said:

If you merge him to +10, give him Death Blow 3 and Moonbow, add the Quickened Pulse seal, and Hone Cavalry buffs, you probably wouldn't miss the three attack points very often. You could spend flowers to get one extra attack point if needed.

Well that has to be a future merge project, the problem is I don't have enough feathers to even promote a single unit for merging atm.  Reinhardt+10 does hit hard.

1 hour ago, XRay said:

Yeah, my BH!Lyn is +10 +Atk with Firesweep and can double Ests. I felt pretty smug when I first encountered a flier ball until I saw Est surviving with a few HP left, so I had to immediately Dance/Sing-Reposition the hell out. I also tried Counter-Vantage Laevatein, but Est just plows through her even without Hardy Bearing. I think I only won against flier balls maybe once or twice with heavy losses.

You are going to give me nightmares.  +10 merge, +atk BLYn and I'm sure you had her buffed as well....and you doubled Est with effective damage and she still survived?  That is absolutely crazy.  The whitewings all have that brave effect too with stat boosts, so just tanking them doesn't seem like an option either.  I'm hoping this is only at T27 or whatever.  

Another simple question, when is the best time (easiest enemies) to do battles?  I like to wait til late in the day, night to do just enough battles to drain 70+ aether (so I don't waste any of the daily aether refills) then late in the week usually Sunday do as many battles as I can.  Hoping that some of the players with the best teams rise early and I don't run into them. 

[Rinco]

6 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

Another simple question, when is the best time (easiest enemies) to do battles?  I like to wait til late in the day, night to do just enough battles to drain 70+ aether (so I don't waste any of the daily aether refills) then late in the week usually Sunday do as many battles as I can.  Hoping that some of the players with the best teams rise early and I don't run into them. 

I always spend only 70 or so Aether each day and go all out with ~3 hours left on the season. I also try to hold my matches for later in the day, so that way I can rematch someone that attacked me earlier, so they can't rematch me. That, in theory, lowers the number of ppl that can attack you, since you can't be rematched by whoever you rematch. That leaves only the random chances of someone being paired with you.

[Johann]

1 hour ago, Lewyn said:

I have been til now, upgrade offense one level then upgrade defense one level. Thing is though I recently got L! Azura, I don't have Ophelia and I don't have a +10 special spiral Lilina or any other super nuke sweepers.  No supermerged units, or the resources to create flier balls atm.  So I need those extra stats.  Like first match today killed 3 foes and thus got 0 lift loss, that was the one that counted.  (I have one Duma, all anima blessed unit team).  The second match was 2 foes defeated.  I got several victories last week and several partial losses, if I had just eating -80 every time I would not have made it here.  I guess the other thing is I can upgrade Defense fortress to 4 tomorrow after getting those stones, but if I want to save for Offense fortress 5...I would only get that a couple of weeks later.  

There's only so much you can do with Def units, really. AI and the player's ability to deal with it can make a far bigger difference than stat boosts. My key players for getting Def wins are Legendary Azura, regular Takumi, and Clarine. Today they beat a guy who had a 5+1 fort and +10 Winter Fae, and it's entirely because the guy fell into my trap and panicked. But that doesn't matter cuz they lost first to a guy who happened to have a super buffed Eirika with Kaden support.

Always focus resources on offense, save for Fortress (O) level 5 because it's of greater value to have better offense results, especially if you have Duma. If you want to improve your Def map, there are a variety of ways you can score extra kills here and there without making crazy investments.

11 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

Another simple question, when is the best time (easiest enemies) to do battles?  I like to wait til late in the day, night to do just enough battles to drain 70+ aether (so I don't waste any of the daily aether refills) then late in the week usually Sunday do as many battles as I can.  Hoping that some of the players with the best teams rise early and I don't run into them. 

That's what I do too. I stand by it!

Edited April 9, 2019 by Johann

[Lewyn]

1 hour ago, Rinco said:

I always spend only 70 or so Aether each day and go all out with ~3 hours left on the season. I also try to hold my matches for later in the day, so that way I can rematch someone that attacked me earlier, so they can't rematch me. That, in theory, lowers the number of ppl that can attack you, since you can't be rematched by whoever you rematch. That leaves only the random chances of someone being paired with you.

That is similar to what I do but I've actually never done a rematch.  I always feel like it can backfire, their offense team can be completely different than their defense team. 

1 hour ago, Johann said:

There's only so much you can do with Def units, really. AI and the player's ability to deal with it can make a far bigger difference than stat boosts. My key players for getting Def wins are Legendary Azura, regular Takumi, and Clarine. Today they beat a guy who had a 5+1 fort and +10 Winter Fae, and it's entirely because the guy fell into my trap and panicked. But that doesn't matter cuz they lost first to a guy who happened to have a super buffed Eirika with Kaden support.

Always focus resources on offense, save for Fortress (O) level 5 because it's of greater value to have better offense results, especially if you have Duma. If you want to improve your Def map, there are a variety of ways you can score extra kills here and there without making crazy investments.

That's what I do too. I stand by it!

That is true there is a lot of chance with defense it seems.  I am hoping I get another Duma and 2 Yune, that way I won't have to worry too much about it.  Offense yeah the difference between a failure getting 0 points and getting a full success 100 points (or much more than that during light season) is huge.  

What have you upgraded your O and D fortresses to?  Also long term, poor mobility but great stats Halloween Jakob would he be good to build as a vantage CC user?  I actually have a few merges on him.  Also will be using Halloween Mia first time this week, I can no longer tank Ophelia so maybe if I can't find a safe way to player phase killer her (or if my tactic room can't limit her approach) I can reset her special and thus nuetralize her threat.  My +res Julia had 2 Eir, light blessing and res tactic buff on her during light week and she could take tank Ophelia without a scratch most times, and a tiny scratch at other times.  However that +10 res, +10 HP....wow it is pretty sad that even a high res green like her is going to have trouble against Ophelia AoE attack. 

[Stroud]

So, now I have given Julia Divine Naga and I will use this week to test her along with Seliph for AR offensive. So far they are doing ok. I lost the first round, because but after that I did 2 perfect wins. After I can switch out Katharina and change a few things it will be better.
Seliph and Julia are waiting for mythic Astra hero now...

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Lewyn said:

You are going to give me nightmares.  +10 merge, +atk BLYn and I'm sure you had her buffed as well....and you doubled Est with effective damage and she still survived?  That is absolutely crazy.  The whitewings all have that brave effect too with stat boosts, so just tanking them doesn't seem like an option either.  I'm hoping this is only at T27 or whatever.  

Yeah, I do not remember how exactly Est survived, but according to the calculator, Est can survive with 6HP and prevent doubles from BH!Lyn (I do not have Spd Tactic fodder, so my BH!Lyn only has 6/0/0/0 until VS!Azura Sings her) if she has 5 stacks of Ward Fliers, is on a defense tile, and have Fortress (D) 1 level higher than me, so I think that was most likely happened. I only have Fortress (O) at level 4, so the opponent probably had Fortress (D) at level 5.

I think the map terrain is either Lost Castle or Snowdust since I remember the flier ball being on the top left side.

Edited April 9, 2019 by XRay

[Johann]

15 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

That is true there is a lot of chance with defense it seems.  I am hoping I get another Duma and 2 Yune, that way I won't have to worry too much about it.  Offense yeah the difference between a failure getting 0 points and getting a full success 100 points (or much more than that during light season) is huge.  

What have you upgraded your O and D fortresses to?  Also long term, poor mobility but great stats Halloween Jakob would he be good to build as a vantage CC user?  I actually have a few merges on him.  Also will be using Halloween Mia first time this week, I can no longer tank Ophelia so maybe if I can't find a safe way to player phase killer her (or if my tactic room can't limit her approach) I can reset her special and thus nuetralize her threat.  My +res Julia had 2 Eir, light blessing and res tactic buff on her during light week and she could take tank Ophelia without a scratch most times, and a tiny scratch at other times.  However that +10 res, +10 HP....wow it is pretty sad that even a high res green like her is going to have trouble against Ophelia AoE attack. 

My Fortress (O) is 4 and will be 5 on Monday, my Fortress (D) is 3. Additionally, I've put very little into my Def structures, only last night upgrading Tactics Room (D) to 2. I enjoy the traps though, since my opponents can't tell how strong they are and the effects are so powerful.

Jakob uses CC well, but Vantage not so much unless he's against fliers. Might be better to focus on some kind of survival oriented skill set that allows him to take on a variety of units, rather than trying to one shot stuff. He'd do fairly well as long as you don't run into armor-effective units, but those are quite common due to people wanting Surtr counters (especially Dancing Micaiah, who ignores Vantage anyway). I'm not fond of armors on Offense if just for that, but I also don't have many well built armors either. I do actually use him on Def sometimes, with that exact build as sort of a bait unit against Galeforce users, and maybe pick off an Eir.

One of the best counters to Ophelia is Aversa. Even after pulling Halloween Mia, I find Aversa's Night to be usually more worthy of a slot if I can pull off things like this in Light season:

[Rinco]

Posting my def setup here for comments

Olivia has Guidance on C-Slot and Aerobatics Seal. 

Lewyn has Dragon Fang, Rally Atk, L&D and Flashing Blade Seal. 

Lucina is basic kit with Darting Blow Seal and Moonbow. 

Dumas have base kits and random seals. 

[Lewyn]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

Yeah, I do not remember how exactly Est survived, but according to the calculator, Est can survive with 6HP and prevent doubles from BH!Lyn (I do not have Spd Tactic fodder, so my BH!Lyn only has 6/0/0/0 until VS!Azura Sings her) if she has 5 stacks of Ward Fliers, is on a defense tile, and have Fortress (D) 1 level higher than me, so I think that was most likely happened. I only have Fortress (O) at level 4, so the opponent probably had Fortress (D) at level 5.

I think the map terrain is either Lost Castle or Snowdust since I remember the flier ball being on the top left side.

Well now I know how devastating these things are.  I ran into 3 in a row, one of them had def fortress 5+1, one had 4+1, and one had 3+1.  I lost the first two completely had to use 2 ladders, one the last one...with two survivors.  You're right, these were running all flier formation and a mix of goad and ward with +10 units...my +3 Bow Lyn with horse buffs even couldn't double.  Anyways then faced another team comp that was mixed, and got 3 survivors win.  So 2 ladders wasted, and 100 aether (I did get both pots on the final one so 90 really), all to get a total of 100 lift.  

If it's like this though I don't even care if I drop, nothing I can do against these supermerged flier squads, I don't have the stuff to beat them nor the resources to invest now into reliable counters.  Built a variety of teams, but teleporting units with brave effects super merged and with all the un panickable buffs, not much they can do.  

@Johann After today's results I am thinking offense fortress is going to be a must upgrade for me first

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Lewyn

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Lewyn said:

Also long term, poor mobility but great stats Halloween Jakob would he be good to build as a vantage CC user?

In my opinion, there are very few units who can do Counter-Vantage properly since they need to be able to reach insanely high Atk or have some way to simulate high Atk. Off the top of my head, the only units who are fit to be one are Ares, Keaton, WOT!Reinhardt, Jaffar, Pain healers, Laevatein, and Blade mages.

With Atk Tactic and Def Tactic, Ares can reach 95+ Atk from spamming Bonfire.

Keaton and WOT!Reinhardt have Meister effect; since they hit twice, their Atk does not need to be as high.

Jaffar and Pain healers get Atk+10 on their target (Atk+24 on foes around target) on top of their existing Atk, simulated through splash damage. With Dancer/Singer support, Jaffar and Pain healers essentially can get Atk+34 on nearby enemies (or more if you have multiple Dancers/Singers). Since the splash damage from Deathly Dagger and Pain also work on Enemy Phase, each enemy that suicides against Jaffar and Pain healers further increases Jaffar's or Pain healer's Atk. Additionally, Jaffar gets another Atk+7 by debuffing foes (foes' Def/Res-7), although this debuff is not stackable unlike splash damage. Neutral Jaffar at 5*+0 can essentially reach 94 Atk (94=47Atk+34Splash+7Debuff+6AtkTactic) with 2 Dancers/Singers, and each time a unit suicides on Jaffar, it gets increased by 10.

Laevatein can reach 95+ Atk with VS!Azura support. Most Blade mages can reach 85+ Atk, with the best reaching 90+.

If you are willing to limit the scope of your enemies, any unit with Effective Weapons can also use Counter-Vantage, with Counter sometimes being unnecessary if the Effective Weapon is countering another type of Weapon user with the same range (e.g.: Falchion vs. dragons, Kitty Paddle vs. mages). For example, neutral Lucina at 5*+0 with Sealed Falchion and double Brazen Atk/Def reaches 103 Atk (103=69*1.5) against dragons without any buffs.

19 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

Well now I know how devastating these things are.  I ran into 3 in a row, one of them had def fortress 5+1, one had 4+1, and one had 3+1.  I lost the first two completely had to use 2 ladders, one the last one...with two survivors.  You're right, these were running all flier formation and a mix of goad and ward with +10 units...my +3 Bow Lyn with horse buffs even couldn't double.  Anyways then faced another team comp that was mixed, and got 3 survivors win.  So 2 ladders wasted, and 100 aether (I did get both pots on the final one so 90 really), all to get a total of 100 lift.  

If it's like this though I don't even care if I drop, nothing I can do against these supermerged flier squads, I don't have the stuff to beat them nor the resources to invest now into reliable counters.  Built a variety of teams, but teleporting units with brave effects super merged and with all the un panickable buffs, not much they can do.  

Yeah, it feels like they are getting more and more common. I encountered them once or twice 2 weeks ago when I was still in Tier 20, and I think I encountered around 3 or 4 of them last week in Tier 21. I have not encountered any today yet, but I will probably see more as the week goes on.

Maybe if the turn limit is extended to like 8 or 9 or something, that might give more time to clear buildings and disable Traps to properly face off against them and have enough room to maneuver around.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Heh, who needs Light Season when Fjorm is a bonus? Both my first two matches were pulse parties and she didn't give a crap about them. Granted, this is stacking up a good chunk of buffs on top of the bonus (merged to +8, 4 flowers, Fort O 5+1 vs 4+1, +6 from Res Tactic and +6 from double Drive Res 3), but she was bordeline taking no damage against most of this stuff, so there's a fair bit of leeway for a less invested Fjorm to drop around 8 Res, give or take, but this is still super silly for Astra Season. Were it Light Season, none of those mages would be doing anything at all.

The only annoying thing is that I need to find somewhere to slot in those crappy Anima battles. I've got Spring Loki blessed and set up as a Smiter to facilitate that, but pulse parties really aren't the place for her.

On 4/9/2019 at 6:04 PM, Lewyn said:

If it's like this though I don't even care if I drop, nothing I can do against these supermerged flier squads, I don't have the stuff to beat them nor the resources to invest now into reliable counters.  Built a variety of teams, but teleporting units with brave effects super merged and with all the un panickable buffs, not much they can do. 

After the first two days, people dumping that many resources will generally be out of scope for you to fight (or very unlikely). I find I tend to fight the really optimized, mega whaled stuff very early—even waiting to start until late Tuesday. Then, by the end of the week, end up facing more budget-y whale builds and some genuine hodge-podge teams (noting that this trend continues to pop up despite often pushing into T25 during Light Season). Basically, wait the storm out a bit and you'll have an easier time.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi

[Tree]

5 hours ago, Lewyn said:

Well that has to be a future merge project, the problem is I don't have enough feathers to even promote a single unit for merging atm.  Reinhardt+10 does hit hard.

Not sure if you meant it's a hard hit to your feathers for a +10, or if you mean he takes out enemies with ease, but both are true so it doesn't really matter.

It will be much easier to make it when Eir is a bonus unit again due to both the increased stats for Eir, and not having to fit a separate bonus unit into the team. Double Eir also gives +10 HP and +10 res to everyone, so that helps a lot. The team I used to get to Tier 21 all have reposition (or sing). The alternate teams mostly contain different configurations of Alfonse replacing Reinhardt, Bow Lyn, or Leanne. Brave Bow on Brave Lyn made speed mostly irrelevant. Leanne could be replaced with a different flying singer, and you can use any Surtr counter you like although it's nice if they can one-shot him. If you don't want to upgrade two Attack +3 seals, Distant Defense seal is good on Eir too.

• Eir (+0) Speed Smoke 3 seal
• Eir [+atk, -def] (+0) Attack +3 seal
• Reinhardt [+atk] (+10) (2 flowers) Moonbow, Death Blow 3, Hone Cavalry, Quickened Pulse seal
• Brave Lyn [+atk] (+6) (3 flowers) Brave Bow+, Luna, Hone Cavalry,  Attack +3 seal (alternate copy)
• Leanne [+res] (+2) Fortify Res, Warding Stance 3 seal
• Alfonse (Surtr counter) Triangle Adept refine, Axe Breaker 3, Brazen Attack Defense seal

Aether structures used this last season:

• Maxed Fountain and Pots
• Level 4 Fortress
• Level 4 Panic Manor
• Level 4 Infantry School
• Level 3 Escape Ladder
• Level 1 Healing Tower (Bonus building)

Defense team was just a 1* wrys (No Yune yet)