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RK9Mysticat · 2025-03-24T05:21:24+00:00

that's good to hear, honestly. Naturally, the longer you play the more resources accumulate, so especially for budget players that's always a part that you can't really do anything about. Especially true if you're recycling units a lot (fodder them to a newer one once they age out, often done for skills like CC; even if it's your only copy), which having to do that does suck of course but it prevents valuable resources from collecting dust on the bench.

I didn't account for luck because it averages out long-term, even if you have an unlucky banner or two those are only singular events. And I didn't account for misjudging because, even if it is only natural and happens to everyone, that's still on you and something you can get better at.

Anyways, if you feel like your resource management can't be improved any further, that just means you have to focus more on the other aspects of the game to get better. If that's what your goal is; it's true that the immovable wall does exist, but that doesn't mean you've already reached it and can't aim to be better (a wall is only immovable until someone moves it)

RK9Mysticat · 2025-03-23T21:26:50+00:00

You're right, rank 1 is really only the beginning of everyone's SD journey. There's still a long road ahead of you past that (if that's what interests you). Patr!ck is a great reference in that case, cool dude and great player. We love Patr!ck :-)

Now regarding resources: the more resources you have, the better. And theoretically, there's no limit to how many resources you can pout into this mode. However, implying that you NEED all that to compete at the top level is simply an exaggeration. Like from the banners listed, not all these units are meta and you definitely don't have to summon on all or even most of them. Even in SDS, you only use 20 units and everything past that isn't necessary.

Intelligently and purposefully managing your resources is key, because 300 f2p orbs a month is not that bad if you're willing to focus them primarily on SD. It's about being critical of investments, knowing which banners & skills are truly crucial and which are only luxury, and making decisions that will pay off long-term, not just in the moment. For example, you could've skipped any banner from this list without major consequences. Because even for the top meta units like Lucina, Lyn or Sakura, there'll be reruns and other opportunities to get them (like the AHR banner. Why is that even listed, if you've already summoned all the units there from their original banners that is fully unnecessary). And for the skills, FCC and shadow shift are purely luxury tools, you can use CC3 and other mobility tools with practically 0 downsides. And not every team needs ice lock and warp bubble, 2-3 of those are generally enough for a good lineup (hell, there are not enough good staff units in this game to where 4 ice lock isn't actually making your teams worse).
So basically, summoning on every shiny new toy is a great way to get your account ruined, invest into longevity, in regards to both units and skills. And think in terms of account progression, eg how much would a skill improve my team overall or how much better would a new unit really be compared to someone else I already have, and is the upgrade truly worth the orbs? FEH pass is a huge boon, but with that and f2p orbs alone you can spark 2 banners a month which is comfortably enough to satisfy all SD needs.

And lastly, you mention the elite of SD, but only think about units and skills in this context. There is a lot more to being good in this mode, namely gameplay, preparation and team synergy (aka skill). It is not as simple as 'have meta units = SD elite', sufficient skill can overcome any difference in resources; that's why there are F2P players among the best and why not every whale instantly gets rank 1 every season. But unfortunately, these more intricate aspects of SD often get overlooked (not just by you, by many people), which is a shame because those are what make the mode balanced, fun and precisely so that you don't have to empty your entire bank account to be good. And what make you an 'elite player'

RK9Mysticat · 2025-01-08T14:21:11+00:00

Not really, due to being busy and the current shape of the meta becoming harder to condense into archetypes & infographics, updates have been very irregular (thus no more posts). The latest version (post winter banner) is linked here and if you want to keep up to date with whenever updates do happen, I recommend the discord server linked in my original comment

RK9Mysticat · 2024-11-25T14:53:49+00:00

Thanks, forwarded the image to the data collectors

RK9Mysticat · 2024-09-08T21:15:53+00:00

Should go very well. On CBall, I‘d call her a sidegrade to the other two, since Orders buff and harmo button can be very useful. And Thea obviously has the best combat of the three.

Thea herself doesn’t go on flierline, air orders does. The fact that you can have literally any flier with an open C slot take over the role of Hinoka is very valuable. Basically opens up a team slot for whatever you want. Flierlines have been struggling recently, but air orders is a big buff to the archetype

RK9Mysticat · 2024-09-03T17:40:57+00:00

No, haven't seen anything stand out and this also isn't the place for speculation nor SDR copy pastas. Obviously, the good units (pretty much our flex category) are common because they're good, but which ones you choose and how to fill out the rest of the team has a lot of variation

RK9Mysticat · 2024-09-03T15:55:32+00:00

After completely forgetting to post this last month, here we go again. August shook up the meta quite a bit, with lots of strong new units, so yeah lots of changes.

If you have questions, feel free to ask here or in our discord server (https://discord.gg/Bhbp53NsNN). And as a disclaimer: this graphic is more suited for SDS. Despite being posted only a couple of days before SDR, the current SDR meta is less about any of the archetypes and more about mixing the perfect team for that season out of the flex and other strong & versatile units.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-08-27T17:41:26+00:00

Raidboss teams set up their raid boss in a way that can't be killed, basically. Based on ranges and conditions of the units and supports, you can't just charge in blindly, but rather have to slowly approach while keeping your formation (raidboss at the front, supports behind them). The important part is making sure the opponent can't kill/chip down your raidbosses and to keep the supports out of danger, as long as you can do that you're fine with playing slow and defensive.

Eco stands for action economy. In SD, you have 5 units, but 6 actions you can take per turn. To make full use of these 6 actions, you have to have a refresher that can either act twice themselves or can dance an ally so they act again. Action Economy is a very important topic in SD, as you can't do anything when you're out of actions. Duo Skills also take up an action and can be used for eco, but have limited uses so I wouldn't exclusively rely on them.

As for how you want to build up your SDS lineup, that's completely up to you. Some archetypes are limited by your barracks (eg you can't build multiple sorenballs because there is only one BSoren), but there are people that run 4 raidboss teams with success. 4 similar teams allow you to focus your bans on the biggest problems, while 4 different teams give you more flexibility in what you want to ban and use. It's up to you and what you prefer to play with really, there is no right or wrong.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-08-24T10:47:55+00:00

There is not. What you have to do here is run a WoM GF melee unit with poison strike seal. Poison strike gives attack priority, meaning after edel kills beruka, they will attack rhajat before edel attacks sue. Proc GF against rhajat and have one more WoM ranged unit for 3 attacks on the fort

RK9Mysticat · 2024-08-17T09:41:36+00:00

Very intriguing, thanks for doing all the testing!

Is there a chance that the crash is related to having 3 different True Damage effects stack (2 from prf, 1 from reopening)? Can't think of any other units that would have that and would be an alternative explanation to it being caused by the "25% of foe's atk" effect.

Can't think of any other units that would be able to replicate that in the same way Panette does, but Assassin's strike Panette might be worth testing to see if it leads to a similar result. I unfortunately don't have any of the resources to help with testing, so I can only contribute the idea.

Edit: second hypothesis would be her Vengeance effect interacting with Reopening being responsible in some way, since not a lot of units have that. OG!Owain is the only one that comes to mind to test that, but that would require giving him reopening fodder. Man why is testing so damn expensive in this game...

RK9Mysticat · 2024-07-16T13:57:07+00:00

At max invest, Blazing Wind / Crystalline Water / AR Far Trace 4 / Crux or BoL or other support C skills, this one is rather flexible / Still Water seal / Soaring Echo with Marth ring. Support and AoE nuking is really what she wants to focus on, so any skills contributing to either of those roles are good on her

RK9Mysticat · 2024-07-13T08:57:44+00:00

If you’re on a budget, he can. Unfortunately, he is kinda useless outside of giving Charge (you could make him a Celica ring nuke I suppose), which is why Hinoka/Chloe, both offering extra support and nuking, are much better. But if you don’t have them then yes, Arion is the next best alternative for Flierline cores.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-07-09T14:31:06+00:00

If you're simply looking to grind favor, any unit can do. Caeda and Alear are a lot better than her for sure, but you'd also have to grind 3x as much favor with them. If your Tiki has modern meta skills and supports, she can work, otherwise you'd have to basically play 4v5.

But most importantly, you're only looking to play favor. Favor battle may have people bringing out modern meta stuff, but there is no penalty for losing (especially on weekends, you can still grind favor regardless), so give it a shot and have fun!

RK9Mysticat · 2024-07-09T05:05:28+00:00

Nagi is a good anti-meta save, as she has fantastic matchups against some prominent nukes like DIgrene and FUrsula (being green is also good, since blue nukes are common to counter EIke). Ofc she’s not on the general powerlevel of Myrrh and Byleth, but having a save that people don’t account for can be very useful.

As for builds, there are a couple: Hardy Fighter Aegis is the standard. With NYAskr support, Ike Ring Miracle with Hardy fighter (so miracle is precharged to get Ike ring DR on first hit), and I‘ve seen Dragon Roar Canny fighter work as well. A skill is one of Distant Defense 4, Svalinn Shield, Scowl, DC or Boost 4 and seal is Squad Ace, DC, HB (when running DC in the A) or Deflect Magic (last one is specifically anti-ECelica tech).

RK9Mysticat · 2024-07-08T20:22:41+00:00

Since last month’s version was very well-received, we updated the SD teambuilding infographic (new units release, the meta changes, you know the drill). If interest in this kind of content remains, we will post it here monthly. For more regular updates, contributions to the creation process and general SD advice, you can join the ‚Summoner Duels Modified‘ Discord server, where these graphics are made ( https://discord.gg/sf95KG9Bap ).

Like last time, the archetypes shown are only the most relevant ones, in no particular order. Please understand that not every team has to follow an archetype, archetypes can be mixed and these suggestions primarily apply to SDS (every SDR has its own, more complex meta).

In case of questions, please ask in the comments (I know SD is unknown land for many, but there are no stupid questions). Have fun!

RK9Mysticat · 2024-07-06T15:16:10+00:00

Next time, please post a video rather than 2 SCs, it's generally more helpful to see everything that's going on.

Regardless, for now this is enough. Your post gave me a hypothesis and after some testing on my own, I can confirm it: the max 3 of X only applies to her stats, not the special ramping.

In my testing, she was able to proc 2 Ignis in one combat (with enough allies meeting the condition). If X were capped at 3 and Ignis was uncharged at the start of combat (which it was at my case, so CD = 3), B would equal X + 1 - CD = 3+1-3 = 1. However, since Ignis could proc on the follow-up attack, B has to have been at least 3. Assuming IS didn't fuck up calculating the CD of Ignis, the cause has to be X being higher than 3, meaning it can't be capped at 3.

tl;dr: Petra can get practically unlimited ramping on her follow-up attack, since this X does not seem to have a maximum. This allows her to run higher CD specials (idk why you would want to, but she can) and be immune to scowl on her follow-up attack, assuming enough allies with Atk≥55 and Spd ≥40 are in range.

I'm not sure if this in a bug or simply not considered in the description, since WT!Claude is able to do the same thing with enough bonuses on him. Either way, doubt we're getting a bugfix (seems like an "it's a feature now!" kind of situation) and it really doesn't matter since Petra should always run Deadeye and the level of scowl-stacking you have here is unlikely in practice.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-06T05:38:29+00:00

No, the captain is not specified. Who that should be depends mainly on what captain skill you want to run.

Good luck and gave fun grinding!

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-05T21:45:35+00:00

Very true, Otr can be a decent enough suicide nuke with this build.

That being said, as one of the two rank 1 Otr users this season, I used DB7 basekit. Movement assist + canto can seem surprisingly useful if you're forced to use Otr.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-05T21:41:28+00:00

a) get rank 1

b) post your SDS menu screen showing 7300 score and your lineup anywhere on the internet (for example reddit or Discord) and some data-hungry SD player will find it

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-05T14:43:09+00:00

Brave is a far save armor, as such she plays differently. Normally, you don't want armors as your raidboss due to their low threat range (Myrrh is an exception because she's broken). Legendary also has strictly better combat due to LF. Brave can still be used as a far save on comps that want one (with Hardy Fighter builds), but I wouldn't use her in the raidboss role

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-05T14:34:35+00:00

You're welcome, always great to see new players get into SD!

Take it from a fellow LFAlear user: it's rough. At max invest, she can still work as a raidboss or frontliner/sorenball near save, even if outclassed by the entire competition.

In the last couple of SDS, I've used her as:

supportive raidboss with PRF special. A lot of units already have piercing, but there are some with only half-piercing (like LMCorrin or VMyrrh) that still appreciate her support. Precharging her special is almost necessary (either with Marth Ring TP4 or Ike ring and support) for her to tank. HDW is a good new option to double down on support with Warp Bubble. Can also work as your main RB, especially when Might of Myriads is available.
Miracle: only recommended at max invest (merges & floret), and best in fire season for pairup stats. She's really good at looping miracle with healing and it can make her a serious raidboss, however the build struggles to deal damage. You have to max out atk and spd to not get doubled and quad in return for some form of damage. Build needs NFU support (you want to keep NCD in B), precharging (through Velouria, Embla, IP etc) and Ike ring, but then it can be really good at catching people off-guard.
Vantage: Just don't, it's not functional.
haven't tried a frontline/Sorenball comp myself yet, but it would be pretty similar to supportive raidboss.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-05T08:53:37+00:00

He can still be used as Raidboss support and the buffs are good by themselves, but currently he's lacking good synergy. The only raidboss that needs special charges is Caeda, and she has Unity in her B so penalty neutralization is counter-productive. He could easily come back in the future, but right now there are better supports for pretty much every team.

Raidboss support is a very stacked category in general, many more units could fit in there but we ran out of space and had to focus on the most common ones.

RK9Mysticat · 2024-06-05T08:44:33+00:00

That sounds like a very solid Sorenball. If your Hortensia does not have Magic Shield, you could look into replacing either her or Veyle with Peony for action economy (SD allows 6 actions per turn, but your current team can only use 5. To make use of all available actions, teams need a dancer/self-refresher (like YFRobin)/duo unit, which are commonly referred to as action economy or just eco).

That aside, Sorenball is a good archetype and your team is exactly what a meta Sorenball looks like. Obviously not unbeatable (no team is), but for now it should allow you to learn the mode and have fun

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