Quote Originally Posted by Mirai View Post
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My questions are:
1. What soul should I be going for next? I was thinking Andromeda since she’d help me with GO and I don’t really need D’art anytime soon with Ryu-oh
Since you're not clearing stage 4 GO, survival seems to be an issue for you. Joan does amazing in that. You can do great things by either combining Snow Raphael damage cut to (nearly) entirely negate enemy attacks, or cycle Joan -> Snow Raph -> Joan if you need more time.

As the other guy above me said, it seems like you're missing out on damage output still though. Swapping to Joan will prevent you from reaching -50% Def, which certainly won't help. Anyway, I'd try with Joan and get full slvl20 Grid, then you can most likely run Herc again. Or just run Herc for general content and Joan when the incoming damage is too much to handle.
Quote Originally Posted by Mirai View Post
2. Now that I can farm orihalcons (slowly), what water weapon should I get?
None of the Ori weapons in the exchange seem amazing, sadly. The 1-cost one has no Assault, and none of the three 2-cost weapons are Assault + Defender/Exceed. So they're all things you'll eventually drop. Spend Ori if you really feel you need it, but remember that you need them for FLBs as well.
Quote Originally Posted by Mirai View Post
3. My weapon grid is lacking SSR’s because I was much weaker during the water UE and was on vacation for most of the rahab advent (feels bad). Should I continue skill leveling the SR raid weapons, or start working on other grids like Wind while I wait for water events?
I'd get Water fully maxed out so that you have one solid team to fight with.
Quote Originally Posted by Mirai View Post
4. What’s a good set-up for weapon skills for a water grid? My understanding is that assault/assault + defender is best with pride coming in next - is there a recommended number of each?
Rule #1: Assault, Assault, Assault. Prides count as Assault, but every weapon must have Assault.

A secondary skill is highly valuable, particularly if there's HP on it. As for how much HP, eh, the more the better? I don't think there's really a "too much" for that, especially since most players don't get to choose what they have. They have what they have.