Odins, Ilm, & Zuoh Monster Analysis

June 8, 2016 Mantastic 6 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Take a look at my Popular Leaders and their Full Sub List post for inspiration on team building ideas. If contemplating on purchasing a MP Dragon, please check out my Monster Point Dragon Purchasing Check-list Guide.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

The Odin are some of the oldest monsters in Puzzle and Dragons that have been receiving numerous small buffs to try and regain their viability. On the other hand, Ilm and Zuoh are two newer Godfest Exclusives who are powerful options for their respective teams due to their full board changers.

Odins, Ilm, & Zuoh
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Red Odin God / Attacker —- 50x Dark damage to all enemies. 10x ATK poison 15 turn CD	Red Odin (Rodin) is considered by many to be a staple sub on push button teams. However, with the introduction of skill inheritance, his dependency is slightly lowered if you are willing to invest in a high skill boost base monster. However, Red Odin performs the job so well and can make farming a breeze. Unfortunately, his uses beyond a farming sub are slim as his active will only be situationally useful to bypass high defence monsters via poison. You can also inherit his skill which does make him one of the few poison cards that can be used as an assistant. In an effort to increase his viability, Red Odin has received various buffs to his leader skill and now provides 2x HP and 3.75x ATK. This is reasonable and can make as a pseudo tank team lead. Unfortunately, his active is relatively weak and would require an inheritance to have more viability. Overall, Red Odin is a luxury card who will not see much use for the average player. Just remember, being able to farm an easy dungeon fast does not increase the drop rates, only the speed in which you can clear (and burn stones).
Blue Odin God / Physical —- 50x ATK damage & 15% heal. Enhance water & dark orbs 6 turn CD	Blue Odin (Blodin) has outrageously sculpted thighs that are threatening to burst through his skin-tight pants. Looks aside, the magical spear Odin posses an outstanding 894 weighed stats along with a wonderful mix of offensive awakenings to satisfy any mono water team. Granted you rarely wish to mix rows with TPA awakenings and thus he only has six valid awakenings. Unfortunately, he lacks any form of utility and skill bind resistance which could place constraints on team building to help achieve 100% immunity. Blue Odin’s active has undergone numerous micro-buffs with a reduction to 6 turns with latest patch. Unfortunately, the dual enhancement for water and dark goes mostly to waste and only adds additional turns to the cooldown. However, at only 6 turns, you can use Odin as a base for skill inheritance as his awakenings and base stats are quite strong. Furthermore, you should not discredit the healing component tied to his active. At max level and +297, he will restore 13,395 health and has functioned as an emergency heal on my Blue Sonia team. Blue Odin can have an appearance on any mono water team due to his God and Physical typing which includes, but not limited to Blue Sonia, Neptune Dragon , I&I / Ryune , Lakshmi , and Rukia . As stated above, you can use Blue Odin as your base for skill inheritance as he has a low base cooldown along with high stats and 3 skill boost awakenings. Overall, Blue Odin is regaining favour as a 6-star GFE due to numerous active buffs and skill inheritance.
Green Odin God / Balance —- 50x ATK damage & 15% heal. 5 turns bind clear 9 turn CD	Like Blue Odin , Green Odin (Grodin) has been receiving numerous micro-buffs to his active and is finally blessed with a truly powerful bind clear. If full leveled and +297, he will restore just under 14k health along with removing 5 turns of binds. This is quite potent and although you will rarely need to remove 5 turns, it is a helpful option to have available for skill inheritance. The main reason Odin is not selected as a sub on most teams is his lack of offensive awakenings and no SBR or recover bind utility. Thus, his only purpose would be bind clearing which is becoming less important due to unbindable leads. In addition to his active skill receiving improvements, Grodin’s leader skill has also been upgraded to grant up to 3.5x ATK when clearing 4-8 connected wood orbs and an 80% damage reduction shield on the first attack when HP is full. This is not game-breaking, but at least allows for modestly faster clears if tackling a descend with no multi-hit components. His favourite pairing would be Awoken Ama who also has an ATK multiplier in addition to large autohealing component to her leader skill. Overall, Green Odin is still a lacklustre 5-star GFE as the dependency on bind clearing is at an all time low and will most likely be regulated to being an assistant through skill inheritance.
Ilm Devil / Attacker —- All 12 turn CD	Ilm is essentially a Light/Fire Sonia without an ultimate evolution. This automatically diminishes their value as they only have 6 awakenings (which is low for a 6-star GFE) and I was somewhat surprised to see them in the PCGF. However, it just shows how popular Saria / Thor and Machine Zeus teams are as Ilm can almost always produce 2+ rows through their active. You are of course running the risk of a horrible orb-trolled board which cannot correct via orb changers due to only light and fire orbs being generated. I would prefer to run a tri-colour board changer as you can combo with another sub to pretty much guarantee a burst heavy board. Regardless, you can still effectively utilise Ilm on your mono light row teams and the promise of a future ultimate evolution should address their lack of awakenings. Ilm’s leadership potential is for the most part impractical as a 36x lead is not game breaking considering you have to match two different colours and have no HP or RCV multiplier. However, you can use Ilm as a fantastic Tsubaki sub (if you can find friends who use them) as you generate their two needed colours and can achieve a higher multiplier. Overall, Ilm is a potent mono light sub and their active can be transferred to both fire and light teams.
Zuoh Devil / Physical —- All 8 turn CD	Zuoh has fantastic artwork that truly captures the demonic beast within. He has a relatively new ultimate evolution that gave him a significant boost to his damage output through an additional row and Dragon Killer awakening. The Dragon Killer is exceptionally valuable in Ultimate Arena when facing the Dark Kali as it helps you push her out of the >65% danger zone. In addition to his offensive capabilities, he has a healthy mix of defensive utility and is a boon to all dark row-based/devil teams. You can find Zuoh making an appearance on Lucifer , Pandora , and Dark Metatron as they all focus on dark rows and Zuoh can be beautifully combo-ed with Akechi , Hanzo , and Pandora to form a 2/3 dark board for explosive damage. The main drawback of using Zuoh as a sub is his 0 base RCV that can place constraints on recovering when stalling. Awoken Pandora teams already have naturally low RCV due to their two leaders and Zuoh can further complicate the problem unless you have heavy plus egg investment. Zuoh can also be used as a leader and form a “Meimei System” by using multiple Awoken Meimeis to continuously chain his leader skill activation. However, the team is fragile as there is no HP or RCV multiplier and you have no defensive utility. Overall, Zuoh is a powerful dark row team sub and his offensive capabilities and his active allows for incredible burst damage when combo-ed with another orb changer.

Happy Puzzling!

Collab REM Reviews

Kiriko, I mean Shinrabansho Collab REM Overview

June 6, 2016 Mantastic 12 Comments

Introduction

The Shinrabansho Collab is returning to Puzzle and Dragons with some minor upgrades and evolutions. Unfortunately, it is mostly a story of too little, too late to have any real viability outside of Kiriko as a powerful sub on the new Xiang Mei . Even with the introduction of a re-coloured (non-awoken) Sakuya , Sonia , and Athena , the quality and quantity of the rare rolls is horribly lacking. The cards are quite underwhelming and it would be wise to not roll as you are more likely to pull more Uriels , Gadius , or collect enough MP for another Xiang Mei before rolling Kiriko (or anything of real value).

As with any Collab REM, any monster who can achieve at least a 5-star rarity can qualify as an assistant for Skill Inheritance. Therefore, you should think carefully before hastily selling your rolls. If you have not already, I highly encourage you to read my Skill Inheritance Guide.

Valuable Rolls

Continue reading Kiriko, I mean Shinrabansho Collab REM Overview →

Site News

Commenting, Interacting, and Navigating Mantastic PAD

June 4, 2016 Mantastic 12 Comments

Introduction

The picture has nothing to do with this post and is merely to showcase my love for Karin along with ensuring the formatting stays intact. The purpose of this posting is to encourage you to comment on the various guides and articles I write along with introducing you to the navigation bar at the top. Some of the most insightful conversations occur in the comment section and is also a way for you to gain clarification or ask for help. I don’t bite (hard) and try my best to reply to every comment or inquiry.

Creating a WordPress Account

I allow you to comment without having a WordPress account, but you will have to wait for moderation (as a countermeasure to spam) and you will show up as Anonymous or Someone and prevents me from putting a figurative face to a name.

As such, I strongly encourage you to create a WordPress account as that will give you a unique name that I can recognize and better interact with. You can follow the prompts HERE to help you create an account. The main benefits of having your own account is your comments do not go through the pending process and should appear after I approve your first posting. This allows for a more seamless conversation and allows others to contribute their thoughts and opinions.

Direct Email

If you wish to reach me through a more private medium, feel free to email me at mantasticpad@gmail.com

Navigating

I have placed numerous guides and helpful resources at the top of my site to help you access them. There is also a handy search bar that should be able to redirect you to a topic of your choosing as well as drop down menus to further ease navigation and to reduce clutter. There is also a Suggestion Box where you can leave messages at any time as this post will be gradually pushed down. Finally, you could also type any keywords into Google along with Mantastic and that should take you to the appropriate page.

Other Mediums

Feel free to follow/subscribe etc. My Facebook page will have random posting featuring amusing screenshots that do not warrant a blog post and is a nice way to have a gentle trickle of quick entertainment.

Mantastic Social Media
Facebook	Twitter	YouTube	Twitch

Conclusion

Leave a comment, tell me your favourite joke, or just say hi so you can bypass future moderation. Join the conversation and contribute your unique perspective on the latest Puzzle and Dragons events.

Happy Puzzling!

New Player Help

New Player Rerolling Guide

June 3, 2016 Mantastic 19 Comments

A Word from Mantastic

This article was created by one of my readers, Sam, who has invested a great deal of time and effort into creating a comprehensive and current rerolling guide for new players. I simply provided some editing and formatting modifications along with the insertion of my icons. I tried to keep my modifications to a minimum as to preserve his writing style and opinions. Sam may wish to start his own blog and any feedback on his content and writing style is greatly appreciated. He has also volunteered to do various number crunching should my articles need any mathematical supplementation. Enjoy!

Introduction

Hello newbies! My name is Sam, and I feel your pain. When starting your Puzzle & Dragons career, there is simply too much information out there, and it can be beyond overwhelming, even to veteran players. My buddy Mantastic has done a fantastic job of condensing information into easily digestible chunks such as his new player guide found HERE.

If you have ended up at this article, you are asking the right question to make your long journey a little more reasonable: “Should I reroll?” Rerolling is deleting your account and starting over from scratch, and is done to remove the variance between strong starts and weak ones so you can hopefully avoid hitting a wall in the content you can complete without spending dozens of bitcoins (or your currency of choice) on stones for Rare Egg Machine (REM) pulls. This guide will provide you with the knowledge you need to figure out if your first monster out of the REM will carry you all the way, or if you are going to end up floundering. First I will state our priorities, then I will outline some lingo I will be using, and finally I will get to the meat of the matter and give you the list. Continue reading New Player Rerolling Guide →

Videos

[Video] Scarlet System Online

June 3, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

With the hype surrounding Xiang Mei (who I probably will not get due to a lack of MP and subs) and all this talk about “systems,” I thought I would share my own system team and accomplishment. This is a little twist on a regular Scarlet system as both my accounts have a fully operational team and it does work in coop!

A system team consists of cards who have a 7 or less cooldown on their active and a haste component. This allows your team to use 3 actives per turn and the haste mechanic will allow you to use the original 3 again on your third turn. Now, it is hard to make a pure system team where every monster fulfils those components, but you can get close to allow for greater active cycling. A couple of popular system teams in existence are Cloud (rare pull from FF Collab) and Scarlet who is farmable (albeit from a very challenging dungeon).

The Scarlet System can only do modest level content, but it allows for completely mindless clears as all you have to do is connect 8-10 of the 12 spawned orbs every turn. It’s mostly for fun and the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with 50 successful skill ups per account. I also farmed about 100k Monster Points throughout this entire ordeal which does put me a bit closer to a second 300k MP Monster.

The following video showcases how I farmed for my system with a Blue Sonia team:

Playing with myself always feels amazing and wonderfully satisfying. Hope you have a Fantastic Friday.

Happy Puzzling!

+ Eggs, Godfest, Monster Points

50 Plus Eggs or 3,000 Monster Points: A Comparison

June 1, 2016 Mantastic 28 Comments

Introduction

To fuse, or not to fuse-that is the question. And that is probably the question of the week with the introduction of +50 eggs rolling out of the Rare Egg Machine during the 55 Million Downloads 5x GFE Godfest. We are now faced with the tough decision of whether it is better to fuse for the 50 pluses or sell for the 3,000+ Monster Points. Now, before you do anything hasty and start liquefying your monster box out of rage or frustration, please ask yourself if this card has any value. Can you use them on your teams or for Skill Inheritance. Dupes are now becoming more valuable and you do not want vendor’s remorse. If the monster in question has no true value. then continue reading. If not, please hit favourite on their character screen and read anyway!

Monster Points Overview

With the implementation of the Monster Point (MP) system, we are now able to save up to 300,000 MP to purchase a powerful card who is capable of leading our monster box into new content and territory. Now, 300,000 is a tall order and one of the fastest methods to acquire is selling various REM monsters for 3,000-50,000 MP. However, you are able to farm for Monster Points through PreDRA Infestation and the Rogue Descends.

Rogue descends on Mythical-Plus difficulty always award a 500 MP PreDRA along with additional drops for 25 stamina in coop. Rogue descends include Scarlet, Zaerog Infinity, and the other dungeons where your monsters start at level 1. Continue reading 50 Plus Eggs or 3,000 Monster Points: A Comparison →