Introduction

The Three Kingdoms 2 (3K2) series is coming to North America on Friday, March 17th and will feature the new locked orb removal mechanic. In order to entice players with new cards, GungHo tends to release new/unique abilities which also helps open up new team building/inheritance possibilities. One nice thing about the 3K2 pantheon is that they are a pantheon and should in theory be easier to obtain.

The Three Kingdoms 2 are all able to transform the board to a 7×6 size and promote pairing with different leaders along with featuring the 7 combo  awakening. 7 combo awakening provides 2x damage for that card when hitting 7 or more combos and is a tremendous damage boost overall. While this can be problematic with absorption mechanics, we do have access to Fujin  and is somewhat controllable as you can make the conscious effort to match less combos and pray for no skyfalls.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that these are new cards, they do not have an ultimate evolution and suffer from lower base stats and fewer awakenings, but hopefully their newer aspects help justify these weaknesses.

One thing you need to be aware of is their lower than perceived rates. All the 3K2 cards are 6-star rarity and will be slightly harder to acquire than a regular card.

Video commentary

Non-English names add +2 to my name killing skill
—video goes here—

Ranking the Three Kingdoms 2

Three Kingdoms 2 – March 15/2017

Xiahou Don

God / Physical
3,735 HP / 1,643 ATK / 140 RCV
749 Total
     

Active Skill:
Remove locked orbs
 
 
7 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK & 1.5x RCV for matching Fire & Dark. 7×6 Board
3.5x ATK / 1.5x RCV / 7×6 Board on his own

Pros	Cons
Unlocks orbs Potential Baldin  pairing Does not remove heart orbs 2 TPA & 7 Combo  Fits nicely on Shiva  teams Makes 7×6 board BRUTAL	Low value active for the most part Lower weighted stats No real good pairing for 7×6

Impressions

I will probably refer to Xiahou Dun as the Brutal 3K2 God in my video and he is quite a respectable card for a pantheon monster who is just debuting. Reincarnated Shiva  has perfect synergy with their leader skill to use Xiahou Dun as a sub due to the need to achieve 7 combos and match fire TPA. This will enable them to possibly be the hardest hitting card on your team as you essentially double his base attack value. While this will probably be his most natural fit, but he can also use his God typing on Shiva Dragon  teams.

Looking at his active, it becomes apparent that it is mostly a fire orb changer as very few teams can actually make use of the dark orbs outside of Baldin  (granted this does form a 4-element board which is easier to solve). Thus, if you are unable to take advantage of the unlock mechanic, it is a lower value active. Baldin doesn’t really offer a high enough multiplier along with any other compatible fire leader.

Presently speaking, the major locked orb encounters are Ilsix and the previous +297 Zeus dungeon. While +297 Zeus only occurred once, Ilsix is a reoccurring nightmare for many players and gaining access to a new method for bypassing him will be well received. Ilsix generates a board of water, hearts, and locked jammers and can be difficult to overcome in an Arena setting if you cannot either change the water to your primary colour or generate a rainbow board (need to heal due to threat of DQ Hera preemptive). By being able to unlock the jammers, you are at least able to utilize the whole board and fully benefit from your board changer.

 

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Gan Ning

God / Attacker
3,048 HP / 2,128 ATK / 58 RCV
749 Total
     

Active Skill:
Remove locked orbs
  

7 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK & 1.5x RCV for matching Water & Fire. 7×6 Board
3.5x ATK / 1.5x RCV / 7×6 Board on his own

Pros	Cons
Unlocks orbs Potential Sun Quan  pairing Does not remove heart orbs 2 TPA & 7 Combo  Makes 7×6 board Can shoot two arrows at once	Low value active for the most part Lower weighted stats No real good pairing for 7×6 No real good home for him in water

Impressions

Gan Ning is the least powerful of the 3K2 series as he has no real team to fit on. Water has been lacking a viable/end game TPA leader for quite some time now and most tend to be row oriented. Thus, Gan Ning will most likely be regulated as a niche inherit for when you need to remove locked orbs or a bench-warmer for what may be a future water TPA/combo team.

With that being said, Gan Ning has some potential to pair with Awoken Sun Quan , but it is still a relatively low damage team as you require an active skill and I am not sure if the 7×6 board will justify the drop in damage.

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Ma Chao

God / Dragon
2,413 HP / 1,755 ATK / 173 RCV
749 Total
     

Active Skill:
Remove locked orbs
 

7 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK & 1.5x RCV for matching Wood & Light. 7×6 Board
3.5x ATK / 1.5x RCV / 7×6 Board on his own

Pros	Cons
Unlocks orbs Potential Odin Dragon  pairing Does not remove heart orbs 2 TPA & 7 Combo  Makes 7×6 board Pointy stick	Low value active outside of Odin Dragon Not bind immune Lower weighted stats

Impressions

Ma Chao actually has a potent pairing with Odin Dragon  as the 7×6 board greatly opens up the potential for colour crosses along with a perfectly synergistic active skill. Despite the fact that you are taking a dramatic drop in maximum multiplier, the consistency of achieving two colour crosses (43x ATK) and 3 crosses (150x) dramatically improves with the larger board. In addition, you do have the chance at 4+ crosses which does further raise the damage cap.

While the Odin Dragon pairing has merits, it is not without fault as Ma Chao is not bind immune and does not provide the autoheal. However, this is partially offset by the RCV bonus from wood and light combos.

Outside of an Odin Dragon inherit, Ma Chao can be used on combo-oriented teams such as Bastet  or in the niche situation where you need to remove locked orbs.

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Diaochan

God / Healer
2,733 HP / 1,265 ATK / 670 RCV
750 Total
    

Active Skill:
Remove locked orbs
+2 seconds to move orbs
2 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK & 1.5x RCV for matching Light & Dark. 7×6 Board
3.5x ATK / 1.5x RCV / 7×6 Board on her own

Pros	Cons
Unlocks orbs 2 turn base cooldown Easy to inherit over 7 Combo  Makes 7×6 board Great sub on active skill clause teams Tasteful sideboob	No ideal leader pairing for 7×6 Situational damage resists Lower weighted stats

Impressions

Diaochan is the outlier in the pantheon, and not just because she is a girl. Her awakenings and active skill greatly differ from her ancient brothers as she is able to fulfill a completely different niche. Looking at her awakenings, the big stand out is the 7 combo  as it provides 2x damage for herself when hitting 7 or more combos. Unfortunately, she lacks any other offensive awakenings while her 10% passive damage from light and dark cards is situationally valuable. These may be able to help you survive certain hits and is probably most valuable in solo mode as it will increase your chances of surviving DQ Hera preemptives without a shield. However, her main appeal is her two turn base active skill.

Teams who are reliant on active skills for their full multiplier are always in search for low cooldown cards and Diaochan is best able to fit on Anubis  teams. The 7 combo  awakening beautifully synergies with the whole combo-playstyle along with providing a quick charging active skill for full multiplier. In fact, some players even use 2 Diaochans to ensure full multiplier every turn along with 20% damage reduction from light and dark.

In addition to being valuable on active skill clause teams, Diaochan is also able to be used as a base for skill inheritance if you want to take advantage of her 7 combo awakening as well as orb unlock mechanic. This perhaps has the most value on Machine Zeus Descended farming teams as you are able to inherit an active of your choice on Diaochan, use in the beginning and then unlock the orbs from Diadem on floor 9.

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Sima Yi

God / Balance
3,115 HP / 1,563 ATK / 373 RCV
748 Total
     

Active Skill:
Remove locked orbs


7 turn Cooldown

Leader Skill:
3.5x ATK & 1.5x RCV for matching Dark & Water. 7×6 Board
3.5x ATK / 1.5x RCV / 7×6 Board on his own

Pros	Cons
Unlocks orbs Potential Dark Athena  pairing Great sub for Dark Athena  2 TPA & 7 Combo  Does not remove heart orbs Makes 7×6 board	Lower weighted stats

Impressions

Sima Yi is probably the most valuable card from the Three Kingdoms 2 pantheon as he has immense relevancy on Dark Athena  teams. Dark Athena requires both water and dark orbs for activation. Furthermore, in order to heal effectively, you must match those two colours alongisde and Sima Yi’s active does this beautifully. Outside of full board changers, the only other option we had was Awoken Yumisachi & Yamasachi  who would break heart orbs to generate dark. Thus, Sima Yi is superior in this aspect as you retain the option to heal alongside burst damage (he also provides a stat transfer if inherited).

Furthermore, the fact that Sima Yi converts fire to dark enables him to combo with the staple Haku  and allows you to create a 2/3 dark, 1/3 water board for optimal damage and is once again the superior choice when compared with Hanzo .

While Sima Yi is able to be used as an inherit, you are also able to efficiently use him as a sub due  to the double TPA  and 7 combo  awakenings. This translates into a massive spike while we wait for the reincarnated forms of Haku and Loki. Finally, the single Time Extend  has merits on Dark Athena as her team tends to be heavily lacking movement time while the orb unlock is just icing on the cake.

Conclusion

The Three Kingdoms 2 pantheon is an exciting new addition to Puzzle and Dragons as it does offer new orb changing possibilities along with the capacity to unlock orbs. While we may not be faced with too many overwhelming locked orb encounters, it at least provides a new tool to use moving forward.

Let me know what you think about the new Three Kingdoms Two Pantheon.

Happy Puzzling!

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