Do not nuke your Monster Box for 750,000 MP to buy Dark Athena. She will be a permanent addition to the MP shop
Introduction
Dark Athena 
has been a long anticipated card that was up until this point only available in JP; however, NA/EU will finally be able to purchase her for 750,000 MP starting May 1st. This is a tremendous stepping stone as we are actually able to acquire a Radar card when PAD Radar is not available in our regions. Regardless, the question within the community will transition from is she coming to “Should I buy Dark Athena?” This is a loaded question as she does cost 750,000 MP and you should carefully weigh the pros and cons along with actually having a viable team to use her.
I did write extensively about her in a previous posting, but will create a new one based on the new cards that have been released since her debut in JP. However, there will be some overlap between the two but I have added in a much needed team building section.
Video commentary
—video goes here–
Solo Arena 3 clear
She is so forgiving I can make mistakes:
—
Screenshot from my first clear:
Dark Athena at a glance
Dark Athena
God / Devil / Attacker
3,618 HP / 2,501 ATK / 0 RCV
862 Total
Active Skill:
Enhance all water & dark orbs
3 turn delay
11 turn Cooldown
Leader Skill:
1.5x HP & 3.5x ATK for God, Devil, and Attacker cards. 2x ATK & 2x RCV when matching Dark and Water orbs
2.25x HP / 49x ATK / 4x RCV
| Pros | Cons |
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Impressions
Dark Athena may look lackluster from a purely multiplier perspective; however, she is actually one of the strongest cards/leaders in the game. There are many factors that go into consideration when trying to determine what makes a strong leader, and Dark Athena covers almost all of them.
Dark Athena has one of the most unconditional leader skills which dramatically raises her consistency and speed when playing through both challenging and easy content. Simply having to match a single water and dark combo for 49x is trivial compared to the shenanigans other leads require. This ease of activation enables you to flood the board with dark orbs in order to better take advantage of Dark Athena’s three TPA awakenings. Furthermore, with the introduction of the 7 combo 
awakening, Dark Athena has even more burst potential as she can run duplicate Hakus 
to great success.
In addition to the ease of access to damage, Dark Athena is also able to form a durable team through her 2.25x HP and 4x RCV when matching dark and water orbs. The health multiplier is important as this will allow you to easily tank any preemptive and many execution hits in the game. While 4x RCV is amazing and will allow you to essentially heal to full HP, it does come with the restriction of matching both a dark and water combo. This can be problematic as you will be triggering your 49x ATK multiplier. This means it may be challenging to actually stall on a floor as 49x is a respectable amount of damage and matching non-TPA can only do so much. Thankfully, with such a large HP pool, you should be able to withstand several consecutive hits without healing. Finally, you should also keep in mind Dark Athena is bind immune so you will always have access to these defensive multipliers.
In addition to all of these benefits, Dark Athena has amazing team building flexibility as she can use almost all of the top-tier dark subs provided they do not remove water orbs. Putting all of this together makes a stellar lead; however, I want to stress how fast Dark Athena can clear content. Being consistent is great, but being consistent and fast is amazing as you tend to repeatedly play the same dungeon over and over again.
Dark Athena can be favourably compared to Aizen 
in that they are powerful tank-oriented teams with Dark Athena trading maximum damage potential for the badly needed health multiplier.
One last point to consider is that Dark Athena comes ready to use. She has no evolution requirement along with a gentler experience curve when compared to the other MP cards. This is somewhat offset by the 750,000 price tag.
Dark Athena compared to other MP cards
It is well established the Ra Dragon 
is an amazing leader with Yomi Dragon 
acting as both a stellar leader and sub. In all honesty, these two should be your primary goals for using MP if Dark Athena is inappropriate to your monster box as the rest are nice, but will probably not help you push further into endgame content.
Ragnarok Dragon 
is still a powerful sub, but his main problem is the faltering of his ideal homes as those teams are not keeping abreast with the current meta. Odin Dragon 
can form a powerful colour cross team, but is pretty much comparable to Light Metatron 
and horribly outclassed by Aizen
Shiva Dragon 
is wonderful at fast farming medium content (especially in solo mode), but this should be viewed more as a luxury as his clearing potential is lower than Odin Dragon. On the other hand, Neptune Dragon 
is clumsy to activate as he is far too orb hungry and does not really excel in any department.
Finally, the Four Gentlemen 
are for the most part in an awkward place and should not be pursued by the average player.
All of the above points may sound overtly critical, but I strongly believe that Monster Point cards should offer something above and beyond the norm. In an ideal world, you want to the purchase to dramatically push your progression potential by leaps and bounds. You can read a more in-depth analysis through my MP card Tier list post that can be found HERE.
750k Monster Points
Keeping all of the above points in mind, is Dark Athena really worth 750,000 Monster Points? She costs 2.5x more than a regular MP card (300,000 MP) and would need to provide an immense amount of value to justify this somewhat outrageous cost.
If we look at the top 2 MP cards, Ra and Yomi Dragon, they both provide tremendous value if you can actually utilize them. Ra Dragon requires a very specific team to succeed and is impractical for the average player to assemble. On the other hand, Yomi Dragon’s new evolution helps solidify their position as a stellar dark sub and a fast and easy to use 81x ATK / 4x RCV lead. However, she still suffers from a lack of HP and may rely largely on coop to be successful.
Taking all of that into consideration, not everyone can find value through those two cards as their monster box may be lacking in certain aspects. Thus, Dark Athena may be more appealing as she can be immediately used by any ranking player regardless of their content progression. In addition, she has a largely open sub pool as she can utilize nearly every strong card in the game.
In addition, Dark Athena is able to lead a powerful solo team that can clear Arena 3 with relatively high consistency. Thus, you will be immediately gaining an end game leader right from the get-go.
One last point to consider is that trying to build the ideal Ra Dragon team (with inherits etc.) will probably end up costing more magic stones compared to the difference in 450k MP. Very few players are able to form the perfect team and most never will. However, you can still enjoy the benefits of attempting end game content with Dark Athena as you can use nearly any dark card in the game.
Points to consider
Before considering a purchase, you need to cut through the hype and actually examine if you can feasibly run a Dark Athena team before dumping 750,000 Monster Points.
Important points to consider:
- Do you actually have 4 dark cards that do not remove water orbs?
- Of those cards, how many are TPA oriented?
- Do you have a double SBR
card for solo mode? - How many Hakus do you own?
- Do you have ideal inherits? (discussed below)
- Will Dark Athena advance my progression overall?
Puzzle and Dragons has advanced to the point where your goal is to farm Arena 3. Arena 1 has been dramatically downgraded through Powercreep and Colosseum is not as lucrative outside of your first Orpharion 
.
Arena 3 offers a wonderful amount of Rank Experience, Pys, PreDRAs, and most importantly, Killer Latents. These Killer latents are amazingly powerful as they can enable cards to deal +50% damage to a particular type. When used correctly, it will improve your farming capabilities.
As such, Dark Athena’s goal should be farming Arena 3 and she is one of the best suited leaders to do so provided you have a feasible team.
Team building Dark Athena
As with any team in Puzzle and Dragons, a leader is only as strong as their subs and inherits and Dark Athena is no exception. While she may have a gentler team building requirement than most, you should still ensure you can run a competent team.
The following features are what I look for most in team building Dark Athena and I list them in order of preference:
- Dark primary attribute
- Two SBR if solo mode
- Two or more TPA
- Relevant active skill
- High base stats
- 7 combo awakening
Dark Primary attribute
While this may feel like common sense, people will ask if they can run water TPA cards like Ryune 
. Sure this can work, but you are automatically lowering the overall output of your team as you will have to chase both water and dark TPA which may inevitably lower your combo count. Dark Athena is meant to farm Arena 3 so why should you handicap yourself right form the get go?
Two SBR
This point only applies to those who plan to play her in solo mode as coop will almost always ensure you have 5 SBR across your eight subs. Below are the best double SBR subs available (mouse over icons for text):
Two or more TPA
Dark Athena is actually has a low base multiplier and it is through her ability to utilize TPA cards that enables her to achieve spectacular damage. Thus, it is ideal you try and aim for cards with two or more in order to ensure sufficient damage across the team. You can get away with a utility card that helps fulfill the below points such as Reincarnated Yomi 
, Anubis 
, or Eschamali 
as they all bring something unique/valued to the team.
Relevant active skill
Despite the fact that Skill Inheritance exists and enables you to customize cards to your liking, it is always ideal to have access to more favourable base skills. Powerful base actives directly translates into less stalling as well as having them ready by floor 1.
Active skills you should look out for are board changers, orb changers, or other valued utility.
High base stats
In this current day and age of Reincarnated Evolutions, it is somewhat common to see cards with 1,000 weighted stats. This is quite amazing when combined with the fact that Dark Athena has a multiplier that impacts all three attributes.
One thing to keep in mind is how Dark Athena’s leader skill works. You have 2.25x HP and 4x RCV when matching water and dark combos. As such, higher HP cards is more ideal as you should have enough RCV simply from the 4x.
7 combo awakenings
The 7 combo awakening has become the new “hot” awakening as it is universally powerful as it provides 2x damage against any boss when achieving 7 or more combos. While the pool of relevant 7 combo subs are small, it will most likely continue to grow as more cards receive their Reincarnated evolution.
Putting it all together
Taking all of the above points and putting it together, we can formulate an “ideal” team. I dislike the concept of an ideal/optimal team, but they do exist in Puzzle and Dragons because some cards/compositions are simply better than others.
Solo Dark Athena Arena 3 |
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Every card and inherit has a purpose and while this may be considered more ideal/optimal, it does not mean that this is the only team you can use.
In all honesty, if you have access to Fujin 
, you no longer have to worry about Hera Dragon which places a lower reliance on Indra’s 
shield as it would only be for dodging Ilsix’s execution ability and Sopdet if you do not wish to use Fujin. Thus, a board unlocker could help navigate the locked jammers problem.
Zeta Hydra 
can be replaced by non-awoken/reincarnated Orochi and Ryune is simply an upgraded Haku active. Lumiel 
is your true damage solution to for PreDRAs 
while Facet 
is an over the top burst damage.
While Facet is the best burst inherit possible, Carat 
is a viable alternative. Unfortunately, lacking either Gemstone can prove troublesome as Dark Athena is somewhat reliant on using them to achieve sufficient burst damage.
All of this can be modified to help make it work for yourself and this set up is primarily for Arena 3 and will vary depending on which dungeon you plan to tackle. Finally, you are able to gain one inherit you are missing through a friend’s Dark Athena.
Coop set up
Due to coop enabling you to bring 4 more cards/actives along with easy SBR coverage, you have even more flexibility. However, your leaders should have your most commonly used active skills as they charge up twice as fast.
Viable alternatives
I already listed the ideal double SBR subs and will now focus on alternative for Haku. What makes Haku so strong is her 1,000 weighted stats, relevant board changer, dual TPA, and 7 combo awakening. As such, it is challenging to improve upon this and you should try your best to mirror this kit.
From the current available cards, Persephone 
and Sima Yi 
, and Noctis 
are the three best alternatives. All of them have most of the core points that Haku has so either one would function almost as well.
Claire 
is another stellar card that tries her best to mirror Haku in that she brings the same 7 combo and dual TPA. Sadly, the Guard Break 
, rows, and lower weighted stats hold her back.
Reincarnated Yomi , Anubis , or Eschamali are also viable subs who do bring useful utility to the team. Farmable options such a s Grida 
or Zaerog Infinity 
are also powerful subs.
Even cards like Pandora 
and Yomi Dragon have relevance due to their beneficial active and stats. The key is you have the majority of your cards utilizing TPA and can fill in the 1-2 gaps with less ideal cards.
Skill Inheritance
Skill Inheritance is a way to address the various mechanics presented in challenging content that your natural actives cannot counter. What you choose to use will be based on your own Monster Box as well as what the situation calls for. If possible, use on-colour assists to transfer some stats; however, it is better to use a more ideal active instead of the minor stat boost.
Remember, you can be missing one “key” active and can fill simply befriend someone who has what you need.
Dark Athena |
Enhance all water & dark orbs 3 turn delay 11 turn Cooldown |
Inheritance Options |
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| Damage Enhance |           |
| True Damage / Poison |
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| Board Changer |     |
| Damage mitigation |
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| Utility/Delay |   |
| Orb Changers |              |
If I have missed any crucial inherit, please let me know in the comments below.
Latent awakening set up
Latent awakenings are able to add further customization to your monsters and do provide meaningful boosts in power. For the most part, they are not TOO important, but there are some that are better than others.
Largely speaking, Skill Delay Resists 
are a generic safe choice as they provide 1 turn of delay protection each. Thus, a card with a full 5 (or 6 if you expand) can help completely mitigate a delay and not slow down your clear times. Thankfully, these have become more readily available through events that have 2x invade rates for PreDRA Infestations.
However, some players will wish to fully optimize their team for Arena 3 farming and specific Killer latents will be your best friend. Killer latents provide 50% additional damage while occupying 2 latent slots and are mostly for an additional layer of protection in the end floors of Arena 3.
The number of wood resists will vary based on your own HP
Solo Dark Athena Arena 3 – No HP Badge |
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Dragon Killers are a natural counter to Radar Dragons and based on the number you possess, you will simply have to adjust your damage output accordingly. Why Physical Killers ? Well the most notable spawn pre-Radar Dragon is Ilsix and while you can side skirt him through Indra shields, this may not be an option for everyone and utilizing Dark Athena’s triple TPA and abundant water orbs can be enough to finish him off when below 30%.
Loki is not able to utilize a relevant Killer as God Killer will make Sopdet and Vishnu less controllable. As such, he is often loaded up with SDR or colour resists of your choice.
Colour Resists have less value on Dark Athena teams due to her innate tankiness and ability to burst down most floors with ease. However, wood has merits if you are struggling to overcome the HP threshold to survive Gaia Dragon hits. The number you require will vary based on how many you have due to your the inherits on your team. I will try and edit this once I actually have Dark Athena and can see how much HP I do have etc. If the HP value is too low, it may be required to actually drop some killers for more wood resists or use the latent extender etc.
As a note about SDRs, you want to ideally use them to ensure your base ability is ready to use against Hephaestus Dragon after his 15 turn delay. Thus, if your inherited skill has a 12 turn cooldown, 3 SDR will provide enough protection to use your base skill right away.
My set up
Mantastic’s Solo Dark Athena Arena 3 |
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- Wood Resists are for Gaia Dragon
- Physical Killers are for Ilsix
- Indra is better than Susano
- Facet is better than Carat
My team requires exactly 6 wood resists to survive Gaia Dragon and your own needs will vary. My team composition works for me given my cards and Monster Box. This is not the “ideal” team from an inherit point of view but can still function at a high level and solo Arena 3.
Using the wood resists allows me to use the +2 second Time Extend badge which makes the whole process significantly more relaxing. The +15% HP badge will not enable me to survive anything new and felt unneeded for me.
Who can actually acquire 750k MP?
As much as everyone wants to have access to all the content in PAD, there will simply be aspects that will be out of reach for the average player. Many people complained that the One-Shot Challenges that featured a Radar Dragon at the end were outrageous and unfair, but in all honesty, it was meant to be end game content and not everyone can be end game. Constantly releasing easier/early game content will inevitably kill the game as many players will begin to stop playing after a certain point.
Older players
Dark Athena will be meant for older players who have been committed to Puzzle and Dragons for a prolonged period of time. Using my two accounts as an example, I can clear any dungeon in the game along with being able to efficiently farm Monster Points. I purchased Yomi Dragon when she was first released (over a year ago) with just over 300,000 Monster Points. Since then, I have not made any additional purchases along with never spamming Rogue Descends for PreDRAs but have still managed to acquire over 1,000,000 MP in a years’ time.
There will also be many players in a similar boat as me, long term player with nothing of true value to purchase from the MP shop and have simply been stockpiling.
Dedicated farmers
We gain 480 natural stamina every day (1 stamina per 3 minutes) along with the potential to rank up through playing. Thus, a dedicated player can farm up Monster Points in a relatively short period of time.
To make math simple, each Rogue Descend will drop 500 MP along with collateral Plus Eggs, Super Kings, or Evolution Materials. In addition, each one will give around 50-60k rank experience and will allow you to chain unlimited rank ups in coop up to around rank 550 without stopping. Higher ranks will have to slow down this progression and wait for stamina to refill, but you still will be able to achieve 1 rank up per day.
Now, I understand that not everyone wants to purely grind MP all day, but let us limit it to 10 clears per day as you probably wish to play other content (I am assuming you ranked up). This would yield 5,000 MP on a daily basis and would take 150 days or around 5 months to achieve.
You will naturally have access to various MP reward content (challenge dungeons, ranking tournaments, etc.) along with vendoring poor Godfest rolls to hasten the progress.
North America is usually on a 2-3 month delay in terms of content being released so you have plenty of time to prepare.
Players who have too much MP
Being able to IAP (purchase stones with real life money) to various degrees has allowed some players to acquire massive amounts of MP due to plentiful Godfest rolling. This has probably resulted in them nearing MP cap along with having nothing to actually purchase. This may feel like a Pay-to-Win idea, but Dark Athena was originally available in JP for around $30-40 retail.
Conclusion: To buy or not to buy?
The answer to this question comes down to your own personal PAD goals and resources available. Dark Athena will be able to clear all the current content available in a fast and efficient manner. Puzzle and Dragons has become a not only a game that revolves around a single clear of end game content, but rather the ability to consistently farm the same dungeon over and over again with as little effort as possible which Dark Athena excels at.
Dark Athena grants more players the opportunity to tackle end game content while being accessible once you acquire 750k Monster Points. However, you should only purchase if you can field a feasible team for her.
For myself, I plan to purchase her on both Mantastic and Fantastic in order to open new doors for quickly clearing end game content.
Happy Puzzling!
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Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
Nice article Mantastic, I liked the inherits section. I’ve been grinding Legendary Earth to max level my 3 Revo Hakus and Revo Loki by Monday. I’m pretty pumped for Dark Athena to drop
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Glad you enjoyed it and now we can’t wait for Monday to come =D
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Would Scheat Regalia shinji be good for inheritance too?
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Yes they would! Thanks for the heads up =)
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oh i also forgot about sima yi!
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Just wondering is yomi dragon a better sub than xin hua for gremory?
Also, are hades and loki any good for gremory?
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Would a team of reincarnated anubis, reincarnated haku, reincarnated hades and Uruka be a good team for DAthena
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Uruka is okay for the utility and Fujin active but it also means you must hit 7c every turn for her to output damage. Anubis is another low damage/utility card but at least Haku and Hades will output strong damage
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I’m trying to decide if i buy DAthena or not and if you can help me a bit i’d be most grateful, i lack core subs as Loki and Haku but have Durga Okuni and Grida, i also have Karin, Umi&Yama, Awoken Luci, Anubis for inheritance and i have all the gemstone princesses, have 2 zeta hydra and one awoken orochi, one non awoken orichi, as potential subs have dill sirius and kakkab, both have 2 or more tpa and low skill cd, my main leader as now is ichigo and DMeta, should i buy her? thanks in advance
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I would not recommend as Haku is the most core sub of Dathena team, you need to have at least two to run it smoothly, although one Haku can replace by Sima Yi, whereas Durga is an acceptable replacement for Loki.
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well that sucks, i guess i’ll be saving this mp, thank you.
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You have to remember that 49x is low and you badly need TPA cards to output respectable damage. Durga is a good replacement for Loki whereas Grida is respectable, but you lack any other potent TPA cards so your overall output would be diminished
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If I don’t have facet or carat what would be the best dmg enhance to throw onto loki instead?
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Muse is the next best
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Hmm. Could a gravity be used in place of the dmg boost?
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Not really as it won’t help with massive burst damage for a3
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Barring Muse, Nim would probably be the next best. She wouldn’t help with spike damage for Loki, but every other card is an attacker.
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Yup =)
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I dont have no gem stone princess…I only have one haku…no loki….But I do have 800 000 mp (801,584) a ton of other dark subs and a TON of hyped I dont even care about any future Godfest the hype is real she is here God dammit YEAH!!! (seriously been waiting for her so much, since we have free stamina will focus on dark subs in the weekend).
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I’m solid in the not buy. I am using the infinite Stamina to grind MP, and plan to use the 170K MP and a hell of a lot of time and stuff to buy Ra Dragon as my 4th and Yomi/Shiva as my 5th MP monster. And im non-iap to boot!
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WOw, I’m on the same boat, I have Radra,shivadra and yomidra. I don’t have enough for dathena but I have enought for another MP dra.
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Deciding whether to buy DAthena or not. I have Haku, 2 Persephones, and a Loki. I also have Ryune and Scheat as likely inherits. Is this enough water orb changers to form a solid team?
Additional info: I already have a solid Noctis team (Haku, Perseph, Satsuki, H Rozuel) that I’ve heard can clear Arena 3 with relative consistency. In your opinion would the DAthena team I could make be significantly stronger?
Final note: The reason why I’ve been strongly considering her is cuz I’m no where near teams that could utilize the other MP cards (No Dkalis, No Kaedes, etc). Unless you think there are any other current/upcoming MP worthy investments, I might end up spending my 750k on her for now.
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For the most part, Dark Athena > Noctis in terms of consistency and clear potential due to no 4 orb restriction.
You do not really need water orb makers and instead can rely on the board changers to provide both dark and water.
A team of Haku, Pers x2, and Loki is quite formidable as you have all 1k stat double TPA cards. Do you have most of the inherits listed above?
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From the above, I most notably have Ryune, APanda, ganesha, Susano. I also have a Scheat for another potential water maker and skyfall, but not sure how optimal she would be. I do not have any jewel princesses, but considering my team has 2 7c cards (Haku, Loki) both with 2k atk base and 2 tpas, I think loki’s skill should be sufficient in most cases. Would you have any inheritance recommendations?
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Got 1 Haku, Loki, Yomi, Castor, Facet and Orochi for inherits, and Halloween Blonia (is she a decent sub?). Good idea to buy Dathena?
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Who are the subs? Haku, Loki + ? ?
Facet and Orochi are great inherits
HBlonia is okay but main probs is she has no TPA
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halloween sonia is off-type and wouldn’t get the 3.5x multiplier, use as a skill assist instead and get some sweet hp bonus on another teammate
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Quick question. I will be a solo player mostly but I was curious which inherit would be more beneficial for people on my friends list using my Athena? I have facet, orochi, and zeta hydra. I’m hoping to not only utilize the orchi and facets with my dathena team but also boost my pal points by having people on my friends list use it more often. Any thoughts in that regard?
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Most in demand DA inherits will be Fujin > Facet > Orochi/zeta hydra > Ryune imo
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Ok great I’ll use facet. Also I have Durga, Loki, two Haku, Persephone, and sima yi. All max skilled awoken and reincarnated if possible. Between them do you think it’s more beneficial to run Haku, Haku, Persephone, Loki, or should I find a way to put my sima yi in there? I’m going to be attempting to tackle the end game content so I’m not sure if the locked orb remover is necessary.
Thanks, Love the content. Keep it up.
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I would say Sima yi over persephone unless you need the higher stats. Persephone tends to overflood the board while Sima can make it easier to 7c
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To fill in the SBR void, which sub should I add to the team: Hamal or Chester?
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Hamal
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Do u think i should buy her? http://imgur.com/a/Umy29
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Four Fenrir.
I’m so sorry.
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I have no full board changer in my rank 280 box, but I do have 950k MP. Would this make a good team?
DAthena – Sima Yi/Dark Metatron/Awoken Pandora/ReYomi – DAthena?
Some other dark monsters I have access to are ReHades, Cecil, Noctis, Grida, AOku, Gremory, and I have two Ryunes for inherit.
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Dark Atherna is heavily based on tpas, so you should get DMeta and APanda out, noctis is a good replacement, you team still lacks heavy tpa cards, do you have the gemstones for inherit?
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You need TPA to succeed as 49x is not that impressive otherwise.
As such, you should use Sima Yi, Noctis, Grida, and AOku as subs for full SBR coverage and a healthy dose of TPA
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I’m planning on purchasing her as of this moment, but I wanna make sure I’m not making a mistake. I’m far from having all of the ideal subs, but I’ve got a lot of goodies, including:
RHaku
Typhon
Z8
RHades
APandora (possible inherit?)
Lumiel
Grida
Kakkab
Chester
Jize
Satsuki (water removal sucks but 4 TPA and 2 SBR ain’t bad)
Zeta Hydra (that ever-important delay)
Sleeping Beauty
Unfortunately, I don’t have any burst options aside from The Wonder Twins I&I and a Shifar if there’s enough OE. And Creuse doesn’t apply since hardly anything is physical…
Am I right in thinking this is still a good investment? I don’t have anywhere near the subs for an optimal Ra Dragon team and I don’t play coop at all so I likely can’t survive consistently with Tsukuyomi Dragon’s lower health (there’s also the fact that getting said dragon would require me to clear both Hera Dragon AND Machine Hera).
I do have one of every Elemental for damage protection against certain bosses, and an RSusano, so there’s that.
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Oh, and I have Scheat Shinji, Ganesha, RRa, and AKarin for further inherits.
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What about Dark Kanna? I think she would make a pretty good sub depending on a person’s box.
She’s got damage enhance in a pinch (can be inherited over), 3 TPAs and a time extend.
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Main problem is Loki does all that she does, but better due to stats, 7c, and better base active. Still works for sure
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I am buying for my main acct. Alt should have enough MP by mid-May.
While rare, Old Castle Blue Dragon Caller, Sonia is another board changer + haste that one could use as an inherit. CD is a bit long though. Have one of these on my main acct.
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Quick note asmodeus is not yet a passable sub, the buffed awakenings are not yet available in NA, leaving it as a single tpa, single sbr, and single finger
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What’s the damage enhance differences with the ideal setup of carat and facet? Is it that much of a difference?
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Both tend to be overkill, but Facet does provide a much higher raw multiplier
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hey, Mantastic! I love your team build guides. It would also be great to have your insight on what latents would be valued on some of these team builds. I’m a returning player after an 8 month break and I have been using your articles and videos to get me up to speed with the current meta and state of the game. Thank you so much by the way. I’m am currently looking to farm end game content (Arena 3) as I do own the “ideal” ra dragon team and am trying to optimize my team with latents and a couple of inherits for d. Kali. It seems that people do have their own preference to latents but when it comes to trying to farm end game content you want your team to be optimized as possible. I am also looking to purchase D Athena in hopes of farming “faster”, and am confused as to what latents would be valuable on her team. It would amazing if you added a section as to what latents would help the team become stronger. Still love your content and looking forward to more. Without your content I may have gotten frustrated trying to play “catch up” and ended up quiting. Thank you
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I added in a latent section so make sure you check that out =)
Also, glad you enjoy my content and it makes me happy knowing I have enhanced your PAD game and experience!
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Useful guide as usual!
I’ve got some of your suggested sub/inherit: 3 Hakus (one Reincarnated, one Awoken I would keep for Aizen and one to reincarnate soon) and AOkuni. My temptative team should be something like this: DAthena (ZHydra), RHaku, AHaku, Grida*, AOkuni
Inherit options: Lumiel (I’d like to try her as a sub more than as true damage inherit, ALuci is my alternative), Shinji (breaks hearts), Indra, Muse (the only damage enhancer I’ve got), AKarin.
Any suggestion? I dont’need to farm Arena3, Arena1 would be sufficient for now 🙂
* RHaku when she’s ready. Well as a non IAP, I’m lucky with 3 Hakus 😀
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Halloween BSonia is also a fairly good alternative to Anaphon. You won’t be able to heal, and you’re somewhat at the mercy of RNG for not getting flooded with dark so heavily that you can’t make TPAs, but it’s probably a superior option to vanilla BSonia and has the advantage of getting you a stat boost.
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I lack the Gemstones needed for burst. What are my other options?
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Muse may be your best bet
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Thank yolu
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Could D/LSatsuki work?
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As a sub, that is.
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Shoot, I just remembered she breaks water.
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Glad you answered your own question =P
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Since i am sitting at 845 000 mp I am definitely picking her up. Then after May I might have enough to pick up an MP dragon too(likely Odin Dragon).
I am excited that I have all of the core cards for the ideal team; albeit only 1 of the Hakus is reincarnated. So a little work there.
Assists are another matter. I have been chasing Ryune (she was my vote the past 2 PCGFs) and Facet since they were introduced. No Lumiel but i do have Famiel. Basically I might have a hard time with spikes.
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Do you have Muse? 3rd best spike option
As for MP purchases after DA, it may be best to wait and see what the next new/exciting card is instead of Odin Dragon
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What about dark Kanna?
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She works too =)
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But nothing special in your view? Thought she might be viewed as fairly desirable and perhaps near top of list of Haku substitutes in light of having 3 TPAs.
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i have 3 hakus and a loki but absolutely none of the best inherit mosnters. lmao. still buying dathena thoughh so hyped
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At least the best subs are amazing =P I’m sure you have alternatives to the Inherits listed!
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Well… at least I can pair her with my Persephone, this may not be as effective but cheaper! 😀
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Much much cheaper and has more sbr!
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Definitely buying, although my Alt account will have to carry my Main since all three of my R Haku’s are in the Alt account. On the plus side, from the Main I can contribute Facet as an inherit. As for the subs, Sima Yi is in. I’ll be holding tryouts for the other three positions:
R Yomi
R Anubis
Lumiel
Eschamali
Zaerog (x2)
Grida
Kakkab
D Kali
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Based on that list, I would use Grida, Escha, and either Lumiel or z8 for coop.
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I know that is a rare card, but would beach pandora make a good alternative for a slot replacement? Dark/Blue with 2 tpa and dark+heart generator. Or maybe i missed her in the guide?
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Hey Mantastic, fantastic article (ayyy)!!! This has really given me something to shoot for, as I have all the cards for this team apart from the gemstone inherit!
Do you have any recommendations for a latent awakening set up? who is most valuable to give SDRs to? Do you need a rainbow resist? Is having lots of dark resists necessary to protect against DQHera?
Again, many thanks for your great articles, keep it up!!
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I made a section for latents so check that out =D and you want wood for Gaia Dragon as you have enough HP for DQ Hera
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Excuse me for my lack of knowledge in this game since I’m only a few months into it, but what exactly are Rogue Descends? Most dungeons I can run now net me only the 20-50 MP the Descend boss is worth. Is it the Linthia dungeon you’ve mentioned?
If so, I’ll need to start farming Dios and try and cobble together something without Liu Bei… or just try and find someone to co-op it with me.
I’ve been really fortunate and aside from Kanna, pieced together a RaDra team and used the free points we received at the beginning of the year to purchase him (RaDra, wildcard , DKali, LibrarianKali, Isis). I’m a long way out to getting DAthena, but all my friends will be getting her within the next couple months, so I’ve been trying to figure out the best method for farming MP while crossing my fingers for 50K GFE dupes.
Also a huge shout-out to you. If not for PADX and your site, I’d be so lost in PAD. It’s immensely improved my quality of life.
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Rogue descends are the purple dungeons that award a 500 MP PreDRA as well as other tasty loot and Linthia is one of those. You monsters will also level up as they progress through the dungeon so that is another indicator
Liu Bei alternatives include Dios as a lead, Australis, Perseus, and even Green Odin. I used ALB x Australis for a long time to great success
Finally, I am glad you enjoy my website and happy to be of help!
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Great article as always! Thank you especially for simplifying the inherits that are often preferred to something easy to understand.
I personally lack both Gemstones unfortunately but I have 1 Haku, a Reincarnated Loki and a Durga, and also 2 Persephone plus 2 Ryune to patch up my weaknesses (and of course Pandora). Unfortunately I don’t have Lumiel but I have Famiel who also produces dark and water orbs to similar effect. Two of my most active Best Friends both own Fujin and will be able to supply that for me, and we in fact are hoping to co-op A3 together with DAthena this summer for fun, which means I can lean heavily on their (very) beautiful boxes.
Because we’re getting another 165,000 MP this month I’ve decided to go ahead and buy. I will still have about 400,000 MP left to buy any other 300,000 MP card if I want to.
I’m really excited, this will be a very productive summer for me, especially once we get Revo Kushinadahime too. Since we’re getting 31 Magic Stones this month I can also look forward to having a healthy supply of stones ready for player’s choice, as Haku is 99.9% guaranteed to make it in at this point XD
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Glad you enjoyed the article foxwaffles!
The outlined team is mostly for min/maxing solo A3 and coop is far more forgiving. You have so much HP that you can dance n stall out essentially any mechanic and even without Fujin, Hera Dragon is not a huge threat. As such, the team composition can be greatly altered overall due to the additional available actives.
I am glad we are getting more MP as I actually have none atm XD
And for PCGF, Haku and Kush will be dominating the polls =)
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Hey Mantastic, how do you feel about the use of Halloween Blonia vs Regular Blonia
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As an inherit in place of Ryune
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I think you are saying blue Sonia for inherit but the answer is no good. Ryune is the only one who can generate dark, water and heart orb altogether, if you are too low HP at that time the skill of blue Sonia cannot help you to get through this dilemma unless you are praying heart orb skyfall.
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Both Sonia work as they create your ideal colours. Ryune is mostly for the heart orbs and the fact you can usually kill anything with 7c and tpa
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Hi Sensei,
Can I have your oppinion or video on this upcoming card:
http://puzzledragonx.com/en/news.asp?nid=663
Narga X Armor (Female):
Active: Fixed 99 damage to all enemies. Spawn 5 dark.
LSkill: 6x ATK when matching 5 orbs with at least one enhanced for that attribute. 1.5x All Stats during Co-Op.
I also play with 2 accounts like you, and this card looks amazingly strong, even stronger than dark athena as a leader, except not bind immune, could you compare it to Dathena? 😀 ❤ thanks.
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Looks quite powerful esp in coop!
It feels like a tankier Yomi Dragon, but the lack of bind immunity and damage control will be a problem imo. I would not feel like they would be ideal in A3 but stronger in Colo
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1. what about using ulquiorra if you dont have a carat/facet (burst wont be nearly as much as either, but its a assist material with burst damage)
2. how vital is ryune as an assist, any other board changers you can think of that can possibly replace? (hakus are no problem, but i see its the only orb changer that creates the necessary orbs but with hearts)
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That is why Sima Yi is important, the best team for Dathena should be two Haku, Sima Yi & Loki rather than three Haku, Sima Yi do not break heart orb and 7 turns of CD will save your ass when you are dying unless there is no heart orb on the board, with inherit of Ryune you are looking for 18 turns of CD which is no good either.
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Jorge as cheap poison inherit
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I have nearly a million MP, already have a Ra Dragon, have 3 Hakus and Okuni for the skill binds. On the other hand, I don’t have good inherits at all (no appropriate gem burst, no ryune, no indra, no lumiel, no fujin, etc…) Is Dathena still worth it? The speed really seems worth it and I don’t know what to do with the MP.
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Do you have alternatives to the listed Inherits from the chart down below? Even if you are not perfect, she is still amazingly powerful
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if i have everything on the ideal solo team besides 1 more haku and putted a persphone what inherts/latents should it have?
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Hmm. Really want to buy her but not sure if i should. I lack haku/loki. I think if I did buy her it would be Dathena, noctis, durga, anubis or eschamali, and revohades. I coop everyday with my friend and he has an “ideal” dathena team. Hmmm. I’d really like to be able to do a3 but not sure if its worth it with my current team.
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Have both Reincarnated Orochi and zeta hydra. Would you favor one over the other as an inherit?
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Zeta Hydra is 5 turn delay and is superior to A/R Orochi (but same as his other forms)
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Is it better to max skill zeta or leave it unskilled for the longer buffer? Since I can’t undo skillups, I’d love to hear your thoughts just to make sure I don’t make a mistake here.
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Max skill is better
20 turns is more than enough for Heph dragon delay =)
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So I get Dathena hype and setups for A3. I am not there. What I really want to know is how good she is at stuff before that like rushes, mzeus, mhera, mathena, rogue descends, radars, or A1, etc. I am non-IAP for years and have two accounts with 750k+ and not much else I want to spend MP on. (i am not particularly keen on raising up 4 yomidras.) Right now I can play Krishna on both accounts in coop. Even with only partially ideal subs it seems like she’d be a solid upgrade over my Krishna pairing. Can anyone comment on how good she does on stuff before A3?
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Dark Athena is one of the best A3 farmers and will pretty much stomp through all easier content and would be a massive upgrade from Krishna
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Oh baby she’s worth it
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Hey Mantastic, thanks for the post. I’m stuck between two teams for A3 and am wondering what you think. I could use: Dathena(viper)/A Oku(facet)/eschamali(eschamali)/R haku(blonia)/R Persephone(pandora)
Or I could sub bleak night goddess pandora for eschamali and run Persephone with eschamali inherit. Not sure what would go on pandora(Indra maybe?). Also would the same inherits apply dragon killers for all?
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You have to be a certain type to use certain killer awakenings. For dragon killer gotta be healer type I think. Balance cards can use any. Mantastic has a page about it
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For the most part, you want to use as much TPA as possible (outside of the mandatory 2 SBR).
Escha is reasonable, but do you have any other TPA card such as Grida?
As for killers, it may be best to not use any if the majority of your cards cannot use them due to type restrictions
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Since I’ve noticed e
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Now that eighty percent of my friends list is compromised of Dark Athena, are there any other leaders that could be paired with a Dark Athena. I do not have one and don’t foresee myself getting one for a while due to being 400,000 MP short
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Haku. Persephone.
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Best option is revo persephone =)
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So, I was dumb and spent my free 390K MP on ShivaDra and YomiDra without realizing I needed a Radar Dragon to max evolve them. I actually have every single dark sub recommended here including multiple Revo Hakus. Would pairing a friend Dathena with one of these Hakus be a good idea for doing end game things?
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Paring with Persephone is another option but both are viable options. Go grind more MP!
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I never paid attention to Persephone’s leader skill, its a perfect fit for what I’ve got. Thanks!!
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You are very welcome =)
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Being that I don’t have a Indra or Susano to tank gravity hits, would Raphael be viable as a skill inherit? Ganesha or Izanami perhaps? Man, I was dumb and sold my Rei Ayanami ;-; *Cries in German*
Also, my current team is DAthena, Haku, Haku, Yomi, Loki, with Orochi, Pandora, Yomi unskilled-up (Cheap SBR), APandora, and Durga, respectively.
Might it be more viable for me to use my Noctis, with Shinji&Eva Inherit or a HRozuel for the heal active along with the Triple tpa unbindable bindclear?
Sorry for the mouthfull. Thanks
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I would run Noctis over Yomi as a sub due to TPA (ideally no Devil Killer). HRozuel is another strong TPA card but Noctis is better overall.
As for damage mitigation inherit, Raphael only saves you against Ilsix and are generally better off with a more universal protection ability
Do you have a Muse for burst instead of Durga?
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What’s the difference between Lumiel and Famiel as an inherit?
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Famiel won’t give stats bonus since it’s off color
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Do you think I should bother with Athena if I already have Aizen? I know they are quite similar, so I am wondering if I should spend the monster points. And yes, I have the resources to male ideal teams for both.
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Both have their strengths and imo DA is a better solo leader due to naturally higher HP. Both can mow through the beginning floors of A3 with ease and can dance with each Radar.
DA also has more people using her so it may be easier to coordinate with friends etc.
Both are stellar leads and can clear end game content
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