Introduction

Version 11.2 is now live in North America and Europe and brings with it some very minor changes and small additions. I had almost completed my write up for the new Norn evolutions (  ) but it looks like that will have to wait for another day.

Regardless, Version 11.2 provides a revamp of Arena 2 with the introduction of new Latent Awakening Tamadras, minor quality of life improvements, two new Awoken Skills, and a new evolution for Ragnarok Dragon .

This article will touch upon all the new changes introduced along with determining the viability of the changed Arena 2.

Video commentary

–video coming soon—

Latent awakenings

Latent awakenings are a way to add further customization to your favourite monsters as they can significantly alter the way they function.

Each Monster comes with 5 default slots with the (expensive) opportunity to add a 6th slot. While most Latent awakenings occupy one slot, some will require 2 spaces, but tend to have stronger benefits to compensate.

Presently speaking, certain key Killer Latents (occupies 2 slots) and Skill Delay Resists  (occupies 1 slot) tend to be the strongest options currently available as they provide the most offensive and defensive potential. As such, these will tend to be the benchmark we will compare new latents against.

New latent awakenings

With Version 11.2, we are introduced to improved HP, ATK, RCV, and Time Extend latents that all occupy 2 slots. Despite the fact that Reincarnated evolutions provide monsters with massive base stats, the slightly higher stats gained (compared to two lesser stat-modifier latents) is still insignificant in the long run for the majority of situations.

Unless a monster has exceptionally high HP or RCV, it is hard to justify the usage of two latent slots provided you have the resources to run anything you desire. Perhaps the Improved HP one can be used to help achieve a specific health threshold, but you are often better using an on-colour inherit.

Thus, the improved stats tend to be moot compared to current available options. Finally, the Improved Time Extend is depressingly low as it only adds +0.12 seconds for two latent slots.

In regards to the new Killer latents released, they cover Evo, Awaken, Enhance, and Redeemable monsters in which you will be able to deal 1.5x damage to those specific encounters. Of these 4, Enhance Material Killer can be used to efficiently kill the King Tans in Arena 2 while the Redeemable Material Killer is efficient against the 10 million defense PreDRAs .

King Tans are almost solely exclusive to Arena 2, but PreDRAs are an amazingly common encounter across countless dungeons and being able to deal 1.5x damage to them can be meaningful. Now I am well aware that there are countless different ways to counter PreDRAs, but being able to organically kill them through a sub that did not carry any important latents can be meaningful.

With all that being said, there will be future events that feature Extra Latent Tamadras invades. These invades have 5 million defense and 88 HP along with 33,000 damage per hit and a 3-turn skill delay preemptive. Unlike the 10 million defense of PreDRAs, 5 million is much more manageable to overcome and the usage of Awaken Killers will help ensure you easily execute them.

Is Arena 2 worthwhile?

All 8 of these new Latents will become a featured spawn in Arena 2 but will also be featured in PreDRA infestation. Thus, there is no real need to actually run Arena 2 as the actual latents are underwhelming for the most part. Arena 1 is far easier to waltz through while Arena 3 offers significantly more meaningful rewards as the Killer latents dropped there have more value.

As a result, Arena 2 will most likely continue to be a mandatory stepping stone for Arena 3 or a place where you can practice against the non-Radar Dragon spawns.

Do note that these Latents will also spawn in 3-Player Arena.

New awoken skills

Awoken skills differ from latent awakenings as these are fixed to a particular monster and cannot be added nor acquired. As such, you will not have control over whether or not your monster has these awakenings.

With 11.2, we will be introduced to Enhanced Team HP (+5%) and Enhanced Team RCV (+10%) awakenings. Unlike normal stat modifiers, these awakenings will influence the entire team’s defensive stats. This will actually provide the largest boost of any awakening and can make a significant difference in your overall survivability.

Unfortunately, you will be restricted to specific cards in order to take advantage of the higher stats.

Like the other newer and powerful awakenings, these two will become more readily available as more cards are released/new evolutions come out.

Ragnarok Dragon

Ragnarok Dragon’s  new evolution is live along with one of the most bothersome requirements as it requires an outrageous amount of Keepers of Gold and other materials. Furthermore, you will often want to have multiple Ragnarok Dragons so the fun never ends.

Barring a complex evolution tree, Ragnarok Dragon is a powerful card, but has certain limitations that NA/EU cannot overcome, most of which is a lack of ideal machine cards to fulfill his colour requirements. Of course you can opt out of Machine typing, but you then begin to eat into his potential.

Ragnarok Dragon’s claim to fame is his ability to efficiently run Killer awakenings which can enable him to deal 3x damage to Dragon or God types. While Killers are often a liability in Arena 3, they can be wonderful in Cosmic Trinity since there is only Sopdet and the majority of spawns can be taken advantage of.

Sopdet is usually a loss in Cosmic Trinity for the majority of teams so we shouldn’t negatively evaluate Ragnarok Dragon’s potential when most other teams falter there anyway.

As such, Ragnarok Dragon would ideally want to run duplicates of himself to further take advantage of the “farmable” killers and then populating the rest of the team with appropriate colour coverage. However, Bolmeteus is a JP-exclusive collab card that covers the badly needed Water and Fire attributes. As such, you will always be at a certain handicap in NA/EU.

In terms of team building, you ideally want to use Machines that have Killer awakenings as you already forfeit damage control and simply want to dish out as much damage as possible. Cards such as Machine Zeus , Balboa , Kuvia , Baldin , and the Mechanical 1/2 series can all act as powerful subs while providing the required colour coverage and high damage output.

Overall, Ragnarok Dragon has the potential to be a powerful leader, but the lack of ideal colour coverage can potentially eat into your ability to utilize duplicates of himself.

Starter Dragon buffs

The starter Dragons received sizable buffs, but they are still not relevant and may only benefit brand new players.

Conclusion

Version 11.2 comes with some new features, but had surprisingly little content actually released today considering it was a 10 hour maintenance. Regardless, we know what to expect from JP in the upcoming weeks and new evolutions should be arriving sooner rather than later.

What are you most excited about in this new update?

Happy Puzzling!

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