Introduction

Last night, GungHo NA dropped a large update to existing characters that include huge buffs to all the Neys  and Cottons  along with Mega Awoken Evolutions for Ryune  and Sylvie .

These changes give players the opportunity to further their progression as Cotton has now become an incredible powerhouse while Ryune can act as an end game leader that is somewhat similar to Beach Barbara & Julie .

In addition to this, GungHo NA also announced that all players will receive 1 special pull at an NA-exclusive machine where one of the five 7* GFE (aka Witches     ) will come out!

All of these changes/announcements are making PAD incredibly exciting and November promises to be the best month to date. If you wish to read more about the upcoming November event including the free 100 Magic Stones, please refer to my previous article HERE.

Official notes on all the buffs and evolutions can be found on GungHo NA’s Facebook HERE.

Video commentary

–video coming soon–

Voice awakenings

The Voice  awakenings grant certain cards the ability to have a voice line when using their active skill in a dungeon. While this is a cosmetic effect, some players may feel upset that it takes up an awakening slot. Thankfully, it does not actually take away from the monster’s original power as GungHo has condensed either Skill Boost , Time Extend , or double 50% bind Immunity  into their stronger form   .

With that being said, some players may not wish to hear the English Voice lines and they can be all disabled via Others -> Options -> System:

Cotton Buffs

Cotton  is one of the most versatile cards in Puzzle and Dragons due to her ability to become any colour, powerful awakenings, and short base cooldown. Presently speaking, one of her forms is used on the vast majority teams and she has always been able to perform wonderfully well.

With the her new buffs, Cotton has surged even higher as she is able to be Limit Broken (reach level 110) and gain a third 7 Combo  as a Super Awakening. This propels her personal damage to 8x when hitting 7 or more Combos. This is pretty magical when you consider the fact that she now has massive weighted stats and her signature Follow Up Attack  awakening.

But the fun does not stop there, Cotton originally has 8 awakenings and while she did gain a Voice awakening, she also gained a recover bind . This Recover Bind enables her to act as a soft bind clearer if you happen to be running bind-vulnerable cards. This can make a significant difference when playing through challenging content as it can save an active skill on problematic floors.

While Cotton did receive the option to gain a Void Damage Penetration , it may be less helpful overall if you already have someone who can fulfill this role as the jump from 4x to 8x personal damage is just too good to pass up on.

Finally, Base Cotton received a sizable Leader Skill buff that grants a higher flat multiplier to Dragon Bound & Dragoncaller cards. This can help with some Tri-Monster Challenges as it is both a fast and easy to play leader, but may also be used in future Ranking Dungeons if Zeus Verse  is not feasible.

Ney Buffs

Ney  has been largely overshadowed by Cotton due to the fact that Cotton has a FUA but now with the additional 7 Combo, Ney will struggle to compete for a sub slot. This is unfortunate as Ney did come with double TPA  which does allow her to have a higher damage output than Cotton but her new Super Awakenings are less amazing.

Like Cotton, Ney can gain a VDP  which can be beneficial as her double TPA helps facilitate even higher personal damage. Only drawback is that hitting 7 Combos and TPA on a 6×5 board may prove challenging without the use of a +Combo active.

Finally, Ney also received a similar buff to her base form’s Leader Skill and pairing Ney with Cotton works quite well.

Mega Awoken Ryune & Sylvie

Both Ryune  and Sylvie  received their Mega Awoken evolutions which changed their Active Skill, Leader Skill, and awakenings. Generally speaking, these types of evolutions are significant improvements but in the case of Ryune and Sylvie, many players were initially upset.

This is because they lost their tri-elemental board changer that made hearts for a bi-colour with no hearts while also losing their FUA . While this may seem disheartening, I have not actually used my Ryune or Sylvie in quite some time as there are simply better FUA options available. Furthermore, they had no leadership potential so they mostly just sat in my Monster Box.

With their new evolutions, both become 4x HP / 196x ATK teams with +4 seconds of orb movement time while focusing on Rows  . For the most part, the Row meta has died down outside of farming purposes but with 4x HP, Ryune and Sylvie teams can absorb incredible amounts of punishment without fear of dying.

Both feature the new Combo Orb  awakening. This new awakening enables the owning monster to grant the player a special orb when matching 12 connected orbs. These +1 Combo orbs that fall down will provide an additional combo when matched and retain their special status through orb changers. While it is not practical to do on a regular basis, it can provide some merit to the owning card’s sub attribute as a blob of 12 will still produce the special orb.

Sadly, Ryune is far more viable compared to Sylvie as she has access to Mel  and I&I . Mel has become a staple on high HP / low RCV teams due to her 6 Enhanced Heart Orb  awakenings which solves healing. On the other hand, I&I are able to provide 2.5x ATK and RCV for 3 turns. This is pretty incredible as it allows for high damage output across several floors along with significantly boosted healing. These two cards enable Ryune to plow through the most challenging content and I look forward to using her on my two accounts.

Great Witch Egg Machine

Starting on Halloween, North American players will have an exclusive Egg Machine to pull that will produce one of the five 7* GFE / Witches      . This machine is here util December 10th which means the 6 year anniversary may be going on for quite some time.

This is an incredible opportunity as these are some of the rarest cards in the game and can help provide a significant power boost to any account.

Furthermore, this Egg Machine will be available to players of all ranks which means creating an Alt account is highly desirable as you can reroll until you find the card of your choice.

In the advent of a veteran player rolling an un-ideal card, they can be used towards trading in for a 7* Dragon Bound & Dragoncaller card, but that will require 5 cards in total.

Veroah

Veroah  is the final Great Witch to be released and she comes with an interesting kit.

Like all of the Great Witches, Veroah has a base and evolved form that changes her Awakenings and Leader Skill.

Veroah’s active skill changes Fire and Light orbs to Dark on an incredibly quick 5 turn cooldown at the cost of reducing RCV by 75% for a single turn. While the loss of healing may be problematic, one is probably killing the floor in question with that many dark orbs being spawned.

Her base form  features FUA , 7 Combo , and two VDP  which can help provide interesting utility for your team but her main unique appeal is the Leader Skill. Base Veroah is able to provide 1.3x egg drop rate in solo mode which is strange but can help save stamina when farming lower difficulty dungeons, especially when trying to skill up a particular card. Furhtermore, using Veroah in Ganesha’s Treasure Trove is valuable as it can help guarantee a drop from each spawn in order to acquire more event medals. In essence, using base Varoah in any dungeon where the drop is not guaranteed is beneficial.

On the other hand, Veroah’s evolved form  grants her the ability to clear a reasonable amount of content, but the main drawback is her damage reduction component is tied to matching 6 dark orbs. Thus, one will not be able to effectively stall unless they can tank the incoming damage. On the bright side, the 3x RCV will always occur as 5 combos should always be doable.

Conclusion

The most recent update brings numerous buffs and changes to existing cards. It is an exciting time to be playing PAD as we are enjoying the most reward-filled month to date.

Let me know which of aspect has you most excited and who you hope to roll from the Witch REM.

Happy Puzzling!

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