PAD Academy Review and Analysis – May 2019

Introduction

The PAD Academy event returns to North America and is simply an underwhelming event. This is often the case with older events as GungHo seldom buffs the bottom rarity cards and PAD Academy is a 5-stone event.

Despite the fact that some of your favourite cards are dressed up in school uniforms, it cannot truly justify the mediocrity of this event and i would strongly encourage players to not roll in this event.

Regardless, this article will outline the strengths and weaknesses of this event to give players an idea of what each card has to offer.

Video commentary

—You are beautiful—

Overview

PAD Academy Pros & Cons – May 10, 2019
Pros
Cons
  • School uniforms
  • No real top prize
  • One of the weaker events
    • Best to save your Magic Stones
PAD Academy REM
 8 Star base  
 7 Star base Summer Lucifer Summer Isis Summer Athena 
 6 Star base   
 5 Star base Summer Theurgia Summer Sasuke 
PAD Academy REM Rankings – May 10, 2019
S
A
B
C Summer Lucifer Summer Isis Summer Athena  
D Summer Theurgia Summer Sasuke

Order within each tier is random and not reflective of ranking

Regardless of card’s ranking, you should always keep it if it is your very first time acquiring them.

Limit Breaking

Limit Breaking is the process of leveling a card beyond level 99. This will unlock more weighted stats along with the potential to receive Super Awakenings. These additional awakenings can add significant power but only function in solo mode.

Any card that can qualify for Limit Breaking will having their level displayed in blue and feeding a Super Snow Globe will push them beyond the level 99 cap.

You can read more about Super Awakenings HERE.

Monster Exchange

The Monster Exchange System has mostly eliminated the need to roll in most events as players can simply trade in for a card of their choice. This is often done during lackluster events to avoid spending Stones on poor bottom rarity cards or to snipe a specific card if luck is not on your side.

Weapon Assists

Weapon Assists are a special evolution for select cards that will be used exclusively as inherits. This form retains the same base stats as the original form but will also transfer over all awakenings on the Weapon Assist card and this occurs if the Awoken Assist  is present.

This type of evolution is permanent and cannot be reversed; however, during the card’s respective event, it is possible to Monster Exchange them to reverse them back to the original form. Doing this will forfeit all pluses, skill ups, and awakenings.

My approach to Collab rolling

Rolling and Rare Egg Machine is a gamble and it becomes a matter of maximizing your rate of returns in an event. For myself and non-IAP approach (only purchase Stones via gifts) I tend to be quite frugal and only roll during strong events.

This translates into rolling when the bottom rarity has high value as those will be the most common cards. Furthermore, I may utilize the Monster Exchange system to acquire the higher rarity cards if they will significantly advance my progress. As such, I tend to look most closely at the 5-star pool to determine if it is worth rolling in.

This is just my own personal approach and everyone has different goals/motivations so take this section with a grain of salt.

8 Star base

All 8* base cards can be used in the Monster Exchange for other 8* cards from the PAD Academy or 6* GFE. Each trade will cost a total of 4 fodder making it much more reasonable compared to 10-stone machines.

Uruka – B

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Water & Wood & Light & Dark & Heart orbs. Ignores enemy attribute damage absorb effects for 1 turn (does not include combo shield, damage absorb shield, and damage void) (11 turn CD)

Leader Skill: [Board becomes 7×6]; 4x ATK when 8 or more combos; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Dark, Heal at once [1/144/1/43.75%]

Awakenings: Bind Immune Bind Immune Bind Clear awakening  TPA Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist 45
Super Awakenings: 45

Typing: God / Balance
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 998 (1297)
HP 4625 (6012) / ATK 1874 (2436) / RCV 485 (630)

Pros
Cons
  • Two part active
    • Full board changer with all elements
    • Colour absorb void
  • Modest 7×6 leader
  • Super cute
  • Does not void Damage Absorb
  • Colour absorb void is niche
  • Leader Skill requires 5 elements

Pad Academy Uruka is adorable but is sadly lackluster compared to her Heroine cousin. This is because the PAD Academy version did not study hard enough in school and only comes with a Colour Absorb Void instead of a Damage Absorb Void. Thus, Academy Uruka will be unable to trivialize spawns like Sopdet, Parvati, and Vishnu.

This is truly unfortunate as she could have been a meaningful card along with a potential candidate for Monster Exchanging for players who lack a Damage Absorb Void. As such, it will be challenging to gain amazing value out of Academy Uruka and is not worth Monster Exchanging for.

With that being said, Colour Absorb Void can have niche applications for farming practices against spawns like Machine Goemon and Machine Hera, but it is quite specific along with being somewhat easy to avoid/deal with. Furthermore, we now have access to numerous cards that have this ability so the need to own Academy Uruka is lowered.

Finally, Academy Uruka can be a meaningful 7×6 leader as she can provide 12x ATK and 25% damage reduction when Fire, Water, Wood, Dark, and Heart orbs. This places her ahead of Diablos in terms of raw multiplier numbers; however, the 5 elemental activation clause is problematic and can restrict team compositions and pairings such as Zinogre. Furthermore, players only need one 7×6 leader to take advantage of a larger board and is generally better to pair with Diablos unless one needs Uruka’s base active skill.


Orochi – A

Active: Delay 4 turns to all enemies (15 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x ATK when 4 or more combos up to 14x at 10 combos; May survive when HP is reduced to 0 (HP>50%) [1/196/1]

Awakenings: TPA TPA TPA TPA   Skill Lock Resist Skill Lock Resist
Super Awakenings: TPA  
Typing: God / Physical / Dragon
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1100 (1430)
HP 7760 (10088) / ATK 1100 (1430) / RCV 312 (406)

Pros
Cons
  • 4 SB Skill Boost
  • Two SBR Skill Lock Resist
  • High base HP
    • 10,088 HP
  • 5 TPA TPA
  • Strong Ranking Dungeon card
  • Niche active
    • Delays have become less valuable
    • 15 turn cooldown
  • Lowish base ATK
    • TPA TPA deals less damage

Pad Academy Orochi has some amazing artwork due to the inclusion of one head wearing a hat. Sadly, their comedic value cannot overcome their lack of value as an 8-star Event card. Despite the fact that Academy Orochi has superior stats compared to the other 8-stars in this event, his awakenings lower his overall viability.

This is because TPA has still not found a true home in today’s meta as 7 Combo 45 is largely the superior option due to the efficient stacking and no need to compromise matching. With that being said, Academy Orochi can still make for a situational sub due to their high HP and potential to deal meaningful damage with their 5 TPA TPA.

In terms of their other awakenings, 4 Skill Boosts Skill Boost is nothing to scoff at as it can help ensure key actives are ready in time and double SBR Skill Lock Resist may have some applications.

Unfortunately, Delays have become less desirable as we now have more ways to deal with problematic mechanics. Utilizing FUA , VDP , and Resist awakenings Blind Resist Jammer Resist Poison resist help trivialize what used to be dangerous mechanics. Furthermore, these come as passive benefits and do not require an active skill slot and should be chosen if given the opportunity. As such, Orochi’s active may be a liability when factoring in his 15 turn cooldown.

On a final note, Academy Orochi may be a desired sub in Ranking Dungeons that value TPA and those that utilize Zeus Verse as the 1 combo approach can be quite efficient.


Academy Kali – B

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Water & Wood & Light & Dark & Heart orbs (7 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching 4 or more colors; 3x ATK when matching 4 or more connected Wood orbs up to 5x at 8 orbs [1/400/1/43.75%]

Awakenings: Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist  Wood Row   Bind Immune Bind Immune Wood Row
Super Awakenings:   
Typing: God / Healer / Attacker
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1005 (1306)
HP 3325 (4322) / ATK 2174 (2826) / RCV 715 (930)

Pros
Cons
  • Some leadership potential
    • Scaling ATK
    • Relatively easy Damage Reduction
  • Dark Kali  board changer
  • Relies on 8 Wood for max damage
  • Requires 4 colours
    • Less board changers
    • Harder to VDP /FUA
  • No offensive awakenings
  • No/low sub value

Academy Kali has been significantly improved this time around as her Leader Skill now has the potential to be viable. At this point in time, she is able to spike up to 400x ATK with 43.75% Damage Reduction when matching any 4 colours and 8 connected Wood orbs. As such, her Leader Skill has two distinct components.

Firstly, Academy Kali requires any 4 colours which should be achievable on most given boards to trigger some damage and her Damage Reduction component. Secondly, she requires 4-8 connected Wood orbs to receive 3-5x ATK which can offer some degree of damage control. Assuming 4 Wood orbs are matched and 3 additional colours, Academy Kali will hit for 144x ATK which may be sufficient for a good chunk of content. Furthermore, matching a VDP will trigger her max multiplier for this component.

Unfortunately, her awakenings leave much to be desired as she has no true personal damage which means 1/3 of your team will be contributing significantly less. This can be problematic while also relying on rainbow activation which further dilutes your output. There will be less board board changers available and a subsequent active may be required to achieve VDP or FUA .

Taking all of this into consideration, Academy Kali feels like a higher effort Rainbow leader due to the connected Wood clause that will probably not eclipse current options like Zinogre.


Academy Yog (New) – A

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, and Wood orbs; Recover 40% of max HP; Reduce awoken skill binds by 4 turns (13 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 6x ATK when above 80% HP; 3x ATK & RCV when below 79% HP; 3x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching Wood+Fire [1/324/9/43.75%]

Awakenings: Time Extend Skill Lock Resist Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost Skill Boost Time Extend
Super Awakenings: 45 
Typing: Devil / Dragon
Weighted Stats (Limit Break): 1207 (1388)
HP 6668 (7668) / ATK 2315 (2662) / RCV 233 (268)

Pros
Cons
  • 3 VDP with SA
    • VDP damage not tied to combo count
  • High ATK LS with little effort
  • Requires Wood + Fire to activate
    • Less chance at orb troll
  • Does not produce Heart orbs
    • Only Yog that does not
  • Requires Wood + Fire
    • Harder to FUA
    • More restrictive board changers

Academy Yog is the first new card to be introduced this year and is similar to all the other Yog cousins except they are cuter, have 3 VDP , requires two different colours for Leader Skill, and their active does not produce Heart orbs.

By producing a bicolour board of Fire and Wood, Academy Yog is less potent overall as players cannot FUA or heal while dealing damage. With that being said, they are still a powerful card as they can provide Wood teams with a potent VDP option.

Academy Yog comes with three VDP via Super Awakenings which translates into 15.625x personal damage which should be more than enough to penetrate through even the tankiest Void spawns. Furthermore, if running Academy Yog as a leader, the two together should have no problem dealing damage, even with minimal combos.

As a leader, Academy Yog fulfills the same role as all the other Yogs as they are able to deal 324x ATK with only 2 combos when above 80% HP. This HP-conditional LS is offset by a Damage Reduction component, boosted RCV when <80%, and a self healing active. With that being said, requiring Wood and Fire does raise consistency but also reduces the number of board changers that can be used.

For the most part, Yogs are used to efficiently farm content where the dungeon can be carefully planned out for and nothing is left to chance. With that being said, harder/more unpredictable content will be more challenging to clear as the HP clause may become too big of a hurdle to overcome.


7 star base

Summer Lucifer Academy Lucifer – C

Active: Reduce HP to 1; Deal 200x Dark damage to an enemy; Create 6 Heal orbs over non Dark orbs (7 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x all stats for Light Att.; 2x ATK for Light Att. on the turn a skill is used; 3x ATK when below 50% HP [4/144/4]

Awakenings: TPA Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Auto heal TPA Skill Boost Auto heal Auto heal TPA
Super Awakenings: TPA  

Pros
Cons
  • Handsome
  • Button inherit
  • Reset HP to 1
  • Spawns 6 heart orbs
  • Niche button inherit
  • Resets HP to 1
  • 200x ATK is lower than other options
    • Only need 1 Lucifer

Academy Lucifer will be primarily used as a button inherit due to the 200x ATK active skill. This enables cards with the Coop Boost Multiplayer Bonus awakening to deal higher amounts of damage that can instantly kill various spawns. Furthermore, Lucifer’s damage does not take into account your team’s HP so it can be used when full. In addition, by being able to reset your HP to 1, it will trigger the full damage from other button inherits like Grimmjow 3363.

Unfortunately, Academy Lucifer’s is damage significantly is lower compared to other options so in an ideal world, players would only need to own 1 to push their HP into the correct zone and then utilize stronger options.

It will be challenging to use Academy Lucifer outside of a button inherit as the HP being set to 1 is a liability even for low HP teams. This is because sitting at 1 HP is dangerous and his active has low impact outside of a Button scenario.


Summer Isis Academy Isis – C

Active: Recover RCV x5 HP. Bind recovery for 2 turns (3 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 5x ATK when matching 3 or more colors up to 7x at 5 colors; 2x ATK & RCV and 1.5x HP for Healer, Attacker type [2.25/196/4]

Or

ll attribute cards ATK x5 when attacking with 3 of following orb types: Fire, Water, Wood, Light & Dark. ATK x1 for each additional orb type, up to ATK x7 for all 5 matches. Healer & Attacker type cards HP x2, ATK x2. [4/196/1]

Awakenings: blue + orb TPA Skill Boost Bind Immune Bind Immune blue + orb Time Extend Skill Lock Resist TPA
Super Awakenings: TPA 45 

Pros
Cons
  • Two different evo to customize her looks
  • 3 turn base cooldown
  • Modest Rainbow LS
  • Rainbow reliant
  • No/low personal damage
  • Restricted to Healer and Attacker
  • Low/no sub value

Academy Isis has received a significant buff to her Leader Skill as she is able to lead a 2.25/196/4 team for Healer and Attacker types. Unfortunately, she fails to break out as a stellar option due to the fact that she has a restrictive sub pool, is a Rainbow leader, and has no/low personal damage.

While it should be possible to clear a modest amount of content with Academy Isis, I am confident you have stronger options in your Monster Box to not have to resort to using her.

Outside of her leadership potential, Academy Isis will be seldom used a a sub due to her lack of offensive awakenings or unique utility as her main appeal would be a 3 turn base cooldown.

As a whole, Academy Isis feels like an outdated card in today’s meta but does come with stylish glasses.


Summer Athena Academy Athena – C

Active: Enhance Wood & Light orbs. +6% per orb, up to +180% for full board (4 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 4x ATK and 1.5x HP for Wood Att.; 2.5x ATK & RCV on the turn a skill is used [2.25/100/6.25]

Awakenings: TPA TPA TPA Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Wood Row Wood Row Bind Immune Bind Immune
Super Awakenings: TPA  

Pros
Cons
  • Glasses > no glasses
  • 4 TPA TPA
  • 4 turn base cooldown
  • Has wood rows Wood Row and TPA
  • Challenging to use effectively
  • 1 SB Skill Boost

Academy Athena has not received much in the way of buffs since the last PAD Acedemy and her main appeal will be as a TPA stick on Wood or Ranking Dungeon teams.

4 TPA with over 3,000 ATK at level 110 and +297 will deal significant amounts of damage but the main problem is finding an ideal home. For the most part, the ideal sub comes with 7 Combo 45 as it does not compromise matching patterns and is widely available. Thus, a TPA card will often be sidelined as their damage may not trigger as often. Another point to consider is Reincarnated Vishnu being a 5-star Pantheon card who has a similar archetype to Academy Athena.

While Academy Athena does have a nice 4 turn base cooldown, the fact that she only brings a single Skill Boost Skill Boost cuts down on her sub potential as it may still be challenging to charge up an inherit or have other cards ready in time.

All in all, Academy Athena feels lackluster but at least we can customize her looks to make her wear glasses.


Academy Hestia – B

Active: Ignores enemy attribute damage absorb effects for 1 turn (does not include combo shield, damage absorb shield, and damage void). Change all orbs to Fire, Wood & Light & Heart orbs (12 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x ATK for Fire Att.; 2x ATK for Wood Att.; 4x ATK for allies with both Att.; 3.5x ATK and reduce damage taken by 25% when matching Wood+Fire [1/196/1/43.75%]

Awakenings: Bind Immune Bind Immune  Time Extend Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist +heart +heart +heart
Super Awakenings: 45

Pros
Cons
  • Dual purpose active
    • Colour Absorb void
    • Board changer
  • FUA 
  • 3 Enhanced Heart Orb +heart
  • Budget Dark Metatron sub
  • No/few offensive awakenings
  • Other Enhanced Heart Orb options exist

Academy Hestia functions similarly to her REM cousin’s base form  as she offers a Colour Absorb Void along with a board changer. For the most part, Colour Absorbs are niche as they do not counter Damage Absorbs (eg. Sopdet) but having a 4-elemental board changer as a secondary effect can be useful. With that being said, her primary role will most likely be as an Enhanced Heart Orb +heart stick.

Enhanced Heart Orbs are an incredibly efficient way to provide healing to teams with high HP and no RCV multipliers. This is because a single match of exactly 4 Hearts provides a significant boost to healing and helps free up active skill slots for other mechanics. Furthermore, Academy Hestia comes with an FUA and potentially Tape Resist Super Awakening which gives her even more utility.


Academy Amaterasu (New) – A

Active: Change all orbs to Wood, Light, and Heal orbs; Remove all binds and awoken skill binds (14 turn CD)

Leader Skill: 2x HP & ATK for God type; 6x ATK when 6 or more combos; 5x RCV additional heal when matching orbs [4/144/1]

Awakenings: Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Time Extend Time Extend
Super Awakenings:  45

Pros
Cons
  • Dual purpose active
    • Full Bind and Awoken Bind clear
    • Board changer
  • Functions as a powerful inherit
  • Gains high personal damage on 7×6
  • Orb Skin
  • Lower value on 6×5
  • May mostly be used as an inherit
  • Pitiful base HP

Academy Amaterasu is the second and final new card to be added into the PAD Academy event and comes with an amazingly powerful active skill. She is able to produce a tri-elemental board of Wood, Light, and Heart orbs while also being able to fully remove all Bind and Awoken Binds.

This is quite powerful as there are few inheritable options and none come with a useful board changer. As such, players will almost always find value from using Academy Amaterasu’s active as at least 1 component will have merit.

In regards to her own sub potential, Academy Amaterasu will be inconsistent on 6×5 boards but will shine bright when used on 7×6. This is because the 10 Combo awakening will rarely proc on a regular board but becomes quite easy when a potential for 14 combos exist. With this in mind, she may end up being used mostly as an inherit. This is by no means a bad thing, but it would have been nice if we had a strong sub alternative to Odin Dragon 3264.

Orb Skin


6 star base

All 6-star cards have low weighted stats which makes it challenging to justify using as a sub (around 980 at level 110).

Academy Hathor – C

Active: Reduce 25% of all enemies’ HP. Ignore enemy element and defense. Increases time limit of orb movement by 200% for 2 turns. (13 turn CD)

Leader Skill: Fire attribute cards HP x1.5, RCV x1.5. All attribute cards ATK x6 when attacking with 5 of following orb types: Fire, Water, Wood, Light, Dark & Heart. [2.25/36/2.25]

Awakenings: Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Boost Enhnaced Fire Orb +light orb 45 45
Super Awakenings:  45

Pros
Cons
  • Double 7 Combo 45
    • Triple 7 Combo with SA
  • Dual purpose active
    • 25% Gravity
    • Time Buff
  • 6 awakenings
    • Stronger 7c cards exist
  • Active is niche overall
  • Low weighted stats

Academy Hathor is able to become a triple 7 Combo card with Super Awakenings, but she comes with essentially no other utility. This is problematic as stronger damage sticks exist and being able to survive problematic mechanics is more important. As such, it is hard to justify using Academy Hathor as a sub.

In regards to her active skill, traditional gravities have become less valuable overall due to FUA and Damage Voids. Thus, it will be challenging to take advantage of a potential 25% damage. On the other hand, Time Buffers have become more relevant due to more spawns drastically reducing your orb movement time; however, Hathor will not be an optimal option due tot he longer base cooldown. With that being said, if she is your only option for overriding time debuffs, she may have some merit for your Monster Box.


Academy Acala – C

Active: +1 combo count for 1 turn. Reduces cooldown of other skills by 1 turn. (7 turn CD)

Leader Skill: No skyfall matches. Water attribute cards All Stats x1.5. ATK x3 for clearing each Water or Wood orbs in a cross formation.

Awakenings: Time Extend Time Extend Time Extend Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist Multiplayer Bonus
Super Awakenings:  45

Pros
Cons
  • Acala 3202 but Water primary attribute
  • Acala 3202 is not relevant
    • New evo is stronger but Academy form is lackluster

Academy Acala is essentially a Water form of the 5* REM Pantheon Acala 3202 which almost already guarantees she will be lackluster. This is because GungHo heavily favours 6/7* GFE/Rare Collab cards and Academy Acala is sadly not one of those. Furthermore, Academy Acala becomes outpaced by Awoken Acala making her even less desirable overall.

One can still use either Acala as a leader, but is quite a large amount of effort overall and much stronger and easier options exist.


Academy Susano – C

Active: 50% damage reduction for 5 turns. (15 turn CD)

Leader Skill: All attribute cards ATK x3 when reaching Dark & Dark combos. 20% Fire, Water, Wood, Light & Dark damage reduction.

Awakenings: Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost Skill Boost Skill Boost TPA
Super Awakenings:  45

Pros
Cons
  • Three SB Skill Boost
  • 5 turn shielding active
    • Same as REM non-Reincarnated form
  • Low weighted stats
  • 6 awakenings
  • Damage Reduction actives are less prized

Academy Susano has become less potent over time due to the fact that Damage Reduction actives are not as popular. This is because high end teams tend to have enough effective HP to survive incoming preemptives and clogging up an active skill with something that can be naturally overcome is wasteful.

Despite the fact that he offers 5 turns of 50% Damage Reduction, it will be hard to efficiently use this on most meta teams. As such, Susano’s overall viability has dramatically declined.


Academy Loki – C

Active: Dark & Wood attribute cards ATK x2.5 for 3 turns. Reduces cooldown of other skills by 2 turns (14 turn CD)

Leader Skill: Dark attribute cards HP x1.5, ATK x1.5, RCV x1.5. ATK x2 for clearing each Dark or Wood orbs in a cross formation

Awakenings: Skill Boost Skill Boost Time Extend Skill Lock Resist God Killer Machine Killer
Super Awakenings: Machine Killer 45

Pros
Cons
  • God & Machine Killer God Killer Machine Killer
  • Double Machine Killer with SA
  • 2 turn haste active
  • 2.5x burst is “low”
  • Low weighted stats
  • Niche awakenings

Academy Loki has gained a second Machine Killer Machine Killer which gives him a small niche as he can have 9x personal damage against Machine types and 27x vs Machine and God types.

While the instances where this will truly pan out are few, having options is valuable when playing through Ranking Dungeons or special challenges.

In regards to his active, it functions like a Reincarnated Norse card in that he provides 2.5x ATK to Dark and Wood cards for 3 turns but also provides 2 turns of Haste. For the most part, 2.5x is quite low and the additional turn compared to a Gemstone will be seldom used. Furthermore, the 14 turn cooldown is quite long and may further inhibit their usage.

As a whole, Academy Loki will be used as a situational sub in Machine-heavy dungeons.


5 star base

Summer Theurgia Academy Theurgia – D

Active: Randomly spawn 2 Fire orbs from non Fire orbs. Enhance Fire orbs. +6% per orb, up to +180% for full board (4 turn CD)

Leader Skill: attribute cards ATK x2. Wood attribute cards ATK x2, RCV x2. ATK x4 if both attributes are me

Awakenings: Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhanced Wood Orb Enhanced Wood Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Enhnaced Fire Orb Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist

Pros
Cons
  • 5 Fire Orb Enhances Enhnaced Fire Orb
  • 4 turn cooldown
  • Low base stats

Academy Theurgia used to be a potent 5* card to roll from the PAD Academy Event; however, time has not been kind to this volleyball player and will struggle to find relevancy in this day and age. Teams are not reliant on orb enhances for padding damage as 7 Combos 45 are far more efficient along with not having to rely on favourable skyfalls or dodging jammer/poison attacks. Furthermore, they do not have the ability to Limit Break and have abysmally low weighted stats.


Summer Sasuke Academy Sasuke – D

Active: Change Light orbs to Water orbs (5 turn CD)

Leader Skill: Attacker type cards HP x2, ATK x3

Awakenings: TPA Water Row Skill Boost Skill Boost Dragon Killer Skill Lock Resist

Pros
Cons
  • Unique orb changer
  • 5 turn cooldown
  • 2 Skill Boosts
  • Outclassed by almost all current cards
  • Low weighted stats

Academy Sasuke used to be another desirable card to own when Dragon Killers Dragon Killer were scarce but that has sadly changed in this day and age. A Killer awakening provides 3x personal damage to the owning card which used to be a big deal. Sadly, most cards now come with 7 Combos 45 or multiple Killers which makes it challenging for older cards to stay abreast.

As such, Academy Sasuke will rarely find a usage outside of their unique orb changer but even then it is a stretch.


Academy Ishtar – C

Active: Reduce enemies’ defense to 0 for 1 turn. Effects carry forward on sweep. Change all orbs to Water, Wood & Light orbs (15 turn CD)

Leader Skill: All attribute cards ATK x4.5, RCV x1.5 when HP is less than 50%. While your HP is 50% or above, a single hit that normally kills you will instead leave you with 1 HP. For the consecutive hits, this skill will only affect the first hit

Awakenings: Bind Immune Bind Immune Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist  

Pros
Cons
  • Unique dual purpose active skill
    • Board changer
    • 100% DEF break
  • Toast
  • Mostly and inherit
  • Board does not produce Hearts
  • 100% DEF Break is situational
    • Adds turns to cooldown
    • Guard Break exists

Academy Ishtar comes with both a unique active skill, but wonderfully toasted toast. While the toast may provide fiber, her active skill situational useful at best.

100% DEF Break will reduce an encounter’s DEF to 0 which can make them significantly easier to overcome but with higher scaling Leader Skills and Guard Break , the need to dedicate an active to this can be wasteful. Furthermore, the DEF Break adds approximately 7-8 turns to the total cooldown due to the board changer. As such, the 15 turn cooldown may be challenging to successfully inherit.


Academy Lumiel – D

Active: Change all orbs to Fire, Water & Wood & Dark orbs. Deal 100000 damage to all enemies. Ignore enemy element and defense (8 turn CD)

Leader Skill: No skyfall matches. God type cards ATK x2.5, RCV x2.5. All attribute cards ATK x3.5 when attacking with Fire, Water, Wood & Dark orb types at the same time

Awakenings: Skill Boost TPA TPA TPA Imp HP Imp HP

Pros
Cons
  • Dual purpose active skill
    • Board changer
    • 100,000 True Damage
  • Famiel is in the artwork
  • As useful as REM Lumiel Lumiel

Academy Lumiel is the final card in the PAD Academy and will act as inherit where one needs True Damage with the board changer being a nice secondary perk. Unfortunately, this style of active skill was more popular before when hitting 10 million damage to bypass PreDRAs was harder to achieve. As such, a 4-elemental board changer without Hearts is hard to justify using.

Perhaps some niche farming set ups may appreciate the button and board but this is a far stretch as the REM Lumiel is seldom used.

Conclusion

The PAD Academy Event is lackluster overall and thankfully, the new cards do not bring enough charm to justify rolling in. This means players will be able to safely save their Magic Stones for future events that have more desirable prizes. Furthermore, players should not utilize the Monster Exchange System as the 8* cards are not worth acquiring and your 6* GFE will be better saved for future events.

Let me know what you think about the PAD Academy event in the comments below and if you plan on rolling.

Happy Puzzling!

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22 thoughts on “PAD Academy Review and Analysis – May 2019”

  1. Academy Yog is also different from other Yogs in the sense that he needs his main and sub attributes matched in order to activate. In your review portion you wrote that he needs two wood combos, but he actually needs a wood and a fire combo. This means he needs a tri-color board for Fua, with Inahime being the best option from what I can see, and he cannot run Zela, at least not efficiently.

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  2. The handbook seems like it might be worth the grind – permanent +1 combo should be insanely valuable. Decent assist, too.

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    1. It’s actually +1 second, not combo. This looks like a poor man’s Trojan Horse. It’ll be good if you need to override time debuffs especially with it’s shorter cooldown, but I’d probably use Trojan horse over this 90% of the time.

      that being said I’ll probably farm it just because I may use it sometime – whereas I farmed kage and instantly regretted it

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  3. About the only card I was interested in from this was the new Amaterasu for the active (and maybe as a sub on my big board teams)… good thing there was a magic stone package that guarantees her… and a Super Godfest that’s a perfect place to spend said stones at, heh.

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  4. That green Yog with his VDP might be nice on Zela Hello Kitty team. With her +2 combo (2 leaders) for 9 connected green orbs, it might be a game changer.

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  5. I love the new Amaterasu! She‘s no S-Rank leader but she‘s very durable and can stall for days.

    Also the artwork is cute, so just imagine her screaming “Mooom, you can‘t pause an online game!!!”

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  6. ^ which is why Im trying to get academy Isis, it’s one of my main goals in this game, the others are rolling reeche reaching rank 1000

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