The December 20th maintenance comes with new evolutions, buffs to various cards, and improvements to existing dungeons. This article will summarize all the major changes and help provide insight on their impact in Puzzle and Dragons.
Video commentary
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New Evolutions
New evolutions are some of the most exciting aspects of Puzzle and Dragons as it breathes new life into old cards. Despite the need for Powercreep in any longstanding game, GungHo does a good job of recycling old cards back into the meta instead of only releasing new monsters.
In the case of Reincarnated evolutions, they should be chosen in the vast majority of situations as it is a tremendous boost in power due to the 1,000 weighted stats, triple typing, and improved leader skill. The only time you would not proceed with a Reincarnated evolution is if you are lacking the monster experience to re-max level them (16 million) or require the specific elemental coverage. You can read more about the Reincarnated process HERE. Continue reading New Content Update – December 20th→
This holiday season marks the third return of the Christmas REM and features all the returning favourites along with a few new characters. Several older cards have been buffed to help them keep abreast with Powercreep and this article will discuss how all the featured cards fit in the current meta along with examining their pros and cons.
All players above rank 50 will receive 1 free pull on the Christmas Rare Egg Machine.
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Rolls overview
Christmas Rare Egg Machine Overview
8 star rolls
7 star rolls
6 star rolls
5 star rolls
4 star rolls
8 star rolls
Christmas Kali God / Dragon
4,025 HP / 1,774 ATK / 355 RCV
876 Total
Active Skill:
All
7 turn Cooldown
Leader Skill: 1.35x HP / ATK / RCV God & Dragons. 6x ATK when matching Fire, Water, Wood, Dark & Heal 1.82x HP / 65.61x ATK / 1.82x RCV
Impressions
Dark Kali has been one of the most popular monsters in Puzzle and Dragons since the release of Ra Dragon. Being able to produce a combo-able on a 7-turn cooldown is invaluable and ideal teams run two. Thus, Christmas Kali is a viable alternative as she is a colour swap of the original along with having an additional 700 HP. This is a significant amount of health as it will translate into 1,575 more HP on the new Ra Dragon team.
Despite what sounds like a significant upgrade from the GFE alternative, Christmas Kali has some underlying problems. Most notably, her primary attribute is fire and is more susceptible to half damage compared to dark. Furthermore, by having dark as her sub attribute, you must exercise caution when dealing with dark absorb bosses. Finally, when the changes to Skill Inheritance goes live, Christmas Kali may be at another disadvantage as same attribute inherited cards gain additional stats. Continue reading Christmas REM Review and Analysis→
Player’s Choice Godfest used to be the most anticipated Godfest in Puzzle and Dragons. However, with the transition to six-star supremacy, it has left the player base with almost no choice but to vote them in. GungHo does not release rolling data, but it is my understanding that there is not a fixed percentage allocated to PCGF and instead it is the sum of the voted cards.
Hypothetically speaking, if six-stars have a 0.5% chance of being rolled and pantheon gods/five-stars have a 2% chance, we would have a (0.5*11) + (2*14) = 33.5% of rolling a PCGF featured card. Thus, the chances for Gala/troll golds/silvers increases with every voted six-star.
I go into greater detail for Player’s Choice Godfest in my previous article HERE and is worth taking a look at for a breakdown of each voted card.
Player’s Choice Godfest December 2016
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
Rolling videos
All of these rolls were done on my Twitch Stream to add a greater sense of excitement. Unfortunately, the rolls were far less than exciting as only 1 out of 39 rolls was a six-star GFE (Dantalion on the account that only collects stones).
The rates are quite distressing overall, but at least I got to spend some quality time with MOMtastic.
MOMtastic’s 11 rolls
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26 rolls across 4 accounts
Conclusion
Player’s Choice is no longer the amazing Godfest it used to be due to heavy reliance on six-stars and their distressingly low roll rates. We can only hope that GungHo begins to bring Pantheon and five-stars on a more comparable power level. I am not saying it has to be equal, but the size of the gap we have today.
6 Star Godfest Exclusive Player’s Choice Godfest results have been officially announced and will take place this Friday starting at 12am PST. All rolls will feature +44 to a random stat and only the voted GFE will be featured (which means no Sonias/Metatrons etc.). This post will cover my thoughts and opinions of the voted cards along with who I felt should have made it in, but failed to make an appearance.
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The results
Unlike previous Player’s Choice Godfests, GungHo did not have a running tally of the leader board and many votes probably went to waste on the top winners.
Player’s Choice Godfest December 2016
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
For the most part, the voting makes sense with the featured cards as the majority of them have a place in the current (or near future) meta. However, what is most shocking is the fact that 11 six-star Godfest Exclusives were voted in.
Implications of 11 six-star GFE
From the data collected by me in the previous December PCGF, you have a disparagingly low chance to roll a six-star GFE.
Player’s Choice Godfests should be used to acquire the best pantheon cards available and by having 44% of the featured monsters being nearly unobtainable, we have essentially defeated the purpose of a PCGF. Six-star GFE are best acquired during a 5x GFE event or the special 10-stone REM (if it returns). I understand that those events do run the risk of other GFE appearing, but if we want 11 six stars, you are quite likely to roll them anyway. Six-star GFE will greatly lower the chances of rolling a featured monster and will most certainly add to the disappointment of higher silver egg rolls.
Voting in 11 six-stars is an unhealthy indication for the state of Puzzle and Dragons. Too many teams desperately require these elusive cards to function and without duplicates of the same six-star, their team is significantly weaker. It is not a bad thing to have six-star GFE as a top tier leader, but when you require nearly a full team to be optimal, then we have a problem. However, GungHo appears to be continuing down the path of six-star supremacy as the new evolutions for the 5 MP Dragons does not advance the current rate of Powercreep for leaders, only brings Ra Dragon on-par or marginally better than the best heart-cross leaders. In addition, the best Ra Dragon team consists of 3/4 six-stars. Continue reading Thoughts on Player’s Choice Godfest Results→
I have played and cleared an excessive amount of Arena 3 with Myr since her release and have begun to branch out and experiment with other leaders. In all honesty, many leaders are capable of clearing Arena 3, but require ideal spawns and a certain degree of luck. My fully invested Myr team has probably around 95% clear rate and the losses are either caused by extreme RNG or human error (full team breakdown for Myr can be found HERE). By comparison, my Krishna team has 70-75% win rate and I have around 10-12 clears presently. For myself, I am not going for the one Hail-Mary clear as many things have to line up in order to work. Thus, my goal is always trying to improve my consistency and minimizing the losses when possible.
This article will share the team I use for Krishna, explain my inheritance set up, latents, composition choices, and Arena 3 specific strategies. If you wish to read my Krishna team building guide and full analysis, please refer to my previous post HERE.
Video introduction
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Why 70-75% win rate
There are many factors that contribute to a loss in Arena 3 and things you cannot control include poor skyfalls (think Sopdet) and unfavourable spawns. Unfavourable spawns can either kill you or leads to wasted actives and a death on a later floor. Bolstering your team with latents, inherits, and optimal sub choices can reduce the danger of certain floors, but certain teams will be unable to counter various Radar Dragons. If my Krishna team was fully invested like my Myr team, my win rate would probably go up by another 5%.
For Krishna, you are unable to kill Hera Dragon without severely compromising your team composition (running multiple shields) and some difficulty hitting 2 million damage as the scaling is a little awkward with all the enhanced orbs. I simply view Hera Dragon as a loss as I do not wish to undermine my chances against other encounters. Thus, you are able to only win 80% of the time if everything else goes perfectly. Continue reading Krishna in Arena 3→
This article was composed by one of my long term readers and Twitch Mod as both a means to share his love for Xiu Min along with helping ease the workload for content creation. I personally have no experience playing Xiu Min and having a perspective from someone who regularly plays the team is invaluable.
I have left the article unedited to better preserve their voice and thoughts. Kaz will also try his best to reply to comments and questions.
Introduction
Hello I’m Mantastic and Fanta.. wait , no I’m not. Hi there I’m Kaz272 you may know me from Mantastic’s twitch stream where I am a Mod or the PAD subreddit or from PAD itself where I’ve been known as Dad?, Jeb!, 耶稣会打死你, and 秀敏(◍•ᴗ•◍)❤。When I wrote this, I have been playing pad about 233 days and have cleared up to Arena 1 using my Myr team. Continue reading Xiu Min Buffs – Discussion by Kaz272→
Mion Descended features the Wood Snow Globe Challenge and grants players the opportunity to acquire up to 5 for clearing both difficulties. There is now a separate dungeon just for the Snow Globe Challenge and clearing it awards an additional stone. Furthermore, the background music is truly enchanting and should be reason enough to play the dungeon.
I used Awoken Kushinadahime for Mythic and Reincarnated Lakshmi in Legend Plus (the higher difficulty). You are able to complete the challenges in solo or coop mode, but I was unaware of this at the time and simply entered solo.
Clearing Mythic awards 2 Snow Globes while Legend Plus grants 3 for a grand total of 5. You cannot use continues.
Background music
If you wish to relive the magic of Mion Descended without wasting stamina, you can simply listen to the following video:
Awoken Kushinadahime – Mythic Solo
I still need to practice true combo leaders and planning out my matches. It is also nice to know the boss has a hidden resolve mechanic. —
I was using Ace Bastet because she is already developed, has dual time extends, and already has a board change inherited.
Reincarnated Lakshmi – Legend Plus Solo
Reincarnated Lakshmi is a fun and exciting 100x leader who is capable of easily stalling due to her 4x RCV. She is also able to deal incredible burst damage and I should have been more liberal with my actives throughout the dungeon. —
The Snow Globe has Skuld inherited (I should have done that for my Kushinadahime run) and it was more so for safety and did not end up using it. My Lakshmi has Hatsume inherited to combo with Ryune.
Conclusion
Mion Descended – Snow Globe Challenge is a fun and exciting way for players to acquire 5 more Snow Globes. A wide variety of teams are capable of clearing this challenge and the background music is one of the best to date.
Who did you use to successfully clear the challenges?
The GungHo Pal Egg Machine is now producing +9 rolls for only 500 Pal Points. This is the most stamina efficient place to acquire plus eggs as you can use 5 Best Friends in 5 normal 2-stamina dungeons for a single roll. This equates to a 1.11 stamina per plus egg and easily trumps Star Den (2.5 stamina/plus). You can read more about this from my previous post HERE.
In addition to Pal Points, you also have the very rare chance to pull the elusive Art Kali .
457 rolls
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Out of the 457 rolls, I only acquired 4 Art Kali making the appearance rate depressingly low.
Quickly fusing plus eggs
From this event, every egg that rolls out will be a +9 and you will want to quickly and mindlessly fuse them into a +297. For myself, I did the following:
Make a +54 from six +9’s
From the +54, fuse five more +9’s
Creates a +99
Repeat two more times
Fuse three +99s into +297
Conclusion
The +9 Pal Egg Machine event is easily the best time to spend your Pal Points. I highly encourage you to redeem your Challenge rewards in your mailbox along with Quest rewards to Let the Good Times Roll.
Let me know how many rolls it took for you to acquire Art Kali.
Player’s Choice Godfest (PCGF) has been announced for North America and the polls are open from 12/7 – 12/11. Each player can cast a single vote and there is no way to cancel or change your choice once submitted, so please choose carefully. Player’s Choice Godfests are a rare and special occasion and I want to provide some clarification and advice to make your vote count.
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How does PCGF work
During a Player’s Choice Godfest, everyone is able to to vote on their favourite God and the top 25 will be featured in a special Godfest. Furthermore, Godfest Exclusives that are not voted in will be unavailable during this time. You can cast your vote HERE.
Who to vote for?
This will always be a point of controversy amidst the Puzzle and Dragons community and you should keep the following points in mind:
Vote for who you want
Vote for what can benefit you the most. Just because Krishna is a dream leader for some people, it does not mean you should be voting for him if it cannot benefit you. You should vote for the God that can benefit your box the most. This can come in the form of a new leader or key sub for your favourite team.
What is being released in the next month or two
Think about what is being released in the next few months. Do you have a strong Ra Dragon in the making? If yes, it would be wise to vote for one of his ideal subs. Continue reading Players Choice Godfest 101→
The latest maintenance brings with numerous updates and I wish to summarize all the major changes taking place. This update includes new evolutions and monster upgrades/buffs. If you feel I have overlooked anything in particular, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.
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New evolutions
New evolutions are perhaps the most exciting aspect of any update as they breathe life into aging cards along with providing players with new toys. Having goals to work towards is almost as exciting as actually acquiring the new card. Furthermore, this update includes the highly anticipated Reincarnated evolutions for the Greco-Roman 1 and some Indian 1 Gods.
If you are unfamiliar or wish to find out more information about the REM Reincarnation process, please feel free to check out my previous post HERE.
Reincarnated Greco-Roman 1
All of the Reincarnated Greco-Roman 1 Gods possess bind immunity along with passive damage reduction to various colours. This can be abused by cheese teams that run 100% resistance to a particular colour and use one of the Puppeteers in conjunction to change the boss’s attribute.
Reincarnated Minerva
Reincarnated Minerva gains better artwork along with a revamped leader skill. She is now capable of achieving 6x ATK for matching Fire and Light orbs along with passively reducing damage by 50% to Fire, Light, and Dark enemies. This means with dual Minerva, you effectively have 4x HP / RCV when facing those three elements. However, many players are instead pairing her with Ilm to form a 60x ATK / 2.5x RCV team while taking 50% less damage from Fire, Light, and Dark bosses. This wonderful combination of defensive utility and offensive capabilities is invaluable and grants players the chance to clear plenty of content.
When team building Minerva/Ilm, it is slightly more advantageous to focus on fire subs as Minerva’s base active is a fire orb changer. However, you can easily go either way, especially if the dungeon is water-heavy.
With her new leadership role in mind, you should begin to plan your inherits for Minerva as her base active is lackluster. You can inherit a bind clear or orb changer as you deem fit.
![[Videos] 37 Rolls in Player’s Choice Godfest – Winter 2016](https://mantasticpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/capture7.png?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![[Videos] Mion Descended – Snow Globe Challenge Clears](https://mantasticpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/capture-horz1.png?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![[Video] 457 Rolls of the GungHo +9 Pal Egg Machine](https://mantasticpad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/capture-horz.png?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 