Category Archives: Monster Analysis

Egyptian 1 Pantheon Analysis

May 22, 2016 Mantastic 5 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Take a look at my Popular Leaders and their Full Sub List post for inspiration on team building ideas. If contemplating on purchasing a MP Dragon, please check out my Monster Point Dragon Purchasing Check-list Guide.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

The Egyptian 1 pantheon features a diverse array of powerful monsters who both excel in leadership and new found sub potential with the advent of more challenging dungeons. Many make stellar leaders for a beginning player as they will teach you how to combo and manage your colours/orbs efficiently and transition into powerhouses with their awoken forms. Overall, a strong pantheon to roll for.

Egyptian 1
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Horus Devil / God —- + extend time to move orbs by 2 seconds 4 turn CD	Horus is a flaming hot chicken who is jokingly referred to as KFC or other poultry puns. Jokes aside, Horus is an underrated leader who is capable of forming a 45.56x ATK / 2.25x RCV rainbow team. What makes Horus unique is the ability control his damage and recovery through active usage. Most rainbow teams do not have a built in RCV multiplier and is one of the main reasons they falter in higher tier content. Perhaps the reason why Horus is not as popular in today’s meta is due to the fact that 45.46x ATK on a rainbow team is not very game breaking (thanks Ra Dragon ) as you are unable to stack rows and may have limited access to TPA subs. In addition, Horus’s active skill is rather lacklustre and will mostly be used to trigger the additional damage component from your leader skill. On the bright side, Horus has double skill bind resist awakenings and will alleviate team building constraints when trying to achieve 100% immunity. Horus is seldom seen as a sub due to a underwhelming active as there are stronger damage enhancement options available. Overall, Horus is still a powerful leader and is capable of clearing high end content with the right investment, player skill, and luck. He is also a fantastic leader for those who are just starting out as you will be forced to improve your comboing and orb matching skills.
Isis Devil / God —- Reduce damage by 15%, 2 turn bind clear 3 turn CD	Isis is one of the most sought after cards in Puzzle and Dragons due to her incredible utility, active, skill inheritance potential, colour coverage, and beauty. It is sometimes challenging to find a sub who can cover both water and wood while being useful (others that come to mind are Sun Quan and Orochi ). However, neither of those offer the same degree of defensive utility as Isis along with a quick charging active. With an active that takes only 3 turns to recharge, Isis makes an amazing base monster for inheriting a skill. This way you can have the colour coverage and option of bind clearing along with an inherited active for only an additional 3 turns of cooldown. Isis is naturally at home on mono water teams as she offers some offensive capabilities, but perhaps her most popular use is on Ra Dragon (or other rainbow) teams. If you have a Dark Kali , your team is essentially bind immune as you your colour activation requirements will always be met. Furthermore, you can clear binds from other subs with Isis’s active. Sub potential aside, Isis makes a wonderful leader for new accounts as she will help teach you the basics of comboing along with colour management. Overall, Isis is one of the strongest and most versatile monsters available and is worth pursuing and investing in.
Bastet Devil / Balance —- Mass attack for 3 turns + 2s to move orbs 5 turn CD	Best Cat, I mean Bastet, is still a powerful lead despite what various JP tier lists report. She has not become weak, only that newer and flashier cards have been released (thinking of the next round of 300k MP cards). Granted 36x ATK may seem lacklustre, but you have to remember that wood has some fantastic sub options for a mono colour TPA teams. Outstanding subs include, but not limited to Vishnu (sometimes x2), Meimei , Sylvie , Kaede , Liu Bei , and Verdandi . With ample access to wood orb generation and enhanced skyfalls, you can unleash incredible burst damage that is capable of sweeping most high level content. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage through combos made, electing to match TPA, and active usage as a component of your leader skill is tied to using skills. The main downsides of using Bastet are no HP or RCV multiplier, a weak active, a reliance on using actives to trigger her full multipliers (think skill delays or locked actives), and a higher skill cap to use. However, with the introduction of skill inheritance, you will be able to inherit a powerful and useful active onto your two leaders. Overall, Best Cat is a wonderful leader who will have players saying mee-wow at your burst damage and cuteness potential.
Ra Devil / God —- 77,777 true damage to all enemies + 3s to move orbs 7 turn CD	Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra, Ra Ra Ra Ra. Something something P-p-poker face. Bad singing aside, Awoken Ra is still a powerhouse leader who offers 100x damage for only matching fire, water, wood, light, dark, and using an active skill. This is quite a low skill cap for 100x damage and upon his release, completely shattered the meta as he simply overpowered all the content put before him. However, with the advent of 300k MP cards and more ridiculous dungeon mechanics, Awoken Ra has lost his godly status, but is still capable of clearing end game content. As a leader, Ra is bind immune and has the ability to control his damage through active skill usage. You can deal 4x, 25x, or 100x damage and this can be useful when you need to control your output. The main factors that are hindering his supremacy is a lacklustre active, vulnerability to skill delays (as you cannot trigger 100x damage), reliance on repeated active usage to sweep floors, and not being a pretty girl. With the advent of push button farming and bosses with high defence and low HP, Ra’s active has found some more uses as it can be used to sweep these floors. On a push button team, he can be used for clearing the smaller floors and his two skill boosts will come in handy. When dealing with floors such as 10 million defence PreDRAs , the true damage nuke becomes invaluable and may be used for skill inheritance. Overall, Ra is still a great monster and should not be discredited because newer and flashing cards have been released. You also want to keep dupes for skill inheritance or push button farming.
Anubis Devil / God —- + 4 turn counterattack 8 turn CD	The one true Doge has been heralded as the king of damage output (discrediting the even more unreliable Fenrir ) at the risk of an incredibly high skill/luck cap. Awoken Anubis can achieve 400x ATK at 12 combos and only begins to generate a multiplier at 9 combos. The average board may not even allow you to create 9 combos due to uneven orb distribution and causes you to rely on skyfalls for damage as the maximum matches you can generate from a regular board is 10 combos. Furthermore, there are very few players who can consistently hit 8+ combos and even those still need to pray to RNG-esus for additional skyfalls. Building upon the reliance of skyfalls for triggering damage, you have almost no reliable way to control your damage outside of using an active and matching under 9 combos for 4x damage. However, if you are able to maximize the board on a consistent basis, you will be greatly rewarded. Looking at Anubis as a sub, he can find a home on numerous mono dark teams and his active can be quite powerful as a pseudo board refresh substitute. You generally use full board changers to remove excessive jammer or poison orbs and with his revamped active, Anubis can fulfil that role. His main drawback as a sub is an underwhelming active if you are not removing jammer or poison orbs. This is because an 8-turn cooldown for a single orb change is poor value when you could use something like Grisar who is 7 turns with haste. Furthermore, Anubis lacks any offensive awakenings and this will bring down your overall damage. Overall, Anubis is an okay card to own as his leadership potential is marred by luck/inconsistency while his sub usage is most limited to a budget jammer/poison orb removal.

Happy Puzzling!

Pantheon Analysis

Dark & Light Kali, Eschamali, Scheat, and Australis Analysis

May 22, 2016 Mantastic 18 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

The Kalis and Mechanical GFE are some of the most powerful and desired monsters in Puzzle and Dragons. All five posses amazing actives and unique sets of awakenings. They are some of the best cards for their respective roles and all are worthy of the Godfest Exclusive title.

Kalis & Mechanical GFE
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Light Kali God / Healer —- All 7 turn CD	Light Kali is one of the prettiest and most desired monsters in Puzzle and Dragons. She combines style and grace along with powerful awakenings and one of the strongest actives in the game. Her leadership potential is modest and will be augmented to 56.25x with a future buff in the near future at 6 combos and fire, water, light, and dark matches. What sets her apart from other rainbow leads is her ability to create an ideal board with her active and gives you the opportunity to utilize other subs to counter the various dungeon mechanics. Light Kali’s main downside as a lead is her vulnerability to binds and even with 56.26x ATK, her damage is not that spectacular in today’s meta (but much more consistent than Awoken Sakuya if unable to achieve 8+ combos every turn). For a more detailed discussion, please read my Light Kali Team Building Guide. Leadership potential aside, Light Kali is one of the most coveted subs due to her invaluable board change. Being able to change the board every 7 turns is amazing for rainbow teams and is the safest way to prevent orb troll and premature death. Light Kali can be found on both Awoken Ra , Sakuya , and DQXQ teams for both the board refresh and fire coverage. In fact, many players will run 2 Light Kalis due to her synergistic awakenings and light as her primary attribute. Kali’s main diminishing factor is a lack of bind immunity and inability to spawn heart orbs. This prevents her from being used on Ra Dragon teams. Furthermore, there will be situations where you need to refresh the board, heal, and deal lethal damage and this cannot be done via Light Kali’s active. Overall an amazing card to own and do not sell away any dupes as she is fantastic for Skill Inheritance.
Dark Kali God / Dragon —- All 7 turn CD	Blazing Goddess of Power, Kali is one of the most coveted monsters in the game and shines brightest on rainbow teams. Her ability create at least 3 of each element and heart orbs allows for a guaranteed activation on all rainbow teams. There will be times where you need to refresh the board, heal, and deal lethal damage on the same turn, and Dark Kali allows you to do this. Furthermore, you can use her active in conjunction with another orb changer to create a more favourable board for certain rainbow teams who do not requires all 6 elements. Dark Kali has become somewhat a staple sub on Ra Dragon teams and many players run two. She provides both dark and fire coverage while providing bind immunity, skill bind resist , and recover bind awakening. Through the recover bind awakening, Dark Kali can act as a pseudo bind clearer and her active may generate 6 heart orbs. Other teams she can make an appearance are Awoken Ra , Sakuya , Sephiroth (even without ideal typing), Light Kali , and essentially any other rainbow team. The main drawbacks of Dark Kali is that she is one of the rarest monsters in PAD as she is a 6-star GFE. This can prove challenging for most players to acquire one, let alone two for your favourite rainbow team. Your best bet is to wait for a 4x GFE event and pray you get lucky.
Eschamali Machine / God —- + 4 turn skyfall 10 turn CD	GH Employee: How many should we give Eschamali ? GH Boss: Yes jjj No, the 7 dark orb enhance awakenings are not a typo and those make Eschamali one of the best dark monsters in the game. She can single handedly ensure every dark orb that appears is already enhanced and her active pushes the envelope of power creep as she combines both a double orb changer, poison/jammer removal, and enhanced skyfall on only a 10 turn cooldown. Furthermore, the enhanced skyfalls synergize perfectly with her dark orb awakenings to ensure massive additional damage. Eschamali can act as a pseudo board refresh when faced with numerous poison and jammer orbs as she will convert all of them into dark and arguably replaces Haku on mono dark teams.Due to her power and utility, Eschamali can be found on every mono dark including, but not limited to Awoken Lucifer , Yomi Dragon , Dark Metatron , Awoken Haku , and Awoken Yomi . The only mainstream team she is not used on is Awoken Pandora due to no devil typing. Even without any row enhance awakenings, Eschamli can still be used on row based teams due to diminishing returns when having 10+ row awakenings. At that point, you begin to prioritize orb enhance. Overall an incredible monster to own and will be popular for years to come. The only real fault you can find in Eschamali is that she is a new 6-star godfest exclusive and thus very rare and hard to obtain. However, if you are lucky enough to pull her, your dark box potential will sky-rocket immensely. I ~~want~~ need her….GH please.
Scheat Machine / God —- + 4 turn skyfall 10 turn CD	Holy Scheat, 5 two prong attack awakenings! Scheat is another 6-star Godfest Exlusive and offers very high base stats, incredibly powerful active, combined with insane burst potential through two prong attacks. Her active converts light, hearts, jammer, and poison orbs to water orbs as well as increasing the skyfall chance of water orbs by 15% for 4 turns on a 10 turn cooldown. She essentially combines the actives of several monsters into one and greatly eases team building strain in terms of active management. By removing jammer and poison orbs, you can save a full board active and the enhnaced skyfall mechanic can overwrite other skyfall abilities created by certain bosses. Scheat‘s base stats are powerful when matching two prong attacks, but her 653 attack falls flat when matching rows. However, she is still a great candidate for the attack latent Tamadras as a means to further augment her TPA potential. Water two prong attack teams are still not as popular as their row based cousin, and perhaps the best team fit for Scheat is Rukia . As a side note, a lack of skill bind resist can impose restrictions in team building if you wish to achieve 100% immunity. Overall, Scheat is a fun card to own, but may remain a sleeping powerhouse due to a lack of viable teams she can sub on.
Australis Machine / God —- + 4 turn skyfall 10 turn CD	Upon first inspection, I thought Australis was a girl. Maybe it was those thighs, but regardless, Australis is pushing the idea that wood row based teams are viable by bringing a walloping 5 and no other awakenings. Australis can function on is a Sylvie / Freyja as Awoken Astaroth cannot use machine or god types. Row based teams benefit heavily from large scale orb changers as you want to make at least 2 rows when trying to burst a boss down and Australis will almost guarantee 2 unique rows worth of wood orbs. Building upon that, you can also use him on Bankai Perseus teams as his double skill bind resist and diverse awakenings help make up for Australis. Stat distribution wise, he is quite evenly spread and has 780 weighted when max level. Unfortunately, you need to be careful using him as a sub because she offers no SBR , skill boosts , or time extend awakenings. This forces you to bring subs who provide these awakenings as you do not wish to become skill locked nor have to stall for too long for actives. Overall, Australis is a valuable sub for wood row teams, but will require planning to safely accommodate on teams due to a lack of diverse awakenings.

Happy Puzzling!

Pantheon Analysis

Japanese 1 Pantheon Analysis

May 11, 2016 Mantastic 2 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

The Japanese 1 pantheon has some of the strongest awoken evolutions in the game. They provide valuable utility for various teams and several are great candidates for contributing their active for skill inheritance. The main drawback is a lack of usability prior to being awoken and will be neglected until acquiring the evolution materials.

Japanese 1
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Hinokagutsuchi Dragon / Physical —- Reduce enemy defence 75% 7 turn CD	Hinokagutsuchi is a nightmare to spell and is often shortened to Hino and was one of the first monsters to receive an Awoken Evolution. Upon release, Hino was a fiery success as he hits incredibly hard with 3 two prong attack awakenings. This has incredible synergy with Awoken Shiva who is one of the most popular TPA oriented leaders. Hino will also be receiving a skill bind resist awakening in the near future and this will resolve his largest pitfall. Furthermore, Hino’s active creates a favourable 4 colour board along with the situationally helpful 75% defence break. Overall a fantastic fire TPA sub to own and is worth investing both pluses and attack latent tamadras. As a leader, Hino has the ability to deal ~30k damage to all enemies with any orb match. This is great for helping a low level alt account or sweeping Thursday dungeon very quickly.
Viper Orochi Physical / Dragon —- Delay all enemies for 4 turns 15 turn CD	Viper Orochi has gone from zero to hero with various ups and downs along the way. Presently, Orochi is one of the most desired monsters in Puzzle and Dragons because of his 4 turn delay. Until recently, delays were beginning to go out of style; however, with the advent of stronger bosses with either resolve or damage absorption shields, players are become more reliant on the extra turns gained from his active. In addition, Orochi covers the awkward water and wood attribute on rainbow teams and is only outclassed by Awoken Isis in that regard. The 4 two prong attack awakenings allow for spectacular burst damage, but his naturally low base attack means he requires plus egg investment to truly shine. Orochi can also be used on every mono water team if you require a delay. With the introduction of Skill Inheritance, duplicate Orochis are quite desired and I strongly encourage you to not sell them for 5,000 Monster Points. Lastly, Orochi does have some leadership potential when paired with Ra Dragon as a means to control your damage along with surviving giant single attack preemptives. Finally, if you are considering using Orochi or Sun Quan as your delay slot, keep the following things in mind: Sun Quan offers only 2 turns of delay, but 2 turns of healer enhancement while Orochi grants 4 turns of delay. Unless you are running a heavy healer team, the 2x damage goes to waste and unless your team has severe recovery issues, Orochi will be the superior choice.
Susano Physical / Dragon —- Reduce damage by 50% for 3 turns. 1 turn haste 11 turn CD	I wish my abs were as chiselled and sculpted as Awoken Susano because that would most certainly boost my husbano potential. Regardless, Susano is the definition of a dream boat in both looks and sub potential. He is a favoured sub on both rainbow and mono wood teams due to his wood and fire coverage. His bind immunity is crucial for both having access to a shield at all times along with being able to contribute his colours for rainbow team activation. Susano is perhaps most at home on Awoken Sakuya teams due to full colour coverage and the ability to trigger her leader skill if the entire team is bound. On mono wood teams, Susano provides a valuable shielding component and haste while providing 2 two prong awakenings. The shielding component has become invaluable with stronger preemptive strikes or the need to stall on dangerous bosses and the 50% damage reduction allows you to survive most attacks. The haste has situationally useful uses when skill delay attacks are involved. Due to his unbindability, Susano is a great candidate for full rainbow latent resists (1% of each colour) as a means to survive 100% gravity attacks. His active is also a viable choice for skill inheritance. Susano’s main weakness is a lack of Skill Bind Resist and this could place constraints on team building in order to achieve 100% immunity.
Amaterasu Healer / Physical —- Recover 40% max HP, 4 turns bind clear, 1 turn haste 8 turn CD	Amaterasu has been transformed into a fantastic bind clearing sub and powerful leader. She is both bind immune will possessing the bind recover awakening (albeit no heart generating active) giving you flexibility in how you deal with binds. Furthermore, the double Skill Bind Resist is quite unique and allows for more flexibility in team building. In terms of other high end bind clearers, Amaterasu competes with Awoken Sakuya and both are great options. Amaterasu’s active has 3 components and only an 8-turn cooldown. The 40% of max HP heal is quite powerful and only increases in value as your HP rises. It has an exceptional value on Saria / Thor teams who have an augmented health pool (a 40k HP team would receive 16k of healing). The haste is a nice addition as you can use it to recharge your other skills if the binding stage has been passed. As a leader, Amaterasu forms a powerful 16x ATK team when your HP is full (scales down to 9x when damaged). However, you also heal 10x of your base RCV with every orb match. This essentially is a full heal every turn with dual Amaterasu leads. This is fantastic as you do not have to worry about healing and can survive any dungeon provided you do not get one shotted. This also makes her great for 5×4 latent resist farming (other viable leads can be found in my previous post) as you cannot die to the invading Tamadra. Overall a great card to own for both sub and leadership roles.
Tsukuyomi Physical / Devil —- Enhance all orbs. +5 seconds to move orbs 8 turn CD	Man, woman, or avenging cyborg? Tsukuyomi, or Yomi, can be anything you want them to be and is an incredibly powerful leader with a 56.25x ATK multiplier. They utilize the match 5 connected orbs, 1 enhanced orb (5o1e) leader playstyle and requires 7+ combos to achieve their full multiplier. This makes them very challenging and skill intensive to use as you have to essentially maximize the board every time you wish to deal damage. However, if you are able to do this successfully, your damage output will be amazing and most likely sweep every floor. So why are they not a more popular leader? The simple answer is a lack of any survivability multiplier (HP or RCV), high skill cap/thinking required, and naturally low recovery that makes stalling difficult. Awakenings wise, Yomi provides 1.5 seconds of additional time to move orbs (3 seconds if dual leaders) and 3 dark orb enhance awakenings. Together, these allow for a luxurious amount of time for comboing as well as significant damage for every dark orb match and skyfall. As a sub, Yomi is seldom seen due to their active being somewhat underwhelming and the enhanced orbs having less synergy with row or TPA based teams. However, you can use their active to override time debuffs (think Dark Izanami’s -2s) which can be situationally useful. The three time extend awakenings are nice, but should not be the sole reason you use them as a sub.

Happy Puzzling!

Pantheon Analysis

Archangel Pantheon Analysis

May 11, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

The Archangel Pantheon all feature Bankai evolutions. This means they all have an ultimate of an ultimate evolution which grants them 3 typing, numerous awakenings, and large weighted stats. Despite being one of the oldest Pantheons, GungHo has kept them relevant in today’s meta. They make poor leaders and only come into their true power later into the game and will be passed over for other options for newer players.

Archangel
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Uriel God / Dragon / Healer —- 8 turn CD	Uriel, like the rest of his pantheon, received Bankai evolutions. Bankai is a term often applied to monsters who have received an ultimate evolution of an already existing evolution. These types of evolutions grant the monster 3 different typings along with additional awakenings. There is no change to their active skill. Uriel has unusually high recovery for a fire monster and his 4 auto heal awakenings grant 2,000 health every turn an orb is matched. These can be great for many fire teams as many struggle with recovering health. His God typing allows him to be used on Shiva Dragon teams and his healer sub type will make him a staple sub on Xiang Mei (a new 300k MP monster). Furthermore, Uriel has an amazing orb change combo with Gadius or Leilan to create dual colour, fire heavy boards for explosive burst damage. Uriel’s 3 fire row awakenings allow him to make an appearance on other row based teams, but will limit his usage on TPA heavy teams such as Awoken Shiva .
Gabriel God / Healer / Attacker —- 8 turn CD	Gabriel was my first REM monster on Mantastic and has largely been collecting dust since his arrival 2013. Even with his Bankai evolution, amazing weighted stats, and 9 awakenings, I am still feeling incomplete and hesitant to put him on my teams. This is because Andromeda fulfils the double orb changer role better. Both generate water and heart orbs, but Andromeda has superior awakenings and is a pretty girl. The pretty girl argument would probably convince most people to use Andromeda over Gabriel, but the 4 auto heal awakenings do not have much place on water teams who usually have high RCV multipliers (I&I / Ryune , Lakshmi , or Blue Sonia ). You can still use Gabriel on any mono water team as his active is powerful and the 3 water row have great synergy with most teams. One thing to keep in mind is the enhanced heart orbs combo beautifully with any heart breaker as they will retain their enhanced status. This can be crucial for bursting through end game bosses such as Arena Kalis. However, with the distant release of You Yu (Bamboo, #2758) as the new 300k MP Dragon, Gabriel may have more relevance due to You Yu favouring water attacker type monsters.
Michael God / Attacker / Healer —- 8 turn CD	Michael follows the same pattern of Uriel and Gabriel in that he provides 3 row enhances and 2,000 worth of auto heal. Michael has great base stats and a powerful orb changer and can be utilized on numerous mono wood teams. He finds a home on Sylvie / Freyja teams as the heart generation can be a lifesaver in high end dungeons. Michael is comparable to Perseus for Sylvie/Freyja as both fulfil the wood and heart orb generation role. Normally Persus would be the stronger option due to superior awakenings as the auto heal is somewhat wasted due to your team already having an augmented health pool. However, Michael’s orb change has amazing synergy with Meimei or Sylvie to create a 2/3 wood board with enhanced hearts. Michael’s lack of a Two Prong Attack may sideline him from non-row based mono wood teams such as Bastet , but can still be used due to his utility. However, Michael shines bright on Awoken Astaroth teams as his healer typing allows him an almost guaranteed sub spot as her sub pool is horribly limited.
Raphael God / Healer / Physical —- All + void all damage for 2 turns 16 turn CD	Raphael went from zero to hero with his new ultimate evolution and active skill rework. With an unprecedented 5 light row awakenings, he brings amazing passive damage to every row team. Looking at his other awakenings, they are somewhat lackluster as he has no bind immunity and thus makes his bind recovery less valuable, but at least he can generate heart orbs. Raphael’s active is interesting as it allows you to create an entire board of light orbs if you bring an appropriate heart breaker (Valkyrie , Pollux , Apollo , etc.). However, with out a light orb enhance or lucky skyfalls, your damage may be somewhat capped as you do not receive any combo multiplier bonus nor additional damage from multiple row activations. However, the 2 turns of full damage void can be critical for end game content where bosses have resolve, gigantic health pools, or dangerous kill mechanics. Raphael can be found as a stellar sub on Thor / Saria , Superman , and healer teams provided you need the damage void and potential for high burst damage. However, for most content, you are usually better off bringing an additional orb changer.
Lucifer God / Balance / Devil —- 6 200x ATK on 1 enemy, HP reset to 1 7 turn CD	Useless-ifer, I mean Archangel Lucifer was once the most desired monster in Puzzle and Dragons (3+ years ago) as he was capable of forming a formidable 4x HP / 4x RCV team that could execute bosses with his 300k active nuke. However, times have changed and modern day tank teams are capable of explosive burst damage through row enhances and numerous orb changer. It is simply an issue of powercreep, but GungHo has tried to keep buffing Lucifer to keep him abreast in the current meta with numerous tweaks to his current day active that is stronger and has a skill up material (but requires 15 successful skill ups). However, Lucifer still struggles to find a home on any team due to an active that essentially spawns 6 heart orbs while resetting your HP to 1 on a very long cooldown if unskilled. His 3 two prong awakenings go completely to waste as you would not use a sub who has no active skill contribution. Perhaps the only viable (and that is stretching it) use Lucifer could have is on the new dark Gentlemen MP Dragon team as dark balance monsters are nearly non-existent. On the bright side, Lucifer has amazing artwork in the game and is a very pretty trophy in my box.

Happy Puzzling!

Monster Analysis

Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

May 2, 2016 Mantastic 10 Comments

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

Chinese Celestials
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Awoken Leilan Physical / Attacker —- All + haste 9 turn CD	Leilan has legs to die for along with being a mono red powerhouse with a healthy mixture of offensive and utility based awakenings. She can also be effectively comboed with other orb changers to create fire heavy boards. Unfortunately, the 2 top fire teams, Awoken Shiva and Shiva Dragon seldom use Leilan due to no two prong attack awakenings or god typing. Hopefully with a release of more based teams she will see a resurgence in popularity. Lastly, Leilan can form a system on Ilm teams. As a leader, Leilan forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Fire, Wood, and Light enemies. Has situational uses, but is usually used as a sub.
Awoken Karin Dragon / Attacker —- All + haste 9 turn CD	I have a borderline irrational love for Karin and probably stems from my favourite colour being blue, dragons, and a pretty girl all rolled into amazing one monster. Fanboying aside, Karin is most at home on the various mono-blue powerhouse leads such as Blue Sonia and Awoken I&I / Ryune . Karin’s active, while powerful, is somewhat overshadowed by other water full board changers as she does not generate hearts and most likely needs to be used in conjunction with another orb changer to ensure sufficient water rows. As a leader, Karin forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Water, Wood, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but she is mostly used as a sub.
Awoken Meimei Physical / Attacker —- All + haste 9 turn CD	Meimei was once the primary wood board changer and she still reigns strong today. Her awakenings are more powerful than Verdandi and Sylvie and only loses ground due to not manufacturing heart orbs. Meimei can be used to great success on Sylvie / Freyja , Awoken Bastet , and Spica teams. Furthermore, multiple Meimei ‘s can be used to form a “Meimei System” with Zuoh as a lead. As a leader, Meimei forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Wood, Light, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but she is mostly used as a sub.
Awoken Sakuya Dragon / Healer —- 20% Gravity + 3 turn bind clear 10 turn CD	Sakuya has gone through a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs over the course of her PAD career. She is still currently one of the strongest leaders (and now subs) in her awoken form as she can scale up to 100x damage at 10 combos. The main pitfalls of using Sakuya are a high skill cap, damage inconsistency/orb troll (as it is a scaling and high skill multiplier), and dependency on Light Kalis or other board refreshers. It is still possible to play Sakuya effectively without board changers, but it is becoming harder in today’s meta. Lastly, without any HP/RCV multiplier, it may be challenging to recover after attacks or when stalling. All that negativity aside, Sakuya is still an amazing leader and has been my go to team for over 2 years and have used her to clear numerous Challenge 10s. Sakuya ‘s uses as a sub are now wide and varied as she combines both a gravity and 3-turn bind clear while being bind immune. Furthermore, she essentially outclasses Light Metatron in nearly every aspect as a sub.
Awoken Haku God / Healer —- All + haste 9 turn CD	Awoken Haku was once a critical dark sub to own due to her utility and active. Thankfully, other options have opened up, but should not diminish her value. Furthermore, her exceptionally high base recovery dramatically increases your healing potential on many dark teams. Even without any awakenings, Haku can still warrant a slot on your team due to her utility and explosive combo potential with Akechi . Haku can also find a home on Yomi Dragon , Awoken Yomi , and Awoken Anubis teams. Lastly, her D/D evolution has the devil typing and can be successfully used on Awoken Pandora teams. As a leader, Haku forms a 12.25x ATK team with 51% damage reduction from Fire, Water, and Dark enemies. Has situational uses, but is usually used as a sub. For further reading on determining which Haku evolution is right for you, please read my Haku Evolution Path Guide.

Continue reading Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis →

Monster Analysis

Indian 1, Indian 2, Archdemon, & Japanese 2 Pantheon Anaylsis

May 2, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

Please refer to the Master List for directory to the other pantheons and their analysis.

Keep in mind all of the following monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty in selling dupes.

Indian 1
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Shiva Attacker / Devil —- Reduce enemy defence 75% 7 turn CD	Awoken Shiva is one of the hottest leads in Puzzle and Dragons as he forms a powerful 20.25x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that is two prong reliant. Furthermore, his sub pool has no type restrictions other than they must have the fire attribute. This allows for great flexibility with team building along with compensating for fire’s normally low RCV. I enjoy Awoken Shiva’s playstyle as he combines speed and power and can clear high level content due to amazing burst potential. If you wish to read about how to properly construct a Shiva team, please refer to my Team Building Guide. Unfortunately, Awoken Shiva does falter in the highest level content as his active is relatively weak and his damage output is heavily gated by active usage and may run out of steam mid dungeon. However, do not let this discourage you as he is capable of clearing Challenge 9s and some 10s with the right team and investment. You will also be able to find a huge number of friends due to his popularity. Lastly, his sub potential is quite low as there are better options for a fire orb enhancer.
Lakshmi Physical / God —- 4 + 25x ATK heal 8 turn CD	Awoken Lakshmi is an often overlooked water powerhouse as she forms an incredible 39x ATK / 2.25x RCV team that is focuses around water rows . For comparison sake, most other row leaders range from 10.25-25x ATK. Granted you have to match 6 connected heart orbs to do so (in any shape), but the augmented recovery and built in bind recovery from the your leaders help alleviate team building stress. Your subs ideally need to generate both heart and water orbs and some noteworthy ones include, but are not limited to, Andromeda , Ryune , Sumire , and Gabriel . With a built in heal and heart orb generating active, you can stall for actives with ease and the naturally high base HP on water type monsters allows you to survive attacks that most other non-HP multiplied teams could not. Furthermore, you are able to control your damage output by choosing how many heart orbs to match. This is becoming more vital with the advent of bosses with specific damage absorption shields. Lastly, her awakenings are all over the place and perhaps when her design phase they gave up and just gave her a little of everything. Lakshmi’s main drawbacks are a difficulty finding friends along with almost no sub potential herself.
Parvati Balance / Devil —- 5 turn CD	Awoken Parvati is another 39x ATK / 2.25x RCV leader who is also reliant on heart orb matching for damage. She is essentially the wood version of Lakshmi , but focuses on Two Prong Attacks to deal lethal damage. This is fantastic as most of the strongest wood subs are TPA oriented and many have 3 of those awakenings. Furthermore, the bind immunity eases team building as you may not need to bring a bind clearing sub. Unfortunately, she lacks a recover bind awakening to help the rest of her team. In addition, with her scaling multiplier, you can control your damage and also elect to not trigger two prong attacks to handle floors with specific damage absorptions. There is not too much else to say for Parvati as she is a powerful lead who is capable of clearing Arena 1. Her main drawback is her lack of popularity as her leader skill requires some thinking to proc and many people are opting for more mindless/higher output leads. On the bright side, her two tigers are both cute and majestic.
Indra Dragon / Balance —- 75% damage reduction for 3 turns 15 turn CD	It is strange how Indra is still lacking an Awoken Evolution as the fire, water, and wood monsters in his pantheon received theirs ages ago. This does put a damper on his viability as he does not have the same power potential as other monsters. Regardless, his 75% damage reduction shield is amazing as you can essentially survive any attack for 3 turns. Granted the cooldown is very long, but will save you during critical phases. One of his evolutions provides 2 light rows and allows Indra to participate on some of the newer teams if you need the shielding. His other evolution, , has god typing which has made him nearly a staple sub on Ra Dragon teams due to his 2 skill lock resist awakenings. I used to use Indra for that feature when my various teams were less developed as it allowed me to achieve 100% immunity with ease. Lastly, many rainbow teams will use him for the shield as they lack an HP modifier. Overall, Indra is a vital sub on certain teams, but does not have too many uses for the average player. Perhaps with his Awoken evolution will we have something more meaningful.
Vritra Dragon / Devil —- Varying damage to all enemies, 1.5x dark ATK 9 turn CD	Vritra appears to have amazing awakenings and upon first glance, but his active is far too weak to be utilized. Dark has numerous options for enhancing their damage via Loki , Neph , and Oku who all provide more burst potential/utility as their secondary effect does not deal small damage. As such, Vritra and his amazing art is regulated to push button teams who wish to farm a dungeon quickly by pressing an active to sweep a floor. Although with the awakenings buff, his other evolution posses the God Killer awakening and may have a bit more uses on non-button teams. The HP reset is usually a bad thing, but on teams such as Dark Metatron , it can be a lifesaver if you are unexpectedly healed too much. Hopefully with an Awoken evolution Vritra will become more useful than a button team sub.

Continue reading Indian 1, Indian 2, Archdemon, & Japanese 2 Pantheon Anaylsis →

Monster Analysis

Awoken Apollo vs L/W vs L/F: Analysis and Comparison

April 28, 2016 Mantastic 5 Comments

Apollo follows the trend of the Greco-Roman pantheon by having multiple evolution paths that strongly reward players for keeping duplicates. Each form of Apollo offers different benefits and I wish to explore each in further detail to help you decide who is best for your monster box and teams. If you missed my Hermes comparison, please refer to my previous post HERE.

At a glance

	AWOKEN	L/B	L/R
Type	Healer / Attacker	God / Attacker	God / Physical
Stats	818 Total 2758/1853/516	775 Total 2558/1823/466	791 Total 3358/1453/496
Active	2 turn light skyfall 8 turn CD	8 turn CD	8 turn CD
Leader Skill	1.5x HP / ATK / RCV Light, 2.5x ATK match L/G	1.5x HP / ATK / RCV Light	1.5x HP/ATK/RCV Light & Fire
Awakenings
Fits on which teams?	Apollo Sakuya Healers Saria Thor Superman DQXQ Linka	Sakuya Saria Thor Super DQXQ Wukong	Sakuya Superman DQXQ
A horny majestic unicorn?	I am so fabulous	I’m Ezreal	Why GungHo, just why….

Awoken Apollo

Awoken Apollo is the newest evolution into the Greco-Roman family and offers fantastic weighted stats, a powerful active, and outrageous artwork that combines a fierce wolf, dainty flowers, and a freaking unicorn horn. Continue reading Awoken Apollo vs L/W vs L/F: Analysis and Comparison →

Monster Analysis

Byakko Haku: Which Waifu is Best for You?

April 19, 2016 Mantastic 21 Comments

Keeping with the theme of analysing monsters with numerous viable evolution paths, Haku is the next card to be put under the microscope. With the advent of the awakenings buff, all 3 of her final forms can now be used to great success on various teams and I wish to examine who fits best and where.

At a glance


Type	God / Healer	God / Devil	God / Dragon
Stats	810 Total 3193/1441/609	737 Total 3293/1741/179	736 Total 3353/1491/309
Active	All + haste 9 turn CD	All 9 turn CD	All 9 turn CD
Leader Skill	12.25x, match 3 of RBDH. 51% dmg reduction vs RBD	12.25x, match 3 of RBD	12.25x, match 3 of RBDH
Awakenings
Fits on which teams?	Yomi D Castor A Yomi A Luci	A Pandora A Luci Sonia	A Luci
Orb troll on boss floor?	Without a doubt	For sure	10/10 will make 3 dark orbs

Awoken Haku

Continue reading Byakko Haku: Which Waifu is Best for You? →

Collab REM Reviews, Monster Analysis

Batman V Superman Collab REM Review and Analysis

April 17, 2016 Mantastic 34 Comments

Introduction

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Oh wait, it actually IS Superman! And what is that? What is that sound? Na Na Na Na Na Na BatREM! BatREM! Well maybe it is more of a DC-REM / BvS REM, but BatREM has a nicer ring to it when introducing the second main character. Regardless, all the monsters from this Collab machine qualify for Skill Inheritance and are sure to awaken nostalgia in many of their fans. As a fair warning, all the monsters have different rates of being rolled so it may be challenging to roll some of the golden 5-star monsters. With that being said, Superman and Batman are powerful cards to own and can be incorporated into many teams with ease. Furthermore, with the buff to Batman’s leader skill and popularity of heart cross teams, he has gained significant value.

BvS Collab REM Rolls
jjjjjjjjj5-star base formjjjjjjjjj	4-star base form

Video Commentary

—-video goes here—-
Continue reading Batman V Superman Collab REM Review and Analysis →

Godfest, Monster Analysis

PAX East Godfest Analysis and Pantheon Breakdown

April 15, 2016 Mantastic 12 Comments

My breakdown and analysis of all the featured pantheons for the PAX East godfest. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list HERE.

Heaven’s Gala
jjj Day 1	Greco-Roman 2	Three Kingdoms
jjj Day 1
jjj Day 2	Greco-Roman 1	Hero
jjj Day 2

Day 1:

Day 1 features some of the most powerful subs in Puzzle and Dragons who bring a mixture of utility and sheer power in their actives and awakenings. The Greco-Roman 2 all have amazing double orb changer that convert 2 other orbs into their primary colour. Furthermore, their entire pantheon is in the process of receiving Awoken Evolutions which push their base stats and actives into new territory by granting them an enhanced skyfall mechanic for 2 turns. Furthermore, all of the Greco-Roman 2 monsters have 2+ viable evolution paths so their flexibility is unsurpassed. The Three Kingdoms have more diversified actives that fulfil many roles and with the new awakenings buff, some have 2 viable evolutions. In addition, DQ will be reunited with her sister to form a newly announced Awoken evolution that caps at 100x damage. Overall a great day to roll if you are looking to bolster your mono colour teams.

Greco-Roman 2
jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj	Notes
Ares God / Physical — 8 turn CD	Ares is one hot fire team sub and was once crowned the title of highest ATK base stats in the game. However, time has seen his place shifted around to his current form of a fire row powerhouse. Furthermore, with his god typing, he makes an incredible Shiva Dragon sub. Unfortunately, Ares is unable to be as well utilized on other top fire teams such as Awoken Shiva or Gadius as he will either create too many fire orbs and prevent sufficient combos or remove heart orbs. On the bright side for Awoken Shiva teams, Ares just had an Awoken Evolution announced (no icon yet). This will grant him Devil / Attacker typing and causing him to become TPA oriented with massive base attack and an enhanced fire skyfall active in conjunction with double orb change. This is also great news for teams as the double orb change helps flood the board with fire orbs. Unfortunately, this will remove his presence on Shiva Dragon teams so exercise caution before committing. I will also do his own special post comparing his evolutions at a later date.
Hermes God / Attacker —- God / Physical 8 turn CD —- Awoken Hermes Devil / Attacker —- + 2 turn water skyfall 8 turn CD	Hermes is one of the few monsters that has 3 unique and powerful options for evolution trees (which I will be covering in a more extensive post). The decision of which evolution boils down to the type of leader you are using. B/D is best on Neptune Dragon teams B/L is a physical Blue Sonia sub (or Neptune Dragon ) Awoken for every other water team except for Neptune Dragon and Blue Sonia Regardless of which evolution path you choose, all the Hermi (Hermeses?) are outstanding mono water team subs on row based teams as his active overflows the board with your desired water orbs and can be combo-ed with nearly every full board changer to generate a 2/3 water board.
Awoken Artemis Attacker/ Devil —- + 2 turn wood skyfall 8 turn CD —- God / Attacker —- 8 turn CD	Artemis is still in an awkward position even with her branched evolution tree. Her double orb changer is similar to Australis and Liu Bei , but she cannot as easily be placed on any team as both those counterparts do their job better. Australis has 5 awakenings and a more powerful active as her skyfall buff lasts for 4 turns. Liu Bei has 3 TPA awakenings and by default hits harder (maybe the skyfall mechanic negates this). Regardless, playing Artemis on a TPA oriented combo team such as Awoken Bastet is problematic due to overflowing the board with too many wood orbs and potentially causing you to be unable to form 7+ combos required for full leader skill activation. You can arguably use Awoken Artemis as a leader on her own to form a 4x HP / 16x ATK team but must work around awkwardly matching water and wood orbs. However, one thing Awoken Artemis shines at is being an Awoken Astaroth sub as her team is normally quite restrictive in their sub choices. For further reading as to which Artemis evolution is best for you, please read my full analysis HERE.
Apollo God / Attacker —- 8 turn CD —- Awoken Apollo Healer / Attacker —- + 2 turn light skyfall 8 turn CD	L/B Apollo is a fantastic light row sub for Saria / Thor teams as his active floods the board with numerous light orbs and almost always ensures you can manufacture 2 unique rows. Furthermore, his dual orb changing capabilities allow him to combo with most full board changers. Unfortunately, a lack of SBR or time extend diminish his utility value. On the other hand, Awoken Apollo is quite the horny and majestic unicorn (seriously, his art is just mind-boggling) and appears to have less synergy with most teams as he lost his row enhances. The strange part of the entire Greco-Roman pantheon’s active favours row formation due to flooding the board with their respective colour. Regardless, gains the healer typing and opens options to be used on Awoken Ama , Light Metatron , and Light Zhuge Liang teams. In addition, the new wood typing means Awoken Sakuya teams do not need to bring a wood sub and may ease team building. Of course, the overflow of light orbs may make it problematic to adequately combo, but can be used after Light Kali ‘s active to ensure a more combo friendly board. Furthermore, the enhanced skyfall mechanic may add lethal amounts of additional damage.
Persephone God / Healer —- God / Devil —- 8 turn CD —-	Persephone was far prettier in her dark/fire form and is only evolved to dark/wood because of the additional awakenings and most notably 2 . In addition, the 2 awakenings add significant increase to healing that should not be overlooked. Furthermore, the enhanced heal orbs will be converted into enhanced dark orbs. Row based teams love actives that can flood the board with dark orbs and is an amazing candidate. Main drawback are a lack of awakening and may place constraints on team building along with no devil typing. This changes with the evolution at the cost of 2 and . However, Awoken Persephone (no icon at the moment) was just announced in JP and brings yet another tough decision to make in terms of viable evolution paths. I will be making a special follow up post at a future date with her pros and cons, but I will just leave you with her becoming Attacker / Devil typing and being orb enhance and TPA reliant.

Continue reading PAX East Godfest Analysis and Pantheon Breakdown →

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Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

Category Archives: Monster Analysis

Egyptian 1 Pantheon Analysis

Egyptian 1

Dark & Light Kali, Eschamali, Scheat, and Australis Analysis

Kalis & Mechanical GFE

Japanese 1 Pantheon Analysis

Japanese 1

Archangel Pantheon Analysis

Archangel

Chinese Celestial, Sengoku, Mechanical 1, & Mechanical 2 Pantheon Analysis

Chinese Celestials

Indian 1, Indian 2, Archdemon, & Japanese 2 Pantheon Anaylsis

Indian 1

Awoken Apollo vs L/W vs L/F: Analysis and Comparison

At a glance

Awoken Apollo

Byakko Haku: Which Waifu is Best for You?

At a glance

Awoken Haku

Batman V Superman Collab REM Review and Analysis

Introduction

Video Commentary

PAX East Godfest Analysis and Pantheon Breakdown

Day 1:

Puzzling those Dragons