Coop/Multiplayer, Meta Snapshots

Meta Snapshot: Alternate Accounts and How to Successfully Create One

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Introduction

Today’s Meta Snapshot will explore the rising  popularity of alternate (alt) or additional accounts. This article will define what an alternate account is, how to go about raising one, the viability in today’s meta, and why it feels go to play with yourself. For reference, Mantastic is rank 642 and Fantastic is rank 600 which gives me a strong understanding of how to successfully play two high level accounts. Do keep in mind that I have been playing both account for over 1,000 days so my level of progression will differ from other players.

Video commentary

What is an alternate account?

Simply put, an alternate account is an additional account for a player who already has an existing one (often referred to as their main). In the past, players created alt accounts to help alleviate boredom during the dark days of 10 stamina/min. However, many people did not stick with it due to a lack of coop  and slow progression years ago.

Today, many players have started to make new accounts not only to fight off boredom, but to play coop ‘solo’ by piloting two accounts.

Pros
  • Able to play coop at your own convenience
  • Have full control and only have your self to blame for mistakes
  • There is a certain joy when raising a new account (applies to most games)
  • Have twice the stamina to play with
  • Have twice the free magic stones to roll
  • If your accounts are different letter groups, you gain additional time slots to run the hourly dungeons
  • Can tell strangers you play with yourself in your spare time

Continue reading Meta Snapshot: Alternate Accounts and How to Successfully Create One →

Site News, Streaming

Big Updates to my Stream!! Also looking for new Twitch Mods!

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Introduction

I have been streaming Puzzle and Dragons on Twitch for a brief period of time with only two short streams a week. I do have reasonably strong views by PAD standards, but I wish to improve the experience for both myself and viewers. While recovering from my eye surgery, I had a lot of time to think about the direction I want to take for my stream and came up with a lot of fun and exciting way to evolve my stream from a 5-star to 8-star status! The two most notable changes will be more streaming sessions to help catch people in different time zones along with implementing a viewership reward system that awards a currency from passively watching which can be redeemed for Fantastic prizes!

Video commentary

More streaming sessions!

People love watching me play with myself, in coop, with my Mantastic and Fantastic accounts. As such, I wish to provide more times in which you can be entertained while trying to provide streaming sessions that are more convenient for viewers who are not on the West Coast. Note all the following start times are in PST:

  • Monday at 6pm
  • Thursday at 3:30pm
  • Friday at 3:30pm
  • Saturday at 2pm

I will try my best to adhere to this schedule and may still shift times/days around as needed. The best way to stay informed is to follow my various social media platforms as I will make announcements for when I go live and any delays that may happen:

Mantastic Icon Mantastic Social Media Mantastic Icon
FB icon Facebook twitter Twitter YT YouTube Twitch Twitch

New currency system

One thing I always try to achieve while streaming is engaging my audience through verbal interaction and entertaining gameplay. However, I want to go above and beyond the average streamer by rewarding my viewers with an in-stream currency to give them more options to interact with me and have a lot of fun at the same time.

I had a test stream on Friday and one viewer (forgot the name, sorry!) suggested I name my currency Myracle Stones as it is both punny along with tying into my love for Myr. Viewers will earn 1 Myracle Stones every 3 minutes they spend watching (Oh look, it is just like stamina!) and there is a large list of rewards they can redeem that will have a message pop up on stream along with a flashing an image and audio component. Continue reading Big Updates to my Stream!! Also looking for new Twitch Mods! →

New Evolutions

Awoken Izanagi & Anima Review and Analysis

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Introduction

Awoken Izanagi Awoken Izanagi and Anima 3083 were part of a small evolution release and I want to discuss their value and why they are significant to your monster box and gameplay.

Video commentary

New evolutions

Awoken Izanagi
Awoken Izanagi

God / Balance
+light orb TPA +heart Skill Lock Resist +light orb Skill Boost TPA Time Extend

Active Skill
2x ATK God & Balance type
100k Light attack to a single enemy
Reduce player HP by 50%
6 turn CD

Leader Skill
7x ATK and 50% damage reduction with heart cross. 2x RCV for God and Balance types
49x ATK / 4x RCV / 75% damage reduction

Awoken Izanagi makes a wonderful debut as yet another heart-cross leader. The heart-cross mechanic is currently the most powerful ability in the game as it allows teams to deal amazing damage while having incredible survivability as you can greatly reduce incoming damage and survive gravity based attacks. As such, Izanagi becomes a potent leader and has great leadership potential when paired with Myr Miru. Continue reading Awoken Izanagi & Anima Review and Analysis →

Collab REM Reviews

PAD Cross Review and Analysis

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Introduction

PAD Cross has finally arrived in North America to celebrate the Puzzle and Dragons Anime that can be found somewhere on the internet. Hopefully people are not too Cross about the delay in gaining these new evolutions. Thankfully, unlike other Collabs, PAD Cross does not involve an extra REM to roll from. Instead, it provides ultimate evolution options for some existing farmable and regular REM cards. This is fantastic as players do not have to spend additional magic stones and may already own some of the required cards from Godfest rolls. None of these evolutions are mandatory, but give players the option to modify some of their favourite cards.

Video commentary

New REM evolutions

Ana Typhon
Cross Typhon

Dragon / Balance
TPA Bind Clear awakening Skill Boost Time Extend Skill Lock Resist Dark row Bind Immune Bind Immune Devil killer

Active Skill
All Arrow Fire Water Dark Heart
2 turn haste
13 turn CD

Leader Skill
1.35x HP / ATK for Dragon and Balance type. 6x ATK and 35% damage reduction when forming a heart cross.
1.82x HP / 65.61x ATK / 57.75% damage reduction
Continue reading PAD Cross Review and Analysis →

Random Thoughts

[Videos] Clearing Challenge 8, 9, & 10 with a variety of teams

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Introduction

I managed to stream for a brief period today and was able to successfully clear Challenge 8, 9, and 10 with a variety of teams. I tend to blink a lot and may not be able to see the orbs with the same clarity as I usually do, but hopefully my Mantastic skills pull through in the end!

Challenge 10 vs Sarasvati

Definitely not overkill on Kali….

Challenge 9 vs Blue Sonia

Another Splashing success!

 

Challenge 8 vs Dark Metatron

Hit me harder

Conclusion

Playing with one eye is a lot harder than it looks. Eye hope eye am back to normal shortly.

Happy Puzzling!

Meta Snapshots

Meta Snapshot: Tank Teams

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Introduction

This is the second installment of this series and it allows me to share my thoughts and insight on current meta trends. Today, I wish to explore the viability of tank teams by discussing their definition, history,  and viability in today’s meta.

Video commentary

 What is a tank team?

Tank teams consist of leaders who augment your health and/or recovery along with providing a modest increase to your attack. These teams do not reduce your incoming damage and gain their survivability from their augmented stats. Tank teams may not boast the fastest clear times; however, they are very safe to play due to their innate durability and the ability to stall for actives and unleash heavy burst damage when needed.

In most cases, tank teams rely on stacking row enhances (Fire Row Water Row Wood Row Light Row Dark row) along with possibly a damage enhance in conjunction with heavy orb changers to one shot tanky bosses. This gives them wonderful damage control as you usually rely on actives to burst and are able to stall with ease. However, you lose all your multipliers if your leaders are bound, so plan accordingly.

Pros

Continue reading Meta Snapshot: Tank Teams →

Godfest, Monster Analysis

New GFE: Sitri, Dantalion, and Paimon Review and Analysis

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Introduction

What’s better than a new GFE being introduced? How about three! Sitri 2993, Dantallion 2991, and Paimon 2997 are all coming to North America and are following the cross-meta pattern to trigger their leader skills along with powerful actives alongside. In addition to all sharing the cross formation, they all are heavily skewed towards orb enhances as their primary damage enhancement as crosses can only utilize 5 orbs at a time.

Video commentary

Sitri review

Sitri – 5* GFE
2993
Devil / Healer
3,306 HP / 1,442 ATK / 835 RCV
897 Total
Skill Boost Time Extend Skill Lock Resist blue + orb blue + orb blue + orb

Active Skill:
Fire Green  Arrow Water
8 turn CD

Leader Skill:
1.35x HP / ATK for Devils. 3x ATK for clearing a water cross (max 2 in a 6×5 board)
1.82x HP / 147.62x ATK

Pros
  • Is only a 5-star GFE
  • One of the best double orb changers as you do not remove hearts
  • Amazing burst damage potential
  • Can control your damage via 16x with 1 water cross
  • Not as orb hungry as Sarasvati 3069 or You Yu You Yu
  • Has a small HP multiplier
  • An amazing sub or assistant via skill inheritance
  • Could be a pretty girl, but my vision is still blurry

Continue reading New GFE: Sitri, Dantalion, and Paimon Review and Analysis →

Site News

1 Million Site Views!

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Introduction

With all the various poison orbs plaguing my health at the moment, there is a still a rainbow of joy creeping through: 1  million site views!! I actually achieved this milestone around my surgery time frame and was actually lucky enough to catch this monumental occasion as close as I could possibly hope to get:

1-m-views

Video commentary

What does 1 million signify?

According to Wikipedia (which is the real MVP for all college students), a million seconds is equivalent to 11.57 days and for myself, the end result of just under 11 months of Mantastic PAD. Continue reading 1 Million Site Views! →

Random Thoughts

On the Lighter Side: The Funniest PAD Images, Memes, Puns, and Pick-Up Lines

23 Comments

Introduction

On the lighter side, I reached out to the community to find the best Puzzle and Dragons images, memes, puns, and pickup lines the internet has to offer. It also should be noted that Anita Waffle has plenty of time on her hands and was a treasure trove of wonderful material. Google and the PAD Reddit is also my friend.

PAD puns

Anita body pillows Continue reading On the Lighter Side: The Funniest PAD Images, Memes, Puns, and Pick-Up Lines →

Puzzling those Dragons