GungHo has been releasing monthly News updates and I wanted to summarize/share my point of view for the various topics presented this month.
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Continue reading October PAD News – Mystics & Spectres, Halloween, New Evos
Friday, May 1st marks the start of a special new event/dungeon that will award players with the pre-made team they selected. This choice can only be made once and once awarded the pre-made team, you should not sell the Starter Dragon as it will be used for another set of challenges that requires said Starter Dragon.
For the most part, you should be selecting the pre made team that features a Pantheon card you do not own but in the case of missing multiple cards, the decision becomes a bit more meaningful.
This article will briefly outline my thought process for selecting a team for this new event.
–video coming soon–
Your selection is irreversible once you clear any one dungeon so it is in your best interest to choose the team that can benefit you the most. Continue reading Which Starter Team to Pick for 3 Choices! Win a Team!
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.
The Early Harvest Godfest comes hard on the heels of the 10-Stone GFE REM . While Godfest Exclusives are tremendously powerful, you still need regular REM card support to excel and GungHo is presenting us with some of the stronger pantheons. In addition, many of these cards have received new ultimate evolutions in the past month that grant them even more viability.
 Gala of Tides  |
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| —- — — — Day 1 |
Chinese Celestials | Japanese 2 |
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| GFE | ||
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| — — — — Day 2 |
Indian 2 | Mechanical 1 |
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| GFE | ||
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The Chinese Celestials are one of the oldest pantheons in Puzzle an Dragons and have begun to fall behind in the current meta. This is mostly due to the dominance of heart cross leaders require board changers that produce heart orbs. This leaves them in a somewhat awkward place as their board change will rarely be as strong as someone who produces 3 elements with one being hearts. However, if other leaders begin to follow similar patterns as Krishnia 
, they may begin to see more viability. One thing to keep in mind is their ability to be inherited onto other mono-colour teams who may be better able to combo with their actives.
On the other hand, the Japanese 2 pantheon is relatively new and is home to five new and powerful awoken cards. None of them follow any sense of pattern and instead provide unique playstyles as leaders while harbouring interesting active skills. Due to their relative unique-ness, they are fun leaders to play and are capable of clearing some endgame content.
Day 1 is reasonably strong is you are looking to play non-heart cross leaders as they offer some of the stronger mono-colour subs along with unique leaders.
When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. For a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list Popular Leader’s and their Full Sub List Post. Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search. If you are considering to purchase a Four Gentlemen card, please read my Review and Comparison HERE.
The PAX West Godfest comes jammed backed with +30 rolls and 4x GFE rates to celebrate one of the largest gaming conventions happening in Seattle. As with any of my Godfest reviews, I will try my best to add clarification and insight for the featured pantheons. Due to the rarity of GFE, it can be challenging to roll for them and you should have a strong fallback option with the pantheons that are also featured.
  Midnight Gala     |
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| Day 1 | Japanese 2 & Indian 2 | GFE |
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| Day 2 | Egyptian 1 & Mechanical 1 | GFE |
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  A different Gala |
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| Day 3 | Â Greco Roman 1 & Angel 2 | GFE |
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Day 1 features the newly Awoken Japanese 2 and the nearly Uuevo-ed Indian 2 series. The Japanese 2 used to be one of the most dominating sets of gods to roll for; however, time has not been too kind and their Awoken Evolutions do help round out team rosters, but none become meta changing leaders of their heyday. One thing to note is that most cards lose their God typing through an Awoken Evolution.
Conversely, the Indian 2 pantheon has been one of the weakest and thankfully, GungHo has been giving them some love through Uuevos that created a surprisingly powerful Sarasvati. We are still waiting for Krishna and Vishnu to have theirs announced and hopefully they become just as powerful.
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.
Indian 1 |
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| jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj | Â 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 heal8 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 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  Â Â —- 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 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
Unfortunately this Godfest was announced very late last night and caused my analysis to be delayed. When making the decision to roll or save your magic stones, you need to determine if the featured pantheons can benefit or compliment your teams. Chasing for one specific monster is unwise as you will most likely be disappointed and should ideally have Godfests that overlap with many target cards. Remember all monsters that come out of the REM will qualify for Skill Inheritance so do not be too hasty when selling dupes. Lastly, for a more detailed team building help, please refer to my full list HERE.
| Forest Gala |
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| jjj Day 1 |
Indian 1 | Indian 2 |
| Â Â Â Â |
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| jjj Day 2 |
Archdemon | Japanese 2 |
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Day one is a large disappointment as the Indian 2 pantheon is currently very lackluster as none of them have awoken evolutions and aside from Vishnu 
, is terribly weak and in need of a revamp or buff. Indian 1 has some strong leaders with Awoken Shiva 
, Lakshmi , and Parvati 
 but all have nearly no sub potential. Indra 
 would be the most widely used sub from the pantheon, but is only situationally useful and should ideally have his awoken evolution made by now. Even if chasing a specific card, I would strongly advise you to not roll this day.
| India 1 | |
| jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj | Â 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 heal8 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 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 Hopefully with an Awoken evolution Vritra will become more useful than a button team sub. |
Continue reading May Mornings Godfest Analysis and Breakdown
Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 