Tag Archives: Ilm

Thoughts on Player’s Choice Godfest Results

Introduction

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.

Video commentary

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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 Ult Kaede Gremory Dark Kali 3202 A Liu Bei
6-10 Eschamali 3236 Awoken DQXQ Kanna 3068
11-15 Wukong bankai Sherias Roots Awoken Pandora Isis Ronove
16-20 3101 d-d-akechi 2997 rodin Bankai Andro
21-25 Rozuel Ra Awoken Oorochi Scheat 2991

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.

PCGF record 2

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 3265 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

New Content Overview – December 7 Evolutions & Buffs

Introduction

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.

Video commentary

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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 Red Puppeteer Charite Green Puppeteer Courage in conjunction to change the boss’s attribute.

3238 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 3235 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.

Finally, Minerva regains her God typing and can make a reasonable sub on Ra Dragon 3265 teams as you can simply inherit a new active as her base cooldown is only 5 turns and helps keep your team fully bind immune. Continue reading New Content Overview – December 7 Evolutions & Buffs

55 Million Downloads 5x GFE Review and Analysis

I will continue to update this page as I write the additional monster reviews and have been quite busy with all the newly released content and real life issues. I posted this well knowing I am missing some monsters as I want to give you some information now or at least the handy reference chart for what rolls out on each day. Your patience is appreciated!

Godfest basics

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. If you are wondering which Four Gentlemen 300k card you should purchase, please read my Comparison Post.  Lastly, to find more information about a specific pantheon or monster, refer to my Master List to better refine your search.


Introduction

The 55 Million Downloads Godfest makes a special occasion for both GungHo and players. There are not many games that can claim to have as widespread of a following as Puzzle and Dragons and the players are being wonderfully rewarded with a NA first of 5x Godfest Exclusives. A typical Godfest has these hard to obtain cards at a 3x rate and these increased values should help players secure some of their favourite cards. In the distant past, we were fortunate enough to have 4x GFE that was paired alongside various pantheons; however, during the 55 Million Godfest, there will be no accompanying pantheon alongside and we will only have the Gala of Tides. It is uncertain how this will influence the roll rates and GungHo will never disclose this information so we are still at the mercy of RNGesus.

When deciding to roll for either day 1 or 2, you have to take a look at the featured GFE as there is some overlap and the decision ultimately lies in your unique box and situation. North America may never receive the 10-stone GFE REM and if you are like me, and have been hoarding stones for months, it may be time to shake the Golden Dragon’s arm as this will probably be the best opportunity to acquire Godfest Exclusives and Monster Points. Sitting on hundreds of Magic Stones can put a damper on your progression and there is a certain degree of opportunity cost and benefiting from cards before powercreep reduces their value. I will be rolling and recording my conquest with as few tears as possible in a subsequent posting.

Stones

Another thing to consider is every roll will come out with a +50 to a single stat. This is a wonderful collateral benefit and if you are having troubles deciding to sell or fuse, I encourage you to read my post HERE discussing the matter.

Water Gala of Tides Carat
Day 1 Red Sonia Blue Sonia Green Sonia rodin Blodin Green Odin
Kali Dark Kali Metatron dtron
Day 2 Urd Skuld ult evo Verd Ult Zuoh Ilm Baby Satsuki
Kanna Eschamali Scheat Australis Fenrir Viz Fenrir
Overlap Gadius Typhon Ryune Saria Sylvie Ult Tsubaki
Ult Sumire Ult Kaede Sherias Baldin Sherias Roots Balboa

Day 1:

Day 1 has the lovely Sonias who despite their best efforts, are starting to fall behind due to powercreep as leads. As subs, they are wonderful on their respective mono-colour teams or assistants for Skill Inheritance. The Odins are more luxury based or niche in comparison. Dark Kali Dark Kali is the big prize of the day and is a vital sub on Ra Dragon Ra Dragon. Finally, the Metatrons are falling behind due to powercreep.

Continue reading 55 Million Downloads 5x GFE Review and Analysis

Monster Analysis: Master List

This has been one of my long term projects as my goal was to create a posting that can help all players find more information about their favourite monsters. This post will inevitably be pushed down over time; however, I have included it at the top of under the drop down tab of Monster Analysis: Master List so you refer back here any time you please.


This post will link you to all of my monster reviews and analysis as organised by pantheons.  These were my drafts, but from the various feedback I have received, I have made them public as people will always have questions about any monster they obtain from the REM. Do note that these analysis are a continuous work in progress and some cards may be missing or updated when they go live in a Godfest.

Please refer to 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.

Indian 1

Shiva
Shiva
Awoken Lakshimi
Lakshmi
Awoken Parv
Parvati
Indra row
Indra
Vitra
Vritra

The Indian 1 Pantheon is somewhat fragmented in that only 3 of the monsters have an Awoken Evolution. Furthermore, Shiva Shiva, Lakshmi Awoken Lakshimi, and Parvati Awoken Parv only come into their full power with their awoken forms and will be quite weak beforehand. Indra Indra row is powerful in the right situations, but has little benefit in the early game. Overall a strong pantheon for leaders and a single sub, but will take time to truly shine.

Indian 2

Krishna
Krishna
Sarasvati
Sarasvati
Vishnu
Vishnu
Ganesha
Ganesha
Durga
Durga

The Indian 2 Pantheon is quite lackluster due to non having Awoken Evolutions. Furthermore, several of them received a buff to their leader skill and no awakenings with their ultimate evolution. Overall, the Indian 2 series is in need of a buff to give them relevance as either subs or leaders.

Archdemon

Belial
Belial
Amon
Amon
Astaroth
Astaroth
Baal
Baal
Awoken Archdemon Lucifer
Lucifer

The Archdemons can be a frustrating pantheon to roll because only Astaroth Astaroth and Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer received Awoken Evolutions. The other 3 received a Bankai evolution which does not alter their weak active skill. This makes them poor choices to run on their respective mono-colour teams as you will almost always have a better single orb changer option. Continue reading Monster Analysis: Master List

Odins, Ilm, & Zuoh Monster Analysis

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 Odin are some of the oldest monsters in Puzzle and Dragons that have been receiving numerous small buffs to try and regain their viability. On the other hand, Ilm and Zuoh are two newer Godfest Exclusives who are powerful options for their respective teams due to their full board changers.

Odins, Ilm, & Zuoh

jjjjjjjjMonsterjjjjjjjjj  Notes
Red Odin
rodin
God / Attacker
Skill Boost Fire Row Fire Row
Skill Boost Skill Boost Fire Row
Bind Immune Bind Immune Fire Row
—-
50x Dark damage to all enemies. 10x ATK poison
15 turn CD
Red Odin (Rodin) is considered by many to be a staple sub on push button teams. However, with the introduction of skill inheritance, his dependency is slightly lowered if you are willing to invest in a high skill boost base monster. However, Red Odin performs the job so well and can make farming a breeze. Unfortunately, his uses beyond a farming sub are slim as his active will only be situationally useful to bypass high defence monsters via poison. You can also inherit his skill which does make him one of the few poison cards that can be used as an assistant.

In an effort to increase his viability, Red Odin has received various buffs to his leader skill and now provides 2x HP and 3.75x ATK. This is reasonable and can make as a pseudo tank team lead. Unfortunately, his active is relatively weak and would require an inheritance to have more viability.

Overall, Red Odin is a luxury card who will not see much use for the average player. Just remember, being able to farm an easy dungeon fast does not increase the drop rates, only the speed in which you can clear (and burn stones).

Blue Odin
Blodin
God / Physical
Skill Boost Water Row Water Row
Skill Boost Skill Boost Water Row
TPA TPA TPA
—-
50x ATK damage & 15% heal. Enhance water & dark orbs
6  turn CD
Blue Odin (Blodin) has outrageously sculpted thighs that are threatening to burst through his skin-tight pants. Looks aside, the magical spear Odin posses an outstanding 894 weighed stats along with a wonderful mix of offensive awakenings to satisfy any mono water team. Granted you rarely wish to mix rows with TPA awakenings and thus he only has six valid awakenings. Unfortunately, he lacks any form of utility and skill bind resistance Skill Lock Resist which could place constraints on team building to help achieve 100% immunity.

Blue Odin’s active has undergone numerous micro-buffs with a reduction to 6 turns with latest patch. Unfortunately, the dual enhancement for water and dark goes mostly to waste and only adds additional turns to the cooldown. However, at only 6 turns, you can use Odin as a base for skill inheritance as his awakenings and base stats are quite strong. Furthermore, you should not discredit the healing component tied to his active. At max level and +297, he will restore 13,395 health and has functioned as an emergency heal on my Blue Sonia Blue Sonia team.

Blue Odin can have an appearance on any mono water team due to his God and Physical typing which includes, but not limited to Blue Sonia, Neptune Dragon Neptune Dragon, I&I I&I / Ryune Ryune, Lakshmi Awoken Lakshimi, and Rukia Rukai Kuchiki. As stated above, you can use Blue Odin as your base for skill inheritance as he has a low base cooldown along with high stats and 3 skill boost Skill Boost awakenings.

Overall, Blue Odin is regaining favour as a 6-star GFE due to numerous active buffs and skill inheritance.

 Green Odin
Green Odin
God / Balance
Skill Boost Bind Immune Bind Immune
Skill Boost Auto heal Auto heal
Auto heal Auto heal
—-
50x ATK damage & 15% heal. 5 turns bind clear
9  turn CD
Like Blue Odin Blodin, Green Odin (Grodin) has been receiving numerous micro-buffs to his active and is finally blessed with a truly powerful bind clear. If full leveled and +297, he will restore just under 14k health along with removing 5 turns of binds. This is quite potent and although you will rarely need to remove 5 turns, it is a helpful option to have available for skill inheritance. The main reason Odin is not selected as a sub on most teams is his lack of offensive awakenings and no SBR Skill Lock Resist or recover bind Bind Clear awakening utility. Thus, his only purpose would be bind clearing which is becoming less important due to unbindable leads.

In addition to his active skill receiving improvements, Grodin’s leader skill has also been upgraded to grant up to 3.5x ATK when clearing 4-8 connected wood orbs and an 80% damage reduction shield on the first attack when HP is full. This is not game-breaking, but at least allows for modestly faster clears if tackling a descend with no multi-hit components. His favourite pairing would be Awoken Ama Amate who also has an ATK multiplier in addition to large autohealing component to her leader skill.

Overall, Green Odin is still a lacklustre 5-star GFE as the dependency on bind clearing is at an all time low and will most likely be regulated to being an assistant through skill inheritance.

Ilm
Ilm
Devil / Attacker
TPA Skill Boost Time Extend
Light Row Skill Boost Skill Lock Resist
—-
All Arrow Fire Light
12 turn CD
Ilm is essentially a Light/Fire Sonia without an ultimate evolution. This automatically diminishes their value as they only have 6 awakenings (which is low for a 6-star GFE) and I was somewhat surprised to see them in the PCGF. However, it just shows how popular Saria Saria / Thor Thor  and Machine Zeus Awoken Zeus teams are as Ilm can almost always produce 2+ rows through their active. You are of course running the risk of a horrible orb-trolled board which cannot correct via orb changers due to only light and fire orbs being generated. I would prefer to run a tri-colour board changer as you can combo with another sub to pretty much guarantee a burst heavy board. Regardless, you can still effectively utilise Ilm on your mono light row teams and the promise of a future ultimate evolution should address their lack of awakenings.

Ilm’s leadership potential is for the most part impractical as a 36x lead is not game breaking considering you have to match two different colours and have no HP or RCV multiplier. However, you can use Ilm as a fantastic Tsubaki Tsubaki sub (if you can find friends who use them) as you generate their two needed colours and can achieve a higher multiplier.

Overall, Ilm is a potent mono light sub and their active can be transferred to both fire and light teams.

Zuoh
Ult Zuoh
Devil / Physical
TPA Skill Boost Dark row
Wood Row Time Extend Skill Lock Resist
Dark row Dragon Killer
—-
All  Arrow Fire Green Dark
8 turn CD
Zuoh has fantastic artwork that truly captures the demonic beast within. He has a relatively new ultimate evolution that gave him a significant boost to his damage output through an additional row and Dragon Killer Dark row awakening. The Dragon Killer is exceptionally valuable in Ultimate Arena when facing the Dark Kali as it helps you push her out of the >65% danger zone. In addition to his offensive capabilities, he has a healthy mix of defensive utility and is a boon to all dark row-based/devil teams. You can find Zuoh making an appearance on Lucifer Awoken Archdemon Lucifer, Pandora Awoken Pandora, and Dark Metatron dtron as they all focus on dark rows and Zuoh can be beautifully combo-ed with Akechi Akechi, Hanzo Hanzo, and Pandora to form a 2/3 dark board for explosive damage.

The main drawback of using Zuoh as a sub is his 0 base RCV that can place constraints on recovering when stalling. Awoken Pandora teams already have naturally low RCV due to their two leaders and Zuoh can further complicate the problem unless you have heavy plus egg investment.

Zuoh can also be used as a leader and form a “Meimei System” by using multiple Awoken Meimeis MeiMei to continuously chain his leader skill activation. However, the team is fragile as there is no HP or RCV multiplier and you have no defensive utility.

Overall, Zuoh is a powerful dark row team sub and his offensive capabilities and his active allows for incredible burst damage when combo-ed with another orb changer.

Happy Puzzling!

Player’s Choice Godfest June 2016: Review and Analysis

Introduction

Player’s Choice Godfest is one of the most anticipated times of the year for all Puzzle and Dragoners. It is a time where the community collectively votes for the most popular gods and is a great way to help populate your monster box with numerous strong cards. In my previous post, I compared PCGF and 4x Godfest Exclusive (GFE) events and came to the conclusion that it is better to roll PCGF for newer accounts/players missing numerous key cards.

Which Godfest to roll?
PCGF 4x GFE
Frequency 2 times per year  Random
Benefits
who?
  • New accounts/less developed boxes
  • Great way to fill in the numerous gaps in your monster box
  • Those who are not chasing MP or 6* GFE
  • Veteran players
  • Focus is MP and 6* GFE
  • Those with very developed monster boxes

However, with the promise of 4x rates for all the featured monsters, my approach needs some tweaking. Due to not knowing the true rates of any godfest, we cannot do any mathematical comparisons; however, the 4x rates should imply the featured GFE (and most importantly 6* GFE) are at a similar hit rate. You may still get less MP per stone spent as numerous non-GFE are also featured, but if you are chasing the featured 6-stars AND the other featured gods, this may be the best time to roll. Furthermore, each monster comes out with a +50 to a random stat and this will help you achieve +297 faster. However, take these predictions with a grain of salt as I do not know the rates and can only guess.

In addition, all of these monsters qualify for Skill Inheritance so please do not hastily sell or feed them off without taking a moment to think if they can benefit your various teams. I also strongly encourage you to read my Advanced Strategies post on Skill Inheritance to gain a better understanding on how to make the most of your active skills.

Lastly, if you wish to read about virtually any other REM monster not listed below, please refer to my Master List which will direct you to the appropriate page.

Overview of featured Gods

The voting for North America was done rather well as we managed to include nearly all the top tier cards while having some forethought into voting in cards that will become relevant with the release of the 4 Gentlemen 300k MP cards and new Awoken evolutions.

Top Voted Monsters in Descending Order 
Eschamali
Dark Kali
Scheat Awoken Yomi Isis
rodin Awoken Pandora Awoken Archdemon Lucifer Gadius Ilm
Skuld ult evo Uriel Indra row Shiva Sakuya
Susano Awoken Oorochi Ryune Kali Blue Sonia
Akechi Awoken DQXQ Haku I&I Raphael

Some things that jump out: Continue reading Player’s Choice Godfest June 2016: Review and Analysis