Tag Archives: Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons

10 Million Downloads Godfest Analysis and Review (Norse, Mechanical 1 & 2, and Chinese Celestials)

May 14, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

The 10 Million Downloads Godfest comes on the eve before the Final Fantasy Collab and gives players a tough decision on where to spend their stones. To complicate matters further, a Player’s Choice Godfest should be in the near future and will most likely feature the most coveted monsters. However, the 10M Downloads Godfest features some powerful monsters that will come out with +10 to each stat and coincides with the highly favoured Midnight Gala.

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.

Midnight Gala
jjj Day 1	Norse	Mechanical 1
jjj Day 1
jjj Day 2	Chinese Celestials	Mechanical 2
jjj Day 2

Day 1:

Day one features the highly sought after Norse Gods along with the modestly powerful Mechanical 1 series. The Norse Gods all have their awoken forms and grant 2x damage for their primary and sub elements along with forming powerful tank teams. They are mostly used on their respective mono-colour teams, but can sometimes play a role in rainbow teams due to enhancing two colours and providing double skill lock resist awakenings. Lastly, by boosting damage for two turns, you can use on the floor prior to the boss to ensure you sweep it while conserving your other actives.

The Mechanical 1 Pantheon is relatively new and features Machine / God type monsters. They have an interesting set of awakenings and provide 2 skill bind resist along with a powerful active that removes jammer and poison orbs. They can also form 16x leads with 51% damage reduction from 4 different elements. However, their main downfall is a lack of an ultimate evolution and will only be a matter of time before they gain strong potential.

If you are looking to bolster your skill bind resistance, Day 1 is a fantastic time to roll. Continue reading 10 Million Downloads Godfest Analysis and Review (Norse, Mechanical 1 & 2, and Chinese Celestials) →

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.

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 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!

Random Thoughts

Have a MOMtastic Mother’s Day!

May 7, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

May 8th is Mother’s Day and this year I have the opportunity to share my love for my Momtastic Mom in a unique and entertaining medium. Many of my readers already know my Mom is an avid Puzzle and Dragoner and has surpassed 850 login days and rank 468. She has a burning passion for the smoking hot Awoken Shiva but sometimes dabbles in Yomi Dragon and will have a hypermaxed Awoken DQXQ ready upon release.

I am quite fortunate to have a close relationship with my mother even though I moved out several years ago and a large contributing factor has been Puzzle and Dragons. Throughout my life, my family has been relatively anti-video games and it came as a surprise she took to PAD with enthusiasm. Perhaps it is the puzzling aspect that appeals to her as she has quite the analytical mind as she has no interests in collecting pretty/cute cards. Regardless, I think she mainly started playing as a means to bond with her son (as most parents struggle to find a way to connect). I do not know many parents who would make this level of effort and I will always be grateful to her for more than just PAD. As a way to make this Mother’s Day extra special, I am hoping all you Awoken Shiva (and Yomi Dragon and future Awoken DQXQ) users can send her a friend request as she does have hers Pentamax with 5 attack latents.

Hopefully you remembered to call that special someone in your life to remind them that you care. Perhaps you could also surprise them with the gift of Puzzle and Dragons with a freshly rerolled account that has a strong starting monster! If you are lucky, you may begin to receive wonderful messages and have someone else who understands why you need to disappear for an hour when Star Den opens.

Happy Mothers day and Happy Puzzling!

New Player Help

New Player Help Guide

May 7, 2016 Mantastic 4 Comments

Many people have been asking what direction to take / what to do as a new player so I will list a relative guide as what you should strive to aim for. Keep in mind that you are clearing content in days it took me weeks/months to reach so things may feel fast forwarded and frustrating at times as your account rank may eclipse your PAD knowledge and matching skills. I highly recommend you take a look at my Community Resources Page to discover new mediums and sites to learn the ins and outs of Puzzle and Dragons.

Everyone plays Puzzle and Dragons for different reasons: some enjoy the puzzling aspect, others find joy in collecting. For myself, I wish to push end game content while still enjoying myself. However, for the purpose of this guide, the focus will be to begin clearing descends with 0 stones used. However, in order to get to that level, you will require a few things:

Get a strong starter / team that is viable in clearing descends.

There are many existing pages heavily covering this topic so you will need to do some of your own homework on what to aim for as this guide is going to assume you have passed that stage of the game. The most current one I could find comes from Reddit.

Rank UP!

You must keep ranking up not only to increase your maximum stamina, but to also increase team cost to be able to fit in all the subs you wish to bring. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) PAD is a very grindy game in that you are going to have to repeat dungeons over and over again whether it be for plus eggs, skill ups, team cost, or rank experience. When you first start out, your rank and thus max stamina and team cost will be your limiting factors. As such, I cannot stress enough that you are going to have to play dungeons over and over again. Thankfully, GungHo has been introducing new methods for quickly ranking up such as the Experience of a Lifetime (awards 200k rank experience) and Monday Dungeon. I go into further detail in my Monday Dungeon Review Post and how to optimize your stamina.

If those are not available, I would play the highest normal dungeon you are capable of clearing and only stopping when you feel you hit a ‘wall.’ A very important thing to note is that on Saturday and Sunday, Tower of Giants and most specifically Dragons of the Tower will be available for 3 stamina and thus providing ~500 exp / stamina. This may be boring but can be done infinitely for about the first 80 ranks. Lastly, always try to play normal dungeons that are affected by 1.5x experience provided you can reliable clear them.

Level up your monsters & evolve

Level up you monsters as high as possible and evolve them to their max evolution if you are fortunate to acquire the rare 50 stamina materials (eg. Keeper of gold, Jewel of Water, etc.). Even just reaching their second evolution is sufficient for early content. Research where their materials drop from and work towards acquiring them. It is also worth noting that monsters will gain diminishing returns on experience at higher levels Continue reading New Player Help Guide →

Challenge Dungeons

[Video] Blue Sonia VS Challenge level 9 with Ilsix and 30% Resolve

May 4, 2016 Mantastic 2 Comments

Challenge 9 felt more challenging than level 10 due to Ilsix and his 30% resolve. This is one of the most difficult mechanics to deal with and the problem is further complicated by his high damage and random spawn of jammer, water, and heart orbs if you do manage to get him into the 30% “safe” zone.

One of the most important aspects of Blue Sonia is her naturally high base HP and incredible 6.25x RCV for dragon and physical type monsters. This allows her to be extremely durable in coop play where your HP pool is augmented and you are able to essentially use actives in quick succession in short floor dungeons. My dual colour row-cascade matching comes from a lot of practice in endless corridors and is an amazing way to improve your damage output and combo potential.

I also cleared Challenge 10 with Blue Sonia, but was unable to record and the two screenshots should provide some inspiration. I used my burst damage prior to Vishnu and was a matter of chipping him down without surpassing 2 million damage as he already halves water damage.

Best of luck in your coop challenge endeavours.

Happy Puzzling!

Random Thoughts

Greco-Roman 2, Three Kingdoms, Greco-Roman 1, and Hero God Pantheon Analysis

May 2, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

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.

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 . 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. Please read my Hermes Evolution Comparison Post for a more detailed examination of which path is best for you.
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. Please read my Artemis Evolution Comparison Post for a more detailed examination of which path is best for you.
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, Awoken Apollo 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. Please read my Apollo Evolution Comparison Post for a more detailed examination of which path is best for you.
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 D/G 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 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 Greco-Roman 2, Three Kingdoms, Greco-Roman 1, and Hero God Pantheon Analysis →

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 →

Godfest

May Mornings Godfest Analysis and Breakdown

April 30, 2016 Mantastic Leave a comment

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
jjj Day 1	Indian 1	Indian 2
jjj Day 1
jjj Day 2	Archdemon	Japanese 2
jjj Day 2

Day 1:

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	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 May Mornings Godfest Analysis and Breakdown →

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Day 1:

Japanese 1

Archangel

Get a strong starter / team that is viable in clearing descends.

Rank UP!

Level up your monsters & evolve

Greco-Roman 2

Chinese Celestials

Indian 1

Day 1:

Puzzling those Dragons