Puzzle and Dragons in the Playground XVII: Cross Your Hearts and Make Things Die

[Anarion]

Huh. I do, actually. And that's what I got from the free pull as well.

If this keeps up all my teams are gonna be Water though. Is it just me or are half the monsters in this game Water?

Pretty much every set comes in a group of 5, one per element. Though no, actually, everything is fire. And if you dig far enough back in the archives of these threads, there are some wood carnival horror stories.

[Fax Celestis]

XREM: Castor and Pollux, Ars Paulina, Christmas Hatsume.

Sadly no Gremory. :(

[Fleeing Coward]

Got my account back. Anyone have cliffs notes on what's changed over the last 6 months or so?

[obryn]

Got my account back. Anyone have cliffs notes on what's changed over the last 6 months or so?

* Heart-cross meta is still in full swing. Myr is one of the top gods, on the same tier as Kaede.

* RaDra has an upcoming Uvo which is totally bonkers. Start collecting all the Zeuses. (ALL the zeuses.)

* Reincarnated Evolutions are big now. There's ... maybe ten right now? Upgrade your max-level god for 5 common masks, and drop to level 1 with a 16m XP curve but weighted stats of 1,000 at max level and often better awoken/leader skills. Revo Minerva is big right now.

* The Jammer Meta has really taken off! Everyone is usin.... ahahahah, who am I kidding?

* Quests! Go to your Other tab and look for Quests. You have already probably won most of them without trying, and will get freebies. You will get Awoken Badges for completing full sets, which give your team another perk. There's stuff like making a lead Unbindable or giving you +1s move time or +50% SBR. Or from the Maniacs quests, you can get badges that will - say - increase your team HP by +15% in exchange for a 300 point team cost hit. Note - only your awoken badge works; others won't.

* There's lol-worthy new tamadra which give you an extra latent slot, but they have to be +297 for them to work. Mostly they are for upcoming double-latent-cost badges which will give your monster a Killer function.

[obryn]

Oh man, I never expected I'd say this but ... I need a whole lot more of the Common Red masks

So far this morning, I've

* Changed around Tsubaki to her new "KILL ALL DRAGONS" uvo (makes her tempting for arena, for real)
* Revo'd Venus and lucked out with a x1.5 feed, bringing her up to full with 3 snowglobes
* Revo'd Ra and didn't luck out, with only 2 light snowglobes so far.
* Farmed up Red Keepers and Rainbow Keepers which I also suddenly need again

And I'd really, really love to Revo my Hino, but see above re: masks. I used all of them on Shiva and Minerva already.

[Anarion]

Oh man, I never expected I'd say this but ... I need a whole lot more of the Common Red masks

So far this morning, I've

* Changed around Tsubaki to her new "KILL ALL DRAGONS" uvo (makes her tempting for arena, for real)
* Revo'd Venus and lucked out with a x1.5 feed, bringing her up to full with 3 snowglobes
* Revo'd Ra and didn't luck out, with only 2 light snowglobes so far.
* Farmed up Red Keepers and Rainbow Keepers which I also suddenly need again

And I'd really, really love to Revo my Hino, but see above re: masks. I used all of them on Shiva and Minerva already.

Oh no, they released all the next set of revos?! I was not prepared!

[obryn]

Oh no, they released all the next set of revos?! I was not prepared!

Hahah, me either! It was accidental I had 10 light masks!

I really, REALLY need to see ZeusDra up in the next One-Shot Challenge for red starters, though. And I need to beat MechaZeus, I suppose. And I need a whole ton more golems. And I guess I need to get all those mechdragons back again. Oh man.

[gooddragon1]

Remembered what you were saying about the cross dealie and also I'd like to add that often it's by erasing hearts in a cross that you get those bonuses.

That in mind, this shouldn't be too OP (It's the queen of hearts from Alice in Wonderland)

Queen of Hearts

Type: Devil/Healer
Element: Dark/Fire
Rarity: 8 Stars
Cost: ?
MPoint: ?
Max Lvl 99

HPS: 3275
ATK: 1893
RCV: 675
Awoken Skills: Skill Boost, Bind Resist x2, Bind Clear x2, Heart Enhance x2, Time Extend x2
Active [Who's Been Painting My Roses Red?]<CD 11 Turns ( 6 Turns at Lv.6 )>: Increase skyfall chance of Heart orbs by 15% for 3 turns. Randomly spawn 3 Heart orbs from non Dark & Heart orbs.
Leader Skill [All ways here are my ways!]: All attribute cards ATK x3 when reaching 1 set of Heart combo. ATK x3 for each additional combo, up to ATK x6 when reaching 2 combos. Reduce damage taken by 50% and ATTK/RCV x2 for 1 turn after matching Heal orbs in a cross formation.

Leader Skill Abbreviated: 3x ATK w/ heart combo, 6x for 2. Halve dmg taken and boost ATK & RCV by 2x w/ heart cross.

The active is Merciful Mother Star changed to Non Dark & Heart vs Non Light & Heart.

[Anarion]

Hahah, me either! It was accidental I had 10 light masks!

I really, REALLY need to see ZeusDra up in the next One-Shot Challenge for red starters, though. And I need to beat MechaZeus, I suppose. And I need a whole ton more golems. And I guess I need to get all those mechdragons back again. Oh man.

Evolving Mecha Zeus takes soooo much stuff. And now I need to go farm at least 5 red masks and 3 light masks.

[obryn]

Evolving Mecha Zeus takes soooo much stuff. And now I need to go farm at least 5 red masks and 3 light masks.

I knoooooow.... I have the Dark Mech General, but I have 0/3 RGB golems to evolve the Light one. Getting 2 more cyberdragons for Canopus won't be that bad at least...

Kagu has been Reborn. And I got 1.5x on a feed of 3 snowglobes, so he's up to full. Woot.

[Mystic Muse]

Any advice on which Tsubaki ult to go for? They both seem to have thrir strong points.

[flare'90]

Any advice on which Tsubaki ult to go for? They both seem to have thrir strong points.

The R/L Ult has a better leader skill, so if you're leading with Tsubaki use that. The other Ult is intended as a sub.

[obryn]

Any advice on which Tsubaki ult to go for? They both seem to have thrir strong points.

Yeah it's leader vs. Sub. The sub one is dragon death incarnate, with the Killer awakenings combining for x9.

Note she has no sub element, if that's important, but way better stats

[Fax Celestis]

I got AKushi yesterday.

I am...not sold on the no-skyfalls mechanic.

[obryn]

I got AKushi yesterday.

I am...not sold on the no-skyfalls mechanic.

it's weird, isn't it? On the one hand it's perfect damage control. On the other hand, sometimes you kinda need those skyfalls!!

[Anarion]

I knoooooow.... I have the Dark Mech General, but I have 0/3 RGB golems to evolve the Light one. Getting 2 more cyberdragons for Canopus won't be that bad at least...

Kagu has been Reborn. And I got 1.5x on a feed of 3 snowglobes, so he's up to full. Woot.

I've fetched myself a Canopus, and I've got red mech general done, but I haven't evolved either light or dark golem yet. I did get Hino and Ra both revoed last night though, Hino is maxed thanks to a Great! on the feed and Ra is at level 70, with the snowglobe dragons just needing to be leveled from some random kings today.

Oh and I cleared the new technical Legendary. Took a shot at descended rush 2, but Green Zeus on floors 5-6 gets a 38k damage preemptive.

I got AKushi yesterday.

I am...not sold on the no-skyfalls mechanic.

it's weird, isn't it? On the one hand it's perfect damage control. On the other hand, sometimes you kinda need those skyfalls!!

I'm mostly in favor of skyfalls existing. If you combo well, especially if you cascade, they have a pretty high probability of happening and can make it a lot easier to kill things (or heal yourself, or save an active). On the other hand, things with element absorbs and damage caps are a pain in the neck.

[obryn]

I'm mostly in favor of skyfalls existing. If you combo well, especially if you cascade, they have a pretty high probability of happening and can make it a lot easier to kill things (or heal yourself, or save an active). On the other hand, things with element absorbs and damage caps are a pain in the neck.

Yeah, ditto. I think there was a No-Skyfall team for one of the recent fixed team thingies. It was kind of bizarre.

[Anarion]

Yeah, ditto. I think there was a No-Skyfall team for one of the recent fixed team thingies. It was kind of bizarre.

Oh yeah, it was the green one. She had such huge stat buffs though, so the whole thing felt weird. Like you're running these huge numbers, but then the field is strangely empty and a lot of motions are silly (like ending by making sure two orbs of the same color are next to each other once you've done the rest of your combos).

[Rynjin]

Is the Christmas REM worth pulling from, or is it a big ol' trap? I mostly pulled multiple times from the Final Fantasy one because I wanted Cecil (I like Cecil) but I don't care to pull from this if it's all trash.

[obryn]

Is the Christmas REM worth pulling from, or is it a big ol' trap? I mostly pulled multiple times from the Final Fantasy one because I wanted Cecil (I like Cecil) but I don't care to pull from this if it's all trash.

All special REMs are traps. The question is, how bad a trap is it?

https://mantasticpad.com/2016/12/18/...-and-analysis/

The silvers are at least kinda good. Paulina is - as I mentioned - a solid blue sub. The various other Healers offer decent delays, like Echidna, but with better awakenings.

The golds ... Red Kali is of course awesome. So is Xmas Liu Bei. Xmas Sonia is unimpressive, IMO, and Gremory is so-so. Xmas Sakuya isn't keeping up with the times. Xmas Genie can help with specific team strategies.

[yuvraj1068]

LOL assets are great.I need to get around to devolving my Horus
and re-ult him into Awoken Horus soon, and then figure out a
good team for him so I can start using him more explain
that setup to me. Bonia I get, nice burst field. Sarasvati
is sensible (though I'm more a fan of inheriting her onto
someone else since the active is her main draw....

[Rynjin]

All special REMs are traps. The question is, how bad a trap is it?

https://mantasticpad.com/2016/12/18/...-and-analysis/

The silvers are at least kinda good. Paulina is - as I mentioned - a solid blue sub. The various other Healers offer decent delays, like Echidna, but with better awakenings.

The golds ... Red Kali is of course awesome. So is Xmas Liu Bei. Xmas Sonia is unimpressive, IMO, and Gremory is so-so. Xmas Sakuya isn't keeping up with the times. Xmas Genie can help with specific team strategies.

Eh, I'm hearing it's worth at least one pull then. I've been using my Christmas Echidna quite a bit (I think I got her in July?), and I'm hearing the Paulina is good too, so maybe something else will fit in with my stuff.

And the winner is...Archangel!

Eh. Worth a shot.

[Jurai]

Eh, I'm hearing it's worth at least one pull then. I've been using my Christmas Echidna quite a bit (I think I got her in July?), and I'm hearing the Paulina is good too, so maybe something else will fit in with my stuff.

And the winner is...Archangel!

Eh. Worth a shot.

I've had Christmas Echidna and Alraune since... Christmas 2015. Happy birthday Christmas monmusu! And I've been using Echidna as a fixed sub on my red team since then. She's got great RCV when +'d, and that Menace of hers, combined with her skill up and two Heart Enhance awakens means I can delay foes to recover, if needed. I just need to finish skilling her up. And Tsubaki. And Sanada. and Thuban. and Shiva. Dear RShiva, I wish they'd increase skill up chances!

[obryn]

Eh, I'm hearing it's worth at least one pull then. I've been using my Christmas Echidna quite a bit (I think I got her in July?), and I'm hearing the Paulina is good too, so maybe something else will fit in with my stuff.

And the winner is...Archangel!

Eh. Worth a shot.

Hey, she's a Light Delay which is worth something at least. There aren't really a ton of those. Too bad her skill isn't Inheritable.

[Fax Celestis]

Sarasvati
is sensible (though I'm more a fan of inheriting her onto
someone else since the active is her main draw....

Sarasvati is incredible, what are you talking about? I use Sarasvati for all my high-end content these days.

[flare'90]

Oh yeah, it was the green one. She had such huge stat buffs though, so the whole thing felt weird. Like you're running these huge numbers, but then the field is strangely empty and a lot of motions are silly (like ending by making sure two orbs of the same color are next to each other once you've done the rest of your combos).

I'll talk a bit about the no skyfall playstyle, since I rolled 2 Acala last PCGF and I've been playing with her a bit.
Generally I find that not having skyfalls is beneficial for damage control. Since Acala is cross meta the fact that skyfalls don't combo also gives me a bit more red/green orbs than normal, and stalling isn't a problem with 2.25x HP/RCV.
What are a problem are combo shields, because I can't get skyfall combos. Acala's active helps, being a +1 combo count and 1-turn haste.
For now I'm suing Acala//Verdandi/Kaede/Perseus/Susano, which is not optimal (Perseus eats red orbs, which I can use to activate, but he also gives me hearts), but it's probably the best that I can do for now.

[obryn]

I'll talk a bit about the no skyfall playstyle, since I rolled 2 Acala last PCGF and I've been playing with her a bit.
Generally I find that not having skyfalls is beneficial for damage control. Since Acala is cross meta the fact that skyfalls don't combo also gives me a bit more red/green orbs than normal, and stalling isn't a problem with 2.25x HP/RCV.
What are a problem are combo shields, because I can't get skyfall combos. Acala's active helps, being a +1 combo count and 1-turn haste.
For now I'm suing Acala//Verdandi/Kaede/Perseus/Susano, which is not optimal (Perseus eats red orbs, which I can use to activate, but he also gives me hearts), but it's probably the best that I can do for now.

Acala is a bit of an edge case because her damage with a proper board is just bonkers. (Also, apart from increasing combo count, it's not like extra full crosses are likely to skyfall.)

I can totally see combo shields as an enormous issue. That locks her out of some dungeons entirely, doesn't it?

[Rynjin]

I've had Christmas Echidna and Alraune since... Christmas 2015. Happy birthday Christmas monmusu! And I've been using Echidna as a fixed sub on my red team since then. She's got great RCV when +'d, and that Menace of hers, combined with her skill up and two Heart Enhance awakens means I can delay foes to recover, if needed. I just need to finish skilling her up. And Tsubaki. And Sanada. and Thuban. and Shiva. Dear RShiva, I wish they'd increase skill up chances!

I misspoke, it's actually Christmas Siren. Still, I'll admit she's saved my bacon a lot of times...at least on bosses that don't preemptively nix status effects, because apparently setting their turn counter back counts as a status effect.

I can also vouch for Sarsasvati being awesome. Just having one as a friend has pushed me into being able to complete quite a few Descends, with some difficulty. If I had one of my own I could probably rock a lot of the dungeons that have been vexing me.

[flare'90]

Acala is a bit of an edge case because her damage with a proper board is just bonkers. (Also, apart from increasing combo count, it's not like extra full crosses are likely to skyfall.)

I can totally see combo shields as an enormous issue. That locks her out of some dungeons entirely, doesn't it?

Normally you get by with 2 crosses for bosses (1 red+1 green usually, to save some orbs), 3 crosses needs a Verdandi/Zuoh active to set up usually, but x729 melts everything without a resolve.
But yeah, a dungeon with a 6+ long combo shield is basically unclearable realiably. Eh, I have Myr/Krishna for that.

[Anarion]

Acala is a bit of an edge case because her damage with a proper board is just bonkers. (Also, apart from increasing combo count, it's not like extra full crosses are likely to skyfall.)

I can totally see combo shields as an enormous issue. That locks her out of some dungeons entirely, doesn't it?

Normally you get by with 2 crosses for bosses (1 red+1 green usually, to save some orbs), 3 crosses needs a Verdandi/Zuoh active to set up usually, but x729 melts everything without a resolve.
But yeah, a dungeon with a 6+ long combo shield is basically unclearable realiably. Eh, I have Myr/Krishna for that.

Didn't that challenge dungeon with her have a 5 combo shield in it at the end? Anyway, with + combo count on her active, it ought to be possible on most fields to do 2 crosses and 3 other combos including cascades above and below the crosses. I think you're out of luck doing Mecha Zeus with her though (I definitely can't attribute my 15 combo finisher to skill).