Leads
| SS |   |
| S |      |
| A+ |                 |
| A |             |
Subs
| S |            |
| A+ |             |
| A |                     |
I haven’t really been keeping up with the PAD meta lately due to Christmas stuff, so I’m going to keep this one very short. Which is somewhat unfortunate because there were many juicy changes
Leaders
Promotions and Additions
- Lakshmi – That was a brief demotion. She obviously belongs here now. Now the question is whether Awoken Shiva is as good as Lakshmi or even Parvati now (hint: nope).
- Parvati – I still think she’s inferior to Lakshmi, but I do think she’s better than the A-tier so I’m fine with her at A+ for now.
- Astaroth – I still prefer Raoh — the haste makes all the difference — but at least now she’s worthy of awoken status. They could’ve just avoided the salt if they just released her like this in the first place.
- Goemon – I’m convinced this is a running joke now. Just like the entire A-tier.
- Rinshia – I remember that Volsung debuted at A. Rinshia is probably a better leader, but I expect her to fade just the same. I can’t imagine skilling up multiples of her is a pleasant process.
Demotions and Removals
- Typhon – No complaints, the team is just too orb-hungry which leaves little room for utility.
- Juggler – The harbinger of doom is finally laid to rest. This was a long time coming.
- HKali and LKali – The Kalis are finally removed and the list is a lot better for it. Levi looks a bit suspect at A+ now. So does Vegito. And Shiva.
- Gon, Ilm, Cloud and Scarlet: If you’re going to punish farming leads then I don’t understand why Goemon was added back in and also why Shiva Dragon wasn’t downgraded.
- Kanna – The Apoc team is good, but there seems little reason to run it with Saria-Thor being a thing.
Subs
I have no idea why this ugly thing shot up to S, but I guess it must be pretty game breaking. Maybe something to do with coop? On Ra Dragon? Sorry guys, way too lazy right now to do any research myself. I guess if they value delays this much then it could help explain why Cao Cao and Okuninushi are also S-tier.
They also failed to removed him from the A-tier, meaning they couldn’t be assed to come up with a replacement for their musical chairs.
Did I miss something? Please leave a comment and let me know!
Setsu's PAD Blog 
I love how a few days after being booted, Lakshmi gets two major buffs. I audibly laughed when I saw that she’s back at A+. I feel like that’s fair. I think that she’s pretty darn good, but clearly not S tier anymore, and I can accept that. We’ve got an arena vid clear post update as well, using zero JP exclusive subs as well! IIRC, it was BUrd/Andro/Gabe/AI&I. two rows and a TPA with AI&I up brough Kali just under half. From experience, you’ll pretty much always have at least 16 blue orbs with a 2/3 board, I’ve been flooded with blues more frequently than having too few, so that’s good as well. Also, BUrd is officially better than AKarin now I suppose 😛
RIP Juggler. What does that say for power creep? IDK, but stronger monsters means we get harder content, and as an endgame oriented player, that’s A-OK by me.
What the hell is a Head Rococo? I’ve seen it before, but never gave it a second thought. I’d bet money that there’s some new collab cheese though, does Mecha Hera not have a status shield or something? IDK, but I’m interested to hear if anyone actually knows the reason why he’s S tier now…
As a side note, I can use A Ra now 😀 Took a bit of getting used to, but somewhere between when I first rolled him 2 years ago and now, without seriously playing a combo lead in over a year and a half, I’ve figured out how to match all the colors as long as they’re there. So that’s fun, improving without actually practicing much. I’ve used SS Isis a few times for no hearts dungeons, but I fell back on 3 and 4 colors a lot. LKali makes it super easy for a turn, but I’m doing surprisingly well for how little effort I’ve been putting in… Cleared C6, 7 and 8 last time with him, and 6 and 7 of this current set. Nothing major, but pretty good for a team that isn’t fully levelled, with unskilled Kalis, and zero plusses. My motivation: C8 with Lakshmi is a real bitch to deal with. Doable, but really stressful. Now, I have an excuse to get good at the game.
LikeLike
If you’re talking about this BUrd/Andro/Gabe/AI&I clear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7PEGBFQs-M, it was actually recorded before the ALak buffs, as was pointed out in the Reddit thread about it https://xl.reddit.com/r/PuzzleAndDragons/comments/3xy1a0/misc_more_arena_clear_with_awoken_laks/
LikeLike
It was pointed out in the reddit thread about that ALak clear (https://xl.reddit.com/r/PuzzleAndDragons/comments/3xy1a0/misc_more_arena_clear_with_awoken_laks/) that it was actually recorded before her buffs. With the buffs the team would have done even better.
LikeLike
My first reply didn’t show up so I typed this one and now I see both are there. One of them can be deleted, doesn’t matter which.
LikeLike
Oh, that’s pre-buff? Sweet! I knew that Asteres had cleared Arena pre-buff, I didn’t realize that they got a video of it though! So yeah, that’s pretty sweet then, should be far easier now for Lakshmi clears. I don’t see her as a high% farmer, but clearing it is good enough for me!
LikeLike
Why is Lakshmi considered better than Parvati? Parvati is unbindable and seems to have a better active? Also green sub pool seems better. .
LikeLike
The biggest reason is team HP, meaning it’s much easier for Lakshmi to reach the HP to survive large hits like DQ Hera preemptives. It’s basically the same reason why BSonia is better than GSonia; water can use latent resists while wood has to waste a sub slot on a shield.
There are other differences, but those have mostly been mitigated over the time they’ve been out with all the new sub options (like Parvati having difficulties reaching 100% SBR in the past, for example). However, it can’t be denied that Parvati suffers from Perseus, Michael, and even Courage being row-based rather than TPA.
LikeLike
Doesn’t she still have a difficult time reaching 100% SBR? The only 100% SBR setup I can think of for Arena would be something like A. Parvati/A. Freyja/Kushinada/UUevo Michael/A. Meimei/A. Parvati (alternatively A. Asataroth/Verdandi for the last two subs).
It’s unfortunate that Perseus doesn’t interact well with other orb/board changers, and Spica is a heartbreaker.
LikeLike
Yes it’s still difficult, but now you don’t need to settle only for Perseus.
LikeLike
Lakshmi’s team has much higher natural HP (something like 22k without plusses) so she plays more like a true tank leader. Also, the best hero-type subs (producing on-color and hearts) are row oriented so Parvati gets edged out slightly there as well.
LikeLike
The Hammer falls.
A-tier Translated (by google) from Game8 “A high degree of difficulty dungeon depending on organization is also the leader that you can break through. We also posted some such monster that specializes in orbit” (thanks google translate.)
So, I can’t read Japanese, but I’m getting pretty good at google translate code. Basically, as I read it A-tier is “has a hard time with hard stuff, but has specialties where it’s the best or very close to the best leader.” I think I’m OK with that being the plan for A-tier, so that’s nice.
AKA completely ignore this, it’s garbage, unless you want to see why something is uniquely suited for a specific task. Though, Goemon is actually just the best lead for a lot of stuff.
I’d rather they dropped everything a tier, and made “specialists” “Z” Tier or something, it would just be cleaner.
Rocco, yeah, I’m willing to accept that Delay’s are absurd. He’s double TPA, double SBR, filling the SBR niche on Radra with better awokens than Indra when you don’t need the Shield for Kali, probably worth of his rating for that reason alone. His addition, along with Okuni’s make me willing to accept that Game8 has huge value on delay’s, so I’m not annoyed by CaoCao’s ranking now.
1. Awoken Shiva should probably get cut as well, not sporting enough of a damage edge over the “Tank” teams to warrant being in the same tier as them, power wise.
2. Levi is likely on that edge as well, but 4x with 1.3 all stats is pretty darn good, and he’s got (for his own team at least) a Kali level active and great awokens.
3. S Tier = Shiva Dragon, and Neptune Dragon.. sigh. What’s the criteria for S tier? Neptune Dragon and Shivadragon vs Awoken Sakuya and Awoken Ra.
Dragons are bindable
Dragons do more damage, have more HP, and have More RCV
both sets clear arena with as similar 20-30% ratio. (Neptune Dragon is the highest, closer to 35%, still bad though)
3.1 Addendum, the entire S-tier is worse in arena (% wise) than Thor/Saria and Ryunne/I&I (both over 50%, some claiming over 80%)…. So what does that say? Damage Matters, and because damage matters, ALOT apparently, They don’t fit S-tier.
3.2 Damage Matters because of Co-Op “tank” teams often fail to kill the big bads, and things simply crush you. (I think grisar is sporting close to 30m health in co-op), but until I see actual stats, not just guesses based on watching Reco (SmallFs) stream on twitch. I don’t want to say anything definitive.
Astaroth has a slightly worse LS(typing) and Active skill than Raoh BUT she is unbindable, which can be a pretty big deal on a leader who is giving you HP, so i think she is equal to Raoh, and certainly worthy of being an awoken (finally…).
Ushio & tora. the LS is strong, he’s got 2 good awokens and can’t be bound. Their sub pool is.. small, but not terrible. idk, I guess he’s fine at A+ i think the lack of awokens is going to demote him at some point, but they’re unbindable and hit hard, that’s a thing.
So now, onto A-tier, because I hate myself, actually nevermind. It doesn’t exist, wow I’m instantly happier. 😀
LikeLike
To help with your translation, “orbit” generally refers to farming prowess.
LikeLike
Thanks, I’ve been leaning towards that, but a lot of time it’s used in conjunction with Stable or Bad Control so it can be talking about chance of a clear 😀
LikeLike
scarlet though
LikeLike
Phoneix Rider Valen has the wrong link
LikeLike
Totally got around to making a wordpress account so I can log in now! Figured i’d got with my in-game and twitch name lol.
-Ben
LikeLike
12/29 changes
Leaders:
Awoken FALuci entered A+, knocked Levi into A tier.
In A tier musical chairs, New Years Horus is in, Goemon dropped out again (definitely a running joke at this point), Eschamali given the boot.
Subs:
Rococo’s stay at S didn’t last long, dropped to A+. HKali demoted from S to A+ as well. And Vishnu dropped along with her, leaving wood with a grand total of 0 representatives in S rank for leaders and subs.
DMeta was added to A tier.
I’m surprised New Years Kanna wasn’t added to the sub list somewhere. Surely being unbindable isn’t that bad a trade for one skill boost?
LikeLike
Cool, thanks for giving me a heads up about this. I’ll make a quick post on it to record the changes.
LikeLike
what would be a reason that L kali was removed? is it due to her low HP? or her lack of damage? Im pretty new to pad and I have been running her as a lead ever since I started and just wondering the reasons.
LikeLike