Tower of Red Dragon - brand new shiznit

A 4 technical quest series of varying difficulties.  Not bad I must say.

Level 1 is cake if you have good cards; even as a tech quest you can 1-shot every level if you have a strong ATK team.

Level 2 has the enemies with some health, so they can get their skills in.  They do have ice seal, so a full water team may be cut ineffective for 3 rounds if you went mono-elemental.  The boss doesn't seem to be able to heal, but has some interesting abilities.

Level 3 has a jump in difficulty, but not ridiculous.  You'll see some harder type of enemies this time around.  There's also some Erinyes that can fully heal themselves, so time your attack skills properly.  Your own Erinyes would be great here too.

Top level did require me to have some massive damage reductions.  You can see I have both Alice and (Ocean) Banshee as follower/ally.  Even then, stage 5 and 9 are the hard stages - they feature non-fire enemies to contend with.

You can see the new Ifrit and Agloolik here.  Both of them have quick combo and seal abilities.  Seal is annoying, but quick combo can eat a lot of HP off of you.  Need to kill one as fast as you can - use skills as needed.  The Thor can turn your fire diamonds to stone and do a full recovery one time.  Takes a while, and does ok damage.

Here's the boss.  Skills are as follows:

Dark Rules - turns all your diamonds black so you don't know what they are.  Except that hearts are the rounds ones :P  However if you move them around they will reveal them.  So quickly move all the diamonds around to fix this.

Death Strike - a more powerful normal attack.  

Melting Ice - turns your ice diamonds to stone.

Tons of Ifrit cards to get.  Good for leveling the new Ifrit and Agloolik skill. 

The boss card is pretty powerful, but for 60 energy, that's asking for a lot.  The skill is "Fire Breath" which does 25000 flat fire damage.  Only a 9 turn cooldown though.  Leader skill doubles damage when you do a 3x combo or more, which is pretty easy to accomplish.

The goblin card seems to be an exp card.  Dunno if you can evolve it like the owls.

Ifrit and Agloolik have the same skill as the unevolved versions, but have the leader skill of increasing ATK of your attack cards by another 50%.

Heritage of Satan IIII reviewed (aka fail at roman numerals)

25 energy for 10 levels.  Also, no light/dark diamonds.  Not much coin/xp, but the only cards that seem to drop are dark coin cards that sell for a lot more than the quest reward.

Most stages feature random enemies, or seem to do so.  There are some constants though...

...One has a level 3 dark coin that seems to be a guaranteed drop.
...One has 4 level 2 dark coins, where any could drop.  I've never gotten more than 2 though.
...Stage 8 is a trio of bollas - fire, water, and holy.
...Stage 9 has the bosses of Heritage of Satan III
...Stage 10 is 2 of 3 possible enemies, each are pretty tough and have quite the HP.

All the enemies do hit from somewhat hard to really hard (notably any enemies with a CD4).  However, team building can go either with a mix, or a mono elemental setup of fire/ice/lightning.  The new Njord and Thore cards really shine in this quest, as they can really beef your attacks as leaders/allies.  It's pretty easy to make a 4x combo or attack with each element when holy/dark are not in the mix.  If you have both, or 2 of each, well, that's more than good.  The 200% attack cards are pretty good as well.

If possible I would recommend Erinyes or Impuludu for defensive purposes should you feel like you need them.  Otherwise, you can setup a 200% mono elemental team and just power your way through most levels, as it's almost impossible not to make a combo with your element.  Diamond changers can be thrown in for lulz, as you may end up with a gigantic single-super-chain of your element, which may work against you if you want a high combo count.

Level 2 coins sell for 50000, while Level 3 coins sell for 75000.  I thought level 3 used to be 100000 too :\

Quest 19-1 aka super efficient questing

At some point in the past, this quest got a gold and exp buff.  I don't know when or why exactly, but it gives out around 7500 gold and 3768 experience for only 7 energy.  This makes it the best quest to grind experience and the second best for money.  Only quest 29-1 gives more gold per energy according to the wiki (and is second in experience per energy).

This quest also happens to feature Hesperides and Elf as bosses.  I have been running this quest a long time for them, but they have never dropped.  Coincidentally the current Avengers quest is a shorter version of this one; though it has double the energy cost, but I think the drop rate is slightly better (as I did snag and Elf after 7 runs, as opposed to 0 after over 100+ runs of 19-1).

As for the quest itself, it's a fair mix of enemies, though they seem to favor fire and water a bit more.  There are no lightning enemies in this quest either.  It's excellent for farming Chiatuli cards.  You can also get Lampades for low card leveling.  Common drops also include Queen and Kid Athena, but those just for selling.  All cards that drop are level 8.

Holy Land (UPDATED 1/3/14!)

It looks like this new quest is the holy version of the "Double Dash!" quest that came up last festival.  50 energy for 5 stages of a very difficult quest.  And it's a technical quest, so there's bound to be some skills from your enemies.

UPDATE: Cleared the first quest, though I had to spend 2 gems to do it.  Stage 1 was just brutal, and stage 4-5 were just attrition wars.  I tried a double mobel setup for a ton of HP, but these enemies can hit hard.

UPDATE 2: Cleared it again using 3 gems, but Sophia's card did drop!  I honestly forgot what team I used previously, but this run was my Mobel team (Erinyes, Carl, Catherine, Tainos) with a Loki ally.  The boss' HP went down seemingly slow, even when taking advantage of Loki's leader skill of quadrupling my damage whenever I attack with 4+ elements.  So in total, I spent 5 gems on this quest - sort of like when I faced Sigurd; I basically spent a golden summon for her.

Stats for the "lower" top level stage as follows:

Stage 1: 5 enemies, 1 of each element that are from the 2 star attack cards.  They attack every round.  I'm guessing around 3500 each, like in the previous iteration of this quest.  They can also do a death strike for around 4250 or so.

Stage 2: 4 random bollas. CD 6.  They are what you would expect: low HP, insane defense, 9999 damage per attack.  I think they can seal cards as well, but not sure if it is element specific or random.

Stage 3: 1 banshee.  9000+ damage, probably a good chunk of HP, but attacks every 3 turns.  Can also do a double attack for around 13000+.

Stage 4: 2 random enemies of the 3 star attack type.  6743 damage each every turn.  Also has quick combo for 2x damage.

Stage 5: Boss time! 2.7 million HP, maybe 11000+ damage every turn.  Also uses soul seal, quick combo (about 23000+ damage total) and one time full heal.

Currently, this is a 2 quest series: both look exactly the same (they have the same name, energy cost, and level count).  The "lower" version is somewhat easier on numbers, but no guaranteed boss drop.  Sophia herself is a defensive card with pretty good stats.  She's can be evolved to a 7-star after two evolutions and an ultimate evolution. 300% ATK power to defensive cards is a lot, but consider that defensive cards are usually lacking in the ATK department.

BTW I got all of this info from CN and gamespot forums.

Avengers Assemble!

New quest series that may get a normal rotation in the future based on its setup (it is kind of reminiscent of the Atlas/Atshen/Otso quest series), or may go the way of something like Rondo of Fire (the Erinyes series).  A trio of quests, all of them are 5 stages and 15 energy.

Stage 1 is just a pair of enemies whose cards have the 50% defense reduction.
Stage 2 and 3 are 3 enemies of the same type.
Stage 4 has 5 enemies of the same type (they were all Chiatuli for me).
The boss stage is Hesperides and Elf for Level II and III (Level I just uses evolved versions of the enemies you face in stage I).

I missed having tons of HP using cards like Hakutaku and Targaryen, so I formed my GODLY DRAGON team.

 

 

You can tell as I'm writing this that experienced players with a lot of good cards shouldn't have any issues with this quest.  Just a set of normal quests, so no tech skills to worry about.  Just that 13929 damage every 3 rounds that you can easily heal.  Just focus one of the bosses down and it should be ezpz.

I didn't get either of them to drop.  I have a bad feeling about this...
UPDATE: After much farming, I got them.  Also didn't know there was quite the range of exp gain due to the randomness of the enemies.

Blade of Heaven - Sigurd is a QT as well, but her quest....

I'll admit - I don't know what team to go in with.  I initially went with a super-defensive team:

Alice
Erinyes
Jotunn
Banshee
Catherine
Antana

This team doesn't even have 10000 HP, but has around 2300 RCR.  The ATK is sort of low too.  Unfortunately, right off the bat in stage 1 are 3 enemies with a CD of 2, and each of them can use double strike.  Enough to kill of course.

I would also like to try a high HP team, with Jotunn as leader and Encantado as ally.  Then I could probably survive till the end boss.  I'd still need Erinyes and Catherine at least.  I'd love to hear more tips.

God's Mercy - A Flash in the Pan - Ciguapa is a QT

So we hit off the daily quest series with this little gem.  Originally a 3 quest series similar to the 6/7 star attack cards, now it's just a single quest, that's pretty tough.  Supposedly a guaranteed boss drop, and it's only 15 energy for an attempt (and only 5 stages!), so it was worth the attempt.

Some pics of the quest:

 Just some pics of stage 1, 4, and 5 respectively.  You can also see the team I used.

Quest complete and spoils.  I finally got my hands on the super auto-healer.  Seems like a pain to level.  Plus I think she's cuter in her unevolved form :3

My team setup:
Saintess++ leader: 50% holy reduction helps in every round except round 2.  Holy Gannon is good burst damage.
Jotunn++: For hearts.  I needed lots of them in the boss battle.
Baal: Mainly for damage.  Though I think Night Witch Catherine would have been the superior choice; both of their skills have a similar cooldown, but Catherine's is way more uesful in this quest.
Banshee++: For pestilence.  Need to chip away at the boss's health as well as the enemies in stage 4.
Erinyes++: For medusa eyes.  All but required for the boss, and quite useful in stage 2.
Crystal Maiden Antana ally: both medusa eyes II and undead soldier.  The former is incredibly useful in a pinch (a stronger freeze time), and the latter is practically required (40% HP life save).

This team has around 10000+ HP and over 2000+ RCR. I think any HP over 9000 would suffice, and having as much RCR as possible is very helpful.

Another possible setup is double 50% reduction (which totals to 75% holy reduction) if you are willing to sacrifice the undead soldier skill. IMO that's too risky, but it's possible.  I saw pics of a CN player will 4 cursed attack cards, encantado, and erinyes -_-


My breakdown of the stages:

Stage 1: Three Ljuosafar with decent HP and defense.  I did get a little lucky with my diamond setup, as I was not able to kill one until they attacked twice (they do enough damage to kill, but I was saved by Antana both times).  I would strongly suggest killing two of them ASAP and then slowly working on the last one to get your medusa eyes skills ready for stage 2.

Stage 2: Three dark lions.  Two of them have a cooldown of 1, and the other is 2.  Each hit for 4000.  Since I did not have any dark damage reduction, this part was tricky.  Need to be very good at combos (especially getting water/light ones for extra damage per turn).  Kill off the ones with 1 cooldown first before working on the last one.

Stage 3: Three Atshens.  I dunno how hard they hit, but they had good defense, and I responded by using Holy Gannon and wiped them out instantly.

Stage 4: Two light queens.  With my 50% holy damage reduction they still hit for 7290 each.  However they do have a 3 turn cooldown, which gives you plenty of time to reach your 40% HP threshold.  They have quite a bit of HP, so I didn't shy away from busting out pestilence.  Eventually, after focusing one down the other isn't much of a problem.

Stage 5: Ciguapa.  Attacks for 9257 every round (remember my 50% reduction).  With only around 10600 HP total, that's nearly all my HP each round.  Kind of like when I fought Catherine.  This is why I should have brought in my own Catherine instead of Baal.  She has high defense (over 5000 I believe), and tons of HP to grind through.  Basically, I need to make 4x chains almost every round to have enough healing to survive.  If I ever max'd out my HP, I could get away with a 3x chain after taking a hit. 


Stage 1 will be a shocker to anyone who thinks this lone quest doesn't seem tough and come in unprepared, and will get progressively worse.  If you do come prepared, you'll probably find stages 1, 2, and 5 to be toughies.

Version 3.3 released

- Fixed descriptions on cards, supposedly added new abilities as well
- Active attack skills don't seem to stack with passive attack bonuses.  For example, an Achilles' shadow wave attack will NOT benefit from his own 200% dark damage skill if he is leader.  Ow.
- The 2k% and 4k% attack skills are multi-target once again

Well, you do get that 1 token gem for updating.

A festivus for the rest of us

Another festival is upon us.  This means more lion hunting, which thankfully has just been fixed.  I was also extremely fortunately to get two dark masks in a row - I finally evolved my Catherine :)

I still have to work on leveling my Mobel, Lancelot, and Hector.  Also need some luck to get fire bolla for my Rozen Maiden Alice.  She could prove to be quite useful for quest series 26; 50% reduction to fire and thunder!

Quest 26-2: Why can't I hold all these fire damage

Since the fix to the english login servers, lion events don't seem to be appearing, giving me a little bit of time to look at taking another step in these high level quests.  Took this from the Chinese forums:

Better to show the pic than explain it all in text.

Kelpies have some defense but not that much HP.
Hestia are fairly weak in comparison the rest; not that much HP or damage.
Cyclops+ have decent HP and hit fairly hard.
Flame Masks have extreme defense and minimal HP (like those enemies in Spirit Tribe II)
Troll lightning enemies: I killed off the Ettin+ with skills before it could attack, so I don't know how hard it hits.  The Impuludu+ however has 3000 defense and hits around 8000-9000 I think.
Super Queen Bosses:  Not a ton of HP, but they hit me for 3966 each.

Note that my leader is Priestess++ which halves all fire damage taken (the pic I'm showing is a CN player who has a ridiculous dark team, as you can see with all those cursed attack cards), so take that into account.

My team was Priestess++ (leader), Erinyes++, Achilles, Anatole, and Askafure++, along with Ciguapa+ ally.


The trolling only gets worse as I progress this series - next up has a pair of hard hitting Jotunn as bosses.  Like, seriously?

Technical Questing

The JD wiki doesn't say anything about Tech Quests, so I'll put some info here.

Technical quests are quests in which your enemies gain abilities.  These abilities take the place of their normal attacks, and are randomly used (e.g. there's no pattern to them).  Which abilities they have seems to be tied to the enemy itself.  I'm going by memory, but skills you can come across are:

In the technical city quests that are always available:
-Fire Seal: Seals your fire cards, preventing them from using skills or doing any damage when you make a combo with fire diamonds.  This effect lasts 3 turns.
-Water (or Ice?) Seal: you can figure this out
-Thunder Seal: you can figure this one out too
-Focus: Stores energy for a more powerful attack the next time that enemy acts (I think it's just double damage)
-Double attack: attacks twice.  Basically, focus without the free turn of powering up.
-Rebirth: Recover 50% HP.  Super annoying.
-Look Around: Nothing.  Really; I've seen a boss use this, and it did nothing.

In time-limited technical quests, I've seen these as well:
-Death Strike: slightly more powerful attack than a normal attack
-Hand of Doom: changes a random type of diamond into a stone (which does nothing but add to chain counts)
-Heal Wounds: recover 25% life
-Release Potential: Just like focus, but triples damage on next attack.  Stackable with other attack skills, so it's a very dangerous skill.
-Release Full Potential: Dunno, but I'm sure it's a more sup'd up version of the previous skill
-Angry Wind: Barrage of attacks
-Angry Snow: Angry Wind, the hard-hitting version
-Soul Seal: Seals random cards
(Holy/Dark Seal is a skill I haven't run into but I assume exists)


As for the technical city quests themselves, there are 3 sets of quests.  Each set is mono-elemental, and there are 4 quests in each set.  Costs 10 energy for the first 3, and 13 for the last one.  Even if each quests has an elemental theme, you may opt to bring a more balanced team, since enemies can seal away the element they are weak to, leaving you with 3 turns of doing nothing.  Another option would be to go heavy on holy or dark.  The boss of the final quest of each set has a unique card that probably has a terrible drop rate (I heard the Leviathan at the end of the water series cannot drop period).

None of these quests require armor piercing or pestilence, so you can make a team around that idea.  Also note that the water and thunder series of quests have lots of water/thunder bollas, which make these quests pretty good for farming them.  If only the fire quests had fire bollas :(

...and we're back!

After a snafu with the English login server regarding some language issue, stuff appears to be back to normal for the most part. 

Farming Sleeping Oglier III right now; just need a Witch++ leader and any healer that can heal for around 2000+ to be invincible against the boss.  If you can't get that kind of healing, I'd suggest putting a card with medusa eyes or iron wall in your team.  Only scary part are the rounds with 4 yasha+ as even with Witch++ I take around 10000 damage.

There's also Garuda that's farmable as long as you have a 40/70% life card.

Calisto and Las Vegas

I was very lucky to pick up Calisto on my only level 1 run of the last mechbeast quest series.  Good thing because that meant more time doing Vegas stuff in Las Vegas :)

Anyway, it seems to be structured just like the other ones.  2 normal quests, and 2 tech quests of high difficulty.  Level 3 is fairly tough but manageable if you have over 12k HP and good healing/lightning damage reduction.  The boss has a "release potential" ability and some other skill along the lines of "release a lot more potential".  Dunno what the latter does, because it happened at the turn I spammed all my skills to kill it at around 20%.  The boss attacks every turn, so cards like Erinyes can be a lifesaver.

I didn't attempt top level, but I heard it's a little crazy.  You get to deal with around 11000 attacks every turn, along with focus and rebirth skills.  I'd assume you'll need cards with leveled up skills to tackle it.

Now I need to win back the money I lost at the blackjack tables -_-