Tower of Blue Dragon

I think we all know what to expect from this one, and I'll try to farm it, though my setup may not be as safe as before (Alice + Banshee gave me reduction against everything, but I wonder what I can go with this time).

The Myrmcoleon evolution is available - it may have been earlier, but I figured it was unlocked when this series was released.  I wonder when Centaur and Jack-in-Irons evolutions will be available; holy/dark diamonds are not included in this new dragon quest series so far, so when would they pop up?

There's also another festival on the way.  That will stall my questing a bit too.  Another chance for Sigurd and Morgana for me.

NEWER UPDATE: Did another Level 2 run, and got the boss to drop :)  Don't have to worry so much about missing out on 1 gem for not completing the quest series.

I was able to clear Level 1 and 2.  Level 1 is the usual intro level, but level 2 is definitely a trap quest.  For starters, the boss is a fusion of Hakutaku and Garuda - insane damage, insane defense, but fairly low HP.

Used Hesperides to cut defense by 75%
Garuda did 8072 damage base (x2 multiplier doesn't factor before determining this)
Garuda's skill did 1348 * 2000% = 26960 damage
26960 - 8072 = 18888 defense to punch through
But factoring in defensive ruin, x4 that value for a total defense of 75552.

Yikes.

That was on my 2nd attempt; 1st attempt I didn't know about this, came in doing 1 damage.  Carl was doing 154 damage per tick, so that's 7700 health total.  The dragon had a CD6, but used quick combo and killed me outright - and I had Carl as leader (he gives 50% water reduction).  I had around 13000+HP too.

Now I'm really curious as to what to go with for the upper levels.  Based on what I heard, Raphael is all but required to kill the boss at level 3 and top-level: its defense is unruly high (400k at level 3 and 600k at top level!).  The CD is always 6, but when it attacks it is basically guaranteed death.  For completeness, level 3 HP is 37000 and top-level is around 54000 HP.  Basically, have Raphael or die.  There are a couple of exceptions where you could get away with Hesperides or Elf: notably, being able to do over 100K or 150K damage in one turn with one card (not a sum of your attack).

There's also some fire enemies sprinkled in the stages, along with Erinyes.  Basically, find a way to survive till the boss encounter with your armor breaker and a super-high attack skill available.

I also just remembered that the goblins need 5112xp  to be at max level, which is nice to know unless you can farm top level where they come at max level already.