Is this now what they call a "ded gaem?"

Seeing how the limited quests are no longer refreshing, the rare summons aren't rotating, and the disappointing "festival" that occurred some weeks ago, what happened?  Did the company just pick up and leave and left the servers on?

Filling the void for a while is Brave Frontier, which is sort of similar.  It has RPGish like elements, but still carries the whole "collectable unit" thing going on, along with energy, exp farming, $$$ farming, limited quests, rare summons for gems, etc.  It's just a heck of lot more active, but also more buggy (like, 99% of the events are delayed/bugged in some fashion).  But still fun.

Also filling the void is some Starcraft 2 :)  Honestly, I've played Blizzard games for a very long time (since the days of Diablo 1 and the original Starcraft).  Blizzard overall has produced some top-tier games.  People are probably dissing D3 as the worst game ever blah blah blah; it's not bad, but had a rocky start.  I would still trust them over most game companies to crank out quality products.

Back to JD - these days I'm just logging on for the daily rewards sadly.  No events come out = no posts to talk about them.  And that final normal quest?  If I do it, I get a gem. Wow.

Great mysteries of Jewel Dragon

This has been something that has been itching on my mind ever since I seriously got into JD.

Who is the girl on the lower right?  I can identify every other card in this picture.  Both the english and chinese wiki do not have any card information with her.
Fire Drake god or whatever the name given for the starter fire dragon is the top left.
Targaryen is the top right.
Hector is the middle left.
Achilles is the middle right without the faceguard.
Raphael is the lower left.

Yeah it's kinda slow right now.  Need more festivals that don't have insanely hard quests.

Quest 31-4: About darn time

Took me a while to figure out what team to use, and to use it right.  I'm sure a super-offensive team with a really good combo maker could work, but with my luck I always failed at stage 6.  So I went with a defensive team:

Leader: Holy Angel Amy (50% reduction against holy needed for stage 6 and boss stage)
Ally: Thunder Queen++ (an overpowered card, now ultimate evolved to be even more overpowered)
Erinyes++ (the other overpowered card fully max'd out level and skill wise)
Tainos (filler thunder damage with decent stats and usable skill on any stage needed)
Jotunn++ (heart changer needed when hearts eventually get low; Amy has this purpose too)
Night Witch Catherine (needed for stage 6 and boss stage)

Once Erinyes and Thunder Queen's skills are available getting to stage 6 isn't too bad.  Lots of enemies have 1000-2000 defense, and this team isn't that offensive oritented.

Stage 6's Kid Saintess has 7000 defense, hits for about 14000, and has around 700000 HP.  Constant spamming of medusa eyes and iron wall from here on out.  The Charybdis have about 3 million HP, hit for about 17000 each, but only have 500 defense or so each.  It's mostly just skill spamming with the exception of Amy and Jotunn when you get a bad break and hearts are in short supply.

The final quest is available now...I'll just post the pic of the final set of enemies you can face.  If I do clear this quest I'll move it to the post I will make when it happens.

Update 4.4

Small update to nerf full clears of diamonds :\

According to my sources it's like a 75% nerf to damage.  I guess JD didn't realize how powerful a full clear would be when you stack a mono-elemental team.  And you can't just not update since the game will not function if you try to sit on version 4.2 so we're short on luck.

Pandora's Box

Looks like another one of these 1v1 endurance series.  Getting info from the "super hell" difficulty; dunno if there is another lower difficulty.

Stage 1:
Healing Angel Bela
CD2
8212 normal attack
22176 special attack
942950 HP

Stage 2:
Cruel Angel Eugenia
CD3
40032 normal attack (yikes)
435450 HP

Stage 3:
Banshee
CD1
~12000 normal attack
Solar Eclipse (light --> stone)
Reborn (full heal)
Look around (do nothing)
677700 HP

Stage 4:
Achilles
CD2
8250 normal attack
Outbreak (increases damage by 20%?)
Reborn (full heal)
Dark Rules (blackens all diamonds)
302100 HP?

Stage 5:
Assassin Quinn
CD 6
144000 normal attack (top lelz)
1053000 HP

Stage 6:
Pandora
CD1
Preemptive strike 10116
21000 normal strike
40912 crazy strike
Ghost Seal (seals 1 card for 5 turns)
Hand of Doom (turns a random type of diamond to stone)
7.6 million HP


Yeah...it looks rough.  Oh, and it's a NO HEART quest.

Pandora is a water type card with an ultimate evolution to water/dark.  Active skill does 300X her damage, but leaves you with 1 HP.  Leader skill increases the damage of demon type cards by 350%.

I'm still around (UPDATE 4/1/14)

Since there's been a lack of new quests, there hasn't been much to post about.  The game is rotating those old quests every 2 weeks, and soon the ancient dragon series will come to a close.  My guides should still be applicable AFAIK.

I did see a slew of new cards, many dual elemental, which are supposedly of the new "demon" or "devil" type.  Of course most of them are lolis or whatnot, but I wonder how they will be introduced.  Probably golden summon only -_-

The old wiki was closed and if you try to go to it you get redirected to a hentai site haha.  Fortunately jeweldragon.tk set up another wiki which retains all the really old and somewhat outdated info, but has a more complete card list.

UPDATE April 1, 2014: Spring festival is among us.  Starting off with the Burning Scales quest, I got another opportunity at that smexy Flame Queen card.  First attempt I spent 2 gems with a Mobel/Sigurd team because of heart trolling at the boss stage.  Final attempt I was able to use an ally's new Thunder Queen++ which is ridiculous (max skill iron wall and 500% RCR recovery every round).  Stage 1 is definitely the hardest part with that team setup, but a lucky set of chains and the rest is all history.  And no April fool's joke here - finally got the queen herself :)

Erinyes + Thunder Queen at max skill is seriously overpowered.  You either take no damage for 3 rounds, or take half-damage for 2 rounds.  That was before the new ultimate evolution for Thunder Queen too.  Seriously, this is overpowered.

Tower of Frost Dragon - Prothero revisited

A while ago I struggled because I didn't have a Raphael available.  Things are a little different now, and with Raphael as an ally, I was all set to complete this series.  Top level pics below.

Team setup:
Leader: Thunder Naga (water reduction for the whole quest, lightning for stage 5)
Ally: Master Raphael (armor breaker needed for the boss)
Tainos (high stats, active skill needed for boss)
Prothero (high stats, active skill needed for boss; could be any of the dragons here really)
Peri (high stats, buffed by Raphael's passive skill)
Erinyes (medusa eyes is always welcome, and needed in stage 5 to buy time)

Stage 5 and 9 respectively.  The main reason I brought Thunder Naga and not Alice was precisely for stage 5, because that lightning enemy hits hard if you don't have any defense against him.  You can also notice I have more fire cards than any other element.  It's also the first time I used my Peri :P  For a Stamina card she has a very large RCR, along with a crazy amount of HP as expected and a decent attack - all buffed by Raphael.  As for the Erinyes in stage 9, you can see how hard she hits in the pic.  She also has the usual water --> stone skill, and look around.  One time full heal too.

Here's our boss.  I just had to make sure I could use both of my dragon's skills upon using Raphael's armor breaker and it's a free win.  I might try to farm him, based on what quest series we will get soon (if it's Lahair, I'm going to farm that hardcore for Erinyes).

Praise for Life - Gaia

Celebrating Chinese New Year with probably the hardest quest yet. 

Stage 1 Poseidon:
3521 x4 damage, CD2
7000+ defense AT LEAST
1117050 HP
Release Energy (x2 damage)
Soul Seal (random cards are sealed for 3 rounds)

Stage 1 Ganesa:
2045 x4 damage, CD1
????? defense
533920 HP
Quick Combo (3681 x4 damage)
Dark Rules (turn all diamonds black)

???? defense because 7000 damage was unable to break it


Stage 2 Gracious Angel Caroline:
3818 First Strike (attacks before you even do anything)
7637 x4 damage, CD2
340950 HP
Angry snow for ????? (more than 14141, maybe around 21000 x4?)


Stage 3 Charybdis:
11160 damage, CD1
647700 HP
Unknown abilities (maybe heal?)


Stage 4: Catherine:
10028 damage, CD1
2085486 HP
Release Fury (buff itself to do 3x damage for multiple rounds)


Boss Gaia:
18778 damage, CD1
5000? defense;
Heal if under 50%, I'm assuming she also has angry wind and release potential (either 2x damage or a barrage of attacks for 1.75x damage total).

Information from stage 3, 4, and the boss are speculation I got from the CN forums.  I went with a dual Thunder Naga setup to see how long I could last, and got only to stage 2.  Even then, stage 1 is scary if you don't have any heart changers.  I had two of them and it was still kind of close.

I think I'll pass on this one and try to get Ayesha

Quest 31-3: Defense wins again

Another defense setup wins the day again.

Team: Rozen Maiden Alice, Catherine, Carl, Mobel, Erinyes, Holy Angel Amy.
75% lightning damage reduction, 50% fire & light damage reduction covers all enemies in this quest.

I think all the enemies behave like they did in older quests.  The Charmer has 7000 defense, and hits for about 8000.  Meanwhile, the Thor only has 2000 defense, 900000HP, and hits for about 6500.  Both have CD3, which makes the encounters pretty easy.

I've noticed that quite a few enemies in this quest series has at least 1000 defense, if not 2000, but most don't have a lot of HP to back it up.

Erasmus - Dark Mechbeast

We are at the final leg of the mechbeast series now.  The quest series is in line with the other mechbeast series, so no surprises here.  Like usual, don't forget that I have double dark damage reduction, so I'm taking 75% less damage than normal.  Most stages have a Jack-In-Irons that can seal light cards, which is annoying since he also attacks every turn.  There's also magic dolls than can do double attacks.

 

Pics of stage 5 and 9.  I think the cursed doll also has double attack and soul seal.  The twin Dark Mars didn't do anything special, though I'm assuming they can heal.  They do have a little bit of defense and a lot of HP.  The damage shown in the Dark Mars pic is total damage.

Here is Erasmus with his normal and double attack damage.  Nothing really scary, though with my setup it takes a while to whittle down his HP.  He can heal 50% of his HP when he is really low, so save up skills for around 30% or a little less, then go all out.

Now that I'm done with this I may do some weekend treasure chest hunting - need some coin :P

Quest 31-2: EZ

Less elements to worry about = super-defensive team works out again.

Team: Thunder Naga, Mobel, Carl, Catherine, Erinyes, Deep Sea Banshee.

Everything acts like how they did in previous quests.  The centaur were the biggest threat since I have no defense against them, and only have CD2 as well as my low HP.  After that, the masks can be dealt with my Erinyes, and the Ettin still hit as hard as before, but with thunder naga the damage is mitigated nicely. 

The Jotunn is exactly the same as the previous quest too. 19000 damage base, 900000HP, CD2.   Doesn't even have really high defense (2000 to be exact).

Quest 31-1: Unfinished business

The final quest series has started.

 

First Attempt Team Setup: Mobel, Catherine, Sigurd, Carl, Erinyes, Deep Sea Banshee

Second Attempt Team Setup: Alice, Mobel, Catherine, Carl, Erinyes, Deep Sea Banshee

Every enemy has at least 2000 defense.  The Erinyes at the end have way more (over 7000 at least; my team was unable to penetrate their defenses).  They all hit kind of hard too.  The Ettins hit for 14000 each, but are not too high on HP, and have CD4.  The Jotunn has 90000HP unfortunately and hits for 9500 on CD2.  The Erinyes only have 33000HP and hit for 6500 each on CD1, but also have super high defense.

Since I don't know how much defense the bosses have, I dunno if a dual Anna or Sigurd team can actually beat them.  However, a highly defensive team was able to win the day for me.  With 50% reduction in water/lightning damage, 75% reduction in fire damage, and Mobel's shield to help in a pinch, I was able to outlast the final stages and kill them with skills mostly.

The Legend of King Arthur (UPDATED 6/1/14)

How else can JD celebrate the new year by releasing a new quest that has hell and super-hell difficulty?  I'm putting this here as a reference for info on the "lower" hell difficulty.  Damage listed factors in 50% reduction in dark and water damage from a spirit archer unless otherwise noted.  Boss info was given by a friend :)

Stage 1: Agloolik and Jack-In-Irons
- CD1 for both
- 1835 normal damage each
- Quick combo double normal damage
- Can seal cards (Agloolik seals lightning, Jack-In-Irons seals holy)
- About 300,200 HP each.  About 500 defense only too.

Stage 2: Hogle or Achilles:
- Hogle: CD2; Achilles: CD1
- 3462/2579 normal damage from Hogle/Achilles
- 4641 quick combo damage from Achilles
- 8640 angry wind damage from Hogle
- 720000 HP (for both maybe)

Stage 3: Lahair:
- CD2
- 9961 normal damage
- Dark Rules (turn all diamonds black)
- Angry Wind for 24900 damage!  (before any reductions thanfully)
- About 430000 HP

Stage 4: Anatole:
- CD2
- 3500 damage
- 7000 Release Energy damage
- 9798 Angry Snow damage
- 50% Heal (reborn)
- About 500000 HP

Stage 5: Dark Witch:
- CD2
- 5000 defense
- 33222 damage (holy crap!)
- Look around ability (does nothing)
- 695800 HP

Stage 6: Boss (Arthur?):
- CD1
- 7496 damage
- Hand of Doom (turns a random type of diamond to stone)
- Double attack for 10592
- Ghost Seal (disable one card for 5 turns)
- About 1.7 million HP


Strangely, it has 6 stages, making it rather unique.  I'm gonna try a Mobel/Spirit Archer setup with the usual Carl and Erinyes, and then probably Sigurd and Tainos.  (UPDATE: Failed at stage 5; my setup only gives me 29000 HP, which is not enough to survive the 33000 damage attack from the Dark Witch).

New 6/1/14 update: Tried again going with a Dark Witch+++ leader, thunder queen++ ally, erinyes, tainos, sigurd, and pastor carl team.  The first round is somewhat scary since you need to survive 5 rounds before erinyes and thunder queen skills are up.  Once they kick in, it's a lot less stressful.  After that, all the stages aren't much to worry about since all but Achilles have CD2, meaning Erinyes can make all of them have CD5 essentially.  Arthur "her"self can kill though if you get an unlucky break and she ghost seals Erinyes or Thunder Queen at the wrong time.

Pics of stage 1 and 3.  Stage 1 is stressful until the usual OP combo skills are up (medusa eyes + iron wall each on CD5 only).  Lahair is the troll enemy in a stage that has only water and dark enemies.  His angry wind will kill if you are not prepared.

Dark Witch in stage 5 "usually" just looks around, but can attack for a unruly amount of damage.  Need to keep that medusa eyes and iron wall skill chain going constantly no matter how many times she just looks around.  For the boss encounter, you can't afford to use medusa eyes any later than ASAP since she can potentially ghost seal Erinyes, completely screwing you over for 5 turns (and thunder queen's skill will eventually run out and screw you over).

With a little luck, it can be cleared with zero gem usage.  Super top level may be a different story though.

Quest 30-5: End of darkness

Finally - the last of the dark quests.

Team: Dark Witch, Sigurd, Smaug, Carl, Erinyes, Spirit Archer.

See that troll dragon in stage 8?  It hits for a little over 7500.  Usage of some skills to speed up that stage is recommended.  The lone Ankou is just like the previous ones seen before.  The big dragon at the end hits for around 5400 after dark damage reductions, and has 6000 defense.

Unfortunately, like in the previous versions of the final quests, the lions are only of the level 1 type.

The final quest series is upon us, and it has no specific elemental theme.

Quest 30-4: Slower but maybe just as steady?

All water and dark enemies this time.  A little troubling though, as they still hit kinda hard.

Team: Dark Witch leader, Sigurd, Tainos, Carl, Erinyes, Spirit Archer ally.

Tainos helped a lot during the water enemy stages - he can instantly kill or nearly kill them all.  Mine isn't even skill leveled much (just level 2).  The Kali are no issue, but there's two Jack-In-Iron+ in stage 6 that are still as tough as nails.  Usage of skills except Sigurd's was expected here.  The trio of Ankou are nasty as well - each does 3830 damage after factoring in my 75% dark damage reduction.  Since I went with a resist team, I have no boost to HP or ATK, and they have around 2000+ defense each and a fair amount of health.  I had about 14K health myself, enough to bring me into the flashing red zone after a round of taking damage.

A super ATK may work if you are lucky with diamonds.  It would need some sort of shield skill as well as medusa eyes to be safe though.

Leonidas - Holy Mechbeast

This was the very first mechbeast I ever got - as well as my very first 6-star card way back in the day.  I thought he was a total beast of a card when I first picked him up.  He's not bad, but the lack of RCR growth and high energy cost does hold him back.  His active skill is also a direct damage attack, which has its ups and downs.

You can see the damage the enemies can do in stage 5 and 9 with 75% holy damage reduction.  Not bad considering they are CD2.  Though I didn't see it, I'm pretty sure the princesses can heal themselves.

With my setup, Leonidas hits fairly weak.  The 4914 damage is his angry snow attack which he uses when at low health.  He can also do double attack and reborn (50% heal).  Basically, save up skills for around 20%, then just spam skills away.  Safe yes, but rather tedious.

Onwards to next weeks festival!

Quest 30-3: Slow and Steady

Dual Sigurd failed me at the boss stage, so I fell back to my standard team, though having Balerion as my last card didn't do so much for me.  It probably could have been Smaug or Sigurd.

Team: Mobel leader, Erinyes, Carl, Catherine, Balerion, Spirit Archer ally (helps against all but two enemies).

As you can see, Spirit Archer halves the damage of every enemy except in stage 6.  The Jack-In-Irons+ in stage 4 is still a beast to contend with - very high HP and ATK.  The enemies in stage 6 hit moderately hard (9k total between the two of them IIRC).  The Yasha in stage 5 hit fairly light compared to the other enemies, but note their CD1, as well as elevated defense (which can be overcome with making multiple mono-elemental combos, revealing their somewhat low HP).  The banshee hit for 9k each.

Keep in mind all the damage I'm listing is factoring in my shadow and water damage reduction from my ally.

Quest 30-1, 2: Back to the Sigurd master race

Stuff probably hits hard, but who cares when you have 9x damage lelz.

Quest 30-1 Team: Dual Sigurd, Erinyes, Achilles, Anna, Lahair.

As you can see, none of the enemies have CD1.  Note that the evolved Jack-In-Irons has a very solid amount of HP and some defense.  The lone Atshen also has around 10k defense and enough HP to warrant Erinyes usage.


Quest 30-2 Team: Dual Sigurd, Erinyes, Achilles, Anna, Lancelot.

The masks require Erinyes usage to safely kill them in time.  It's hard to see, but the Yasha in stage 5 has CD1.  Fortunately it's easily dispatched.

Snow Princess :)

Free card - and a good one at that.  Plus you get candies to feed her quite the amount of xp.  Now instead of dual Anna you could go with dual Snow Princess for 4x ATK/RCR or one of each for 2x HP/RCR and 4x ATK.  The 7-star ATK cards don't have a lot of RCR, but some of the lesser star ATK cards do.

Quest 29-5: Twas the night before Christmas

...and not a new festival quest in sight.  So I just went on with this quest series till the end.  The dark dragon in stage 8 hits for 11111, and the boss hits a bit harder.  It also has 6000 defense.  If you want to use ATK boosters I'd suggest something like Loki, Njord, or Thore, not Sigurd/Evil Angel. 

Team: Mobel, Catherine, Carl, Tainos, Erinyes, Saintess.

Nothing really threatening, except for heart trolling at some point.

Tomorrow - free XMAS card :)