2 Saints (Using numbers as title feels weird by the way) is a trial event where signature units of the event are strengthened by accumulating as many star clears as possible from the available event maps as well as accomplishing tier rewards for supportive items used in unit affection and training. This event is the next trial event that awards 2 signature units that follows tier rewards similar to Return of the Dragon Princess rather than General of a Ruined Land albeit less complicated; the units are directly rewarded to players without the need to unseal with Spirit of Time.

The Units: Fairy Bishop Noel / Shaman Kagura

While Bishops might be new for free players, Shaman is not for the old veterans. Lets start with Bishops first. Bishop is a strong hybrid class that combines basic functions of a Mage and Healer, allowing the class to deal AOE magic damage and function as a Healer with single target heal on skill activation. They inherit strong base attack stats and UP cost from the Mage class, and are skill dependent on their healing ceiling like most Healers. Shaman on the other hand is also a hybrid but takes form of Witch/Healer instead and inherits similarly; base stats and UP cost of a Witch and skill dependence of a Healer.

That said, the use of both Bishops and Shamans are highly situational, although in most cases because of the qualities Bishops possess they are more than likely to be used as a direct replacement to most Mages. This is because with the exception of situations where the need for exceptional damage and AOE boost is required from quality Mages, Bishops generally possess enough DPS to get the AOE magic damage out, especially considering they inherit Healer’s range which is bigger than conventional Mages. Shaman on the other hand does pale in contrast to what Bishops can offer, and are generally reserved as secondary support units when utility slow is required at a much broader area which is not necessarily a big problem in most cases since their healing strengths isn’t what they are known for with range and multiplier considered. In short, Bishops are the more successful hybrid attempts by the developers when compared to Shaman.

Noel as a Bishop has so much to offer as a free unit for both free and cash players alike. Notably her Awakening Passive grants 10% extra quest completion gold which is a pretty huge deal. As a combat unit Noel isn’t going to be top tier DPS but with the lacking of quality healers on Nutaku version her high heal ceiling means that she can actually be used as a strong healer for clutch situations although this only lasts for 10 seconds. Kagura on the other hand runs improved DPS in healing with faster interval and provides a 5% attack buff to melee units on the field. Overall Noel is going to mean a lot going forward but Kagura will drop off which will be explained later.

Map Preview:

2 Saints span 9 maps offering up to 27 stars for grab. Because of the two-unit rewards both Noel and Kagura are strengthened in different means. Kagura runs the general strengthening pattern with star accumulation and maxes out at 24 stars while Noel is based on amount of map clears which requires players to at least 1 star clear all 9 maps for her to cap out in UP cost reduction. Note that Noel does not gain skill upgrades through event means while Kagura does. Trial event maps are generally harder so if you are a new player that still hasn’t gotten a full team composition ready you will be struggling for the last couple of stars and the last couple of maps overall.

Be prepared to face some of the most annoying monsters in the past for this event. From a Lich army to dragon warriors, the 2 G tier maps are absolutely brutal for new players. Other than that, you will be facing the variety of usual goblins/gargoyles/ogres/heavy infantry/demon/Oni combo, although the likes of Black Oni, Goblin King, Viking Armor will surely be very interesting for some who has dealt with them in the past.

The highlight of this event though is mostly on two things; firstly, the introduction of a new Baphomet variant that deals ranged damage as well as the stat tweaks of monsters to increase difficulty. The issue with the Baphomet isn’t too huge if he’s alone; the problem however is he won’t be alone when he comes at you. 2 Saints is one of the known events to run high monster density where there will be no less than 50 monsters to kill in high tier maps. This means that periodical rush is expected in every map and dealing with those and the highlight boss units is going to be the challenge. The strengthened boss units, visually identifiable with their enlarged size also spell disaster to most grind strategies as catching those bosses are not really feasible without very good tanks and healers.

Team Preparation:

Healers, AOE, Tanks, MR, Slow. These are the 5 major attributes your team composition should have apart from the usual single target physical DPS and single-block capabilities. In terms of importance, healing pool takes precedence over everything else; you want at least 3 solid healers for this event. To compensate with the higher unit spec requirement you will want a couple of Awakened HATs for the last couple of maps. For those using Valkyrie guides available do take note of the current Nutaku version where the Valkyrie stat nerf to compensate for lower UP cost can impact your heal ceiling requirement if you plan to use her as a main single blocker against the Liches.

To make life easier having a couple of Mages will keep the annoying rushes in check while relieving pressure on your tanks. Solid tanks work the same way; get as good effective HP as possible on your setup, meaning strong recovery and overall high HP ceiling, as you will be facing not just physical and magic damage but also the degeneration effect from poison swamp maps. MR isn’t too big of an issue if you have really strong DPS to wipe out the Lich parade; otherwise getting a couple lightning rods such as Angels are good options. Finally, witch/shaman slows are quite useful in dealing with the heavy infantry rush as well as the enlarged Oni that you wouldn’t want to facetank.

Other Important Stuff:
1)A Tale of Two Hybrids
Apart from the obvious usefulness of both classes, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about unit longevity since this is an event that is supposedly slotted around the time Solano was introduced, and that was a long time ago. In many cases players would have realized the benefits of having buff passive on units; unit longevity is one of them. Team unit buff, especially those that does not require deployment are extremely powerful, and is the main reason why units like Aisha are considered extremely essential even when her skill and general DPS have fallen off quite a bit now on DMM with the introduction of tier boss events.

In the case of Noel and Kagura where both are equipped with buff passives, Noel as a Bishop has a few advantages from the get go, from being extremely solid in attack stats for a hybrid and the disadvantage of healing options on Nutaku to her Awakening passive. Putting her stats aside since those can fall off as the game progresses with better Bishops lining up in the future, her Awakening Passive alone is going to guarantee her a place in your farm runs if you can afford that one free slot. 10% Gold is a huge deal, especially when you run high gold reward missions like Monday dailies. The time taken to recuperate the expense of Awakening her will usually take about couple of months if you have the Tin Cans to spare, and from that onwards it is only extra paycheck for every non-commission based run you make with her in the team. She remains the only free unit to provide such utility buff, and until Mia makes her appearance in the summons pool everyone will be sticking with Noel for the foreseeable future.

Kagura isn’t so lucky however. While 5% attack buff is very appealing on paper, the potential of the buff is limited by the fact that it only covers melee units, which at most times aren’t the best of DPS contributors except on melee-only maps. Besides, melee-only maps usually are more forgiving in DPS requirements so the attack buff use in this scenario is an icing to the cake at times considering the amount of resources needed to Awaken Kagura that can be used on stronger melee units instead. To justify that amount of resources used Kagura will have to be exceptional at normal circumstances and on that ground, Kagura’s healing skill despite with the healing interval bonus is not going to be better than that of Shiho’s which comes with multiplier and further buffed with animation interval bonus at Awakening. Unfortunately however, as the game progresses Shaman as a class generally falls off hard in terms of their unique class strengths, and so will Kagura and Shiho. Kikyo, the Black Shaman, can be made into a Black Witch and will still do extremely well with her buff considered.

In short, Noel is an absolute jewel to have, while Kagura is not going to be too hot in up time overall.

2)Farming and Targets
It isn’t hard to get Noel, and even for new players who just started the game this is what you should be aiming for as all you need to do is complete 3 maps and you are good to go with your grinds. In terms of silver unit farms Map 4, or Map X1 has the best overall drop with 3 base silver units (Archer, Rogue and Witch) and Tin Can, although the quality of drop will also mean you will not get anything at all on an unlucky run.

Conclusion:

2 Saints is a sorely missed event for most, mainly due to Noel’s Awakening Passive. Kagura on the other hand not so much, and Shaman in general is not really a very successful hybrid attempt by the developers; Kikyo can be made into anything else and still be great with her buff anyway.

Note: If you have been a frequent follower on my blog posts you will be aware that I previously mentioned about a new updated Free Player Guide in the works to replace the current one considering a lot of things have changed since then on Nutaku version. Here’s a bit of update: The guide is mostly completed, but to my dismay it is 26 pages long when converted to a Word Processor since I did not realize the length on Notepad, and will not fit into a blog post well. I’ve since tried to trim the size of the document but felt that there are too many stuff that will be left out and so decided to hold the progress for now.

At this point of time I have 2 options: Create a video guide with a bit of video editing here and there with my limited Premiere Pro knowledge, or continue to release as a series of blog post like the Class Guide which unfortunately I have to discontinue due to multiple reasons that are game play-related. I am leaving both options to readers to decide; let me know which one is more favourable to you by any means you prefer to, be it email, reply on this post, tweet me up on Twitter or leave a comment on YouTube. I will be starting the work once I have enough sample size and hopefully we will have something up in the short future.

The Druid Shrine Princess is a trial event. Players attempt to accumulate as many stars from event maps as possible to improve the signature unit which is awarded to players at the conclusion of the event as well as achieving tier rewards in the form of daily mission drops such as Spirits and Demon Crystals. This event introduces the first Druid of the game.

The Unit: Druid Princess Pupuru

Pupuru is the first Druid in the game, and remains to be the only free Druid until today. Druid is a class that utilizes token mechanics like Yin-Yang Master and Necromancer; the difference is notably the nature of Druid’s tokens being ranged and function as healing tokens instead of dealing damage or providing utility such as traps. In the case of Druids, there are more strategical value on the tokens than Druids themselves; Druids generally do single target magic damage much like a Necromancer, except that their attacks stun enemies for a very short duration, an animation that can be related to the attacks of Pirates. Druids’ token in the form of sapling heals units within a certain area on deployment and grants healing and attack speed comparable to that of a non-CC silver healer but at only 5 UP cost, though there is a limit of 5 saplings per run. Token deaths are not counted when killed on the field, which is a very strong mechanic in past patch where they serve as another form of lightning rod but a recent patch would change them to being non target-able by attacks except splash damage.

This means that much like Necromancers, individual Druid strength is heavily dependent on their personal skills and abilities. In this case Pupuru’s skill is an instant augmented area attack with boosted range. Her Awakening Passive grants extra defense and magic resistance to Sprites (Elves and Dwarves) which isn’t really hot on the elf side of things but definitely great on dwarves, although practically the lack of quality units on these races that can utilize both defensive bonus well means that her overall passive kit value isn’t as high as it should be.

Map Preview:

The Druid Shrine Princess spans 7+1 maps, with 24 stars for grab. To max out on Pupuru’s improvement in terms of Cost Reduction and Skill Upgrade you have to collect 21 stars out of the 24 stars available. Getting all 24 stars grants you 1 Rainbow Fairy from the tier rewards and 1 for completing the drop table for Map 8, effectively giving you 2 Rainbow Fairies for the hard work.

The map theme revolves around Elves and uses the Elf Forest maps. Old players that have played through Rowanna’s event will have an idea what it is like. Apart from the usual assorted goblins/wolves/gargoyle/dragons/dark elves, this event will also see the introduction of the Ent group and the unique mini-boss Chimera.

There are two variants of the Ents; the smaller and more common ones are fast moving trees that come with ranged attacks while the slower ones are melee yet hit moderately hard. Both Ents have self-regeneration ability which means they self-heal over time requiring a DPS threshold for your attacks to be effective against them. The bigger challenge is with the Chimera; unlike Dragons that swap phases between deaths this is a monster that runs 2 separate phase at a single life. Chimera attacks at a slower pace when its HP is above 50%, with each successful attack your unit receives a tick that when 6 attacks are accumulated paralyzes your unit which is similar to that of a Vampire attack except that the Chimera has a slower attack speed. Once its HP goes below 50% it goes into berserk state, losing the paralysis but hits much harder at double attack speed. The Chimera is a nuisance to deal with especially in map 8 because of their movement speed as well as the number of Chimeras you have to deal with on that particular map.

Team Preparation:

You want huge DPS for this event, both in dealing with the Ent’s regeneration threshold as well as the Chimera since a slow grind method will not work for both scenario due to monster density and paralysis. Physical DPS is more reliable on this event due to the innate magic resistance on the dark elves as well as the lack of attack speed on magic units overall, although having a couple of mages to nuke monster rush while your tanks are busying themselves with the Ents is a good alternative to Cannoneers. Also archers are pretty useful here for their anti-air property against the Dragons, although Cannoneers/Pirates will certainly make your life a lot easier.

Tank variants are more forgiving for this event; apart from a couple of Heavy Infantry for the multiblock you mostly want burst tanks such as Bandits to deal with the melee Ents or simply quickly clearing the Dark Elves. The event strongly tests your ability to tank swap or positioning your tanks properly especially against the Chimeras so apart from a solid composition you want to practice on your abilities to read monster movement and tank swap accordingly. Strategic healer placement is also an important factor as there are more scenarios where you want to snipe ranged units early than to facetank them with your healers healing up due to their attack speed and approach causing multiple areas taking damage at the same time which will overburden your healers.

Other Important Stuff:
1)Story of Druid and her Saplings
Like Necromancers, Druid is a story that is destined to not sell well when they are first introduced due to concerns of overpowered tokens, and in this case a healing token with way lower cost than a healer, runs instant heal like an Awakened healer that also gets buffed after Awakening. Druids were given the same treatment as a Necromancer as a result, with a pretty mediocre overall DPS due to their attack speed and not so very hot skill. The issue is even worse on Pupuru due to her race being a Sprite that takes on more Elf properties than the other Sprite race leaving her with low health and very vulnerable to ranged attacks.

Pupuru’s whole kit is a big concern as well. In general, the mini-stun on Druid attacks aren’t considered too useful due to their low attack speed. While some may argue that it is similar to the Pirate scenario, there is a difference in a sense that Pirates do have a bigger base range that scales with CC/affection/skill enough to force an extra attack or two compared to Druids as well as attack speed steroids on some. The more important issue here is that for both classes the mini-stun did little when attack speed is considered, which is the major story-teller on the status ailment. Pupuru’s skill is amazing on paper, yet pretty sub par on execution. The cooldown of the skill is too long for a skill that only based one AOE attack, and there are no other mechanism to speed up the cooldown apart from skill levels which is pretty frustrating. Despite the multipliers, you will need to have Pupuru stationed at the middle of the map to utilize the 432 range at max skill level to hit the entire map with her skill which means that there is a pretty heavy positioning requirement for her skill to be extremely effective all things considered, and you want to wring every coin out of every skill used due to the cooldown problem.

Druid tokens are great to use, but as the game progresses the requirement for healers are slowly leaning towards multiple healing/faster healing interval rather than more healers on the map due to unit versatility and new unit classes. I honestly think the recent changes on Druid tokens is a double-edged sword; removing their susceptibility to ranged attacks (they can still take splash/collateral damage) improves their use in isolated areas that are hazardous to a healer but at the same time removed their effective use as a great ranged lightning rod. I personally felt the latter being more useful as it provides more options when it comes to order of deployment involving melee units whereas there aren’t too many situations where the invisibility to ranged attacks is necessary. Nonetheless it is a change to token mechanics and the core function of the Saplings hasn’t changed.

The issue with Pupuru’s Awakening is also rather obvious. The defensive buff on Elves aren’t very useful given the bigger problems with Elves being their low HP ceiling which means the buff is rather minimal in terms of impact on that particular race. Dwarves on the other hand are extremely healthy and the buffs surely shine on them, but the problem is there aren’t a lot of quality Dwarves in the game which means Pupuru’s value as a buff unit becomes a question of efficiency when it comes to the size of units that will benefit from her buff. All these issues placed Pupuru at a pretty low tier when it comes to unit priority but she can still show up big at certain maps such as the recent Majin maps whereby the multiple saplings are great to have.

Conclusion:

You will want to do this event because it is a trial event, Pupuru is going to be the only free Druid available, and despite being extremely niche Druid can still be very useful in specific maps. She isn’t the unit that is going to make a big difference in your composition strength but there are pockets of brilliance where she can shine. Map difficulty wise, scoring maximum stars for Pupuru shouldn’t be too hard for players that have clocked a decent amount of hours into the game, G tier map however is a different beast altogether.