PAD Academy Review

PAD Academy returns once again with some new cutes, but it’s still a trap. While some rolls are potentially useful, the majority of the lineup are reskins of their REM versions and even the rarest cards aren’t great.

At least the silvers have been demoted to farmables.

Sasuke

Sasuke is overshadowed by numerous other good blue dragon killers like Kiri , Barioth Hunter , and Sharon . His inability to stack latent dragon killers makes him even less effective. That said he does have 2 and a 5 CD active, which can enable certain builds that would otherwise be unable to get actives up in time.

Theurgia

Theurgia faces competition from Revo Horus and Red Athena as an red enhance sub, and while she has only 1 SB she does have more red OEs plus 2 off color green OEs for more enhanced orbs overall when using a full board changer. Not a vital red farming sub but situationally usable.

Ishtar

Thanks to her double awakenings, Ishtar does 4x damage while HP is below 50%. That said, conventional teams will still prefer due to flexibility and farming teams generally plan around dealing massive damage with specific killer subs. Her active is a defense void with L/B/G board change, which is an uncommon color combination. Lack of hearts and long CD due to the defense void component are drawbacks, but it’s not a bad inherit on teams that want those colors and/or an easy way to deal with high defense spawns like the metatrons.

Lumiel

School Lumiel is similar to TPA Famiel as a sub, being blue subs with similar stats, offensive awakenings, and active. While REM Famiel/Lumiel received a better split ult with and , School Lumiel is stuck with mediocre sub potential and will mostly be used as an inherit. As one of the few 100k all target buttons, Lumiel has many applications in farming. However, she also happens to be one of the slowest buttons due to the way her animation is implemented, so she’s generally not the most optimal choice.

Susano

Susano’s active is one of the best Shield inherits you can have., While 50% sounds weak, it lasts 5 turns which allows tanking both hits from Gaiadra and provide great team support in 3P mode. School Susano also comes with 3 , which makes subbing him directly much easier either of REM Susano’s split ults. Overall a great utility roll.

Hathor

School Hathor is nearly identical to Hathor and is about as useful. Double is no longer so amazing that her lackluster awakenings and stats can be disregarded, and her active is niche. She’s still usable, but there are much better alternatives.

Acala

Essentially a blue reskin of REM Acala , School Acala is powerful but takes effort to use. However REM Acala got a better ult recently, making School Acala seem underwhelming in comparison. The farmable Rushana being a better cross lead than both Acalas is a bit unfortunate, but that is just because Rushana is really tanky and strong.

Multiboost suggests use as a button base for actives like Grimmjow , but her base attack is generally too low to be notable in that role.

Loki

School Loki is an interesting killer sub, although he can only stack god killers and not machine killers. 2 is a nice bonus, and while he has a long CD the active is nice as both a 3 turn 2.5x damage burst for dark and green and a 2 turn haste to recycle actives. Not too bad as a sub or a inherit, even if he’s not exactly all purpose.

Lucifer
SA:

Uuvo Lucifer is mainly used for his inheritable 200x Nuke + HP to 1 active in buttoning builds. School Lucifer is similar but he does some notable advantages over the REM version. The introduction of a multiboost assist evo in Gan Jiang & Mo Ye means it is now viable sub the button directly and then inherit the equip. School Luci has ~500 more base attack than REM Luci, 2 , ability to limit break for more attack, and is on color for the equip, making him the better Luci for this purpose.

His super awakes don’t add enough to make him usable outside of buttoning purposes, though unbindable is nice if you feel like playing a 4x HP/RCV lead who does potato damage like the old days.

Isis
SA:

Now that she has a through super awakenings, School Isis is much more usable as a sub. Her stats are slightly lower than REM Revo Isis , but she is able to slightly more damage thanks to TPAs and higher base attack. Low HP remains a weakness, but she’s a decent low CD inherit base overall.

Both versions of School Isis are limit breakable and have the same super awakenings, so swapping between evolutions will not affect anything.

Athena
SA:

TPAs are kill
Gungho please re-balance game
7c nerf when

I guess Athena can still be an enhance sub in farming teams, but she’s not notably better than farmable options.
Both ultimate evolutions are able to get limit break and have the same super awakenings, but switching between the two means going through the base form where limit break/super awakening will be lost, so think thrice about glasses/no glasses before investing.

Hestia

School Hestia has identical stats and awakenings as Awoken Hestia , but she’s G/R and has base Hestia’s color absorb void + board active. As a sub she more or less fills the same heart OE RCV stick plus FUA role as Awoken Hestia, but longer cooldown on the active makes using inherits more difficult. Color absorb void is very nice to have when fighting things like Noahdra or Machine Hera , but it’s rather situational.

Kali
SA:

Green Kali has a leader skill that sounds strong on paper, but falls flat in execution due to the number of orbs she needs to fully activate. Lead skills that combine rainbow activation and single color blobs are difficult to work with, as it’s not possible to guaranteed enough number of greens and enough colors for the rainbow aspect in just 1 active, a problem regular rainbow teams don’t have to worry about. She’s not much of a sub either, as she essentially have no offensive awakenings beyond her 2 green rows and only offers some team support through cloud resistance or L shield .

Orochi
SA:

Essentially a dark version of Revo Orochi , School Orochi’s main appeal is the nice HP bonus when inherited on dark cards. Beyond that he is a bit easier to sub thanks to having 2 SBR instead of Revo Orochi’s 0. Super awakenings wise, he can become unbindable which helps avoid situations where skill binds succeeds due to bound subs.

Uruka

As a leader Uruka is akin to a rainbow Diablos that trades versatility for some some scaling via doing only rainbow or only combo, and an extra bit of damage. This tends to be unrealistic in practice, since doing high combos on a 7×6 boards leads to skyfall and unintentional activation of the rainbow half and vice versa. Diablos being pure combos makes him much easier to pair with, and the difference between 8.5x and 9x isn’t all that big. The fact that her shield is tied to colors and not combos makes her defense less reliable. Overall School Uruka isn’t bad but she’s not likely to replace Diablos in the meta.

As a sub, Uruka is notable for having a rainbow board color absorb void active. Aside from that she has decent stats and awakenings and can function as a bind clearer, but ultimately she’s not an exceptional sub.

Sakuya
SA:

School Sakuya isn’t exactly amazing but she’s available for free as this month’s quest reward. She can be used as a inheritable low CD gravity and can function as a decent poverty sub with possiblity of bind clear support, scroll resist support, or plain old 7c for damage. Her jammer/poison/blind resist combo can be useful but since she only has one of each it’s not something to count on.

Her leader skill is sorta usable too, although you probably have better leads if you managed to beat the monthly quest.

Fairy Tale Girls

These cutes can drop from the dungeon and are notable for having a 99 true damage single target button + 2 turn bind clear active. While buttons are generally useful these girls are pretty weak and not inheritable.

DO I (a new player just starting out) ROLL?

Most of these rolls have terrible leader skills and rates aren’t the best. Many of them are outclassed by their REM counterparts anyhow.

DO I (a normal, non whale pad player) ROLL?

This is the easiest place to get some Lumiels for buttoning, but as noted above she’s a very slow button.

DO I (a hardcore endgame farmer) ROLL?

School Lucifer have some interesting advantages over his REM counterpart and he has a 2% rate here. Loki may have some uses for his killers and active but he is unlikely to become irreplaceable.

DO I (a whale looking for cute cards) ROLL?

Stone for stamina and farm a page of each fairy tale girl

from the dungeon instead of chasing for Uruka(anatomically questionable edition).

DO I TRADE?

I can’t imagine any of the 8 Stars significantly improving anyone’s box, better to hold on to your GFEs.

Disclaimer: Everything in this guide is my own opinion, if you feel that I am wrong or overlooked anything, feel free to comment and discuss!

 

[speech name=Reni]Not rolling on my NA account. Nope. Noopeeeeee. Taking the free roll (and bundle roll from Shop) and escaping from this omg. Not even trying for Uruka, danger![/speech]

[speech name=Kennori]Yeah, nothing here really worth it, and there are more valuable events coming soon. Bundle is still super value, so take that and the free roll.[/speech]

[speech name=Cate] Let me just sleeep through this seasonal[/speech]

[speech name=aFireBlaze]I haven’t rolled a single Lucifer, pantheon/collab wise in this whole game and my box and playstyle revolves around farming. Add that Lucifer’s such a rare roll out of the utter trash littered in here and it makes me sad. The rest of the cards are not even worth the chase as they make little impact to late-end gameplay.[/speech]