Overnight, the official JP Dokkan Twitter revealed the art, info and animations for the new Dokkanfest Raditz, as well as the banner unit Nappa coming with him:
Both units come with the brand new, highly awaited “Saiyan Saga” leaderskill, even if the team is still a little underpowered. Raditz is actually one of my sleeper favorite characters in the series, so naturally I was wildly excited when we got the announcement that he was coming. Does he live up to my expectations? Let me cut to the chase: No. Not at all, really. Let’s look at the unit, translations credit to Minato’s Flash on Twitter:
PHY Raditz
- Leaderskill: Saiyan Saga and Pure Saiyans Ki +3, HP, ATK and DEF +170%, additional +30% to Space Traveling Warriors.
- We’re off to a good start here. It looks like the 200% lead meta is here to stay, and this will automatically cover quite a large portion of the game with the Pure Saiyan portion. Notable benefactors of the full coverage include units like Raditz, Nappa and Saiyan Saga Vegeta, Turles, and the Bardock Squad.
- Super Attack: Greatly raise Atk/Def for 1 turn, causes Supreme to all enemies.
- There’s a pattern that’s going to develop here, and I don’t like where it’s heading. An AOE is cool, but getting the lower multiplier as a trade off is simply not worth it. The 50% raise is nice and all, but not extraordinarily helpful once we see the rest of the kit.
- Passive Skill:
- Atk/def +150%;
- When facing one enemy, additional atk/def +50% when performing a super attack;
- This didn’t need to be restricted to only one enemy in my opinion. These aren’t ground breaking numbers for the current state of the game, especially since his stats aren’t crazy high, and he still does Supreme.
- When facing one enemy whose HP is 50% or less, further atk +100% on Super, and high chance to perform a critical hit;
- Extra damage is nice, but there’s a pretty big problem with this set up. In harder content, his role is not to deal more damage. Again, he only does Supreme and targets the field. Most of the hardest content is against one enemy, but when their health is low already, the extra damage doesn’t really feel as important. Plus, since his role isn’t to do damage, why not make it a defensive increase as well? That’s the area he’ll need the help with, not extra damage and crit chance to maybe put away a weakened enemy.
- When facing 2 or more enemies, additional +150% def and perform a critical hit within the same turn after receiving an attack;
- Ugh. Why? He’s not good enough to defend in slot 1, he doesn’t get his defense until after he takes a hit anyway, which would probably smoke him since his defense is low until he supers… what’s the point of this? The real answer is World Tournament… but we’ll get there.
- Ki +2 when delivering the final blow to an enemy.
- Providing Ki to oneself is always nice but… another restriction. Honestly, who cares?
- Active Skill Condition: Can be activated after taking 3 hits, and there is one enemy (once only.)
- Multiple restrictions yet again. Just make it one or the other, please! It’s going on year 8!
- Active Skill Effect: Greatly raises ark temporarily and causes ultimate damage and stuns the attacked enemy for 1 turn.
- For crying out loud man. A 1 turn stun isn’t the best, the multiple restrictions limit where you’ll see it, and the stun is only useful in Super Battle Road, but the unit is so wonky that I’m not sure this will be easy to get either.
- Links: Saiyan Lineage, Saiyan Warrior Race, Coward, Brutal Beatdown, Nightmare, Prepared for Battle, Fierce Battle.
- Categories: Low-Class Warrior, Pure Saiyans, Saiyan Saga, Goku’s Family, Terrifying Conquerors, Space Traveling Warriors.
Overall, I’m pretty disappointed with Raditz. He feels like a unit entirely geared towards World Tournament, the worst mode in the game, and they just slapped random things on him to make him “usable” elsewhere. His leaderskill covers most of the best WT units: LR Krillin, LR Nappa/Vegeta, LR Broly, PHY DBS Broly, and now him. Full 170% to stats for most and 200% to others makes him the best WT leader. But who cares? Making him good there shouldn’t come at the detriment to the other 99% of the game. Maybe I’m being harsh, but the other 2022 units blow him out of the water on paper. And honestly? I think he’s probably worse than the banner unit coming along side of him.
Speaking of, let’s check Nappa out courtesy of the reddit:
STR Nappa
- Leaderskill: Saiyan Saga Ki +3, 130% to stats.
- Super: Greatly raises def for 1 turn, Supreme damage to enemy.
- Would have preferred Nappa be the AOE, not Raditz.
- Passive:
- Atk +178%;
- Def +780% (more HP, greater the boost);
- No, that is not a typo: 780%. That’s insanity. The highest boost of any kind across the game that I can think of. At full health, his defense is going to be comical. This is a banner unit! Why is he ALREADY better than Raditz?
- Additional atk +78% when facing one enemy;
- All “Saiyan Saga” allies ki +2, atk and def +30%;
- All he’s doing, plus supporting the category. We’re not even done yet.
- Additional atk +7% and def +8% when facing a Super Class “Saiyan Saga” enemy.
- Not really sure how impactful this is going to be, but… sure.
- Active Skill Condition: When there are 3 or more enemies, or when 6 attacks have been received (once only).
- Active Skill Effect: Causes Ultimate damage, lowers atk by 31% and def by 81%, Seals Super Attack.
- Banner units with active skills are pretty rare, and this just adds another trick to this card’s bag.
So, yeah: for some reason, they made this Nappa more valuable in my opinion than Raditz. Look, I understand Raditz is kind of a nobody. He quickly gets outclassed in the series, and doesn’t accomplish his mission. But think about it. After all of those chapters of Dragon Ball, we get to Z, and off the bat some intimidating, menacing brute shows up, tells the main character he’s an alien, the first person to mentions Saiyans at all, Goku’s brother, forces Goku to team up with his rival, plays a part in him getting killed, leads the Saiyans to earth… If you remove Raditz from the equation, the entire series doesn’t happen the way it did. He’s a MASSIVE part in the transition into Goku’s adult life, and he deserves some damn respect.
I’m happy he’s getting a Dokkanfest, just would have liked him to be over the top powerful. Just feels like a unit that will come and go, and fade into obscurity weeks after release. Oh well. At least the Nappa is good, and the Saiyan Saga finally has a category.
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