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Should You Summon? Dragons of July
Summer keeps Dragon on, but it’s always nice to cool off in the Shadows when it gets too hot! Let's see what's on offer in this special banner.
As a tier 2 dragon, Pazuzu does have a lot going for him. He provides a healthy boost to DPS for Wind Adventurers, and can be BiS for Adventurers like Louise or Elenora who rely heavily on Poison for their kits to function.
That said, there are two dragons that are almost always better than Pazuzu already out: the omni-present Zephyr and the critical darling Long-Long. Both these dragons provide a more consistent and more broadly applicable buff to DPS than Pazuzu can muster up, as they don’t require a boss that is both weak to poison and will also function well for Adventurers who don’t inflict poison themselves.
As such, it’s pretty hard to recommend that you pull for Pazuzu unless you are either desperate to min-max a specific Adventurer like Louise or you simply lack both Zephyr and Long Long, and even then you’d likely be best off waiting for either of those two to be featured on a banner again.
Until the release of Shinobi, Nyarlathotep at least had the fact that he was the best non-limited Shadow DPS dragon going for him. Now that Shinobi is out, that is far from the case. Though he has an interesting last defense passive, Nyarlathotep simply has no case where he can provide more DPS than Shinobi, and especially not Marishiten who simply has a 10% higher boost to Strength than Nyarlathotep. In the increasingly DPS centralized metagame of Dragalia Lost, Nyarlathotep simply has no place outside of being used as your third string DPS Dragon. Even then, he is only marginally better than Juggernaut when MUB, and the relative ease of acquiring and MUBing a 4* vs a 5* dragon means that Juggernaut is going to be preferred in the majority of cases anyway.
Thus, it is impossible to recommend that you pull for Nyarlathotep for anything outside of a desperate desire to possess his S tier wiggles.
If you’re pulling purely on aesthetics, Nidhogg is an S tier dragon superior to all others simply for how iconically draconic and menacing he looks. In all other regards however, Nidhogg is a mixed dragon. There is no longer any place in the Dragalia Lost meta for mixed dragons, including in Shadow which still lacks a purely healer/support dragon option. Even Nyarlathotep, who was maligned earlier in this summoning guide, is a vastly superior option to Nidhogg. This even leaves out Juggernaut, who is straight up better as a DPS dragon in every imaginable scenario currently in game than Nidhogg.
As such, there is no need nor reason for those looking to tackle current or future content to pull for Nidhogg at this time. A quest may one day be released that prioritizes survivability and makes mixed dragons appealing, but gambling when or if that day will come isn’t something one should spend wyrmite on.
A word on the 4* dragons:
Phoenix is still one of the best Healer dragons, and the best Flame healer dragon out. Still, HP dragons and healers in general have been getting less and less spotlight, so Phoenix is no longer quite the S tier dragon she once was. Still, she's certainly worth getting one copy of to MUB with moonlight stones.
Juggernaut is a great budget Strength dragon for shadow. One or more copies are especially valuable for those who don't have the right 5* dragons.
Stribog is garbage. Don't waste stones on him.
Out of all the Adventurers in the summon pool, Heinwald is perhaps the most unique. As a Staff user, his primary job is healing, but unlike most healers Heinwald also packs in respectable DPS, and most of his healing is actually dependant on how much damage he can inflict.
That said, uniqueness is not necessarily desireableness. Heinwald has yet to see any content where he can truly shine in, though it is a fair bet that he’ll be useful in both future Astral Raids and in the Mercurial Gauntlet. That usefulness however has to contrast with Cleo, who is a free Shadow healer with a basic but competent defensive kit to compare with Heinwald’s more damage oriented one.
Ultimately pulling for Heinwald isn’t a bad choice, but this banner is perhaps the worst place you could do it. None of the other offerings are particularly appealing, and Heinwald is sure to appear on better offerings in the future when he becomes more relevant.
Norwin
The only thing Norwin really has going for him is that he can inflict Blindness. However, that said, inflicting Blindness isn't all that great. Thus, it isn't worth pulling for Norwin outside of collection purposes.
Final Verdict: NO
This is perhaps the worst banner we have seen since the summoning pool remake. None of the rated up offerings are particularly desirable outside of niches and speculated future content. This is an easy banner to pass on and save up for the gala that is sure to be just around the corner.
