Game Update (version 2.57)
You can see the update notes with this link.
Here’s the usual list of notable changes that didn’t result in movements:
Dragulus got herbicide. Roughly 1/10 of legendaries and mythics are a plant so this is, in theory, half as good as an element killer move. However, a bunch of those are garden fairies which are mostly played together in a single team and there are only a handful of plant mythics. So mostly this is a more efficient way to deal 1500-1800 piercing damage than an uncharged bloodthirst (100TU rather than 130TU).
Kuraokami got snow 70 → 60TU, which definitely makes a difference but doesn’t change enough to make me want to move it up in the tier list.
Revenarchion’s Noxegg now comes with monster bonus / HP boost / buffed stats, which is a really nice bonus and the Revenarchion it creates also maintains this. The monster itself is already great in PvE and not so great in PvP purely by the design so this buff does matter but it’s not a tier-changing one.
Lustrate:
This move was added to various monsters and it’s basically to counter Pandora as well as some other monsters like Tortogeist. It’s a cool move, but conditional enough and 160TU that I don’t think it really changes the tier of any of the monsters. However, in all cases it’s a buff to those monsters.
Moving up:
Suikenshi moves from C → B in PvP, knockback 250 → 70TU is a huge buff and definitely a welcome one. Suikenshi has been falling off over the years due to everything getting tankier and it being quite squishy itself. So it’s not going to become a top tier option again, but this should do a lot to help make it viable and particularly in the front line. It may creep up to A tier, but I want some time to see and assess it.
Coretta moves from S- → S in general and C → B in PvP, another all-around buff to Coretta makes this seem very appealing, even if it’s not top tier competitive for PvP. It came from a different time when piercing was not common; so the shields were great, 100TU sweeping was good and stun immunity was important. However, now you can get a few shields without making her easy to pick off with a small piercing attack. What I think is most exciting is the 70TU swift hit all. With her double stats that hits hard and if you vow another monster with swift hit all the two can wipe through enemies quickly.
Ankara moves from C → B in general, E → C in PvP and D → B in HP boost, getting accelerate added to stun ward (while increasing TU 50 → 60) is the nice upgrade here. It’s nothing flashy, but what Ankara offers in terms of support has become really good with the buffs over the years. This kind of buff I’d normally bump up by just one tier but I think Ankara actually offers quite a bit that it deserves to be alongside C tier mythics. Used in the right team, the support is excellent. The neko counter defence buff is mostly irrelevant, but there may be times you can leave a useless enemy around that you’ve hit with nya nya slash. There may also be future monsters that make this much more relevant (right now just Sir. Lancerat and Muscattus). Birds and bugs are prevalent so being able to always one-shot them is nice too.
Prismpaw moves from B → S- in general and B → S- in PvP, piercing/void on its attacks is a huge upgrade, particularly because the first attack if left untouched is the piercing one (i.e. a guaranteed kill). I reckon it’s become good enough to play generically, but synergistic teams won’t want it. This buff is definitely to help Kumachi have good bears to play with.
Ragnawolf moves from C → A in general and F → B in PvP, revenge sealer is a super powerful move. This will definitely be a useful tool for new players to handle revenge monsters!
Pontibear moves from A → S- in general and S- → S in PvP, the moveset on this has become absurd! If link holy gets more support then this is an easy include. To really maximise it you want to put stealth on at least one enemy, which we don’t have any holy monsters for, but I trust someday the right synergy will arrive. It’s also an amazing choice for people to use for PvE battles where they need anti-revenge.
Moving down:
Pandora moves from B → E in PvP (with P2W Boxchomp it’s S+ → S-) and S → A in HP boost, 20s slower to get a turn and having to give up real monsters to get a Boxchomp has hit this hard… which was necessary. The Boxchomp conversion change is the bigger one in my opinion, because it means Pandora cannot chain kills so easily. However, a larger window before the first turn means you can maybe line up a void move, leaving them with a useless P2W Boxchomp, or you can bring in the Boxchomp then kill it before Pandora gets a turn. I would not recommend this monster at all now if you don’t have the P2W Boxchomp. You’re better off playing Cinder or Sivanna in most cases.
Draconought moves from A → B in general, this and the other two super epic 400s megabomb monsters were given an attack move and a passive that are relatively strong and unique. After consideration, I don’t think they really change how the monsters play. 400s megabomb doesn’t happen naturally and it’s the only true reason to use these. So you’re going to want to build around that, and the additions here don’t create enough of a backup plan to actually matter that I feel their tier rankings don’t increase. Poseideon got a clear upgrade, Hydrastorm became stun protection which is cool but probably not useful in the set up you create and the damage move is too situational. Draconought got a good damage move but it’s 300TU so not particularly useful and the revenge actively works against a heavily controlling setup you have, which is how you’re likely building your team. So ironically as these monsters get buffed I think the only change is to move one of them down a bit!