Best Monsters 2017 – Summoners War

Best Monsters - Summoners War
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Summoners War: Sky Arena by Com2uS

The objective of this guide for Summoners War is to provide concise description of monsters for summoners at an early/mid game level who are focusing on efficiently progressing through the game. It will help with knowing what monsters are the best in2017, worth keeping, which are worth building, and where they are used. Unless you are able to get consistent arena wins at the 1200+ level, it is in your best interest to have a very weak defense allowing you to refresh for easy wins making building any pvp unit a significant drain on resources. PvP should not be focused on at all until all of Cairos is on farm (at a minimum). Most 2 stars will be omitted to conserve space since most of them are not worth building as the best Monsters in Summoners War 2017 although special comments will be made for a few. We’re omitting nat 5’s due to insane rarity for new players.

Best Monsters 2017 – Summoners War

9 tailed fox: The Fire and Water ones are very strong. The fire one is great in Necro. The water one is a strong Faimon Hell Farmer and can be used in PvP as a stripper (There are better options but she’s still strong). If you pull the water one you may want to 6 her early on for her farming skills and being usable in GB10 and DB10.

Amazon: Food.

Anubis: We haven’t found a use for any of them.

Assassin: Save them for Stella (water). She’s very powerful in r5, the new raids, and speed DB10/GB10. She’s very stat hungry for runes you wont have in the early game so she may not be a wise unit to build early on but she’s a monster you wont stop using. The wind/dark assassin is fun and powerful in GWO/AO. The fire one isn’t worth building.

Barbaric King: The light one is the best but the water is pretty good too. We wouldn’t prioritize any in the early game. Save your extras in hopes of getting the light one.

Battle Mammoth: The Water and Dark ones are the two worth building for ToA. The Dark one is better than the Water one most of the time but if you decide to build a water one there are a few floors where he can be better (namely the leo floors). We would save a bunch for skilling one of those two up when you’re at the point of deciding to build one.

Bearman: Food. Do not build Ahman (light). The “holy trinity” (Ahman/Darion/Bella) is no longer a thing and you WILL regret 6ing Ahman. He’s decent in the early game but if you 6 him he will only be providing company to the other neglected monsters in your storage.

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The Bearman in Summoners War

Beast Hunter: Food.

Bounty Hunter: The fire one can be used in guild wars with Copper if you don’t have wind Horus (Imesity) but that’s a PvP focus. We wouldn’t even keep one just in case, there’s little point investing in a niche unit that will eventually be replaced. Food.

Brownie Magician: The fire is the weakest one. The Wind can be used if you have nothing else as a stripper for PvP. The Water one is the OP one in guild wars and arena. Save duplicates for skilling up water first.

Charger Shark: Food

Cow girl: Don’t waste your points buying these. The biggest problem they have is skilling them up. They require a ton of skillups which means you have to spend a ton of glory points for skill ups or waste precious devilmon. 10/10 not worth.

Death Knight: The Wind one is extremely strong for HoH. You can even use him in ToA and Arena until you get better options. The Dark one is one of the best R5 tanks in the game. Save duplicates for Briand (Wind) first followed by Dias (Dark) next if you’re lucky to pull him.

Drunken Master: Food

Elven Ranger: Keep a fire one and skill him up. He’s an S tier unit for Necro. The rest are safe to feed.

Epikion Priest: The fire one (Chloe) is a Strong PvP unit. Minor niche ToA use and low throughput means you shouldn’t build this unit for PvE. A great PvP unit but hold off on building her. The Wind one has a niche ToA use for cheesing some of the hardest floors. In that context, she doesn’t need to be 6 star at all but you want her skilled up. The water one is a trap for new players who don’t have the options of killing her in an arena level where you shouldn’t be trying to win defenses anyways. When you reach the C3+ area and you want to build her she’s ideal for the last 10-20 minutes of the weeks arena. Save nat 3 epikion priests (The wind/water ones) for skilling up the fire first, then the wind, then the water. Do not feed epikion priests to other units until at least the first 2 are skilled up.

Fairy: Food. The water one seems like a great healer at the start of the game. She really isn’t good once you progress. You can/should build her to 5 stars and use her to 6 your first monster.

Frankenstein: The fire is an extremely strong GWO unit. Skill the fire one up first then save skillups for water and light. None are worth building right away.

Golem: Food

Griffon: Fire is an exceptionally strong unit for ToA and usable in some DB10 comps (not starter comps though). Almost all of the griffons are great meaning extras should only be used as food for other griffons as you want them skilled up. If you choose to build Shannon (you should) then Spectra loses a lot of value for ToA. He’s a monster you will eventually want to build but not one of the key units to rush. The wind griffon is one of the first monsters you should be building. His power doesn’t really come out until you awaken him. He’s naturally tanky so if you get lucky with runes you may not need to 6 star him right away but you will always use this unit so 6ing him isn’t a bad idea. We haven’t played around with the light one but the dark griffon is also very powerful in ToA and GWO. He’s a stun machine that brings armor break and has a passive that helps him tank light based teams. Skill up wind first, then fire, then dark, then possibly light. The water one is worthless.

Grim Reaper: You may see some videos of Sath (Fire reaper) being a very powerful farmer. By the time you get the runes you use him at his potential you will have little use for a farmer. He’s not worth building. You should eventually build either the Dark or Water reaper for ToA. They’re almost identical except the water can be used to “tank” leo floors and his CC is only 1 target but controllable. The dark can CC more targets but it’s random. It’s nothing to prioritize but we would save your reapers to skill one of those two up.

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The Grim Reaper in Summoners War

Harg: Some people like the wind one for raids. We think he’s really bad there. If you have some unquenchable desire to use the wind one for raids then save the 3 star family versions to skill him up. The whole family is pretty bad imo and you’re able to feed.

Harpy: Fire/dark are usable in Necro but that is content you probably shouldn’t be focusing on. She is safe to feed as harpys are farmable from scenarios if you eventually decide to build one (there are better units). The light Harpy is the fastest base speed ATB booster in the game and may have niche uses much later on.

High Elemental: The fire/light ones are very powerful PvP units. Hold onto one (skillups are farmable) and feed the rest. You wont build him any time soon.

Hellhound: Fire is mainly a PvP unit but he is very powerful at helping you clear the scenarios. The first one you get is worth awakening and building up to 5 stars with the intent of sacrificing to 6 star your first unit. The water one is end game that is farmable from unknown scrolls making them safe to feed.

Horus: The water one is used to combo with Katarina but the RNG existing with the power level makes that combo unattractive for me. It’s a PvP unit. The wind one is excellent as well with Copper but you he isn’t worth building in the early game.

Inferno: Food.

Inugami: Fire (Raoq) is a very powerful farming monster. We used him as our first farmer while he was 5 star and farmed hard mode scenarios. 6ing him is unlikely to unlock him as a hell mode farmer for many players despite what some outdated guides recommend. He eventually is an incredibly strong unit for Necro but he’s also farmable so you’re safe to feed him if you prefer using Lapis as your farmer. We would get Raoq to 5 star to try him out. If you don’t like him as a hard mode farmer you can always use him to 6 someone. The light one (Bella) should be your 2nd 6 star (after veromos). You will him everywhere. Defense break, heal, and ATB boost are powerful enough on their own even ignoring the ability to remove buffs. The others aren’t worth building.

Imp Champion: Food.

Jack o Lantern: Geared players will complain about how slow the attack animation is but it’s really not that bad – especially for an early player. The water one is the optimal one to build as he will help in DB10 and he can function as your +1 in GB10 (removing the attack buff is key and Bella will sometimes fail). The dark one is great in Necro if you’re not using a fire based comp (Adrian is still better if you are). If you pull the water one early we would build him and use him as a 5th in your GB/DB10 runs.

Joker: Use duplicates to skill up Lushen (wind one). Then save your other duplicates to skill up a 2nd Lushen. Then you can decide if you want a 3rd Lushen. Lushen is a game changing monster and needs skillups. For that reason we don’t think the fire one is worth building. There’s a reason the water one is a running joke with the game.

Kobold Bombers: The fire can be used for Necro but it’s the water/wind/light ones that you really want. Bombers can be great but really need a wind dragon (for ToA) or wind oracle (for PvP) to excel. We would skill up the water/light ones first.

Kung Fu Girl: Recently buffed and very strong. The water and Dark ones are the best. They excel in the new raids and R5. The dark one excels pretty much everywhere. Not worth building in the early/mid game as they lose a lot of power against multiple targets and the fire isn’t usable in GB10.

Lich: The wind one is the strongest of the family and is great in Necro and the new raids. Save duplicates for wind. The Water one might be worth building if you’re ready for R5 but haven’t pulled Wind or if you want to build a water based Necro comp. The Fire one is garbage.

Living Armor: The fire one isn’t great. The Dark and Wind ones are. We would save for skilling those two up.

Lizardman: Food

Magic Archer: Food. If you decide to build Ardella (wind) one day for raids in the very distant future, she has a secret dungeon to farm skillups. You’re safe to feed.

Martial Artist: Food

Martial Cat: Food

Mermaid: Save extras for the light/dark ones. You could build the fire one if you need a reviver for DB10 but we don’t see her as a wise investment.

**Magic Knight: We personally think Veromos should be your first 6 star and used as a farmer. Lapis (water magic knight) isn’t worth building because she falls off too quick and while she could farm Faimon Hell that doesn’t mean she’s optimal for it. Your success rate wont be 100% and you’ll find that you will replace her relatively quickly. Use Veromos for your farmer and don’t build Lapis. We don’t know if any of the magic knights are worth building tbh.

Minotaur: Food

Mummy: Food

Mystic Witch: Megan (the water one) is an incredible unit that you will be using. Save other elements to feed to Megan. The rest are not worth building.

Neostone Agent: A very powerful family. The fire one is regarded as one of the best cleansers in R5, she reliably casts glancing, has a strip, and reduces your teams cooldowns. She’s great in GWO! We used her in DB10 with positive results too. Despite how great she is, you have better options in the early game. The water one is very powerful in GWO as well. There’s very few healers that also bring defense buff for defense based teams (bulldozer/copper/etc) and her ability to strip can cast glancing are great. The biggest drawback with her is devilmon/duplicate agents you invest in her aren’t being invested into Lisa. If you don’t mind that, she’s great to build early on as she will help a lot in DB10/GB10. The wind one is outclassed by the water, imo.

Neostone Fighter: The fire one is decent in GWO and he can farm the last scenario hell at 5 star with weak vampire runes (although it’s slow … 2-3m per run). He’s not that difficult to deal with though and weak when at full hp. He’s really not worth building in the early game. None of the neostone fighters are.

Ninja: The Water one can act is a faimon hell farmer but will be replaced and isn’t really usable anywhere else in the game. The wind one can be used to help in GB10 and used in GWO and AO but we think the returns are too low to invest in him. There’s better options. The fire one is bad. Invest duplicates in the wind one if you ever decide to build him. We wouldn’t rush any of the ninjas.

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The Ninja in Summoners War

Penguin Knight: The wind penguin is S tier for ToA. The Dark one has some PvP use until you find a Galleon but isn’t anything to worry about. Save PK’s for Mav skillups then you can feed.

Phantom Thief: PvP units. The water one can be used for AoE defense break but none of the family is worth rushing.

Pierret: We don’t have experience with the fire/wind ones. The water one is the really powerful one. Save duplicates for skilling up water. None are worth building in the early game.

Pirate Captain: The water is a game changing unit. The fire one is not a seara and we don’t think he’s worth building – nor the wind, especially not in the early game. Save duplicates for the water one. The water is worth investing devilmon into until you get S3 maxed. Despite how good Galleon is, he isn’t worth building in the early game. Your initial GB10/DB10/ToA runs should focus on stability and then dps. Galleon is used when you’re strong enough to power through content ignoring mechanics.

Pixie: The wind is the one worth talking about here. S tier early game unit. Buffs and Debuffs are huge in this game and Shannon offers almost everything you want. AoE slow, AoE attack up, AoE defense boost, and glancing. She has horribly low base stats which means you need really nice runes to run her through content at 5 stars and she gets replaced which prevents people from wanting to 6 her. With as powerful as she is in GB10 as well as ToA, she really should be 6’d.We used her for the longest time in ToAH on the Artamiel stage, especially when it was on a high floor. Do yourself a favor and 6 her very early.

Rakshasa: The fire is an S tier unit in raids. Very powerful dps unit in ToA, DB10 and even speed GB10. The whole family is great but we would use duplicates to skill up Hwa first. You may want to build a 2nd Hwa for Necro.

Salamander: Food. The light one can make a decent raid tank but he’s farmable and there are 2 stars in the family meaning they’re safe to feed.

Samurai: The Light/Dark ones are S tier AO units. They’re all for PvP though so hold onto them. None are worth building early.

Serpent: Food. Jewbagle talks about the water one being very good for ToA. We haven’t invested in one to see it’s use but there’s likely better monsters for you to build.

Sky Dancer: It’s unfair how good the wind one is. She is well worth putting devilmons into and is one of the highest thoroughput healers in the game. Max all of her skills, even her S1. When she’s on GWD if the enemy has a theo and no other water units she will be attacking the theo putting glancing on him. If you get this unit early on we would build her immediately. The water one is also very strong in raids. The fire one isn’t bad but we would save your duplicates to skill up chasun first.

Succubus: The water one is used for arena speed lead. The Light one is an S tier unit in ToA. Save duplicates and skill up light first if/when you get her.

Sylph: Be careful with the name as it’s easy to get Sylph and Sylphid confused. Baretta (fire) is an S tier unit for ToA and Starting DB10 comps. He should be your 5th or 6th 6 star (GB10 team first then Baretta). You will eventually stop using him in DB10. You’re unlikely to ever stop using him in ToA. He IS worth putting devilmon into after you have Veromos fully skilled. His S3 and S2 are very powerful abilities. The water one is a strong PvP unit that can be really good in ToA as well. The wind one has a potent speed lead ability for Arena if you’re desperate for one but we haven’t found much use from mine. We would save duplicates for fire first, then water. We regret 6ing our wind one.

Sylphid: PvP unit that we don’t think is very good. You’ll hear the water one can solo DB10 – that’s only partially true. She can solo the boss after you clear the waves and have the next 20 minutes to spare. The wind one can be powerful in helping progress through GB10 but she gets replaced almost instantly making a very poor investment. We would save skillups for the light one. After that, we wouldn’t really skill any of them up as none are worth building.

 

Taoist: DO NOT FEED THE FIRE TAOIST. He’s extremely valuable as he is the only nat 3 of his family and you will want to build up the Wind, Light, and either Water or Dark ones. The water/dark are strong in ToA when combod with fire griffon or light succubus. The light Taoist is one of the most sought after LD monsters due to his excellent protection of weaker dps units in HoH and PvP. The wind Taoist is very powerful in ToA especially on the boss waves (as opposed to water/dark combo which is better at trash).

Undine: The wind one is the best and is used in GWO comps with Copper and as a raid cleanser. We don’t think any of the others in the family are worth building (You still shouldn’t feed any nat 4+ that you don’t have a copy of and ideally only feeding them to other members of the family for skillups).

Vagabond: Darion (light) is an extremely strong unit that you will eventually build for raids (unless you pull dark death knight). The rest of the vagabonds have little or niche uses and are safe to feed. There are 2 stars in the family to use as skillups. He’s not worth building early.

Vampire: Verdehille (Fire) is a game changing unit for DB10. He’s built more supportive in the early game focusing on high crit and survival meaning skillups aren’t that impactful. Ideally you want his first skill maxed and his S2 1 point short of being maxed but we don’t think it’s as big of a deal as people make it out to be as the +15% dmg you would be missing by not maxing his S1 is a sizeable chunk. He’s certainly not worth investing devilmons into. The dark one is nearly impossible to get and the wind/water ones have very niche uses so extra vamps can be fed to Verde.

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The Vampire in Summoners War

Viking: Food.

Werewolf: Food. The light and dark ones are very strong PvP units. If you’re lucky to get one then skill them up with extra WW’s you find even though you’re not prioritizing them. Water WW is strong on some ToA floors but is not something to worry about for you. He’s safe to use as food.

Yeti: The only one worth talking about is the wind yeti. He can be a powerful healer that is even used up in R5. The big problem with him is that his S1 slow only lasts for 1 turn meaning as soon as the boss takes a turn it’s gone. You will never get a full turns slow with him due to this. He’s not a terrible monster by any means but water fairy should cover your healing needs until you get Bella which takes over. He’s not worth building early on (if ever).

More of the best Monsters

If you know more good Monsters that should be added to the list as the best ones in 2017, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Find more Reviews and Guides to Summoners War in our Guide Section.

17 Comments on "Best Monsters 2017 – Summoners War"

  1. MANTURA. This serpent needs honorable mention and should not be overlooked! AOE slow and DOTs, easy to skill up.

  2. This is such an informative and helpful page! Bookmarked and saved!
    It would be great if you could do this for the four stars as well because once you have opened enough mystical scrolls, you can get most of them and some of them are trash.

    Thank you so much for this!

  3. I like to experiment a bit of my own and not always listen to everyone in regards to what’s food and not (because new monsters worth building are rare with a lot of dead time between drops) and I’d like to comment on four of the monsters you talked about:

    Wind pierret:
    One of my favorite monsters. She hits like a truck, with both a def break on her third as well the ability to remove buffs on enemies in pvp. I have found she really helps me in live arena. She makes the difference between a ~80-90% success rate and 100% success rate in gb10 even though her third makes the giants passive proc on her often and dies like half of the time, and she will work wonders without skillups! I have built both her and her water sister and easily prefer the wind one. If you are against a non-HP build monster in PVP she can oneshot it most of the times with her third.
    One of the only monsters I use regularly in many areas of the game without skillups.

    Wind pirate captain:
    Great for raids! (also gb10)
    He will give regular def break, as well as he will lower the enemies attack bar. His multipliers are good. Great dps imo. Also his third only needs 1 skillup to lower cooldown, which means he might only need 1-3 dupes/devilmons to be “fully skilled”. He hits hard and is really worth, imo.

    Wind vampire:
    This is a great monster that can mean the difference between a fail or a win in early gb10 comps, as well as being a great dps in raids. He has slow and lowers attack, making him ideal for giants. His third skill deals an additional 25% damage per debuff, and a raid usually has more than 5 debuffs, making him deal massive damage. Also worth building if you can’t do gb10 or are missing a dps for raid. Also he’s fusable, which is a big plus!

    Fire neostone agent:
    This was my first 6 star, and he holds a huge spot in my heart. I use him in every thinkable scenario. He was my sole farmer for a while, and he is still a pinnacle of pvp offence. Runing him on vampire (and, ideally, revenge) makes him sustain better than any mon I’ve seen (besides chasun), and he has soloed arena teams (both live and normal) a ton of times. Hitting harder when low on hp, which makes him have full hp again is the most beautiful synergi I’ve ever seen. He will increase his own critical rate, which makes putting a slot 4 crit damage rune so much more easier to see rewards for, because you can focus on other sub stats than crit rate.

  4. Serpent Food???? my the best team TOA and TOAH super mega CC & DOT

    Baretta(L)-Frigatte-Mantura-Woonhak-Mav (speed 160+)

  5. Tom LaTourelle | April 8, 2017 at 8:22 pm | Reply

    What about Harp Magician?

  6. Tan Boon Hui | April 19, 2017 at 2:48 am | Reply

    Hi! How about water death knight?

  7. hi! i really love this page, really helpful for beginner like me. please keep this page updated. wish to see more new info.

  8. Mantura is a must

  9. Mantura is definitely worth building and 6*. I use him everywhere, except raids.

    Khmun (Fire Anubis) is definitely worth building. Especially handy in guild wars and arena.

    Kroa (Dark Harg) is awesome. I use him on my raid team.

    I agree with other comments here about Sophia (Wind Pierrot). She is one of my favorite mons. Single target but hits like a freaking train.

    If you are lucky enough to pull Crawler (Dark Frankenstein) DON’T FEED HIM. I regularly raid with a guild mate who runs him on his R5 squad and he is amazing. I really want one!

    I have a Iris (Light Magic Knight) and she is worth building. TOA and arena are where she shines.

    Lastly, the Unicorns. Novelty mons but also useful. The Helena (Fire Uni) is great against Water teams in guild battles and arena.

    If this guide is targeted for beginners, then it’s worth it for you to add Colleen (Fire Harpu) to the list. Only a 2* mon but someone you use the entire game. Best healer in the early game. Useful overall kit for mid game, and a regular on end game R5 teams.

  10. Hey there, well it’s a Lot of usefull information, I just find something a bit disturbing, I think it could be a good thing to give details of the level of the guy who write this article, I guess he is pretty strong and wise but I find some commentary kind of…wow it’s harsh. Maybe I’m a bit stupid to think that but when I read that (and I’m a mid-game player like since a year, I feel it like “it’s this and nothing else you noob”.

    A lots of mobs are food yes but for people already 50 people who don’t need guides, it’s not us xD

  11. You forgot to add the Garuda, like the light one for example or water

  12. This is very well thought out and I agree with almost everything on the list. The only things I would mention would be to update the list for some of the new units such as the dice and harp magicians. And also 1 major mistake. Dark serpent MANTURA is arguably the best monster in the game for toa. Skill-up and rune energy despair and mantura handles crowd control like it’s the 300 spartan army against the Persians

  13. Agree with most of the comments. Mantura is a huge difference maker..Wind Pirate,
    Other monsters that you have completely overlooked or just don’t know how to use them..
    – You left out Light Amazon?
    – Dark and Fire Hargs are both extremely useful
    – All Harpus are great account builders and have usability in the dungeons.
    – Coleen is a staple mon for Necro and raid 5 and was never even mentioned
    – Kona is a staple mon and wasn’t mentioned
    – Water Imp Champ is unusable food?!?!? Really?!?
    – Wind and Water Drunken masters are also great account builders and very effective trap monsters for PvP

    I think my problem with this kind of article is that while most of it is good stuff.. a lot of it is lacking or missing or just based on one person’s experience or from the perspective of a given level of account maturity (endgame versus midgame vs account building). There are WAY more usable monsters than listed in the article…

    Players in general (new and old) need to learn how to evaluate a mon based on their stats and their skills kit. Teach people to see the value in a kit and how to build teams and all of the sudden the game gets a lot easier… And all of those mons you see listed as “food” may actually be relevant for players building accounts or stuff on a toa level or finding a way to do DB10 reliably…

  14. NatzuFullbuster | January 9, 2018 at 4:39 pm | Reply

    The whole list is already over 1 Year old. Does it exist a new list for 2017 or better 2018?

    -9 Tails are still the same but wind can also be used in GB10 as replacement for shannon and the dd at the same time.

    -The wind Barbaric King is also able to speed up your GB10 team also as giving you ATK-Buff.

    -The Light Bearman got also buffed so his heal is now 20%. by this you can use him in mid and late game as a valuable healer in toan and the rift beasts.

    -Next to Bounty hunter fire there is also water which works same as bernard in DB10, giving you more spd and can do high dmg. Also he good many multihits (his 2. can reactivate by 50% if the enemies hp are higher) and the speed buff will help you in NB10 even that the atk-bar cannot be pushed, the speed buff is working.

    -The new Cowgirls are also no more problem for Skillups since the new light one is a farmable one in SD. Also the light is a great copy of hwa with lower stats but better skills. She can set the atkbar back with 10% each hit, but got 3 hits on the 1. and 2 hits on the second. By this she got a good chance to reduce the same amount as Hwa. Also she gives defbreak as a pas.sive skill. Decrease speed and healblock with strip on her skills is a great skill for DB10, NB10 and R5 since she gives 2 important debuffs and a defbreak.

    This are just some samples. there are even more reworked monster as same as nerfed one. So the list should be like refreshed at last every year.

  15. No mention of Dark Sylphlid? She’s OP!!!

  16. You said all amazons are food, but lets not forget about LYN the light amazon, and her ability to 2 shot the dragon and the giant

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