10 4-Star and Up Monsters You Shouldn't Build
should build. It’s a natural part of Summoner’s War life; you get a good mon, and everyone jumps up screaming “OHHH BUILD THIS BUILD THIS.” I myself have written tons of articles about monsters you should build and why, but you know what’s one thing I don’t see much of? Those articles telling you about monsters NOT to build. I’m not just talking about “monsters not to build early-game,” I mean “don’t even try, buddy.” There are many reasons why you shouldn’t build them. Maybe they’re too stat-hungry, maybe they were good long ago but got outclassed by better, more common monsters. There are a ton of completely worthless monsters in the game, and it’s downright impossible to list them all, so we’re only going to stick with ten four-star and up monsters. Nevertheless, here are 10 less-known monsters you shouldn’t build, and why!
#10: Atenai (Fire Undine)
Oh, Atenai, my first regret six-star. I’ve told this story a few times before, but around one of the first few times I cleared ToAN, Atenai popped out of the Legendary Scroll. At first, she looked like a budget Chasun, so I runed her up and even six-starred her. It’s not very hard to see why I did. Her third skill Share Life will balance everyone’s HP percentage and then heal them all by 25% of their HP.
However, as I used her, I realized she was nowhere near as good as Chasun is. Sometimes she ended up leaving an ally with lower HP than they had before (even after the heal), and other times she was just a sitting duck as my monsters got nuked because Share Life is on five turn cooldown (four if you fully skill her up, but who’s going to do that?)
Basically, what I’m saying is not to make the same mistake that I did and build Atenai. I’m told she can be halfway decent in Tartarus Labyrinth, but I wouldn’t try it out. Let’s just move on to the next one on the list.
#9: Stella (Water Assassin)
Stella actually used to be considered a super good monster way back in my day before the release of the twins. I six-starred one to help me out in Fire Rift, and now she goes unused in storage. She actually does have a pretty good kit. Her first skill decreases an enemy’s defense for 2 turns, and her second skill hits an enemy twice, adding Brand and Silence to them.
#8: Su (Water Rakshasa)
Su was my first non-Lapis nat4, and I knew literally nothing about the game, so I thought Su was a really good mon. And to be honest, I can see why; her kit was pretty good for beginners like I was. Her first skill hits the enemy, decreasing their attack speed for 2 turns. The second skill hits them thrice, with the damage increasing according to her speed and inflicting Continuous Damage if she got a Critical Hit.
However, her third skill Delicate Whip is where she’s really unique. She attacks an enemy, heals herself for 50% of the damage, and guarantees to stun said enemy if they have one harmful effect on them. She actually does seem pretty good on paper, but you realize that there’s no place you can use her if you think about it for a bit. I’m told you can use her in some Guild War offenses if you like? I’m not too sure. Once I realized just how bad her stats are, I shoved her in stage, never to see the light of day again. I’m just glad I never six-starred her…
#7: Raviti (Wind Harg)
Raviti is actually one out of the two four-star monsters in the Harg family, so he’s got that going for him, I guess. Anyway, Raviti is common considered to be a good start R5 cleanser that you could use when you’re breaking into raids, but personally I wouldn’t go for it.
#6: Akhamamir (Wind Ifrit)
…Well, every monster family’s gotta have a dud. The Ifrit family is super ridiculous, and the entire family is farmable, too – you can get the elemental Ifrits in the Guild Shop, fuse the dark one, and summon the light one in the Ancient Magic shop.
The Ifrits all have their specific niches, too. Veromos is great in early-game GB10 for cleansing off debuffs and stunning the trash waves, Theomars is an OP damage dealer who will proc like mad if the enemy has Vio runes on him, Tesarion is the only farmable Oblivion-dealer in the game, and Elsharion is like the opposite of Veromos – instead of cleansing debuffs off his allies, he’ll strip buffs off his enemies and apply it to his allies.
Akhamamir, though… ehhhhhh…
Akhamamir’s a bit weird. His second skill, Super Crush, is based off his Max HP, despite being a damage-type monster. His third skill, Mach Crush, is pure damage based off how many debuffs an enemy has on them. Now, all that’s fine and stuff (especially if you don’t have an AoE wind damage dealer yet), but once you pull a Lushen, you’ll end up binning Akhamamir. And it’s not the Ifrit’s fault either, despite his second skill being not the best for him. Lushen’s so overpowered that he’s the superior wind damage dealer next to Charlotte. Anyone else? Nope, not worth it.
This is a really weird case of, if Lushen didn’t exist, Akhamamir wouldn’t be on this list.
#5: Xiong Fei (Fire Panda Warrior)
Like quite a few other monsters on this list, Xiong Fei is actually relatively obtainable by most people’s standards – he’s one of the fusable nat5s that you can make. People use him in starter NB10 and as a tank in R5, but frankly, I kind of regret making my own Xiong Fei.
Don’t get me wrong, though, his stats are great. His HP is super high and his defense is the third highest in the game, beaten only by Taranys (the wind Druid) and Fermion (the dark Archangel). This makes him one of the most perfect meat shields to soak up the boss’s hits and Oblivion in R5, because that’s his main goal – not to bring in an OP passive, not to deal damage, but to tank hits.
Like Raviti, there’s not a lot about him that’s super bad, but he’s not worth going through the effort to fuse when you’re gonna use him so little and possibly even replace him as you get better and better at raids.
#4: Lanett (Dark Magic Knight)
I actually really wanted Lanett ever since her first HoH. It’s the first Hall of Heroes that I remember, and I wanted her because she looked super pretty and her third skill was the most OP in nooblet me’s eyes. Anniversary HoH 2018, I of course went with Lanett. In hindsight, I should’ve gone for Brig so that I could’ve had Galleon skillups when I got him. But I digress, let’s talk more about Lanett.
Lanett’s first skill when awakened will attack one enemies twice and then all enemies the third time, and each attack has a chance to land a DoT for one turn. Her second skill attacks random enemies with four hits, each hit landing a Defense Break for 2 turns. And finally, her third skill, Gravity Shot, will attack an enemy based off their (the enemy’s) max HP, healing all her allies for 30% of the damage dealt.
Now, at first glance, she looks like she could be super overpowered for NB10, and to be honest, she was. I loved using her, Lushen, Lupinus, Loren and Colleen as my NB10 team. They netted me some really sweet times too; if I remember correctly the best time we hit was 1:30. Aaaaand then the twins came out, and many NB10 multihitters like Fuco or Rigel were considered worthless. Poor Lanett ended up being one of those multihitters.
There’s another weird thing about Lanett that makes her not worth building: She’s classified as a Defense monster, but none of her skills scale off her defense. Overall, it’s a weird classification that doesn’t fit her kit, and now she’s outshined by the Chakram Dancers and Boomerang Warriors, which is why she made this list.
#3: Christina (Wind Cannon Girl)
Oh look, it’s one of the two new Daphnises. When I say “the new Daphnis,” I mean that for the longest time, Daphnis was considered to be one of the, if not the worst nat5s in the game. Now, though, his skill 3 is super wordy but it’s super good too. So who ended up dethroning Daphnis as the worst nat5 in the game?
Christina, the wind Cannon Girl. The Cannon Girls are actually a kinda weird monster family. They’re the first 4-star family to have a nat5 as their elemental sister. There are two nat5s in the Cannon Girl family – Christina, and Bella the dark version. Now, Christina wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for her awakened fourth skill and her passive. See, her passive Coy Revenge will increase her damage she’ll deal on someone by 15% whenever she’s attacked (per attack, mind you, not per hit). This stacks 5 times and resets whenever her turn ends.
Now let’s talk about her fourth skill, Rolling Cannon. She’ll attack all enemies, and the damage she deals is based off of how many allies are alive and the attack power of all her allies. Her damage does weaken the lower the attack power of her allies is, so you basically have to take her into a super cleavey glass cannon team, which is the exact opposite of the meta in RTA. There is literally no place you can use her in this state, and she needs a buff big time.
#2: Homunculus(Support) (Light/Dark Homunculus)
Sadly enough, the Homunculi have been falling out of use for a while now, and the light and dark Homunculi have been kind of worthless for a while. I’m going to call the light one Soleil and the dark one Lunalessa so this way I don’t have to keep referring to them as Light Homunc or Dark Homunc.
Let’s start with Soleil’s skills. Clearly, Soleil ended up getting the short end of the stick. Her second skill can go one of two ways: Operation Alpha or Beta. Operation Alpha can become Accelerate or Power-up. In Operation Alpha – Accelerate, will heal an ally’s HP by 30% and then completely fill up their attack bar. Alpha Power-up will heal the ally by 30%, but this time increase everyone’s attack power for 2 turns.
Operation Beta’s base skill heals everyone by a measly 15%. Operation Beta can become Protect or Accelerate. Accelerate will recover everyone’s HP and Attack Bar by 15% each, which isn’t much in terms of attack bar or healing skills. Beta Protect will create a shield equal to 15% of the ally’s HP on allies with full HP, and it’ll last for 2 turns. First of all, with the amount that Soleil heals, it’s near impossible to get someone to full HP, and second of all, that’s not even that much HP.
The worst part of her is her third skills, though. Fast Pace will make the Attack Bar of a chosen ally and enemy rise to 100%, and whoever goes first is just a matter of speed. Counter Phase increases the Defense of all her allies by 2 turns, and will also counterattack for 2 turns whenever attacked. Remember Soleil is mainly a healer who doesn’t do that much damage at all or really do much on her first skill. Rock On will increase everyone’s Attack Power for 2 turns, and then 2 allies (excluding herself) will attack an enemy target. Finally, Turning Point will evenly match the percentage of all allies’ HP, remove all harmful effects, and increase their Defense for 2 turns.
People have used Turning Point Soleil as a cleanser in R5, but there are plenty of other cleansers who can do better – such as Mihyang, Lisa, Amarna, heck, even Konamiya. And everyone I just listed doesn’t require months upon months of farming Rift Beasts to get them, either.
Lunalessa’s a little better than Soleil. Her second skill can go one of two main branches: Operation Gamma or Delta. Gamma can become Gamma Weaken or Gamma Control. Gamma Weaken will attack an enemy, remove all beneficial effects on them, and then has a 50% chance to break their Defense for 2 turns. Gamma Control does the same as Weaken, except instead of Defense break, it’s a 50% chance to stun them for 1 turn.
Delta, meanwhile, can become Delta Chain or Delta Ruin. Delta Chain attacks an enemy three times, having a 15% chance to elongate the harmful effects on the enemy she attacks for 1 turn. Delta Ruin, meanwhile, will attack an enemy, has a 25% chance to lengthen the time of the harmful effects on them, and then lower the enemy’s HP proportionate to the total number of turns of harmful effects that have been granted on them.
Her third skills are actually pretty good. Shock Wave will try and remove all beneficial effects from every enemy in the battle field, and stuns them with a 25% chance. Unbalanced Field makes her actually pretty decent; increasing the skill cooldown of all enemies by 1 turn and decreasing their speed for 2 turns, while decreasing the skill cooldown of all allies by 1 turn and increasing their speed for 2 turns. Lockdown is definitely the worst of these skills; putting an enemy to sleep (SLEEP) for 3 turns, and then decreasing the attack speed of all other enemies for 2 turns. Analyze Weakpoint attacks an enemy 4 times, granting a random harmful effect that isn’t already on them for 2 turns.
Lunalessa is pretty good, yes, but the Homunculi have been falling out of use for a while now because there are easier obtainable monsters that are just better than them, and again, don’t require months and months of farming. That’s why I don’t recommend building a support Homunculus as of this writing. The light one is complete garbage, and the dark one has better versions you can use.
#1: Geldnir (Light Lightning Emperor)
Oh. Oh dear. I am so sorry for everybody who has a Geldnir as their only LnD nat5. When the Lightning Emperors first came out, I thought Geldnir here looked pretty good – as you can see in my First Look article for the Lightning Emperors. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
