I'd like to re-evaluate the slightly negative review of Neptune Dragon I gave a couple of days ago. I still stand by all of my criticisms of him, but I will say that I've been extensively testing Nepdra/Ryune since then and it mitigates some of my bigger complaints.
On the plus side, that version of the team actually has HP, and it cares about skillboosts less because it has fewer extremely slow actives and more ability to safely stall up skills. It could also make more optimal use of the double Alreschas that were discussed since it's short a lock resist otherwise (or at least my version is) and again cares a little less about skillboosts.
On the minus side damage is much lower, which means you're now obligated to actually do maximun bursts. However, maximum bursts still cleanly kill most things without an enhance, and if not it's much safer to chip things down before bursting. It's also less capable of huge Haste bursts, but since it has one more real active the result is still basically a net gain.
The missing recovery isn't too much of problem because NepDra tends to overheal anyway. This distribution of stat bonuses is much more forgiving of subs because RCV and ATK now matter, rather than stacking as much HP as possible being the only consideration. The overall HP is good but not great (around 50k for me with an all-hypermax team) so I still wouldn't consider this to be a true stall team, but it takes advantage of NepDra's "bulky spike" role nicely.
So for anyone considering buying NepDra, make of that what you will. I'm still not sure zmI would recommend him, but he does clear a vast majority of the game this way,and if for some reason you need riduclous damage and two poisons dual NepDras is still an option. I'm not convinced he reall does much that other similar leads can't already do, but since what he does do is pretty solid I guess that's okay.
