Neo Diamond vs Diamond - which is better?

[Leana47]

I was wondering if the Neo Diamond Dragon is as strong as the ?original? Diamond?!
Anybody got both and tried them in battles?

Thank you.

[FireballFarm]

For breeding purposes, they are identical. But, for fighting, the regular Diamond Dragon is stronger.
In general, diamond types aren't great fighters. They are the best against other diamond types, but that's about it. The pure Diamond Dragon and the Infinity Dragon have a little bit of extra power against Champs, but the Neo Diamond doesn't have that. Here's why:

Since the Neo Diamond cannot be bred, it falls into the Unbreedable tier for battle strength. It doesn't fight as an Ultra Rare despite being classified as an Ultra Rare. Any dragon that cannot be bred falls into the Unbreedable tier.
The tiers, from weakest to strongest: Common>Rare>Unbreedable>Super Rare>Ultra Rare.

(This is also why it's odd S8 that keeps releasing all these "Ultra Rare" prize dragons lately- there is no player benefit to these dragons being classified as Ultra Rare when they all fight as Unbreedables. I guess the elevated rarity is how they are trying to justify the massive increase in event requirements/world event points over the past several months.)

Here's more about the battle strength tiers:


The game compares your dragon's rarity score to the enemy's rarity score. As such, it is very important to choose as rare a dragon as possible. The higher your dragon's rarity score is relative to the enemy dragon's rarity score, the less points you lose from your crit bonus.

There are five different rarity tiers. They are listed below in ascending order of effectiveness.

Common:
Any dragon that the game displays as Common will end up here. A few exceptions of rarer dragons will also be classified in this rarity tier (Virtue and Night).

Rare:
Except for the exceptions in the Common and Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Rare will be classified in this tier.

Unbreedable:
Any dragon that cannot be bred is classified in this tier regardless of its game-displayed rarity. This includes dragons won from tournaments, dragons received by completing Dragon Album goals, Gold type dragons, and any other dragon that cannot normally be acquired through breeding. Some (but not all) expired limited dragons also fall into this tier.

Super:
Except for the exceptions in the Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Super Rare will be classified in this tier.

Ultra:
Except for the exceptions in the Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Ultra Rare will be classified in this tier.

Level
The game compares your dragon's level to the enemy dragon's level. The higher your dragon's level, the better. Try to use max level dragons when possible. If not, just use the highest level dragon that you can manage.

[tinkyw1nky]

I pretty much just use diamonds against champs and against champs I think the only case where this would be relevant is if you face a valiant dragon...otherwise all other champs are also unbreedable regardless of rarity so they would fall in the same tier as Neo Diamond. The player doesn?t get a bonus for having a rarer dragon in the arena...only a penalty for having a less rare dragon. So Neo Diamond and diamond are virtually the same against champs except when facing valiant.

[Leana47]

Thank you for this great explanation.

[retseho]

For breeding purposes, they are identical. But, for fighting, the regular Diamond Dragon is stronger.
In general, diamond types aren't great fighters. They are the best against other diamond types, but that's about it. The pure Diamond Dragon and the Infinity Dragon have a little bit of extra power against Champs, but the Neo Diamond doesn't have that. Here's why:

Since the Neo Diamond cannot be bred, it falls into the Unbreedable tier for battle strength. It doesn't fight as an Ultra Rare despite being classified as an Ultra Rare. Any dragon that cannot be bred falls into the Unbreedable tier.
The tiers, from weakest to strongest: Common>Rare>Unbreedable>Super Rare>Ultra Rare.

(This is also why it's odd S8 that keeps releasing all these "Ultra Rare" prize dragons lately- there is no player benefit to these dragons being classified as Ultra Rare when they all fight as Unbreedables. I guess the elevated rarity is how they are trying to justify the massive increase in event requirements/world event points over the past several months.)

Here's more about the battle strength tiers:


The game compares your dragon's rarity score to the enemy's rarity score. As such, it is very important to choose as rare a dragon as possible. The higher your dragon's rarity score is relative to the enemy dragon's rarity score, the less points you lose from your crit bonus.

There are five different rarity tiers. They are listed below in ascending order of effectiveness.

Common:
Any dragon that the game displays as Common will end up here. A few exceptions of rarer dragons will also be classified in this rarity tier (Virtue and Night).

Rare:
Except for the exceptions in the Common and Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Rare will be classified in this tier.

Unbreedable:
Any dragon that cannot be bred is classified in this tier regardless of its game-displayed rarity. This includes dragons won from tournaments, dragons received by completing Dragon Album goals, Gold type dragons, and any other dragon that cannot normally be acquired through breeding. Some (but not all) expired limited dragons also fall into this tier.

Super:
Except for the exceptions in the Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Super Rare will be classified in this tier.

Ultra:
Except for the exceptions in the Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Ultra Rare will be classified in this tier.

Level
The game compares your dragon's level to the enemy dragon's level. The higher your dragon's level, the better. Try to use max level dragons when possible. If not, just use the highest level dragon that you can manage.

Correction needed on
Neo Diamond.

I just bred Neo Diamond + Fire & got a 41hr(Ridgeback) after many tries.

[graovac]

The tiers, from weakest to strongest: Common>Rare>Unbreedable>Super Rare>Ultra Rare.

(This is also why it's odd S8 that keeps releasing all these "Ultra Rare" prize dragons lately- there is no player benefit to these dragons being classified as Ultra Rare when they all fight as Unbreedables. I guess the elevated rarity is how they are trying to justify the massive increase in event requirements/world event points over the past several months.)
Actually I would dissagre with you on this one.
Unbreadable dragons are still able to be parents (some but not ALL) and as such, they ALL can be used in battles and ussually unbreedable ones are classified as weaker rares and super or ultra rares and do outstanding jobs in arena with only lvl 10.
So if you look from wider perspective you could see the S8 point on this matter.
Either way you buy it, fight for it or walk away...

[missbandette]

I think they mean that by making the dragons ultra rare it makes them more desirable to us players, not meaning that they are useless. With so many new dragons and events S8 has to keep us wanting more, that’s what they’re supposed to do. Since rarity has nothing to do with breeding and in battles they fall in the unbreedable tier, it still makes unbreedable ultras good collectables. I think it would depend on what you want to do with your diamond or Neo diamond. The regular diamond dragon is better for battling if you want it for the arena. If you want a diamond for breeding the Neo diamond might be easier to get bc you can collect tickets to craft, rather than count on breeding luck. I’m still collecting tickets to craft Neo diamond but I don’t really try hard at bingo and I’ve just been going off of tickets from events.

[Nuicakes]

Correction needed on
Neo Diamond.

I just bred Neo Diamond + Fire & got a 41hr(Ridgeback) after many tries.

The term "unbreedable" is a little confusing. "Unbreedable" is a dragon "not found through breeding". So you can use Neo Diamond on the breeding roost, but you can't breed 2 dragons to obtain it.

[Nuicakes]

For breeding purposes, they are identical. But, for fighting, the regular Diamond Dragon is stronger.
In general, diamond types aren't great fighters. They are the best against other diamond types, but that's about it. The pure Diamond Dragon and the Infinity Dragon have a little bit of extra power against Champs, but the Neo Diamond doesn't have that. Here's why:

Since the Neo Diamond cannot be bred, it falls into the Unbreedable tier for battle strength. It doesn't fight as an Ultra Rare despite being classified as an Ultra Rare. Any dragon that cannot be bred falls into the Unbreedable tier.
The tiers, from weakest to strongest: Common>Rare>Unbreedable>Super Rare>Ultra Rare.

(This is also why it's odd S8 that keeps releasing all these "Ultra Rare" prize dragons lately- there is no player benefit to these dragons being classified as Ultra Rare when they all fight as Unbreedables. I guess the elevated rarity is how they are trying to justify the massive increase in event requirements/world event points over the past several months.)

Here's more about the battle strength tiers:


The game compares your dragon's rarity score to the enemy's rarity score. As such, it is very important to choose as rare a dragon as possible. The higher your dragon's rarity score is relative to the enemy dragon's rarity score, the less points you lose from your crit bonus.

There are five different rarity tiers. They are listed below in ascending order of effectiveness.

Common:
Any dragon that the game displays as Common will end up here. A few exceptions of rarer dragons will also be classified in this rarity tier (Virtue and Night).

Rare:
Except for the exceptions in the Common and Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Rare will be classified in this tier.

Unbreedable:
Any dragon that cannot be bred is classified in this tier regardless of its game-displayed rarity. This includes dragons won from tournaments, dragons received by completing Dragon Album goals, Gold type dragons, and any other dragon that cannot normally be acquired through breeding. Some (but not all) expired limited dragons also fall into this tier.

Super:
Except for the exceptions in the Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Super Rare will be classified in this tier.

Ultra:
Except for the exceptions in the Unbreedable tier, dragons that the game displays as Ultra Rare will be classified in this tier.

Level
The game compares your dragon's level to the enemy dragon's level. The higher your dragon's level, the better. Try to use max level dragons when possible. If not, just use the highest level dragon that you can manage.

Great explanation! It's always a nice surprise to remember that an unbreedable rare dragon is in the same strength tier as an unbreedable ultra-rare dragon.

I finished my first 2 or 3 tournaments without a Diamond and had great success using disposable level 1 Fire dragons against Champions. I now have a Diamond but still lose most tournaments.