Yeah sorry, I never finished updating the first post... work stuff came up.
Though I sent some PMs to someone else about what I had finished up.
I will have some more spare time in the near future to write more...
Will focus my attention on levelling up monsters and REM sections as the other stuff in your writeup was very well done to begin with!
And as to people asking about starting gods...
Even on JP side.. it hasnt changed all that much...
Godliest God Tier - Archangel Lucifer (evolves to: Seraph of Dawn Lucifer)
He is just so far beyond everything else... at the current stage of the game, its ridiculous. For clearing all content in the game from Newbies to Pros... He just does it all.
1st Tier - Horus(4x) /Kirin (5x) / Ra(6x) / Kunino?(4x)
These are all "burst" leaders. Each has a special matching requirement to activate their damage multiplier. Beginners will NOT do well with these leaders until their matching ability gets very good.
Horus needs any 4 colors which gives great flexibility in team building. His active is amazing as a sub for Goemon team... but pretty crappy as a leader.
Kirin needs 4 colors too... but Light, Red, Blue, Green, which is both better and worse at the same time. Her active ability is 20% HP Reduction! Nice.
Ra needs all 5 colors... to get great damage... you need godly matching skills and lots of luck. Even I cannot pull off Ra as much as I would want to and I can pull off Anubis! (10+combos for 10x dmg!) His active is 7777dmg that ignores armor, has very few niche uses for a sub.
Kunino?... Match 6+ combos and get 4x attack! A different playstyle than the Rainbow Burst... but not available on the US yet... His active skill... is super awesome and he gets nice stats but no RCV... His active skill is a one turn delay with 11 turn cooldown. Due to NO RCV on him... its tough to say where he ranks but... at my level of the game, I would favor him over Horus...
Tier 2 Isis(3x) / Bastet(2.5x but getting upgrade)
Isis... match 3 colors get 3x damage. Her quick heal is also useful for beginners... Mediocre Stats... you outgrow her quickly and she is not a good sub.
Bastet... make 4+ combos and get 2.5x dmg... Also yawn. but upgrade happening on JP side to supposed 4x dmg and buff to her active... Her active makes every attack hit all targets for 3 turns. Also a useful sub sometimes...
Apart from those leaders... Everything else is just about the same... You can beat everything up to Castle of Satan regular with any team.
The reason we make such a big deal of starting roll is this... Every roll after your starting roll costs you Magic Stones and you will never know what you will get from the REM... except for Toy Dragons. You will always get toy dragons...
If your time is valuable to you and you dont enjoy rerolling... Dont. Just buy stones and then wait for a godfest that lists ArchAngel Lucifer and then buy stones till you get him. Could cost you 5 bucks, could cost you 1000. RANDOM.
My advice is this...
If you are brand new to the game, go with any roll and play until you cleared Tower of Giants. If you like it... start a second account and begin rerolling until you get one of the listed Gods.
If you know you like the game already... and dont want to feel like a Ranger in Vanilla EQ... or umm whats a more current comparison... reroll until you get one of the listed Gods.
If you know you want to be a power game... reroll until you get Archangel Lucifer.
The last thing I will say about rerolling for Archangel Lucifer... You will spend much more time not being able to beat content or descends and wishing you had gotten one than you will spend rerolling until you get one.