I agree with Leroy, Nobunaga is better most of the time since he ALWAYS attacks, Zato is some kind of a blind monk, so he doesn't attack unless attacked first.
If it matters, Nobunga is 102/26000 and Zato is 165/13500 at level 11.
Looks like the 2 characters swap positions when maxed. Zato ends up with the higher attack but lower health. Nobunaga will last longer but does poor damage. I still stand by Zato. Being able to deflect ranged enemies is too good.
If you look at page 1 of the "Which Allies should I upgrade post?", you'll see that I posted stats for almost all the allies. Following is copied from there. Nobunaga does less damage per strike, but he gets to swing his sword 5 times every 3 seconds. Zato only gets to swing his sword once every second. In 3 seconds Nobunaga does 5*102 = 510 damage at level 11 and Zato does 3*185 = 495 damage every 3 seconds. Therefore Nobunaga does slightly more damage than Zato. He also has 26000 health vs 13500 which is nearly double so Nobunaga is a much better ally. However he costs a lot more to get to level 11. If I remember correctly, you can upgrade Zato with gold instead of gems for the first 5 levels so it probably costs around 200 gems to max out Zato while it costs 338 gems for Nobunaga. I chose to develop Zato because I got the golden ally for him early on, but if you don't have the golden ally for either then Nobunaga is clearly better.
Sometimes you might want Zato's ability to deflect projectiles, but the fact the he won't attack until attacked doesn't make him very useful in a fight. Nobunaga's high health more than compensates for his inability to deflect projectiles. Also Zato has a 15 second recharge and Nobunaga has a 1 second recharge. That means that if you summon Zato and he dies 8 seconds later you have to wait 7 more seconds before you can summon him again. In single player the recharge doesn't matter much, but in multiplayer Nobunaga is going to do a much better job defending your artifact.
Team Nobunaga all the way... though be warned, after you pass level 500 Nobunaga and Zato become useless, since even the "low level" zombies can kill them in 2 blows!...
Once you reach level 500 in Single Player mode it's an entirely different ball game.
Comments
Zato has high health but does low damage. But he deflects enemy projectiles. He's kind of more useful.
Looks like the 2 characters swap positions when maxed. Zato ends up with the higher attack but lower health. Nobunaga will last longer but does poor damage. I still stand by Zato. Being able to deflect ranged enemies is too good.
Sometimes you might want Zato's ability to deflect projectiles, but the fact the he won't attack until attacked doesn't make him very useful in a fight. Nobunaga's high health more than compensates for his inability to deflect projectiles. Also Zato has a 15 second recharge and Nobunaga has a 1 second recharge. That means that if you summon Zato and he dies 8 seconds later you have to wait 7 more seconds before you can summon him again. In single player the recharge doesn't matter much, but in multiplayer Nobunaga is going to do a much better job defending your artifact.
Nobunaga (3.0 - 5 strikes, 1)
1/2450/29
2/3200/35 20
3/4200/40 22
4/5350/50 24
5/7000/60 26
6/9150/65 28
7/11150/75 30
8/14450/80 32
9/17300/87 36
10/20800/93 40
11/26000/102 80
Zato (1.0, 15)
10/10500/140 40
11/13500/165 80
Nobunaga gets 5 attacks in 3 seconds while Zato only gets 3 attacks in 3 seconds.
Once you reach level 500 in Single Player mode it's an entirely different ball game.