My thoughts on DC and a way to balance it

[Chaos6212]

This is a wall that I hope you enjoy, but it is a wall nevertheless.

I’m thinking the real solution needed to fix DC is to honestly change most of its moveset and basically change DCs entire playstyle while trying to keep its identity which is its signature SIA.

DC is a dinosaur, just because he is annoying right now doesn’t mean we hate the dino, we just hate what it is. I think instead of focusing directly on its SIA and trying to change that around the dino, we should change the dino around it. We should put more focus on the fact that it should be part of a team rather than ONLY a tool for taking out speedy dinos or dinos near death that should be used repeatedly.

DC is fused from 2 dinos, 1 damaging but slightly tanky and the other basically being a swap in rampage and nothing more. Triceratops Gen 2 and Dracorex Gen 2. Both dinos being different in a slight sense, but essentially both pop in and either kill the dino before it can move, or stun the dino so the dino swapping in doesnt take damage and has a chance to dish a bunch out. Both take a dino out of the fight and stick around to do a bit more damage before dying if you play your cards right. DCs current state is that of an even faster raptor imho. The issue with Raptors back in the day was that it wasnt fair that they could one-shot stuff before the victim could react. Thats exactly the issue we face now. My proposed changes are as follows:

The move set is a big part of how DC is played now so naturally it should influence how we want it to be played.

Speedup Strike stays as is.
Rampage stays as is.
Acute Stun --> Greater Stunning Strike
Regeneration --> Impact

This move set brings him more in line with a “brawler” type build if you will. First and foremost, there are no priority attacks and no cleanses. He is stuck when he swaps in and he is slow. Big reward, big consequence.

I think the speed up strike becomes more important in this move set as it allows for more strategic play. He can choose to do another Rampage on turn one…or he can use that turn to do a bit of damage, but be able to outspeed most dinos for 3 turns.

I think Rampage is a good move to keep as it keeps him scary even after his SIA is gone. Nuff said.

The moves and stats I change are where I try to develop DC more as a brawler rather than a scummy rat that does damage and scampers away.

Acute Stun being changed to Greater Stunning Strike makes his stun (which all Ceratopsia should have in some form or another imho) less of a time-waster and more of an attack. I chose GSS over Greater Stunning Impact because of the change from Regeneration to Impact which I will get to in a moment. Basically I didnt want DC just to be a more damaging Monostegotops. Monostego has its own identity of HUGE utility but I also feel like having 3 seperate 1.5x moves is also a part of him that I really liked and didn’t want to take that trait from him and give it to someone else, but thats only the secondary reason for having GSS over GSI.

Changing Regeneration to something else while still trying to keep DCs moveset semi-unique proved to be a slight challenge. Eventually I settled on a very simple move that I realized wasn’t really around much. Plain old Impact. I chose this move because when DC swaps in, for its next turn it has 3 choices. Sacrifice 1st turn damage for speed, doing another bunch of damage, or (rather than wasting Rampage on someone who wouldn’t quite die to Speedup Strike) Impact. But it also played into his 2nd turn. You pop in and decide to Rampage for that extra damage on your first actual turn. Now you can choose to use Impact to continue to continue the spree of damage if your utility from Speedup Strike or GSS doesn’t fit the situation essentially allowing you to cycle a 1.5x and a 2x attack like a little non-defense shattering Rex.

To compliment the moveset change, DCs health should be beefed up to atleast 3750 (@ lvl 26) and his attack should be reduced to 1200. His speed should remain as is, it’s a good balancer for his SIA and defensive capabilities and highlights the amazing usefulness of Speedup Strike, but is just low enough that Speedup Strike doesn’t allow him to outspeed Raptors. Finally he should be given 15% Armor to give him a bit more tankiness to assist his new playstyle.

*** All of this is disregarding the plainly broken mechanic of boosts .-. ***

This suggestion isn’t perfect but I think it’s an idea atleast worth discussing. Let me know what y’all think.

[Arnold]

They just need to stop with this SIA x2 damage and swap out crap

Impact in that moveset would be useless, we would only go for Rampage, then Greater Stun, then Rampage again, and it would be impossible to survive for more turns than that even with a health buff.

[Chaos6212]

I don’t see any real complaints about Dracorex Gen 2. If that gets swapped in, its basically a free kill. I think theres a way to balance SIAs. Its just hard because the concept goes against a basic function of the game, the speed stat.

I think Impact gives it more reliability. GSS does 1x damage and if thats not enough to kill after Rampage and the stun doesn’t work, whether by chance or through the enemy being immune, you’re probably dead. This opens up possibilities for DC not really given to any other dino besides maybe chompers of choosing the right amount of dmg to kill so u can save your Rampage (or for this new DC, saving ur GSS) for another turn where you would get more value out of it

[XxCarnotaurusxX]

They could also add liabilities that work as countermeasures against exchanges.

they exchange you with DC against X Dinosaur, in that case the dinosaur first activates its passive before DC, it could reduce the damage, stun or return the damage of the next hit.

[Colin_Goodman]

They just need to stop with this SIA x2 damage and swap out crap

This. Exactly this.

[Moksha]

Give up.

8 months have gone.

A few updates.

THEY DON’T CARE !

[TheMaxx]

I can think of a good way to fix DC…

[James_Simmons]

Change the damage to a percentage of opponent’s max health. At least then it couldn’t 1 hit kill a fresh dino with full health before you even get to play it. Say it was a 50% hit, your opponent would have to get you to below 50% health to kill you with the swap in attack. You could also swap in a new dinosaur if you thought DC was coming and DC wouldn’t be able to one hit it.

I also liked the thought about priority moves going after the Swap In but before the Swap In Attack.

[Chaos6212]

I can see why you might think that would be better but in all honesty it steers him from mainly being meant to kill squishy dinos, to being meant to kill any half health dino which is something I shudder at the thought of. I disagree with the idea of percentage damage in the first place. Non-cleansing/non-immune tanks will never be strong again is what I see from all of the defense shattering HP% & regular HP% damage. Bleed has slight counterplay (forcing you to switch which can be an absolutely devastating disadvantage) but tbh tanks will always be “in a bad spot right now” because of HP% damage.

And yeah, I think it would be cool if the SIAs were used like normal moves now that i think about it (based on speed so if youre slower, you go second even using SIA) havent thought about it much so maybe there are unseen complications but its an idea to explore

[Kwaack]

Ludia knows how to fix the problem, they just choose not to. Presumably because they hate profits and prefer chasing away most of their user base. There can be no other reason.

[James_Simmons]

I don’t disagree with you on the percentage based damage. It was more of an example of how ridiculous some changes could be. But the DC damage amount is also ridiculous. It really sucks when you have 2 dead dinos and your 2 remaining dinos have 3000 health but no matter which one you select, your opponent is going to one hit kill it with an overboosted DC Swap In.

But a change to when a swap in attack happens was serious and would change quite a few strategies.

[DanTheObscure]

they just need to allow instant moves to occur prior to swap in moves. problem solved

[Europa]

I’m very appreciative of your clever, reasoned, constructive ideas (truly!) for what to do with that wretched little parasite, but if I may… a tiny suggestion regarding your proposal:

This is a wall that I hope you enjoy, but it is a wall nevertheless.

I’m thinking the real solution needed to fix DC is to honestly ^{change most of its moveset and basically change DCs entire playstyle while trying to keep its identity which is its signature SIA.}

^{DC is a dinosaur, just because he is annoying right now doesn’t mean} we hate the dino ^{we just hate what it is. I think instead of focusing directly on its SIA and trying to change that around the dino, we should change the dino around it.} We should put ^{more focus on the fact that} it ^{should be part of a team rather than ONLY a} to ^{ol for taking out speedy dinos or dinos near} death ^{that should be used repeatedly.}

^{DC is fused from 2 dinos, 1 damaging but slightly tanky and the other basically being a swap in rampage and nothing more. Triceratops Gen 2 and Dracorex Gen 2. Both dinos being different in a slight sense, but essentially both pop in and either kill the dino before it can move, or stun the dino so the dino swapping in doesnt take damage and has a chance to dish a bunch out. Both take a dino out of the fight and stick around to do a bit more damage before dying if you play your cards right. DCs current state is that of an even faster raptor imho. The issue with Raptors back in the day was that it wasnt fair that they could one-shot stuff before the victim could react. Thats exactly the issue we face now. My proposed changes are as follows:}

^{The move set is a big part of how DC is played now so naturally it should influence how we want it to be played.}

^{Speedup Strike stays as is.
Rampage stays as is.
Acute Stun --> Greater Stunning Strike
Regeneration --> Impact}

^{This move set brings him more in line with a “brawler” type build if you will. First and foremost, there are no priority attacks and no cleanses. He is stuck when he swaps in and he is slow. Big reward, big consequence.}

^{I think the speed up strike becomes more important in this move set as it allows for more strategic play. He can choose to do another Rampage on turn one…or he can use that turn to do a bit of damage, but be able to outspeed most dinos for 3 turns.}

^{I think Rampage is a good move to keep as it keeps him scary even after his SIA is gone. Nuff said.}

^{The moves and stats I change are where I try to develop DC more as a brawler rather than a scummy rat that does damage and scampers away.}

^{Acute Stun being changed to Greater Stunning Strike makes his stun (which all Ceratopsia should have in some form or another imho) less of a time-waster and more of an attack. I chose GSS over Greater Stunning Impact because of the change from Regeneration to Impact which I will get to in a moment. Basically I didnt want DC just to be a more damaging Monostegotops. Monostego has its own identity of HUGE utility but I also feel like having 3 seperate 1.5x moves is also a part of him that I really liked and didn’t want to take that trait from him and give it to someone else, but thats only the secondary reason for having GSS over GSI.}

^{Changing Regeneration to something else while still trying to keep DCs moveset semi-unique proved to be a slight challenge. Eventually I settled on a very simple move that I realized wasn’t really around much. Plain old Impact. I chose this move because when DC swaps in, for its next turn it has 3 choices. Sacrifice 1st turn damage for speed, doing another bunch of damage, or (rather than wasting Rampage on someone who wouldn’t quite die to Speedup Strike) Impact. But it also played into his 2nd turn. You pop in and decide to Rampage for that extra damage on your first actual turn. Now you can choose to use Impact to continue to continue the spree of damage if your utility from Speedup Strike or GSS doesn’t fit the situation essentially allowing you to cycle a 1.5x and a 2x attack like a little non-defense shattering Rex.}

^{To compliment the moveset change, DCs health should be beefed up to atleast 3750 (@ lvl 26) and his attack should be reduced to 1200. His speed should remain as is, it’s a good balancer for his SIA and defensive capabilities and highlights the amazing usefulness of Speedup Strike, but is just low enough that Speedup Strike doesn’t allow him to outspeed Raptors. Finally he should be given 15% Armor to give him a bit more tankiness to assist his new playstyle.}

*** All of this is disregarding the plainly broken mechanic of boosts .-. ***

^{This suggestion isn’t perfect but I think it’s an idea atleast worth discussing. Let me know what y’all think.}

I never want to see the thing again, not even with a revised moveset. Burn it down, refund everyone’s coins, but let’s never forget what happened during this awful period of the game.

[Chaos6212]

Haha that was good, I know what you mean but I cant help but think what this dino could have been and thats why I wanted to try and get it fixed

[Sixty-Four]

Lol big nerf to dcg2 and rat are needed. Only acceptable one in dcg1. These moves are ridiculous we don’t need swap in damage. Swap in moves should be tactical to help set up. Not just come in and rat.

[Dennis_Lo]

Consider the case of Swap in Invincibility. I also suggest priority move should happen before any SIA, but SI-Invincibility becomes useless.

[ESP7]

I support the DC nerf, and I believe it will happen shortly.

My take on the DC situation and how Ludia will balance it;

Every F2P gacha game has “heroes” that the player collect. In this case it’s dinosaurs.

Every F2P gacha game employs “Skinner Box”, mechanics to make sure players get addicted, and are kept active.

They monetize their product through some of these “pillars”;

FOMO (Fear of missing out), gambling mechanics, loot boxes, skins, “limited” offers, ingame currency control (coin sinks), subscriptions, to name some.

One of the most prominent game companies in the world, namely EA, has harvested alot of controversy recently because of dynamic difficulty adjustment in their games, alongside loot boxes targeted for children.

And smaller companies like Ludia, learn from them.

Dracoceratops is THE perfect example of ingame currency control, IMO.

Now that everybody has invested their resources, they will make it useless.

Take Monomimus, and Indoraptor, as examples of Ludia currency control.

They will either nerf DC beyond recognition, or give it a hybrid, which again benefits them financially.

They knew DC, and pre 1.8 Thor was busted. And they also knew how much money that was going to make them.

Thor, another example of currency control.

When the new Thor comes, in the form of an immune chomper with armor, and counter attack, everybody will go bananas.

My 2 cents…

[James_Simmons]

Instead of Swap In Invincibility it would be Swap In Instant Invicibility which would make the invincibility part of the Swap In a priority move meaning it would go before the other players attack. The only time the invicibility would not go first is if the other player selected a priority move and their dinosaur is faster than yours, then their priority move would go first just as they would in normal play.

[Dennis_Lo]

Then they can also create a new move called Swap In Instant Rampage or something like that. The creature having this move will be the new generation of DC.

[James_Simmons]

Instant invincibility already exists as a move so it’s not creating a new move.