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.