Patch Notes 1.8: Creature Balancing - Dracocera and Dg2 Nerf

Patch 1.8 brings with it a whole host of exciting changes. Pretty much everything the community has been begging for – from a nerf to Dracoceratops and Dracorex Gen 2, to balancing changes with critical strikes and cloaking, to more free ways to engage with the world and earn DNA for players who aren’t paying large sums, this patch has a ton to offer. We’ve broken our patch notes for 1.8 down into six separate guides, giving you the rundown on all the changes. If you’ve missed the other guides, click the links below.

The final (and perhaps biggest) change that patch 1.8 is bringing is the massive massive transition from Swap-In Shattering Rampage.

The only two creatures posessing the move (Dracoceratops and Dracorex Gen 2) now officially lost it. Instead, they get a simple Rampage move... which means Shields, Invincibility, and Armor are all going to put a massive dent in the Dracorats.

So let's get into some of the biggest winners and losers from what we're seeing in the patch notes. There are always a few minor buffs and nerfs, and sometimes it's hard to see the whole picture from 3000 feet (on patch notes day) but we like to think we can get pretty close.

Blue wins big by getting two major move changes. For one, getting the basic attack Distraction instead of Strike is a huge benefit for a raptor. With the new and improved Precise Pounce, Blue can now essentially alternate distracting attacks perpetually keeping opponents attack reduced (unless they have something like superiority strike). And with the shield Blue has as well, it becomes a really interesting play. Add to that the buff in damage and health, and Blue becomes hands down the best raptor in the game.

Geminititan gets an absolutely insane boost in attack - up to 1400 from 1100 - which is the largest attack boost I think we've ever seen in any patch. A full 300 additional damage is quite the buff. And it makes this tank substantially better. May the sauropods rise again!

Monostegotops is almost becoming comical in how powerful it is. Already a monster for a legendary in 1.7, removing the Dracoceratops threat and buffing Monostego by giving it Distraction as a basic attack, and a buff to both attack and health, it's pretty insane. I mean, I get why it gets an attack buff because of the 20% crit chance that it relied on to win a number of matchups, but Magnapyritor had the same crit chance and somehow got nerfed, instead of getting more attack, more health and a distraction move.

It appears the three-horned Cerastopsid is poised to be the strongest Legendary in the game.

UPDATE 12:40PM EST - I confused Gorgosuchus and Gorgosaurus. It appears GorgoSAURUS is the one getting more attack than Tryko and Thor. Not Gorgosuchus. Gorgosuchus just got a decent attack buff to 1440, still a lot, but not nearly the insane boost we were puzzled over before.

I'm not entirely sure how Gorgosaurus did it, but somehow it now has more attack than both Trykosaurus and Thoralodosaur. Granted, this rare creature is still quite slow, but that attack stat is pretty high -- making it pretty darn good for a rare.

Maybe that doesn't seem like much, but considering this monster still has a Ferocious attack that buffs it's total attack, I think this might earn it a boost or two in the tiers.

While some will say this is the death knell of Dracoceratops, it still has value on a top tier team - though that value has been greatly reduced. Having only a rampage means armor and shielding is no longer broken by the terror-rat. But because 1.7 (and 1.6 for that matter) was so hard on Tanks, it still take a minute for us to fully see the impact of this nerf. If the changes to cloaking and the critical multiplier were strong enough to take the Theropods down a peg (looking at you Thoralodosaur and Trykosaurus), then we may see a resurgance of tanks. And if that happens... we should also see a lot fewer Dracoceratops.

A lot of the same can be said for Dracorex Gen 2. Losing Swap-in Shattering Rampage is big. It isn't the end of days, however. Both of the rats still have one of the strongest moves in the game with a speed faster than the fastest speed boosted creature. It still should prove useful versus creatures like Magnapyritor, Dilorachierus, and Erlidominus. Pretty much anything without armor can still get wrecked by an unseen swap in rampage.

Magnapyritor gets a big nerf by way of not getting any kind of buff to damage (while many other things suffering from the crit chance change got some sort of damage buff), while also getting a nerf to health to "bring it more in line with other Uniques."

While not wrong, what's frustrating about this HP nerf is it essentially gives everyone a reason to keep Dracoceratops on their teams (to pretty much one-shot this beast). And while sure, in our battle simulations, Magnapyritor hands down won more matches against everything in the entire game than any other creature, it still (when not getting crits) was perfectly beatable -- especially with swap in rampages. The HP nerf may not be the end of days -- as somehow Utarinex seemed to halfway survive its own nerf last patch, but we're not so sure. This might be a casualty of war if enough people keep using Dracoceratops to dispatch it.

Truth be told, the stat boosts exasperate the issue. Unfortunately, because so many people have sunk stat boosts into high level creatures, nerfing creatures means we've got stat boosts we can't get out of them and it will take quite some time to get other creatures up to the same level (while potentially leaving a player further and further behind). I feel bad for those who sunk stat boosts into Dracoceratops and Magnapyritor. If they do take as big a hit as it looks like here, those players may be in trouble.

Marsupial Lion takes a big hit with the change to critical chance because it makes that crazy 90% attack not so much 90% anymore. While it was discussed in the patch notes that the change in critical hit really only affects those with rending attacks most -- particularly those with rending attacks that have critical hit buffs -- it still is worth noting that the critical hit from Marsupial Lion is not as potent as it was before.