Deinonychus Changes
In this post I'd like to address the recent balancing changes, which, among other dinosaurs, saw nerfs being applied to the Deinonychus.
Unfortunately, the 1000 character limit of this forum is not sufficient for my remarks, as I have gone into extensive detail on each of my points, including some minor testing. As such I will make my opinions available in two forms, once as a Pastebin link at the bottom of this post, and once as a PDF attached to this post. I hope that despite the length of it you will read it in its entirety.
Thank you!
https://pastebin.com/zeU6b5Ve
b7bmgbhhf2ozqvjwagdu.pdf
Comments: 17
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05 Aug, '25
shelbarinoHighlighted comment
Took nearly a year break and came back to find my favorite dino nerfed. :l Alderon took away all the speed buffs so now kapros and terrorbirds can out pace me and out stamina me. Which should not be the case at all. Deinons should be faster than a freaking crocodilian on land and have more stamina. Many of us play in modded servers and Alderon should also consider that with "fixing" existing dinos. The updates really are disappointing. I'm hoping someone just mods and alternative at this point. the double jump is pretty cool, but I'd happily sacrifice that to go back to the way the chicken used to be. -
22 Jul, '25
AzulraTbf if you latch onto something that is highly likely to be using AoE attacks(aka Bars, Ano, Spino, and Amarga) then you sorta just deserve to get obliterated at that point since none of those are ever a good target to attempt latching onto. However I do think that the stamina nerfs on Deinon were a bit excessive. It made sense on Laten since it is a stronger raptor and it had a passive ability that boosts its stamina regen speed by +50% at night, but Deinon doesn't have that kind of ability.
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22 Jul, '25
JackdawheartEverything mentioned checks out.
One aspect I would like to add is that deinonychus is a starter creature, and as such supposed to be relatively simple and easy to play. Escaping should not be that cumbersome.
In deinonychus' current state, newer (and solo) players will struggle in almost any battle, especially if they are getting targeted by another fast creature.
If deinonychus groups prove to be an issue, the changes should focus those, instead of the individual dinosaur. Focusing the solo creature instead causes it to become rather frustrating to play. -
22 Jul, '25
netLunaAdding onto this to mention a point that might not have been 100% clear in my post. As Azulra mentioned, if you latch onto something that has AOE damage it is very much your own fault. I admit that I did not properly explain that I do not think a Deinonychus should be viable against AOE attackers, it was just another example of the now rather long list of dinosaurs that you can not attack due to some sort of issue you would face. It is perfectly ok and expected for a raptor to not be able to fight a dinosaur with AOE damage, but when the pool of potential targets is already cut down due to this it should not be further limited by the recent changes.
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22 Jul, '25
waonYour argument sounds like other dinosaurs use less stamina and recover faster than Deinonychus. If Deinonychus itself moves to a bush where it can hide or a rock that it can easily climb, you can recover your stamina, right? There are dinosaurs that are not even allowed to do that.
The problem with your argument is that you say "we have few opponents to attack," even though it is always the Deinonychus that chooses to initiate combat or flee.
Don't compare Deinonychus to dinosaurs that have no option to run away if they are found.
Deinonychus remains a fast and long-distance dinosaur.
You just need to pay more attention to suitable terrain, environment, and surrounding enemies. -
22 Jul, '25
Dibble's Game TimeI agree with you man, even though Laten has the ability to increase it stam regen speed during the night. Since Deinon doesn;t have that, I think it's safe to say that you should saty away from deinon. But one thing, I hate how Alderon says they won't nerf anything, cause I saw a post that said stop nerfing raptors. It said done, then, they nef raptors. WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU ALDERON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How bout you follow through what you're gonna say. It's why my mom says say what you mean, and mean what you say!
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22 Jul, '25
Anon@azulra
I disagree with these nerfs making sense for laten.
Laten is far slower than dienon. While it might do an iota more damage than dienon does these escape issues are now 10x and issue for laten, anywhere a dinon can double jump to, a laten can't.
Also having a nerf for a passive ability that only happens at night? So we get punished for what the devs put in the game and use it as intended and screw anyone who wants to fight during the day??
Latens stamina pool is also worse than dienons.
Anything that a dienon could easily out speed and run away from, laten already struggled to get away from.
These nerfs were highly unnecessary for both of the small raptors. -
23 Jul, '25
Azulra@Fang
I only mentioned that because Laten is sorta designed to be most efficient at night time which is just a core design issue imo that has been plaguing Laten for a long while now. What I really think needs to be done in the regards of Laten is move its night time passive abilities to generic passive slots where they'll be built into the dino and put some replacement abilities to substitute them in that'll work at both day and night. Laten should just get all those night passives by default since that's their whole unique niche and just have abilities that allow them to create builds outside of that niche instead of having to either create a build that works all the time or a build that is leaning into that niche since night time only lasts for like 20 minutes basically.
TL;DR is that reverting the stamina nerf on Laten isn't gonna fix all the fundamental flaws that plagued the dino's viability. -
23 Jul, '25
SiaraYes and the laten has taken a big strike and they both need to have their stats pre-update for the sake of survival-ability of single players!!!
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24 Jul, '25
LastIfriedI agree with this document. I am fine with Deinonychus not doing any realistically dangerous damage alone. I do believe it should be able to content better with 2-slots if it manages a latch on those nimble dinos, but I understand that the vision for Deinonychus and Latenivenatrix is to be group focused and I understand that in order for the group buffs to not go out of hand, the baseline needs to remain low.
However, even if it is relatively inconsequential in combat on its own, Deinonychus shines as an explorer, a scavenger, and a scout which are generally playstyles unsupported in most other dinosaurs as most abilities focus mainly on combat. Taking away this role from Deinonychus takes away a very unique exploration dino. Now it has neither the means to attack someone on its own nor the means to run about, watching others fight and scavenging meals and trophies. Raptors are fan favorites. They can be weak, but they should be mobile so new players, can explore. -
24 Jul, '25
pawclawsoutVoting is disabled so I guess I'll comment. We solo players keep getting punished for the actions of KOSers and Mixpackers. I understand that the devs intend certain dinos to be groupers, but players should be able to choose how they play. Otherwise, why open this game to the public? Unnerf the chicken!
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24 Jul, '25
MetriI agree with all of the comments here.
Also, the argument “Raptors are ONLY supposed to be good in packs!” doesn’t make sense. Of course they should be more viable and strong in packs, but literally just about every other playable is a great solo option too. And when raptors DO fight in packs their targets complain endlessly about it and cry for nerfs! -
25 Jul, '25
Nebulon GalaxusYou do realise that you can just use basic sprinting right? You know, the one Where you hold down the sprint button and can run for more than 3 minutes at a time.
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26 Jul, '25
Anon@nebulon
You do realize that at base speed there's very little a lat can outrun without use of its tail fan? Being able to out manuver isn't enough on its own when so many things can just constantly bite your tail.
So..that's not really a viable option.
Then there's also the point of, why even have the ability, if we are not allowed to use it effectively?
On top of that, I'm sick of the devs constantly crapping on laten and dienon without having any actual good reasonings behind it. -
26 Jul, '25
Nebulon GalaxusI disagree with that @Fang, deinon runs at speed of 1100 and laten 1050 but has Like an extra minute of stamina. So, your just gona beat everything you cant fight with endurance. I dont think tail fan and such were ever indeed as constantly spammed movement abilities or else they would just make the Damn things faster by default and remove them. Like how allo got the recent boost to dmg while it lost fresh blood sense in favour of it.
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27 Jul, '25
AnonWhat does how fast dinon goes have anything to do with things being able to tail ride laten????
An achillo can chase down a laten no problem spamming its kick boost and has the stamina to out last you wether you use tail fan or not.
Campto and struthi have no issue keeping up or out staming
A pychno can charge and catch right back up after being dupped and has way more stam
Metri can also tail gate you at base speed. You might be able to out stam it but you have to survive the constant trashing to your backside first.
Endurance isn't going to do jack because as a lat you don't have the health to out compete this things to get somewhere safe first.
And that's only a couple of the examples. -
27 Jul, '25
duckbootsabsolutely agree on all these points. deinon used to be boatloads of fun to play; it was zippy, has a high jump, and can regen stam fairly quickly if you can lay down somewhere, and can (if played right) be competitive with apexes. Some nerfs are quite justified imo, such as sever tendon needing stamina cost or lowering stamina regen slightly. However, raising the cost of cost to tail fan is absolutely brutal when combined with the crippled stamina regen.
As OP pointed out, the lower regen on deinon is extremely annoying at best and game-ending at worst. it can take half (or more!) stamina just to keep up with a fleeing target. once you're latched, you can only get one or two hits in before you should hop off if you want to actually get away from whatever you pounced. it is not fun to keep pace with a target, fight to find an opening, get a couple bites in, then drop off with 0 stamina and get stomped into a pancake because your poor raptor is too weak to move. Please bring them back!