Raptor

*"Men say raptors are small and fly in the sky. Men have forgotten."*

## Description

A flesh-eating dinosaur in the style of a Megaraptoran. It has the talons of a dromaeosaur and a fin-like row of feathers running down its back.

## Moves

* Movement type: *Jump*. Press X to jump.
* Defense type: *Dodge*. Tap L1/R1 to leap left or right.
* Light attacks: Side-to-side claw swipes and bites
* Heavy attacks: Downward slashes and kicks
* Grapple: Climbs onto the enemy's back and savages them with its claws and teeth.

## Powers

* Roar: **RALLY**. Temporarily buffs attack speed on self and all nearby allies.
	+ Cooldown: *Medium*

* Active: **SUMMON**. Calls two CPU-controlled minions to stand by the Raptor's side. They are physically smaller and have only 50% the attack and health of the original, but follow them everywhere they go and mirror all their attacks. Their aid lasts for a while, but each can be killed and will not be replaced until Summon is used again. Cooldown begins when both minions have timed out or been killed.
	+ Cooldown: *Medium*

* Passive: **ATHLETICISM**. When jumping on vertical surfaces (walls, cliffs, other Legends) the Raptor automatically latches on for a few seconds; pressing X again will perform a second jump.

## Skins

Default Age of Fire skins.Post-release DLC skins.
## Playstyle

The Raptor is one of the fastest Legends in Age of Fire, outpaced only by the Mimic Bird (and the Thundercrown, temporarily, when charging at maximum Momentum). It is also the highest jumper in the game, able to clear buildings and the heads of similarly sized Legends with ease. Its natural *Athleticism* allows it to push the limits of just how vertical a land-bound Legend can become, clinging to surfaces like rock walls, buildings, and enemies (even flying ones!) to combo into additional hops. With the right surroundings a skillful Raptor can end up in places that only flying Legends "should" be able to access. This makes it an excellent choice for scouting missions, but make no mistake- this Legend focuses on offense above all else.

The Raptor's power is below average, but the speed at which it strikes is not. A very rapid rate of attack combined with high speed and maneuverability make it a nightmare for turrets and Tanks, and with the power to *Summon* and *Rally* packmates it can more than double its output in an instant. The Raptor is especially deadly if paired with an ally who can buff attack power or lower cooldown times, and with the right team synergy can operate as one of the highest output DPS units of any Age.

## Counterplay

The Raptor is hard to stop once it gets going, but like with most high speed DPS Legends it's sorely lacking in armor. The Raptor doesn't have high enough damage resistance to stay locked in to a fight for long, not unless it has support or more attack power than its enemy has health. Slower but tougher DPS Legends can present a real problem for it, as can Tanks that have wide reach and crowd-control abilities, like the Earthshaker and Hammertail. Flying units are not as effective a counter against it as they are against most similar Legends, as the Raptor's Athleticism gives it so much vertical reach that it could almost be called a flyer itself.

An important detail to remember when dealing with an enemy Raptor is that the maxed-out damage output it's feared for can be as short lived as it is effective. The two minions it summons are not invincible but in fact have even less health and armor than the Raptor itself; if they're targeted first the effects of Rally and Summon can be mitigated almost entirely, leaving the Raptor with more-or-less defaulted stats and two medium cooldowns to wait through.

## Trivia

* The raptor is based on the trope of the "second banana" carnivore: the 2nd most dangerous, 2nd most popular meat-eating dinosaur after *Tyrannosaurus rex*. Prior to 1970 this role was almost universally filled by *Allosaurus*, but after the discovery of *Deinonychus* in 1969 and the film debut of *Jurassic Park* in 1993 "raptor" type dinosaurs became the new default.
	+ More specifically, the kind of "raptors" The Raptor is based on are the generic, outdated sort popularized by *Jurassic Park*. As a scaly-skinned, hyper-intelligent pack hunter it is actually not much like a real Dromaeosaurid at all.
	+ Traits from *Megaraptor* were used to bridge the gap between *Allosaurus* and *Velociraptor* when designing The Raptor. *Megaraptor* was a large carnivore that in some ways superficially resembled *Allosaurus* and was mistaken for a giant dromaeosaurid in the 1990s. Current phylogeny suggests it may have been a basal coelurosaur, which would actually make it more closely related to *Tyrannosaurus*.
* The colors of all of the Raptor's default skins are references to different pop culture raptors.
	+ Velo is based on the *Utahraptor* from the original *Walking with Dinosaurs*. Wulong is Talon from *Primal Rage*. Halszka is the female *Velociraptor* from *Jurassic Park III*. Orko is the cyclops raptor from the *The Lost World: Jurassic Park* toyline. Hesp is Spittor from *Extreme Dinosaurs*. Tsaa is a *Utahraptor* from *Primal Prey*. Hulsan is based on one of the *Megaraptor* skins from *Warpath: Jurassic Park*. Zhongji is the Acceraptor from *Terra Nova*. Rahon is a male raptor from *Primeval*. Saurorn, Fukui, and Sin are a Velociprey, Genprey, and Ioprey from *Monster Hunter*.
* The Hulsan and Fukui skins are Allosaurus inspired. Zhongji and Sin are loosely based on *Guanlong*, a crested predator that was portrayed as being raptor-like in the film *Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs*.
* Post-launch DLC added 12 new skins for the Raptor.
	+ The colors on Pyro are a nod to the *Beasts of the Mesozoic* *Bistahieversor*, which in turn was based on a red-bellied black snake.
	+ Lua and Devi are juvenile tyrannosaurs; specifically, Devi is an immature Tyrant.
	+ Shan is a reference to the baby *Ceratosaurus* in *Son of Dinosaurs*.