#playable dottore

^ I want to hug little Zandik so badly T-T.

I mean, WHAT could have happened to a 8 y.o. child to make him completely lose his sense of compassion?

^ Behind this mean behaviour probably lies immense sense of shame (perhaps even self-hatred) and inability to accept oneself. Call me dramatic but I think it’s THAT deep.

Assumptions here:

Catalyst user (we've seen it in his animations)

Main DPS (because come on, the man's never supported anyone else in his life)

// Also to preface - I have no idea how the hell he could end up with a vision. Maybe he's a delusion user, maybe he's pure elemental. Who knows. Anyway //

My thoughts, one element at a time, in order of likelihood:

7. Geo - This was the first one I eliminated. First, he has no previous ties to geo (it might actually be the only element not present in scara's boss battle, iirc) and he doesn't fit the traditional personality model. Dottore's shown to toss things aside when he gets bored of them, which is sort of the antithesis of all preexisting geo archetypes (minus Itto. ignore Itto). Additionally, from a meta standpoint, Zibai just released. Releasing Dottore as geo would creep into profits from her.

6. Pyro - No previous ties, and again, the mismatched personality. We could go for a Scaramouche -> Wanderer sort of transformation here, but with Mauvika in play as a huge meta DPS and Arlecchino already present as a pyro harbinger, I think it's unlikely. Next.

5. Anemo - This is just Wanderer's story quest again. Which is lazy. Also, Dottore has a thing about mind control and enslavement, so I really doubt Mr. God-Of-Freedom Barbatos is going to look kindly on him. Also also, Varka is meant to be their newest anemo DPS. If they drop Dottore right after and he's got a more flexible kit, it's going to be a major hit to Varka's viability. Next.

4. Hydro - I literally had a dream about hydro Dottore. You'd think he'd rank higher. Nope. My main issue with this is Columbina, actually. Right now, she is one of the best sub-DPS units in the game, but there's several characters that are reliant on her as their BiS supports (every Nod-Krai DPS so far). If he scales on HP like every other one of the strong hydro DPS units, he'd effectively steal Columbina out from under the others due to the hydro resonance HP boost. Or, if he's a strong enough lunar unit (with a similar three-way enable mechanic to Columbina) he could sideline her (unlikely). Add in the other issues of personality mismatch and weak lore ties (the Heretic uses hydro, but it's not a common theme within his story), and I don't think that's where we're headed.

3. Electro - Here is where things start getting interesting. Electro is another one of the three elements the Heretic uses, and it's one of his main story ties due to the Shouki no Kami incident (which he theoretically doesn't remember, but we as players know). He fits electro's "outcast" archetype to a T, and he literally stole Ei's puppetry mechanics to pursue his own weird form of immortality. I think this would be a fun fit lore-wise, however... Flins. Again, having Dottore in this element would be stepping on the toes of a just-released DPS, and potentially compromising either Flins or Dottore's pull value. Especially if Dottore isn't a lunar reaction enabler (more on lunar dottore in a bit).

2. Dendro - I have to knock this down to second place because of Nefer. I LOVE the idea of dendrottore. It's a beautiful tie-back to Sumeru and his heritage. If they go the redemption arc route, it's a show of Sumeru finally accepting him, despite his crimes. And if he stays evil, well, what better power to steal than the power of the homeland that exiled you. Yoink. However, a lunar Dottore would make a second catalyst lunar-bloom DPS, and I think Hoyo's too smart to shoot their profit margins in the foot like that. And a non-lunar dendro unit at this point in meta would not be good. "I'd pull for him if he healed the enemies" all you like, but Hoyo's gotta find a way to make him appeal to the large and vocal Dottore hater contingent.

And at this point it is time to address the trilunar elephant in the room. I am really, really skeptical of making Dottore a lunar character. I think it's likely that the Moon Wheels (since they're distinct from Visions) aren't necessarily granted by Celestia, and that Columbina's trilunar authority has an unconscious role to place here. And we all know she's attempted to evaporate him before. No way she willingly spares him a single drop of kuuvhaki. So either Dottore's parasitizing the power again (sigh. boring), or he isn't a lunar character. Which leaves...

1. Cryo.

With Columbina's trilunar authority only naming three reactions and no leaks mentioning others, it seems likely that there's no more lunar reactions coming. But in order to add value to the current meta and be worth pulling over Skirk, Dottore would have to add some new value to reactions -- specifically cryo-related reactions, because cryo is the element with the fewest viable DPS units at the moment. Maybe he could buff Superconduct or something. Or, he could deal with the one reactive element pair that doesn't react with each other: dendro and cryo, his most obvious elemental alignments.

Dottore is a product of both Sumeru and Snezhnaya -- who he is is inseparable from how both nations have shaped him. The Heretic uses cryo as a major damage source, and Dottore's (possibly continuing) ties with the Tsaritsa give him widespread access to it. Additionally, his kit needing dendro but having no way to apply it is a beautiful tie-in to his history in Sumeru and continued alienation.