Discussion How strong is Doflamingo?

[Holt]

I don't agree . lol Kuma wasn't consider one of the weakest Warlord , he's actually one of the strongest and the only ones you can put on top of him at the time was Hawk-Eyes , Doflamingo, Blackbeard and Jinbe.

I assume we're ranking him post time skip. The two times he took on the straw hats werent exactly convenient. First was right after defeating moria and his hordes of zombies. Especially oars who dealt quite some damage to the crew, luffy himself was out cold. Second time was a pacifista who they did defeat, then they had their hands full with sentomaru, the pacifistas and kizaru until kuma came and teleported them. Its not exactly fair battle conditions. Post time skip however he's hardly a bother for most people right now. If we're ranking him among warlords he'll be about 7th out of 10. Even though he isn't weak at all, he's one of the weakest warlords. DD, mihawk, BB, jinbei, law, crocodile are above him. Hancock is on par, then he's above Moria and buggy. Pre time skip, he's quite the opponent. Post, he's not that much of a big deal. He has a nice DF ability though, it gives him a nice edge.

 

[KingOfNight]

Post time skip however he's hardly a bother for most people right now. If we're ranking him among warlords he'll be about 7th out of 10. Even though he isn't weak at all, he's one of the weakest warlords. DD, mihawk, BB, jinbei, law, crocodile are above him. Hancock is on par, then he's above Moria and buggy. Pre time skip, he's quite the opponent. Post, he's not that much of a big deal. He has a nice DF ability though, it gives him a nice edge.

How would you know that he's not a bother for most people? There's absolutely nothing to suggest the characters you listed are above him. Likewise, there's no telling how strong Hancock is, but she's deemed to be massively powerful(as implied by Sengoku, and the fact that Momonga seems to be entirely out of her league). If we go by the Marinefored War, the Shichibukai involved all seem to be of close strength with the exception of Moria. Any rankings among them are purely speculations by the readers.

DD, Kuma, Mihawk, Jinbi, Hancock, and Crocodile. There's no clear indication of who's stronger between them, let alone being out of another's league.

 

[Sachsenhesse]

I always had the feeling that Zoro would be the better matchup for Doflamingo then luffy. He could cut his strings, what would lower his fightingaibilities by far. Luffy otherwise is just the brawlerguy and is fighting now vs. a devilfruit which is very flexible in itself and belongs to a psychotic dude. I dont think he can do it without Law.

 

[Holt]

How would you know that he's not a bother for most people?
If we go by the Marinefored War, the Shichibukai involved all seem to be of close strength with the exception of Moria. Any rankings among them are purely speculations by the readers.

DD, Kuma, Mihawk, Jinbi, Hancock, and Crocodile. There's no clear indication of who's stronger between them, let alone being out of another's league.

Perhaps I exaggerated. Ofcourse ranking the shichibukia is difficult and mostly speculation. But IMO while kuma himself isn't necessarily weak, he's one of the weaker shichibukia. That is he'll be less troublesome to fight than mihawk or DD for example. His fighting ability is on par with pacifistas, but his DF puts him firmly above and makes him harder to fight than the regular PX. Luffy post time skip easily dogged the laser and defeated the PX in a single punch. DD from the brief encounter with luffy seems to be quite stronger than him. Sanji also dealt considerable damage to one with his Diable Jambe kick while DD blocked it quite well without taking much damage. Zoro was shown to be able to cut it, meaning mihawk can do so easily. Hancock was also shown to be able to turn the PX to stone and then break them etc. Ofcourse kuma with his DF is harder to fight but still not massively stronger than the PX. He's not weak or an opponent that can easily be beaten but he's still a bit below in terms of really strong opponents.
Its just my opinion anyway.

 

[KingOfNight]

Perhaps I exaggerated. Ofcourse ranking the shichibukia is difficult and mostly speculation. But IMO while kuma himself isn't necessarily weak, he's one of the weaker shichibukia. That is he'll be less troublesome to fight than mihawk or DD for example. His fighting ability is on par with pacifistas, but his DF puts him firmly above and makes him harder to fight than the regular PX. Luffy post time skip easily dogged the laser and defeated the PX in a single punch. DD from the brief encounter with luffy seems to be quite stronger than him. Sanji also dealt considerable damage to one with his Diable Jambe kick while DD blocked it quite well without taking much damage. Zoro was shown to be able to cut it, meaning mihawk can do so easily. Hancock was also shown to be able to turn the PX to stone and then break them etc. Ofcourse kuma with his DF is harder to fight but still not massively stronger than the PX. He's not weak or an opponent that can easily be beaten but he's still a bit below in terms of really strong opponents.
Its just my opinion anyway.

Kuma himself has shown the ability to quickly blitz a Pacifista: http://www.mangareader.net/103-2620-5/one-piece/chapter-513.html

This obviously shows that he's far more powerful than those Pacifistas and can dispose of them in one hit like any other New World veteran. His ability alone completely separates him from the other models of the Pacifista. It's one of the most haxxed abilities in the series(if not the most broken one) and has shown to be able to render all attacks completely useless. Fists, swords, elemental, ghosts, or anything. They're all equally useless against his ability. Comparing him to the Pacifistas is not doing him any justice at all. It's like comparing Luffy to Fake Luffy(Demalo Black).

 

[Holt]

His ability alone completely separates him from the other models of the Pacifista. It's one of the most haxxed abilities in the series(if not the most broken one) and has shown to be able to render all attacks completely useless. Fists, swords, elemental, ghosts, or anything. They're all equally useless against his ability. Comparing him to the Pacifistas is not doing him any justice at all. It's like comparing Luffy to Fake Luffy(Demalo Black).

He only teleported the pacifista away, its not the same as defeating it though I know he could do that also.
Black and luffy is not a sensible comparison in anyway, they have nothing in common. My point for comparing PX and kuma was the body ability. I did say he is superior in body ability though not massively so without his DF
Ofcourse I already said his DF gives him an edge. His ability allows him to repel anything in the direction of his hand, it does leave him vulnerable if they can dodge. Its certainly not haxxed. He's susceptible to attacks from other directions. Even pre time skip zoro managed to hit him though his attacks at that time were not advanced enough to deal enough damage.
We have varying opinions, no need to drag this out, its a DD thread anyway.

 

[MiyamotoMusashi]

Well he's prolly the strongest character the SHs had to face up to this point, I'm curious how he'll react to the red hawk, will he be diminished, or will he recover like nothing happened? If it's the latter then obviously Luffy will have to resort to stronger techniques, maybe a red hawk gatling?

Except the Admirals and Zoro facing Mihawk

Power levels or tiers are not easily defined and very loose in One Piece considering that the abilities interact in a strange way sometimes (best example, Mr3 and Magellan in Impel Down), though this "problem" is less significant now with Haki being common, and the fact that conviction and determination is a core principle of One Piece and that also influences the outcome of fights.
Having said that, if i had to articulate it, i would guess that pretty much all pre-TS Shichibukai except Mihawk, who is the only one of the Shichis having tied with a Yonkou, even if it was in the past, and who probably will be Zoro´s final opponent, and Jinbe, who made it clear himself that he obviously has his strengths in water and not so much on land and whose nomination to the Shichibukai is motivated by political reasons besides maintaining the balance of the Three Powers, namely the friendly coexistence with Fishmen, are or were one level inferior to the highest level we know right now exists in the One Piece world, consisting of the Yonkou, the 3 pre-TS Admirals and probably a few equally powerful characters (if the new Admirals are that strong as well, we will see).
In Crocodile´s and Moria´s case, who both are Silver Medallists, it was made clear that they got weak over the years (both power-wise and mentally which brings us back to the determination thing) after their defeat against Whitebeard and Kaidou respectively but considering that they actually got that far, fought with those guys and were nominated for the Shichibukai for their strength, i think it is not too far-fetched to think that they were at one point as strong as someone like Doflamingo for example.
In the case of the other 3, namely DD, Kuma and Hancock, well, all three have extremely deadly abilities (deadly in terms of that they can decide a fight in an instant, whether it is actual death or in a different way) while Kuma has an extremely sturdy body and the other two have all 3 colors of Haki.
Obviously, DD is the strongest arc boss Luffy has had to face so far and he will be a real test before the Yonkou, though i still believe that ultimately, Luffy will beat DD by himself.