Dorcas is underwhelming ]:

[♠Soul♠]

I always liked Dorcas, and way before I even knew he was part of a silly meme. I just genuinely liked the character and wanted to make him good, but he doesn't really have all that much going for him. I guess he's supposed be "strong" and have a lot of HP, but it feels like he doesn't even stand out as much. Sain has as much Str, if not more (between bases + join time) and not only outclasses his movement, but even manages to double at some point.

Then you have someone like Hawkeye, who's just a better version of him- in almost everything. Similiar Str, Spd, but has way better durability (can tank physical and magic attack)... and even has crit. bonus to top it off.

If he at least had better durability or promotion gains (Warriors gain 0 Spd v:), he'd probably be a lot better.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Admittedly, you're comparing Dorcas to two stellar units. Hawkeye, and a Lyn-mode-trained Sain, can both be considered A-tier units.

That said, is Dorcas good? ...Eh, not really. He has a couple things going for him at the start, between not-terrible Speed and 1-2 range in Hand Axes. He's around for pretty much the whole game, so at least availability isn't among his flaws. That said, his stats are unlikely to keep up. He's usable, certainly, but he takes work. Hawkeye and Hector are all-around better Axe infantry, and if you want a Warrior in particular, Geitz isn't half-bad (fairly good speed, B Bows). Use Dorcas beyond earlygame only if you really want to.

[♠Soul♠]

I wouldn't say "stellar", but Hawkeye is certainly pretty damn good in my book. If anything, I used to think he was somewhat underrated. And even though the Sain comparison isn't meant to put him down, it's just comparison to a unit who does his own strengths a lot better. Hector is a closer comparison, but he's basically a Knight with 5 Mov. and axes. If Dorcas was at least somewhat tanky, he'd be comparable to an extent.

Dorcas isn't bad, he just doesn't seem to stand out or shine. I guess he can do something with a Brave Axe or Reaver, but it's very niché.

[TheChoZenOne]

What happened to Dorcas?

[ARMADS!!!]

I always found Dorcas so bad as an unit... Well, at least you're not supposed to raise, promote, and make him survive a swordmaster attack (likely having to give him the only Iron rune in the game to survive this) just to get a recruitment (cough! Bartre cough!)

 I've never cared enough about Dorcas as a character too to want to try to raise him until he becomes good, I did it with Sophia in FE6 though... And for me it was worth it, so if you're biased enough to suffer for him you might end up with a good enough Dorcas to use (specially if RNJesus blesses you) and happy with the results, specially if you want to use some stat boosters on him. Sure, other units would be way better with the same investiment (which means, at leats for me, that he is indeed a bad/way below average unit, and so there is no way that he can be underrated, as an unit at least), but still I don't think that FE7 has any unit that is unusably bad, at least on Eliwood normal mode (but still, this doesn't mean that he is underrated).

 Well, you do you, of course that if you like the character you'll think this but for me he is pretty bad (again, as an unit) :P. Anyway, I kinda like Dorcas because  S O M E O N E  P O I S O N E D  H I S  M U T T O N.

[Quijas]

For some reason I’ve used Dorcas in every single play through of fe7 I’ve played, all the way up until the most recent one only because I am using Bartre for that Karla recruitment. I expected to bench Bartre when he reached the levels needed to get Karla but the amount of experience he has right now makes him one of my better combat units. I’m guessing the same would go for Dorcas unless you get level up screwed, especially since you could theoretically train him up in Lyn mode if you really like him. 
 

Thankfully fe7 isn’t a game that’s super demanding of optimal play even on its hardest difficulty. The two axe fighters start the game off as ‘ok’ and may even eventually become ‘alright’. They’re not as good as many other units who can do the same thing but they’re nowhere near bad enough to actively hinder your army, even with HHM’s lower deployment slots.

idk maybe I like them because their bows are funny 

[AnonymousSpeed]

Sword of Heaven and Earth Dorcas joins with 14 base speed, which is higher than your average 20/20 Dorcas in FE7.