Here's how I try to look at it: Monarch's Leap is now readily available on a pretty reasonable cooldown; it's a leap finisher and it is the highest damage move sword has by a pretty good margin. So we get easier access to a more damaging skill and it's easier to use with combo fields.Serpent's Strike is now attached to a lower cooldown than before, so we technically have more evade uptime with this change if we're actively using Monarch's Leap (and the patch notes don't say anything about needing to hit with ML to gain access to SS). I do agree that it sucks that we lose the 'instant' evade of it being a stand alone skill.Hornet Sting has always been a really bad skill - Even if used properly doing the flippidy-doo-das with the about face button (which isn't hard so I wish people would stop saying that). It does now reset the CD for Monarch's Leap which gives use even more access to leaps and evades and lends itself to the acrobatic style of the sword.In my totally imaginary scenario, I would buff up and leap in with Monarch's Leap, evade something with Serpent's Strike because you know they're mashing, Hornet Sting out (resetting ML cooldown), drop target, turn around and Monarch's Leap again away from the opponent and switch to longbow. On paper you're now 1,000 Tyrian measurement units away and can continue the pressure with longbow. I think the biggest blow we took here, and this has been referred to already, is that we have lost an additional instant evade; and it's a pretty big nerf. I think this could be fixed by making the Hornet's Sting evade frames active the moment you touch the button. Also Monarch's Leap applies cripple which will play well with the new OH dagger changes. I'm still not convinced dagger will be worth taking in a power build but if they end up being better than I think they are, you get more evades with Stalker's Strike. TL;DR - I'm not convinced they're nerfs just yet and I see potential in the new version of sword.