For Those Curious: I think I figured out what they did to Bladesworn flow + Daring Dragon.

[PseudoOAlias.4279]

So,

 

This is coming from someone who has obsessively played a DD build (and loved it even tho it kinda sucks imo.) since EoD launch. And I think I finally figured out what they did that broke Daring Dragon. Altho if anyone else has any better insight please let me know!

 

TL;DR :: The most recent balance patch on Oct. 4th where they "fixed" where Dragon Trigger (DT) would go on a 4s shorter cooldown if you nudged your character also did something -under the hood- to cause [Daring Dragon] to consume more flow than intended without loading any additional bullets. (It also fixed the 4s nudging bug while introducing a new short-cooldown (0s) bug.) Effectively making the DD trait better but feel even worse than it already did. 😞

 

The Proof: This is best illustrated if you: Get Into Combat > Build 100 flow > Try to repeatedly spam out as many Dragon Triggers (of any type - I recommend alternating different ones because by the time the "swap back into DT stance event chain" completes the first Dragon Slash used will not quite be off cooldown) & counting them. (You previously could get 10-11 without additional flow generation active - Math checks out: (+1 flow /s consumption minimum over 10s) - 10 flow per slash. Whereas currently you can currently only get 7-9. And if you run out of flow in this process DT currently is off cooldown anyway, rendering their bug "fix" meaningless.

 

SO, What did they do? Well, I have no way of proving this, but what I suspect they did to "fix" the nudge 4s micro cooldown of DT was to have the game "always read that you're in DT stance" even while performing the DD event chain of: Consume Flow/Load Bullets > Slash Swap to Gunsaber Stance (GS) > Check for Flow Threshold > Re-Enter DT Stance and no longer gives the base flow generation during this time as well, no matter what chain event is occurring. *I originally saw a couple posts suggesting, and also suspected, that they just made you not generate any flow while loading bullets in DT stance. But if you chunk your flow generation up to 10 stacks (which it seems to be limited at now or maybe this is just WvW?) you get a net gain of 0/s. So I’m pretty sure this is not the case.

 

*Also, some things can still cause you to drop DT stance without initiating a slash or putting DT on any cooldown? (It seems as tho this is most common when an enemy with collision tries to collide with your hitbox even if you have enemy collision disabled.) Unclear.

 

Anyway, I really don't want them to delete this trait because, despite it being bad, it's VERY fun. However this currently feels like butt to play.

 

So actionable solution time: What could they do?

Easy Fix Answer: Have DT(F2) root your character like the deadeye rifle 5 kneel, and have pressing F2 again cancel DT. – This would also solve the problem of being able to aim your slashes when you don't have an enemy to target.

+Move the "check for Flow threshold" flag up in the code event chain. And if the threshold is met just have you stay in DT & not go through the awkward & buggy process of swapping back to Gunsaber.

 

Harder Fix Answer: ^ Have DT stance toggle you into RP walking speed / stance. Which also solves all of the issues described above + the nudging to cancel bug.

"So What? I only use Unyielding Dragon (UD) because no one uses that garbage trait." – Well, this affects you too because now as your finishing your slash there's a brief window where you're generating less flow than you were. Albeit this only amounts to 1-2 flow at most and much less significantly impacts UD gameplay. But it's still there & if you know what I'm talking about, you can feel it.

 

100% Honestly I can't be sure what's going on "under the hood" for this class. I still don't even know if GS is supposed to be a True Weapon Swap or a Transform or a Bundle or what. (Because it has some properties of all 3.) And if anyone has any more insight Please hit me up.

Also 100% honestly I could be entirely wrong. But if nothing else hopefully this at least gets discussion going, & someone gets something out of this. I'd really like to see Daring Dragon & Bladesworn fixed in a way that makes it more fun to play and less abusable, not more as it now guarantees DT being off cd when it ends instead of just on a 4s cd. 😞

 

Cheers!

Edited October 15, 2022 by PseudoOAlias.4279
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