If you’re only interested in the Frontstab/Backstab issue, start watching at 1:26 of the video. For those who came for everything, enjoy the whole video. [b]As always, I do my best for those at work[/b]: [b]Intro[/b] Hey everyone, Dukaness here with a video focused on the Bladedancer, inspired by the June update implemented by Bungie yesterday. For those of you that don’t know me, I almost exclusively play a Hunter, so I was pretty devastated by this update, [i]until I actually played last night[/i]. I have come up with a decent class setup that I want to share with you guys. [b]But I also want to politely call Bungie out on their inaccurate patch notes[/b]. They mislead us and I want to show proof of why. I’m not going to go over the nerfs to the Bladedancer, so this video assumes you’ve done your reading. I will, however, explain to what extent you will notice and feel the biggest changes in your standard gameplay, followed by how I changed my approach to using the super. [b]Skip Grenade[/b] First thing we’ll talk about is the grenade. You’re looking at three clips here where I get different damage amounts each time. The most damage I saw was in the first clip where it did about 140. The most common numbers I’ve seen land between 90 and 110 damage, so about enough damage to drop someone’s shield. [b]In my opinion, this grenade is still the easy option on the Bladedancer[/b]. I don’t see the other grenades competing based on my gameplay last night, but if you’re good with flux grenades I could see that working out for you. Also, see this clip where I actually get tagged by a skip grenade and take about 110 damage. [b]Blink Strike[/b] On to the melee. Blink Strike distance was dropped by 0.4 meters. As expected and shown in these clips, you don’t really feel this change. I still hit from roughly the same distance I’m familiar with, and miss from distances you would expect to miss from. There is nothing you can really do about this so there isn’t much else to say, except for the classic front stab issue. Let me give you a direct excerpt from the update: [i]“The Backstab upgrade has been the source of some confusing behavior for a while, particularly when it appears to hit from the front. The valid region for Backstabbing should now be more solidly behind the target.”[/i] Take a look at these clips. This poor Bladedancer is coming at me. I hit him with a shotgun blast and then very clearly get him with [b]a 182 yellow damage front stab[/b]. So, back stab works from the front. But does it work from the back? Not consistently! You’re not going to believe this clip. I have the double melee gauntlets on, and both melees are charged. I burn one on this titan. I then approach the next player from DIRECTLY behind him. I could not be more centered behind this guy. I melee him, and the backstab doesn’t kick in! I was so baffled by this, I actually went into my menu to triple check that I had the backstab perk on, which you can see I did. Bungie, please have someone look into this. [b]Blink[/b] The second thing I want to politely call Bungie out on is the changes to blink. According to the update, the only change to blink is that you now have a -1 recovery penalty. They actually ghost nerfed the ready up time after using blink. Take a look at this clip. I spam my melee button after blinking. Notice how it doesn’t react until I’m a couple inches off the ground. Now take a look at a clip from a few weeks ago. I am able to swipe at the peak of my blink. [b]Super[/b] We’ll talk about the super now. Increasing the hit detection by half a meter is a significantly favourable change. I am find myself getting short stopped FAR less often. Also, see this clip where I lock onto a Warlock from a pretty far distance. I’m confident in telling you this is a major improvement to the super. The 0.8 second cool down in between swipes is virtually unnoticed, as seen in this clip where I can clearly spam it in sets of three, just like before. [b]EDIT: [/b]I was mistaken. They intended for the 0.8 second cool down to only apply while airborne. [b]My Adjustment[/b] Before the update, you could spam both blink and swipe to close gaps, which is what most of us did. Now that the ready up time after blinking is more delayed, you leave yourself vulnerable in the air for a longer period of time, because there are no movements you can make after blinking. [b]So, to quickly summarize, blink now closes gaps less easily, leaves you vulnerable for longer, and incurs a -1 recovery penalty. In my opinion, blink is significantly less appealing[/b]. So how can we close the gap with the same effectiveness as before? [b]My answer is Bones of Eao with Controlled Double Jump[/b]. Better Control actually gives you 2 more recovery than blink. Now take a look at these back to back clips. In the first clip, I’m spamming the jump button and melee while constantly changing direction. In the second clip, I’m doing the same with blink and melee. It’s pretty clear that my character would be harder to hit in the first clip, which is why I’ve changed my setup from blink to better controlled jump with Bones of Eao. [b]Optimal Use[/b] Since this is my new setup, I want to show you a way to make the most of this. I’ll slow this down and we’ll take it step by step. When your super is charged and you want to pop – Jump, then Double Jump and immediately pop your super. Notice how my character rides the initial boost of the double jump while launching the super. This makes you tougher to hit during the vulnerability window while activating. Start spamming swipe so you dash as soon as the super is available to use. After swiping for the first time, jump again, in a direction that isn’t directly towards your target to make yourself harder to hit. Swipe again after enjoying the boost. Land and repeat until you reach your opponent. [b]Summary (TL;DR)[/b] Just a quick recap, and [b]a reminder that a lot of this is just my opinion[/b]. Skip grenades are still the go to grenade. The nerf to Blink Strike is negligible, but front stab is still broken and now backstab might actually be flawed as well. Blink’s ready up time after use was ghost nerfed to cause a longer delay. As a result of that ghost nerf, I believe Bones of Eao and controlled jump outclasses blink from both an evasiveness standpoint and the ability to close gaps. Therefore, the standard build that most of us run, being Skip Grenades, Razor’s Edge or Show Stopper, Backstab, Quickdraw and Hungering Blade all go unchanged. The only change for me is moving from Blink to Controlled Jump. And even then, I can see why some people would still keep blink. [b]Outro[/b] There you have it, the nerf doesn’t really change much after all. I hope this video was informative. I stayed up pretty late getting footage and cutting it, and I’m pretty exhausted at work right now, so more than ever I’d really appreciate it if you guys could like and share this video. Until this Friday when my next Trials Tips and Tutorials episode drops, Dukaness out. -Duke