Okay, so here's my analysis of this patch. Bear in mind I respect the opinions of all DS players, and I have not one day in my life attempted to downplay this character, presenting him as something he's not. I also have intentions of sticking with him after the patch. Here's my honest opinion as to why I'm somewhat worried about this upcoming patch.
First, let me address the direct changes to DS. 15 frames off of the startup of trait. Interesting, there's bound to be guaranteed setups on all characters now. But is it now worth it? Less duration, longer cooldown (as in NO bullets) and less damage. That's a HUGE tradeoff if you think about it. Idk why damage was reduced, that makes no sense. Less duration is pretty big because we all know we want to use 132 as an unblockable string, but dam if it wasn't hard enough to use that string with FIVE seconds, how are we going to set it up with only 3? Also, the negative numbers are HUGE compared to the positive ones. 15 frames off is nice, but is it as nice as DOUBLE the cooldown time and almost HALF the duration? Pair that up with the indeterminate damage decrease, and it might just not be worth it. It all depends on how frequently we can set it up and make use of what little it now provides.
Now matchups. Dam things just got annoying. BA and Superman got nerfed, but those weren't terrible matchups to begin with. Aquaman did too, but I think I was the only person who thought that matchup was even (maybe people will agree with me a little more now). Other than that, the Batgirl was hardly touched (IMO the WORST DS matchup). Flash was admittedly nerfed, so that's good.
But other than the bad ones, what about the good/formerly good ones? Superman, Lobo, CW, and DD got ARMOR DASH buffs. This is horrible. I'm scared. I thought the point of DS dual wielding pistols was to handle crap like that. Idk where Superman stands, but C, Lobo, and DD just got worse. If their intent is to make us use AR more, this is a bad attempt at it. If they had buffed our trait properly, we'd use it more. Trait+AR is amazing. You can't reaction AR to a CW or DD MB Dash. You can react with pistols though.
So we've softened what... 1 bad matchup? I guess Batman counts, but in turn, we've increased the chances of our good matchups beating us, more than the opposite the way I see it. This armor dash thing is HUGE.
Oh, and Ares got more teleports. Just what we need, more free tickets in.
Now for stage interactables, DS is actually one of those characters that LOVE interactables believe it or not. Why do you think Aris loves Ferris? That place is an interactable playground. DS' incredible missile speed projectiles that are usable ground or air offer him great control over interactables. His zoning pressure forces you to block whenever you're not in range, and through the use of interactables, he can pierce your block even at a distance. MB air tanks on Ferris and MB water jets on Atlantis are amazing, but much less so now with the MB interactables costing more meter.
At least MB F3s are stronger now. That's one... just one decent global change.
I'm not one to jump to conclusions however, and I will have to see just how the trait feels before I have my verdict. I also think jumping ship right now is ludicrous. You can jump the ship if you play BA, but this isn't worth leaving BEFORE the patch even drops. But this is at least my reasoning as to why I'm worried. Don't hate me, I still plan on hitting the lab with DS' new trait post patch.
(And we still haven't gotten our dam sword spin fixed)
