UPDATE: Thanks to @Miona's insight, using the macro dark sight + bstep + assassinate circumvents this problem amazingly tl;dr The cast time and DPS of Shadower's Assassinate + Bstep combo varies substantially based on a player's ping. While this effect has been discussed briefly in previous threads here and here, I don't think it is well-known or has been formally looked into before, so here goes. The problem has to do with how the dark sight animation is allowed to start before the end of the bstep animation. In the ideal case, the dark sight animation can actually be completely cancelled out by the bstep animation, leading to significantly higher dps. (This also probably explains why shadowers seem to overall perform better than what the theoretical dps charts predict.) For example, in @JackHarrie's krex video, I count 31 full assassinate + bsteps combos in 1 minute, which translates to a cast time of 1.935s per combo. In particular, notice that the dark sight animation finishes before the bstep animation fully ends. @Johnny's shaolin video shows a similar behavior as well. Meanwhile, in @Heli's zak video, I count 8 full assassinate + bstep combos in 19 seconds, which translates to a cast time of 2.375s per combo. Note that the dark sight animation starts only after the bstep animation fully ends. This difference results in a 20% drop in DPS just by having worse ping. (I don't think there's any reason other than ping/lag/stability, as it just involves holding down a button.) When testing on my own shadower, it takes me around 2.15 seconds to fully cast the combo, which is about 10% worse than the first video. I've also tried using bstep -> assassinate instead, increasing keyboard repeat rate, or by timing my attacks carefully, but the results are the same. (For reference, I get 350-400ms ping to royals.ms from TW.) I doubt there's any easy fix around this, as it has to do with how the skills were coded up (and still seems relevant in current GMS according to this reddit thread ). My guess is that the dark sight skill needs to make a round trip from client -> server -> client to be considered complete, unlike normal attacking skills which just need to go from client -> server. This explains why you sometimes still get hit after entering dark sight when there is lag. It's does feel slightly unfortunate that pressing the same button gives different DPS results, but I guess it doesn't really detract from the fun I have playing this class. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm curious to hear other shadower's experiences and takes on this as well.
on my shadower, my overall damage increases when i use mobile data since theres lesser delay. perhaps removing the darksight requirement when using assassinate would be fairer to all? since those without any delay dont lose any time when using darksight during the bstep assassinate combo anyway.
I just type "ping royals.ms" into the terminal. This is technically pinging the website and not the server, but I think they are hosted by the same service so the result should be fairly accurate (not 100% sure tho).
I think the dark sight + assassinate sequence is pretty iconic for the shadower though. It would be a shame if dark sight was removed from shadower's main attacking sequence. Nostalgia > fairness
You could try using Darksight+Bstep+Assassinate combo if you have high ping. We still get hit in darksight, but we can use skill b4 entering darksight too
you... you are a GENIUS!!!!!!! I've been dealing with this exact thing for years due to unstable ping from time to time aswell. despite knowing the skills mechanics and how they work visually-functionally I never EVER thought about this. I will always love you, from here to the end of time!!!
