Video is in the link. For my comrades at work, please enjoy the written version: [b]Intro[/b] Hey everyone, Dukaness here with Part 2 of my mini viability series for the Gunslinger after the June update. I recommend watching Part 1 before you watch this video. Part 1 discussed the grenades, and the next episode will cover modifiers. This episode is focused on Throwing Knives and their available modifiers. I’m assuming everyone is familiar with the update by now, so instead of going over the changes, I’ll focus more on how and to what extent you will feel the changes in your gameplay. I will show my research around damage numbers and the stats behind the modifiers, as well as how my personal build was affected. [b]Throwing Knives[/b] The nerf to Throwing Knives’ damage is pretty nominal. They did 158 damage to the head, which is now 142 as you’re seeing here. The 10% nerf, which accounts for 16 damage, is about half a bullet or less from a body shot with most hand cannons and scout rifles, so you won’t notice this change in your game to game gun fights, except for here and there where you leave an enemy with a sliver of health. Not a whole lot changes, which is why the more interesting discussion is based around the modifiers you can apply to Throwing Knives. That’s the main focus today. [b]The Modifier Facts[/b] [i]Circle of Life[/i] [b]There is an image below that summarizes the next four paragraphs if you don't care about the methodology.[/b] Circle of Life now reduces the cooldown of Golden Gun when you land precision Throwing Knife kills. To determine how effective this modifier is, we have to know exactly how much the cooldown is reduced by. To test this, I went into patrol with zero Intellect and timed how long it took to charge my super without killing anything. I know I could have just looked at the super timer on my character, but the Tier 5 time was proven to be inaccurate on Reddit (couldn’t find the post), so I wanted to calculate Tier 0 for myself, just to be sure. Without any kills at all, it took 5:30 for the super to charge, which is what the timer indicates. Next, I emptied my Golden Gun and let the timer run up again, this time killing 1 Acolyte with a precision Throwing Knife, without Circle of Life. The time was 5:28, so a precision Throwing Knife kill without Circle of Life on an Acolyte drops your super’s cooldown by 2 seconds. Lastly, I let the super rebuild again, this time landing a precision Throwing Knife kill with Circle of Life active. The super cooldown lasted 4:55. Therefore, a precision Throwing Knife kill on an Acolyte takes 35 seconds off of your super’s cooldown, 33 seconds of which is attributable to Circle of Life. Now , you might be thinking “but Duke, what if a guardian in the Crucible has a different cooldown reduction than an Acolyte does?” To test this in Crucible, I’d have to either set up a 3v3 match with 5 friends and waste everyone’s time repeating the same steps as before, or go into Classic FFA with a friend, repeat the same test, but with the added challenge of not dying at all, which would mess with the timer. I didn’t think it would work out, nor would I be able to trust the results even if it did. But it’s a good question, so I did the next best thing. I ran a second test on the assumption that if different PvE enemies gave different cooldown reductions, I would have to test it in Crucible. So, I did the exact same thing with a Hallowed Knight that I did with an Acolyte. Because a Hallowed Knight is an ultra, the super cooldown from a kill is obviously greater (worth more “points”). Killing a Hallowed Knight with a precision Throwing Knife without Circle of Life resulted in a cooldown of 5:18, so a reduction of 12 seconds. When repeating the same process with Circle of Life active, the cooldown is 4:45. That makes Circle of Life responsible for 33 seconds of cooldown, again. Therefore, the cooldown reduction related to the Circle of Life modifier remained constant for both the Acolyte and Hallowed Knight kills. The fact that Circle of Life is responsible for the same cooldown reduction for two very different enemies, combined with the fact that Bungie has historically kept Crucible and PvE consistent (for the most part), leads me to be pretty confident that a precision Throwing Knife kill in the Crucible will also net you a 33 second reduction to your super. Otherwise, they would need to have coded a different reduction into the perk, which is absolutely possible, I just think it’s unlikely. Since most Gunslingers run maximum Intellect, I repeated the same tests under Tier 5. When a Gunslinger runs Tier 5 Intellect, the timer says the cooldown will be 4:00. It’s actually 4:18, which is the issue I was referring to earlier. The Circle of Life results are the same, but also different. Circle of Life is responsible for the same cooldown on an Acolyte and Hallowed Knight at Tier 5 Intellect, but not the same as Tier 0 Intellect. Both the Acolyte and Hallowed Knight reduce your cooldown by an additional 26 seconds on top of the reduction from simply getting a kill, as opposed to 33 seconds in Tier 0. I know I hit you guys with a lot of math in the last two minutes, so look at this screenshot I put together that summarizes the results in an easy way to understand (http://imgur.com/vJK0ZA6). Pay attention to Column E and Column I. With Tier 5 Intellect and the Circle of Life modifier, a precision Throwing Knife kill reduces your Golden Gun cooldown by 26 seconds more than if you did not have Circle of Life. The reduction is 33 seconds with 0 Intellect. [b]EDIT: So it turns out, as pointed out by someone commenting on my YouTube video, the cooldown reduction works as a percentage of the total cooldown. So 33 seconds is 10% of 5:30 at Tier 0, and 26 seconds is 10% of 4:18 at Tier 5 (rounding).[/b] [i]Incendiary Blade[/i] We’ll move onto the Incendiary Blade next. I don’t have a lot to say about this since it hasn’t changed much. As you’re seeing here [in video], similar to what I said about Incendiary Grenades in the last video, Bungie accidentally reduced the burn damage of this modifier from 5 ticks of 7 damage down to 5 ticks of 4 damage. There is speculation that Bungie is working on this, but as it stands, you are getting 20 damage over time from this modifier, as opposed to 35 before. [i]Knife Juggler[/i] As always, the Knife Juggler modifier eliminates the cooldown when you use your Throwing Knife for a precision kill. Be aware however, in many circumstances if you trade with you opponent in the Crucible, this modifier does not kick in. [b]Modifier Detailed List[/b] So, an updated list of your new choices are as follows: [b]1) Circle of Life[/b] – reduces your Golden Gun cooldown by 10% for each precision Throwing Knife kill. [b]2) Incendiary Blade[/b] – deals an additional 20 burn damage. [b]3) Knife Juggler[/b] – resets the Throwing Knife cooldown after a precision kill. [b]My Opinion[/b] [i]Incendiary Blade[/i] You have the facts now, and I invite you to think of how this information changes your personal build. I’m open to hearing your thoughts in the comments, but before I go, I’ll leave you with mine. First and foremost, I’m writing off the Incendiary Blade. That modifier is terrible. 20 damage is nothing, especially considering the opportunity cost is another free Throwing Knife or 26 seconds off of your super cooldown. At 35 damage, you might see me using that modifier in 3v3. If you’re going to lose a gun fight because you got caught in a 1v2, tagging one guy with a Throwing Knife with Incendiary Blade doesn’t give a whole lot of added damage, but stalling his Recovery for a few seconds might help your team clean up the kills. That’s really the only benefit I see though, and I won’t be using this at 20 damage. [i]Circle of Life and Knife Juggler[/i] I’m torn on the other two at the moment. In 6v6, you could get your super pretty frequently with Circle of Life, as long as you land your precision kills. I will definitely be giving that a try. I think Circle of Life is a good pub stomping class. High risk, high return. By that I mean, if you aren’t landing your Throwing Knives, you’re dying and waiting longer for you super. If you are landing them, you’re staying alive and building super at a very fast rate. Everything is dependent on your proficiency with Throwing Knives. Someone less skilled with Throwing Knives might prefer Knife Juggler, because if you miss, whatever, but if you land one, you are rewarded with another Throwing Knife to keep using. Both of these perks contribute to the class’s viability, and I am very pleased to say that I think Bungie made a good decision reworking the Circle of Life perk. [b]Summary (TL;DR)[/b] The cooldown reduction attributable to Circle of Life from a precision Throwing Knife kill is 26-33 seconds. Incendiary Blade only adds 20 DoT after the accidental nerf. Knife Juggler works the same as before. I recommend CoL for skilled Throw Knife users and Knife Juggler for those learning or not as proficient. -Duke