Pirate Quick analysis of Barrel-Cancel tech

Spoiler: Changelog

• Added GIF of full barrel-cancel combo under Details

There has been recent debate regarding the full cast time of the barrel-cancelling tech used by buccaneers. If you are unfamiliar with the tech, you can consult iPippy's guide here https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/a-buccaneers-field-guide-2020.34735/. The following post goes frame-by-frame of the combo to determine the cast time between your barrage and the follow-up combo and then show the effect on your dmg. Note, this is not the theoretical limit since you cannot macro melee to break the barrel, nor can you macro the follow-up chain together (the chain itself can be a macro but you cannot combine the entire barrel-cancel in one or two macros); your cast time depends on your reaction time. Nevertheless, I've recorded a bunch of barrel-combos and took the best one to analyze.

Barrel cancel keystrokes:

1. Barrage + barrel macro
2. Melee (to break barrel)
3. Follow-up chain (eg. dragonstrike, orb+drain, double drain, etc.)

Barrel cancel frames:
Below is a gif from the very first frame of Keystroke 1 to the very first frame of Keystroke 3 in 30 fps. Here I am using dragonstrike as Keystroke 3. The frame length of this gif minus 1 should be the cast time of barrage+barrel+melee. Each frame length is 1/30 seconds.

The total cast time of barrage+barrel+melee is somewhere around 1233 ms.

Spoiler: Details

The first frame of barrage are indicated by the "orbs" circled in red. The orbs circled in blue are remnants from a previous dragonstrike. I've compared Frame 1 with the previous frame to make sure the orbs coming from barrage are not coming from dragonstrike.


The first frame of dragonstrike is indicated by your character leaning in and knuckle extended out (see red circles). This is not part of the barrage sequence. This can be checked by seeing the previous frame. Something interesting to note, depending on how fast you press Keystroke 2 and Keystroke 3, the sprite of the unbroken barrel exists for a moment and disappears immediately after, even when the animation of the barrel breaking played.


Full combo (I missed a frame at the end here I think):

• Barrage Barrel: Frames 1-38
• Dragon strike: Frames 39-70
• Delay: Frames 71-79 (there should be a Frame 80)

Barrel-Cancel Combos and DMG:
So what are the consequences of this? Should you aim for 1233 ms barrel-cancelling every time you're untransformed? Probably not. You'll do better as an adult talent in LA with fingers like those. However, let's see how much better barrel-cancelling compares to non-cancelling and even demolition. Damage is reported in % of range rather than actual dpm so that we can compare combos and not damage vs other classes. Please note, the following numbers assumes you are not switching between untransformed/transformed.

Spoiler: Important skill cast times

DPS (%/sec) of Regular combos:

• Barrage + Flash fist x 2 = 1223
• Barrage + Double uppercut = 1238
• Barrage + Dragonstrike = 1241
• Barrage + Drain x 2 = 1289
• Barrage + Energy orb = 1341

DPS (%/sec) of Barrel combos:

• Barrage-Barrel + Flash fist x 3 = 1373
• Barrage-Barrel + Double uppercut + Flash fist = 1388
• Barrage-Barrel + Dragonstrike = 1373
• Barrage-Barrel + Drain x 3 = 1475
• Barrage-Barrel + Energy orb + Drain = 1544

DPS (%/sec) of Supertransform:

• Demolition = 1831

Taking the strongest combos of each category and expressing them relative to demoltion, we have:

• Barrage + Energy orb = 0.73
• Barrage + Energy orb + Drain = 0.83
• Demolition = 1

In short, you will do 10-15% more damage by barreling compared to the non-barrel combo analog. Due to having to SI/Booster, repositioning in real bossing, as well as natural variance of keystroke reaction time (I estimate this varies from 0-200 ms), the numbers reported here are very difficult to achieve in a realistic scenario. Even at dummies. Timing of the barrel breaking (you cannot immediately break the barrel) and then timing the keypress that initiates the follow-up (you cannot immediately initiate the follow-up combo) is crucial in minimizing the barrel cast time.

TLDR

1. Total time between Barrage-Barrel to Follow-up chain is around 1233 ms. This shaves off almost 600 ms of the regular non-barrel barrage cast time. Note repetition of barrage is still limited by the 2630 ms delay time.
   
   
2. When using barrel-cancelling, your combos will be about 10-15% stronger than their non-barrel-cancel analog. This translates to about 3-5% more dpm if you factor in 2 min of ST and 1 min of non-ST.
   
   
3. In order to keep up a perfect barrel-combo, you will press about 67 keystrokes/min! The anti-thesis of NL gameplay. So it is up to you if you think that's worth your dpm increase.

Spoiler: Extras

Keyboard setup

Macros


With this keyboard setup, I can barrel-cancel combo with only my left hand which allows me to scratch my nose with my right hand amongst other possible activities.