As a Handmaiden main, I concur that Dash is garbage since the change. It used to have a default bleed effect that was reasonably useful; you could kill a lot of chaff, it was useful for clearing out a common dangerous situation - that of mixed horde and lots of armor, leaving you with just armor to deal with.
Since the change, I play around with various talents, but they feel like gimmicks. Gift of L is good for getting a slight breather to snipe specials, that’s definitely still the best. Bladedancer isn’t very strong, just a little stronger than the old default Bleed, but it doesn’t functionally change much since (of the top of my head) I believe it only kills the same enemy types as before.
I honestly find myself mostly using it to get around faster or cross gaps. Very rarely do I use it for repositioning. It is, for sure, the least interesting ult in the game right now, which is too bad. In the last patch, even though there was only real talent choice (since Bladedancer was broken and there was very little point in taking cooldown reduction) I felt it was much more engaging. I got a bit of stealth at the end with Gift, I could use it for aggressive positioning/escapes, I could try to angle it to go through hordes at the optimal angle to rack up kills . . . it was enjoyable to min-max, to have that constant question; should I hold onto this for defense or use it for offense?
I think that the Dash needs to be a dodge state. That’s absolutely necessary. It needs a bit of lag on the end, too, because otherwise you Dash and start getting attacked before you can even react. I would not mind it getting back a default bleed, too.
Then get rid of the current Bladedancer. It’ll be easier to balance if it doesn’t have two damage points to consider. Keep Gift; in its current state it is useful. Replace Bladedancer with a new talent that changes her ult to some kind of defensive thing; perhaps just damage reduction for a few seconds. This will give her a good option for when Keri is your tank, so she’s not just abandoning her team mates to go dashing away. Short, simple. “Dash becomes Hold Ground, you take 40% reduced damage and your block cannot be broken for x seconds”. 4-6.
Finally, for the last talent, give Dash two charges. This way you can be hyper-offensive with it; Dash through a horde at two different spots to bleed a ton of enemies, or Dash in to deal some damage to the enemy rear then Dash back to your team.
This way you have three talents that actually fit Handmaiden’s “Jack-of-all-trades” role; one defensive, one utility, one offensive.
