Whats the point of powder?

[ReiMakoto]

Counter point: since you can only hold two charges, keeping one cartridge on hand for your cartridge combo effectively ensures you'll always be able to do as you say for a burst window, and if you dont have your combo ready for the burst window you're doing something wrong. If you could have more than two at a time you'd have a point. As it's designed, its rather mindless and only there to give bloodfest a purpose.

Picture a scenario, you've just used solid barrel, to go up to 2 charges. No Mercy/Trick attack is 6 or so seconds away. If Burst Strike was 4th in the combo string, you're forced to burst strike not in those buff windows, as it currently is you can go up to brutal shell in the combo, pop your buffs and get the full gnashing combo and burst strike under the trick window, and then you can solid and get another burst strike in no mercy.

Then thinking optimisation in a raid setting, if you know an add phase is approaching, you can stockpile your powder for when the adds spawn in order to burst them down quicker. More Freedom= More optimisation.

[Tila]

Picture a scenario, you've just used solid barrel, to go up to 2 charges. No Mercy/Trick attack is 6 or so seconds away. If Burst Strike was 4th in the combo string, you're forced to burst strike not in those buff windows, as it currently is you can go up to brutal shell in the combo, pop your buffs and get the full gnashing combo and burst strike under the trick window, and then you can solid and get another burst strike in no mercy.

Then thinking optimisation in a raid setting, if you know an add phase is approaching, you can stockpile your powder for when the adds spawn in order to burst them down quicker. More Freedom= More optimisation.

Thats the thing, you in effect have no reason to stockpile more than one at a time (and should always be doing so). You're over stating the importance here. If you have 3+ charges then yes, powder would have more meaning, but with only two powder at a time and needing one for your 25second combo, you should ALWAYS stockpile unless you're in a burst window and not near the start of a powder combo. Your own example if a bit of an extreme maybe. The only time you'd hold on is in the 6 seconds you'd need for a combo to go through being how much time till a burst window comes up. Sinces that is pretty much the ONLY thing powder is good for, and its not even that good at it as GNB has the worst burst window damage.

And it has that shitty burst window because there is so little powder. Having so little makes it meaningless.