The last Pokemon GO update has been a nuisance to some players especially for those that love to do Gym battles. Trainers pointed out that the problem stems from the animation problem that resulted in preventing their Pokemon to dodge attacks which were a lot easier to perform in the past.
What's Happening with Pokemon GO?
Based on Reddit's The Silph Road, the new Pokemon GO update made a huge impact with regards to the overall battle system. The major change of the patch is the inclusion of "buffering" or the sequential action which will immediately take place after a successful execution of a command (ie, attack or dodge).
What Does This Mean?
Prior to the 0.39 release, there's something called "dead time" in-between each action (attack or dodge) which is a point in time where the system registers a command to execute the next action. Now, upon the release of 0.39 patch, the "dead time" is now completely removed and is instead replaced by "buffering."
Buffering can be illustrated as a 'sequential command' or the action that will be performed upon the completion of the previous command.
Impact of Buffering in Pokemon GO Battles
With the implementation of buffering, Pokemon GO players that tend to button mash during battles are severely affected and punished as a result. This is mainly because when you button smash a single command, for example, attack, you're basically "buffering" or registering attack over and over again which will then result in you unable to perform a different command (dodge) in-between action.
Take note that you can buffer or register a command anytime during an ongoing Pokemon GO attack or dodge. Also, buffering cannot be changed or undone. Once you have registered an action, it shall automatically be implemented as your next move which can only be reset after its execution in which you can then buffer another command.
The good news is, only one action can be buffered at a given time. Therefore, you wouldn't be worrying accidentally tapping multiple command and suffer a repetitive action throughout the fight. The sole purpose of implementing buffering is to remove the "dead time" in between actions which makes the game a bit faster and "easier" for some by eliminating input delay or lag during in-between actions.
Conclusion
There's a lot of debate regarding the change of Pokemon GO battle system whether it had been helpful or not. Bottom line is, the update has been out for quite some time now and hopefully Niantic will hear the feedbacks given by the many and further improve their future updates.
Here's what it looks like if Pokemon Go is happening in real life:
