I have set this combination up for practice, since I felt I need a good defensive bat with a lower rebound speed, a blade with softer wood, to use a defensive blade, require more inputs, such as body momentum, using the knees and hips, the blade is rather thick, at 9.3mm thick, it's on the thicker side of blades, however, it is EXTREMELY LIGHT!, it's only 70g, the blade and the butterfly feint long pimple works super good close to the table, it's very good at blocking, but you will have difficulty in drive, such as trying to push a fast backhand long shot back, the control is great on this bat.
so in conclusion.
This setup would suit beginner players very well, it will allow you to focus on the primary long pimple techniques because if you don't apply all the fundamentals, such as bending down, lower centre of gravity, using the hips to generate power, the balls will drop to the net, it is a bat that I would like to call a leech bat, meaning it sucks all the power from your opponent, and use it against him, if the opponent hits a soft shot, it's harder to counter as it would require your own input.
The feint soft 0.5, is a very good long pimple rubber, it's soft and reverses a top spin fantastically, blocking shots are very comfortable, control is also very good, it allows alot of feed back to the blade, you can feel if you had blocked a solid hit in the sweet zone or if the shot had hit near the blade's edge. 8.5/10 for performance.
The kokutaku 2018 VIP is almost costing the same as a DHS hurricane 3, and the performance isn't too far off, I had a great time generating forehand top spins, the ark was low and long, which makes a good top spin dangerous, the stickiness isn't as sticky as a hurricane 3 out of the box, however it is very sticky, I was quite surprised by it's performance, however the blade I used was all wood 5 ply, it is a rather slow defensive all round blade, if I had paired this rubber with a fast offensive blade it would shine even more. 8/10 for performance.
The donic cayman blade is one of the best value per performance blade I've tested so far, while lacking speed as comparing to a viscaria, the thick balsa blade is excellent when using long pimples, the blocks with long pips are actually very fast at returning, even though it is not a fast blade, when using forehand smashes, it makes a satisfying crack sound, as I said previously, it is a light blade, allowing you to generate more top spin with less weight, a faster stroke means more top spin which is a excellent bonus, my only recommendation would be to pair this blade with a softer rubber, such as a butterfly Sriver FX 2.1mm or MAX 4mm to get the best performance out of this setup. 8/10 for performance.
