I've been playing for 21 years approx. I'm an intermediate/upper intermediate jack of all trades kinda player. For the past year or so, I have been experimenting with rubbers (I've used Loki arthur china, G1, Rasanter R48, Peter Karlsson Gen II Max hard.) I wanted to change my blade next year and switch to d09c/d05 or mx-d on my bh.
Did you like any of these rubbers you tried?
What were you using before, was it the Rakza 9 and H3 in your profile?
Have you tried the Dignics rubbers already?
For the touch play comment Idk how to explain it exactly, but sometimes playing close to the table, I tend to tap the ball with no force, letting the speed of the rubber do its own thing. With my current setup, the rakza 7 is very, very safe when I do that, so the ball lands mid-table, and with H3n Nbs it will land very close to the net.
Isn't close to the net good in this instance? If you want it further over the net you can adjust to add a bit more. It's a typical adjustment to make with harder/slower rubbers like H3 or D09c.
For
most people I think it's preferable to have this very short touch possibility be easy. It is harder (but not impossible) to play very short with Rakza 7 but more people find it more difficult to dampen a springy rubber with their touch than to add a bit of force to a hard rubber.
I am generalising of course but I expect you'll get used to the hard rubbers easily enough given a bit of time.
Going back to Dignics. If you play R7 on BH now I really don't recommend even trying D09c on it. It is VERY hard. 44 degrees v 40 for D05.
D05 maybe a realistic choice but it is fast and unforgiving of poor timing or lazy technique but lethal when used well so if your level allows it why not!
I use 80 and find it very good and despite the numbers Butterfly have for it V the D05 I find it lot easier to use. It just feels more predictable in most scenarios and less demanding than the D05. 🤷♂️
However I'm considering Glayzer as my next BH rubber to see if something softer makes things a little 'easier'.
About the blade I can't offer much.
If you are changing for the sake of it or just because curious then fair enough, go for it but Viscaria is obviously an excellent blade.
If you want a blade more forgiving or easier to control then I wouldn't expect Long 5 to be it. If you want a faster blade then maybe but there are folk in here who have played both and could offer better comparison in that regard.