I agree with most of the stuff others have written. For now, the Scourge seems mostly balanced, the use of Shades require that you position yourself and your shades well, and you can’t just spam your shadeskills in hope of having any effect. I haven’t been able to fight every other specialization, yet I can clearly say that Deadeye will be the biggest counter due to it’s range and mobility. Even using the portal doesn’t help much as they just teleport away in an instant. So yeah, a faster casttime would be nice. Also does the portal exist for 6 seconds instead of 20, I suppose that is a bug?
Using the smaller Sand Shades in PvP works just fine for me, I would probably prefer it since it gives me much more control over the battlefield. Though, I believe the description of the “Manifest Sand Shade” Skill is a bit misleading since it says “Manifest a Sand Shade by using some of your life force.” while it doesn’t require any life force at all. Besides that do I also wonder how the Death Perception Trait from the Soul Reapening works with Shades. Are they even able to critically hit? And even if so, I don’t feel that that trait really would work well since it’s condi-based. (I know that Foot in the Grave and Dhuumfire are better alternatives either way)
And I also agree with most others, F2 does wonders for condi-cleansing. Although I still run with Consume Conditions just because Sand Flare does feel way weaker because of the fast decaying barrier.