Please remove the backwards dash of gale

[drgrimmy]

I wanted to reserve my judgment on the changes to gale until I had some time to try them out. I believe that I am one of the few mages that routinely used gale before the change, so i wanted to give some feedback. I greatly appreciate the buff that increased the number of enemies hit by the skill, but I absolutely dislike the backwards dash

1) Timed runs: many mages need gale to be able to compete in pure timed runs. The backwards dash is entirely counterproductive in this regard. We all know how often charged skills fail, for whatever reasons, be it lag or otherwise. When this charged skill fails in a timed run, it costs you 5sec or so which is an eternity as far as timed runs go. Not only do you go backwards instead of gaining a 25% speed boost, but you also appear to be momentarily stunned after you dash backwards making this charged skill failure even more painful to endure. To me it seems as though the recoil for firing the cannons at kraag was just recycled for this skill, and it continues to cause a momentary stun after you dash backwards. Not cool

2) For fighting mobs in PvE I also find this addition to the skill annoying. It was always nice to have the 25% skill boost to keep up with rogues and warriors and to be able to run through enemy mobs quickly. Unfortunately, this upgrade now requires you to charge this skill every time you want to use it if you don't want to be blown backwards. This just wastes time and we all know how often charged skills fail (as mentioned above). So why wouldn't you want the blowback? Sure I like keeping my distance from mobs, but I don't like to get so far away that I can no longer attack and lose my control of the mob. Also I cannot tell you how annoying it is to be blown backwards into an ice patch or into a mob you did not want to gain the aggro of. Oh yeah, did I also mention the annoying stun like effect of this blowback too?

3) For pvp... Why do warriors and rogues have a skill that helps them to run flags faster but mages get nothing? All classes have a heal type skill. All classes have a shield type skill. Why can't all classes have a FORWARD dash skill to help with running flags. The fact that the 25% speed boost of gale does not work with flag is incredibly lame if you are not going to give us a FORWARD dash.

Please consider removing the backward dash of gale. I am fine if we get no forward dash. Although perhaps fun for kicks, I find no situation for which this feature is useful, and only have found many situations in which this skill is a hindrance.