Time Stop and it's morph's have been over performing since it's creation in Summerset. The issue of time stop has been exacerbated following the mobility changes in Murkmire which removed it's main counter, snare removal and speed in order to avoid the time stop.

Here is why the skill is overperforming and desperately in need of balancing:
-Area of Effect CC
-Oppressive Snare that get's stronger throughout the duration of the skill
-Cheap skill cost when taking into consideration everything the skill can do.
-Unblockable, Undodgeable CC

Simply examining what the skill does for it's cost is a tell-tale sign on why the ability is overperforming. It is too "stat" dense. The skill is relatively cheap to use (4k magicka without taking into consideration any cost reduction passives) while also being one of 2 AoE CC abilities that is not tied into an ultimate, the other AoE CC being Nightblade Fear, which only effects *2 ENEMIES* at the cost of 3.7k magicka. Can you see the difference between the balanced CC and the unbalanced CC? Very similar skill cost...

Time stop does not stop there however, as the ability still surprisingly brings even more to the table with it's snare which increases in effectiveness the closer to the stun component.

Now we have a cheap, AoE CC (Remember, only 2 non Ultimate AoE CC's exist in the game) that also has a massive snare tied to the skill while also being an unblockable and undodgeable CC.


Much more can be said on the effectiveness of the ability, however the bottom line remains the same: The ability is too stacked in it's current state and needs to be rebalanced following the speed and snare immunity changes in Murkmire and the upcoming Wrathstone patch.

There are a few ways to go about rebalancing this skill, a few of my favorites that I've heard from various players are:
-Remove the snare that is attached to the CC. This would open up counterplay to the ability by being able to avoid it if you are quick enough to react.
-Reduce the amount of players able to be CC'd to 3 players, 3 random players are given the snare attached to the skill to facilitate the process of stunning them
-Increase the cost of the skill by a hefty amount, between 7.5k-10k magicka. This would ensure that the skill is less likely to be spammed as it would seriously punish the caster.


Thank you for taking the time to read this.