What the hell? It feels like automatic 1 full round lag now - no getting off a quick blast if you're lucky, no disengaging if you whiff.
Now, I could see this if it was relative to thief in classo - my ma/wa/cl/th really shouldn't be all that great at stabbing (not to mention he only runs 16 dam). I've also been noticing this on my avatar thief prime though, and that is not cool at all. We already have worse ac and lower hps than comparable melee classes, how does it possibly benefit anything, or make the game better, to make absolutely certain we are getting hit on every mob we don't splork? I really like the addition of excruciating blow, so I hope this wasn't some sort of attempt to 'balance' that - if it was I'd personally trade it for stablag to be the way that it was. A skill that works every 10-15 mobs is cool, but being able to disengage when you whiff is priceless.
/rant