Yeah, but those were specific casts with one time hits. I do remember some skills that drained health at a set tempo, which even then was better to acknowledge and counterplay with a set number (-5 or -9, for example), than the sudden tick of tens of stacks of torment. I enjoyed GW1 Mesmer skills because they had a variety of implements - knockdowns and interrupts for when a type of skill was cast, health drains, energy drains (for casting skills, not GW2's energy system ofc). That is far more rewarding than just condi bursting.