I made absurdly large feedback report for the thread
http://forums-tl.ageofconan.com/show...weaks-Assassin
I too think that shards are core problem, but I don't believe it will be removed/made less significant so I made different suggestion.
Soul shards is a relict of 1.6 reality "designed" both to limit DPS, but also the CCs. At the time of 1.6 CCs were instant, there was added charm type of CC and moreso there were no global immunities to CC.
You could in a row, without a second of a break: FTD root>Kick KB>Stun>fear>charm. Shards were kinda made to prevant that, but even failed at that single thing since it only resulted in people going Hybrid to advoid gross shards deficit all the time.