It may be, I really haven't tried. There were several guys in control yesterday with them, and they were getting destroyed. I don't how long they have been trying to use them though.
The only sort of skillgap they have is being aware of how much block energy you have so that you dont ever get caught mid fight thinking you have block energy but not having it because obvioisly the block is what makes them strong. But if you know when to conserve your block energy to save it for when you need it, you basically cant die unless you are in a 1v2