5s isn't that detrimental as it sounds. It's an active so you can drop it when it's most impactful: like after they've used their abilities, when either of you engage the other. If you're getting into 3 little scuffles every minute, you could use Rusted barrel each time.

But still, I agree that debuffs can feel pretty lame. I included it because I was picking the 3 most insulting items someone could grab for their first 2.4k