She used to be worse, but fortunately got a little better. Your first sentence is why I suggested something like this in an older thread:
I believe the power of an ability should correlate with its cooldown. It’s one of the reasons Unchained’s ability is annoying. A long cooldown for a vent and tiny bit of damage/stagger.
Handmaiden could get a little bit better ability options/default but just increase from 20 to 30 or something.
I really liked the revive talent they had for her before reducing its power and replacing Ariel’s Benison with it. It would be neat to bring something similar back and replace one of her two damage talents with it. Like, make dashing instant revive people and give more green health back or more temp health. Giving revived allies temporarily invisibility or invincibility. Making it knock back enemies upon revive. You can also have a talent increase cooldown time or reduce recharge rate, but have a more powerful effect. There are a lot of cool options here.
I think a lot of people forget that her baseline dash used to not only have bleed, but also stagger. My favorite thing about Handmaiden, despite thinking she’s still a bit dry to play, is her stamina regen aura