Not the HK AoE, the joint penalty interaction with AoE spells (before the nerf it would hit multiple times when mobs were linked), but now it doesn’t, so linking mobs and using spells like flame ground, frost cloud, meteor, will not benefit from linker. That’s why elementalist with linker is not so good.
The nerf on the HK duration was pretty tough to be honest, it is no longer a true CC skill for sure, it’s just some okish manouver skill. And also the changes on JP and HK cooldowns still hurt a bit =(.
Going linker c2 and c3 is still good, but u go more into some support path in certain way.
At the end of the day, pick the build u think u will enjoy the most =D. Things are gonna change all the time (balancing stuff, reworking skills, new classes) so for now its just about enjoying the game and discovering new possibilities.
When all the ranks are released, i will probably theorycraft to create a new character anyway hahahha, most people will.