No, they're not. You can use your 10m range abilites, 30m ranged abilities, use a stim, use a medpack, or attack someone closer when you're rooted. If you want a nerf to roots, you get a nerf to damage to make up for the increased time-on-target. Which, for any good melee, isn't an issue anyway... Now excuse me while I go PvP some more on my lowbie marauder.