There's a simple workaround that lets you drop Salted Earth centered on your present target. Salted Earth is interesting and has some nuance to it, but I'm certain they'll remove it in the interest of simplifying DRK gameplay down as much as possible. This despite the fact that DRK is running an action deficit to begin with compared to other tanks.

If it has to go, though, I'd rather they kept it as a proc off one of the AoE combos, leaving a residual pool behind for some DoT damage.