Absolutely loving Varesh right now. I can't say much towards his balance right now, hard to say what issues I've faced were due to the character or lack of skill on my part (and similar for when I'm wrecking). The escape capabilities are definitely something you need to be very mindful with Varesh. He's got a lot of tools, but they're all minor ones, and you have to be mindful both of holding back your outs until you really need them, and being aware of what options you have.

I'd strongly disagree with swapping the Shield and teleport personally. At least with my playstyle I use the shield constantly, whether its buffing myself or buffing my partner when he goes in. It's pretty much on cooldown as much as possible.

So anyway, things you can do when you're getting focused. First obviously there's the Shield. Obviously it doesn't get you out of their, but it buys you time to do a lot of other things. And of course there's Wuju for a counter. And if you feel you need the extra, one of the Round 1 Battlerites is a Wuju recast, great when the enemy is heavy ranged (or when there's a Shifu that think's he clever jumping at you after activating the first Wuju). Then there's also your shatter snare. You just need corruption on them which is very trivial to apply on them when they're in your face. That gives you a bit of distance on them, and has a battlerite to last longer. Shatter can be hard to land in some cases, but when an enemy is rushing you its generally pretty easy. Or a more extreme example with the EX right click to get both judgement and corruption on them quickly + shatter. If you have more time you could do a normal left click right click combo. Can really make them rethink being in your face. the There's also the EX shatter that's a knockback that can push them off you to. Plus of course your teleport.

Still a character you generally want to try and stay back with I find, and escapes certainly aren't his strength but once the game gets going and you have some energy I find there are a lot of options to deal with pressure than their first seem.