Seriously, who opens with hurl? I think the only time it's a good option is against a polearm specialist. Otherwise, I'm opening with hamstring if I'm fighting a melee class.

Hurl first looks better in some situatons, but not very many. In combat, hurl is two rounds of lag. Hamstring + artery + hurl = 5 rounds, for a total of 7 rounds of combat before you're out of lag to do something else, assuming they all hit and hit in sequence. Boneshatter + whirl or boneshatter + impale = 3 or possibly 4 rounds, for a total of 5 or 6 rounds before you're out of lag.

Again, my argument is and always will be the blood loss. I explained better under LastMohican's post.