Might be a stupid question, but what’s the point of using Alter Time? Is it purely to undo damage you expect to take?
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That’s one use. It’s also a good way to get yourself back into position in a hurry when you have a “run out this bad thing and drop it over here” kind of mechanic.
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A full heal once every minute as long as you know what to expect is pretty huge
It has several usages based on situation.
You are high health and know that big hit / amount of damage is coming soon? Alter Time before the hit(s) and rewind after that to negate the damage.
You are in a crucial spot and expect to be knocked off it or entirely off platform (like on Raszageth)? Alter Time before push occurs and rewind after it to return to previous position.
You are out of mobility and need something to escape a dangerous area where running off might be not fast enough? Double clicking Alter Time (with Master of Time taken) will instantly refund you a charge of Blink / Shimmer and allow to port to safety.
It has a lot of theoretical uses but in practice can be rather clunky and may even end up getting you killed if you misjudge how much damage you will take or when you snap back to where you initially cast it and the boss decides to do a huge conal or breath attack on that spot at the same moment.
Its heal is also largely wasted in any kind of coordinated group play, particularly PvE, because as a mage you should only be taking damage if you get targeted by a mechanic or if it’s unavoidable AoE. In both cases healers, assuming they know what they’re doing, will have you targeted already and cast a heal on you anyway likely resulting in overhealing so you won’t even be helping to conserve their mana. The utility it provides in solo content and in PvP is obviously greater but the fact that it has to be used proactively is still a major downside especially when you compare it with similar defensive cooldowns other classes have access to.
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We’re also more or less tuned around it in PvP. You get absolutely destroyed if you get bursted on when it’s not up (unless you trade Ice Block super early - in which case you’re in for a bad time). Recommend playing around with it in arenas to really see how strong it can be across the board. Though, as others have said, can be hard to use effectively in PvE if you’re not in voice comms / able to give your healer a heads up so they know you’re safe - can really shine in those cases.
Imagine irl you can do any risky or stupid a$s thing you wanted and pull it off and return to the position you were and condition you were before you did said risky/stupid a$s thing. The spell is amazing.
I never used it for like ever, then one of the mages on these forums got me into using it and it’s one of my most frequent spells. Most useful to avoid a Boss mechanic/return to full health. Once you get used to using it, you find it’s one of the strongest defensives.
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I admit, I’ve snapped back into a “death trap” a few times and you just go “Ugh!” and remember next time to be careful about where you start and when your timer runs out.
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Infinitely more fun to use as a void elf, like a lot of spells. Maybe in practice void elf racial sees a big play every 20 minutes but when it is made it scales the impact on whatever spell you’re playing around (death grip, alter time etc.).
In pvp alter time is so unreliable if you have competent enemies who purge, which is fine except if you know its being dispelled then you know your enemy will think they “have you” when you over extend with alter time up.
Except that’s not really how it works because death cancels it.
Since all classes are getting 60% more health in TWW, I could see myself using Alter Time more often. Before now, I was usually dead before it would really be useful.
One of our best abilities…
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One of the best defensives in the game especially for longer instances of damage.
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Awesome mobility spell when you need to bring something out of the raid especially one that will deal dmg to you: HoI 1st boss, Nymue, Larodar, Rashok…
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Completely negates pushback effects in a clean way: Razageth, Magmorax…
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Situational uses where you want to get back to a spot quickly while dodging mechanics: Smolderon Rings
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Completely negating heal to full mechanics: Brack, Waycrest Manor…
Mage is overall one of the best repositioners in the game, alter time, blink and displacement is what makes our tooklit so awesome.
All true and all of that is undermined significantly by the fact that the spell is entirely reactionary. I would take something that triggers automatically and is a true cheat-death mechanic like Cauterize over Alter Time any day. The movement benefit is completely ancillary anyway and the spell is rarely used for movement alone.
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The spell is used for movement all the time what are you on about. If your standing still and taking a damage over time cast to regain your health that’s just one quick and basic way to use alter time otherwise it’s used for positioning and repositioning just as much especially for running things out of
Groups or raid and bringing yourself back in an instant. I would most definitely not want to trade alter time for a simple fail safe cheat death on a 5 minute cooldown. They should just give all the specs cauterize anyway just like all specs got greater invis. Plus it’s great for a speed boost when running back after wipes or any kind of movement over long distances especially with the improved alter time you can blink instantly cast/ cancel macro alter time blink again while having a speed boost and then ice foes while casting shifting power and blink again for a 3rd time all in a few seconds. You basically need a cancel aura macro anyway just to be safe in case you screw up the health lost/ gained
Not in my experience. With Shimmer talented I rarely need to use Alter Time for movement. The two charges are more than enough to handle virtually all boss encounters. I typically find myself holding Alter Time solely for the damage negation component.
You basically use the damage negation on cooldown. the movement is a bonus to the ability and they both go hand in hand. Like running out a targeted cast that lands after a few seconds you can drop puddles outside of the group so the encounter doesn’t clog up with crap. Or simply using it when you need to los an ability it’s quicker to cast alter los and alter back instead of running back and fourth. There’s endless situations for it to be used it’s so versatile
Exactly, that’s what I said lol. That’s what “ancillary” means. 
Ok…? So do you like alter time or not? It’s one of the best defensives in the game that also comes with a decent mobility component. Like previously answered alter time has many uses not just to undo damage like the OP was asking