Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8, NESHawk core
There's a bit of unoptimized movement immediately after leaving the Amber Sanctum but that's easily fixable. Block jumping is still in and is still powerful.
EDIT: Turns out that bit of movement that I thought was unoptimized ended up being faster without a ladder boost by 12 frames, thanks to the block spell cooldown getting in the way.