While you’re right on the rest, and much as I can go on for days about talents/tiers that aren’t in a good place atm, I much prefer the new talents to the old ones - the old ones were bland as bland can be and yet even with that level of blandness they weren’t well balanced.
I’m not sure where the sudden fondness of the old talents comes from. Sure, we lost some good ones, but they were usually the only good one in a given tier (or good two in a tier if you were lucky)
Or has everyone forgotten talents like +1 stamina shield (there was a lot of this), enemies that grab or pounce the player take double damage, reduced stun duration, reduced damage taken below 50% health (while everyone takes 2 grims), reviving party members grants them 50% damage reduction for 10s, increased movement speed when last hero standing…?
Don’t get me wrong, there are a bunch that aren’t practical, aren’t balanced or don’t suit their career now, but there’re a lot more tiers now where you at least have two viable choices, which is an improvement over before.