To comment:
My initial reaction has been negative. Disregarding all individual changes, there were simply so many at once that it is incredibly overwhelming, and these run DEEP. The Better Balance Patch was one thing; this is several levels above that. This doesn’t mean that everything in it is actually bad, but taken all at once, it felt like crap.
I dislike stagger for a multitude of reasons; the mechanics ARE confusing as hell. I just did a test a few hours ago that I posted here and on Reddit, and good god my head was spinning just from that! Let alone having to suss out the proper descriptions for the frickin’ talents, since the official ones on the thread here (and in-game!) are wrong. But beyond that confusing nightmare, it is just a side-grade, the same thing but with extra (non-enjoyable) steps involved. It also broke the balance that we very nearly had. If we removed all the stagger stuff now, with Shields and 2H Hammer having their mobility buffs, then I believe the only “bad” weapons in the game would be the Dual Daggers. As it is, most light weapons are in a very bad state.
I like Beastmen, but they are too dark in coloration.
I dislike the talent changes because, again, they just changed up everything and it’s confusing as hell. These might balance out, and I think we got more “good” ones than before, but we still have bizarre things like the boring “+x% crit”. On top of that, far too many of the new ones are broken. We’re back to Launch days here.
Bizarrely, I actually kinda like how THP is busted right now, call me a masochist. It reminds me of VT1 where getting hit felt actually punishing, and clawing your way back up in health meant playing good for a very long time.
I dislike Weaves because they’re too grindy, they’re scripted, and the color palette make it hard for me to see things on some (like Hysh). They also feel very disconnected from the otherwise gritty world. Crawling through caves, overrun cities, lost holds - that’s one thing. Now we’re in a rainbow world with mutators. The mutators are fine, though; I wish they were just put in with the other mutators we have. I must add the caveat that I do not own the DLC yet, the previous things have just been inflicted on me regardless. But Weaves have not fundamentally changed from the betas/internal, so I feel I can still fairly answer.
I like Throwing Axes and Billhook, but Kerillian’s Spear and Shield blocks too much of the screen. Kruber’s Spear just exists but is pretty boring, and I never actually used Sienna’s burning flail, so I cannot comment on it.
I like Dodge changes fine; I was never a fan of the BBP changes, though I understood they were made for people with lag.