Oh, and throwing got overnerfed. The nerf to all the shoot speeds is not counter-weighted by the improved "speed" of having throwing weapon proficiency. With power throw 7, you can't throw a rock across the distance of a baseball diamond. It's truly horrid that they thought it necessary to nerf EVERYONE across the board.
My opinion: Put all item stats back to the old stats except the bec. Keep the new names/models. Lose the shitty archer animation. Put two-handed animation back to the way it was. Keep the new heirloom system. Tweak the upkeep system to allow the average player to easily maintain 40k in gear. Give a window of time at start of round where you can leave without losing equipment. Give shields back their size. Huscarl shield is size 33, buckler is size 3. Huscarl shield is NOT 11 TIMES bigger than a buckler. Who are the geniuses who think this crap up?
Honestly, the only things that were REALLY necessary to bring balance to the force are the following:
Level Cap: Stops everything people were bitching about with the machinegun archers, agi spammers, etc.
Removal of WPF & XP bonus from retirement: Works in conjunction with above.
Friendly Fire on horse charge: Brings them in line with every other damaging item in the game.
With the above changes, the game would have been balanced. Any further changes that effect balance should have been closely scrutinized to determine how much of an effect they would have on not only the balance, but also the "fun factor" of the game.
Honestly, if chadz and the Devs are listening, I'd like to extend an offer to assist with balance issues in the game. I'm sarcastic and snappy, but have a level head and can analyze things on both sides of the fence without bias. Either way, good luck fixing this.