I do feel like blocking should still be a thing in this game since a small amount of armor doesn't really make shields feel that special. That being said, I love the new system for everything outside of that one small detail. It makes each fight feel meaningfully unique in that at the start of each fight I have to plan how to take down each mob individually based on both their defenses and resistances. I would also like to point out that at this stage of the game we don't get to experience one of the high points of the new system, which is when we get sets of gear we can hot-swap to tailor our defenses around dealing with the present threats. Getting stun-locked by magic? Dust of the magic armor set.
Perhaps my experience was not the standard as well, but my first run of DOS1 was a sword and board tank with a water/lightning mage support and my tank felt so weak and useless that I got frustrated and ended up re-rolling all the way back to the beginning to be an archer after nearly completing the first map. This does not make me long for the old system at all seeing as how the red prince has shown me the opposite is now true for melee in the new system.
