Oddly enough, I played with casual/beginners players for both the first and the second game, and although the first was okay (I must say, my friend kind of liked the CC madness, she liked inflicting things that mattered to the enemies, so maybe not our ideal candidate but a category of players too), although my friends have a hard time wraping their head around the armor system as a whole. I wouldn't say it's more accessible than the first. The first was more opaque, so people not willing to crunch down the numbers would just play it, now you do have to understand the whole armor system in order to actually do some damage. I for one do not dislike it, but I wouldn't call the armor system newbie-friendly in regard of this.
