I have mixed feelings about the talent tree changes. On the one hand, it cleaned them up a bit; selecting 1/1 in a talent for a 5% buff versus having to select 5/5 for the same buff is pretty reasonable. Especially since a lot of builds made it a no-brainer to take those five points. It also has the benefit of keeping less-informed players from making truly bad builds by restricting their options. I think it's a lot harder to make a really awful build now, maybe impossible.

On the other hand, it really took away a fun part of the game, where you had more freedom to try out a pretty insane spec or to otherwise experiment. By drastically reducing our choices, you wind up with a cookie-cutter spec whether you want to or not. There's just not much room for improvisation anymore. You can make some good/bad choices with the last ten points, but laying out your main tree is pretty obvious.

I think that overall it's a net positive. Combined with gear simplification and limitations, it reduces the number of ways that a random player can screw up. But for players who know the game well, and bother to research their class or just like to experiment, it can take away a lot of the fun. A game that makes it harder to fail can also make it harder to excel.