Nope, it made you realize just how much more fun it was playing in a team (shore up any weaknesses). You learned real quick to watch your distances, adjust your playstyle per mob type, and generally invest more into your alt. TBH, while I'm fine with the "extra powers", I think it "softens" your builds up a bit and in a way almost resembles the P2W model. The game as it is now more resembles a video game where you've activated part of Godmode or atleast the overall global item unlock. Bases used to have (more) meaning as did SGs and grouping. Now it's like we're all playing on the test server and the only thing we Don't have is insta-50. So now all I see seems to be PL groups because people want to top off their alts as fast as possible instead of "living" their alt's levels out. IDK, like I said, I don't mind that all the old paid stuff is free and the open bases does allow for creativity and player housing (solo groups), but it's not the same...and the OG times really didn't suck.