Quote Originally Posted by Rentahamster View Post
That's not "dumbing down", that's called "making it more convenient and efficient to use".
Convienece and effeciency are two different things. I think the original mechanic they were trying to create with active and passive was setting up a difference between fighting, and not fighting something, and associating costs and bonuses with each case. While it definitely makes it more convienent, if that was the goal, it will in fact be less effecient at making people choose between the two, and blurring the bonuses and costs associated with each action.

For example, the fact that its generally more beneficial for a caster to have his weapon out, because its less time lost in doing actions, if he takes 3 seconds to draw and put away his weapon, or, that if i want to change my abilities mid battle, i will lose about 6 seconds even if i had a macro. As well as the fact that if i want to run from a monster i have to pause to put away my weapon, making escape less easy/guaranteed, All of these things were part of the goals of active/passive as it was, and lowering the speed, and allowing it to be done in motion makes it less effecient at dealing with these issues.

Now with the new system, and auto attack, these things may need to be re examined, or maybe they have decided that these things arent that important, and will make the game more fun, but it is going to "dumb down" the effect of having to choose between active and passive modes.