I played at release and have been loosely following development since. It seems to me most the development has been focused on combat. However every video I see combat looks the same or worse than at release.

example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFZU8SzAG0o

Really not sure what is supposed to bring us back to this game after ~9 months.

I mean stuff that was supposed to be out at start of prelude still isn't in the game, like archery! how is that acceptable? I'm pretty sure archery was a feature I payed for 9 months ago.

I also remember before release they said they had a lots of animals ready and would put them in soon (I don't remember the number, was it 30?). but AFAIK its still only a handful of critters.

I'm basing this off videos and reading patch notes so I might be wrong. So let me know, I hope I am.