Any second thoughts on giving up on 4E?

Looking back on 4E, I think it really did have its positives. It's a simpler system than 3E but it still had a lot of potential. I just read an interesting blog post concerning the DMG2 that comes out this month. It sounds like they really tried to focus on the roleplaying and social aspects of the game rather than combat, which has been the focus of most of the published books thus far. They've actually created rules for earning xp for role-playing. Check out the DMG2 review:
http://newbiedm.com/2009/09/19/whats-cool-about-the-dmg2/

Note: Apparently there's an entire chapter devoted to Skill Challenges which, according to the reviewer, should have been how they presented skill challenges in the first DMG. I'm really interested in reading that chapter because I think that particular game mechanic has a lot of potential.

Other things I enjoyed...

**Powers. The powers for each class was one of my favorite things about 4E. As a fighter, most options you had conecerned power attack or basic attack. If you were fancy you'd sunder an opponent's weapon, and if you were high enough lvl you could take another attack. Powers added a beautiful dimension to combat, and I am going to miss that when we switch to 3.75.

**Mowing minions. It's hard to beat the satisfaction of destroying 10 minions with one power.

**Action Points. Admittedly I'm a fan. It's nice to know that you have a special reserve in your back pocket to be used whenever you're in dire need of a little extra something.



What I'm not going to miss...

**Healing surges. I've always had a hard time trying to figure out how, in-game, you explain the regeneration of 10 hp. Freakin' weird.

**Static defenses. I'm a sucker for good ol' fashioned saving throws. It seems that the attacks that target a saving throw really should involved a chaos factor, i.e. a die roll.

**Stripped down skill system. The skill system sucked, plain and simple. You're only trained or untrained.

**THE WHOLE MAGIC SYSTEM. This is a biggie. Whoever developed the idea of rituals should be shot. Oh, the most powerful magic has been taken out of the combat system? Great idea! I can now spend time studying and performing a ritual so that I can cast Arcane Lock on a door. What the hell were those developers thinking? All magic users were robbed of the pleasure of finding new and powerful spells that they could use in combat.

**We need all characters to be balanced. Waaa! Waaa! Look, magic is tougher than a guy with a sword, plain and simple. However, if that guy with the sword can obtain a few items....

I'd love to hear your thoughts folks.

i kind of miss it, but not greatly. Pathfinder and 3.5 are the editions I was brought in on, and enjoy them much better. I'll play 4th again if a group is new to the game and I want to introduce them to the system.