Right on, other than that little bump in the road I'm enjoying the updates a lot.
Here's some impressions I have about the focus on melee combat in the ocean regions.
Ocean Shallows are a whole new experience now. Aquaurgist is my only mage class with a melee range spell right now. Which brings me to how tricky it is to use Water Punch. Maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with the spell because I enjoy all the little trick shots that I can pull off with Water Sine and Sea Slider. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt but so far it's been a pretty tough adjustment. I'm wondering if maybe there's a simple tweak to make it a little more effective in some of the more frantic moments that can occur in the game.
Specifically the thing that I was finding annoying with Water Punch was an enemies ability to get inside the attack and sit on me and inflict damage. Running away didn't really give me enough of a window to prepare a precise attack so I'd end up just jumping around, spamming the attack and hoping I'd get lucky.
If there is going to be a whole region full of enemies that are melee only for the most part then all of the melee spells might need a look. It's possible to get dealt only one (maybe even none, I've never payed attention to this until now) at the start of the game, and if that's the case then they all need to be examined for utility or else it has the potential to turn an entire region of the game into a sour experience. I love the idea though so I'd hate to see it go away, these kinds of distinctions in the regions are great and a lot of fun when everything works right.