Posts like this is what kept me away from a17 for so long. I was truly convinced the developers made all these awful game breaking changes, when in fact, turns out, most of the changes make a lot of sense. A17 is like a new game in a lot of ways, but a far superior game in my honest opinion. Yeah there's a lot of bugs and such, obviously, but the new mod system is great. The skill system, which I was convinced was terrible (largely in part due to similar styled posts), turns out to be pretty damn decent. It actually makes you think about what you're going to invest in, a purpose to earning xp. I think most people play for an hour, female dog about the game actually having some difficulty now, and then never bother to understand the changes the developers made. (Myself included). Once you advance a few levels, melee becomes much more efficient. In fact, I barely ever used melee before A17, but now that I understand the mod system and such, I've begun to use it almost exclusively.
It's a zombie apocalypse for christ sake.. You shouldn't be able to take on a horde of zombies with a club and then fly off in your gyrocopter the first time, every time.