what in the game mechanically/content has gotten worse in the past 2 years?

1. ignoring balance (X powerset is now better than Y powerset).
2. ignoring player behavior (everyone now does DfB instead of contacts)

What from an actual dev produced mechanics or content has gotten worse in the past 2 years?

I can't think of anything.
No powersets nerfed to useless
No new content that is terrible
No QoL changes that made things worse

There is stuff that they haven't fixed, old TF's that need to be replaced. But I cannot off the top of my head think of any changes the devs have made in the psat 2 years that have made the game worse.

But I'm sure someone can think of at least one.

Pet AI.

The graphics driver requirements.

Ragdoll physics.
Critter AI that takes off running for the hills.

Praetoria saturation. Too much already.

Issues becoming more 'meh'. The DA zone, DD trial, 'new' cave maps...none really have that wow factor. The Magi trial is solid but so much stuff seems pretty average at best lately.

Incarnate stuff.

I'd turn your #2 on its head. "Everyone (a word to avoid, btw) does DIB instead of contacts" isn't quite it - they've seriously trimmed down heroside starting options, making it easier to burn out on not-all-that-compelling content, so there's more reason to DIB past it.

What I'd say has gotten worse is the way Incarnate content is almost all trial-trial-trial. We finally get a LITTLE small team/solo content, then we get a brand new type of iXP for the next slot up and... trial trial farm the trial again, like they didn't learn anything from it. That, *to me,* is a step backward.

See my Guides and Tutorials

If anything's gotten worse, I think it's the proof reading in some of the new traditional content that's been released recently. With so much content happening and being released so quickly compared to what happened before Freedom, quality control's had its hands full and have missed a few typos, awkward phrases, syntax errors, run on sentences..

Other than that, I can't think of anything that's worse off now than two years ago. There might be something, but frankly there's enough variety in quality shiny things since Freedom that I can't see it.

I can't really think of anything - the game just gets better and better with each new update.

Incarnate powers past the alpha slot. Judgement in particular.

Everything else about the game is improving at a pretty impressive rate, but the homogenization of ATs makes the level 50 experience less interesting to me.

The quality of writing has been going downhill for years. Nobody proofreads this stuff, most of the contacts sound the same, and the storylines are pretty forgettable. Dark Astoria used to be creepy, even with the old-school tech, now it's a high-budget movie with a b-movie script.

Gameplay-wise, I can't see a freaking thing half the time while I'm playing. Graphics effects are becoming flashier and more obscuring with every new powerset and enemy group, and would it kill them to turn the lights up in some of the mission maps?

I also would like to repeat this, because it can't be repeated enough: content that is designed to be farmed (in other words, any Incarnate content) needs to lose the cutscenes and the long-winded conversations between NPCs.