Always amusing to read that kind of comment knowing how many people claimed 1.3 was a much better update than 1.4... history repeats itself.
Yes, you got me on this one. I was against 1.4 due to that combo breaker. But now, when it is gone, many of us realised how good feature it was.
1.3 had a pretty steep learning curve because of the locked combos and non-breaking PBs. (A better way of saying it might be that there was a massive and very sudden skill gap between 'figured out the basics' and 'expert' consisting almost exclusively of encyclopedic knowledge of various combos.)
1.4 smoothened things out into a more newbie-friendly experience, with the greatest skill gap probably being the leap from a non-mblocking duelist to an mblocking duelist, because it unlocked combos. This had the side effect of making PBs a lot more important due to their combo-breaking properties, but as a primarily defensive player I don't mind that.
1.4.3
tried to be the best of both worlds by combining 1.3 and 1.4, but instead of smoothing the learning curve it almost deleted it altogether. Dueling right now, unless you're remarkably adept at mblocking back from the 1.4 days, is barely more than a contest to see how many swings you can throw at the opponent and how lucky you can get with your PP/PB counts. The only skill involved is slap timing/swingblocking, not predictably spamming WA-WA-WA-WA combos, and the still-elusive mblock.
Right now, seeing as a flat revert to 1.4 is unlikely, I can only pray that 1.4.4's predicted changes will correct the issue - and/or that some of the dueling-related suggestions from the 1.4.3 feedback thread will be implemented.