There are imbued gems that increase the items durability by 100-300%.
The enchanting system is new and being tested/ballanced.
Before it was just the 'imbuing' system, but with no gems. Tons of complaints about the complexity and requirement to farm mats too high a barrier to use. So they made it easier for the players with a simple direct coin system.
Navagation is a learned skill. Play for a week and you notice the texture changes that indicate you can go up an area of cliff. This gives players a 'home turf' advantage as they know the area around their homes better and can use it to escape or ambush.
There was a teleport ability that you could use to go over cliffs, walls, mountains. It was crushed and stated that it would not happen. The navigation learning curve is totally intended.
There was two ore / stone per node, they reduced it. More noise and we might get it back to two.
Harvesting is not going to be for everyone, that is what gives life to market economies. I did a bunch of it and was happy to take peoples money for my labor and their lack of interest.
Wooden bo staves are very much like a 'channeling spear' as would be a rapier. They exist.
Animal leather is cheep and accessible, warg/dire wolf/ troll leather is not. I would never use the better leathers in place of the animal leather i can get from the ubiquitous wolf packs that plague the world. Maybe it is just a preference thing?
There is a similar complaint about needing linen weave to make bandages, why not cotton? Their answer there was that 'alchemy' would be using the higher tier stuff for better consumables.
getting on and off a horse or logging out and back in works for unstuck in most circumstances. Creating a mechanic that tracks player location all the time for a rewind, just for alpha/beta, is asking a bit much.
Many classes have no equivalent to the second wind skill at all, it is not a norm, but an exceptional thing. There are other charisma or int based healing skills that are useful, or the ubiquitous over powered bandage (no cast time, no animation interruption, can use on a horse, no mana cost, no knowledge point cost to learn, no memory point cost to memorize, etc...)
If they had cure KO health on the spot then that would greatly increase the amount of mob spawn camping and thus greatly reduce the availability of mob spawns to the rest of the game population. Forcing players to return to towns to learn skills, switch talents, and recover max hp is a good, and thematic, way to keep players moving. The other alternative is moving as a group for security and acting organized, which the developers are absolutely encouraging in a number of ways.
Gathering resources is not going to be for everyone. With higher population the markets will be there to give players who dont like to harvest a place to get what they want.
The limitation of the hot bar is absolutely intentional. It makes choices matter and creates variety of builds while encouraging group play.
Mana is a limited resource that needs to be carefully managed in this game. This is why there are metal armors, and imbued gems, that can increase it at the opportunity cost of not getting a different benefit. Choices matter, there are pros and cons to everything.
Players can steel carts, would you want them to be able to steal you horse at the same time? Also harvesting in pairs greatly reduces this 'inconvenience'
the restricted terrain is absolutely intended and have been repeatedly reinforced through the nerfing of abilities that used to bypass them.
Can increase durability of items with an imbued gem from 100-300%. it is there.
There is a thorough automated imbuing tool available here on the forums and linked in the wiki. They may put it into the game later.
Melee already have the highest armor, the highest sustained damage, the highest crowd control, the best self heal. sounds like you are getting greedy.
Friends lists would be nice as would party locations, and your last body, on the world map.
