IMO, aren't players in this game already so OP? Does anyone really need buffs?
Close Combat. Over time Magic and Archery got some small buffs, but Close Combat kept biting the dust (I'm not counting Genesis because it affected all other talents and the two I mentioned received buffs before). Aside from adding new combat-related skills and buffing Giant's Smash damage, DevCAT never really touched it until Renovation.
Even so, the changes to Close Combat didn't help much; they slapped on a lot of things that weren't exactly needed, e.g. the new skills (which did nothing but add power creeps to the skillset), Smash debuff, Defense/Counterattack mobility with certain weapons, and buffing Armor Masteries. Charge and Assault Slash's splash is okay, I guess. The changes to Charge's damage, Stomp, Giant Full Swing, and Final Hit are acceptable, though they needlessly overpowered FH. Overall, it's a very small buff that deserves a C.
As Joey stressed out before, Close Combat is still slow, clunky, and vulnerable. The animation locks are still too restrictive and the i-frame causing skills are still there. Heck, the Defense skill party defense buff is still shit. I'm hoping DevCAT looks back into Close Combat and tries to patch it up again properly.
Eh... I'm not a pure archer so I can't tell what they need. However, Final Shot was completely neglected in Genesis; the load time decrease does nothing since all archer skills have no load time, and they also didn't bother to remove its own load time.
For Life, the caps definitely need to be lifted; Rest and Campfire are nigh useless for recovery and Campfire also boosts Enchant burn success. Wine Making and Artifact Restoration are completely useless outside of free stats. Taming Wild Animals also needs a massive revamp. Finally, it's just dumb how they slowly decided to neglect Transformation Mastery by not including a large portion of mobs in the diary; I can't be a giant Tree punishing "nature haters", or an Apostle rampaging across Erinn.
Fighter is very effective in the 1:1 department, but was mostly overshadowed by other area of effect skillsets. However, Tumble and Respite are nigh useless, moreso the latter.
Music... My only concern for that is Enthralling Performance and Encore. The former uses a ridiculous amount of stamina and has no use in combat, heck it doesn't even lure sheep and stuff, whereas the latter literally does nothing.
I main Puppetry and it's quite powerful. Some areas could use a few buffs here and there, like Puppet's Snare's damage, but the length of Act 2 with Pierrot is silly, and Act 9 was poorly designed to where it has very little use.
Dual Gun is also pretty powerful and high-end. However, it suffers from poor range, slow speed, and low ammo capacity on Taunes. Grapple Shot, Bullet Slide, and even Bullet Storm have very little efficiency and effectiveness, especially the first two. Shooting Rush and Bullet Storm's position lock is one of the worst features in the game. Don't get me wrong, it's a good concept but it has a lot of bad design flaws.
Ninja, too, is also very powerful and effective in its stealth nature. However, the Shuriken Charge mechanics are outright terrible, as is Smokescreen's primary feature.
Transformations however have been massively neglected. They're quite effective in early and mid-game but have very little use at end-game, especially when they overwrite titles. Control of Darkness is utter trash, and I see no reason why Paladins can't have their own active skill. Demigod too, outside of Awakening of Light, Spear of God, Shadow Spirit, and Wings of Eclipse, are just complete trash and overshadowed by other "mortal" things.
All I can say for Crusader is that Celestial Spike is nigh useless. It only serves one and only one purpose.