With great promises comes great responsibility. They did not deliver. Read the combat system review from an RPG fanatic.
I don't have time for eloquence, so I'll list my complaints with these problematic elements in the game.
1. There is no benefit to being stylistic in combat. Button mashing your attack key is the most effective and quick way to dispatch an enemy. The Might skill tree offers an unbelievably long, effective, and cheap-to-cast temporary immunity to attack disruption making the lack of combat difficulty that much more apparent. I would rather not have this ability available and my giant 2-handed hammer or sword be uninterruptable nearing the end of the swings. Something that heavy is not going to stop swinging just because some little woodland creature headbutts me. Momentum. Learn it, and incorporate it into your game.
2. Counterattacks (parry + attack) aren't devastating enough to sit and time your block for them to attack you. They really aren't devastating at all, and hence not rewarding. Just find an opening and button mash that enemy to death. A simple solution to this would've been to increase the damage on these parry abilities, and maybe introduce an ability that returns a little health after a successful parry to encourage a more conservative play style.
3. Bleeding and poisons are the most sinister and MY FAVORITE elements in any RPG, and this game (like so many others before it) failed to implement it. Why are my enemies bleeding for 1 damage per second after I hit them for 400-500? That must be a grievous wound, right? Percentage-based damage is not a difficult concept to grasp. Hire somebody that didn't fail high school mathematics and make it viable throughout the game.
Which brings me to my next point.
4. Abilities do not scale well. Why? Because they do a static amount of damage based on character skill level. This means they are good when you first get them, they are fantastic if you max their level shortly after you get them, then hours and hours into the game that "fantastic" damage is overshadowed by the incredible damage offered by button-mashing the attack key. I constantly had to reassign my skill points to passive bonuses at a fatereader because all the abilities were just becoming worthless over time.
5. Some abilities are completely impractical to level. Why would I invest more points into a grappling hook ability (meant for a warrior to close distance with an enemy) when subsequent levels do nothing more than minor increased damage at significantly more mana cost? Give the player incentive to invest in these abilities. It's a no-brainer.
6. Boss fights are too easy. There's no difficulty to any of these encounters even on hard. Use your fate, and button mash the lame-looking humanoid boss to death. Battle ends in 10 seconds. That was... climactic. Instead of making bosses regular humanoids with X health and X damage, maybe introduce a puzzle element to each fight, and not let the bosses be knocked back by melee hits. Give them more force and momentum. They get shoved around too easily.
I endured all of this with hopes that I could start the game over on a hidden difficulty, but alas this game has...
7. No replay value. Period. I have no reason to start over and play again, because I can't start over with the character I already beat the game with, and if I wanted to play a (insert class here) I simply go to a Fatereader and pay to re-assign my points. Maybe they'll make an expansion with a "nightmare" difficulty featuring stronger weapons and enemies that you can play after the first game completion. Many games are doing it. Why not you? I didn't even get my final destiny before I completed the game. Not even close.