It feels like they have tightened up the parry timing and level at which it is effective. Frankly, when the game first came out, though it was described as a brutal survival game, it was a bit gentler than that. We could get away with a lot more stupid. As one would expect in an EA game, this did not go by unnoticed by the dev team and some more god-like skills, armor, weapons and particularly food, have been changed to bring a little bit more of the brutal aspect back.

The Black Forest is now loaded with trolls, the nights in the Meadows are like Black Friday sale at major big box store and the new Mistlands might as well be called Deathly Isles. There's a lot to like about the ongoing changes in this EA game, but it is way different than when it first came out.

I wrote the above for another post but I think it applies to this one too. The game is evolving and it may never have been the intention of the devs for it to be a game for the masses. A lot of the issues would be moot if and or when they add levels of play. At the moment though there is only one Valheim and it is a bit rougher than it used to be. Fun for some, not so much for others.