I'm currently a little on-the-fence on the whole stamina question, post-H&H. I'm finding it more difficult to manage now and finding that it's making dealing with mobs (the need to continually strike or block when surrounded) and trolls (the need to fire arrows while running the hell away!) decidedly tricksy. Still, I wonder whether this is just a matter of adapting, that I'll be wondering in a few weeks why it ever bothered me ...

Time will tell.

What I am finding frustrating is the apparent inability to train now. It used to be possible to increase one's skills by spending time firing arrows at a rock or bashing hell out of a tree and one of the key benefits of that was that it reduced the stamina drain for weapons use. It looks as if higher skills still equals lower stamina drain ... but, as far as I can tell, it's not possible to train any more so it's more of a grind to get that benefit. I'm spending entire game-days hunting everything in the meadows that moves in a desperate attempt to increase my bow skills.

Want to buy some spare meat? ;-)