Damage, how techniques grow, and how techniques are categorised all changed at once, because changing any one of them alone would have thrown the other two out.

Fight length is flat across ranks. A duel at high rank takes about as many turns as one at low rank, where before it either dragged out or ended on the first exchange.

Techniques also grow from use now. Landing one in combat feeds its progress, and every technique carries a class that sets how far it can be trained and how quickly it climbs. Some classes can lose levels, and you are warned before that happens.