Helsinki, the reason there's a lot of MA changes is that MA's do well in PvM and catastrophically bad in PvP.
With Notum Wars, there will be plenty of times you need to PvP and frankly, I will level an alt as fast as possible, because there is nothing I can do to hurt someone in PvP after 14.6.
The reason is twofold: Crit reduction and new root system.
The crit reduction is what hurt MA's the most. We have fists and MA weapons that we "should" use. All of them are crit reliant. Think of MA fists as slower, lower damage versions of Ithaca shotguns (without aimed shot of course). This means MA damage output (which is good in PvM) is extremely low in PvP and we cant do nothing about it. I can cap, triple implant, wear every MA boosting item in the game and still be outdamaged by every profession in PvP.
Personally, I'm unable to do more damage to an enforcer then his reflect does to me in 14.6. A doc's DoT's will outdamage a MA slapping the doc in the face. And we can't do anything about it.
Normal fist hits are about 150-200 in PvP. Oh, a crit! that does appx 1000-1200 damage (not including RRFE here). All other professions have the choice of equipping a weapon that isn't crit reliant, take the Manex as an example... It is capable of 1k damage non crit with specials recycling a lot faster then, say Brawl.
That MA's got a new special attack so we can break roots and run away for 10 seconds every 5 minutes isn't overpowered. Rather the opposite. It requires us to raise a skill that does nothing else. That isn't the problem thou, the main problem is damage output.
Start a new char, look at the description of the Martial Artist.
Then log on your main and ask a MA to duel you. You will be amazed by the lack of damage he's throwing at you.