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I should clarify, I didn't mean the game was boring or cliche really, and I did enjoy building a group instead of building 1 toon for a change. When I said unoriginal, I meant the base classes don't really do much in the way of new stuff. Fighters are Sword n Board, dual-wield, 2-hander. Nature mages heal and buff. The extras always felt like extra; I couldn't remove the healer to make an ice mage, for instance. Their hybrids were interesting, but always felt a bit short of a pure class to me (exception: Fist of Stone tanking with a few points in ranger dodge. 94+% resist everything, block the rest.)
I see what you're talking about with the swarming enemies, and in a game with a party, they worked well enough. The problem came much later, when every single room was Taunt, Use Mage Nuke, Repeat. I didn't feel powerful so much as the enemy never seemed threatening. I'd argue the other way, that if a character has to put a bit more effort into survival, it makes me feel more skilled when I can pull it off. Smaller groups that take interesting tactics feel, to me, more powerful than swarms of 1-shot fodder.
As far as skill-building goes, I'm greatly enjoying Titan Quest's pick-and-choose model. That could just be me though, as I enjoy experimentation and discovery instead of checking a cookie-cutter guide and following it. Sorry to go on a tangent here, but I couldn't resist talking meta-ARPG theory.