Upcoming changes in DCSS v0.29
There are more, but these caught my eye while I was quickly scanning them. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive list of them.
Ammo for bows, slings, etc. is being removed.
Armor impacts ranged attack delay.
Bows, crossbows, and slings skills are combined into a single Ranged Combat skill.
Monsters adjacent to the player gain a 1/3 chance to gain a free attack if the player moves away from them. Wu Jian martial attacks & rampaging give immunity.
Oh good, it's important that the wildly OP armor/ranged attack combination is being addressed. LOL at least they're finally, finally after all these years, getting rid of the pointless ammo that just stopped you from using your low level hunter's primary weapon early on. After a couple of floors you never ran out of ammo anyway, the ammo stuff was really just pointless after they removed the different ammo types. Sure, why not lump all the skills together I guess? Don't really get it, but don't hate it...
The monsters getting a free attack when players move away is just a difficulty increase for most characters, especially weaker ones. It just means more free attacks on you while you run to the stairs/a narrow hallway.
Wu Jian was interesting before they neutered it because they were mad at the guy who came up with the idea (no really). Spite is a big part of DCSS development. Back in the day, a dude named "Berder" on the forums put up a guide on winning with an octopode fighter of dithmenos, a big part of the strategy was using shadow step on plants to escape sometimes. Devs didn't like Berder, or someone going against the prevailing wisdom of the crowd, so they made shadow step not work on plants.