The implement mastery feature doesn't do a lot in and of itself, no, but the small advantages they give can shape an individual wizard's spell choices/spell uses as few players turn up their nose at even a small advantage. They also give a better model for what wands and staves as magic items do... they're something a Wizard holds onto because they're useful (enhancement bonus to hit and damage) not because they might need this ray gun equivalent or that ray gun equivalent.
A magic wand in the hands of a wand of accuracy wizard means enhancement bonus to hit and damage plus the wand's daily power plus the wand's critical effect or property if any plus the accuracy power. That's far from being a useless prop. And how much you want to focus your power on your implement is a question left to the player... you can choose to pump up the attribute associated with its bonus, you can take feats like Implement Mastery that function as a proficiency bonus, you can choose powers or even a paragon path that benefit from associating with a particular implement... you can tie up your character's identity in an implement, or you can treat it as a prop and pretty much only seek out magic implements for the enhancement bonus, or anything in between.
As for rituals... they were the part of the new paradigm I took the most time to warm up to. They hardly seem worth it at low levels, especially compared to alchemy which basically lets you get useful expendable items at a cheaper price. But they seem necessary at high levels to preserve the "hey, this wizard is a wizard" feel by giving ways of doing earth-shaking, world-changing feats of magic in a way that stops the from being mid-combat game breakers or things you can do too casually or too often. Anything that's not an attack or a five minute utility effect becomes a ritual.
The errata? I'd like to know what edition wasn't plagued with spelling and typesetting errors... this edition's been better than the previous ones about not having blatantly self-contradictory or just plain poorly explained rules, and in the age of the internet, getting corrections out when they do make a mistake is fast and easy. Actually, I'm hoping that they keep following the trends they've been setting in seeking online revenue and going with regular published updates and move to options for digital distribution. It would be cheaper and more eco-friendly, and I use my laptop as a DM's screen anyway.
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A magic wand in the hands of a wand of accuracy wizard means enhancement bonus to hit and damage plus the wand's daily power plus the wand's critical effect or property if any plus the accuracy power. That's far from being a useless prop. And how much you want to focus your power on your implement is a question left to the player... you can choose to pump up the attribute associated with its bonus, you can take feats like Implement Mastery that function as a proficiency bonus, you can choose powers or even a paragon path that benefit from associating with a particular implement... you can tie up your character's identity in an implement, or you can treat it as a prop and pretty much only seek out magic implements for the enhancement bonus, or anything in between.
As for rituals... they were the part of the new paradigm I took the most time to warm up to. They hardly seem worth it at low levels, especially compared to alchemy which basically lets you get useful expendable items at a cheaper price. But they seem necessary at high levels to preserve the "hey, this wizard is a wizard" feel by giving ways of doing earth-shaking, world-changing feats of magic in a way that stops the from being mid-combat game breakers or things you can do too casually or too often. Anything that's not an attack or a five minute utility effect becomes a ritual.
The errata? I'd like to know what edition wasn't plagued with spelling and typesetting errors... this edition's been better than the previous ones about not having blatantly self-contradictory or just plain poorly explained rules, and in the age of the internet, getting corrections out when they do make a mistake is fast and easy. Actually, I'm hoping that they keep following the trends they've been setting in seeking online revenue and going with regular published updates and move to options for digital distribution. It would be cheaper and more eco-friendly, and I use my laptop as a DM's screen anyway.