Hello,
as the title says.
I did not play the game for at least one year, maybe more and did not follow up closely the updates etc.
I lauched it again recently, creating a new char to taste the changes.
So the question is:
is the meta still to maximise physique and resistance at the expense of cunning/spirit/dps ?
Imarion
Essentially yes but you can make a build that maximises resists and physique without sacrificing too much DPS (depending on build obviously.) There are new components and augments and weapons and a new grade of weapons mythical legendaries that are essentially their non mythical counterparts but with changes. There is a lot more flexibility in builds with conversion being a bigger focus on a lot of gear. If you are playing AoM in ultimate well lets just say you might be in for a few shocks and probably a few deaths. Crucible now has another 20 waves with the new AoM enemies that make it much much harder. Builds that could steam roll gladiator to 150 are now struggling with the absurdity of waves 150 to 170.
Basically what Woofknight said - updates have given more resists, DA and health to constellations and gear pieces so that capping resists is easier than it used to be compared to the early days after full release.
Max physique is still needed on Ultimate for about 98% of all builds for the needed health/DA to survive but certain builds can afford to invest between decent to entire amounts into Cunning and rely on their damage and lifesteal to keep them alive such as Superfluff’s Belgothian Blademaster (though I think he has said he was working on an update that might also shift the amount of Physique/Cunning/Spirit around later in the topic).
Spirit - definitely not.
Cunning - it’s a viable investment on the build that only uses non-magic damage, and is ofcourse most efficient on Nightblades. By viable I mean that it’s not a waste to invest a point into cunning instead of physique. It’s just easier to have your defense guaranteed by stats and work on improving the offense rather than vice versa, so many would still go all-phys even on blademasters.
Capping resistances is still a thing, as for the overall character building concepts I’d say the importance of defense had overall increased compared to vanilla 1 year ago.
I really want Cun/Spt stats to get buffed. Make them more viable in Ultimate. But i don’t know how it could be done 
Cunning is quite decent as is, actually.
Spirit is the lost cause though, as long as it doesn’t start to provide equivalent amount of OA/DA as physique and cunning.
Also for builds that have their damage split between cunning-type and spirit-type (like Ultos, Krieg, Deathmarked) it’ll always be full phys.
Thanks for the answers.
I will continue to throw away items with no res and focus on physique/res
I do not have the expansion. Buying it is dependent on my experience here.
I created a commando. I already found 2 bugs with the mortar.
One I had back in time with my chaman and the totems: if you try to place it where you do not have line of sight the cool down starts up, the mana is used, but the thing (mortar/totem) does not appear.
Another with the mortar: you place it at a level(height), and there are monsters at a higher height (on a platform, …). It starts firing, but the shell does not fall down-I can understand that on a balance/gameplay point of view. Yet it could, not fire at those ennemies as it leaves the impression it is actually. More imprtantly, If an ennemy is closing you, it continues firing at those it can’t reach and won’t target the newcomer.
Something I imagined:
putting points in a class, not only increase base stats but also the relative resistances: Soldier = bleed and trauma/physique res, Arcanist=Ether, …
Same for the stats: spirit gives elemental res, maybe ether, cunning give bleed, piercing, … res, physique = whatever.
Then with your stuff you simply complete your need. This would emphasise the main stat and you will still have to think about res.