I definitely makes sense to return, but as far as I know they didn’t nerf it much like they did Mistlands other than to tame down the crazy spawn rate a bit (which was all it really needed).

My friend and I started over about 6 months ago and played through everything and Ashlands felt a lot easier going into it knowing what to expect and what to aim for. Once you get the gear for the biome it gets a lot easier as well as you can imagine, though maxed out Mistlands gears is fine too.