I'm confused, aren't the karma costs for advancement pretty much identical in 5e? I guess without the magic book no discount versions of initiation but otherwise it should be the same cost I think.

Definitely a polarizing thing-I'd rather have the 5/5 than the 3/2, even if it takes a bit more to actually power up. But that's just me. I mean either way it's a trade. An MA who Initiated 3 times in 4 could have quite a nice split going. In 5 they start out with what I feel is a better split, but advancing it takes awhile more. I suppose it's what you prefer-quicker advancement or not. I don't mind advancing a bit slower, so perhaps that's why I prefer how it is in 5. I mean I can't wait to remake my Bear shifter MA under the new setup. He'd feel a lot better under this I think.

Biggest problem in my rebuild, Shinobi Killfist, was the intent to keep as much as I could across editions. Therefore, I needed to actually repurchase the skills I lost in chargen due to constraints. 40 Karma points of Knowledge Skills were re-purchased to keep the skills intact. Had to purchase Rituals if I wanted to actually, you know, cast ritual spells. Also, Specialties went from 2 Karma to 7 Karma. Pretty significant nerf, if you ask me. *sigh*

That said, if I could live with fewer skills and such, I could have kept the spells. In the end, he would have had a higher Magic split (5/5) but less spells. I could also have kept the 3/2 split, but then my Edge would have been stupid high in comparison, and I wanted to keep my Edge of 3.

That said, I would not play the SR5 version of this character, in either form. I far prefer SR4A over SR5.