I understand the complaints brought up on the WotC boards. The biggest issue people (myself included) have with Scales of War is the lack of a detailed enough overview/summary for the DM at the START of the campaign. I would like to run the AP for my group (having enjoyed running Shackled City to its conclusion), but currently am not able to get enough of a sense of the direction of the AP beyond the already released adventures.
At a minimum, the AP should provide the DM an overview of the overall plot, main villain and major plot-points of the campaign. A couple of paragraphs of description for each adventure, so a DM knows what settings, events, villains and major NPCs are going to be involved.
The flaw of Scales of War is, after 5 adventures, I still have no real idea of what the background plot is. No idea who the villain is, why anything is occuring, or what to expect next. I discovered one of the worst things a DM can do for the players is withhold information (in my experience), and it is worse by a factor of 10 to do this to the DM. With this AP, there is zero ability to foreshadow, or plan changes to the AP. It has taken 5 adventures to start tying loose threads together. Waiting until adventure 5 to come out before I know why a villain was doing something in adventure 1 is just not workable.
Worse, during one adventure, the writer actually had to ret-con an encounter in a previous adventure, because the NPC was supposed to have an item the PC's need. This kind of adventure design really hurts the ability of a DM to play out the adventure on a month-by-month basis. My only saving grace is it is still going to be many months before I even consider starting Scales of War, so I have time for WotC to release more adventures. I don't see how the AP, in its current form, is DM-able. Despite WotC's denials, it really feels like they started writing the Adventure Path without a working background or overall plot (although at least one adventure author claims this info exists, DM's just can't see it).
Now, one explanation I've read is that WotC doesn't want to spoil the storyline for player or DM, but that's hardly a good excuse. Would you not let a director read the script to a movie they are directing until the day each scene is shot? Or a conductor see the music before the night of the performance? This is what's happening for Scales of War DMs. I understand no one wants players reading these details, but if a player wants to spoil themselves, they'll do it whether it's in advance, or month by month.
Player support is also a must. Paizo did this great with Age of Worms and Savage Tides, with their Wormfood and Savage Tidings articles. I wish WotC would do the same with Scales of War. Any AP should provide as much player support as DM.
A good example is meaningful character backgrounds. Shackled city had interesting character backgrounds that were tied directly to the plot of the campaign (at least in the hardcover release). My DM for Age of Worms prepared his own backgrounds for that campaign. It has really allowed us to tie the PC's to the plot. Scales of War has backgrounds, but many unfortunately, feel very generic. A few mention some places or individuals, but again, since we have no overview, I have no idea if they will come into play in the campaign.
Overall, an Adventure Path should be well-planned in advance, provide interesting hooks for PC's and provide the DM with as much background information as possible. I felt having Shackled City as a hardcover provided me perfect details on the campaign. From my understanding the overview provided Age of Worms was also excellent. And the Player's Guide for Savage Tides (Sasserine) was very useful for players.
I don't necessarily need all the campaign setting details hammered out, but if an NPC or location plays an important role in the AP, detail should be provided, and as early as possible.