New Ladder System
It's nice to have a place to channel our energy (pun intended). It's like playing in pro mode, but you are betting an undetermined amount of DP points and using energy to get you ahead a bit.
I've said elsewhere, I'm not a big fan of the awards, and see little reason to spend so much time for awards less than what I could earn sending $5 to momostorm. It rewards the players who don't need it and gives very little to the players who do need it.
My advice: Shorten the "season" to a week and reduce the awards so the top players don't get $100 worth of diamonds while people trying to break out in the game end up with $1 worth of diamonds. Maybe 100 diamonds for the top 10, 50 for ranks 11-100, 25 for ranks 101-200, and 10 for ranks 201-500.
Public Chat System
It's turned off now, and was pretty useless when it was turned on. Fixes are promised, and I'm interested to see what they are.
Daily Mission
I like this A LOT. This gives me incentives to play. Hopefully, it does the same for others.
Play Time Windows
Other than practice and betting 100 gold, there are windows where you can get into loot battles, ladder battles, and higher bet battles. My favorite aspect of this game is the loot battles, which come alive at 4:30am (I'm sleeping) and 4:30pm (I'm getting ready to head home from work). I've suggested having it play for 1 hour every 8 hours instead of the 12, and for ladder battles having it play for 2 hours every 8 hours. That should open it up so more people have an opportunity to play when it is convenient.
New Cards
I was surprised at the relatively low number of new cards, but honestly, I'm not complaining. The new variety makes the game a little more fun, but I didn't have to go frantic facing cards I've never seen before.
Complete redesign of the Global Match System
I mostly love this. I'm glad we aren't forced through the match history screen, which speeds getting into battle immensely. I still wish we could repeat our last deck without having to get into the deck selection screen. Come on, there is room for a repeat button, please add it, ecb. Overall, I like what he's done with the place.
Except, the 100 - 500 - 1000 coin bet structure. I had suggested allowing betting in ranges, and ebc says they are working on it. This is good news!
Notices System
Game announcements. I haven't really seen a benefit, maybe because I'm always on this web page. Doesn't hurt anything, however.
20 New Quests
Yay, quests!! And you earn one diamond for getting 3 stars on these quests. That means you can get a total of 20 diamonds for beating them all. Don't spend them all in one place. They are challenging, and diamond rewards are nice, but I feel like the reward doesn't really justify what it takes to earn them.
Boots of Speed
YAY!!! I love, love, love this. This might be my favorite change. I'm fully upgraded and love it. I asked that they include an option to turn it on by default, and ebc says it is coming in a future version. More cheering to commence!
Reset Enhancement Cards
I'm glad this was added, especially since some of my upgraded cards got nerfed. Ouch! You get all your rubies back, not just a portion. I think this was pretty generous. You do need to spend a healthy amount of gold to make this happen. It's hurt, but I can see why he put that in there. You wouldn't want somebody to be able to enhance a deck, then un-enhance and get a a fresh new deck of fully enhanced characters. Anyway, overall, I'm happy with this.
Loading Bar with Hints
The hints are okay (anybody have any idea where this easter egg is?), but most of what is in there is readily available in the documentation. I do like the loading bar, on those long loads I know something has happened and that my phone hasn't just crapped out or something.
Ability to Skip Certain Quests in Campaign
This one surprised me. I went through them all one-by-one and only advanced after beating the deck, regardless of stars. Now that I've reached the end, I'm going back and slowly earning 3-stars on each. If I can do it, so can everybody else. Was anybody asking for this "feature"?
Redesigned Calculations Behind the Match Making System
I do seem to get into battles a lot faster than when 1.6 first came out. I'm even seeing names I don't recognize. I'm glad to see more players hopping in! Keep 'em coming!
The Quests are Repeatable
Meh. The rewards don't justify it. I guess if you are under 100 gold and need some cash so you can play in bet mode it might be an option.
PVP Matches No Longer Require Energy
I guess energy will only be useful in ladder play mode and so you don't get an unlimited amount of gold in campaign mode. I've suggested getting rid of energy altogether, this was a good first step. You are already restricted by playtime in ladder mode, not sure what energy restrictions are supposed to accomplish on top of that other than getting the players to spend money to upgrade VIP.
Leaderboard now shows ranking points change instead of change in position
This confused me at first. I'm not sure what this was supposed to achieve, but I don't care either way.
Refer award when the person referred reaches level 20
I'd refer people if it was worth it. Level 20? There are some solid players who haven't even reached level 20 yet. I'd love it if more people were getting referred and more people were playing. I hope EBC looks for another way to encourage us to refer our friends.
All Cards Sold In Packs Now
You can't buy diamond level cards anymore, but you can buy the first two level packs of cards with coins and win them in there. I wish they'd give a better description of what you can expect, and we're told that is coming. Apparently you can also get legend cards in the second pack, which is something you couldn't do with gold before. I've bought about ten packs and haven't won one yet, but ebc says they are handing out about 100 per day in that pack alone. That's good, though I must admit I'm in a little bit of disbelief.
They don't sell rubies anymore. You used to be able to buy 200 for 7,995 gold, or roughly 40 gold per ruby. Looking at ten packs, and what I can sell them for, it looks like rubies now cost roughly 50 gold per ruby. This would be offset if I actually got legend level cards, I'm sure. EBC would like to see a larger sample, understandably, but I think ruby prices are looking more like 45-50 gold per ruby. I'll keep an eye on this.
Match History Now Shows 7 Matches
Meh. I'm not one to dwell in the past anyway.
Reduce the Difficulty of Quests for New Users
Apparently, this is to encourage new players to play. If this helps, then I'm on board with this being a good thing. Get more people playing!!
"Send Energy" and "Receive Energy" now separate
I love this! This was a good idea. Before I felt guilty not sending energy because I didn't need any. Now I can send and have some in reserve of receiving for when I need them. Good on you for this one, ecb!
Revised CAP Calculations
I don't/didn't want to admit this, but this was needed. A heavily upgraded cards *SHOULD* be more CAP than a level 1 card. This hurts me a little bit, but I see the wisdom in it and can't fault ecb for this decision.
In-Game Cards/Texts Are Refined
Thank you!
Fixed Ability to Peak at Opponents Deck by Logging Out and Logging In
Yes. Thank you!! Thank you! THANK YOU!!!!!
Corrected some cards' skill activation
Another round of applause!!
The "Repeat" button card duplication Bug
Cheers!!
Fixed Freezing When Looking At Card Details When They Where Being Acted Upon
I'm so glad you fixed this. That was soooo annoying to have to leave the game, come back in, redo the match (with no boots of speed), and so on. Thank you!!
Replay is Repeated After Playing
Meh.
Major Balance Changes
You've nerfed some of my favorite cards. *Sad Face* The buffs you gave to most cards was a boost in hit points, which is interesting, but then you nerfed heals on top of that. Ugggh!!!! There are other heal cards to consider, I understand. The buff you gave to The Hero is interesting. Giving more hit points to the Succubus Queen surprised me, that was actually a nerf, not a buff. And you've nerfed my Gargoyle. It wasn't THAT overpowered, was it? You do have it hitting for more, but I did like having that one tanking card.
So, gameplay techniques seem to have changed a bit since 1.5. Before, there was long, epic battles that would often run to 99 seconds. Now, it seems games last less than 20 as this balance change required us to focus less on healing and more on burst damage.
I'm still trying to properly adjust my tactics, but I guess I'm just stubborn.
My Overall Impressions
I'm mixed on this patch, but feeling more in favor of it because I'm not struggling getting into games as much as I did when it first came out. Card loot battle is still often the same three guys popping up, but hopefully more people will join in the fun.
I'd still recommend they look at getting away from their "pay to win" model. I really do think more people would play with that model and being willing to participate in a micro-transaction, "pay for boosts" type of game.