My two cents, for what it's worth
Personally, I'm not a fan of the new talismans. That said, I'm struggling to gain the iron coins to get a set simply to have a level playing field. I have immunity and shell talismans for that same reason. The new talismans, lessen the value of some of the harder to get characters. Why worry about getting someone who counterstrikes a single opponent, when you can counterstrike the whole team. The proc rate for counterstrike is ridiculous (haven't encountered the talismans, but saw it's effects in LoL where the Lord of Light threw himself against my shield for 5 minutes until he finally killed himself. Not exciting to watch. At least they're working to fix the proc rate.
Other things. I've seen it posted where soon everyone will have tons of iron coins. I've been playing for four months and always struggling on the iron coins. I'm close to achieving the rent a champion 6,000 times (which takes a little over 4 months playing all troopers), so that should tell you I'm a serious grinder. I usually only play most of the free SoW, so by the end of the week there's not much left over if you buy out the store. That's good, and the way it should be. For those who have piles of them, that's great too, you've earned them. The biggest problem (aside from the current imbalance in game play), is the new talismans become an unattainable item for many. Anyone starting now has no way to get immunity or shell, and unless things change, the same will be true for the counterstrike and life talismans. People complain about seeing the same names on their lists all the time, yet when only a few are granted the overpowering ability to maintain the current ranks those lists aren't likely to change anytime soon.
Something I found funny, was a comment made by Jofer about gaming the current point system. Being on top, it's better to not play. I'm not on top by a long shot, although I'm currently showing a rank of 207 (not bad when I was reset back to somewhere in the 1400 point range). I've seriously been considering crippling my defense (currently at about 30%) to simply farm for iron coins. The rewards aren't that great for making it to top 100, and the closer I get, the more likely I end up with 1 iron coin instead of 10.
Finally, I have to ask as I haven't found any mention of it. Am I the only person that has a problem the prisoner blocking talisman effects? Is that the way his passive is supposed to work now?f