We are halfway through 2019, what has changed/been added to Legacy of the Beast?

[GrimDusk]

I made a post similar to this for 2018, and that seemed to go over pretty well with you guys. So, let's talk about the good, bad, and ugly with Legacy of the Beast in 2019 at the halfway point of the year. A lot has changed, so we have a lot to go over.

Let's start with the good: Lots of consistent content has been released throughout the months! Some people argue it's too much, but I'd much rather too much over too little. From the beginning of 2019, we have gotten 10 new Eddies, 33 new toons, and 18 new talisman sets, along with other new changes to the game! For instance, Cosmic Talismans! These have paved the way for some new metas throughout the months, and overall I think they are a good addition to the game as a long term goal. We also have received Frontier Key Dungeons, which are great for farming resources and also are just a neat addition. We got some quality of life changes such as UI improvements and the ability to claim all frags at once, something we have all been begging for on the forums. Night City got a bit of an upgrade as now it's extremely useful for farming gold and drops better rewards. The Ailing Kingdom was overhauled as well, and some of the old toons got updated to fit the Night City level of detail and attention, including the original Eddie and The Clairvoyant. The Arena was updated, with better rewards being granted for spending your time facing off in PvP. Also, the inventory slots were increased and the SoT refill was increased to 120. Overall, we've gotten a lot of great things and I hope that the team is able to continue to give us good content.

Let's move into the bad: Overpowered toons have been locked behind outrageous prices/methods of obtaining them. The current meta in the game revolves around either Angel or Gambler Eddie, the latter of the two being considered the more powerful one, and these toons both cost 4,500 FCs. That's almost twice as much as Alex Eddie, and more than both Killer Prime and The Ferryman. Speaking of whom, the Ferryman and Killer Prime have been locked away at high FC prices as well, both sitting at 3,500 FC with The Beast. The high FC prices are starting to become concerning because it's causing inflation in the currency, meaning that every new toon that requires FCs will be more and more expensive. In addition, one of the most beloved Eddies has been locked exclusively to the Heroic Soul rotation: Number of The Beast Eddie. It's a shame too, he's quite good apparently (though I can't say since I've only used him through troopers in the Lord of Light Dungeons). Also, some of the new Talismans released this year are (to put it simply) bulls***, with the worst one being Viper Talismans. These Talismans are absolutely insane and pretty much are necessary to survive in the top 100 of the arena. These talismans are a pain to deal with, and if you missed out on their events, you are at a pretty high disadvantage in the arena. In fact, they're so painful that newer toons released now have abilities specifically to counter these Talismans, such as Executioner Eddie's "Public Execution," which deals 120% of the target's max HP if they have certain Talismans equipped.

Finally, let's talk about some of the really ugly changes that occurred this year. Let's start with the March 1st update, which was dropped unexpectedly and ended up screwing a lot of players over. The gold cost for summoning souls was increased, more frags were required for certain souls to be redeemed, and we weren't given specifics about this entire event until it was dropped. This upset a lot of forum users, and it was a bad change overall. In relation to this, Sacrifice rewards were kinda nerfed since it has become a lot easier to gain high sacrifice values in the game. We also had Gangland Eddie, Sirius, and Firestorm Talismans, which were all only obtained through payment of actual cash. These characters weren't crazy good, however they set a scary precedent that we may be seeing more powerful characters locked through cash bundles. Finally, the meta has been increasingly becoming worse and worse, though to be fair this issue has persisted since the dawn of the game. New characters are released specifically to counter the most recent meta, and then the cycle just repeats itself. Certain characters have also been left in the dust, such as Grim Reaper Eddie and Mummy Eddie, both of whom have not been updated to even stand a chance in any of the current meta. New players are going to struggle, and players who were on top before will still remain on top. We also haven't seen a lot of the changes promised in the State of the Nation, such as the "wiki," the guild system, and the Silent Planet. Also, I have to mention the amount of bugs players have reported. I haven't encountered these issues personally, however a lot of people have complained about the gauntlet glitching every time a period ends, and just in general a lot of connectivity issues.

So overall, we have gotten a lot of content so far in the year, and most of it is quite good! However, the content is pointing in a bit of a scary direction; prices are increasing and the game isn't really very new-player friendly. The pay only characters in particular are quite concerning, and hopefully they become available at a different date. What do you guys think? Has this year been kind to LoTB, or are things looking grim?