I'm more on EagleKnight's side now. Not that it's the end of the world, but it is a big deal, and devs should know how people feel about it. It really is a huge nerf to a ton of characters. Basically sets us back a lot in what can be beaten or autofarmed. I'm basically back a world on auto farming (was doing early levels of Underworld Madness, now have to do Battlefield Madness or Underworld Hard). I don't think I could beat the game again with my current team.
Props to the devs for releasing a detailed list of character tuning well in advance, but something big like this should have been on there. The talisman nerf was big. All that said, i'm willing to wait and see how it all settles out. And I like how it's more clear what drops and I like the progression/spread of talismans/runes across the worlds. Makes it much easier to plan (drop rates are another issue).
Not really sure why troopers won't get used, though? Anyone affected by the nerf is basically set back a few levels. If there's an underpowered trooper, you just run a lower level.
Same goes for time spent. It's just harder to win the levels that were easy before. It sucks, but it's there's an easy solution - play an easier level for a while. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the complaint here.
I also got 3* rainbow evo runes on Battlefield Madness & Underworld Hard.
I'm pretty sure all my troopers are showing up nerfed for me. Are you saying you don't have the update but some troopers are nerfed? That seems odd. I assumed if you didn't have the update it wouldn't apply to troopers either.