I want to say that I've never come onto the forum to complain about changes to the game before. There were always pros and cons and the game remained essentially good. The current version isn't any harder - in fact I just had the easiest GW ride ever today and finished it comfortably without using anything but my main team. But I hated every second. All the fun is gone with this update. Some people are asking for crystals or gear but I don't want anything other than to make the game enjoyable again. What's the point of having free crystals to play more of a game that you don't enjoy any longer?
Please just get rid of this protection idiocy and make the characters do some sort of damage again. Balance is useless if the game is this miserable to play.
And please in future test updates before you roll them out. I don't believe any of the devs tested this because it is now so unpleasant to play that it is impossible not to notice how joyless this experience is.