Having played the AC update a bit I definitely like most of it. Feels like there's lot's of choices and options. I even managed to not get top 5 in my first play, but get it the second time and don't really know what I did different. Anyone manage to get ahead of Jack? I also like the alchemy nerf. Puts it a bit more in line and makes the choice between Alchemy and other stats more interesting, though not feeling like a god anymore is a bit sad. I did still manage to get 4.1k AP though, anyone got more? I was wondering if some of the jade foundation interactions, that apparently were added with the update could instead be hidden interactions you also get with very high AP.
I don't really like the handseals nerf though. It wasn't really necessary, cycling falls off anyways and is kind of a random hardcap. There also still seem to be quite some bugs, in my play the ships I sent out had some weird stuff going on and I almost never got the salvage boat I was supposed to. I have to say I also REALLY don't like the fight against Jack at the end. The pacing is too much all over the place when you get to the tree and there's Leona, then Sakura, then for no explicable reason suddenly Jack. Also the fight feels really, really hard scripted, to the point it doesn't feel like it's my character fighting against Jack, but the writer. There's almost no real hard checks on combat cores and instead it's just asspull gallore with no player interaction. Also really overdoes the "he's dead, no he gets back up" gimmick.