So basically what you are saying is that there is a fundamental flaw in the fighting design: it was designed for manual fighting when the only fights happening were in the provinces, in rare ocasions. Now that we have a lot of fighting to do, and some people only play on the app where there is no manual option, the fighting system is inadequate. And keeping adding more fighting features without a major change is not a good idea.
Yep, the current battle system is very flawed, and the Spire makes that obvious. I mean, look at what you have:
- each type of unit has a bonus (attack and/or defense) versus two of the other unit types, is neutral towards its own type, and is at a disadvantage against the other two unit types (they get a bonus against)
- there are just 3 (three!) unit abilities – decrease the target's damage by X% for Y rounds, decrease the target's defense by X% for Y rounds, and retaliate X number of times if the attacker is within range. That's it. And units are limited to just two abilities – that's why the final version of the Thornrose Mage loses its Retaliation
Are there any units or spells that can buff your own units? No, all buffs come from buildings and AWs. Are there units or spells that can heal your units? No, healing is only done via Diamonds. Are there ANY combat spells? No, all spells are out-of-combat only.
Want to buff your units' attack? Build AWs and some temporary buildings.
Want to buff your units' defense? Not possible.
Want to increase the speed of one or more of your units? Not possible.
Want to decrease the speed of one or more enemy units? Not possible.
Want to use “damage over time” effects such as poison? Not possible.
Want to use direct damage spells on enemies? Not possible.
Want to have actual flying units (as that was one of the reasons given for the battle redesign)? Not possible.
Notice the pattern here?
Back when the only battles were on the World Map and in the Tournaments it wasn't that bad. But now we have the Spire, with its 2-wave (and even 3-wave) battles and large squad sizes (leading to large losses of units) and the deficiencies of the combat system are now a lot more of an issue. And it will only get worse if they add a fourth place to battle, namely Fellowship Adventures (I seem to recall that FAs involving battles were mentioned as a possibility long ago).
It doesn't help that even at max speed that battles are rather slow-going, and that makes them quite boring.
Last, but not least, the battlefields. Some battlefields outright screw you over, leading either to losing a battle that should have been a victory, or winning but with much greater losses than in most cases. Nothing has been done about this, despite the fact it has been brought up numerous times.