Sure. That's fine! I definitely understand that. Ah I see. lol I checked your lookup, and it seems that you started playing about 6 months before I did. lol Guess we're both a couple of veteran players then. That's cool that you got into battling at all. I mean, some players never do. Even WITH the plots. I find fun in challenging the harder opponents. I remember when a friend I've since lost contact with got me to sign up for the site. When I started playing, I found myself finding it hard to earn NP, but battling I could do... or so I thought. lol
My early battles were horrible, I still remember having to forfeit my first battle, to Punchbag Bob. lol My peophin was so low in level and I THOUGHT there HAD to be SOME sort of unarmed attack I could use. I was half-right. I needed to be a few levels higher for him to learn the first of the old species ability-attacks that were removed when the replaced the old battledome. Peophin Trample, I believe it was called. A very weak attack. But, I didn't know any better. lol Every species had some of these attacks, I think the last one was learned around level 15 or so. Species all had some natural resistances and weaknesses too. Peophins had a weakness to fire, which I THINK might still be in effect with the Wheel of Excitement. If it lands on the Laval Ghoul and he breathes Fire on my Peophin, my peophin loses more than half of his HP. Which would only make sense if the weakness to fire from the BD was applied, which doesn't make sense OUTSIDE of the BD, especially since those were supposed to have been removed as well, so... I dunno. lol
The BD certainly has it's own unique battle system, that's not entirely a compliment, but not entirely a slam either. lol I'd say it's somewhere in the middle, like most of what TNT seems to come up with. lol Pros AND cons abound. lol
Anyway, sorry for rambling. I HOPE that they fix Defenders of Neopia. I've been wanting some new challengers for it for awhile, even before the new dome. Just one of many things they need to get to fixing though, so here's hoping they get to it someday soon! The challenges ARE fun and they give us something to shoot for! Plus the comics for each DoN challenge were pretty creative. Leading up to each challenge, and after you beat the villain, the comic updates and the final page post-challenge was pretty neat too! You felt good about accomplishing it.
At least whenever they get it fixed, you'll definitely be ready for the challenges that already existed. If they add some new ones, then who knows? lol But you should at least have some fun trying.