If you want the game to be fast, make sure your shielders aren't half-AFK the whole game 
Well, make sure no one is half-AFK the whole game for that matter. Everyone needs to play the game to win quickly now. Before it was far too much of a grind fest - players sitting there spam shooting the same spot, Commandos sitting in the slashing line and waiting for the Nords to come, and no one really needing to move out except for repairs or to build walls and barrels for hard waves. Since this patch, I have seen activity in teams in general greatly increase and the massive gaps in kills (think something like 300 to 200 to 50 and lower, so that 3 people would get over half the team's kills) be reduced to a much tighter spread (over half the team having between 80 and 100). This is something that I personally like to see.
It was also always idealized that Ragnarok would be very, very difficult and have a lot of drops to compensate. It became very easy for a long time, and now it is time to ramp up the difficulty. It is hoped that Ragnarok will now be increasing in difficulty without taking too much extra time (see Q's quote above) and allow for a higher drop rate.
That being said, everything is being monitored and further changes will eventually take place based on what we see and how we believe we can make it into what we want to see.
Well, make sure no one is half-AFK the whole game for that matter. Everyone needs to play the game to win quickly now. Before it was far too much of a grind fest - players sitting there spam shooting the same spot, Commandos sitting in the slashing line and waiting for the Nords to come, and no one really needing to move out except for repairs or to build walls and barrels for hard waves. Since this patch, I have seen activity in teams in general greatly increase and the massive gaps in kills (think something like 300 to 200 to 50 and lower, so that 3 people would get over half the team's kills) be reduced to a much tighter spread (over half the team having between 80 and 100). This is something that I personally like to see.
It was also always idealized that Ragnarok would be very, very difficult and have a lot of drops to compensate. It became very easy for a long time, and now it is time to ramp up the difficulty. It is hoped that Ragnarok will now be increasing in difficulty without taking too much extra time (see Q's quote above) and allow for a higher drop rate.
That being said, everything is being monitored and further changes will eventually take place based on what we see and how we believe we can make it into what we want to see.