darkSpyro

As they continue to prepare for a wider release, Skylanders: Ring of Heroes today updated to add a real time friendly arena mode that lets you fight against other randomly selected players. There's no ranking in this mode so no penalty for losing and there is not yet a way to battle a specific opponent but that is apparently on its way in a future update.


They've also kicked off a couple of new events. The "Create Your 5* Dream Team" event asks you to use the Ultra Premium Summon (800 Gems) and they'll then give you a Legendary 5* Skylander (or 50 Soul Stones for it if you already own it) on the 3rd time, the 10th time, and the 20th time you use the summon. The event lasts 14 days but that's an awful lot of gems to spend....


The second event they've started is "Hugo's Portal Master Mission Book" which is a lot more manageable and gives you smaller rewards for completing a variety of basic tasks. Every three you complete will get you a bunch of bonus gems. This one lasts until the beginning of April.


And there were also a whole slew of other changes as detailed in the full patch notes below:

Quote: Update Notice

1. New Content: Friendly Match

• This is a REALTIME Arena mode where you can compete against other Portal Masters!
  
• You can enter Friendly Match from the Duels menu then to Friendly Match.
  
• Quick: Random matches with current participants.
  
• Unlike the Arena, no Gears will be needed to play a match on Friendly Match.
  
• Private mode (against friends) will be added on future updates.

2. New Packages

• 4 brand new packages will be added.

1) Energy Package

• 300 Energy + 20 Red Potions (S)

2) Value Package 1

• 1,250 Gems + 450 Energy

3) Value Package 2

• 1,250 Gems + 45,000 Gold

4) Power-up Package

• 1,250 Gems + 250 Energy + 15 Red Potions (L)

3. Town Background Change

• Winter themed Skylands are now over! We’re going back to original Skylands.

4. Improvements

1) UI Improvements

• Tutorial and Quest menus are revised to be more intuitive.
  
• Rune menu layout and usability has been improved.
  
• Tutorial features are added for more user-friendly experience.
  
• The battle result screen has been improved.
  
• The currency you get when defeated are displayed.
  
• Recommended guild display conditions are added.
  
• The info of Watcher stones in boss stages are now displayed in the battle preparation screen.
  
• The enemy team's power rating is also displayed in the battle prep screen.

2) Battle

• Invincibility buff will now remove all debuffs granted on the target.
  
• Behavior of Hot Dog when in auto-battle will be improved. (Fire Bark skill is now used more frequently when HP is low.)

3) Summoning

• You will be able to summon Skylanders with sufficient Soul Stones right from the result screen.
  
• The tutorial summoning has been re-vamped. (Previously: 1 type of 4? ? Changed to: 1 type of 4? and Soul Stones of 2~4?)

4) Others

• You do not need to build a Spring of Souls anymore. We've done that for you.
  
• Amount of Gold required to use Red/ Blue Potions (L) and (XL) has been reduced!

1) Red Potion (L)
2,500 Gold → 2,000 Gold

2) Red Potion (XL)
12,500 Gold → 7,500 Gold

3) Blue Potion (L)
300 Gold → 250 Gold

4) Blue Potion (XL)
900 Gold → 550 Gold

* Gold cost per potion usage.

• More precise Power Rating calculations.
  


• Displayed power rating may look different than previous rating due to the improvements in calculation method.
  
• Summon Villain’s power will also be included in the power rating calculation.

5. Bug Fixes

• Addressed typos on several skill descriptions translations.
  
• Correct Arena grade icons will be displayed at the top ranks.
  
• Incomplete requests will now show at the top of the guild support menu.
  
• Battle play time will now stop counting at the end of each battles.
  
• Skylanders will not be defeated anymore when Instant Defeat debuff is removed with a debuff removing effect.
  
• Distorted Dimensions' drop Rune info will show properly.
  
• Fixed a bug where buffs did not activate when summoning characters.
  
• No damage will be done with damaging effects while Invincible buff is active.
  
• Additional damage will be done to enemies for Awakened Chain Reaction while shield is active.
  
• Enigma's skill "Mystic Staff" now casts ATK UP to correct ally target.
  
• Skylander Soul Stones required to summon Krypt King has been addressed to the correct amount.
  
• The battle pause pop-up won't be exposed while auto battle is on.
  
• Nightshade will now activate counterattack when using a skill right after using the Clone skill.
  
• Fixed an issue where Shadow King Pen did not return to its original position during battles.
  
• The limits on deletions of friends per day will now reset every day.
  
• Auto battle won't be disabled if you tap the auto battle button while using the auto battle function.
  
• Fixed an issue where Tidepool's Whale Tale skill heals a random target.
  
• Fixed an issue where Cynder’s passive skill ‘Ghost effect’ did not show when activated.

Quote: Bifrost

That's a lot of gems to miss before the game is fully out, tho...

Maybe you're misunderstanding, the event is asking you to spend 16,000 gems to get all the rewards. Totally not worth it.