In a surprise turn at the start of the new year, Blizzard announces that the Duels game mode will be removed from the client in April. Read on for the details!
Quote from BlizzardAs we think about the future of Hearthstone and where the team can best focus their efforts, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue support for the Duels Mode. We do not have plans for any further scheduled updates for Duels, and the Mode itself is scheduled to be removed from the Hearthstone client in April 2024.
This change will allow us to shift our resources to where we feel they will have the most impact, including Traditional Hearthstone, Battlegrounds, and more. To that end, Battlegrounds Duos is scheduled for an upcoming Battlegrounds patch, and we’re trying out some Duels Treasures in our next Arena season—more details soon.
We want to thank all our passionate Duels fans for every pile of loot, treasure, and hard-fought victory you’ve collected along the way. It’s been a heroic run, and we couldn’t have done it without you.
Blizzard Comments
duels requires a LOT of maintenance - it's not a sealed pool. we release new cards all the time that impact the balance of the mode, make new buckets, and have to change interactions between old treasures and new cards. mercs is static.
— Ridiculous Hat (@RidiculousHat) January 4, 2024
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)Welp, there goes my biggest continuous project on Hearthpwn :( I’ll give my guide a proper send off; Viking Funeral.
I’m coming up with ideas for what to replace it with since I’ll have time to singlehandedly facilitate a whole new series of posts. I do have my own ideas, but I might as well ask in case some of you have thoughts to share …
What content would YOU like to see me make as a new hearthpwn series?
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)Well... I would like to see a Twist write-up every other week, like twice per season. That is, when the mode is available. And when it is actually played by anybody and the queue times are under 60 seconds. And when the mode actually sees any changes between months. And when the ruleset is anything other than Standard+. And assuming it is even continued beyond next year. Keeping my fingers crossed as my faith goes crying in the basement...
Some first hand experiences on Arena runs would also be interesting once in a while, but I feel like it is a matter of time until that is put to rest as well.
You could try a series of impressions on wacky wild combos, destroying old PvE bosses with new sets exclusively, Achievement hunting, discussions of best voice tracks per expansion... but whatever I suggest, the most important thing is that you actually enjoy doing it in the end.
At the very least, this is as good a place as any to thank you for your effort in making Duels interesting. And I look forward to whatever you come up with next.
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Posted Jan 9, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)"Nutdeck", Like netdeck, but with bizarre and low tier decks. They just dont work 80% of the time, but the other 20% generates enough salt on the enemy to dryfry fryums. People like Chump already does this, and when Rarran or MarkMcKz try random challenges, sometimes FunkiMonki, and there was this russian youtuber with a "only minions with beard deck" kind of videos.
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)Classic, Twist, Mercenaries, Duels, what's next, Arena??? How long can this go on? Bli$$ard just removing the mods which can provide players EZ gold.
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)How long can this go on?
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)Duels was never what I wanted it to be, a dungeon run with pvp instead of pve. It was always built on catering your starter deck to have the highest rate of strong buckets and specific treasures. It was far too broken for most people to want to engage with.
So this obviously isn’t a surprise but glad to see they’re trying to reuse some of the stuff in places like arena. Could be a fun spin on a small arena event!
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)Seriously? Leave it as it currently is at least, why remove it from the game?
Probably the reason to remove it completely is the reward structure that allows people to earn things besides the battle pass and daily/weekly quests.
Is arena next?
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)This is because it's too easy to go infinite in Duels. They are losing too much money on the packs, dust, etc.
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Posted Jan 4, 2024 (Winter Veil Buffs & Nerfs)Is it? I honestly never bothered, because whenever I played Duels, it was just "hope you get the right treasures" and "get screwed by people who did get them".
How can you reliably go infinite when it is all up to chance that the treasures fit your starter deck? Maybe I did something wrong, but even when I was trying out lists that presumably could get to 12 wins, I would just look at lousy treasures, worse buckets and horrible matchups.
Genuinely curious if people actually played Duels exclusively and with good results.