Duels Mid-Season Update - New Treasures, Hero Powers, Cards & More
Yesterday, Blizzard also posted patch notes regarding Duels - NEW Treasures, Hero Powers, Cards & More.
Quote from BlizzardThe 19.4 patch, launching on January 21, brings the first-ever Mid-Season Update for Duels! All players’ Duels ratings will be reset for Casual and Heroic, the Darkmoon Races Mini-Set will be added to the pool of eligible cards you can use to build your 15-card starter deck, and each class will gain access to one new Hero Power and three new Signature Treasures—one of which is Dual-Class! Lastly, we’re adding 4 new Passive Treasures and 2 new Active Treasures for you to supplement your deck with between games.
Each class will now have access to 3 Hero Powers and 6 Signature Treasures in total! These new Hero Powers and Treasures can be unlocked by meeting the below criteria associated with your Collection.
- Hero Power #3 (Each Class) – Collect 1 Scholomance Academy Legendary Class card from that class.
- Signature Treasure #4 (All Classes) – Collect 125 Unique Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards.
- Signature Treasure #5 (All Classes) – Collect 12 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Legendary cards.
- Dual-Class Signature Treasure (All Classes) – Collect 150 unique Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards.
Card sets eligible for Duels starting January 21:
- (NEW) The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
- Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
- Scholomance Academy
- One Night in Kharazan
- Whispers of the Old Gods
- Curse of Naxxramas
- Basic
- Classic
New Active Treasures
New Passive Treasures
New Dual-Class Signature Treasures
New Demon Hunter Hero Power & Signature Treasures
Am I the only one who thought that deathstrider was a beast and herald of the scaled ones was a dragon, while they don't have any tribes?
I expect Shaman will get a lot more popular with the no overload passive. Shaman is also quite good vs Deathrattle Hunter because of it's access to cheap devolve and silence effects. DH will still be obnoxious and it's surprising they didn't nerf it's burst potential this time. Bomb warrior might be another contender, shuffling bombs would seem to be quite strong in the early rounds especially.
Shaman's going to go nuts, overload stuff without the downside is a very strong effect
Warrior - Bombs again, WHY?! The most unfun card to play against is wrenchcalibur that for some odd reason was never touched. Bombs are "if your opponent is unlucky, you win with no skill".
Warlock - Demonizer looks cool, will now be able to play more controllish than going straight up aggro. Fragments are always welcome.
Shaman - can't be overloaded, can we get a spell for that to constructed? I used to like the class in duels, maybe this one would get me back.
Rogue - weapons are stronger imho.
Priest - especially with the new leg, I don't see it changing much from the corrupt/cthun dominance.
Pally - the braindeadness saga continues
Mage - gonna be cool to triple up a ray of frost / brain freeze. Also, does the yogg saron wheel count towards the achievement?
Hunter - DR is already the best, secrets are added value.
DH - OTK by 0-cost and face attack not addressed... get goggles = 12 wins, freakishly OP
New passives and actives - don't really care, it's so much luck... and continuing the above - goggles should be removed
Dh / hunter - won't be chosen
Mage / rogue - how is this beneficial to rogue half as much as it is fir mage?
Warrior / Pally - zzz
Druid / shaman - Dunk Tank and GA?
Priest / Warlock - not bad, but I don't see it picked over the current spellburst/corrupt or discard minion.
All in all, nothing really changes.
Is the artwork for 'Demonizer' reused? (which I think is a little lazy)
I somehow get a strong feeling I've seen that artwork on a card many times before...
Worthless Imp
Well, I am looking at warlock new hero power and demonology 101 signature treasure. Maybe it could also be strong for control deck. It could constantly generate some board presense and heal, we should just take more draw, like backfire, free admission, kobold librarian. No Ctun, and of course Tickatus, Ysharj and new legendary which shuffles primes. I distinctly will try this )
Way to recycle the art from Worthless Imp, Blizz! Demonizer.
Also, does anyone know what aspect of each of the Improves during run signature treasures is improved during the run?
Warrior seems to be a nuts, and yea, control gameplay is also what I was really waiting for him.
Warlock hp is cool, but cycling through deck is essential for him, discard and killmox still looks better.
Mage hp looks like the best. Is one mana ping and it can control board non stop. With new 1/3 minion which damage 3 spellburst all frozen, and new treasure which gives 3 spell copy (hello frost and fire bolts) mage burn/control deck could be a thing!
Overload shaman may go to a top.
Priest may some some interesting new gameplay, same for paladin, new treasure which makes all your minions cost 3 can be something interesting for good deathrattles and battlecries.
Druid doesn't have anything interesting, dh got only cool sig treasure weapon (however it can improve its aggro build), hunter got nothing (maybe new DR 2 mana beast slitely better then bunny in early matches), rogue got nothing.
Overall I see that mage and warrior may improve their standing. Shaman may go to top too. Warlock and hunter may loose their standing a bit due to more burn decks. And yea, finally bomb warrior could counter those pesky warlocks hard :)
I fear that Mo'arg outcast and Killmox will still rule this game mode sadly. They should have changed Mo'arg to only affect the left most card and Killmox ability to be a battle cry and BAM! new synergies will flourish
I prefer to play Arena over Duels. Despite having all cards, I really don't enjoy this game mode at all.
I'm interested how other people feel about this mode in general?
maybe with the new hero powers and so on it's better.
I feel you on that one! Duels has gotten very stale very fast. Hopefully this will change it. We'll at least get some new stuff to try out before ditching the game mode again ;)
Hopefully they rotate in/out sets on a somewhat semi-regular basis to keep things fresh and fun.
Honestly Duels is my preferred game mode atm. Yes, the collection requirements stink, but at least you only have to craft 1 of each card.
It's a deck builder paradise. Sooooo many treasures/passives to craft your starting 15 around along with the RNG treasures.
Arena is fine just totally different. Less RNG and more those who appreciate the 30 micro-decisions when making a deck.
but rating will reset so we should expect a free ticket becouse of that
Most of this is just pathetic. THE GAME MODE IS OVERRUN BY FAST DECKS. YOU CAN'T PLAY A SLOW DECK IN THIS GAME MODE. Discard Warlock, DH, and Deathrattle Hunter currently dominate the game mode since they have ways to control the early game, dump huge minions early, and do a lot of face damage.
Most of the new powers won't be used because they create 1 Health minions! Blizzard didn't learn their lesson with Frost Lich Jaina that giving a class the ability to deal 1 damage and summon a big threat minion is a problem. Mage's little mana wyrm power insures that anything that summons 1 health minions is unplayable, and look at that, half the new powers generate 1 health minions! Let's not forget that warrior also has a 1 health minion counter that gives him 2 armor. We already see this with paladin where both hero powers summon a 1 health minion, which wastes your mana and helps mages and warriors. There's a reason why no one picks paladin.
Also, druids new power will insure that late game decks are even more unviable due to having a 2 mana hard clear when they can easily control the treants. Shaman's will likely be broken cause now he can dump out fat minions early with no repercussions. Rogue will be iffy, everything else looks like trash.
The new passives are going to be a burden, most are WAY too specific to be any good, which means a diluted passive pool. Dragons are too expensive to play and this game mode is all about finishing early and playing control when game goes later, so dragon will be useless. Beast is kinda eh, but you have to have a specific deck, which doesn't currently exist, the closest is DR Hunter, but you're going to want the reborn passive and other DR synergy instead. The floor is lava is unplayable because that makes 1 health minions unplayable, 2 if enemy has calatropes or is a mana wyrm mage. 3 is manawyrm mage has calatropes (now you're just pissing your mana away). Demons won't see play as DH doesn't play enough of them and warlock always has a full hand. There's too much face damage in the game mode already to be losing hp.
Astral Portal may as well be 4 mana, summon Brightwing. Mage armor is Eh. I'd rather have something big on the board with the way this game mode works. Also wtf is Humble Blessing? Paladin neither has the deathrattles nor the card draw to be pulling that off. Plus we've learned with his current overly expensive treasures that a do nothing card on turn 5 will lose you the game.
So every class will now be good except for paladin and priest? Isn't that pretty ok?
Personally I think that the old DH face shit will still be nr one and not much will change, since you can't do much against a 12 damage twin slice.
I think the idea is that aggro decks dominate early games, but control dominates later matches. This is all assuming the aggro-player isn't running Cannibalism. I hate that treasure, should be an ultra-rare imo, or at least changed to only buffing a limited number of minions.