Duels Content Update - Duels Ratings Reset, New Treasures, Balance Changes, Banned Cards & More
Blizzard just published one more article related only to Duels. These changes will go live with Patch 20.0 on Thursday 25th of March.
Quote from BlizzardThe 20.0 patch includes a big update for Duels! When the patch hits on March 25, Duels ratings for Casual and Heroic will reset, and the pool of eligible cards you can use to build your 15-card starter deck will be updated as follows:
- (NEW) Forged in the Barrens
- (NEW) Core
- The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
- Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
- Scholomance Academy
- (NEW) Journey to Un’Goro
- One Night in Kharazan
- Whispers of the Old Gods
- Curse of Naxxramas
- Legacy (Basic/Classic)
What’s more, Forged in the Barrens cards can be found in card buckets offered between matches in Duels before the expansion unlocks on March 30!
New Passive Treasures
The following Passive Treasures can now be found between matches in a Duels run:
Duels Balance Updates
Watermarks on cards pictured below are not final.
Frost Shards
- Old: [Costs 2] Deal 1 damage. Add a 1/1 Ice Shard that Freezes to your hand.
- New: [Costs 1] Deal 1 damage. Add a 2/1 Ice Shard that Freezes to your hand.
Ice Shard
- Old: [Costs 1] Attack 1, Health 1.
- New: [Costs 2] Attack 2, Health 1.
Dark Arts
- Old: Look at up to 4 cards in your hand and discard 1. Then, draw 1 card.
- New: Look at up to 3 cards in your hand and discard 1. Then, draw 1 card.
Favored Racer
- Old: Battlecry: Cast 1 random blessing on this minion. (Improves during run)
- New: Rush. Battlecry: Cast 1 random blessing on this minion. (Improves during run)
Tempest’s Fury
- Old: Attack 2, Durability 2.
- New: Attack 2, Durability 3.
Connections
- Old: At the start of your turn, add a 1/1 Informant to your hand.
- New: At the start of your turn, add a random 1-Cost minion to your hand.
Deathstrider
- Now has the Beast tag.
Banned Cards
We’re banning several cards from Duels in 20.0 for deckbuilding specifically, and then excluding a few more from card buckets. As you may have noticed, Self-Sharpening Sword has been banned in Duels since the mode launched. In the 20.0 patch, Self-Sharpening Sword will be unbanned from Deckbuilding, will become Discoverable, and can now show up in the Group Learning bucket.
Unbanned from Deckbuilding and Card Buckets:
Banned from Deckbuilding:
- Ice Lance
- Sylvanas Windrunner
- Leeroy Jenkins
- Ice Block
- Doomguard
- Divine Favor
- Prophet Velen
- Auchenai Soulpriest
- Mind Blast
- Old Murk-Eye
- Divine Spirit
- Tour Guide
- Pen Flinger
- Lightning Bloom
- Nozdormu the Eternal
Banned from Card Buckets:
- Jungle Giants
- The Marsh Queen
- Open the Waygate
- The Last Kaleidosaur
- Awaken the Makers
- The Caverns Below
- Unite the Murlocs
- Lakkari Sacrifice
- Fire Plume's Heart
Duels General Updates
We’ve made a few miscellaneous updates to Duels outside of the balance changes listed above. You might notice we’ve updated the general game flow to offer Passive/Active Treasures, adjust Health values, and offer card buckets at new intervals throughout a Duels run. Also, Spell Schools have been added to several Signature Treasures!
- Nature – Warden's Insight, Marvelous Mycelium, Deadly Weapons 101, Chaos Storm
- Shadow – Fractured Spirits, Shadow Word: Void, Acquired Allies, Demonology 101
- Fel – Summoning Ritual, Gift of the Legion, Binding Chains
- Holy – Men at Arms, Humble Blessings
- Fire – Elemental Learning
- Arcane – Infinite Arcane
We’ve also added six new buckets of cards that will appear between matches:
- Little Bites (Hunter)
- Razerrattle (Demon Hunter)
- Hero Power (Mage)
- Divine Duty (Priest)
- Hero Power (Neutral)
- Barrens Chat (Neutral)
Lastly, we’ve updated the unlock criteria for all Signature Treasures and Hero Powers to now count duplicates in your Collection, and no longer require unique cards.
Forged in the Barrens Card List & Expansion Guide
Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated Card List.
that should be later after release of FiTB, maybe in a month or two
I bet on druid quest Barnabus.
Cost of all minions to 0 in late game is OP
Paladin gonna be nuts this time around in Duels. So much support for dudes. They got Lightfused Stegodon, Lost in the Jungle, and Vinecleaver coming. Plus the Knight of Anointment to possibly tutor out your Men at Arms in the early games, where dude Paladin struggles the most.
+pursuit of justice
(new +1 attack spell)
If I'll try heroic run, but won't end run before patch, then I'll get an extra tavern ticket (like Arena)?
Your deck will stay valid. There are no cards\heroes removed.
Could you please clarify this a bit more for my understanding? They literally just announced that they're banning Tour Guide, Pen Flinger, Lightning Bloom etc. Does that not count towards an early auto-complete and reward for unfinished runs? You can still play your deck containing those banned cards? Thanks for your feedback in advance!
So... we're not getting a new theme? No new heroes? Nothing like that?
I'm not disappointed.
...Okay, maybe I'm a little disappointed.
(oops replied to wrong post. Deleted)
This is my favorite mode. The quests might actually be useful from Rogue, Warrior, Warlock, Shaman, mage and Priest. Will be fun to experiment with all the new changes. Tour guide is a nerf to Druid and Hunter tempo.
Can't they just nerf Double Time? It's really not fun if a game is decided by the treasure alone. And Double Time is busted in pretty much any archetype.
already done, double time is ultra rare since last update
= 1% chance to get
Really? Nice.
As someone who play 5 hours of duel a day, I haven't encountered double time for a couple weeks. I thought they took it out.
Disk of legends is OP aswell
That doesn't nerf it. Higher rarity just means it'll be even more angering when your opponent has it.
@Thanatos2k nerfing encounter rate is good enough since there are enough treasures that can highroll - that is part of the fun of Roguelike/Battleground getting the perfect build. For me figuring out how to get 8+ win even with trash bucket/treasure is half the fun, and how to bring up my overall average. Furthermore, since people don't expect to get it in their run they are less likely to pick spell based treasures if there are better options to synergize with this later. In a card game, it never about the best of RNG but always about the average performance.
yeah like the 5th treasure need 12 freaking legendary i've open 100 packs and i only have 5
it's normal, the average legend rate since HS lauch is 1 over 20 packs
it's not normal that i need 200+ packs in order to unlock a treasure