Unannounced Game Mode Changes - No More Separate Casual Modes
In a somewhat less shocking development than initially stated in this article, Blizzard has removed Casual game mode from being able to be queue'd from the specific Game Modes and has instead created a separate Casual Mode section where you can queue for Casual games.
There is no indication of this anywhere, but when queing you are actually always matched with decks from the same Game mode and not cross game modes as the text in the screenshots below might lead you to believe (and had us thinking this was the case at first).
The Images below will explain things in more detail.
View for Game Modes Choice
View for Standard Game Mode
Notice how the top left deck, which is for Classic Game mode is greyed out and how the Wild Decks all say "Convert".
View for Casual Game Mode
Notice how the top left deck, which is for Classic Game mode is playable and how the Wild Decks and Standard decks are playable too.
So casual is unplayable now for standard players. Great.
Not what the article said - if you queue up a standard deck in casual, you'll be matched against players also playing standard decks. If wild, then wild. Presumably the same goes for Classic.
You mean classic is unplayable in casual?
Shockingly I didn't even realize it was like that. Thanks for the information bud!
Hey ifclassic is dead in 2 weeks its still more of a success than Duels!!
Blizzard if you are reading this, you need to go back and look at the arena/sealed format again. As you seem to have overlooked it, and are rejogging other modes instead, like dungeon runs (which were great, for a while atleast) with Duels, which was a terrible idea, or Oldschool hearthstone with classic, which is only slightly better...
Yes I know it is hard to monetize - but it is the mode that rewards skill over all the others, you can't just netdeck you way to victory, or pay2win. The power level of the decks doesn't just create "I win" situations all the time, atleast not in the first few turns. The only reason its not more popular is your rewards structure punishes people learnin the mode, and the entry barrier is rather high in the first place. The gamplay is satisfying, and crucially, more fair, especially over mutliple runs.
Do something spicey with a new sealed format, that rewards skill, not random OP BS like Duels, or netdecking, like constructed/classic.
So, many MANY people on this form talk about how Duels is dead. and while it might be the mode I play the least other than Arena, it's still a ton of fun and I get matches within seconds, so by what metric is it dead?
I definitely spend most of my time in duels these days and matchmaking only takes seconds. Not sure why people hate it around here.
I wish these "Duels is dead" chumps would STFU. I don't know the numbers but it's not like queue time is crazy long. Duels still needs balancing but it's frickin awesome! It's dungeon run mixed with competitive! At one time timw or another we've all imagined how cool that could be. Turns out it's pretty cool. If you think that's a "terrible idea" you need to rethink your life choices.
there's been a graph circulated a number of times showing that it's the least played game mode. If you happen to get matches it doesn't mean it's severly underplayed compared to other game modes (arena is about as bad i think)
Also your queue times will be short at 0-5 wins, but once you go over, you will see how it's like to q for up to 10 minutes.
yes, I do go 9-10 wins occasionally, and it is longer queue times there, but that's to be expected, especially on Heroic since only a tiny fraction of people make it that far. Blizzard has always, and seems to be sticking to the idea that duels is a minor game mode, and it seems to have good health for a minor game mode. before we knew anything about it they said "should be about the same size and complexity as Arena" so by your own statistics the mode has succeeded Blizzard's expectations of it.
again, at Blizzconline they said Mercenaries mode is "our third flagship game mode, after constructed and Battlegrounds" meaning blizzard doesn't want duels to be the main game mode, it is a fun treat. I spend almost all my gold these days playing Heroic Duels, because it's better value than just buying packs, and Arena is full of people who just let computers do their drafts for them. I think it's probably the only mode that rewards good deckbulding skills, because even if you netdeck your first 15 cards, you quickly get 3x that many and it becomes an actual test of wits and luck.
That's exactly what software development is like, in general. You build the foundations/architecture with some idea in mind, but later the product owner (in this case, blizzard and the game designers) comes with new ideas and you have to adapt. In a deadline, of course.
I always kind of feel like they did one proper design of the interface back in 2014 and after that just stuffed new elements in trough whatever way takes the least amount of time
I dont think this means what you think it means
Instructions not clear, uninstalled HS. Don't understand this modes now, didn't see diff between classic and standard, and why wild doesn't have Classic? Wild should be the mode with literally EVERYTHING.
More than 9 game modes would be too confusing for new players.
Hopefully this stops from people going into Casual with Ranked meta decks accidentally. Other than that this doesn't really change anything to how people are gonna play casual, probably will still see net decks most of the time.
No. Instead of each game mode having a separate button for Casual, they made 1 BIG overarching Casual Mode, where you get matched up with people queing with a deck from the same Game mode.
So if you want to play Casual, you go to Casual and just queue up with whatever deck you want and you will get matched with people with a similar Game mode deck. If you queue with a Wild deck, you will get queue'd against other Wild decks. Classic vs CLassic and Standard vs Standard.
It is all kinds of confusing and I have no idea why Blizz did not shine a light on this change beforehand.
ohhhhhhh i get it now thank you :)
this is still very confusing, so the only difference between Wild and Casual is that you can use the 2014 Classic set cards in Casual? Will this change when current Classic and Basic cards move to the Legacy set?