About a week before the official announcement, some journalists and content makers were given the opportunity to try out the new mode in Hearthstone, which is available today for those who pre-ordered the new expansion. In this article, Cybersport.ru will tell you what Duels are, who will be interested in the mode and what makes it unique.
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Character selection and hero powers
It was announced that the new mode will appear in Hearthstone in 2023 just before the announcement of the Ruins of Outland. Content makers assumed that this could be some kind of 2v2 game, but everything turned out to be somewhat more prosaic. Duels are a mixture of Arena and Dungeons.
It all starts with the hero selection screen. Users will be offered four characters, each representing a class in Hearthstone. After choosing a hero, you have to decide on his strength: during early access, only one will be offered, but immediately at the launch of the beta there will be three of them.
In the first race, I chose a demon hunter, I wanted to crush my opponents with quick aggression. There was only one hero strength to choose from – +1 to attack for the duration of the turn; if a minion is killed by “face”, then a copy of “Second strike” is put into the hand (+2 to attack per unit of mana). Opponents also had unusual hero powers related to table control. For example, a warrior inflicted a unit of damage to a creature – if it died, then the character received +2 to armor, if he survived, he received +2 to attack.
Mode selection menu
A little more than 30 people took part in our closed beta test, so I cannot talk about the advantages of certain characters solely by the strength of the hero. Of those whom I had a chance to meet, the warrior seemed to me the strongest – his ability not only perfectly synergizes with his own creatures (for example, with the same Grommash Hellscream), but also helps to clear the table and stack armor quite well. At least my rivals succeeded in this.
Deck building
If you have completed any of the dungeons in Hearthstone at least once, then the deckbuilding process will not cause you any problems. First thing you need to do is take 16 cards from your own collection. In the first season, users will be able to choose cards from the following sets / add-ons / adventures:
- base;
- classical;
- Scholomance (2020);
- The Curse of Naxxramas (2014);
- “Party in Karazhan” (2016).
Each season the sets of cards will change – obviously, sets that have long gone into the “free” format will often appear in Duels, so if you are interested in the new mode, now there will be an additional motivation not to dust cards leaving the “standard”.
So, at the stage of creating a deck from your own collection, you will need to select 16 cards. Next, before the first match, Blizzard will offer a choice of some kind of treasure. It can be a passive effect or a powerful card being played. For example, for a demon hunter, I was given a card for four mana, which puts three demons from the deck on the table – they are in hibernation for two turns. The warrior, as you can see in the screenshot below, has the first treasure – a passive skill.
Choosing a treasure
After choosing a treasure, it starts drawing cards into the deck. As in adventures, there are three sets of three cards to choose from, which will fit into one or another archetype. If you have clearly decided on a plan for the game, then the choice in most cases will be obvious. However, even if you initially chose not the most balanced build, the game itself will try to bring you to one or another archetype so that the deck is viable. Important – the developers will offer even those cards that are not in your collection.
Most interestingly, even those that cannot be selected at the start can appear in sets of three cards. For example, after a couple of lost matches, Blizzard offered me a set with Leeroy Jenkins, who went into the Hall of Fame this year. So, before the first match, there will be 20 cards in your deck, and you will start the game with 20 health units. As you progress through the collection will be replenished with treasures and card sets.
We only had an hour to try the mode, so I don’t have much to say about the gameplay. Everything looks like a normal match: after a victory or defeat, you return to the deck creation screen and add new cards from the proposed ones – and so every time.
Trying to play as a demon hunter
During the test, some players faced a problem – unequal matchups. For example, someone just started the race with 20 health units and a deck of 20 cards, while the opponent already had 25 health units and 20+ cards – all because he had already won one match. But this can be attributed to the fact that too few people participated in the testing: as Blizzard assured, when the mode becomes available to everyone, this bug should no longer be.
Awards and scoring system
You need to understand that “Duels” is a ladder where points are calculated according to the principle of “Battlefields” – in it you earn MMR. In normal mode, alas, there are no additional benefits. The more your win rate, the more points you earn and the higher you are in the ranking.
Duels also has a heroic game sub-mode where you can earn rewards. It works according to the “Arena” principle – the more victories, the more valuable the reward. Access to the heroic mode can be bought either for real money or for gold (150 coins, as in the “Arena”). Heroic MMR counts as well, and separately from the free version of Duels.
What else do you need to know?
As we already mentioned, the rotation of the cards will change over the seasons (but how exactly they will change is not yet clear). In the same way, the heroes and their powers will change, so the meta mode will obviously not “stagnate”.
It’s too early to talk about tournaments. During the Q&A session, the developers answered very evasively, but since we lived to see the first Battlegrounds tournament, then the Duels competition is probably a matter of time.
Session screen
How the regime will change, of course, strongly depends on the audience’s feedback. As Hearthstone brawl designer Pat Nagle pointed out (yes, the Nat Pagle card is a reference to him), maybe players will even be allowed to remove already drawn cards from the deck! In short, the developers are determined to experiment.
Bottom line – who will be interested in the regime?
It is difficult to say yet who will be more interested in the regime. In fact, “Duels” is a composite hodgepodge of “Arena”, “Dungeons” and standard / free game mode. There is less randomness here than in the same “Arena”, but more than in regular modes, where you completely form the deck yourself.
Statistics page
From “Dungeons” there is a mechanic for collecting maps and treasures, and this adds a lot of randomness to the game, which veterans of the standard ladder complain about from year to year. Those who have plunged headlong into Battlegrounds, the mode may like the return of the once favorite cards (well, isn’t it cool to put “Barnes” on the fifth move and take out “Y’Shaarj” again?). Yet the mode is limited, in fact, to three add-ons / adventures and basic + standard card sets – this is not a free one, where only insanely strong decks are played.
The hardest part will be for those who are used to playing only in standard mode, because in “Duels” will often appear sets that have long gone into the free mode. Most likely, you will have to spend a lot on key “legendaries”. In short, F2P players are not to be envied.
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Starting October 22, as part of early access, Duels will be available to those who pre-order the new Madness Fair add-on. On November 12, early access will be available to all users, and on November 17, the launch of the first season will take place – starting from that day, the heroic mode will open in Duels, where you can earn rewards.
