I really wanted this mode to be good because I’ve spent too much time on offline dungeon runs. But the mode is basically died after 2 months because of questionable practices. I often play heroic duels and I queue up with same players regularly. Two times I queued up with same player 3 times in a row. Also queue time later in runs becomes too long. Way too long. As a F2P player, I struggle to play most of the classes, even though I’m a long time player. The mode is too expensive and Blizzard should do something about this. Also the nerfs didn’t even matter, DH is still insane.
I would play it more if I thought it was more efficient rewards than arena.
I will probably play a few rounds each month but not much more than that. As my rating and ranking goes up, the fun goes down because I face more skilled opponents and I want to get past 4 wins more often.
Well, they made the duel classes extremly imbalanced and also they are P2W.
2 Likes
I had fun with Duels during early access because it was something different to explore.
I developed optimal builds for each class in preparation for when the paid Duels runs went live, but in the end I concluded that there were too many random broken treasures, too wide a range of RNG with the buckets, and the format included a MMR system for matchmaking—all of which undercut any skill at playing the format—making Duels an unreliable return for investment of one’s gold.
My conclusion was that Arena remained a better format to spend one’s gold on. As a result, I have not done a single paid Duels run yet.
Also, as a mobile player, I do not play Battlegrounds because the effects resolve too slowly, hampering what I can get done between battles.
2 Likes
its a bad format that nobody wants to play lol
I like it 
weird
ive been playing it on mobile and the animations seem faster (sometimes it llooks like they are skipped )
i thought it was the same for everyone
Long time player, but OP is recent-time forum goer it seems. No offense, you contradict yourself in the latter of your statement; while there’s no evidence that “Long time player = Large Card Collection”, it’s based on speculation that if you’re playing this game, even as a F2P frequently enough, you should be earning cards to fine tune 1-2 classes in duels, and that’s even including Wild crafting.
However, that’s not to say I don’t agree with with you. Warlock is literally the same deck, even with Killmox nerf. Hunter only plays DR, etc. The other classes in Duels have no individuality for their treasures/hero powers enough to give more than “Play this build no matter what.”
That is frankly unhealthy for a RNG-fiesta that is Duels or Dungeon Runs. The latter, with the pre-build but still randomness of it, you still selected a Hero Power to support one of the three decks they suggest (This is after Kobolds and Catacombs). However in Duels, it really does boil down to:
Warlock - Play (new) C’thun, Sociologist, Killmox, Discard-build
Hunter - Deathrattles
Demon Hunter - Outcast
Warrior - Enrage (Remember that old keyword?)
Like that’s unhealthy, really it is. I could mention builds for the other 5 classes, but they are less interpreted with a definition. (One could argue Paladin is Rez-adin but I like the aggro/classic Silver Hand variant, personally).
Also I dislike Mage’s base hero power’s strength over any aggro; not that Aggro should ever be key, but playing Silver Hand Paladin vs Mage is a headache. (Not to detract from the topic).
The biggest thing that’s holding duels back in my mind is how much it doesn’t change on a regular basis. I know I know, it would lead to some other problems, but cycling in and out other sets from the initial base build would REALLY go a long way to help the mode in the bigger picture. Or hell, upping/lowering the number of cards or even changing the starting life totals would go a long way to make the game fresh. Instead, you end up just facing the same builds over and over and over again, and why wouldn’t you? Those builds are the big winners that you can’t really design around.
Running tech cards doesn’t help when you’re dying quickly on things like DH and Warlock. Some hero powers are absolutely killer to a specific strategy (oh hi warrior against my silver hand recruits), and all it takes is a bad series of runs of facing the wrong types of deck to really make you want to stop.
The biggest problem in my mind though is the life totals at the start with some hero powers. I would LOVE to see the win rate of Demon Hunter with the left/right in the first 4 duels they play, I would bet it’s 75% or more at this point, because seriously there’s no configuration you can play, even with taunts or what not, that stops their early game.
Look, let’s be honest: Duels was never going to be balanced. There’s too many wild combinations of powers/cards/etc that is the draw of the mode, but that doesn’t mean that you literally abandon all hopes of balance, and I feel like the way you “balance” things in duels is constantly change things so a meta can’t emerge quickly.
2 Likes
I completely agree with you AshlynRose. Duels always seem to be the same decks and I cringe when playing against hunter DR. It’s non-stop spamming of the DRs to the point you cant control the board or hit the hero because the spamming of minions. I am beyond frustrated with Duels for that same reason. There is no dynamic to the game. You see a Warlock, ok discard galore that puts the card back into their hand or deals random 4 damage, Hunter deathrattles everywhere, etc. I am a casual player so I look to enjoy a game here and there but apparently Blizzard forces pay to play to even enjoy a game here.