I tried to like Duels, but RNG got in the way

I suspect Blizzard doesn’t look at these forums at all, but I thought I’d write up my experience with Duels in case they do.

So first off, my background. I’m no newbie to the game, being legend (pre-legend nerf) many times. My card collection is deep enough (I am pure free to play) that I can craft probably 80 percent of all netdeck duel variants. That said, I rarely rely on netdecks in the duel format as I find most net decks are pretty poorly optimized. So yes, I play duels and refine my own lists. For some classes, they end up looking similar but not identical to popular netdecks. This aspect of duels I find extremely refreshing and fun. There are no clearly optimal lists to run.

I’ve been able to reach 12 win runs a handful of times. Each 12 win run felt pretty undeserved, mostly decided by the second pool treasure. This is in stark contrast to some (but not all) arena runs. A 12 win run in arena usually requires decent luck in the draft, but experience and skill ultimately win out (provided you get a draft above a certain threshold.) Clearly, massive balancing of the second pool treasures are necessary, in particular I would recommend removing all “double” treasures, as empirically they are probably somewhere between 2 to 10x more valuable than all other treasures in the format. But “double” treasures I specifically mean: death rattle triggers twice, battle cry triggers twice, spell triggers twice and reborn given to death rattle. These are by far the most egregious offenders with the deathrattle treasures being by far the worst.

Next, I’d recommend going back to basics with the duel format. There are far too many win conditions offered by the multitude of ways RNG is injected into duels. For duels to feel “fun” for players (ie their choices matter) the number of win conditions need to be wittled down to the standard: focus on board control being most important. This is where most if not all of Hearthstones interactivity comes into play. If controlling the board is a necessary condition for a win, it will greatly reduce the number of shenanigans that happen due to RNG, and will give players the feeling that at least they made some decisions throughout the game.

As it stands, duels is an unplayable format for most players that like player agency. This is unfortunate as early on duels looked to be a candidate for a format where decesions actually mattered.

The whole point of duels is the RNG, that’s the fun of it, it’s what separates it from arena.

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