I am greatly disappointed that Duels is being removed from the game. The Duels mode is the most fun I have in Hearthstone, and would be the only mode I played if it was tied into the ranked reward structure (getting a 12-win run in a month awarded the same as legend rank at month end, getting an 11-win run in a month awarded the diamond 5 chest, etc., or something along those lines). My long-term goal in Hearthstone is to have enough of a collection to be competitive in Heroic Duels. I’ve been saving up all of my Tavern Tickets for this.
I respect that the HS team can discontinue any game mode they like. I’m sad to lose my favourite game mode, but I’m not the one trying to earn a living maintaining it. That said, I have about 20 Tavern Tickets that I was really looking forward to using in this mode, and I doubt I’ll be able to use more than 5 or so before the mode is removed. Why can’t my tickets be converted into 150g or 200 Runestone each? I do not find Arena to be any fun at all, and since the point of a game is to have fun, I may just concede my way through 40+ Arena games if Arena is the only use for the tickets I don’t have time to spend on Heroic Duels.
Blizzard, PLEASE add a temporary option to the shop next Tuesday that lets me exchange my tickets for gold or runestones.
P.S. While I’m here, I’d just like to mention that I love the new approach to achievements!