Diablo is Coming to Hearthstone Duels as The First Dual-Class Hero! What We Know So Far & What This Means for Duels

As Team 5 announced just a week ago, Diablo is coming to Duels! In fact, the Lord of Terror, one of the three Prime Evil of the namesake Blizzard franchise, will be joining Hearthstone Duels as a playable starting hero.

In case you might have missed it, here's what Blizzard has shared so far with us:

• Diablo first-ever Dual-Class hero in Duels.
• In order to build your starting deck, you'll have access to both Warrior and Warlock cards, as well as Neutrals!
• Diablo has unique Signature Treasures and Hero Powers.
  • One of the Signature Treasures is inspired to one of Diablo's abilities in Mercenary (source).
• Both Diablo's Signature Treasures and Hero Powers will be unlockable through gameplay. 

Quote From Blizzard

Starting November 2, Diablo will be available in both Duels and Battlegrounds for a limited time!

Diablo is the first-ever dual-class Duels hero, combining the powerful Warrior and Warlock card pools! Diablo also has unique Hero Powers and Signature Treasures to pick from that you can unlock as you play!

In particular, this article aims to focus on the implication of introducing a Dual-class Hero in a game mode like Duels, as well as what Warlock and Warrior will bring to the table in terms of deckbuilding and Passive Treasures synergy.

Remember that we're yet to know any of Diablo's Hero Powers and Signature Treasures, which is obviously a big deal when speculating about what we could be playing from November 2nd, but there are still combinations and strengths we can highlight in the meantime.

What Does Warlock Bring To The Table?

Archwitch Willow is currently well positioned in Duels. Discard/Discover Warlock has a decent representation, and Soulcial Studies is great for board presence, allowing you to take the time you need in order to stabilize the game. 

1) The Demon Seed

Let's start off with the elephant in the room: Warlock's Questline. After wrecking havoc in both Standard and Wild (but not without leaving Duels totally unscathed), The Demon Seed might become a contender in Duels as well. In fact, the recoil damage you receive after attacking a minion with a weapon counts towards Blightborn Tamsin, so you'll be able to complete the Questline with more ease.

What's even more interesting is that Duels has two specific weapon-related Passive Treasures (sure, there's also Grommash's Armguards, but let's just stick to the relevant ones) in Pillage the Fallen and Legendary Loot, which will give a lot more consistency to your self-harm gameplan.

From a certain point of view, even getting Aluneth off of Legendary Loot may be a good roll.

2) Soul Fragments

It may not work as a standalone archetype, but the Soul Fragment package is a solid one, that has brought results to both Warlock and Demon Hunter since their release in August 2020's Scholomance Academy. While the postponed healing effect isn't bad at all, what's really interesting is all the upsides you can get by burning your fragments or by just having them sitting somewhere in your deck.

Soulciologist Malicia, in particular, grants remarkable board presence as soon as turn 7, and often wins you board-centric fights. You obviously need another win condition to pair with this package, but having it available is a good start.

3) Card Draw

Although it may come at a cost, Warlock has access to some of the best cycle tools ever printed: Kobold Librarian and Backfire, just to name a few, are generally good if you need some card draw, being strictly better versions of the already strong Life Tap.

While it's true that Rattlegore has a decent amount of draw right now, it is also true that most of it is tied to Bruising/No Guts, No Glory (Auto-Armaments) or specific tutors (Ringmaster Whatley). Therefore, unconditional card draw could definitely come in handy down the road.

4) Demons

Demons? Demons. Diablo will probably have some sort of synergy with Demons because... well... because it's Diablo! So what class better than Warlock can aid this new hero towards its introduction in Duels?

Even though Archwitch Willow is yet to successfully and consistently exploit them, Warlock's Duels pool contains some of the best Demons ever printed: Voidcaller was considered one of the strongest cards to ever exist (ahh, the power creep...), while Voidlord is the incarnation of why Taunt is cheat.

Moreover, Envoy Rustwix gives you that late game value you might need in order to outlast you foes and Archwitch Willow is a nice, although slow, top-end unit to close out your curve and, possibly, your matches.

What Does Warrior Bring To The Table?

Rattlegore had been one of the best class during Duels' first year of existence, being able to boast multiple playable archetypes at the same time and always being meta. While Warrior's Signature Treasures and Hero Powers are some of the best in the mode and heavily contributed to the class' success, this doesn't hide the fact that its card pool contains many valuable tools, that are very likely to come in handy to Diablo as well.

1) Armor Gain

One of Warlock's main problems has always been the survivability: being able to do your unfair stuff without being killed. Warrior, on the other hand, has exactly what is needed to stay in the game: Armor, and a lot of it. To be precise, Armor the quintessential of on-demand healing, and doesn't get limited by your actual health-total, as it keeps stacking over it.

What's even more amusing is that if you're damaged and you gain Armor, the Soul Fragments you may have shuffled in your deck will return you to full health without being wasted. Yep, Diablo's looking very tough to beat down.

2) Frenzy

Pretty much as Soul Fragments for Warlock, Warrior's Frenzy package gives you remarkable board presence, as well as lots of resilience and a decent amount of damage output.

Bruising was fundamental in order to reliably get the Kresh's Frenzy effect, but there might be other combinations of cards that will make that Armor less vital or equally easy to obtain. Anyway, we think that this 3-cards-package will be something to look at when theorycrafting your Diablo starting decks.

3) Rush

Proactive moves are good, and what's better than Rush? Luckily for us that, since the keyword's introduction in 2018's The Witchwood (maaan, time flies...), Warrior has been one of the most proficient classes (if not the most proficient one) in this regard, boasting multiple synergistic tools being printed basically every expansion for the last 3 years or so.

While the older sets like Whispers of the Old Gods and Journey to Un'Goro do not have any Rush cards, in them, there's still quite a large pool to choose from, especially if you consider the Neutral section too!

4) Pirates

Even thought Diablo might not have Pirate synergy in its arsenal, this tribe represents a solid aggressive strategy on its own, and The Juggernaut is a huge source of value and damage that benefits from games taking many turns to end.

If Diablo will have a generally flexible Hero Power and a burst-oriented Signature Treasure, we won't be surprised to see the current Pirate Warrior lists copy-pasted for this new hero.

5) Disks of Legend Synergy

Warrior is one of the best classes when talking about Legendary synergy, as it has some really good standalone cards that give you tremendous benefit from having a secondary copy summoned upon play. What were implying is that Rattlegore's affinity with Disks of Legend may be exportable to Diablo, as Warlock has Envoy Rustwix and its wonderful Prime cards, which look like a nutty addition to such strategy.

We'll have to see if Diablo will have a Hero Power with decent synergy with this strategy (just like Bruising for Warrior and From Golden Light/Royal Greatsword for Paladin), but at least there's something.

Unsolved Questions

Even thought we'll come to know more in the future, there are still some logistic questions that we cannot understand how will be solved.

Initial Draft

With the introduction of Diablo, you'll have two possible Warrior and two possible Warlock characters to choose from at the beginning of your run. Assuming that we'll still get to choose between four different choices, will the introduction of Dual-class hero(es) like Diablo change the options we get?

For example, if we get offered Diablo, does this mean that Warlock and Warrior won't so that there will be less overlap? Or are there any chances that we'll get to pick between, let's say, Diablo, Archwitch Willow, Rattlegore and another one?

Wins Score

What will Diablo's wins be counted? As Warrior's, Warlock's or possibly both? Maybe the class you have the least wins with?

What Does This Mean For Duels?

On a final note, we'd like to address the implications of Diablo's introduction in Duels, which mainly regard the game mode's accessibility.

To be more specific, we'd like to talk more about the part of the initial announcement which states that "Diablo also has unique Hero Powers and Signature Treasures to pick from that you can unlock as you play!". If this statement is really true (and we have no doubts about it), then it's a ground-breaking news for Duels' economy.

Since Duels' launch, many players (even pros) have pointed out that the game mode had too much of high entry barrier: not only you need cards from the past (occasionally really old ones) in order to optimally play certain decks, but Hero Powers have always been locked behind 'collection requirements', meaning that you have to own a certain number of cards (epic and legendaries) in order to be able to make use of said hero power.

While steps forwards in this direction have been made in the past, we think that (soft) locking Diablo's signature features behind gameplay achievements rather than collection ones is a brilliant way not only to promote Duels' new toy, but to promote the game mode as a whole too. To whoever came up with this idea, our sincerest thanks: we love Duels and we'd like the most possible number of players to experience it, and changes like this one will feel really impactful down the road.

What do you think about Diablo joining Duels? Are you excited about this unprecedented event? What questions do you have that remain to be answered? Let us know in the comments below!