This has been up for debate before on the forums and It has been a dream of mine ever since i started wow like 17 years ago.
I know the counterarguments already and im here to make them invalid
*** It will be impossible to balance.**
2v2 is not balanced perfectly either, still people play and enjoy it, simply because it´s fun and much easier to get into as a new player then 3v3. Also not everyone has pre mades to play with.
*** Nobody will play it**
People duel each other all the time even though it´s not balanced because it´s FUN. Not everything has to be super competetive all the time. If you hate the game mode due to balancing problems then simply don´t play it but why would it bother you so much if other people enjoy it?
I would even take it if it was non rated and just had some cool achievments like the brawlers guild had which also miss a lot btw…
Lastly, if it is completely impossible to add this instanced 1v1 bracket, could we at the very least have a dedicated area (like a colosseum) or make some new achievments / titles for the ones already in the game (Gurubashi arena, Maldraxxus coliseum)
Give people a reason to go there for duels and honor. Could also make a betting system for the audience where they could bet gold on the winner…
The opportunities are endless, please consider this.
People who say theres no way you can balance it are very limited in imagination.
There are ways to balance it.
A single duel might consist of 3 rounds each giving a different random type of debuff like Weather in pet battles:
Stormy: Casting speed and mana regen is increased. Storm strikes every 5 seconds dealing very little damage, removeing stealth, making pillars conductive, nature abilities and chaos abilities can go through them.
Sunny:
Normal 1v1 duel.
Misty: Restealthing gives an absorb shield for 10 seconds. There is a mist concentration in the middle of the arena, whoever picks it gets to restealth unbothered for 10 seconds.
First cast during mist doesnt break stealth.
Pillars spown around them a small smoke bomb type of effect at random locations around them.
Blood Moon: Leech increased by 10% during the entire match. Leeched damage also puts a shield equal to 3x the damage you deal.
Melee attacks have a chance to increase movement speed by 2 % stacking up to 20%. (increased proc chance for two handers)
Person who falls bellow 50% HP gets a Berserker buff increasing damage they do by 10% and their casting speed by 30%.
Immunity to damage abilities like bubbles, act as if they’re absorbs but do clear stuns/fears/slows initially but not grant immunity to them.
Going out of combat for more than 5 seconds reveals stealthers, at 10 seconds it reduces healing by 50% but do give root/slow immunity.
Snowy:
Every 4th autoattack makes you lose your balance.
Bleed damage reduced.
Snowstorms starts to surround the arena, shrinking rapidly, pillars are very early on engulfed.
Spending time outside in the Snowstorm for more than 10 seconds, reduces your maximum HP by 50% for 20 seconds.
Goes without saying that when you’re in the Snowstorm, you’re slowed by 20%.
However, doing melee damage slows you by another 50%.
Plates are NOT affected by the slow effects of Snowstorm but spending 10 seconds in will give them the debuff regardless.
Rainy: Healing increased. Being interrupted during a healing spell, gives you 60% moving speed increased with immunity to slows and 30% casting speed increase for 2 seconds.
P.s. this is just an idea, dont shoot me.
I don’t want to disprove your concept, but this post would be valid if it was 2008.
Where did you get this info? Isn’t retail dueling dead like non-existent forever? If you ask any streamer/PvPr you will get the same answer, people don’t like 1v1 in retail WoW due to button bloat, spammy gameplay and general low skill ceiling. I’m ngl but it is so bad to the point where Cataclysm classic has more duels than retail, remember that version of WoW has a 3 digit playerbase. Probably private servers have more duels. This 1v1 duel concept was in BfA Zuldazar or whatever the location was in mugambala and I’ve never witnessed a single duel.
So tldr it is destined to fail and it will hurt other brackets same way ss and bgb did.
Theres nothing to disprove really.
OP is just suggesting and your comment is nonsensical.
First you bring “button bloat” and then you say “spamy gameplay”
Then call for a " low skill ceiling" which again has nothing to do with anything OP is talking about.
tldr you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing.
You’re addicted to it.
Go outside, kick some rocks.
Nothing splits the playerbase as the state of the game right now.
Theres nowhere for the new players and casuals to go to practice, we even chased them out of the battlegrounds though we have both soloque and 10v10 rated version of them. Newbies cant play, cant learn the game because Premades have invaded their space.
Might as well just add dueling modes aside from traditional dueling ofc.
I play the game long enough to tell you that minimum rewards in it, wont convince advanced players to invest their full focus into it.
