Special PvP combat rules

In PvP — in the arena, on battlegrounds and in duels — you fight with the same cards, but under a few special rules. They stop a fight from being decided in one turn and stop it from dragging on through healing.

Damage cap per round

In one round — your turn and your opponent's — a fighter loses no more than 60% of their maximum Health, DoTs included. Anything above the cap doesn't get through that round, and the combat log shows a "round cap" line. Damage absorbed by a shield doesn't count towards the cap. In group fights each fighter has their own cap.

Healing and shields fade

• From your 10th turn, healing and shields weaken by 10% per turn: −10% on the 10th, −20% on the 11th and so on, but never below 10% of normal.
• The third and every later heal in a single turn is half as strong. Each fighter has their own count.

Shields

A shield from a card or Class Power lasts 2 of your turns and can't exceed 30% of your maximum Health. A shield made from healing beyond full Health never expires and doesn't count towards that cap.

What else works differently

• Defence is Resilience; Hardiness doesn't count in PvP.
• Consumables — bandages only, one per fight, healing no more than 50% of Health. Potions, bombs, boosts and food don't work.
• Racial ability — the "arena" version, not the "field" one.
• Your deck isn't reshuffled: once you run out of cards you take fatigue damage 1, 2, 3…
• Taunt doesn't hold opponents — there's no threat in PvP.
• No crits, as everywhere in the game.

Talents, their triggers, DoTs and HoTs work exactly as they do against creatures.

Live duels

In a duel against a player you also can't use consumables or active items, and you can't swap your starting cards. More in Duels, and about arena modes in Arena.

FAQ

Why didn't my hit land in full?

Most likely your opponent has already lost 60% of their Health this round — the rest of the damage is cut by the cap. The cap starts over next round.