So I do not normally use "netdecks" cause I want to feel, that I accomplished something with my "very own" deck. I know I am not a good deckbuilder by any means, but playing them is so much fun for me. Tailoring and adjusting stuff after every match, thats what has motivated me to play Hearthstone since beta.
This morning I went from 22 to 13 with a newly crafted (at least for me) Hunterdeck and did well against Shaman and Pirate Warrior - though I have to admit, they made many mistakes - and it was fun again :)
Learn about basics over and over and have fun! Do not have the mindset "I have to climb the ladder!" Enjoy the game, use some cards, nobody would expect.
So look, here's the thing: Since the power level of the top decks is so high, the game is mostly RNG: Whoever draws more of their powerful cards and stumbles less wins. This means it can be hard to win streak sometimes if you don't get good RNG. This is why Pirate Warrior is the best deck, because it stumbles the least. If you grind it out with Pirate Warrior, you should be able to rank up easily, eventually, when you outlast your bad RNG streak.
By the way, the reason the same people keep getting Legend every season has nothing to do with skill. It's mostly because they're all nolifers who have the time to sit on Twitch and play HS for 8 hours per day and grind out the RNG. As a casual player (i.e. not a nolifer) don't expect to make legend.
First of all, i can understand your frustration. When i haven't played for a while and start from 18 or so my ladder, i tend to be astonished by how many "try-harding" guys there are. Shamans, Pirate Warriors and Jade druids all over the place.. most of them with well refined netdecks and a bunch of legendaries. I like to play more creative stuff on that level, but that seems to be the exception. Nontheless getting up the ladder is definately not too difficult! Personally I had great success with my reno n'zoth medivh priest.
Secondly, I'd like to know your definition of an asymmetrical deck - The cards you mentioned can be strong with additional synergistic cards, but in a vacuum there are just better options most of the time. Maybe you might want to post your favorite deck, so people can put on some tinkering-ideas?
Also someone mentioned a replay would be helpful, i agree on that. Also I think watching some pros playing the game is very helpful when it comes to trading, good tempo plays and when to switch to SMOrcing..
I think what the OP means by something being wrong is that the higher ranks are a lot more difficult than they should be (used to be). I have seen a lot of top tier netdecks at ranks 18-20 and honestly, it should not be that way. Before the introduction of wild ranks 18-20 were cake.
I'm still not seeing it. I started this season at Rank 24 or something after slacking for the past few months and went on a 14 game winstreak as I climbed out of the lower ranks. Not trying to suggest that's impressive or anything in the slightest, just, I haven't seen a noticeable increase in difficulty.
The fact is some people aren't so good at the game, the game inherently can't be made more or less difficult because you are only playing against other people. If you're losing and find yourself stuck approximately at Rank 20 then that just makes you a Rank 20 player...somebody has to be, right? Doesn't mean improvement isn't possible of course, far from it, but blaming the game instead of your own abilities isn't a good way to go.
The lower ranks absolutely are harder than they used to be. You'll see netdecks from 20 on up these days. Still... You have got to be the problem. I blasted my way to rank 8 with a water priest deck I came up with. Not a netdeck. I was playing 2 entomb for gods sake. (when is the last time you say Entomb played??) At that rank I've hit a brick wall, but, that's not entirely unexpected given my futile attempts at deck building.
What I'm saying is that thousands of us, and many more, have no trouble getting to rank 10 with a netdeck. So, you either are a bad player, or you are on one hell of a tilt/bad streak. My guess is that if you started streaming your matches so that folks could spectate what you are doing you would suddenly find yourself on a win streak. Probably because you are just paying more attention with someone watching you.
Or you are just trolling us. If so, congrats, I fell for it.
With Reno leaving, I'll be going with him if something doesn't change.
I kinda feel for you, but more than that I feel like you're asking blizzard to make you win and threatening to leave if they don't. Everyone has the same advantages and disadvantages that you do, clearly the problem is with your play, not the game itself.
Although if you're not having fun, just play something else. Lots of choices these days.
To the majority who have tried to help, thanks. Without appearing ungrateful, I respectfully think some of you don't appreciate the challenge currently presented in Ranks 18-25. It takes me two weeks to hit Rank 20 just to get the card back, and I enjoy managing to do that most months. Of course, those who hit Legend regularly start the next month at (I think) Rank 16 - so they would never see 18-25. Assuming the lower ranks are populated with totally inept players simply isn't true. Less skilled? Sure. But some kind of auto-win meta? No.
I run two free-to-play accounts on my non-main servers (EU and Asia), I don't have even close to the cards for netdecks on either account, and I run each one from Rank 23 to 19 in a couple of hours every month.
If it's taking you two weeks to hit Rank 20, there's some fundamental disconnect between the way you play and the optimal way to play. I recommend reevaluating when you should trade and when you should go face, because I suspect you're doing one or the other more often than is optimal. That's the number one problem I notice in players stuck at the bottom ranks.
Again, thank you. I haven't understood everything folks have said (I've read Melacine's post four times and honestly have no clue what she's saying), but I appreciate the efforts.
i agree I am often very unsure when to go face vs trade - it's the reason I rope so often. I'm told not to control with an aggro deck, but when I don't I lose. And when I do...I lose. I played seven games with Pirate Warrior and lost all of them. Jade Druid just crushes me every time.
Riddle me this: HS says 50% of ranked players who play the game are below Rank 20. Which makes me an above average player, right? So why when I read these forums is there this overwhelming concensus that anyone with skills above "untrained monkey" should hit level 5 every month just by playing lots of games? Why...if I represent the majority... am I so alone with this problem?
Again, thank you. I haven't understood everything folks have said (I've read Melacine's post four times and honestly have no clue what she's saying), but I appreciate the efforts.
i agree I am often very unsure when to go face vs trade - it's the reason I rope so often. I'm told not to control with an aggro deck, but when I don't I lose. And when I do...I lose. I played seven games with Pirate Warrior and lost all of them. Jade Druid just crushes me every time.
Riddle me this: HS says 50% of ranked players who play the game are below Rank 20. Which makes me an above average player, right? So why when I read these forums is there this overwhelming concensus that anyone with skills above "untrained monkey" should hit level 5 every month just by playing lots of games? Why...if I represent the majority... am I so alone with this problem?
A large number of players (myself included) spent many seasons simply hitting Rank 20 just for the card back, also every single Hearthstone player (near enough) who doesn't play for a couple of months will also be in the Rank 20-25 bracket. I don't think every player should hit Rank 5 just with time, but any average skill player should absolutely be able to grind themselves to 15 and beyond.
As people keep saying, you really should provide replays. Hearthstone Deck Tracker will let you record every replay and share them - if you do that people will be able to pinpoint where you're going wrong.
People on the forums are a very small percentage of the most engaged players of the game, so the distribution of ranks for forum posters will be much higher than the general population of players which includes casuals who don't even know Hearthpwn exists.
You should play another twenty games with Pirate Warrior and only trade if there's a taunt in your way. It should have a massive win rate against all but the luckiest Jade Druids. You could also watch some YouTube videos of pros piloting Pirate Warrior and see what they're doing differently.
I've had it. I've - mostly - enjoyed this game since I joined it over a year ago. I have all the cards needed to make top tier decks. I watch the pros, I read the forums, I netdeck the highest rated meta decks and follow the guides. Most of my characters are level 60.
And I can't level above Rank 18. I played 40 hours last month and I simply ping ponged between 20 and 18.
Pirate Warrior? Jade Druid? Aggro Shaman?
Nope. Doesn't matter. And you don't need skill to 'slave' to a well written deck guide - which I tried to "take myself out of the equation." It makes no difference. In casual play, once my MMR settles in, I eventually get to a 50/50 win rate, but my opponents just have basic cards by then.
I sense the game designers know something is wrong, which is why they keep introducing new ranked play 'floors' to lure more people into ladder. Unless they are prepared to put a new floor under every star, however, I won't be sticking around.
i am interested in hearing from those who had this issue and improved. With Reno leaving, I'll be going with him if something doesn't change.
Thank you.
I am no where near pro, but I do consistently rank 5-7, what it sounds like to me that that you are getting frustrated and changing up decks/ strategies too much or too often. Being tilted while playing is the easiest way to lose in my opinion. Just pick a deck you like the idea of, and learn the ins and outs of that deck. It will get grindy playing the same deck for a couple weeks out of the season, but grinding that is the nature of ladder right? I use tavern brawls and the occasional arena runs to break up the grinding. Until you get above rank 8ish i wouldn't even worry about "countering the meta." It sounds like you have a lot of time invested into the game and have done your research, all you have to do now is apply it. It could be beneficial to download a deck tracker. It may sound like it has been repeated over and over but take your time during your turns, even to rope every turn if you have to. Think about what your best course of action is, what the opponent might play, and think of your curve out for following turns.
Riddle me this: HS says 50% of ranked players who play the game are below Rank 20. Which makes me an above average player, right? So why when I read these forums is there this overwhelming concensus that anyone with skills above "untrained monkey" should hit level 5 every month just by playing lots of games? Why...if I represent the majority... am I so alone with this problem?
Well, that is so, because people on this forum are more likely to invest more time in Hearthstone. Especially the ones who post on threads like this. I think the majority of casual players might (!) come here only for netdeck and maybe the news of the hearthstone universe.
Considering trades: try to think of the opponents possibilities next turn. E.g. Which Cards will he (most likely) play (to react on your board) - vs Jade druid: like Swipe, Nourish, or even Wrath? Which of your minion will he try to kill (and do you need to protect it)? Also do the math on your damage and the enemies' hp - can you set up lethal for the next turn, or maybe next 2 turns?
Replays are very helpful! And why not post your deck? :)
I've had it. I've - mostly - enjoyed this game since I joined it over a year ago. I have all the cards needed to make top tier decks. I watch the pros, I read the forums, I netdeck the highest rated meta decks and follow the guides. Most of my characters are level 60.
And I can't level above Rank 18. I played 40 hours last month and I simply ping ponged between 20 and 18.
Pirate Warrior? Jade Druid? Aggro Shaman?
Nope. Doesn't matter. And you don't need skill to 'slave' to a well written deck guide - which I tried to "take myself out of the equation." It makes no difference. In casual play, once my MMR settles in, I eventually get to a 50/50 win rate, but my opponents just have basic cards by then.
I sense the game designers know something is wrong, which is why they keep introducing new ranked play 'floors' to lure more people into ladder. Unless they are prepared to put a new floor under every star, however, I won't be sticking around.
i am interested in hearing from those who had this issue and improved. With Reno leaving, I'll be going with him if something doesn't change.
Thank you.
hey dude!
First of all : ask yourself when is your turn, how many time you think at your play just considering what streamer x would do and guide y says? If this happens most of the time you found the first thing you have to put aside.
Trust me if you played for more than 1 year and you can't reach at least rank 7 at the end of the month you should have very serious mental issues, I mean clinical. I'm sure that's not the case, so probably your initial "problem" is concentration; to link to my first argument that could be for you your mainly concentration problem. This is because instead of playing the game with your mind and the consequent experience, you evaluate every game and every play with someone else mind.To be clear is like if you want to climb a difficult mountain side and you hope to do it in 1 year just because you know 2 very good climbers and watch a lot of video material; it doesn't work because you had to understand with your own mistakes and with your own success in a wider period of time.
Probably you just think too much to what is the "correct" play that you saw or heard thousand of time. My suggestion for you is to clear your mind while you play from all those premade experiences.
Ask yourself how many time you don't play a card from your hand just because either YOUR OPPONENT COULD HAVE A DIRECT ANSWER or BECAUSE THIS WILL COMBOES WITH SOMETHING I COULD POSSIBLY SOMEHOW WHENEVER IF EVER ( CONCEDE) DRAW . Many games among rank 20 to 5 (in the last 15 days of the ladder) are literally won by the player who plays minion on curve without using their value. Try this; try to play you're tunnel trogg also if you don't have a turn 2 overload card; play your thaurissian even if you have 2 cards left in your hand; go for the best stats minion you can play every turn. Learn to win like this and you'll see you gonna naturally learn how to play in the way you want to play right now but you're failing at.
Try to get used to understand what kind of game you can set up in the very moment you see you're opponent class. Value, aggro or tempo? Top ut it down in a very simple and pragmatic way: you can do VALUE game (squeeze the most possible from your cards) when you play vs. a CONTROL based deck (don't ask why just do it you will understand consequentially after some experience ;) ) ; TEMPO when it really count both from your deck type and your opponent, to have board advantage aka have the initiative; AGGRO obviously you have an aggro deck and you generally put down all you can the fast you can and you keep something valuable in your hand only if you have a really short plan already in your hand (not to draw you actually have the plan in front of you).
Last thing if you lose more without the coin than with, my friend you can be sure you are doing all wrong :) ! It's statistic don't bother, accept it and go on. When you start first you have objectively more chances to succeed.
you probably don't take your time during turns and don't consider what your opponent has and so they are hitting their tempo swings on you a bunch, you don't understand why and hearthstone = tempo. if you don't have it, you don't win.
what helped me learn how to play (besides what you seem to have done, watch vids/guides/etc.) is STOP NETDECKING. start building your OWN decks with your OWN ideas on what you think works. when you build up your own deck from scratch you know every card in it and you base your decisions not on what others tell you to decide but what you decide for yourself and you will A) have more fun playing and B) notice that your rank will rise a bunch. if you're playing netdecks you don't truly understand the underlying workings of, maybe that is why you can't get past an easy rank 18. i had issues playing anything but zoo when i first started. i hated rogue because i netdecked miracle rogue and had no idea how to play, what to look for, or anything and i fucking sucked so when i first started i literally started DE'ing a lot of rogue cards i'd unpacked because i hated the class so much.
well eventually i found my way back to rogue and made a sweet little bounce/aggro rogue that i actually took to some higher ranks than i was getting and it's because i didn't find the list online, i just made it up. now that i'm a vet in hearthstone and can easily make my own decks, i'll gladly netdeck (i'm maining water rogue with some tweaks of my own) if i see something cool because i appreciate other peoples' creativity but i'm only successful because i understand how things work in the game now. i think that is what you are facing.
Try silence priest. Eerie statue is rotating out, so now is the time. The win rate @ rank 4/5 is around 50%, the surprise factor is awesome, and you win 95% of the time vs Jade Druid. Seriously, I am 19-2 vs Druid, and one of the losses was to token aggro.
However, the deck does only win 25-30% vs any shaman archetype. Still fun though.
Wait, you are stuck at rank 28 with pirate warrior?! You must be playing it VERY wrong somehow put pirates on board, weapon for trade early, face late, save weapon if no other in hand, play for board control unless you got big damage on board, if you have burst in hand go all in.
Simple, dunno how you can fail to a point you are stuck at rank 18.
Yeah I bet it would be frustrating being stuck at that rank and not feeling like you're getting anywhere. I know I felt that way for a while when I first started out. I watched a ton of videos, read so many articles, visited these forums a ton (still do) and wasn't getting very far.
First of all I think there's a huge misconception about ranking up. On here you see decks that tout "RANK 5 EASY" or "LEGEND EASY". Yeah okay. Easy if you are a good or great HS player. For us regular folk it's not that easy. :-)
Your problem is definitely misplays. When you aren't winning it's because you aren't piloting the deck correctly and you're making the wrong moves. RNG factors in of course but after 50 games if you are hitting straight 50% (or less) there's something you're doing wrong. For me I focused on using one deck a lot, I switched around but I would always go back to one deck consistently. For me that was Pirate Warrior. After playing close to a thousand games with it (cancer be damned) it's the deck I know how to play the best because I know it so well. But even with a deck as easy to use as Pirate Warrior you can still misplay, so yeah even if some people here have (incorrectly) said that even if you screw up a bunch you'll hit above 50%, that is false. You misplay with PW and you will enjoy a lackluster winrate as a result. I've experienced it myself.
You mentioned you have trouble deciding when to trade and when to face. This is critical with winning. The decision between trading and going face can win or lose a game and also making proper trades. For Pirate Warrior I highly suggest watching Trump's F2P run with the Old Gods expansion, that will give you some insight into when you should trade and go face. Quick hint: Most of the time you go face. I know the temptation to control the board (esp. if you watch Trump's teachings) but with PW it's almost always a go face decision. The only time you don't is to prevent the opponent from making a value trade. And if you're wondering what a value trade means that would be where the opponent can make an advantageous play, like trading a 2-mana minion for a 3-mana minion or using his 1-mana minion to clear some big guy.
I'd be happy to spectate some games for you and see what you're doing. I'm not a pro but I hit rank 5-7 consistently each month. I'm fairly new but I think I can get you further then where you are now. Add me up - haardsteen#1560 we can chat about the game and I'll help explain the plays too. I know PW the best but I could probably help you with some other decks if you want. PW is definitely the best deck to learn with I think since it's easy to use.
Anyway if you decide to quit that's up to you but your problem is very fixable. I struggled like you did and it was just a few key realizations that helped me start climbing .
You are right that there is no deck tracker for your iPad so forget that. As for ranking up and legend, it's very much related to how much you play and what deck you use. Most if not all legend players are using some cancer deck. Period. Pros get paid to play and play basically all day long so with even a 51% win rate, guess what? They'll still hit legend. There is a pretty low skil ceiling in this game. Only so much you can do. Many times the right play is dictated by what's in your hand at the time. That's how card games work. The game is about questions and answers. If you can't answer your opponents question.....you're probably going to lose. Don't care who you are.
And, despite the claim that RNG and luck even out over time, no one has ever given a tangible number of games it takes to guarantee this happens. That's because they can't. It is very possible that some people will simply draw worse than others or get bad matchups more often. Take the classic coin flip scenario. The stats say it should even out to 50/50 over a certain number of flips but I bet even after a million flips it is VERY possible that it's 52/48 heads to tails or vice versa. Guess what happens then? Yep.... the guy that gets the benefit of the 52 percent is luckier and wins more. Yep.
still, there are things you can do. Check carefully for lethal. Me and many players miss this sometimes. Concede games that you can't win so you can move onto the next game and not waste time. Get familiar with tech cards and how to work them into decks that you keep facing. Stick to one or two decks and really, really learn them. That helped me a lot. Don't change decks every five matchups. You'll never get used to one and can't learn it properly.
Wolfram Alpha won't let me calculate the probability of getting 520000 or less heads from 1 million trials.
So I divided everything by 10, the probability of getting 52000 or less heads from 100000 trials is in the region of 5.319 * 10^-37. So not very likely at all...
I could get the answer for 1 million trials by using the Normal distribution (which is an excellent approximation to the binomial distribution after 30 or so trials), but I can't be bothered ;)
EDIT: Link does not work, but use 100000 as number of trials, 1/2 as probability of success and 52000 as endpoint.
So, if you flipped 100000 coins once every second, it would take about 10^28 years to see that result once on average.
Right. Great. Since you apparently have a lot of free time, can you go and round off inifinity now for us? Report back when done. Thanks.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I win due to skill and lose due to bad RNG. :D
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So I do not normally use "netdecks" cause I want to feel, that I accomplished something with my "very own" deck. I know I am not a good deckbuilder by any means, but playing them is so much fun for me. Tailoring and adjusting stuff after every match, thats what has motivated me to play Hearthstone since beta.
This morning I went from 22 to 13 with a newly crafted (at least for me) Hunterdeck and did well against Shaman and Pirate Warrior - though I have to admit, they made many mistakes - and it was fun again :)
Learn about basics over and over and have fun! Do not have the mindset "I have to climb the ladder!" Enjoy the game, use some cards, nobody would expect.
So look, here's the thing: Since the power level of the top decks is so high, the game is mostly RNG: Whoever draws more of their powerful cards and stumbles less wins. This means it can be hard to win streak sometimes if you don't get good RNG. This is why Pirate Warrior is the best deck, because it stumbles the least. If you grind it out with Pirate Warrior, you should be able to rank up easily, eventually, when you outlast your bad RNG streak.
By the way, the reason the same people keep getting Legend every season has nothing to do with skill. It's mostly because they're all nolifers who have the time to sit on Twitch and play HS for 8 hours per day and grind out the RNG. As a casual player (i.e. not a nolifer) don't expect to make legend.
Hey there!
First of all, i can understand your frustration. When i haven't played for a while and start from 18 or so my ladder, i tend to be astonished by how many "try-harding" guys there are. Shamans, Pirate Warriors and Jade druids all over the place.. most of them with well refined netdecks and a bunch of legendaries. I like to play more creative stuff on that level, but that seems to be the exception. Nontheless getting up the ladder is definately not too difficult! Personally I had great success with my reno n'zoth medivh priest.
Secondly, I'd like to know your definition of an asymmetrical deck - The cards you mentioned can be strong with additional synergistic cards, but in a vacuum there are just better options most of the time.
Maybe you might want to post your favorite deck, so people can put on some tinkering-ideas?
Also someone mentioned a replay would be helpful, i agree on that. Also I think watching some pros playing the game is very helpful when it comes to trading, good tempo plays and when to switch to SMOrcing..
I think what the OP means by something being wrong is that the higher ranks are a lot more difficult than they should be (used to be). I have seen a lot of top tier netdecks at ranks 18-20 and honestly, it should not be that way. Before the introduction of wild ranks 18-20 were cake.
I'm still not seeing it. I started this season at Rank 24 or something after slacking for the past few months and went on a 14 game winstreak as I climbed out of the lower ranks. Not trying to suggest that's impressive or anything in the slightest, just, I haven't seen a noticeable increase in difficulty.
The fact is some people aren't so good at the game, the game inherently can't be made more or less difficult because you are only playing against other people. If you're losing and find yourself stuck approximately at Rank 20 then that just makes you a Rank 20 player...somebody has to be, right? Doesn't mean improvement isn't possible of course, far from it, but blaming the game instead of your own abilities isn't a good way to go.
The lower ranks absolutely are harder than they used to be. You'll see netdecks from 20 on up these days. Still... You have got to be the problem. I blasted my way to rank 8 with a water priest deck I came up with. Not a netdeck. I was playing 2 entomb for gods sake. (when is the last time you say Entomb played??) At that rank I've hit a brick wall, but, that's not entirely unexpected given my futile attempts at deck building.
What I'm saying is that thousands of us, and many more, have no trouble getting to rank 10 with a netdeck. So, you either are a bad player, or you are on one hell of a tilt/bad streak. My guess is that if you started streaming your matches so that folks could spectate what you are doing you would suddenly find yourself on a win streak. Probably because you are just paying more attention with someone watching you.
Or you are just trolling us. If so, congrats, I fell for it.
Galavant Animation
Again, thank you. I haven't understood everything folks have said (I've read Melacine's post four times and honestly have no clue what she's saying), but I appreciate the efforts.
i agree I am often very unsure when to go face vs trade - it's the reason I rope so often. I'm told not to control with an aggro deck, but when I don't I lose. And when I do...I lose. I played seven games with Pirate Warrior and lost all of them. Jade Druid just crushes me every time.
Riddle me this: HS says 50% of ranked players who play the game are below Rank 20. Which makes me an above average player, right? So why when I read these forums is there this overwhelming concensus that anyone with skills above "untrained monkey" should hit level 5 every month just by playing lots of games? Why...if I represent the majority... am I so alone with this problem?
Fast aggro like pirate warrior destroys slow decks like jade druid, so quality trolling I guess :/
People on the forums are a very small percentage of the most engaged players of the game, so the distribution of ranks for forum posters will be much higher than the general population of players which includes casuals who don't even know Hearthpwn exists.
You should play another twenty games with Pirate Warrior and only trade if there's a taunt in your way. It should have a massive win rate against all but the luckiest Jade Druids. You could also watch some YouTube videos of pros piloting Pirate Warrior and see what they're doing differently.
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you probably don't take your time during turns and don't consider what your opponent has and so they are hitting their tempo swings on you a bunch, you don't understand why and hearthstone = tempo. if you don't have it, you don't win.
what helped me learn how to play (besides what you seem to have done, watch vids/guides/etc.) is STOP NETDECKING. start building your OWN decks with your OWN ideas on what you think works. when you build up your own deck from scratch you know every card in it and you base your decisions not on what others tell you to decide but what you decide for yourself and you will A) have more fun playing and B) notice that your rank will rise a bunch. if you're playing netdecks you don't truly understand the underlying workings of, maybe that is why you can't get past an easy rank 18. i had issues playing anything but zoo when i first started. i hated rogue because i netdecked miracle rogue and had no idea how to play, what to look for, or anything and i fucking sucked so when i first started i literally started DE'ing a lot of rogue cards i'd unpacked because i hated the class so much.
well eventually i found my way back to rogue and made a sweet little bounce/aggro rogue that i actually took to some higher ranks than i was getting and it's because i didn't find the list online, i just made it up. now that i'm a vet in hearthstone and can easily make my own decks, i'll gladly netdeck (i'm maining water rogue with some tweaks of my own) if i see something cool because i appreciate other peoples' creativity but i'm only successful because i understand how things work in the game now. i think that is what you are facing.
Try silence priest. Eerie statue is rotating out, so now is the time. The win rate @ rank 4/5 is around 50%, the surprise factor is awesome, and you win 95% of the time vs Jade Druid. Seriously, I am 19-2 vs Druid, and one of the losses was to token aggro.
However, the deck does only win 25-30% vs any shaman archetype. Still fun though.
Wait, you are stuck at rank 28 with pirate warrior?! You must be playing it VERY wrong somehow put pirates on board, weapon for trade early, face late, save weapon if no other in hand, play for board control unless you got big damage on board, if you have burst in hand go all in.
Simple, dunno how you can fail to a point you are stuck at rank 18.
Hey man,
Yeah I bet it would be frustrating being stuck at that rank and not feeling like you're getting anywhere. I know I felt that way for a while when I first started out. I watched a ton of videos, read so many articles, visited these forums a ton (still do) and wasn't getting very far.
First of all I think there's a huge misconception about ranking up. On here you see decks that tout "RANK 5 EASY" or "LEGEND EASY". Yeah okay. Easy if you are a good or great HS player. For us regular folk it's not that easy. :-)
Your problem is definitely misplays. When you aren't winning it's because you aren't piloting the deck correctly and you're making the wrong moves. RNG factors in of course but after 50 games if you are hitting straight 50% (or less) there's something you're doing wrong. For me I focused on using one deck a lot, I switched around but I would always go back to one deck consistently. For me that was Pirate Warrior. After playing close to a thousand games with it (cancer be damned) it's the deck I know how to play the best because I know it so well. But even with a deck as easy to use as Pirate Warrior you can still misplay, so yeah even if some people here have (incorrectly) said that even if you screw up a bunch you'll hit above 50%, that is false. You misplay with PW and you will enjoy a lackluster winrate as a result. I've experienced it myself.
You mentioned you have trouble deciding when to trade and when to face. This is critical with winning. The decision between trading and going face can win or lose a game and also making proper trades. For Pirate Warrior I highly suggest watching Trump's F2P run with the Old Gods expansion, that will give you some insight into when you should trade and go face. Quick hint: Most of the time you go face. I know the temptation to control the board (esp. if you watch Trump's teachings) but with PW it's almost always a go face decision. The only time you don't is to prevent the opponent from making a value trade. And if you're wondering what a value trade means that would be where the opponent can make an advantageous play, like trading a 2-mana minion for a 3-mana minion or using his 1-mana minion to clear some big guy.
I'd be happy to spectate some games for you and see what you're doing. I'm not a pro but I hit rank 5-7 consistently each month. I'm fairly new but I think I can get you further then where you are now. Add me up - haardsteen#1560 we can chat about the game and I'll help explain the plays too. I know PW the best but I could probably help you with some other decks if you want. PW is definitely the best deck to learn with I think since it's easy to use.
Anyway if you decide to quit that's up to you but your problem is very fixable. I struggled like you did and it was just a few key realizations that helped me start climbing .
I win due to skill and lose due to bad RNG. :D