The Ranked Play Changes Have Been Announced and are Coming in March!
The ranked ladder revamp has been announced! We'll be seeing the changes go live at the beginning of the March season which is roughly a month away! The changes will be patched into the client in February, the same update where we may see a balance update.
Here's how the new ladder will work:
- Card backs will now be earned after 5 wins for a month.
- All ranks have 5 stars.
- When a new season starts, you will reset exactly 4 ranks below your end ranking - stars included.
- Ranked rewards go by your highest ranked earned during the season.
- There may be some rank inflation, but not to the point where everyone will be Legend. (Source)
- No changes to the win streak mechanic. (Source)
- Rank floors (20, 15, 10, 5) are all still in place. (Source)
What do you think? Are these changes enough to make ranked better for everyone? Watch the video from Ben Brode or check out the blog post below. If you think these changes are "simple" and shouldn't have taken this long, Ben Brode gives us some insight into just that.
Quote from DaxxarriBeginning with the start of the March 2018 Ranked Play season, we’re making improvements to Hearthstone’s Ranked Play ladder experience.
Join Hearthstone Game Director Ben Brode as he explains what to expect, as well as the philosophy and intentions behind the update:
Here are the upcoming changes you can look forward to:
- You’ll earn card backs by winning five Ranked games during the season, regardless of what rank you achieve. It will no longer be necessary to reach Rank 20 to earn these card backs.
- After each game, the UI will let you know how many wins you still need to earn the Ranked season card back. You can check your progress between games by visiting the Quest Log.
- All Ranks will now have 5 stars.
- Player ranks will reset to exactly 4 ranks below your current standing, including the number of stars in that rank you earned. Here are some examples:
- Rank 14, 2 stars resets to Rank 18, 2 stars
- Rank 1, 3 stars resets to Rank 5, 3 stars
- Rank 10, 0 stars resets to Rank 14, 0 stars
- Players at Legend reset to Rank 4, 0 stars
Moving to the New System
Some elements of the old and new systems will exist simultaneously when we first make the transition:
- During the February Ranked Play Season, you’ll still need to reach Rank 20 to receive your Ranked season card back. At the season’s end, your rank will reset to four ranks below your current standing.
- Starting with the March Ranked Play Season, you’ll only be required to win 5 games to receive your seasonal card back. At the season’s end, your rank will reset to four ranks your current standing.
The update should allow players at the top of the ladder to jump into the action immediately by matching them against similarly-ranked opponents, providing more engaging matches while reducing the time it will take for them to climb to a rank appropriate for their skill-level each season. This in turn should improve matchmaking for everyone who plays Hearthstone, including those climbing the ladder for the first time. Since players will be more evenly matched at the start of each season, they can make immediately meaningful progress toward their ladder ranking against players of similar caliber. We want the experience of climbing the Hearthstone Ranked Play ladder to be fun, challenging, and satisfying for everyone.
We hope you enjoy the updates to Ranked Play, and we’re looking forward to your feedback. See you on the ladder!
Does anyone think it will still operate like now where it takes your highest rank at the end of the season?
Or is anyone happy if that's not that case?
Good news?
Good news!
I like the changes, a long time overdue to make the system at least a bit less grindy. Going from the bottom of the ladder to rank 5 nearly took as much time as going from rank 5 to legend, so definitely a good way to decrease the necessary playtime to reach a decent rank each season.
The ladder will become significantly easier to climb at lower ranks, because there will no longer be any legend players there to stomp people. Also because you don't drop very far at the ladder reset, the speed at which you climb is mostly important for the initial climb to rank 5, then once you're there it takes very little work to remain there.
So, it will be faster to take the 5th rank in Wild each month, and at the same time to stay at the 20th rank in Standard to grind golden portraits and easy gold?
Well done, Blizz!
How is possible to grind gold at rank 20 without progressing to higher rank?
1. Concede to 0 stars 20th rank.
2. Win 2 victories.
3. Goto #1.
Btw, I've predicted downvotes. It's not so "tolerant" to speak about this loudly, though a lot of people use it quite often. Well, it will be much easier for them :)
Surely this would stop the gold cheat in a sense. If you are a high level player grinding level 20 before you get to your high rank for end of season rewards say rank 5 then next season you will start at rank 9 so would not be able to get back to 20 to do it over again. If you are only interested in gold farming you can only rank up to 15 so you don’t get the top rewards golden cards ect
As you surely know, Hearthstone has separate ranks for the Wild and Standard. The point is to stay rank 20 on one, and take rank 5 on another. This works even now, but will work even better after the update, because people will have to put less efforts on climbing from rank 9 to rank 5 (instead of rank 17 to rank 5).
You can get to Rank 5 in one game mode every month and stay below rank 15 in the other game mode the hole time.
Well, some things you cannot buy even with real money. Like wins count.
No, you get down-voted because it is impossible as you say. If you reach legend, you can't concede until rank 20, because then you start at rank 4, and you can't get lower than rank 5. And if you want the best reward chest, you want to be at least rank 5; even then you don't start lower than rank 9 next month and even there you can't concede to a lower rank than rank 10.
So no, harrasing players at rank 20 is with this change over!
Edit: that's about standard and wild makes sense. But only if you rank up in wild, and believe me, that's not as easy as it sounds. Because there are virtually no beginners in wild except between 25 and 20; and even there are netdecks and at least player who are playing a standard-deck.
And no, it's not possible to rank up in standard and harass player on rank 20 in wild.
Not sure why you was downvoted I didn’t realise people was sad enough to manipulate 2 forms of play but it does make sense. Tbh tho it would be quicker to just go to work and buy that 1 pack per day 100g limit ?
I believe you, because I do it each month, and I don't play Standard due to card restrictions (I play since the release and have all the key cards).
Again, golden portraits cannot be bought. And some people would prefer to abuse the rules and farm at 20th rank, rather than play on higher ranks, just because it's faster on the rank 20. Some people prefer to reach this "100g limit", rather than pay real money at all.
The idea behind this is not about the amount of such people. To be honest, they are pretty few compared to the amount of "inexperienced players" on rank 20, but they still exist. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Or google "hearthstone rank 20 abuse".
And for such people it will be easier after the update. Just imagine. If you stay at rank 20, you will be facing more inexperienced players and less experienced. If one has reached rank 5, he needs ( (20 - 5) / 4 ) ≈ 4 months to fall back to rank 20. And, basically, you can encounter there only people who had reached maximum rank (16 - 4) = 12 last month.
I'm not saying this abuse is good or bad. It just exists, and Blizzard has been making those abuses easier. At the beginning, they have created separate play modes. Now they've announced this update.
And thaliasin be like: NO, it was a shitshow
Obviously
thanks blizzard now I can feel myself a pro (players rank 20)
Whats Next? Win a game comes to legend?
So after so much waiting we get this? I am very disappointed, it makes legend grind less annoying if you play every month, which is the only positive thing about this new system. It makes player experience at low ranks even worse, they will get worse rewards, because they wont hit even rank 10 and it doesnt really solve the problem with tier1 decks at rank 20. This system rewards invested time more than your winrate even more than the current one. I promised to myself that I will never grind legend in the current ranked anymore, now Im even less interested to do that.
Interesting changes. I'm a player that usually finishes at rank 3 or 4, having hit legend already so i usually slack off after hitting rank 5. This change gives me a bit more incentive to try a bit harder and keep my month to month grind as short as possible if real life gets in the way.
I think we'll see the playerbase more evenly spread out over the ranks, with the greatest inflation happening in ranks 15 to 5. Sure Legend rank will be less exclusive but i don't think that's the biggest redistribution, we're gonna see.
Yeah, i'm on exactly same spot like you, i can't push myself to grind on end of every month bcs, you know, i already have that shiny legend back :D
these changes are fine imo. nothing special but what i would like to see is improve the rewards to push people to playing more and work harder to improve their ranks.
If this is all they could think of after more than an year from the announcement of the Ladders rewamp then I'm really disappointed: the boringness of the grind has not been touched and still there. It could be a bit less frustrating since you'll be dropped only of 4 ranks each Season but it still a system that rewards fast time-efficient decks over anything else.
They should have made a more drastic and deep revolution instead of just this light rewamp. Don't get me wrong: this are nice changes, but they should have been just a first step in the right direction, not the final result.