I play about 5 hours a day of Hearthstone (3 casual 2 ranked) and I try to get to rank 12 each month (there this month on wild and standard). My question is how do you (yes YOU, the you reading this post) bypass your anxiety/ anything else to try to achieve a new rank? I have tried the, "Just count your wins, not your rank" method and I have to say, my rank matters too much still; especially when it is a pb like 11 or 10. I would love to hit r5 at some point, but how much joy and wonder must I give up to reach that? I am on NA server and would love to hear if I can somehow keep trying new decks every day and reach rank 5! Thanks to everybody for reading this and helping me as a player!
I hit rank 4 in wild a few months ago playing Pirate Warrior and, to be honest, I did not have a whole lot of fun actually achieving this rank. I played for hours at a time to go up 1 rank in one session and would go up 3 or 4 in under an hour or so. After that month, I felt really burned out on ranked and I haven’t had a desire to make a big push for high ranks since. To be fair though, I typically play about an hour or two a day and ended up playing about 3-5 when I was pushing. So you might be fine, but if at any point you are actually feeling miserable or burnt out, find a weird/wacky deck to play in casual for the rest of the day because you have to remember, this is a game, have fun!
Stop playing casual unless you need to complete a specific quest. Once you realise the ranks on ladder are easy come, easy go, you just push until you reach rank 5. And then you should be able to reach rank 5 every month.
Stop playing Casual entirely. You learn nothing there when wanting to rank up. You might be able to train yourself to sequence your turns better, however, you are keeping from strictly playing within a format that is actually competitive.
Casual play is only holding you back. Spending the majority of your play time with a non-competitive mode is keeping you within an atmosphere that doesn't help the advancement and experience of strategies that show actual promise.
If I somehow kick my anxiety to the wayside is rank 5 truly that easy? I have seen that listed before as a serious players' bench mark. As I said my best ever was wild 11 with recruit pal.
I'm going in the opposite direction, but...do you have a particular concrete reason as-to why you want the higher rank?
but how much joy and wonder must I give up to reach that?
This is a telling remark. If Ranked gives you grief...why do you put yourself through it? If you enjoy playing Casual Hearthstone, what is compelling you to continue with a side-queue that frustrates you and gives you anxiety? This isn't your job, nor a schoolwork assignment. We play games for entertainment and to have a good time; Hearthstone's purpose is not to create additional stress.
I don't mean this as a "just quit" kind of reply, but if you're inquiring about coping techniques to get you through Ranked, you should frankly take a step back and assess what you're doing :/
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Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
I had the same anxiety of queuing up for ranked and i still do very often. Last month i reached rank 4 and month before rank 5, never before that have i gone past 12 (playing since ungoro)... So youre sitting at rank 13 i guess or 14 ? Whats the worst that can happen ? You can fall back to 15, so what
Thats actually exactly what needs ti happen to you a few times so you can see that its really easy to get back up. Once you catch that drift it will all be easier.
I actually dont even play ranked on most days, when i do play, the moment i lose 2-3 games in a row or start tilting i just call it a day ( or two days ). Some days you jusy go on a crazy streak and thats basically how i got to rank 5
P.S. its really important that you enjoy the deck youre playing at least to some extent. Last season i was using tempo rogue and this season i just cant play it anymore bcs i got bored with it.
@linkblade91 I suppose my particular reason is I am a human and I feel like a failure if I play a game I love but have nothing to show for it. I do understand that is male arrogance but still I feel the need to have something to show my wife for the time I waste on HS.:P I would like to also take this time to thank everybody who has taken the time to read and/ or view this string. The more people tell me not to care about rank the easier it becomes.:) Thanks hearthpwn.
@linkblade91 I suppose my particular reason is I am a human and I feel like a failure if I play a game I love but have nothing to show for it. I do understand that is male arrogance but still I feel the need to have something to show my wife for the time I waste on HS.:P I would like to also take this time to thank everybody who has taken the time to read and/ or view this string. The more people tell me not to care about rank the easier it becomes.:) Thanks hearthpwn.
Honestly, I'm with Link on this. Don't play this game with a competitive mind. Go in with a mind open to making the experience fun. While you could try ranking up, give Standard a break in the sense that Rank is the goal. I play with super off-meta decks all the time. I feel like having played card games for so long, it'd be a crime for me to use anyone else's deck, so I make decks that are fairly viable but mostly fun or with a specific strategy in mind.
Make the game your playground. Stevie Ray Vaughn has said before that he can't play guitar when he thinks about it, that if he just plays, he's able to play. Make the game your playground by bringing an approach centered around fun. If you can whoop some kid's ass at rank 13 with a fun deck, how much more would you value that experience in comparison to straining and being fixated on everything being focused on progress?
The thing you need to realize is that you will lose games in Hearthstone and sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. Sometimes you'll go on a bad run and lose several games in a row, it happens and is just the nature of the game. But you need to realize as long as you maintain a winning average, eventually you will continue to climb. Learn from your mistakes and when you do lose, try to sit back and think of what you could have done differently, or better. A lot of people blame bad luck when they actually made mistakes or decisions that put them in a position to be unlucky. On the flip side, sometimes your opponent has the nuts and there isn't anything you can do about it except move on to the next match.
Play the game for the sake of playing the game and enjoy it. The ranks will come if you're doing that. Once you get past your ladder anxiety and just play to play, you'll start breaking barriers and before you know it, you'll get to rank five easily, because you've done it over and over again. So you know that you can do it.
What's the worse that can happen? You try to get to rank five and fail and the season ends. So what, try again. Keep trying until you can do it on the regular. You'll never get there if you don't try. And trying meaning failing along the way.
Skip casual and just play ranked continuously. That'll help you get used to the ladder and ease your anxiety. Typically if you have a decent collection getting to rank 5 is very easy and can typically take you about 3 hours if you spam rush it with an aggro deck which you are familiar with and has a decent winrate. Ranked floors help a lot too so you can burn yourself out until you reach 15,10 and then 5 and take 1-2 days break in-between each grinding session to build up your tolerance again.
Think of the following (and this only applies to ranks 25-5 as 5-legend is a whole another pain in the ass haha): No matter how many games you lose you will easily regain the stars by going on winstreaks and thus cutting the amount of games required to reach a certain rank in half! ;)
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Experienced Deckbuilder, Legend Player, Wild Expert, TCG Veteran and Contributing Author toWildHS & Vicious Syndicate. Any and all support is greatly appreciated as it helps me make further quality content. 🐺 ➣Twitter ➣Decks ➣Patreon
I'm with the last few posters on this, laddering goes much smoother when you are simply enjoying yourself and having fun with the game. Getting too stressed over a few ranks isn't going to help anything. Take a little time off and study the meta on HSreplay or vicious syndicate, see what people are most commonly playing so you can best counter the decks you may face. I can understand your point of wanting to achieve something out of something you enjoy, I'm the same way. At the end of it all it is still just a game and you should have fun playing it!
I can't believe the amount of responses this thread has garnered and I would be remiss if I didn't take a couple minutes thanking everybody who has taken the time out of their life to comment and help me better understand what it is I am even expecting to get from the game. It has always seemed impossible to me to lose my highest rank by playing once I had reached it for fear of falling back to 15 again. Seeing so many of you mentioning that I need to enjoy it and that it should be fun is hugely helpful and considering that I can just get back whatever I lose through a >50% win rate (especially with a couple win streaks) makes things clearer to me.
I would only play casual if you are trying to complete quests that your laddering deck(s) don't do. For instance I don't play pally on ladder as it's not Tier 1 right now but if I have a quest for Divine Shield minions or low cost minions I'll play it in Casual. Other than that like the others are saying stick to Ranked.
Here's another thing. Play in sessions. Instead of 5 hours at a time. Play 15 games with a deck. Use a deck tracker program and see how the deck is performing and what classes/decks your facing. Look for patterns in that and if need be (IE doing bad with said deck) switch to another Tier 1 deck for 15 games. Again re-evaluate.
You can still do your 5 hours but by breaking your time into smaller sessions you can better manage how you are doing.
Ranking is annoying because there's nothing more frustrating than being 1 win from the next floor only to lose 4-5 games in a row to bad card draw or your opponents all being super lucky. I think they highest I've been is rank 11 or 10. I have crap luck though dunno why but every deck I play my win streaks are always followed by horrid losing streaks where there's literally no play that can save me. Unfortunately there's no way to get any worthwhile rewards other than to rank up, I think 5 is the ceiling for rewards.
The question is: why do you care about Rank? You want to get to 5 all months? Just play the most cheap aggro deck without looking if you win or lose. With 5 hours per day you should easily get there.
Ladder is just grind, just go on with the most efficient deck you can find.
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For what profit is it to a man, if he gains the world and loses his own soul?
If you have a small collection and you want to improve taking rank 5 every month is the best thing to do. Find one reliable deck to play and do it
Recruit pally seems good I usually easily get to rank5 in 3 or less days in wild.
For what concerns the grief and anxiety of playing ranked I can't really answer since I never felt like this. About the joy Killing of grinding: just find your balance. A "grind" experience can be funny if you maybe built your own deck or play a uncommon but efficient strategy. (One of the best experience you can have in HS is to get Legend with a 100% Homemade deck not netdecked- or atleast that worked for me). Just be aware that HS ladder is grinding and that sometimes skill doesn't matter much. Just find a reliable deck you have fun with (in my case is DragonPriest and RecruitPally)
Don't force yourself to play the game, unless you are having fun. What's the point of reaching that milestone if you didn't have fun doing it?
Confidence plays a big role in reaching milestones. I know how it feels when you are a one game away from reaching that new rank that you've never reached before. You become irrational, nervous. Mental barrier is being formed "I've failed so many times here, why should this time be any different?". You gotta push that way of thinking away and focus on the game that is happening before your eyes. Thing that is keeping you away from your rank is not skill, collection or anything else it's usually just your own fear of succes. And that fear is what prevents you from thinking straight and it's at that time that you will make a missplay and lose a game. Confidence and focus are what matters.
I remember when i first time faced player with a Legend card back, i was petrified. Me, a simple rank 17 player against a person who reached peak of this game. How could i ever win against someone like that in a mirror match? It seemed impossible, i even remember having Sylvanas on board and forgetting to attack with her and after making such a stupid missplay i've literally forgot the world around me and focused so hard on the game, i was trying to predict his moves, to counter his plays and believe it or not i ended up winning. After that i've faced 100's of players with that same cardback and after that victory Legend card back for me became just that - a card back.
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Bitch i'm Willy Wonka!
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I play about 5 hours a day of Hearthstone (3 casual 2 ranked) and I try to get to rank 12 each month (there this month on wild and standard). My question is how do you (yes YOU, the you reading this post) bypass your anxiety/ anything else to try to achieve a new rank? I have tried the, "Just count your wins, not your rank" method and I have to say, my rank matters too much still; especially when it is a pb like 11 or 10. I would love to hit r5 at some point, but how much joy and wonder must I give up to reach that? I am on NA server and would love to hear if I can somehow keep trying new decks every day and reach rank 5! Thanks to everybody for reading this and helping me as a player!
I hit rank 4 in wild a few months ago playing Pirate Warrior and, to be honest, I did not have a whole lot of fun actually achieving this rank. I played for hours at a time to go up 1 rank in one session and would go up 3 or 4 in under an hour or so. After that month, I felt really burned out on ranked and I haven’t had a desire to make a big push for high ranks since. To be fair though, I typically play about an hour or two a day and ended up playing about 3-5 when I was pushing. So you might be fine, but if at any point you are actually feeling miserable or burnt out, find a weird/wacky deck to play in casual for the rest of the day because you have to remember, this is a game, have fun!
Stop playing casual unless you need to complete a specific quest. Once you realise the ranks on ladder are easy come, easy go, you just push until you reach rank 5. And then you should be able to reach rank 5 every month.
Take this as mere suggestion if you want.
Stop playing Casual entirely. You learn nothing there when wanting to rank up. You might be able to train yourself to sequence your turns better, however, you are keeping from strictly playing within a format that is actually competitive.
Casual play is only holding you back. Spending the majority of your play time with a non-competitive mode is keeping you within an atmosphere that doesn't help the advancement and experience of strategies that show actual promise.
Come visit my Card Emporium. Strange things, you will find inside...
Come take the test, if you're daring. Feel free to show me your results in a message.
If I somehow kick my anxiety to the wayside is rank 5 truly that easy? I have seen that listed before as a serious players' bench mark. As I said my best ever was wild 11 with recruit pal.
I'm going in the opposite direction, but...do you have a particular concrete reason as-to why you want the higher rank?
This is a telling remark. If Ranked gives you grief...why do you put yourself through it? If you enjoy playing Casual Hearthstone, what is compelling you to continue with a side-queue that frustrates you and gives you anxiety? This isn't your job, nor a schoolwork assignment. We play games for entertainment and to have a good time; Hearthstone's purpose is not to create additional stress.
I don't mean this as a "just quit" kind of reply, but if you're inquiring about coping techniques to get you through Ranked, you should frankly take a step back and assess what you're doing :/
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
I had the same anxiety of queuing up for ranked and i still do very often. Last month i reached rank 4 and month before rank 5, never before that have i gone past 12 (playing since ungoro)... So youre sitting at rank 13 i guess or 14 ? Whats the worst that can happen ? You can fall back to 15, so what
Thats actually exactly what needs ti happen to you a few times so you can see that its really easy to get back up. Once you catch that drift it will all be easier.
I actually dont even play ranked on most days, when i do play, the moment i lose 2-3 games in a row or start tilting i just call it a day ( or two days ). Some days you jusy go on a crazy streak and thats basically how i got to rank 5
P.S. its really important that you enjoy the deck youre playing at least to some extent. Last season i was using tempo rogue and this season i just cant play it anymore bcs i got bored with it.
@linkblade91 I suppose my particular reason is I am a human and I feel like a failure if I play a game I love but have nothing to show for it. I do understand that is male arrogance but still I feel the need to have something to show my wife for the time I waste on HS.:P I would like to also take this time to thank everybody who has taken the time to read and/ or view this string. The more people tell me not to care about rank the easier it becomes.:) Thanks hearthpwn.
Come visit my Card Emporium. Strange things, you will find inside...
Come take the test, if you're daring. Feel free to show me your results in a message.
The thing you need to realize is that you will lose games in Hearthstone and sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. Sometimes you'll go on a bad run and lose several games in a row, it happens and is just the nature of the game. But you need to realize as long as you maintain a winning average, eventually you will continue to climb. Learn from your mistakes and when you do lose, try to sit back and think of what you could have done differently, or better. A lot of people blame bad luck when they actually made mistakes or decisions that put them in a position to be unlucky. On the flip side, sometimes your opponent has the nuts and there isn't anything you can do about it except move on to the next match.
Play the game for the sake of playing the game and enjoy it. The ranks will come if you're doing that. Once you get past your ladder anxiety and just play to play, you'll start breaking barriers and before you know it, you'll get to rank five easily, because you've done it over and over again. So you know that you can do it.
What's the worse that can happen? You try to get to rank five and fail and the season ends. So what, try again. Keep trying until you can do it on the regular. You'll never get there if you don't try. And trying meaning failing along the way.
Skip casual and just play ranked continuously. That'll help you get used to the ladder and ease your anxiety. Typically if you have a decent collection getting to rank 5 is very easy and can typically take you about 3 hours if you spam rush it with an aggro deck which you are familiar with and has a decent winrate. Ranked floors help a lot too so you can burn yourself out until you reach 15,10 and then 5 and take 1-2 days break in-between each grinding session to build up your tolerance again.
Think of the following (and this only applies to ranks 25-5 as 5-legend is a whole another pain in the ass haha): No matter how many games you lose you will easily regain the stars by going on winstreaks and thus cutting the amount of games required to reach a certain rank in half! ;)
I'm with the last few posters on this, laddering goes much smoother when you are simply enjoying yourself and having fun with the game. Getting too stressed over a few ranks isn't going to help anything. Take a little time off and study the meta on HSreplay or vicious syndicate, see what people are most commonly playing so you can best counter the decks you may face. I can understand your point of wanting to achieve something out of something you enjoy, I'm the same way. At the end of it all it is still just a game and you should have fun playing it!
I can't believe the amount of responses this thread has garnered and I would be remiss if I didn't take a couple minutes thanking everybody who has taken the time out of their life to comment and help me better understand what it is I am even expecting to get from the game. It has always seemed impossible to me to lose my highest rank by playing once I had reached it for fear of falling back to 15 again. Seeing so many of you mentioning that I need to enjoy it and that it should be fun is hugely helpful and considering that I can just get back whatever I lose through a >50% win rate (especially with a couple win streaks) makes things clearer to me.
I would only play casual if you are trying to complete quests that your laddering deck(s) don't do. For instance I don't play pally on ladder as it's not Tier 1 right now but if I have a quest for Divine Shield minions or low cost minions I'll play it in Casual. Other than that like the others are saying stick to Ranked.
Here's another thing. Play in sessions. Instead of 5 hours at a time. Play 15 games with a deck. Use a deck tracker program and see how the deck is performing and what classes/decks your facing. Look for patterns in that and if need be (IE doing bad with said deck) switch to another Tier 1 deck for 15 games. Again re-evaluate.
You can still do your 5 hours but by breaking your time into smaller sessions you can better manage how you are doing.
Ranking is annoying because there's nothing more frustrating than being 1 win from the next floor only to lose 4-5 games in a row to bad card draw or your opponents all being super lucky. I think they highest I've been is rank 11 or 10. I have crap luck though dunno why but every deck I play my win streaks are always followed by horrid losing streaks where there's literally no play that can save me. Unfortunately there's no way to get any worthwhile rewards other than to rank up, I think 5 is the ceiling for rewards.
The question is: why do you care about Rank? You want to get to 5 all months? Just play the most cheap aggro deck without looking if you win or lose. With 5 hours per day you should easily get there.
Ladder is just grind, just go on with the most efficient deck you can find.
For what profit is it to a man, if he gains the world and loses his own soul?
If you have a small collection and you want to improve taking rank 5 every month is the best thing to do. Find one reliable deck to play and do it
Recruit pally seems good I usually easily get to rank5 in 3 or less days in wild.
For what concerns the grief and anxiety of playing ranked I can't really answer since I never felt like this. About the joy Killing of grinding: just find your balance. A "grind" experience can be funny if you maybe built your own deck or play a uncommon but efficient strategy. (One of the best experience you can have in HS is to get Legend with a 100% Homemade deck not netdecked- or atleast that worked for me). Just be aware that HS ladder is grinding and that sometimes skill doesn't matter much. Just find a reliable deck you have fun with (in my case is DragonPriest and RecruitPally)
Don't force yourself to play the game, unless you are having fun. What's the point of reaching that milestone if you didn't have fun doing it?
Confidence plays a big role in reaching milestones. I know how it feels when you are a one game away from reaching that new rank that you've never reached before. You become irrational, nervous. Mental barrier is being formed "I've failed so many times here, why should this time be any different?". You gotta push that way of thinking away and focus on the game that is happening before your eyes. Thing that is keeping you away from your rank is not skill, collection or anything else it's usually just your own fear of succes. And that fear is what prevents you from thinking straight and it's at that time that you will make a missplay and lose a game. Confidence and focus are what matters.
I remember when i first time faced player with a Legend card back, i was petrified. Me, a simple rank 17 player against a person who reached peak of this game. How could i ever win against someone like that in a mirror match? It seemed impossible, i even remember having Sylvanas on board and forgetting to attack with her and after making such a stupid missplay i've literally forgot the world around me and focused so hard on the game, i was trying to predict his moves, to counter his plays and believe it or not i ended up winning. After that i've faced 100's of players with that same cardback and after that victory Legend card back for me became just that - a card back.
Bitch i'm Willy Wonka!