The deck I am using has 1 legendary, 0 epics and is aggro. My opponents were easy in MMRa but very hard in MMRb (after your bonus stars run out).
So it seems I am stuck playing vs Rez Priest half my matches, which I despise, not knowing if my deck is good or not. Or quitting again. Thanks Blizzard.
I play between 100-200 matches per season. I am not happy net decking and copying the meta, I aspire to challenge the meta. So I like to make my own decks and want to know how they compare. With the old system it was clear. When I made it to standard rank 6 with my own aggressive version of Highlander Mage I was content with that. Ladder worked fine then, so the key question is why change it?
Now I started playing wild and I have a unique Mage deck and I want to know how it compares. I want to know if I was able to build a decent mouse trap. But I can't it seems in the new MMR system since I have no idea who the second system is matching me against. If it's other Gold rank players then my deck sucks obviously. If it's diamond and legend players then I know I have something half decent and will put more time into seeing it through.
When I play casual it does very well, but I don't know if that's because the casual pool sucks.
Maybe if I had hit legend the previous season, then perhaps I would be in a better position to do so. But now I have to get my ass kicked long enough to negate the position I was put in by my high win rate in the first MMR system this season. Exiting the first system early with a good deck and win rate then entering the second system which will match you against anyone seems to be a significant hurdle to new players or those wishing to transition from casual to ladder. This transition for me from one system to the next at Gold for me is like someone hit the switch from Easy to Master rather than any curve like the old system. Having that change occur in Gold makes for a very hard, long climb.
I guess to start next season I should throw a lot of matches until my stars run out.
Can someone link me to the documentation on the MMR system. Or, I should say instead, systems.
It seems there are 2 systems and I was right that the switch occurs when your bonus stars run out.
"Kerfluffle, Community Manager of Blizzard, informs us that there are two different MMR: " There is one which is based on your star multiplier which is allocated to you at the end of the season. When this is 1, one another takes over and builds on your current rank . ""
So for me, I finished Gold in Wild last year because I quit ranked for this reason. So this season, I am playing crappy opponents in the first MMR system. I start out with a very high win rate through bronze and silver. For someone who finished Legend last season, they will face some tough opponents to start. Those people will not get the win rate I did in the first system that is active while you have bonus stars.
I exit the first MMR system early in Gold with a high season win rate. Those with lots of bonus stars play in the first system much longer and do not get an elevated win rate.
So then we enter MMR system 2. I have no information on how this works. My vague idea is that it somehow reviews your win rate and matches you against opponents based on that both with regards to class and MMR. You are not permitted to know what rank those opponents are now. The only reason to hide this now is that there will be large disparities at times and they don't want everyone to see this.
So is it possible that when I enter the second MMR system, that I am being punished for the very high win rate I saw from the first MMR system?
I think that HS should report the rank of your opponent again period. There is no excuse for not reporting this. If there is nothing nefarious worth hiding then there is no reason for the secrecy.
That's it? Then my question stands and I think it is an important one. How do I tell how good my home brew deck is when I am blind to the ranks of my opponents?
Looks like the same experience for me this season in wild.
I am using my own home brew Mage deck. I quit playing ranked early last season in gold so I have limit d bonus stars. This is 3 seasons in a row now if the exact same formula playing out.
I start the new season strong, barely losing any games rising up to the top half of gold. I see a good variety of decks on the way, quite balanced.
As soon as I get top half of gold everything changes. This is a night and day difference. I see no variety anymore and my win rate drops to 50%. All I face now are great Priest and Rogue decks, at least 8 out of 10 are one of these two classes. Maybe the odd demon Warlock and pirate Warrior.
The previous 2 seasons this is where I quit out of principle. I went back to casual matches and found variety and a good winrate again.
I hate this. Nothing gets gradually harder as you climb. A switch is flipped for me early in gold and it's like I'm fighting at diamond level 1 to try to hot legend. Nonsense. They believe this will drive me to invest more in the game, but instead, knowing I am being manipulated, it drives me away.
I'd much rather have an equal bucket system knowing the first week of each season will be a bit tougher and the last a bit easier.
Maybe the timing of the switch is linked to when your bonus stars run out.
I see people talking about the rank of their opponents. How do you see this? On my phone and laptop all I see is their names. Without knowing who I am playing how am I to determine how good my homebrew deck is now?
One stupid question and one attempt to summarize my view.
How do you tell what level your opponent is?
People spend more often when faced with tough obstacles. Casual players didn't face enough obstacles with the equal bucket ranking system. The MMR system brings in tough obstacles sooner so that a broader range of players find themselves in that situation rather than just the grinders.
I had a Highlander Mage deck variant that got me to rank 6. The very first day of the first season of this new format, the same deck that was holding it's own at that level around 50% up to the final night of that season, started the new season 0 for 10. I had never lost 10 matches in a row before. Not the best first impression. I switched to a new deck from a new class and began to climb again. But that was total BS. Even this new season I started 1 for 7 with Mage (I play 90%+ of my matches as Mage). It eventually goes back to normal but something isn't right.
Imho people who play <=50 matches over a season and don't care about hitting legend should never play vs those in legend rank. Maybe the MMR opponent adjustment should be limited in range to decks in your rank or perhaps your rank +/- 1.
I am a new paying player (since August) that has decided to switch to f2p mostly because of this. I have largely disengaged and mostly just play casual to kill time now. The gains they see from this new tactic will likely offset my loss and I am fine with that. I will find another hobby.
You can't establish how good your homebrew deck is anymore. If you play say at Platinum, you may have a better home brew deck than others around the same level. But with the current system, no matter your level, the decks you play against will just continue to ramp until your winrate levels out. So unless you have a deck that does well against the very best in the meta at that time, you should expect a 50% winrate. It promotes netdecking and the purchasing of cards you are missing to do so.
The game is built to grind every day all day now period (unless you are the top of the top). They give us the boosted star bonus to distract us from this, to make it feel like we have a great deck because we are climbing fast. But I see through this mere distraction from the 50% winrate. I am sick of going on a great run one login and then paying for it over the next couple logins.
I would rather a bucket system that refreshes equally each month, where if I build a unique deck and it gets me to Diamond quickly, I can feel pretty good. Where I can actually make judgements on the deck based on it's performance vs a pool of opponents that slowly get better as I rise in actual rank.
I have stopped playing ranked matches seriously... actually the whole game seriously over this issue. I don't want to spend significant time grinding in a system that intends to keep it 50% whenever it can. It should become 50% or less only when I rise to an actual rank that has better decks than mine. Any other system is a method to get you to play more and spend more by keeping you in a constant state of feeling just short of the right cards. No thank you.
The deck I am using has 1 legendary, 0 epics and is aggro. My opponents were easy in MMRa but very hard in MMRb (after your bonus stars run out).
So it seems I am stuck playing vs Rez Priest half my matches, which I despise, not knowing if my deck is good or not. Or quitting again. Thanks Blizzard.
I play between 100-200 matches per season. I am not happy net decking and copying the meta, I aspire to challenge the meta. So I like to make my own decks and want to know how they compare. With the old system it was clear. When I made it to standard rank 6 with my own aggressive version of Highlander Mage I was content with that. Ladder worked fine then, so the key question is why change it?
Now I started playing wild and I have a unique Mage deck and I want to know how it compares. I want to know if I was able to build a decent mouse trap. But I can't it seems in the new MMR system since I have no idea who the second system is matching me against. If it's other Gold rank players then my deck sucks obviously. If it's diamond and legend players then I know I have something half decent and will put more time into seeing it through.
When I play casual it does very well, but I don't know if that's because the casual pool sucks.
Maybe if I had hit legend the previous season, then perhaps I would be in a better position to do so. But now I have to get my ass kicked long enough to negate the position I was put in by my high win rate in the first MMR system this season. Exiting the first system early with a good deck and win rate then entering the second system which will match you against anyone seems to be a significant hurdle to new players or those wishing to transition from casual to ladder. This transition for me from one system to the next at Gold for me is like someone hit the switch from Easy to Master rather than any curve like the old system. Having that change occur in Gold makes for a very hard, long climb.
I guess to start next season I should throw a lot of matches until my stars run out.
Can someone link me to the documentation on the MMR system. Or, I should say instead, systems.
It seems there are 2 systems and I was right that the switch occurs when your bonus stars run out.
"Kerfluffle, Community Manager of Blizzard, informs us that there are two different MMR: " There is one which is based on your star multiplier which is allocated to you at the end of the season. When this is 1, one another takes over and builds on your current rank . ""
https://www.millenium.us.org/news/15453.html
So for me, I finished Gold in Wild last year because I quit ranked for this reason. So this season, I am playing crappy opponents in the first MMR system. I start out with a very high win rate through bronze and silver. For someone who finished Legend last season, they will face some tough opponents to start. Those people will not get the win rate I did in the first system that is active while you have bonus stars.
I exit the first MMR system early in Gold with a high season win rate. Those with lots of bonus stars play in the first system much longer and do not get an elevated win rate.
So then we enter MMR system 2. I have no information on how this works. My vague idea is that it somehow reviews your win rate and matches you against opponents based on that both with regards to class and MMR. You are not permitted to know what rank those opponents are now. The only reason to hide this now is that there will be large disparities at times and they don't want everyone to see this.
So is it possible that when I enter the second MMR system, that I am being punished for the very high win rate I saw from the first MMR system?
I think that HS should report the rank of your opponent again period. There is no excuse for not reporting this. If there is nothing nefarious worth hiding then there is no reason for the secrecy.
That's it? Then my question stands and I think it is an important one. How do I tell how good my home brew deck is when I am blind to the ranks of my opponents?
Please tell me how you know your opponents rank. I see nothing but a name.
Looks like the same experience for me this season in wild.
I am using my own home brew Mage deck. I quit playing ranked early last season in gold so I have limit d bonus stars. This is 3 seasons in a row now if the exact same formula playing out.
I start the new season strong, barely losing any games rising up to the top half of gold. I see a good variety of decks on the way, quite balanced.
As soon as I get top half of gold everything changes. This is a night and day difference. I see no variety anymore and my win rate drops to 50%. All I face now are great Priest and Rogue decks, at least 8 out of 10 are one of these two classes. Maybe the odd demon Warlock and pirate Warrior.
The previous 2 seasons this is where I quit out of principle. I went back to casual matches and found variety and a good winrate again.
I hate this. Nothing gets gradually harder as you climb. A switch is flipped for me early in gold and it's like I'm fighting at diamond level 1 to try to hot legend. Nonsense. They believe this will drive me to invest more in the game, but instead, knowing I am being manipulated, it drives me away.
I'd much rather have an equal bucket system knowing the first week of each season will be a bit tougher and the last a bit easier.
Maybe the timing of the switch is linked to when your bonus stars run out.
I see people talking about the rank of their opponents. How do you see this? On my phone and laptop all I see is their names. Without knowing who I am playing how am I to determine how good my homebrew deck is now?
One stupid question and one attempt to summarize my view.
How do you tell what level your opponent is?
People spend more often when faced with tough obstacles. Casual players didn't face enough obstacles with the equal bucket ranking system. The MMR system brings in tough obstacles sooner so that a broader range of players find themselves in that situation rather than just the grinders.
I had a Highlander Mage deck variant that got me to rank 6. The very first day of the first season of this new format, the same deck that was holding it's own at that level around 50% up to the final night of that season, started the new season 0 for 10. I had never lost 10 matches in a row before. Not the best first impression. I switched to a new deck from a new class and began to climb again. But that was total BS. Even this new season I started 1 for 7 with Mage (I play 90%+ of my matches as Mage). It eventually goes back to normal but something isn't right.
Imho people who play <=50 matches over a season and don't care about hitting legend should never play vs those in legend rank. Maybe the MMR opponent adjustment should be limited in range to decks in your rank or perhaps your rank +/- 1.
I am a new paying player (since August) that has decided to switch to f2p mostly because of this. I have largely disengaged and mostly just play casual to kill time now. The gains they see from this new tactic will likely offset my loss and I am fine with that. I will find another hobby.
You can't establish how good your homebrew deck is anymore. If you play say at Platinum, you may have a better home brew deck than others around the same level. But with the current system, no matter your level, the decks you play against will just continue to ramp until your winrate levels out. So unless you have a deck that does well against the very best in the meta at that time, you should expect a 50% winrate. It promotes netdecking and the purchasing of cards you are missing to do so.
The game is built to grind every day all day now period (unless you are the top of the top). They give us the boosted star bonus to distract us from this, to make it feel like we have a great deck because we are climbing fast. But I see through this mere distraction from the 50% winrate. I am sick of going on a great run one login and then paying for it over the next couple logins.
I would rather a bucket system that refreshes equally each month, where if I build a unique deck and it gets me to Diamond quickly, I can feel pretty good. Where I can actually make judgements on the deck based on it's performance vs a pool of opponents that slowly get better as I rise in actual rank.
I have stopped playing ranked matches seriously... actually the whole game seriously over this issue. I don't want to spend significant time grinding in a system that intends to keep it 50% whenever it can. It should become 50% or less only when I rise to an actual rank that has better decks than mine. Any other system is a method to get you to play more and spend more by keeping you in a constant state of feeling just short of the right cards. No thank you.