Today I got Legendary rank on the NA servers, and I would like to share some of my experience with you. Let me start by saying that this is not a thread to prove that I'm a good player or that I created the most awesome deck. This is just me describing how I got to legendary rank, and hopefully this information is useful for someone.
The first thing I want to say is that it is possible to get to high ranks without spending any money. There is a lot of people in the community that think this game is Pay-2-win, and I have to disagree. I've been playing hearthstone beta since day 1, and I have never bought a pack of cards. The deck that I used to go up the ladder has no epic or legendary, and can be easily crafted if you play the game for a while. I did not "netdeck" this list, nor did I invented it completely. I just did some research on what people have been using, tested a lot and adjusted the cards to my play style.
The second point I would like to make is that it takes a long time to go through all the ranks. From rank 25 to legendary, it took me about 250 games (about 61% win). The last day of grinding I played almost 80 games, and got from rank 6 to legendary (about 65% win). I believe this is more time than most people want to invest in this game, but the Legendary rank is supposed to be a rare achievement, so I think Blizzard did a good job on the system. Also, it looks like some other decks can achieve a higher win % than mine, so it could also be done in fewer games if you figure out a better deck.
Lastly, I want to give some advice for the players that are grinding their way up the ladder. These are some lessons that I learned the hard way:
Every game matters a lot. Starting at rank 5 you will no longer gain extra stars for win streaks. This means that from rank 5(1 star) to legendary you have to win 25 games more than you lose. Every time you make a mistake and lose a game that you are not supposed to, you have to win 2 games to compensate. This is extremely harsh. In order to succeed in ranked play, you have to bring your best performance every single game, otherwise you will be wasting a lot of time. If you are not on your best conditions (hungry, tired, distracted, sleepy), go do something else (casual play or another game, not Arena).
Tune your deck. In order to increase your rank you have to win more than 50% of your games. Your opponents will bring tier 1 decks and will play reasonably well, so there is no space for unoptimized decklists. In the last day of grinding I played 80 games and did not face a single Hunter. Almost every deck I played against had Sylvanas in it. I played a little bit of ranked in season 1 and was struggling to go beyond rank 4. Once I realized that I had to change some cards in my deck, things started to work, and season 2 was a lot easier. Do your homework, research and test a lot until you get a deck that gives you a good win %.
Keep track of your opponents. Once you get on higher ranks you will face the same opponents many times, specially if you play a lot in the same day. If possible, have some decks prepared to counter specific strategies. One of the players I faced a lot in the ladders had a good Druid Control deck, but he almost always lost with it to my warlock deck. Once we played 2 or 3 matches in a row, he would change to a Rogue deck, specially built to destroy warlock aggro. That was one of my toughest opponents, and he reached Legendary about the same time I did. If you cannot beat a guy, try to wait a little before queuing again, so you will not face him again. On the other hand, some players reach legendary and start using weird decks (since they cannot lose legendary status). Try to farm those guys as much as you can.
Some people say that Hearthstone is a simple game, that there is no skill, just RNG. This is BS. Even playing the simplest deck possible, I had to learn a lot before I started winning, and there is a lot more to learn. Between deck creation, metagaming, mulliganing, playing and reading your opponent, there is a lot of skill in this game. If you are not winning, try to find your weakness and work on improving it.
Sry about my English. Good luck for all grinding the ladder.
Huckit - Sorry but I don't have the info by class. We use challonge avatars to keep track of the classes that players are using on each tournament, but once a player changes his avatar for a new tournament all the other tournament data changes too. The mtg card is Rorix!
Nox - Totally agree! Knight, Jotto and Spajj had awesome stats so far, lets see if they can keep it up! I also felt good about my stats considering that I'm not playing optimal decks (tier 1). BTW good luck on the blizzcon tournament!
Hello everyone!I made a short review of the 7 managrind NA tournaments. There you can see the winners of each tournament and also a table with win % for best players so far.
It's not like I'm going to sue them because they saw my puzzles here and then created their own. In that case I just think it is not unreasonable to expect that they mention my puzzles here on hearthpwn.
Anyway, it is nice to know that Ben was on this site solving my puzzles!
Yesterday Blizzard posted some puzzles on the Hearthstone official site. They are very similar to what I have been doing here on the hearthpwn forums, but less complex. Do you guys think they saw my puzzles? Or is this a very weird coincidence? I have put a lot of work on my own puzzles and I feel like the similarities are too strong. I think they should at least mention that I have been doing puzzles before them.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at the first puzzle I made back in July (link to the puzzle on my blog). I will start reposting the puzzles on my blog because it is hard to find them on the forums after a while. You can find the original forum post here. Keep an eye on my blog for new puzzles and also articles about hearthstone strategy.
It has been i while since i posted my last puzzle, but I'm here now with a new one! Right now I'm playing beta a lot, so I may not create many puzzles anymore. I'm not sure if people will be interested on the puzzles now that the beta is out, but I'll try to make at least one per week. Also, I started streaming on twitch.tv (http://www.twitch.tv/hsrorix) and I want to try making some videos, so I will have less time to make the puzzles. Follow me on twitter (@hs_rorix) if you want to know when I'm creating any kind of new content (puzzle/video/streaming).
So here is the new puzzle! You are playing as Jaina (mage) against the druid. On his last turn, the opponent thought he had the win, but he miscalculated and you were left with 1 health. Also, on his last turn, the opponent played Millhouse Manastorm, so on your turn all your spells will cost 0! The druid is at 30 health and also has 1 armor, so there's a long way to go before killing him. Can you finish the match on this turn?
0
Hello everyone!
Today I got Legendary rank on the NA servers, and I would like to share some of my experience with you. Let me start by saying that this is not a thread to prove that I'm a good player or that I created the most awesome deck. This is just me describing how I got to legendary rank, and hopefully this information is useful for someone.
The first thing I want to say is that it is possible to get to high ranks without spending any money. There is a lot of people in the community that think this game is Pay-2-win, and I have to disagree. I've been playing hearthstone beta since day 1, and I have never bought a pack of cards. The deck that I used to go up the ladder has no epic or legendary, and can be easily crafted if you play the game for a while. I did not "netdeck" this list, nor did I invented it completely. I just did some research on what people have been using, tested a lot and adjusted the cards to my play style.
The second point I would like to make is that it takes a long time to go through all the ranks. From rank 25 to legendary, it took me about 250 games (about 61% win). The last day of grinding I played almost 80 games, and got from rank 6 to legendary (about 65% win). I believe this is more time than most people want to invest in this game, but the Legendary rank is supposed to be a rare achievement, so I think Blizzard did a good job on the system. Also, it looks like some other decks can achieve a higher win % than mine, so it could also be done in fewer games if you figure out a better deck.
Lastly, I want to give some advice for the players that are grinding their way up the ladder. These are some lessons that I learned the hard way:
Sry about my English. Good luck for all grinding the ladder.
Cya!
0
Huckit - Sorry but I don't have the info by class. We use challonge avatars to keep track of the classes that players are using on each tournament, but once a player changes his avatar for a new tournament all the other tournament data changes too. The mtg card is Rorix!
Nox - Totally agree! Knight, Jotto and Spajj had awesome stats so far, lets see if they can keep it up! I also felt good about my stats considering that I'm not playing optimal decks (tier 1). BTW good luck on the blizzcon tournament!
0
Hello everyone!I made a short review of the 7 managrind NA tournaments. There you can see the winners of each tournament and also a table with win % for best players so far.
Managrind NA Tournament Review
I'm considering making a more detailed review weekly or monthly, let me know if you guys would like to see that.
Cya!
0
Hello everyone!
I'm streaming more arena today! Join me at http://www.twitch.tv/hsrorix
0
Yes, unbound is a 2/4 at the beggining of your turn
0
angelcrest is right... forked lightning cannot hit 1 target for 4 damage
0
Great job Angelcrest and Banditkid!!
0
Really close rebel, but forked lightning will not kill two minions on step 7. They have 3 health at that point (assuming storm did 2 damage).
0
80% win with this deck? What rank are you playing?
0
Hello everyone! I'm back with one more puzzle!
I think this is the most complex puzzle I made so far. The idea is to find the line of play that gives you the best chance of winning the game.
Click here to see the puzzle
As always, please post your solution as spoiler text.
Good luck and have fun!
0
It's not like I'm going to sue them because they saw my puzzles here and then created their own. In that case I just think it is not unreasonable to expect that they mention my puzzles here on hearthpwn.
Anyway, it is nice to know that Ben was on this site solving my puzzles!
0
Hello everyone!
Yesterday Blizzard posted some puzzles on the Hearthstone official site. They are very similar to what I have been doing here on the hearthpwn forums, but less complex. Do you guys think they saw my puzzles? Or is this a very weird coincidence? I have put a lot of work on my own puzzles and I feel like the similarities are too strong. I think they should at least mention that I have been doing puzzles before them.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at the first puzzle I made back in July (link to the puzzle on my blog). I will start reposting the puzzles on my blog because it is hard to find them on the forums after a while. You can find the original forum post here. Keep an eye on my blog for new puzzles and also articles about hearthstone strategy.
0
Hello everyone!
I'm streaming more arena today! Join me at http://www.twitch.tv/hsrorix
0
Hello everyone!
Today i'll play a marathon of Arena matches on my stream! The goal is to play 5 or more Arenas non-stop.
Join me at http://www.twitch.tv/hsrorix . I'll start streaming in a few minutes!
0
Hello Everyone!
It has been i while since i posted my last puzzle, but I'm here now with a new one! Right now I'm playing beta a lot, so I may not create many puzzles anymore. I'm not sure if people will be interested on the puzzles now that the beta is out, but I'll try to make at least one per week. Also, I started streaming on twitch.tv (http://www.twitch.tv/hsrorix) and I want to try making some videos, so I will have less time to make the puzzles. Follow me on twitter (@hs_rorix) if you want to know when I'm creating any kind of new content (puzzle/video/streaming).
So here is the new puzzle! You are playing as Jaina (mage) against the druid. On his last turn, the opponent thought he had the win, but he miscalculated and you were left with 1 health. Also, on his last turn, the opponent played Millhouse Manastorm, so on your turn all your spells will cost 0! The druid is at 30 health and also has 1 armor, so there's a long way to go before killing him. Can you finish the match on this turn?
click here to see the puzzle image! (Google Drive)
As always, Please post your solutions as spoiler text.
Good luck and have fun!