Hearthpwn

1st try (18 restarts) - couldnt pass taunts.

2nd try (9 restarts) - obliterated.

3rd try (0 restarts) - success on turn 5 with a 20/1 dragonhawk. Thanks!

Thanks! Succeeded on second try.

First try! Thanks

Lich King and his minions prioritize attacking your ghouls over the necrotic gheist, spawning infinite ghouls for you.

Second try. Thanks!

Got it on first try. Thanks!

1.5 hrs later and no spell cost reduction :(

Edit: 2 hrs and I got it :)

Hello,

I am very salty.

Thanks.

@Shockii412. Thanks! Happy new year!

@henrijonas.Remember this was my experience. Yours may be different.

@Darge. It feels worthwhile in the sense that I don't have to think about it anymore. Make sure not to get too demotivated. As some of the comments point out, I was getting results below what can be achieved and the difference between 51% and 55% WR is enormous in terms of time investment.

@Purpenflurb. Thanks! I agree with everything you say. Switching decks trying to counterqueue and playing on tilt lost me many games.

@Sarpedonsrighthand. I am sorry if I scared you off. I just wanted to tell it as I experienced it. Many other players have a higher winrate which cuts the time investment drastically. You might also consider going over to the dark side and play some aggro decks for time efficiency:)

@Windsofregnum. Congratulations on reaching legend! Thanks for sharing your data. Everyone should compare your data to mine to realize that with a difference in winrate 51% to 57% the time investment is halved.

I am not saying the winrate cannot be affected by skill. I am saying the effect of skill on the winrate is low in terms of numbers (in our cases 51% to 57%) and this is especially true once you hit the higher ranks where most people can play. However a small increase in WR is extremely impactful. What I am trying to say is that you need to accept that for many games, RNG is going to decide the outcome. If the game was skill-based only, pros would have close to 100% WR. If half of the game was RNG, pros would have about 75% WR. Since the WR of pros I watch is usually around 65 %, this confirms how RNG-heavy this game is. The math here is not perfectly realistic, but it is a good indication I think.

@agenttan. Squelch on curve = Squelch the opponent on turn 0. If you don't block your opponent's emotes as fast as possible, you are not doing it on curve :)

@aoaoFOX. Good luck! Hopefully you made it.

@Lajko. Thank you, sir.

@Ophion. Thank you for your input. I was hoping for a reply like this one, someone who disagrees. I presented my view on how it was to get to Legend and that experience will be different for everyone. I didn't play exclusively aggro, I played mostly midrange and control decks (Dragon Warrior, Dragon Priest, Renolock); and Pirate Rogue from rank 1.

I was a vivid supporter of roping almost every turn: I was calculating the chances of plays happening. However when then opponent topdecks his only answer in the deck 3 times in a row for a total probability of 0.02%, that's when I full tilt. Basically, doing what I thought was right and playing tactfully every turn just resulted in even more frustration and is the reason I didn't enjoy it all. Bad plays getting rewarded.

You present the mindset I was fighting for, but I didn't succeed with :( I did write in my original post that the reasons for me struggling to get to legend were: my skill level, my bad luck and playing when I shouldn't. Whichever of these was the most prevalent, I don't know :)

@EveningWood. I don't have much to say apart from the fact that I agree with everything. 30% skill is indeed unwarranted and is instead my attempt at illustrating how big an impact RNG has in this game (in my experience).

TL;DR: I am an average player who reached Legend for the first time and I share my honest opinion about the climb. Key words are time-consuming, luck and focus. I also mention some tips.

 Why am I writing this?

I promised myself that if I reached Legend this month, I would write an honest summary of the experience. I have read and heard so many different tips on how to reach legend, that I did not know what to believe. I also got tilted when I followed said advice and it didn’t work. I wanted to hear from someone honest what the climb was really about.

Background:

I am a 29 year old engineer who plays Hearthstone intermittently. I have played since beta and have tried for Legend three times including my successful attempt (April 2015, September 2016 and December 2016). I have 4086 registered wins in Ranked games and 167 wins in Arena (which I rarely play). I would consider myself an average player (maybe even average+). I play on EU.

The road to Legend:

My attempt in April 2015 was a short one. I got to rank 5 with Zoolock and when I didn’t make it to rank 4 the same day (lost against the rank 5 boss), I gave up.

My attempt in September 2016 was painful. I really went for it, but it was hard to progress as everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) was playing Midrange Shaman. I posted a message on Hearthpwn “Looking for coach”. I wanted to know what I was doing wrong, I was stuck at ranks 5-3, having played 143 games since reaching rank 5, going 71-72 (~50% winrate). I got a friendly soul to coach me for about 3 hours, but sadly we made little progress. I finally gave up.

See the attachments for stats and "Rank vs Day"-chart.

For my successful attempt in December 2016, I registered 753 games going 381-372 (51% winrate). The decks I played were Dragon Warrior (310 games: 171 – 139; 55%), Dragon Priest (127 games: 60-67; 47%), Pirate Rogue (117 games: 61-56; 52%), Renolock (95 games: 39-56; 41%), Pirate and Midrange Shaman (58 games) and Pirate and Tank-up Warrior (42 games). My deck tracker records this as 82.3 hours of in-game time. Based on my own notes, I spent about 130 hours in front of the computer playing Hearthstone over 28 days.

Climbed to Rank 13 using a Astral Communion druid. Got to rank 5 using Renolock and Dragon Warrior on the 7^th of December. Went to rank 4, but didn’t progress. Changed to Dragon Priest and tried some Pirate Shaman, no progress. Continued using Dragon Priest and went down to rank 7, playing mostly on full tilt. I was about to give up. Climbed back up to 5 with Dragon Warrior. Tried Pirate Rogue and went down to rank 8 (full tilt). Tried different decks the next days, mostly Renolock and Pirate Shaman, went back to 5. Decided to only play 1 deck: Dragon Warrior. Went steadily up to rank 1. Fell down to rank 2 and back up to rank 1 for 3 days until I changed to Pirate Rogue to reach Legend on the 28^th of December (there were mostly Pirate Shamans that day).

Some facts:

• Grinding to Legend is exactly that: a grind. It was not fun, nor challenging, it just took a long time.
• Hearthstone is 30% skill, 70% luck. Many games are decided already on mulligan or turn 2. RNG cards may decide the game including Ragnaros, Sylvanas, Mind Control Tech,… Whether the Shaman hits Spell Power Totem decides the match. If you are an average player, you will get a 50% winrate. You need more than luck to get above 50%: you need skill, focus and more luck.
• Hearthstone has existed for a while now, so many players have now reached the skill cap for their favourite decks (not too hard to get there). That is why many games in rank 5 and above are purely luck and draw related.
• Queue RNG. When the meta hasn’t completely settled, queue RNG may decide the game before it even began. I would therefore chose a deck that does well all around, a deck you master or the counter to the most prevalent deck (easier said than done).
• Aggro meta. The most prevalent decks will most likely always be aggro decks. As mentioned before, since grinding to legend is mostly about luck and time, it is more effective to use an aggro deck, since the games are shorter.
• Getting to rank 5 is the easy part. You might get halted at 2 or 3 ranks prior to that, but you will reach rank 5 soon enough. If you are really struggling get to rank 5, you are doing something wrong and you will not get to Legend.

My best tip:

• Don’t overthink it! If you play around everything, you will make sub-optimal plays. Take chances. I had a significantly higher winrate when I was having fun and making some risky plays. At the end of the day, this game is an RNG-fest; embrace it.

Obvious tips:

Again: since this game is mostly about luck, these tips will only increase your winrate slightly. Nevertheless, I would deem them completely necessary.

• Use a deck tracker. Be mindful of chances of draws.
• When falling behind, take the time to look at your win conditions. Change your plan accordingly.
• Always squelch on curve. The only thing that can happen from allowing your opponent to emote is you losing your concentration or getting tilted.
• Do not play when you are unfocused (tilted, tired, intoxicated, …). It will result in misplays. Never play on tilt! Take a break, even when you are only slightly angry.
• Learn to play your decks. It will take you many games to play perfectly with each deck. Use the early ranks to practice with new decks if you are going to use more than one deck.
• Learn the deck lists by heart. You should know what the opponent is likely to play next. Just visit any site like Tempostorm or Hearthpwn where people netdeck the most.
• Try not to switch decks. Play around 30 games before changing decks.
• The mulligan is very important. Many games are decided on the mulligan. Pay attention to your opponent’s mulligan. If he changed all his cards, you can probably be more aggressive and take the board early.
• Have a friend spectate you and (s)he might root out some of your repeating misplays and errors. Personally, I was taught I played to defensively and ought to mix it up a little.

Things I’ve tried that didn’t work:

• Logging every opponent and deck type so that if I met them again, I would know how to mulligan. I have only met the same opponent twice and one of these times, he had changed decks. A waste of time.
• Counter-queuing. Using the decktracker I would see which deck was the most used and queue its counter. In theory this should have worked, but I only ended up getting countered myself. I had to stick to one deck. Maybe it was because the meta changed fast due to the new expansion.
• Netdeck the “70% WR Best Deck for This Meta”. Changing decks didn’t help me. Playing consistently with an all-around deck got me to Legend. The guy who shared the deck either is a pro or got very lucky.
• Use Twitch streamers decks. I learned this a long while ago, but it is still worth mentioning. Popular Twitch streamers use entertaining decks to get views. Who wants to watch 300 games with aggro Shaman? This is especially true at legend rank, where everything is fun and games. You can copy their decks if they are using it at about the same rank as you with success (if you are at Rank 4, find a streamer that’s at rank 4 on the same region as you and copy his deck if he is doing well).

Why did it take you so long to get to Legend? / You suck!

It is a mix of playing when I shouldn’t (tilted, demotivated, trying new decks), being an average player and bad luck?

When you get to rank 1, do you get a lot of wintrades?

Here are my stats against Legend players (ranks 7000 -9000+):

Wins: 13

Losses: 11

Wintrades: 1

I was surprised by the lack of goodwill from dumpster Legend players.

How did it feel reaching Legend?

I was not proud. I was happy I didn’t have to play Hearthstone anymore. I was relieved I managed to reach the goal I had put so many hours into.

Any tips for NA?

I wouldn’t be able to confirm that it is way easier on NA as I haven’t tried reaching Legend there.

I like this deck too, but let's be frank: this is the standard Renolock list. You switched out 1 card.

I appreciate you writing the guide though.

Thanks a lot Liquid! That works great, especially against pesky Reno decks.

Thanks for that oThumperr, I will check it out.

To the people that pass by and read this thread: I got a person to help me out for a few hours today (he contacted me on HS). So, if you were planning to ask for help but were thrown off by the few responses here, don't :)

Hello, first time trying to get to legend and I'm stuck at Ranks 5-3. I play mainly with Midrange Shaman and I'm currently at Rank 4 Star 1. I'm an EU player.

I have played 143 games since reaching Rank 5 and I have gone 71-72, so I'm not moving anywhere unless something happens. ("How have you progressed with a perfect 50/50?", you may ask. Well, I went below rank 5 and got streaks to get back up).

I would like the coach to either explain the best plays each turn, missplays I make or go through each game after the fact. Preferably all in writing over battle.net. Hopefully, someone would like to help out:) I could offer to pay for the help if it is working out.

Send me a friend request: Moodflow#2163

I'll be on later today to check the feedback.

First off, thank you for creating this thread. I am at peace now.

So my board is filled with totems, a Flamewreathed Faceless and a Thing from below. Both the Yogg warrior opponent and myself only have a few cards left in the deck and the warrior has burned through Yogg, N'zoth, Brawlsx2, Revenge x2 and now has his Sylvanas in play. Trades into the Thing from below and wins the 1/6 for the game.

Arcane Druid with 4 HP? Plays Yogg: I go from 28 to 6 HP, he goes to 20+HP with 4 secrets, clears my 3 minions, his 2 minions are buffed, gets Call of the wild.

Yogg Warrior used all his removal, it is looking good. Elise for 4 cards: Malygos to trade, Baron to clear, Tirion and "Well Played"-BM Reno.

Control warrior 25% my 7/7 with Tinkmaster to a 1/1 squirrel.

Playing against Hunter? Turn 8 Call of the Wild, turn 9 Call of the Wild.

Playing Druid? Coin, Innervate, Innervate, GG.

Changing deck to counter deck met last 5 games? Meet deck that counters my counterdeck three times in a row until ragequit.

Play against aggro shaman? Mulligan for AoE and early drops: Fire Elemental, Thunder Bluff, Fire Elemental. Draws Thunder Bluff.

Trying for legend for the first time this season. Just realized I have gone from Rank 5 Star 5 to Rank 4 Star 2 with a winrate of 52% over 100 games. At this rate, it wil take me 460 games or around 85 hrs to get Legend. Abort and post in this thread.

Could someone write a few lines on:

1. trading with Sylvanas Windrunner (into a minion with deathrattle, Cairne Bloodhoof for example).
2. A better (and possibly longer) explanation as to how silencing a wounded buffed minion works with regards to remaining health. I just got mote confused by reading previous posts.

thanks;)