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!
start at level 20
now: i get 6 stars - rank-20 ->golden common
after: i get 6 stars - rank -23 -> nothing
blizzard.net -> shylock.net
their seems to be a huge misunderstanding in what blizzard is doing here.
i have mixed feelings on you. you are calling people noobs but you are still grinding golden heroes? if you made gold cap ever day you would have 2 golden heroes a month approximately (900 wins a month). the game has been out almost 5 years and you are calling people a noob when you can't even accomplish what it would only take 6 months to do on average?
unless you are seriously busy with other things in life tht prevents you from playing a few hours a day to get 30 wins a day, then idk what your problem is buddy.
in other words, i don't think pro players are spamming low ladder rankings to troll people as much as you claim. plus, this is impossible anyway since the game would just reset them to rank 4, and even than they would never be able to go below rank 5. so what you are talking about doing is both impossible and even if it wasn't they have their darn golden heroes and don't care. get a life.
no. it is because they are net decking and not knowing how to play said net decks. it is impossible for a legend player to even be in those ranks. they start off at rank 5. they can't lose stars at this rank, so they would just not play. then next month they start at rank 8. they lose stars until they get to rank 10. then they stop playing. then they are at rank 12. they lose stars until 15, then they stop laying, now they are at rank 17. they then keep losing stars until rank 20 and stop playing.
the whole process for a legend player to lose enough stars to get to rank 20 so they can grind out low level wins would take them months to even accomplish. that is how the game is set up. the reason you are seeing a lot of secret mages and miracle rogues is because these players are net decking. they are bad. they lose to freakin budget decks and get laughed at. they are just bad players who think getting a net deck makes them good but they never get past rank 15 because they don'tknow how to play said deck. then they make the good players bad because the low level ranks are flooded with these net decks. that is what's going on.
my point was to think that legend level players are storming the ladders tod o something that they obviously have already accomplished and to terrorize low skill players is obviously both impossible and impracatical. you also threw out the word noob when you obviously have not gotten your golden heroes yet.
I'm sorry but not every one is so obsessed with Hearthstone to invest 3-4 hours daily,do your 6 month average is very far from the truth.
What about adding "Dust Caps" for ranked play? Fanboys who spend $100's (maybe $1000's) on HS should not get the benefits over a normal player. My point is if a 3000 dust deck beats a 17,000 dust deck it should count for more. Likewise, for a 25,000+ dust deck should not get "full credit" for beating a 5000 dust deck. I know this going against Blizzard's P&L, but there needs to a way to balance deck cost versus ladder achievement.
You do realize that in many cases the dust that makes up a deck does not equate very well into an accurate snapshot of that deck's power level right?
No way, this won’t happen, there are some people that do a lot of hard work to get their legendaries and get punished like this? I have a lot of them, but it because I’ve been playing since 2014, this would be unfair to a lot of players like me that spent a lot of time over these years collecting gold and grinding for ranks to get more dust to get better cards, if this happen, there is no point to pursue after legendaries and no motivation to buy packs to get legendaries, this doesn’t make sense.
It makes sense for the newer players and those who cantc invest that much time in Hearthstone...
How are you getting punished? Do you even hear yourself? True, you will never be rank 20 again if you always hit legend, so that means you won't get to wreck newbies , is that what you call punishment? You won't have to grind every season to get to legend, your goal will become hitting #1 Legend... So you can stop complaining, what you are saying is not even half true...
I am cautiously happy. I see this as an experiment. My gut reaction is that I will play more and will finally make that jump from rank 5 and under to Legend. So, now it is up to me to put in the grinding and play decent decks that don't tank.
Why?
As a causal player, I play about 100 ranked matches a month. Since you need to be +20 for the season to maintain your rank, I’ll eventually fall to whatever rank puts me at around a 60% win rate, give or take a couple, and then cycle around that point.
Doesnt seem very exciting.
With this new system, roughly 100 ranked matches a month should get you to Legendary eventually, provided you can maintain a 60% win rate up to the later ranks.
Think about it. Starting at Rank 4, 0 stars if you were Legendary last month means you have to win 21 more games than you lose. Well, 60% over 100 games means 60-40, just one short. And of course, before rank 5 there are win streaks.
Have you tried exercising more? Maybe try and go casual with a deck before going ranked. I haven't reached legend yet, my best being rank 2, but it happened to me in beginning to stall at ranks 15-10.