April Ranked Ladder Changes - All the Details!
With the announcement of the upcoming Year of the Phoenix, Blizzard unveiled their plans to release a massive reworking of the current Ranked Play system. Throughout the last year they've been working toward a system that would provide a fairer matchmaking and improve rewards for new and veteran players alike. We've gathered all the useful information below so you know what to expect when you begin tomorrow's climb to Legend!
New League System
The biggest change implements a new "League" System which will take the place of the tradition Ladder System we're used to. This will include five Leagues each containing 10 ranks -- for a total of 50 ranks prior to reaching legend.
- 5 Leagues - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond.
- Each League will be made up of 10 ranks.
- Rank floors will still exist -- at ranks 10 and 5 of each League.
- At Season's end all players will return to Bronze rank 10.
- Matchups will now be based on player's Matchmaking Rating (MMR).
- New players will have their own League with ranks 40-1.
- Atop the Leagues is the Legend rank, which will work the same as it had previously.
Star Bonuses
Each rank requires a player to earn three stars -- or wins -- to progress to the next. Win streaks are still in effect, and a new addition to the system is "Star Bonuses". In order to transition from the current system to the new one, players will be given a Star Bonus based on their Ranked finish for the month of March.
- Each rank, from Bronze 10 to Diamond 1, consists of 3 stars.
- Players are given a Star Bonus based on the previous month's finish.
- For example: a Star Bonus of 5x grants a player five stars for each win instead of one.
- Bonuses remain for Win Streaks. Meaning a player with a 5x bonus could earn 10 stars per win while on a streak.
- Losing does not effect a player's Star Bonus.
- Star Bonuses will be reduced by one for every Ranked Floor a player passes.
- The maximum Star Bonus is 11x, for a player reaching Legend the previous month.
New Ranked Rewards
The season reward system has also been completely reworked. Your reward chest at the end of the season will now contain card packs from the most recent expansion, Rare cards, or even an Epic card based on your final ranking. In addition, players will now be given the Season's card back immediately upon reaching five ranked wins. A set of rewards is also in place for the first time a player reaches each Ranked Floor -- including a Legendary card for a player's first trip to Legend! These rewards are not retroactive; meaning each player will receive them for each Rank Floor once the new system is live.
Conclusion
With all the changes to Hearthstone's ladder experience, we're in for some exciting times to come. If you're looking for decks for the upcoming Season, we've compiled a list of competitive Meta decks you can find here. Alternatively, feel free to search for decks to begin your Legend climb with our Deck Search function here.
Ashes of Outland Card List & Expansion Details
Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated Card List.
I'm confused. If all matching is based on MMR now, win rates will quickly be driven to 50%. How does that in any way promote ladder climbing? Might as well just switch to battlegrounds win rating system now, since the ladder is meaningless.
Bronze Chat incomming KEKW
Question: If I get legend in the standard mode and get the +11 stars, will I also get +11 stars per win in wild if I was at rank 8 over there last season?
So, I suppose you will quite likely get one star bonus for each rank floor you reached the previous season (with 1 being the baseline, since a star bonus of 1 would result in exactly nothing the way they described the system). That automatically results in losing the star bonus again once you reach the floor you surpassed last season, and from then on you have to climb without that bonus. Getting to the same rank you had before is much easier then improving your rank due to this. And hitting the floors becomes all the more crucial.
It also means that you will probably breeze through the lower ranks if you ranked reasonably well last season. With the maximum bonus of 11, it takes all of three wins to reach the Silver league, four more to reach gold and platinum each, then 7 to reach diamond and 12 to reach legend again. Not couting streaks and losses, which will make it even faster in the lower ranks, since losses do not use the star bonus, so each streak is worth mutliple losses "down there".
But even for more moderately ranked players, the new system works out nicely: If you earned a 6 star bonus, meaning you reached gold rank 5 in the month before, you only need 22 wins (again not counting losses and streaks) to regain that rank. Sounds OK to me, especially since losing will count for less until you reach the rank you previously had :)
The main gripe I have with this new system, without having seen it actually in action, is that with just a break of a single month, you basically lose all progress you have made over the last couple of months. Before it took a maximum of five months of not playing to go from legend to the eternal floor of rank 20.
Will you lose more than one star at a time with the Star bonus?
Don't think so. Most likely you lose 1 star per loss as always, considering they didn't say anything about that.
Star bonus is supposed to make reclimbing much faster so for 99,9999999% losing means -1 star.
any info if the win streak will stop when you reach Diamond 5 (which is close to Rank 5 now)?
System seems great until you don't play much for a month and then it becomes ridiculous. Who will have the time to grind 150 stars even with a winstreak bonus if you didn't play the previous month so have no bonus stars applied, surely it would make more sense to have the bonus stars applied dependent upon your underlying MMR and not your finishing rank given that players will be matched on MMR not rank now. I'm guessing even not playing a month won't actually affect your underlying MMR so would be fairer system. Then as players progress and got better at the game they automatically qualify for a higher level of bonus stars the following month. Then it's a bonus in relation to skill level not how much you played the previous month.
why was this down voted he telling the truth... if you dont play 1 morth you need to win 150 to get back to legned befor you could skip 1 morth then you will be back at rank 10 and only had to win 50 win... this new way sucks
So are you playing regularly legend and then skipping a month?
Well at least there is some motivation to get Legend this season! Hopefully, they keep changing up the Legend rewards after you get this "First-Time Reward" to other nice rewards like a gold classic pack or something. Otherwise that grind just isn't worth it. The extra motivation definitely adds a nice touch to the climb!
I wonder if no duplicate protection applies for those Standard cards rewards as well.
Pro tip: wait with extreme laddering till the release of the new expansion - you'll get DH cards from the classic packs.
what DH cards? there arent any DH cards in the classic set yet
you will get all the basic and initiate set cards if you completed the DH prologue and then you can get DH cards from the Ashes of Outland expansion in AoO packs
or just start ladderring immediately and wait with the pack opening for the expansion launch
They mentioned a bonus star multiplier. It shouldnt be more of a grind but overall, if you were after bling, then yea the new system is a hit in the wrong direction. For many others, the new system will be much more gratifying. I liked my gold cards but the new system will be a loot system.
More gratifying in what aspect? If cards are not golden then you get less mana with new system.
And it looks like they are not golden indeed:
You will get something instantly after reaching a certain rank (1 time only) plus the end of season reward.
I did say "For many others" in terms of more gratifying. I also said "if you were after the bling, then yea the new system is a hit in the wrong direction".
So basically, yes, it sucks for you if you were after goldens. Great for all others that just want cards. Im sort of in the middle but liked my goldens.