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!
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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.
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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.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)I am a long time HS player (since Beta) and I have almost all cards - just a few legendaries/epics missing.
I want golden cards .... I don't really care for packs/lonely cards - so I want the 3 common gold + 1 golden epic card back, which i earned at the end of the season (Rank 5 old ladder system!).
Besides that good changes I guess...
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)IDK it seems even more grindy than before. When I'm lazy and climb at the end of the season I have about 60 to 80 % WR because ladder is filled with bad players or meme decks.
Now I'm matched with legend players the whole time. So assuming I never get a win streak I need 25 wins just for diamond league. Compared to 20 wins from rank 4. And If I skip a month it gets real shitty because I don't get any bonus, need 150 stars and I'm matched against Bronze 10 players. So how exactly is this system any better?
I hope they fix ladder until the expansion comes out because I already expect it will be broken for a few days like every time.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)The new system is far from optimal and people are to find out this in just a few hours.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that skipping a month of play won't completely remove the star bonus if you MMR is higher than the rank you're playing at. So that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'll see if I can find a source.
EDIT: Found it, it was in the community Q&A article:
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)But I won't keep my MMR forever if I don't play for a while. That would be also really bad because that would mean the climb would always suck.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)If you don't play at all for a while with the old system, you also fall to the bottom of ranked and have to slowly climb back up. You're complaining that you won't be able to climb as easily by beating players worse than you at the end of each season, but is it fair to those players that they are being matched against a legend player if they themselves are not at that level? It seems fair to me that you're matched against players of your own skill.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Grind to legend once: okay.
repeat: R.I.P. (streamers / „pros“ only)
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)My question is, are the end of season rewards mean a bundle of cards and packs, or you just get a pack for reaching legend, even tho U can get it on silver10?
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)It adds together. So for Bronze 5 you get a Standard Rare card in your monthly chest, then when you hit Silver 10, you get that rare card AND you get a Latest Expansion pack too, and if you get Silver 5 you get both of those AND you get 2 Random Standard Cards.
Eventually at Legend you get all this:
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Damm that is a nice reward for reaching legend.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Where is this picture from? It confirms cards earned are not golden.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Okay, I found out it's official picture from here.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)yes, it is. don't understand the pleyers who say's we are not geting golden cards. (you can dust the cards what you opend and make golden ones, in total we can get much more dust than before)
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)yah, and the chance to add more legendaries to your collection.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)ça va être trop facile pour une légende de redevenir une légende. Si une légende arrive à Diamond 5, il gagne deux étoiles par victoire (sans le bonus bonus)? Je pense qu'il aurait dû réduire le bonus à 10 étoiles au lieu de 11.
it's going to be too easy for a legend to become a legend again. If a legend arrives at Diamond 5, he wins two stars per victory (without the bonus victory)? I think he should have reduced the bonus to 10 stars instead of 11.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)It is 10 stars for reaching Legend rank. There's an extra bonus star for players who's MMR greatly outmatches their Rank. So High Legend players will get 11 bonus stars, instead of 10.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Man, I can't wait for all the demon hunters and rogues to farm my library paladin on stream. Should probably upload the aftermath to the hub
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Do we have a mana compare for rank 5 before and now? It seems the grind now is too much for non-golden cards.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)Matchups will now be based on player's Matchmaking Rating (MMR).
MMR-matchmaking (out of legend rank) takes place only while the player has a bonus pool.
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Posted Mar 31, 2020 (Kael'thas Patch)For example: a Star Bonus of 5x grants a player five stars for each win instead of one.