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.
First run on new ladder is definitely nice for all the free shit they are throwing for hitting goals first time.
What's very obvious is that it will involve a lot more games to hit legend now if you weren't legend the previous month as the win bonuses erode earlier the lower on the ladder you finished last month.
That's because say for example as in my case you finished Rank 5 you start with 9 stars per win but by the time you are at Platinum 10 you are down to 3 per win. Platinum 5 is 2 per win and from Diamond it's one star per win. I don't know yet if win streak still counts from then but simple math says that it's 30 more wins than losses are needed for a previous Rank 5 player to hit legend in current system assuming win streaks stop at Diamond. That's 5 extra wins than previous system. If you were legend then the bonus stars would last all the way to Diamond 5 so you would only need 15 more wins than losses from there which is an improvement.
Needless to say anyone finishing Rank 10 or higher trying to get legend under the new system would be in for a grind and a half. As the bonus stars would finish even earlier and therefore mean a much slower climb through Platinum and Diamond as you'd only be getting one star per win unless you hit a win streak
Blizzard: New rank system and more rewards
HS community: This is trash, where is my golden epic
really?
Yes, really. You'll understand why soon enough.
Good lord, you're such a whiny little biatch. You dont have to whine and cry on every possible post
I am only stating the facts. You are noob for not understanding it without my input. But I am also a good person and I'll always explain the noobs the situation instead of flaming them for their incompetence.
I'd Prefer to be compensated with dust to craft the cards I wanted, but this is fine I guess.
Rewards are good and new rank system is great, stop crying.
Are these reward just for standard or can you also get them in wild?
The higher rank - standard/wild - is counted for the reward.
Guys, I don't understand why are all of you so angry. You would like to get 100 packs for each new rank, but imagine a system like this - the game would be just boring. It is a "card collecting game", which means that the purpose of the game is to "collect cards". The game cannot give you enormously good prices for everything, because noone would want to play it.
Because golden epic at Rank 5 worth 4x more, than the current reward. Now I have absolutely 0 motivation to play the ladder.
Nice math there DjZone!
You get the 7 rare cards and 4 card packs on top of the epic card. Not just the epic card. Therefore you get more now.
DjZZoNe is correct. A golden epic is worth 1600 dust. Also mot people wont have many golden epics and wont craft them either. Its nearly always a card which I can add to my collection. Now it is more or less only dust what I will get and the dust value is aprox only the half of the value which a golden epic has.
You get tiny more for way more grinding. Where's the fun in climbing from floor zero each month?
This system is no better than the old one. The only good thing now would be the first time rewards, nothing else.
costs 1600, its worth (jack shit) 400 dust
A golden epic it's 400 dust to disenchant, what if you get a crappy epic card, like the many from every expansion until now in standard. If you want to disenchant it because it's terrible you only get 400 dust. Isn't 7 rare cards, 4 card packs and the epic better? 7x20 = 140, 100 dust roughly equals 100 gold (if you disenchant all the cards) 4x100=400, 1x100=100. So 140+400+100 = 640 dust.
Would your craft a golden epic for 1600 dust?
once
So as a point of reference I finished Rank 5 on Asia. It said as I started I was getting 9 bonus stars per win. I've played 12 games won 7 lost 5, won the last 4 in a row but previous to that no win streak and am currently Gold 8 1 star and it's showing 5 bonus per win. If that helps anyone
Yes it does.
You're telling me that 5 card packs, 7 rares, and an epic each season for hitting Legend is a joke. That's way better then before. What are you talking about?