New Hearthstone Arena Ranking System Pitch by Blizzard
In a flurry of tweets, Dean "Iksar" Ayala, one of the main designers on the Hearthstone team, laid out his idea for a new Ranking System for Hearthstone Arena. The system would look at Average Arena Wins, as well as classes played and how well you did on each class.
The system would most likely run for some 2 or 4 month intervals and provide a much needed community wide prestige system where people can compare ratings and standings more easily than is possible right now and perhaps also in a more reliable and honest way.
Dean has asked for feedback, so be sure to comment and let your opinion be heard, whether that is here or on Twitter!
Quote from BlizzardARENA PLAYERS
Been trying to brainstorm what a fun ranking system could be for arena. Goals are for it to have forward progression but still have the best players come out on top.
The Pitch:
Quote from BlizzardPitch uses 3 numbers. A rating (what is displayed to you and you are ranked on), your average wins per run, and your 'class score'.
Arena Rating = AvgWins X ClassScore
AvgWins = Your average wins per run
ClassScore = Your highest win total on each class added together
Quote from BlizzardExample 1 - Very Casual, Plays lots of classes
Player plays 10 runs. Gets 3 wins every time. Plays 1 run of each class.
AvgWins = 3
ClassScore = 30 (3X10)
Arena Rating = 90 (3X30)
Quote from BlizzardExample 2 - Average Engaged Player, Plays limited range of classes
Player plays 30 runs. Gets 4 Wins every time. Only plays 5 of 10 classes.
Avg Wins = 4
Class Score = 20 (4X5)
Arena Rating = 80 (4X20)
Quote from BlizzardEXAMPLE 3 - Hardcore and Skilled Player
Player plays 60 Runs. Gets 7 Wins every time. Only plays 8 of 10 classes.
Avg Wins = 7
Class Score = 56
Arena Rating = 392
Quote from BlizzardEXAMPLE 4 - The best players
Player plays 100 runs with an average of 8 wins per run. Gets 12 wins on 5 classes but has a best run of 10 on the other 5.
Avg Wins = 8
Class Score = 110
Arena Rating = 880
Quote from BlizzardOne of the reasons I like this system is that it encourages class diversity, has mostly forward progression, but the best players will still ultimately have the best ratings so long as they choose a diverse subset of classes.
We'd probably give you 10 points per win so ratings are in the 1000's rather than the hundreds. This way they'd look more similar to BG/Merc numbers.
I'd also consider giving 'bonus points' for 12-win runs. Meaning your score for an individual class could go higher than 12. This way there is still minor incentive to play classes you've gone 12 with.
We'd find a way to display your score with each class in the client so you can track it. A benefit is that if we just use a rating that lives in our DB, we can do live updated rankings like we do with constructed/bg.
Reset time is probably 2 or 4 months. Less important to figure out those details now.
The reason I don't like using a traditional rating system is that there is no skill matchmaking in arena. This means that players would go 5-3 in a run and lose rating sometimes, or go 1-3 and gain rating. Can get confusing.
I like having a rating that is more like a score because it's very clear what you need to do to increase your rating.
"Oh I need to play these classes to a higher class score!"
"I need to increase my average wins per run, right now it's 5.1 so getting 6 will help me!" Let me know what you think or tag an arena player to get their opinion.
Also open to other suggestions, another way to rank players or the opinion that ranking is unwanted.
At least read the article before commenting. This suggestion is not a matchmaking system and will have no effect in choosing your opponent. It will just be a number measuring your average score, which is fine.
I read it. I don't believe Iksar wants just a number. I don't want Iksar touching anything else in this game, he's done enough damage.
Phew, I was afraid they will implement MMR matchmaking and kill the mode.
Sounds okay, although I don't see how it will increase class diversity. Players would still play the good classes and wait until the bad classes became better. What сould have increase class diversity is more frequent offering rates adjustments so that we don't have a 15-20% difference between the best and worst class for 1-2 months just to see the same difference for another 1-2 months, but with other classes, because they clearly can't balance the classes properly at one go.
Any player going for leaderboard will have to take in account diversity, they won't be able to spam same top rated classes.
For the rest of us will be the same, yes. Still, I think is an improvement, and is very welcomed if you are an arena player/follower (aka the forgotten mode).
They will, but if seasons would be 2-4 months long, it's probably better for them to wait for adjustments too and gain that class diversity from 2-3 bottom classes later, when these classes are no longer at the bottom.
I totally agree with you that it's very welcomed that they finally want to do something for Arena and this thing can only improve the mode a little bit.