The ranking system of Hearthstone is under scrutiny. Even Ben Brode is dissatisfied.
During the beta, Hearthstone had a completely different ranking system, and even now, the player base is not really satisfied with the current system. Those who finish a season at rank 18 are told by the game that they are better than 50% of the players, but rank 18 simply doesn’t feel like being in the “better half” of Hearthstone players.
On Reddit, Ben Brode spoke up and mentioned several things that need improvement in Hearthstone, but cannot be resolved with an instant solution.
- “We have received a lot of feedback that the last-minute duels for a high rank in the legend rating don’t feel good.
- We have received feedback that climbing the ladder feels like a tedious grind.
- We are analyzing the number of ranks, the stars per rank, and the number of bonus stars at the start of a season and other parts of the system.
- We are developing systems that can predict how changes to the ladder would affect the distribution curve in various ways.”
Furthermore, he says that while many players would judge it as “good” if they had a better rank after the redesign, that is not the goal of the ranking system. Those who play ranked games must face the fact that they will be judged and assessed.
Cortyn says: Personally, I always find it strange when at rank 12 or 11 you are told “Congratulations, you are in the top 12%” – it just doesn’t sound very convincing. Especially since the game doesn’t transparently reveal which players are counted at all. What about those who haven’t played actively this month but only have a “star rank” from the previous month? I welcome a revision of the system. However, I am more looking forward to the next expansion; a few fresh cards are badly needed again.
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