Is it getting much harder to Rank?

[L3fty]

Hey everyone

I'm having some real problems ranking up. I'm not pro, but could usually hit Rank 11 / 10 and maintain that for the months season.

Right now I am finding it really difficult to get consistent win streaks going and I wanted to know if it's something other players are finding.

I am wondering if Naxx cards have disrupted the synergy of some decks. Or maybe with a greater number of players accessing legendary cards the playing field is more level.

Regardless, it is quite frustrating to play and not feel like any progress is being made. What have you experienced this season?

- Average guy getting worse

[Constraint]

Perhaps there are fewer newbies/fresh blood around, as the game ages somewhat

[L3fty]

Perhaps there are fewer newbies/fresh blood around, as the game ages somewhat

Yeh good point, I hadn't thought of the experience factor. I think the most frustrating factor is I feel like I've hit a plateau the past 2 months
but there's a wave of fresher players that are just as good if not better.

/sadface

[Nikkaszal]

Have you adjusted your decks recently? The new influx of cards (coupled with, as above poster said, the rising average skill of players due to time) means a lot of tinkering with decks to stay competitive. You might need to do a complete overhaul, you might just need to rethink some choices to deal with (or utilise!) new threats.

After my month playing Druid (during which Naxx was released) I came back to Shaman, took one look at what I had left it with and said "Nah". A deck that was consistently getting me <10 each season was still going to get me murdered if I kept playing it the way it was.

I've been tinkering with it constantly since Naxx, with two total overhauls in that time. Might be you just need to have a look at what's in your deck currently.

[Deleted]

I think it is the same but it depends if you play at the beginning of the season or at the end

[mongoose6]

I think something that has set this season apart (for me at least) is that there is such a wide variety of decks out there that i'm finding it harder to tinker with my decks to fit the current trend of decks. I can't tech cards out easily from one night to the next due to not knowing what the hell i'm going to be facing. This is in no way a complaint, I think its a step in the right direction for the game overall. I've started ranking up with a warlock deck that focuses on faking the zoo plays early then following up with high value late game minions. I don't know how much longer the zoolock pump fake is going to work though in the current state of such varied decks.

[L3fty]

Thanks for the feedback guys

I'll keep plugging away, and will take a close look at my decks and what i'm typically facing. Like mongoose6 said, and I agree, the variety of decks
is providing a huge challenge in terms of building a tactically sound deck.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not

[Shinzai]

I found that the 20-13 rankings are jam-packed with badly played net-deck builds at the moment and people experimenting with odd variations. Most of them seem to be running decks that wouldn't work in 90% of situations, but guess what, they pulled every card they needed that one time you faced them. After the 13~ rank, it becomes the more solid and predictable decks of yore, with the usual Naxx cards mixed in.

[Deleted]

I am also struggling a bit for some reason. I don't play much Hearthstone, but I usually was able to get to rank 10 with win-streaks after win-streaks and then would reach around rank 6 with relative ease, only struggling whenever I attempted some more matches at that level. This season I got to rank 14 and then spent 3 hours to reach rank 13 after struggling like crazy at that level.

Not only is the competition fierce(I am meeting hunter players with legendary backs at that rank), but certain decks that, in the past, could easily stomp anything bellow rank 7/8(like Zoo or Control Warrior) aren't working as well right now and I am meeting players trying so many different things that It makes the matches harder just because you think they are playing a certain deck but then they pull some crazy wombo-combo out of nowhere and you never saw that coming.

I met a Zoo player that had a seemingly normal Zoo deck until he suddenly pulls Kel'thuzad out of nowhere and suicides his entire board to kill my minions. I had no way to deal with KT after that turn and to add insult to injury the Zoo player Faceless Manipulated his KT in his next turn meaning I had no way to deal with that board. Same happened against a Shaman that used gimmicky cards like Totemic Might and Ancestral Healing and after being down to 4 life the guy manages to pull some crazy 1 turn combo out of nowhere with the violet teacher along with all those cards that made it impossible for me to deal with all he had in the field. Next turn Bloodlust and voila, game over.

[Omega10]

I play with no legendaries / no epics <by choice, I have many of both>. I am content to hang around the lower ranks, though I've maintained as high as 13 in seasons past.

At the lower levels, there are no junk decks anymore. And everything is FAST.

Cards like Mind Control, Ragnaros, and anything 7+ mana, are pretty much obsolete since most games are over by then. As I got beat early on repeatedly, I replaced higher mana cards with 2-4 mana cards to the point where all my decks are very zoo like. The 5-7 mana cards are just WAY TOO WEAK for their mana cost.

I now crush warlock zoos consistently by "out-bigging" them, that is surviving their onslaught and then beating them with bigger (3-4 mana) mobs. 3 mana cards that are 4-3 or 3-4 are FOR THE WIN!

I defeat warlock big-Giant decks by "out-littling" them, that is getting them dead before they get enough of their big guns out. 3 mana cards that are 4-3 or 3-4 are FOR THE WIN here as well.

There seem to be a LOT of new players. However, the new players are much better than the new players of past seasons. They are not pushovers! I have enjoyed a lot of fun battles.