Reach Legend Rank

Does anyone else have problems playing in ranked mode? I'm too nervous when I play it. Also I have a little heart problem (it pricks when I'm beside myself). There is almost no such thing in any other mode. Because of this, I still haven't reached the Legend rank. Every rank game I'm afraid of losing. Even if it's clearly visible that I'm stronger than my opponent. I really want to achieve this cherished goal, but I still can't get over myself... Damn, it's just a game. 

Yeah, ranked ladder anxiety is a real thing. I have been Legend many many times before, but I still feel it whenever I reach rank 1 and then it starts to kick in. Having lost the 11 star bonus in the past also did not help.

If you pilot a deck with a decent winrate and you know what the meta is, reaching Legend will happen eventually. The first time is the most difficult, but the ecstatic feeling of the achievement is going to be amazing.

Good luck with the climb! You can do it.

A few hints:

1) chose a tier 1 FAST deck. The more games you play the faster you approach Legend (providing that your win rate >50%)

2) keep always same deck: the more you know it and your opponent behaviors the higher are the chances to win

3) When you lose two games in a row take a break. Either you are not concentrated or in this moment the stars are against you.

good luck!

Yeah, I feel it that way too. I´ve been Rank 1 three stars a few times, both Standard and Wild, but still didn´t hit Legend. After I lose to the "final boss", I totally give up, too afraid to hit that freaky Play button, so I won´t fall even further. Stupid, I know, but couldn´t help myself. It got to the point I was too frustrated to not hit it again, so I didn´t touch Ranked for months. Result? I´ve lost my 9 star multiplier on both ladders, and now it´s even harder to get up again, so I´m not even trying anymore. Now I reach Gold 5, that´s where my stars fade out and I don´t play any further. It makes me sad because I was so close too many times, and I really wanted to reach it just once. I feel like everyone and their mother reached it with no problem. Well, we´re not alone after all :) Maybe we can start some sort of support group? Hehe.

BTW, congrats to all who already made it, cheers to all who are still waiting to achieve it :)

Thank you all for the words of support. At the moment I'm playing the quest pirate warrior deck in wild mode. I'm progressing quite well, but I don't know if this deck is good enough to reach Legend. I am at the Platinum X for now. I will try my best this month. I wish the same to everyone else. Good luck!

Quote From R

Thank you all for the words of support. At the moment I'm playing the quest pirate warrior deck in wild mode. I'm progressing quite well, but I don't know if this deck is good enough to reach Legend. I am at the Platinum X for now. I will try my best this month. I wish the same to everyone else. Good luck!

Quest warrior is the best and easiest deck in the format. Know that if you play even somewhat well you should be able to reach legend without any struggles with that deck. ...if that helps at all.

Just make sure you're dropping Rokara on 5/6, consistently.

Quote From R

Thank you all for the words of support. At the moment I'm playing the quest pirate warrior deck in wild mode. I'm progressing quite well, but I don't know if this deck is good enough to reach Legend. I am at the Platinum X for now. I will try my best this month. I wish the same to everyone else. Good luck!

I´ve heard pirate warrior is very good now in Wild. What deck do you play? Anyway, good luck on your climb! If you´re Plat 10 already, you can be Legend this month, if you keep playing. Still got some bonus stars left? What I did was climbing few ranks a day and when I started to be too nervous, I continued the next day. Fingers crossed for you! Keep us informed here!

Invalid Deck ID

Edit: How to post a deck here? I copied this code directly from the game.

I borrowed this deck from someone on my friends list. I didn't have a lot of dust. Luckily all I needed for this deck was a quest and some cards from the new addons (got Mr. Smite for free).

I haven't had a chance to play for a couple of years. So I didn't have any bonus stars. The internet is sooo slow here. Occasionally I get disconnected, which also makes me angry and nervous. So I play only in the evening or at night, so that there are fewer lags.

My battletag is Rakio#21759 by the way. :)

A good tip for climbing is checking out popular tier list websites, like Tempostorm. It can give you your opponent's decklists while you fight them which is a huge advantage for you if you are unfamiliar with the meta.

Another practice that I do not see being communicated to new players often is thinking about why you are one play over another, and what your opponent can do about it. It seems very basic, but spending 30 seconds to think about your play can be the difference between winning and losing. Sometimes you will find the one-minute turn timer is too short.

You can do it.

Quote From anchorm4n

Also: If I remember correctly, I've gotten to legend 9 times so far. Only on one occasion I've beaten the final boss on first try. It's almost like a jinx, I always run into my worst matchup or suffer from the worst possible draw RNG. I fully understand people like Alleria who get frustrated by that but all I can say is that you have proven already that you belong in Legend by reaching rank 1 full stars and getting there is just a matter of time.

Good luck to everyone who's trying! 

Thanks anchorm4n for your kind words. I guess I really gave up too soon. You guys make me want to go for it once again.

And thanks R for the deck, I´ll definitely try it. I´ve added you to my friends list :) Even if you won´t hit Legend this month, the next one you will get some bonus stars to get you up quicker, so it might get easier. But you still got plenty of time, so you can do it! Good luck!

I haven't hit Legend since Ungoro times (what a slog that was), though I've hit Diamond 1 quite a few times. 

You're not alone! 

During the rewards unwrap at the start of a new month, the game used to tell us "hey, you reached the rank of XYZ, and that is higher than NN % of Hearthstone players." That percentage made it clear that the vast majority of players never reach Legend, despite how it sometimes feels in the comments of a game-focused website. 

The advice of playing faster decks is certainly good advice. I've been playing since Whispers of the old Gods, and I've only ever hit legend twice because I rarely find time to play enough games to get there (it doesn't much help that I often prefer slower decks). Here's a simulator for how many games you'll have to play in any given season: https://www.primedope.com/number-of-games-to-reach-legend-in-hearthstone/. Even when you're starting with a 10-star bonus from legend in the previous season and playing a top tier deck, you're probably looking at an aggregate of 10 to 15 (maybe even 20) hours of gameplay to get back there in a given season. Drop down just one level to starting from Diamond 5's 9-star bonus and you could easily be adding several hours onto that.

At some level, though, it's all mental. If you win with your deck more than you lose, you'll get there eventually. And the fact is you need to play a lot of games to get to legend, so if the stress of losses makes you play less than you might otherwise without that stress you won't get there. Ultimately I decided to reorient my goals in the game away from ladder rank (which often leaves me stressed out about losses once I get to a high enough rank) and more toward overall wins and those associated rewards. Setting goals like "get all the golden heroes" has helped me to care less about ladder losses, which led to higher end-of-season rankings on average because I enjoyed playing more.

As promised, I will do my best this month. Today I've been climbed up 5 ranks. Hands was already shaking with tension, so I decided that was enough for today and went to conquer the battlegrounds.

Thanks to meisterz39 for the calculator. I don't know what my winning percentage is, but it looks like I'm going to have a lot of games anyway.

I managed to hit Legend again using Freeze Shudderwock Shaman this season. My heart was almost beating out of my chest when I was facing my gatekeeper opponent.

The deck feels really good and has a decent chance against all the meta decks, even facing Pirate Warrior, Odd Questline Hunter and C'Thun Spell Druid head on.

I must admit that most games against these 3 decks were very tight until the turning point which is usually between turns 6 and 9. Timewise, games take much longer though since it is a Control deck after all.

You can try and give this deck a spin if Pirate Warrior does not work out for you. Just make sure you understand the deck before taking it to the ranked ladder climb. Piloting it is pretty straightforward actually, but I can provide you with some tips if you like.

By the way, I think the Legend ladder climb is a bit easier nearing the end of each month, but I do not have proper statistics to back this hypothesis up. What do you all think?

Yes, I've seen this deck in action from someone on my friends list. It always seemed to me that the game was lost, but it always turned over after the Snowfall Guardian was played. I wouldn't mind try this deck, but I'm missing half of the cards. Six of which are legendary. But I only have enough dust for two. I don't know... if pirate warrior won't be successful enough, maybe I'll dust some cards to create this deck.

About climbing at the end of month - I think so too, but I can't rush it in a short time. I will try to get up a little bit every day. And then there may already be the end of the month.

Pirate Warrior is good enough for sure.

I did some limited testing and it does seem like it’s easier at the end (you seem to play vs some already Legend players who are just memeing at that point).

One thing you can do to prevent yourself from stressing out about the climb is don’t think of it like a climb. Instead, try to get stats on a deck. For example, either with deck tracker or just writing it down, you can get stats as to how a deck is doing against different matchups. Try to commit to maybe 50 games, then see what are your good and bad matchups. Sometimes if a deck is truly over 50% winrate, you’ll just get to Legend naturally while testing a deck like this. Otherwise, you can at least see if your winrate is improving (for example is it higher in first half or last half of the games) and see if you’re facing a lot of good, bad or neutral matchups. Finally, you can try to keep going if it’s doing well, or if it didn’t naturally get you to Legend then clearly it’s not working out so you repeat this stat gathering for a different deck. Even if you don’t climb you still get useful stats and data, and when your “goal” is to get stats and not climb you feel like you’re making progress even if you don’t climb initially as you keep going towards your stat goal number of games.

The first time is always the biggest hurdle to overcome and has more added pressure. Personally, I no longer set out to have to reach Legend each season. It either happens naturally or it does not. The only difference is just 1 extra single latest expansion pack as the season reward. A mindset of not seeing it as a big thing should certainly help with reducing stress.

Good point, I forgot to take into account that you might be missing some of the required legendaries. Please do not dust cards to be able to play my suggested deck. The overall winrate is not better than Pirate Warrior anyways and piloting Freeze Shudderwock Shaman has to suit your playstyle as well.

As for the end of month factor, some months have one or even few more days than others. This fact might just make the slightest of differences 🤭

I don't have evidence for this, but to me it feels like ladder is easier in the morning. (I don't play all day, but my work schedule varies.)

By 10pm, there are so many good players to get matched against, I will usually go play Tavern Brawl or Mercenaries. 

Might be that my brain is just better at finding lethal before noon Eastern time, and I'm just worn out from work and parenting by then. But it might be that the pool of players is smaller earlier in the day and the MMR range gets bigger. 

Try it out, if your schedule allows. 

If you are struggling with some decks completely hard countering your deck, I suggest playing Freeze Shaman. It is the multi-tool of wild and in my opinion the strongest deck wild, whose win rate is dragged down by the average player. I will give some pros and cons to it (and advice to op at the end so this comment stays relevant).

Pros:

• Relatively cheap.
  • Every legendary is a staple of the class and has seen competitive play before, and will likely see play afterward. A lot of the cards are still in standard so they can go towards building a standard deck, too.
• It hard counters every form of OTK in the meta.
  • Dirty Rat, Bolner, and Macaw hard counter every relevant mage deck (Ignite and Flamewaker Mage) while also stealing value. You can also stall using a combination of Cult Neophyte, Macaw, Boompistol, and Loatheb. All you have to know is how your opponent is planning on winning.
• It can stall early game aggression.
  • Zentimo, Windchill, and Ice fishing are absurdly strong this meta.
• It hard counters every questline deck.
  • Have you ever dirty ratted a quest reward out of your opponent's hand? The emotes afterward are the best part, IMO (I hope the player base never learns to wait to complete their quest until they can play their reward in the same turn).
• It can freeze the enemy board a potentially infinite number of times.
• It has infinite scaling and armor gain while also locking the opponent out of the game with Shudderwock.
• Counters rez mechanics with Devolve.
• Has a good WR against the most popular deck in the format, Pirate Warrior.

Cons:

• Requires the player to be familiar with the meta.
• Has a decently high skill floor.
• A bad mulligan means you can lose at the start of the game.
  • This is true of nearly every deck, though. 
• Susceptible to Dirty Rat.

This deck is incredibly busted, and I think it needs to be taken a look at by Team 5. I was able to hit a 70% WR with a new variation of it and was able to get to 63% WR with the first popular version of it.

To OP:

• When playing the most popular deck/version of a deck in a format, everyone knows your win condition and your cards, so you lose the element of surprise. Keep that in mind when you choose future decks.
• Download HSreplay if you can. It helps you visualize what could have happened if you choose different plays.
• Try your best to remember the different archetypes you come across, and what kind of cards they use. It will help you when you mulligan against your opponent thinking they were one archetype when they were another.
• If you do download HSreplay, do not take the mulligan feature as gospel. Trust me. I do think it is better on minion-based decks like Pirate Warrior, however.

Sorry for derailing the thread, just wanted to share a deck that I think is great for reaching Legend.

Edit: Also, I think APM is very balanced ATM but I understand not finding them fun.

Of course, I have already met an APM mage. It seems that I have never lost to this deck with pirate warrior. it's just the balance of agro > combo > control > agro.

I started playing at the time of the release of the KoFT addon. I think I know quite a significant number of different decks. About the skill, I think I can handle any deck. I had different control and combo decks. I also played Shudderwock shaman when he was in standard (I just dust him then). I have several "unnecessary" legends. A couple of them are gold. So maybe I'll create freeze shaman deck.

Alright, time to some climb today.

Edit: Reached Diamond X.

Edit 2: It's next day and I reached Diamond 5. Today's climb was much easier then yesterday.

Edit 3: Past Diamond 5 climb is just unholy rage, rng fiesta and whatever it is... Stuck on the 3rd rank. I'm really unlicky with draws today. I'll try again tomorrow.

Ups and downs, ups and downs... and amazing winstreak with a bit of luck. I finally did it! 

I don't know why, but at some point in time it became a bit easier for me to play some games in a row in rating mode. Last game was hard for me to play though. I hope I won't try to do this anymore.

Thanks again to all of you for support and good luck to everyone else!

Hey, congrats! And so early in the month, without the bonus stars, wow! Pirate warrior all the way? I´m silver 10 and already exhausted lol. Gonna try to do some climb today. Enjoy the feeling! :)

P.S. what was your legendary?

Congratulations!

Can you share your feelings after you won against the gatekeeper opponent and became Legend?

By the way, you can now start every HS related sentence with "As a Legend player, I …" 🤣

I didn't put it right. I actually had some bonus stars, but they quickly ran out somewhere in the middle of the way.

Reached rank 3 playing only on pirate warrior. Then I often started getting bad opponents and in almost every game the Anchor and Patches were received at mulligan or at the start of the game. Totally unlucky. I decided to try to play the odd quest hunter and even reached rank 2, but then fell back to 3 again. So I decided to take the pirate warrior again and got stuck at rank 2. After the break, I reached the rank  1 and I was like, "now there will be ups and downs again." But suddenly I start winning every game. They gave me a shaman and I thought it was an instant lose, but he played a Dirty Rat on the 2nd turn, pulled out Mr. Smite and concede. I didn't believe in a miracle, but I was already on the last boss. It was a mirror. The game was purely under my control. He had 8 HP, and I had 21. I still thought that suddenly something would happen and I would lose. My heart started pounding wildly. And then on the 6th turn I run to my wife and deal the last 4 damage. "I've become a legend!"

As a reward for achieving the legend, I received Tamsin's Phylactery.

And I'll definitely make fun of a friend with "As a Legend player, I …" lul.

Congrats R, on reaching Legend for the first time! It's certainly a great feeling, and now you know you can do it you'll have that confidence going into future seasons and climbs (even if you never consciously try to climb all the way again). Congratulations!