We mentioned this a couple months back, but yeah, generally agree the ranked experience for new players is bad. We are sorting through several solutions right now that have various pros and cons, and will update as we have more to share.
On the bright side, Casual winrates for new players went from ~25% to almost 50% since launch, as we've been making changes there, and casual is where the vast majority of new players start playing against real people.
The downside of that is they get too confident - new players go to ranked way sooner than they used to... and get crushed. Looking forward to improving that.
You aren't doing new players any favors by force feeding them garbage cards to start off with.
I think you are assuming that improving new players' decks will give them a higher win rate. I think it doesn't matter what they are playing with, as long as we match them with players who are also new (which is what we do in casual, where they have a ~50% win rate). The upside of starting them with bad cards, is that they feel progression and increased power as they play in the beginning of the game. This early progression is one of the things that really excites new players, and if they're achieving 50% winrates, it doesn't feel like we need to remove it.
The second thing I have a real problem with is the level 20 requirement for Tavern Brawl.
The reason we put that in there is because Tavern Brawl is weird. It's hard to understand what's cool about starting with 10 mana, or how to take advantage of Top 3 if you're just starting the game. We wanted you to fully understand the base rules and heroes before introducing crazy mode. It doesn't take all that long to get to level 20, and a lot of learning is happening during that time.
Ben Brode
We mentioned this a couple months back, but yeah, generally agree the ranked experience for new players is bad. We are sorting through several solutions right now that have various pros and cons, and will update as we have more to share.
On the bright side, Casual winrates for new players went from ~25% to almost 50% since launch, as we've been making changes there, and casual is where the vast majority of new players start playing against real people.
The downside of that is they get too confident - new players go to ranked way sooner than they used to... and get crushed. Looking forward to improving that.
Ben Brode
We are definitely still planning more ranked changes.
Ben Brode
I think you are assuming that improving new players' decks will give them a higher win rate. I think it doesn't matter what they are playing with, as long as we match them with players who are also new (which is what we do in casual, where they have a ~50% win rate). The upside of starting them with bad cards, is that they feel progression and increased power as they play in the beginning of the game. This early progression is one of the things that really excites new players, and if they're achieving 50% winrates, it doesn't feel like we need to remove it.
The reason we put that in there is because Tavern Brawl is weird. It's hard to understand what's cool about starting with 10 mana, or how to take advantage of Top 3 if you're just starting the game. We wanted you to fully understand the base rules and heroes before introducing crazy mode. It doesn't take all that long to get to level 20, and a lot of learning is happening during that time.
Ben Brode
Our intent is to do both. They might happen at different times, though.