Update: We misspoke earlier on how you calculate your multiplier. We were off by 1!
Update 2: Looks like your MMR can increase your star bonus. (Source)
Hearthstone's ranked play is getting a huge overhaul! Originally announced with the Year of the Phoenix information almost two weeks ago, the changes are going live with start of the April 2020 season. Here is everything you need to know.
Hearthstone's Ranked League System
No longer do we have only a numerical place on the ladder, but we've now got individual leagues much like other titles.
- There are 5 leagues - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.
- Everyone will start in Bronze at the beginning of each season.
- Each league has 10 individual ranks from 10 - 1. Each rank requires 3 stars to move through.
- The Legend rank has not changed and is the progression after Diamond 1.
- New players have their own league that spans 40 ranks.
A feature that still remains from the previous ranked system is the introduction of ranked floors. These are ranks at which once hit, you cannot decrease from during that month.
- Ranks 10 and 5 within each named league are your floors.
- Rank 10 is your "promotional rank floor". Congratulations, you made it.
- Rank 5 is your "non-promotional rank floor" - you still have work to do.
- You cannot get knocked out of Legend once you get there.
Unlike previous iterations of Hearthstone's Ranked System, everyone's matches are now decided based on a matchmaking rating (MMR). Prior to the April ranked changes, your opponents were chosen by what rank you were on the ladder with no prior experience taken into account.
- This allows them to reset everyone back down to Bronze 10 each season yet everyone still plays with opponents at their previous skill level.
- With MMR-based games, things get fairer everywhere on the ladder.
- Good luck sitting at Bronze 10 Legend players while you grind newbies for portraits - it won't be happening.
Here is an image with all the new ranks laid out.
The Ranked Stars Explained
Another part of the system is the ranked star bonuses, which have been updated and now use a multiplier to get you back up to your rank from the previous season.
- Each season your rank starts at Bronze 10.
- When a new ranked season starts, you earn a star multiplier based on your previous rank.
- The maximum star multiplier you can earn is 11. That comes from reaching Legend.
- When you reach a ranked floor (10 or 5) your star multiplier decreases by 1, slowing down your progression.
- Your multiplier will be gone by the time you reach your previous season's rank.
- You cannot lose your multiplier by losing games.
In the previous ranked system, going on a win streak rewarded you with a bonus star. This remains a feature of the new system and helps push you up to the top even more. If you went on a win streak and had a multiplier of 10, you'd be gaining 20 stars! Each rank has 3 stars so you would jump up 6 ranks thanks to that streak and multiplier.
There is an easy way to figure out what your base multiplier for the next season is. Simply add up the number of ranked floors you hit and subtract 1 (it can't go below 1). You may also gain additional multiplier based on your previous MMR. If you're Silver 5, you've hit 4 ranked floors which would give you a star multiplier of 3. Legend players will receive a star multiplier of 10, unless you are "high legend" which gives you a multiplier of 11. If you get close to a ranked floor, you should do your best to hit it to speed up your progression in the next season.
Better Rewards Than Ever Before
Of course, it wouldn't be a proper overhaul without also focusing on the rewards. We've got your usual end-of-season rewards but also, first-time bonuses each time you hit a ranked floor!
- As soon as you hit 5 wins each season, you will now receive your monthly card back reward - no more waiting!
- The first-time bonuses reward classic cards and packs to help new players.
- End of season rewards that reward packs give you packs for the latest expansion.
- End of season rewards are additive. Hitting a rank floor gives you those rewards and the ones before it!
- Since this is a new system, everyone can earn the first-time rewards!
Hearthstone Ranked End of Season Rewards
Here is a table that shows you exactly what you will receive at the end of the season based on your rank.
| Rank Floor | Latest Expansion Packs | Rare Cards | Epic Cards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Silver 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Silver 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Gold 10 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Gold 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Platinum 10 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| Platinum 5 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| Diamond 10 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| Diamond 5 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| Legend | 5 | 7 | 1 |
Hearthstone Ranked First Time Rewards
Here's a table showcasing the first-time rewards, also seen above.
| Rank Floor | Reward |
|---|---|
| Bronze 5 | 1 Classic Pack |
| Silver 10 | 4 Random Classic Rare Cards |
| Silver 5 | 1 Classic Pack |
| Gold 10 | 4 Random Classic Rare Cards |
| Gold 5 | 1 Classic Pack |
| Platinum 10 | 1 Random Classic Epic Card |
| Platinum 5 | 1 Classic Pack |
| Diamond 10 | 1 Random Classic Epic Card |
| Diamond 5 | 1 Classic Pack |
| Legend | 1 Random Classic Legendary Card |
Closing Thoughts
The new ranked system is a welcome change to Hearthstone. The reward changes mean that higher ranked players are getting more rewards than ever which makes shooting for higher ranks a good goal for all players. Although it may feel weird getting reset each month to Bronze 10, it incentives playing so that you don't have to regrind the entire ranked ladder because you decided to not play for a month.
Comments
golden epic - 400
2 golden commons - 100
5 dust
and it's rank 5, not legend.
So not SO much more dust than before.
But still more? So... what are we complaining about then? The bottom line is that the new system is a whole lot nicer with an increased number of cards, packs, etc. In your particular situation it may not seem too much of an upgrade, but for the player base as a whole it is improved. Especially for players on a budget or free to play.
I will say that it would be nice if they at least had a random chance for the free rare card rewards to upgrade to either golden rares or normal epics. Runeterra does it with their rewards, which either upgrades a single card at random, or in some cases the entire chest/pack upgrades at random.
Because it's not clear yet how easy it will be to gain the same rank as in prev month with new system. Before I needed only 20 stars to get where I was. Now it seems that I need to play more to gain roughly the same amount of dust. For rank 15 players it's even worse.
A couple important corrections:
Your multiplier at the start of a month is one less than the number of ranked floor you reached the previous month. That means that reaching Legend only guarantees a 10x multiplier. The maximum possible is still 11, but that’s because if your MMR is high enough you’ll get a bonus. (The MMR details are not published, as far as I know.)
Also, my understanding is that once your multiplier goes away, you are matched against people at a similar rank rather than a similar MMR.
This has some subtle but important ramifications. As long as you have a bonus multiplier, you can expect to win about half your games regardless of rank, so you’ll progress. But before you reach the heights you reached last month, your multiplier goes away and you have to fight people who also made it to your rank. That guarantees that each rank represents a certain skill, and you can only maintain (or increase) your rank month-to-month if you’re able to stand up to other people of that rank.
Aaand what a surprise, it's completely broken. Can't lose stars even if you're not on a rank floor.
Assuming you're on EU? I assumed it would likely be broken for a day or two at launch so I guess no surprise! Can't wait for 2 am my time when the ol' NA servers roll over!
Correction: it seems you don't lose stars only on Bronze. Once you make it to silver it seems losses count as normal. Haven't seen any mention of this feature in the rank overhaul though.
Now I wonder what corresponds to old rank 5 in terms of effort/reward ratio...
Is it possibly diamond 10?
I also hope the grind won't take longer overall.
rank 5 is diamond 10 yeah
thats what I have been assuming as well
I really like not having to wait for the new season's card back. Idk why, since I mostly play with randomly selected card back.
I always hated playing as a new account at rank 25 against farmers with fully golden competitive decks, good to see those days are over.
Anybody knows who represents gold lvl 8?
Mirror Image
its rank 15
It's Jaina Proudmoore's mirror image from the Mirror Image spell
I'm not sure i'm reading this right but this seems like it makes the legend climb faster, yea? an 11 star multiplier means you should fly up the first half of the ranks. Losing one star at each rank floor means you still have 2x when you get to diamond 5, right?
If you do then this would make the climb much easier, if not then it seems longer.
EDIT: It has been pointed out that there were details that I didn't know of. But you can still read my angry rant. Thank you Emilion for the info!
The rewards increase is very nice, but there's one thing I greatly dislike.
If you do not play for a month, then you have to start all over at the bottom of the ladder like a complete newbie. The next month's star multiplier will be 1x. If you were at Legend, you have to go through the whole system, all leagues, 50 ranks, 150 wins minimum, 1 star at a time. In the past system, this would only be 8 ranks. And the total number of stars needed for Legend has also increased, you need 150 now instead of 100 if you start at the bottom rank. Gotta pump up those Monthly Active Users numbers, I guess.
No that's not correct, in that case your star bonus will be decided by MMR, not by your rank the previous month. If you skip playing one month there will be some MMR decay, but (as I understand it), not that much.
Where did they say that? "At the start of each season, players will be awarded a Star Bonus based on their performance the previous season." From Welcome to the Year of the Phoenix! If you did nothing, you get nothing. Also I found this.