Hearthstone’s ladder is getting its biggest overhaul since beta

Some big changes are coming to Hearthstone’s ladder mode in a little over a month that will make the early season grind much easier.

Starting with March’s ranked play season, players will now only drop four ranks from where they ended the previous season replacing the previous bonus star system.

That means if you reach Legend, you will only have to climb from rank four to regain your legend status for a season. Rank five players will only climb from rank nine and so on.

This is a huge change. Previously players would receive a number of ranked stars at the start of each season, with the amount determined by subtracting the highest reached rank from 25. Legend counted as zero, so legend players would start at rank 16 with three stars. Under this new system everyone gets the same amount of ranks as opposed to it being determined by the number of stars you got.

This will probably mean even more players will reach Legend every month. According to game director Ben Brode they are open to making further changes to keep Legend rank as an achievement.

That’s not the only change. At the moment, if you want to get the monthly card back you have to finish at rank 20. Now players will only be required to win five ladder games each month to qualify. So if you’re a player who only goes in for Arena or Dungeon Run, but still wants to collect the cardbacks, it’s much easier.

The changes won’t be in effect for February’s ranked play season, but look out for the changes starting March 1.