Game director Ben Brode confirms changes are in development, but remain under wraps for now.
If you were hoping for an update on the long-awaited changes to Hearthstone’s ladder system at BlizzCon this year, then you’re going to be in for a little bit of disappointment.
This afternoon, game director Ben Brode was asked by a player whether the ladder changes that have been discussed in the past would be announced at BlizzCon alongside the new expansion.
While Brode confirmed that changes to the ranking system were being actively worked on by the Hearthstone development team, he stated that no announcements about those changes would be made at the publisher’s annual fan gathering, taking place in Los Angeles next month.
We are actively working on that but won’t announce the changes at BlizzCon
— Ben Brode (@bdbrode) 4 October 2017
Right now Hearthstone makes use of monthly ladder seasons. Within any given month players compete to climb from Rank 20 to Legend, but progress is reset at the end of each month and the grind from the bottom begins anew.
While improvements have been made to the laddering process in the past, such as adding new incentives to climb higher, as well as rank thresholds to preserve a certain level of performance, the system continues to be frustrating for many players. These problems are most notable at the start of each season, when the very best players are lumped in together with those who have a naturally lower level of skill.
As soon as Blizzard does outline its plans to improve the system, we’ll have all the latest details for you.
