The Evolution of a Hearthstone Player

Hello, everyone! I am back with another post for you all and in this one I would like to explore the different stages of a Hearthstone player’s evolution, based on my personal experience. I hope you find it interesting and relatable!

  1. The Honeymoon stage - Ranks do not matter to you. The meta does not matter to you. You play the game strictly for fun. You are climbing the ranks quickly and you are enjoying every minute of Hearthstone.
    And then it happens - you hit a wall and start losing.

  2. The “I need more cards” stage - You are convinced you are losing, because everyone is netdecking these perfect decks with all the legendaries, which you do not have. You are sure that if you had all the good cards, you would win all the time. At this point you either grind for gold, if you are a f2p player, or gamble away some money on packs.
    One way or the other, you acquire all those juicy legendaries and build the perfect meta decks. You start climbing again, assisted by the power of great cards. And then it happens yet again - you start losing.

  3. The Salt Mine stage - This stage is strictly individual for all players, but it’s by far the most frustrating for everyone. You are losing, because you are unlucky. Or maybe because the game is rigged and Blizzard’s Algorithm is doing this to you. Or maybe because you need even more cards! You grind harder or spend more. Yet you keep losing. You uninstall Hearthstone several times, vowing to never play it again, yet you return.
    If you survive this hell, you inevitably improve as a player to the point where you are soon going to reach Legend.

  4. The “Legend is for tryhards” stage - You enter this stage when you start hitting the old Ranks 2 & 1, maybe even when you face the final boss to Legend… and you lose. After that you start dumpstering all the way back to where you started the week before. It’s not your skill that is lacking. Legend is for tryhards, who grind all day. You could do it too, but just don’t want to.
    If you survive this stage, the moment you have secretly been wishing for is upon you.

  5. The First Legend stage - You made it! You are now Legend for the first time. You vow to only play the game for fun and to never care about rank again. Yet the uncertainty lingers. Did you get to Legend on a lucky winning streak? Did you play a low-skill deck? Will you be able to reach Legend next month?

  6. The “Ascension” stage - This is peak Hearthstone performance. You have reached Legend multiple times with several different decks. You have all the relevant cards and enough dust/gold to not have to buy packs ever again. You truly do not care about ranks. Losing streaks might tilt you a little, but you easily move on. In short: you can finally play the game and enjoy it to its fullest.

So there you have it! Which stage are you on now? Or did you have a different evolution to the one I described? Let me know what you think!

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blad i’m consistently stuck at platinum 10 what does that make me?

I’m stuck in point one for years haha!

I’ve played Hearthstone for a long time. I played at the beginning, skipped a few expansions cause of personal problems, then came back (had to do a new account thou) around i think it was… Kobolds & Catacombs. Since then i’ve been playing regularly everyday just for pure fun.
I never spent money on the game, and never cared for ranked play. Spend all my gold for solo adventures and packs, having a nice collection. Of course, not that big, but not small either (especially considering i have 11k dust that for some reason still not using haha). And i’ve been playing ever since like this, in what you call Honeymoon Phase, cause personally i think it’s just a game to have fun, and losing is part of life (that i like to think is “hurray, my adversary won and is happy” haha).

Now, this is not to say that i don’t have an opinion about the game and dislike many things about it. There are decks i really don’t like, both to play with or against, there have been solo adventures that i found pretty “meh”, and cards i don’t agree upon. I didn’t like Murlocs in BG for a long time, think Priest is fun to play but really unfun to play against, whatever is the deck. And of course, evenings i open the game and have terrible match-ups or a lose streak that is sure not nice, but not enraging.
Still, i don’t get frustrated and complain, just express these opinions whenever i have the chance. Even because it’s an ever changing game: i hated Murlocs in BG, now it’s much better and i enjoy the mode once again, DH has been put under control as of Kael’Thas, and many decks in the past that i found unfun or unfair have been at one point balanced. At the moment the really unfun deck i face is Ramp Beast Druid and Face Hunter, still able to win some games against them and enjoy other battles. But as i said, probably will change in the future, with balance updates or simply a shift in the meta.

I want to specify that i don’t think who plays ranked, or plays for the competitive side of things is wrong or bad, neither that i am better cause of my mentality. Just expressed what i think, my personal view and experience, and sadly i don’t have that many staged like you. I’d probably have like “Honeymoon Stage” and then alternate between “Enjoying the game Stage” and “Not so fun, will play different mode or play tomorrow”.

Still, i found your analyze interesting, it’s good to know what other players think and feel!

My timeline is a bit different from that.

  1. Mainly play arena as it was the mode I most enjoyed, it was the best way to build your collection (it was relatively hard to earn packs back then) and because the game was new, I was able to be pretty successful as there wasn’t many people with more experience playing the game.

  2. Naxx released. Tried my hand at Deathrattle hunter as I had all the cards, got to rank 6 and got a taste for competitive constructed, over playing solely for fun.

  3. Ranked rewards got added. Made it to rank 5 every month for the first 10 months with my own decks, including 1 trip to legend, which I found such a grind to do (even though I won 15 in a row to go from rank 3 0 stars to rank 1 5 stars) that I didn’t want to do that again.

  4. Settle for memeing to 15 ever month (made rank 5 in wild once, just to prove to myself i could if I tried). Got tired of grinding arena at the start of each expansion. burnout from trying to get top 100 at un’goro’s launch because you needed 30 runs to count, which whilst working full time etc was tough to do in the space of under 3 weeks. Not sure why I didn’t make it, my stats had my just inside the top 100, but guess I was just outside, but still earned 44 packs (kept going until I cleared the pity timer as had the meta figured) running at a gold surplus. But having got 12 wins in all 9 classes and token efforts to grind at the start of the next 2 expansions, I’d had enough.

  5. Ranked structure got minor change. They made getting to 15 a chore, so just meme to do my dailies, ranked if it’s an ok deck, casual if it’s a bad one, as they made losing stars matter minutely.

  6. Current state of game. Spend a few hours during 1 day, in a month (typically in wild), to climb to gold as it’s easy with the streak stars. Outside of that clear my dailies in casual/the other ranked mode/other modes where applicable having fun as they’ve all but removed the win condition. Through in some battlegrounds where I try unless the game gives me a chance to meme.

But I guess comparing to you:

Honeymoon > Kinda, but mitigated this through arena, so because my skill level was so high by the time I “tried” in constructed, I didn’t hit a winning wall, just an apathy one.

I need more cards > again, skipped this, as didn’t try until I’d done the grinding in arena, but as I ended up using my own decks, past that first attempt with deathrattle hunter, I really didn’t effect me not having the “meta” cards.

Salt Mine > as you say, different for all players, but my “it’s just variance, take a break” approach meant I was rarely salty (that one legend climb where I won 15 in a row to get to rank 1 5 stars but then spend 2 hours and 3 attempts at the final boss, nearly made me give up though :smile:)

Legend is for tryhards > Never had this stage.

First Legend >

pretty much that, although that was towards the start of ranked rewards being added so I did make rank 5 at least the next 5 months in a row.

Ascension > hehe…yeah :slight_smile:

Thank you all for your replies! I am genuinely surprised, that your evolution as a Hearthstone player differed so much from mine! It was interesting for me to see a different perspective!

@ MightyBeast - That would depend on your personal opinion. You might be everywhere between 1. & 4. or you might have a completely different evolution than mine!

@ Seppy - I appreciate you taking the time to offer me a different perspective! To be honest, I am actually a little bit jealous of you being stuck in the Honeymoon stage! This means you have never experienced the Salt Mine stage, which I do not remember too fondly. Before creating this thread, I thought that most players would have went through similar stages, but I see now, that players’ mentalities towards the game are very different. I am glad you have adopted a more laid-back approach and are enjoying the game!
It’s respectable, that you have remained a f2p player through all of this time! Apart from that, 11k dust is a pretty significant amount. You are all set for the foreseeable future!
I agree, that there were a few weak solo adventures. I am trying to stay positive about the upcoming one, but we’ll see. Also I agree that Murlocs in BGs were pretty bad to play against in BGs and that Priest is a very boring match-up. Ramp Druid and Face Hunter are horribly noninteractive for their opponent and I am happy, that their win rates are not high enough to dominate the meta.
As a closing note, I really do hope you remain in the Honeymoon stage forever!

@ Ixnay - Thank you very much for the extensive reply, Ixnay! Your experience seems to be a bit different than mine, especially due to your preference for arena, yet still relatable.
Getting 12 wins with all 9 classes is actually no small feat! Congratulations! I played a bit of arena right around the time when I got my first Legend, which was in KoFT, and even managed to get 12 wins twice. However, I never took a liking to it. I know it’s very skill-intensive to play around all the possible cards your opponent could have, but when they play a Nozari or something else totally unpredictable, I just get tilted too much to enjoy that game mode. These days I play arena once every couple of months just for fun and it has been working out for me so far!
It’s also very impressive you made it to top 100! Although it wasn’t official, it is still a great achievement! Your experience in arena does explain why you skipped over the “I need more cards” stage and the Salt Mine. You built up your collection through the arena rewards, mostly used your own decks and were skilled enough by the point of entering constructed, that you didn’t hit the wall of losses.
On another note, It’s great to hear you did make it to Legend! It is a very satisfying experience and also the card back is one of my all-time favorites! However, I do agree that getting Legend in the old system was slightly tedious. Now it’s a lot easier with bonus stars, but back then it could take you some time, especially if you got unlucky.
Furthermore, I respect the fact, that you have managed to keep a laid-back approach throughout your evolution and to skip the Salt Mine. If you had 3 attempts at the final boss, you know well what it’s like to be in that stage :smiley: .
What is more, I believe you have successfully reached the Ascension stage, although you did take a different path than I did. Judging by your post, you have experienced the competitive side of the game; you have most of the relevant cards (or enough to build your own decks); you got to Legend; you now play for fun and genuinely do not care about ranks. Sounds like Ascension to me!
In the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter which stage you are at, as long as you have found an approach, which allows you to truly enjoy the game!

2 Likes

Accurate! Ill add stage 7. i played my Solo adventures, hit multiple legends, played my Brawls, completed my golden portraits (except DH which i may start farming one day), hit 1000 wins with Lock, Rogue, Warr, played my memes, crafted some golden legendaries for the lulz, i feel like there’s nothing new to do :frowning: In Arena im still a noob (i average 6 wins, highest ever 11 wins), but its the same to me… playing cards. BGs is good but gets repetitive and easy fast (once you find the ‘algorithm’ to climb, its pure grind). That said, Blizzard has changed during the past few years, in terms of shaking the Meta through nerfs, adding new content, etc. which wasnt usual back in the day, so idk theres still hope :smiley: On the other hand, im aware that unavoidably there will be a day the cycle completes itself and then starts looping. We see.

Probably stage 6 3 accounts diamond 5 each season legend if am bored

@ pepsicola - Glad to hear you were able to relate! It does seem you have hit stage 7 though - looking for what the hell to do in this game :smiley: . Averaging 6 wins in arena is actually not bad at all! You could start playing it more, but as you said, it feels too close to constructed, as opposed to an actually fresh game mode.
I definitely agree with BGs being repetitive. They never really appealed to me, especially because of the huge RNG element. For me it’s just way too much. On the other hand, they have brought positive attention to the game, especially among some streamers, so I am happy they introduced them.
Apart from that, I do have some faith, that Blizzard might shake things up in the future. They did take a huge risk by introducing a new class. They also did well with the newest expansion - judging by HSReplay and VS’ latest report, this is shaping up to be one of the most diverse metas we have ever had. Solo adventures have been a bit weak recently, but I am keeping an open mind for the future.
P.S. - Rogue and Warrior are also my favorite classes and the only ones, with which I have an excess of 1000 wins. It’s cool to see someone share my favor for those two!

@ Bladesong - Well damn, running 3 different accounts is next level. Definitely stage 6!

Thanks for sharing your journey D3adLy!

No doubt a lot of players will be able to relate and it’s great to see that you were able to come full circle and focus on having fun again in the end!

After all, that’s what it’s all about! :heart:

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Thank you for your reply, Tyrskorn! I really do hope you enjoyed the read!

I am also glad, that I have managed to get to the point, where I am truly enjoying the game! Reading others’ replies and also looking back on my own experience, I think Hearthstone (and most other games) are a lot about figuring out what makes you, the player, have fun. It’s not only about the challenges and paths the game wants us to take - it’s also about the ones that we create for ourselves. And those are different for every player.

In the end though, as you said, it’s all about having fun!

This, i’d be 1 win away from Legend and then get a perfect counter deck to my deck.

Every month for several months before I realized that it really was becoming an unhealthy obsession, so I quit playing as often, and when i was on a winning OR losing streak i’d go and do something else.

blad this game is way too expensive cuzzy could you manz lower the price of packs?? maybe 50% off what they are now.

  1. stuck there since ranking change…

@ Flintlocke - It’s weird how all of my friends, who made it to Legend, have a similar story. And so do I. First time I got to the final boss, I lost and then fell back to R3 very quickly. I could not climb up until the reset. My 2nd time on the final boss, I was truly trying my best and working out all the odds in my head. With the deck tracker’s help, I figured out my opponent had about a 5% chance to win, since he needed a very specific combo of cards, that he was unlikely to have. And guess what: he had what he needed and topdecked the last card for the combo right as I was about to deliver lethal next turn. I dumpstered back to R5 that day and it really felt like the universe was against me at that point.
Out of my friends’ stories the one that stuck with me was a guy, who was also on the final boss. On turn 1 his opponent went Coin → Innervate → Astral Communion → topdeck Deathwing → topdeck Alex. He lost ofc and then fell down to R5. Never climbed up again. I could go on and on, but that paints a picture of what we all go through.
For what it’s worth, I think you have adopted the right approach! You realized it was becoming unhealthy and stopped before burning yourself out. Stopping on a winning or losing streak is something I do to this day as well. If I win more than 5 games in a row, I just play to the next loss and then stop. If I feel I am losing too much, I stop as well.
Keep your head up and play for fun! Legend will come one day when you least expect it!

@ Yojimbo - Keep working on it! With the ranking change, it will be much easier to climb back once you hit Legend for the first time. I am sure that day will come soon!

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