Im not even close to being a new player and ive spent hours upon hours through really tough games some that seemed impossible to win. I know this can be changed because lots of these accounts are bots… lots of these games seemed rigged considering youre able to get huge star bonuses in regular ladder if you win these. A new player shouldnt have to get pissed every game.
If you already know the game, you have the option to skip those “Apprenticeship” ranks. Sure, you miss some basic rewards, but the ability to skip that awful grind is worth it.
This should be adressed for the sake of new players though. I just made a new account to test the free decks and at level 37, I have already run into questmage, control warlock, handbuff paladin, elemental shaman and aggro druid. For a new player, it would be a borderline impossible task to get out of these ranks.
Edit: and right after posting this I am now playing against ping mage at 37. About 50% of all games RIGHT after the game’s tutorial were against meta decks. Seriously what is this nonsense?
4 regular beginner players and then quest warrior, face hunter and quest paladin in a row. this is just silly. wonder how many new players quit because of this.
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How?
Some new players choose to immediately drop a bucketload of money on the game to build the best decks. So you will indeed encounter those decks (probably played badly, but since you are new too and have not spent as much money, they still do have an advantage).
Yes, it sucks. I get that. I’ve never paid a dime for my account and built it over the years but I also recall my first months of playing and encountering opponents where I emoted “well played” before conceding but thought “well paid, actually”.
But how should Blizzard prevent this. Make it impossible for new players to spend money until they are out of apprenticeship ranks? Yeah, not going to happen. Blizzard is a commercial company. They want to make money.
Revert back to the old system that was in place before they added the Apprenticeship ranks on April Fools Day 2020 and created the issue.
Have a look at Trump’s Broke in Stormwind F2P series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvEIxIeBRKSgauxHgK-yJ4eF8nwWKVx8-
Perhaps Elemental/Doomhammer Shaman would be a cheap choice to climb through the Apprentice ranks. I haven’t tried myself all the way through apprentice since last year when the rank system was new.
It’s easy for players now to open powerful cards without needing to spend money, and so that becomes a baseline for “meta builds” that will likely wreck anything you are putting together “hodge-podgey” as a new player. If you do want to succeed with that approach, you have to play well and include “X amount of particular cards”
Eg: Paladin Secret Package, you’re needing Sword of the Fallen and Northwatch Commander, + any Paladin deck without Knight of Anointment is probably screwing themselves. Alliance Bannerman is also up there, anything that draws cards while putting out something on the board is valued highly.
I know people are tired of seeing it, but Face Hunter is a fairly easy one to get going.
There were similar complaints before that. The only change is that the apprenticeship ranks didn’t have that name yet, they were unofficially called new player ranks and officially ranks 40 - 26
And when I started playing, even longer ago (2015), the issue also existed. In ranks 25-20, which at that time were the starting ranks.
Just played through the beginner ranks. Took me 189 games lol