I wanted to try out the EU servers, having heard they were pretty competitive server.
So I start my f2p account and oh my goodness, the beginner ranks are 90 percent top tier net decks.
I could only imagine if I was a new player trying to learn the game and imagine how frustrating it would be
I mean, that’s how it is on NA servers in the beginning and end of the month.
Dont you receive some deck, which is (close to) TOP tier for free as new player?
I dunno, I didn’t, maybe after beginner ranks?
Edit: all I know is that 80 percent of games are face Hunter and quest hunter as well.
Quitters never lose games.
The other thing to consider is, that people just go to HSreplay, they check the youtube etc for budget decks and figure out they can build cheap hunters. Why would they not play it?
I tried the Asia server and got floor stomped.
I did this last month on a second free to play account on the US server. I was also surprised at how competitive the beginner ranks were. Lots of top tier decks, but it can be done. I went from beginner to legend rank 300 at the end of the month and I wasn’t even a high warlord by the end.
The caveat is that I know how to play and build a good enough deck. I dusted absolutely everything I had to make a meta deck soon after getting into the regular ladder. I still think that if a new player enjoys the game and googles decks and does diligence, they can do well…especially after a couple of months. Maybe not legend that quick but i bet platinum / diamond rank.
Pretty sad a new player would have to Google top garbage decks just to make it out of beginner ranks.
Well, it does stink that there are a lot of expensive decks in the beginner ranks. I can tell you that I played against a lot of people who didn’t play very well with them. Which is interesting to me because they would have had to spend money to get those cards I think but they are still in beginner ranks.
So yeah, for new FTP players it can be tough, but this game is meant to be competitive. If a new player enjoys the game, I don’t think there is anything wrong with looking up decks to do better.
That or it is gonna take them forever, I am experienced and it is brutal, of course I also chose the wrong class to try to get outta the beginner ranks with in rogue and the wrong time cause I don’t wanna craft any cards that are rotating
the apprentice ranks arent competitive
there arent any top tier decks in it
Actually you are super wrong, the actual " beginner " rank doesn’t exist it puts you versus people from the real ranks, there is no seperate ladder for the " beginner " rank, what op describes is correct, obviously you only face tier 1 netdecks at the lowest MMR because people are making new accounts to craft tier 1 decks for free
If this is true (that new players in the beginning ranks actually play against real ladder players), it all makes more sense now.
I was getting ready to ask that, it is the only thing that makes sense to me
Yeah if if you lose like 10-20 games in row at beginner rank you might get low enough mmr to actually face the bottom tier bronze players with some really random/mega bad decks
I remember when I started: rank 25-20 where actually new player friendly.
From rank 20 people where already playing DKs everywhere and everytime one was played the game for me was over; worst case, theystarted with baku/genn and the game was over before even starting.
Meanwhile I had a deck with thrall DK and shudderwock, the rest were free core cards 
I had a terrible time till the first rotation, I don’t really know why I kept playing
Well the issue is, that many people do it automatically, so if others dont do it, they are in disadvantage.
That is the same with any game. Imagine playing Dota or another game without doing some research and watching some guides and videos. You will be clueless and will not do anything in the game. Other person will do it and will have an advantage.
I remember when I first tried Europa universalis IV (my first game in this “universe of games - EU, HoI etc”) and I was confident I will do well, as I played ton of strategies. after 5 hours of losing instantly I had to search for guides, videos etc to figure out what am I doing wrong and got back after 3-4 hours of research to do “decently” (i.e. not dying in half an hour) and anyway getting back to figure out more things in the background, which I did not know and only than I was able to play against computers and enjoy the game.
This is card game, so it is easier, but point stands, especially if you play against people. They will often do it. If you dont, you can maybe “enjoy” discovering the game, but will you enjoy losing for 20 hours straight before you go to check the decklist, which might be viable?
Maybe because you are already an experimented player then you faced bad players during your first 5 games, then the game understood matching you against newcomers was a bad idea, then proceeded to match you against other “smurfs” and bad players using optimal decks.
During your first games, your MMR is very elastic.
I never look up anything before going into a new game. What the heck fun is that? I wanna figure stuff out on my own. People are so lazy now a days.