I played a budget deck through apprentice ranks to D2. I have never been Legend on that account, but my star bonus is now x11.
The account is old enough to have Wild, so account opened well before the new ranking system was put in place. Can’t remember if I made it out of apprentice before the rank reset.
Your bonus is based off MMR:
The ranking levels (bronze etc) are pretty pointless, then?
There is a minimum number of stars you get based on your rank. That’s what the table in that FAQ shows. But if your MMR is actually higher than the rank you achieved, you could get more bonus stars. My guess is that while you reached D2, you were probably on a pretty high win/loss ratio at the time the season ended, and the system figured you were actually as good as Legend players, you just didn’t have the time to reach it.
But, they are pointless. For next month, I will only be facing Legend players, even though I have never been Legend. So, what’s the point in having the ranks? If everything is just one big Legend pool (which it is for me), the other ranks are meaningless.
Yes, for consistent Legend players, the early ranks do not serve much purpose. They do encourage you to play some minimum number of games (like 50) in order to reach Legend and receive all the end-of-season rewards.
For non-Legend players, they serve as a ranking system to track progress.