Hi all, TacoRocco here. This is the first article that I have written for the site, so let me know what you guys think of some of this advice! Today I am going to give you all a few tips for getting Legend rank if you are struggling to make it all the way and get that highly coveted card back.
Hitting Legend Rank Will Take Time
First of all, I want to start off by saying that hitting Legend rank is not as ‘difficult’ as you may think. What makes it ‘difficult’ is that it is time-consuming. Going from rank 25 to rank 5 is generally pretty quick, this is mainly because you are facing lower skill or casual players. The other reason why it is so quick is because you get bonus stars for win streaks, allowing you to blast through some ranks if you get lucky. However, once you hit rank 5, you will no longer receive bonus stars for win streaks and you will generally be paired with players that know how to play the game well. When I hit Legend rank for the first time, it took me about 40-50 games to go from rank 15 to 5, then about 200-300 games to go from rank 5 to Legend.
If you want to reach Legend rank, I suggest you plan ahead of time and start playing as much as you can from the start of the season. If you play from the start of the season, remember that everyone’s ranks have been reset, so a lot of high skilled players will be at Rank 15 and higher during the start of the season. Towards the middle and end of the season are when Ranks 15 to 5 begin to get easier. Don’t let this discourage you from playing during the beginning of the season, you want to try to try to get as many wins early as possible so that you don’t have to rush towards the end of the season.
Keep Track of Your Win Rate
It is very important to keep track of your deck’s win rate and what its best/worst match ups are. I suggest using Hearthstone Deck Tracker, it is an amazing app that tracks your wins/loses automatically and also gives you some other neat tools while you are in game such as an overlay that shows what cards you have left in your deck. If you are not able to use Hearthstone Deck Tracker, I still recommend that you track your win rate manually by recording wins/loses in apps like Excel or Word or on good ol’ pen and paper. However you choose to track your win rate, make sure that you keep up on it.
Tracking your win rate is important so that you know if a deck is working well. If your deck’s win rate is higher than 50%, than keep playing it. Even if it is 55%, that still means you are winning more times than you are losing and you will eventually reach Legend rank. As I mentioned previously, it will take time, so just relax and keep going!
Use a Meta Deck if it is Your First Time
If you have never reached Legend rank before, I highly suggest that you use a top meta deck. This site provides a list of “Top Meta Decks” with guides that should give you some good advice on how to play the decks if you are unsure. I suggest you play a deck that is listed in the “Best Decks” category, if not then the “Great Decks” category. The list of decks should be on the front page of the site at the top in case you missed it.
Check out our List of the Best Standard Decks for Hearthstone Ladder
You might want to use your own deck so that you can say “I’m no net decker, I only use original decks that I made! Look how good I am that I reached Legend rank with a deck I made!” Trust me though, it doesn’t work out most of the time. There will definitely be some people that will make Legend rank with a deck they created, but it might take much longer to do because the deck is mostly experimental. Top meta decks are decks that have been played many times by many different people and have been proven to work well. Top meta decks also generally have guides on them and you will be able to ask others for advice on how to play them. When you use a deck you made yourself, you only have yourself to consult for advice. And not everyone is a good deck builder either, some people are better pilots with decks than they are at building one. NASCAR drivers don’t build their own cars, there’s nothing wrong with you for not building your own deck.
Play a Deck You Enjoy Playing
I still suggest that you play a meta deck, but if there is a particular meta deck in the “Great Decks” category that you enjoy playing more than a deck in the “Best Decks” category, I suggest you play the former. If you enjoy a deck, you will most likely be better at playing it because you will be more willing to learn all the different strategies and tricks with it. Knowing a deck well can boost your win rate by at least 5% and will make time seem to go by much faster. In the end, the most important thing about playing the game is that you enjoy it. Why would you want to play a game if you aren’t having fun doing it?
Do Not Switch Decks Unless Absolutely Necessary
There are a few reasons you should switch your deck, but generally you do not want to do this. You want to continue playing one deck for a few reasons:
- The more you play the deck, the better you will get at playing it. Like I mentioned before, knowing how to play the deck well can boost your win rate by at least 5%!
- The more games you play with the deck, the more accurate your win rate will be. If you play 10 games and lose 6 of them, your win rate will 40%, but if you play 20 more games you might end up winning 16 and losing 4 more, boosting your win rate to 66%. Having an accurate win rate is important in determining whether you will need to switch decks or not.
There are a few reasons though that you should switch decks:
- If your win rate is 50% or lower, you should switch decks because you aren’t winning enough. As I mentioned in my last point, you should play a lot of games before you decide to switch decks. I recommend sticking with a deck for at least 50 games so you know how well the deck is working out in regards to win rate.
- If you really, really don’t like the deck. If you are playing a deck that you really are not enjoying playing, then it will just make ladder a miserable experience. It will make losses feel so much more painful because you weren’t playing for fun, only to win.
Do Not Tilt!
I can’t emphasize this one enough. “Tilting” is a term that comes from poker that refers to when a player gets so frustrated or confused, it begins to affect how they play and often results in poor performance. If you start to become frustrated because you just lost 10 games in a row or you are just so sick of playing against a certain deck, then take a break. Listen to some music, drink some tea, do some laps around your neighborhood; whatever will calm you down. Never queue up into a game when you are tilting, because you might just make things worse.
Some tips to prevent tilting
- If you are good at multi-tasking: Listen to music or do another activity while you play. If you are 100% concentrated on the game, you will more likely tilt. I also suggest doing something else because then you don’t get the mindset that you “just wasted all that time”. If you are doing another activity, then your time isn’t being wasted. When I was grinding to Legend rank, I would do homework, job search, or play another game while I waited for my opponents to take their turns. *This tip does not work for every person. It depends on how well you know your deck, what type of deck you are playing, etc. Keep track of how your win rate is affected when multi-tasking to determine if you should or not.
- Squelch the opponent at the start of the game. Sometimes what tilts you is when the opponent makes a snarky emote at a certain time just to be a jerk. If you are prone to becoming frustrated by “BM”, then I suggest you squelch the opponent and just play the game.
- Say “Hello” at the beginning of every game and “Well Played” at the end. By doing this, it is a reminder that this is just a friendly game and that you both gave it your best shot.
Record Your Games and Watch Pro Players
If you are really struggling to get wins even after you followed all of the above tips, then I recommend you record your games or watch how pro players play their decks. It is likely that you may not be playing the deck optimally, by recording and re-watching your matches, you will be able to see why things went wrong and you can possibly figure out what you did wrong and how you can prevent the same mistake again. I suggest using software such as Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) to record your games. OBS is easy to use and it is free! You can also use that software to stream your games if you ever wanted to (just saying).
I also recommend that you watch pro players play some of the top meta decks. I would stick with watching pro players using current top meta decks because that is generally what you want to be playing. Pro players that are playing a custom deck are generally very good at the game and can pilot non-meta decks very well; they know what situation(s) to use certain cards, and this skill may not translate well into viewers that may only watch a few games at a time. When watching pro players, watch someone that is playing the meta deck that you are playing so that you can learn more about the deck you are using, rather than gaining knowledge on a deck that you might not even use.
Some pro players, such as Trump, also have some tips on how to play the game or to play certain decks. I recommend checking out Trump’s series Trump Teachings, especially if you are relatively new to the game.
Overall though, I recommend you record your own games and watching them over watching pro players because if you don’t figure out what you are doing wrong, you may not fix it.
Conclusion
Hopefully you find some of these tips useful if you are struggling. Remember that it will take time to hit Legend rank, so make sure that you keep track of your win rate and don’t tilt! The most important thing of all is that you are having fun. If you aren’t having fun, then there’s no reason to play!
If you guys have any questions of comments, feel free to mention them in the comments below. Also, if you enjoyed my article, please check out my Twitter at @TacoRoccoGame and my Twitch channel at TacoRocco_. Thanks for reading!
I think the advice here is solid. Keeping track of your winrates is really important and not losing confidence with your deck is also another solid advice. Another thing I would like to add is know the popular meta decks well. For example, paladin and shaman are running the show (with mages and druid on the sideline).
If you understand how their decks work, it will be of huge advantage to you. You know what to anticipate and see how your opponent reacts. If he doesn’t play a warleader on 3, even with 2 murlocs on the field, means he might not have it.
I’ve never reached Legend. I’ve never even reached Rank 5. The highest I’ve gotten is Rank 7, both last month and in March 2016 with Secret Paladin (I’m sorry). I tend to use Tier 1 or Tier 2 decks, though I try to stick with Tier 1.
When would you recommend making any type of tech substitutions to a deck? For example, if I’m playing Midrange Paladin, how many Pirate Warriors or Murloc Paladins would you recommend I play before subbing in Hungry Crab or Golakka Crawler? Or would you recommend just sticking with the deck in its original form?
I’d say that you should tech cards when you are very familiar with the deck you are playing and know it’s weaknesses well. You may not need to tech against Pirate Warrior (for example) if your deck already does well against Pirate Warrior. If your deck is weak against a certain deck that you see often, that’s when you should tech in a card or two to help with that matchup. And you’ll want to tech out cards that really don’t help with your strategy or are especially weak to a certain archetype that you see often. It’s as important to make sure to tech out the right cards as teching in the proper cards.
That makes perfect sense. This is why I probably don’t need to make changes to decks because I’m not good at deck building, so I probably wouldn’t be good at teching unless someone with experience told me what to take out and add.
Since reading this article, I’ve been sticking with one deck (Midrange Paladin) and have been giving more focus to the games I play. It has made a big difference. So simple, yet I’ve never done it.
Well I’m glad that my tips helped! If you ever want specific advice, you can reach out to me on Twitch. My account is TacoRocco_ (link: https://twitch.tv/tacorocco_ ). Feel free to send me a friend request. You can message me on there or send a message on my chat if I’m streaming. I have been considering doing Hearthstone streams some time, so you could check it out if you’re interested! 🙂
I’ll definitely check your Twitch page to see if you’re streaming when I’m available to watch. It’s rare I get time to watch live Twitch streams and end up watching player’s YouTube videos from the streams. But I’m always interested in seeing great players play Hearthstone so I can learn.
You forgot something here . When you finally reach legend for the first time , print screen it and send the image to all your friends . Then chill out for an hour and listen to : Queen – We Are The Champions 😛
This is really good advice.
hey ty for the article, i have a question, so i had a +85 percent winrate april season with aggro druid,(just played 2 or 3 days and got to rank 3), this month i wanna try to get legend,(i am only 2 month hearthstone player, may will be my 3rd month), so for example if i start playing aggro druid and i keep climbing then all of a sudden i lose like several matches in a row,(still the winrate of deck will be very good) but should i change my deck? should i think maybe this deck wont work at this time due to decks i am facing now?or even after several losses with a great winrate deck i still should play it?!
You should keep playing the deck. Maybe consider re-tracking your winrate. It is possible that the type of decks you are seeing are different at the current rank, however I wouldn’t switch decks right away. It’s possible you just had an unlucky losing streak. If you are still doing poorly after about 30 games, then you may want to consider switching decks.
Great article. Do you keep playing even if you already won your 100 daily gold?… thanks
Play as much as you want really. As long as you don’t spend so much time playing that you ignore things like going to class or end up waking up late for work. If you have the time and want to play more than the 30 wins needed to max out the daily gold from wins, then do it. Just don’t overdo it.
Nice article. I would like to add that if you have a friend who can watch you play and tell his opinions on different situations helps. When other person watches your game, he can give you other perspective on things. Me and my friend do this often and it helps both of us to avoid misplays and get better with decks. I reached legend in april season for the second time, this time with miracle rogue (winrate 57% from rank 5 to legend).
Two minds often work better than one.
Great article. However, I would discourage players from multitasking if the goal is to reach legend. There is SO MUCH valuable information you can infer during your oponent’s turn that will Boost your win rate.
I find it is important to focus on your oponent’s turn just as much as during your own.
This was huge for me reaching legend for the first time last month.
Cheers!
I would also agree that multitasking is not a good recommendation, at least not for all people. The first month I made legend I followed most of the advice here, but also made sure to really concentrate during games.
Which meant really planning out my turns and trying to predict what my opponent would be doing over their next few turns. Taking the time during my opponent’s turn to think about what their hand might be and what they could do next was very important to my climb.
Anecdotally I also notice that I make many more mistakes if I’m not focused when I play.
Not everyone should multi-task, and it really depends on what type of deck you are playing, whether you can concentrate on multiple tasks at once, and how well you know the deck you are using. I personally would multi-task while doing it, streamers multi-task all the time because they are concentrating on the game, chat, and sometimes other things. I recommend multi-tasking as a way to avoid tilting but you may have a point and I think I will edit my point a bit in my post. Thank you for sharing your opinion.
Btw, can smb reccomend me good tracker for tablet (android) please? Arcane doesnt work anymore :/
Good article, I hope it will help those players who have not reached Legend yet.
I do however have to say that I would suggest setting your mind to playing 2 Deck types, just in case you get bored of the one you are playing or you run up multiple bad matchups in a row on the Ladder.
Mastering 2 Decks is also still fine.
I suggest 2 very different Deck types, for example a very Control based Deck and a Aggro Deck.
Keep up the good work, I look forward reading new articles from you in the future!
Yes I agree, that is definitely a good idea. It also helps to know more than 1 deck type because it gives you perspective on how the different types of deck play. This can be useful for predicting what your opponent might do next depending on what deck they are playing. You do make a good point that you can switch up if you get bored, this could be another way to avoid tilting.
All right so reaching to rank 5 using multiple decks is fine but for getting to legend stick to 1 deck right? Ok gonna follow that advise.
Reached rank 5 for the very first time yesterday with quest warrior and control paladin. Only started ranking a week ago. Next month gonna try and get to legend. Starting right away 1st of may.
Also i like playing control decks. Are these good at reaching legend from rank 5?
It really depends on what control deck you are using, but unfortunately they are not so good at getting you through the final push. Control decks take much longer to go through a game, so losing will feel like a much bigger set back than if you played a fast deck. Additionally, Aggro decks also tend to beat out control decks because control decks have a tough time with the early game, but excel in the late game. And on ladder, you’re generally going to see a lot of aggro decks.
If you are more comfortable using a control deck though, go for it. However, if you feel like you really aren’t going anywhere on ladder, you might want to consider switching to something faster. Towards the early times of the season, Control decks are fine to play because you have a lot more time to spare.
I agree 100% and as someone who has done legend twice I have this to add:
1) You need confidence:
On my second legend run I became uncertain at rank 1, and I went 3 – 25 as a result on my next 28 games and dropped back to rank 5. I then gathered myself and hit legend in less than 7 hours game time with the same deck. The difference was my confidence, which affected my mulligan and opening hands. Which leads to my second point:
2) Opening hand and mulligan is key:
In every aggro matchup, opening hands matters a lot! This means aggro vs. aggro, aggro vs. midrange and aggro vs. control, what you mulligan and how you play the first 2-3 turns is a HUGE deal. Don’t half butt the beginning of the game thinking you can come back from behind.
3) Test play a lot of different archetypes:
You need to know the strength and weakness of the meta decks. At least test each meta deck to know a bit why they are good/bad. Often you read the forums how some deck is OP, but each deck has a weakness, and you need to know what it is to learn the right strategy against it. For example, pre-un’goro dragon priest played conservative, taunt strategy against warrior, but aggressive, curve minions on board against jade druid. There is no better way to know what weakness each deck has than playing and losing with the different decks.
4) Play two (2) decks you like:
You can easily become uncertain about your deck and its capabilities of getting to legend once you start losing. But if you got two decks from the top meta decks, you can switch when you get uncertain. It helped me on both of my play legend runs. They dont have to be different in terms of strategy, just different.
5) Don’t hesitate swapping a card or two in the deck:
If you feel like a card is inefficient, swap it for something you feel is better. Having a deck that makes you feel confident is key.
Hope these points helps someone.
P.S. I disagree with tracking stats. You don’t need to do that and it can just be a distraction. Just play and enjoy the game. If the deck is a tier 1 or 2 deck, you can take it to legend. Remember, it becomes easier as the month goes on.
These are pretty good points, thank you for sharing them with us! Yes, tracking stats can be a distraction, especially if you are an experienced player. However, I have to say that it can actually make laddering more interesting. I used to enjoy tracking my stats and watching my win rate change after I either won or lost a game. I would also enjoy knowing that I am personally doing well or poorly with a deck. Even though a deck might be tier 1 or 2 does not guarantee that the user will know how to play the deck well. Remember Patron meta? Those Grim Patron decks were really strong but also really difficult to learn to play properly, so not everyone could pilot them well.
I believe tracking your win rate is important to know how well you are personally doing with a deck. Also, Hearthstone Deck Tracker is a really neat app, so I definitely recommend people check it out!
Great article. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! And thanks for reading the article as well!
AHAH !! I made more than 400 games, spend 100 hours in hearthstone in Europe Server and fail legend this month. I have 54% winrate AHAH STILL NOT LEGEND !!!!!!!!!
You should be able to get it eventually, just keep working at it! Remember that it will take time, and of course the lower your win rate, the longer it will take. If you begin to get frustrated at how long it takes, then definitely make sure to take breaks. If you are winning, then definitely you have what it takes to go all the way. Just keep at it!
Actually, i made 2 mistakes this month.
1- I started to play since Un’goro day, not at the start of the month.
2- I started in wild, go to rank 4 in 1 day, have been locked for 1 week and restart on standard on the third week witch is the best period to go legend cause people don’t play so much time like the beginning of the month.
So now, every body tryhard to become legend like shit and destroy my winrate to 54%
I see proplayer like TitanX from USA being legend on wild and standard just one week after Un’goro but i’m not a proplayer.
I’m just a middle player who can’t have 60% winrate like REAL GOOD player.
You definitly should put something about that points.
1- Learn the entier METAGAME witch mean ALL LIST possible.
2- Play ONE list with the tracker since you have 100 victory and you’ll have REAL winrate of your pack. I see a lot people win 5/0 against friends and say wow it’s amazing and losing like shit on ladder.
3- Play only on wild OR standard except you are really good (lol)
4- Be legend need time, so start since the 1er of the month and not at the 20 day like me.
5- You speak about frustrating, good !! But you miss one essential point. Imagine you are Rank 2 and you lose so much to become almost rank 4. NOT GOOD AT ALL. If you lose much than 3 times, then leave the game. LOSE 3 TIME = WINRATE DESTROYER.
If you really have 60% win rate, you can’t technicly lose more than 2 times. Losing the third time is a good warning to tell you, STOP the game. On arena, 3 loses = Death. It’s really similar in finally.
I will do it next month. I WILL BECOME LEGEND !!
Great article! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Thank you as well for taking the time to read my first article! I appreciate it! ^-^
Thanks for the well written article and useful tips. Keep up the good work!
No problem! I just hope that you manage to learn something useful from the article! Thanks for reading it!
Nice first article. I can say that the tips should help me a lot, especially that I’m trying to pilot my quest warrior deck that recently made me reach rank 15 this season (It needs few more cards but I’m doing well enough with it at the moment).