Warcraft III: Reforged Developers Share Details on Upcoming Ranked Mode

Blizzard Entertainment are actively working on the implementation of the highly requested ranked mode for Warcraft III: Reforged and have shared details on the system. The mode will combine features of the legacy Warcraft III system and the ranked mode of StarCraft II.

Similar to the legacy system, there will be a total of five rank ladders in Reforged – for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and FFA modes. Besides that, the developers decided against promotion or demotion matches. However, they also abandoned the levels system in favour of a medal system (Bronze through Grandmaster), which was adopted from StarCraft II. The Grandmaster division will include only the best 300 players.

Contrary to many other games that utilize a system with progression-based ranks, among which is Blizzard’s own Heroes of the Storm, the ranks in Warcraft III: Reforged will be directly tied to MMR. All players will be able to see their MMR in their profile, while those in Master and Grandmaster division will have their MMR publicly displayed next to their name. Currently the developers decided to remove MMR decay on all ranks – however, they might reintroduce it to Grandmaster division in the future.

To earn their initial rank, players will have to participate in five placement matches. However, when a new season begins the number of placement matches reduces to 1. Developers will use new seasons as an opportunity to release balance updates, rotate maps and make other adjustments. On a season end all ranked players will receive special portraits, corresponding with their highest rank during the season.

Soon after the release of the Ranked Mode, the game will receive an Unranked Mode as well. Although called Unranked, the mode will have a hidden MMR system where ranks will never reset. Unranked players may end up in matches against ranked players – however, in Team games Unranked players can be teamed up only with other Unranked players.

The developers do not have a set date for the Ranked Mode release, however they are planning to roll it out “in the coming months”. Their next developer update will be dedicated to the Profiles system.