Top Ladder Stats (2025-03)

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Authors:

Alpe

Last updated: 2025-04-09

Page change log:

• Created: 2025-04-09

Page contents:

• About Season Stats
• Tower Troops
• Evolutions
• Evolution Unlock Rate
• Evolutions VS Normal Cards
• Champions
• Spells
• Win Conditions
• Checks and Balances
• All Cards
• Top 20 Countries

About Season Stats

The Path of Legends (PoL) leaderboard is a great place to consistently find the best players and to see how they adapt to the meta. The first Monday of every month, the season ends and a new one begins. While players are competing to reach the top, we are tracking their results and deck choices.

With this blog, we present a summary and a few insights of all the data that we collected during the last days of the season, with a focus on the decks that players used to obtain their final rank.

Stats Format Basics

These stats are based on the decks and card collections of the best players, the ones who finished among the top 1,000 players in Path of Legends.

Over this blog, we'll look at card stats with tables that use the following format:

• Usage refers to the share of players who used the card in their main deck. This stat is paired with a change %, which is the difference when compared to last season's usage.
• Average Rank is the mean of all the placements from players who used this card. The center point is 500, so if the value is below 500, it means the card is quite good.
• Have It Maxed refers to the share of players who have that card at Level 15, which is the ideal level to compete in PoL. The companion bar chart also shows the amount of players who have this card at Level 14 (in light blue). If the light blue range is wide, it implies that a lot of players don't consider this card worthy to spend Elite Wild Cards on it, because EWCs are a scarce resource.
• Usage/Maxed (U/M) shows the amount of players who use a card from those that have it maxed. Some cards can be harder to unlock and level up, so usage may not be a good indicator if it's being held down by other factors. It's also relevant to know that every season boosts a few cards, which allows players to use them without the need to level them up.

Win Rate VS Rank

Due to the nature of the ladder system, card win rates aren't useful to understand the strength of a card. We think a mix of the stats listed above can paint a more accurate picture of the state of each card.

The main reason for this is that system which are based in score matchmaking aims to pair players with others of similar strength. If the amount of battles played is sufficient, the score of the player stabilises, leading to a win rate of ~50%.

Better players stabilise at higher scores than worse players, but in the long term, the winrate becomes similar. This causes this metric to be fairly irrelevant when compared to rank and usage.

Tower Troops

• This season introduced a +14% buff to the cooking speed of Royal Chef, but this change didn't make a difference.

Evolutions

• Evolved Hunter scores #10 in evolution usage during his first season.
• After the +33% Slow Duration buff, Evolved Giant Snowball scores the best average rank.
• Evolved Lumberjack has the biggest fall in usage (-6%), after the Rage effect duration was reduced from 2 to 1 seconds. This mainly cut in half the amount of time he could spend outside of the Rage spell.

Evolution Unlock Rate

Evolutions are arguably the most challenging progression limitation for players who don't purchase Pass Royale regularly. This means they are also a great indicator for seasonal revenue from the competitive players.

Over time, players find evolution shards through other means, so older evolutions lose that strong correlation with Pass Royale purchases. To avoid that, it's best to keep comparisons to very recent evolutions from the last 2 seasons:

• Dart Goblin (S67)
• Lumberjack (S68)
• Hunter (S69)

Hunter was an unpopular evolution (36%), similar to Dart Goblin (38%); far behind Lumberjack (51%).

Evolutions VS Normal Cards

Comparing evolutions to their normal cards is a great way to see how relevant each evolution ability actually is.

If we also look at the usage of the normal card, we can get a better sense of their place in the meta, helping us answer:

• Is the normal card strong and usable by itself?
• Is the evolution necessary and what makes it strong?

Several evolutions take this to an extreme, where the normal card is completely unused and only the Evolution has usage. For these cases, it seems fair to argue that the normal card has been weakened so that the evolution buff turns it into a balanced one.

It seems incompatible to have both the normal card and the evolution in a balanced state, at least as long as the evolution provides a relevant advantage.

What is LUR?

This chart introduces a new stat: Log-based Usage Ratio (LUR). This is a value that directly compares the usage of an Evolution with the usage of it's normal variant.

$$\mathsf{LUR}={\log }_{10}\left(\frac{\mathsf{Evolution}\mathsf{Usage}}{\mathsf{Normal}\mathsf{Card}\mathsf{Usage}}\right)$$

The basic way to read it is:

• A positive value means that the Evolution is more popular
• A negative value means that the Normal Card is more popular

The logarithm is simply used to translate this ratio into a simpler number that's easier to read. E.g.:

• LUR=1: Evolution is used 10x more
• LUR=2: Evolution is used 100x more

Champions

Champions are always an interesting category because they exclude each other in decks. But players don't always have a Champion in their deck, so that's why "No Champion" is listed as well.

Overall, using "No Champion" led to a worse average rank. This difference seems mainly due to the strength of Monk and Little Prince.

Spells

This season, the spell meta didn't change significantly when compared to the last one.

Based on usage and rank, Fireball and The Log were clearly the best spells.

Win Conditions

Win conditions are one of the best ways to look at archetype performance. Unlike support cards, which can fit in several archetypes, these are the core cards that define them.

Some highlights from this season:

• Giant had the biggest growth this season among win conditions, although not a great rank average.
• Goblin Drill and Evolved Mortar, 2 cards with good rank and usage growth.
• Rune Giant was nerfed to dust.

Checks and Balances

The start of the season introduced balance changes, what was their outcome?

All Cards

This data can be used as long as we are properly credited as the source.

Data Dump

#		Card	Usage	Rank
1		Tower Princess	63.4%	492
2		The Log	32.6%	470
3		Guards	25.9%	499
4		Dagger Duchess	25.4%	521
5		Tornado	24.7%	536
6		Fireball	22.6%	462
7		Arrows	20.6%	515
8		Evolved Lumberjack	20.6%	529
9		Evolved Cannon	19.8%	464
10		Goblin Gang	19.5%	493
11		Lightning	18.8%	556
12		Rage	16.6%	502
13		Prince	15.6%	527
14		Barbarian Barrel	15.2%	522
15		Skeletons	13.7%	437
16		Evolved Zap	13.4%	489
17		Evolved Knight	13.3%	491
18		Mega Minion	12.2%	468
19		Evolved Ice Spirit	11.9%	445
20		Miner	11.6%	430
21		Ice Wizard	11.1%	537
22		Electro Spirit	11.1%	479
23		Cannoneer	11.0%	500
24		Giant	10.9%	507
25		Evolved Bats	10.8%	448
26		Goblinstein	9.2%	442
27		Archer Queen	9.0%	496
28		Knight	8.9%	457
29		Balloon	8.2%	514
30		Ice Spirit	8.1%	525
31		Spear Goblins	8.1%	400
32		Bomber	7.8%	488
33		Royal Ghost	7.8%	553
34		Evolved Bomber	7.7%	505
35		Graveyard	7.6%	508
36		Princess	7.4%	549
37		Evolved Mortar	7.4%	441
38		Poison	7.3%	457
39		Fisherman	7.1%	474
40		Phoenix	6.9%	559
41		Inferno Dragon	6.7%	552
42		Skeleton King	6.7%	513
43		Evolved Royal Giant	6.6%	471
44		Bowler	6.5%	583
45		Heal Spirit	6.5%	483
46		Evolved Hunter	6.4%	484
47		Rocket	6.3%	519
48		Evolved Wall Breakers	6.3%	516
49		Evolved Goblin Barrel	6.3%	528
50		Evolved Goblin Cage	6.3%	498
51		Elixir Collector	6.2%	538
52		Evolved Barbarians	6.2%	533
53		Goblin Drill	6.1%	408
54		Evolved Archers	6.0%	468
55		Bandit	5.8%	540
56		Evolved Valkyrie	5.8%	537
57		Earthquake	5.7%	494
58		Skeleton Dragons	5.7%	509
59		Hog Rider	5.6%	518
60		Evolved Skeletons	5.6%	576
61		Cannon Cart	5.4%	448
62		Baby Dragon	5.3%	430
63		Dark Prince	5.1%	489
64		Mighty Miner	5.1%	453
65		Night Witch	5.0%	592
66		Royal Hogs	5.0%	465
67		Monk	4.9%	389
68		Lava Hound	4.8%	434
69		Electro Giant	4.8%	564
70		Royal Delivery	4.5%	479
71		Evolved Goblin Giant	4.5%	508
72		Evolved Giant Snowball	4.5%	392
73		Golem	4.4%	576
74		Tesla	4.3%	380
75		Evolved Battle Ram	4.1%	570
76		Evolved Electro Dragon	4.1%	633
77		Inferno Tower	4.0%	549
78		Evolved Mega Knight	3.8%	576
79		X-Bow	3.7%	439
80		Goblins	3.6%	528
81		Ice Golem	3.6%	568
82		Evolved Firecracker	3.6%	575
83		Dart Goblin	3.3%	568
84		Giant Snowball	3.2%	495
85		Evolved Musketeer	3.1%	498
86		Bats	3.0%	457
87		Elixir Golem	3.0%	551
88		Skeleton Barrel	2.9%	618
89		Goblin Machine	2.9%	558
90		Magic Archer	2.8%	386
91		Evolved Royal Recruits	2.8%	465
92		Sparky	2.7%	478
93		Tombstone	2.7%	578
94		Freeze	2.5%	619
95		Zap	2.5%	539
96		Evolved Wizard	2.5%	615
97		Evolved Dart Goblin	2.5%	548
98		Electro Wizard	2.4%	607
99		Ram Rider	2.4%	568
100		Wall Breakers	2.2%	551
101		Cannon	2.1%	528
102		Battle Healer	2.1%	533
103		Firecracker	2.1%	457
104		Bomb Tower	2.0%	571
105		Rascals	2.0%	528
106		Mother Witch	2.0%	560
107		Executioner	1.5%	685
108		Three Musketeers	1.5%	579
109		Evolved Tesla	1.5%	513
110		Flying Machine	1.4%	305
111		Minions	1.4%	565
112		Skeleton Army	1.4%	550
113		Minion Horde	1.3%	543
114		Golden Knight	1.3%	590
115		Evolved P.E.K.K.A	1.3%	494
116		Elite Barbarians	1.2%	560
117		Clone	1.0%	340
118		Mini P.E.K.K.A	1.0%	518
119		Giant Skeleton	0.9%	524
120		Musketeer	0.9%	563
121		Royal Giant	0.9%	491
122		Fire Spirit	0.8%	361
123		Goblin Curse	0.8%	363
124		P.E.K.K.A	0.7%	614
125		Battle Ram	0.6%	454
126		Zappies	0.6%	368
127		Little Prince	0.5%	407
128		Evolved Goblin Drill	0.5%	626
129		Goblin Barrel	0.4%	720
130		Void	0.4%	334
131		Mega Knight	0.3%	648
132		Furnace	0.2%	474
133		Hunter	0.2%	312
134		Mirror	0.2%	661
135		Valkyrie	0.2%	676
136		Suspicious Bush	0.2%	425
137		Royal Chef	0.2%	744
138		Barbarians	0.1%	497
139		Goblin Giant	0.1%	262
140		Goblin Hut	0.1%	720
141		Lumberjack	0.1%	954
142		Royal Recruits	0.1%	243
143		Witch	0.1%	760
144		Goblin Demolisher	0.1%	720
145		Berserker	0.1%	660
146		Archers	0.0%	-
147		Barbarian Hut	0.0%	-
148		Electro Dragon	0.0%	-
149		Mortar	0.0%	-
150		Wizard	0.0%	-
151		Goblin Cage	0.0%	-
152		Rune Giant	0.0%	-
153		Boss Bandit	0.0%	-
154		Evolved Executioner	0.0%	-

Top 20 Countries

This leaderboard sorts countries based on the amount of players in the Top 1,000.

The amount of players for each country is displayed in the "Count" column; to the right, you can see a ±value, which is the change compared to last season.

Signature Cards are cards which were disproportionately used in the region when compared to the global average. The 5 displayed cards are sorted, meaning that the first card is the Top 1 signature card. Usually signature cards hint towards a specific archetype that is unusually popular in the country.

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