[Feedback] Revamping Combat Dummies

[Deleted]

This is a copy of a post I just made on the Bnet forums. I wanted to bring the discussion here to MMO champ as well, in order to see what the community thinks of the idea.

Original Post: https://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17615221350

Problem
The ability to practice classes/specs and do general testing in WoW is needlessly frustrating and often times requires lengthy waiting periods due to waiting for lengthy cooldowns to reset.



Proposal/Solution
To create a controlled instanced zone similar to proving grounds, where players have great freedom to test/practice with greatly emphasized convenience/liberties.

• Exiting combat with dummies (at least in this zone) should reset ALL cooldowns (items etc inc), and clear ALL debuffs (Bloodlust/Timewarp type effects).
• Filled with an adbundant configuration of dummies (or possibly player controlled via interface)
• Ability to create party or raid and invite others to join if desired.
• These dummies should take advantage of the new legion scaling in order to keep this zone relevant across expansions and subsequent player levels.

Issues with current combat dummies
At the moment there is a ridiculous inconsistency/accessibility to dummy configurations that emulate scenarios that you desire to test. You may be required to travel between zones to locate a setup of dummies approximating what you want to test.

Things which need to be considered regarding dummies

• Duration of time dummies are available. Why is it not possible to have dummies that respawn/die, there is no effective way to test burst/intermittent dps.
• Numbers of dummies involved/in proximity
• Arrangement of dummies (ball/line/spread/clustered etc)
• Availability of permanently executable 1hp dummies (intervoven with above)
• Dummy level (mostly raid boss/dungeon)

The only newly added Legion dummies (that I'm aware of) are exclusively in the new order halls. However these dummies often feel placed as an afterthought, or arranged to fit the design of the hall. They could be much better tailored to the niche aspects of the class.

Examples include:
Mage: Issues with distance between target and dummies, several frost mage mechanics revolve around playing with spell travel speed/distance. Dummies too spread to test cleave mechanics (splitting ice), annoying LoS issues due to pillars..
Priest: The healing dummies are miles away from the dps ones, making it impossible to test disc healing group healing. No ST dummy, mindflay generates bonus insanity due to bonus adds, leads to misleading timers.
Hunter: MM Artifact trait gives stacking crit% up to 30% crit chance bonus when damaging targets <20%MaxHP, difficult to obtain this bonus and test execute damage reliably. BM excels at clustered aoe, difficult to see number of targets being attacked currently due to spacing.




Extra Features
To go above and beyond it would also be nice to be able to run simulations which emulate raid conditions, which again can be controlled at the players discretion via an interface or npc.

Examples include:

• Needing to do extra mechanical tasks such as interrupting/stuns, or forcing movement such as stacking/spreading/evading/stutter stepping/soaking.
• Mythic+ style AoE tests (short duration+heavy stacked targets).
• Burst damage windows on timers or with an extra action button.
• Option for dummies which move around, this would help practice dealing with adds that move around as they are repositioned.

Feel free to leave suggestions/comments on what features you'd also like to see baked in that I may have missed.