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  1. #1

    [5.4] Proving Grounds

    New Feature: Proving Grounds

    * Proving Grounds is a new feature for individual players to test and improve their combat skills.
    * At the Proving Grounds, players may undertake trials, designed for Damage, Tank, or Healer roles.
    * It provides a great opportunity to learn how to Tank or Heal, without the need of a group.
    * Each trial is available in four separate difficulties: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Endless. Harder difficulties include more difficult and varied enemies.
    * Endless mode allows you to test your mettle against increasingly difficult enemies. Compare your best scores to friends and guildmates!
    * [PTR]: Access to the Proving Grounds and more information is coming soon.

    Sounds like a nice thing to have. One of the bad things about WoW is that it's hard to learn to play it properly. Sure, anyone can blunder through levelling, spamming the same spell over and over, but healing and tanking are skills that are stressful to learn in a group environment. Especially when starting out.

    It also has the potential for ilvl barriers removed at some point and replaced with a minimum Proving Ground rating instead. That would save some time for those of us who know our way around a class we've just levelled, as well as encouraging the really poor players to get a little bit better. Very few people are prepared to accept that they're terrible, maybe failing to even get a bronze ranking in one of these would be the kick up the backside they need.

  2. #2
    It does sound very interesting, but I'm afraid for the scaling, if any. I don't want it to be super hard in greens and cakewalks in heroic purples. It should scale so that it's really only about skill, about using the proper spells, managing mana, threat, etc. and not about gear. I'm afraid it will be like Brawlers guild, where tactics are important, but gear even more so.

  3. #3
    Sounds cool.

    I can finally pick up healing.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Amerissis View Post
    It does sound very interesting, but I'm afraid for the scaling, if any. I don't want it to be super hard in greens and cakewalks in heroic purples. It should scale so that it's really only about skill, about using the proper spells, managing mana, threat, etc. and not about gear. I'm afraid it will be like Brawlers guild, where tactics are important, but gear even more so.
    I'd be absolutely amazed if it doesn't use the same scaling tech as challenge modes. The whole point of it is comparability across players, so without using challenge mode scaling to take gear out of the equation it would be pointless. I think this will be a fantastic tool for guild recruitment, for training players to get better and generally bragging rights. Been looking forward to it since it was announced ages ago.

  5. #5
    I guess they'd only downscale ilvl in endless mode leaving it as a test of skill while the other 3 can be used as a test of character power. That would allow these to be the gating mechanism for queues rather than ilvl.

  6. #6
    Is this something that's only available at the maximum level?

  7. #7
    Herald of the Titans RicardoZ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amerissis View Post
    It does sound very interesting, but I'm afraid for the scaling, if any. I don't want it to be super hard in greens and cakewalks in heroic purples. It should scale so that it's really only about skill, about using the proper spells, managing mana, threat, etc. and not about gear. I'm afraid it will be like Brawlers guild, where tactics are important, but gear even more so.
    I totally agree, but I think that people would then start to wonder what they're breaking their backs to get gear for. Blizzard has unfortunately made the game all about gear gear gear gear gear and it's the be-all end-all of everything in the game now. Doesn't seem like they'd be in the mood to design something along those lines. Chances are if you have heroic purples then you have little use for this feature anyway.

    I hope that the scores are realm-wide so that you can prove that you're the best at your class/spec beyond any doubt.

  8. #8

    Cool

    Quote Originally Posted by RicardoZ View Post
    I totally agree, but I think that people would then start to wonder what they're breaking their backs to get gear for. Blizzard has unfortunately made the game all about gear gear gear gear gear and it's the be-all end-all of everything in the game now. Doesn't seem like they'd be in the mood to design something along those lines. Chances are if you have heroic purples then you have little use for this feature anyway.

    I hope that the scores are realm-wide so that you can prove that you're the best at your class/spec beyond any doubt.
    If you want to prove you're the best it's going to have to be downscaled. People are always saying that players in Paragon or the other top guilds aren't the best players of their class, they just have more time on their hands and better gear. Downscale everyone to ilevel 480 and let's see the scores... Then it becomes totally about skill and you can do comparisons worldwide. They already have the tech with challenge modes, and proving grounds seem to follow the same bronze/silver/gold approach- I'm sure they'll baseline the gear levels to ensure this is all about skill. The name of the feature says it all- proving grounds, not out gearing grounds...

  9. #9
    Epic! dryankem's Avatar
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    I'm really looking forward to this feature, however I'm not sure how well it's going to be implemented. The issue I see is that people will still ignore certain aspects (ie disarm or slow) by just overpowering the encounter (ie the monk daily quest told you to slow the one monk down but I would always just use touch of death instead). It also won't likely show you how to play efficiently and I'm not sure if they are going to update the training ground every time they change a spell or add something new (ie resto druids are changing quite a bit in 5.4 if all the changes happen).

    However with my reservations I still think this is really going to be good for the game and I look forward to trying it out.

  10. #10
    Legendary! Frolk's Avatar
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    Hope they implement that u need to have gotten Bronze or better to queue for future heroic 5man/scenario or LFR
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  11. #11
    It's a great way to establish a baseline skill level for guilds who are more strict on raider skill during recruiting. For example,

    "Blah Blah Guild is now recruiting raiders for core 25 man. Must have 520 ilvl and completed Silver level Proving Grounds!" Certainly gives more to go with than just ilvl.

  12. #12
    I hope they DON'T make these on leaderboards like Challenge Modes; the last thing this game needs is more shit for people to flex their e-peen and/or degrade others (e.g. "lol nub u don't even hav brnze proving grounds gtfo" or "leet gold proving grounds tank lf 14/14H SOO clear")

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Arothand View Post
    I hope they DON'T make these on leaderboards like Challenge Modes; the last thing this game needs is more shit for people to flex their e-peen and/or degrade others (e.g. "lol nub u don't even hav brnze proving grounds gtfo" or "leet gold proving grounds tank lf 14/14H SOO clear")
    Oh the horror.....

    ....the horror... Ill be seeing this in my nightmares tonight.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Sills View Post
    Oh the horror.....

    ....the horror... Ill be seeing this in my nightmares tonight.
    "Link achi and gs" still rocks

  15. #15
    The Undying Slowpoke is a Gamer's Avatar
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    If there was one feature I think risks being delayed until 5.5 or 6.0 (whichever is next), it's this.
    FFXIV - Maduin (Dynamis DC)

  16. #16
    The Unstoppable Force Arrashi's Avatar
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    Sounds cool, it could give some cosmetic items (and possibly gold) to encourage people to use it and get better at game. Really liking this idea.

  17. #17
    I could see as a new way to classify good players vs bad player. Seems like a better way to sort than with ilvl. It would also be interesting to see a "license' style system like Gran Turismo. LFR GOLD, LFR Silver, LFR Bronze. HAHA I guess this really wouldn't work out.

  18. #18
    Merely a Setback Trassk's Avatar
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    Wow's needing this for a while. Trying to learn on the job in wow is often meet with discouraging retorts of other players who call you shit if you don't do a good job.
    #boycottchina

  19. #19
    While I admire the intent behind this, I'm skeptical of the results.

    I used to tank in a 10 man guild in ICC. Took a couple years break and have been back playing the last couple months as DPS in LFR. I would love to tank again, but tanking is more than just learning how your cooldowns work. Each encounter has unique mechanics that involving timing, mob positioning, agro switches, to name a few. I'm just afraid that a new tank will be excited about rocking the Proving Grounds, only to be laughed out of their first LFR for not knowing that "those two mobs should have been tanked next to each other" or "why did you have him face the healers" and so on.

    If the Proving Grounds somehow worked in a way so that the mechanics in there trained you in a similar way to the boss mechanics on the current raid tier, that would be amazing. I'm thinking of the way the mobs in the Stormstout Brewery educated you on the way the final fight would go, you know? Just a pipe dream, but I'm trying to improve the experience for all those future tanks out there.

  20. #20
    "Endless mode allows you to test your mettle against increasingly difficult enemies. Compare your best scores to friends and guildmates!"

    This is the most interesting part to me.

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