So I’ve been playing a lot of Beta and this has come to my attention much faster since then, but it is a comment I’ve had for a few years now and that I believe a lot of people have too.
Training dummies, especially in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, are outdated, barely allows correct DPS testing, barely allows AOE, doesn’t allow for healing testing and are so weirdly placed too that the entire zone for those (mostly in Stormwind) feels off, weird, old and unfun.
Stormwind Issues
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It may sound dumb but those damn squirrels or rabbit. They keep spawning in front of the second biggest Raider’s Training Dummy, and I’ve known some DPS meters to be petty about it, but even if they aren’t, why is that still happening lmao. As far as I know it’s a simple .command that GMs can use to make it stop as well xD
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AOE is legit impossible for some classes. You can pretty much get at most 2 targets, sometimes a third on some big aoe spells, or you clip the one behind you on your right or left while trying to tap the 3 further ones, DPS meters are all over the places, unreadable because clipped this dummy or that one, because it did damage over 3 targets on 2 spells but 2 on all the others, ect.
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There’s a bigass tree right behind the second biggest Raider’s Training Dummy, it blocks the view from the 3 further " Aoe " ones, it’s in the way and could leave space for other things.
I don’t know much about Orgrimmar, I think it’s in better shape, but I do think the mountain and the hut blocks the view a bit from the 4 " Aoe " dummies on the right.
What is needed in Stormwind / Orgrimmar
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Grouped up Dummies exactly like in Boralus / Zandalar or Valdrakken, which in my opinion are the greatest spot to test damage even tho it’s lacking some other options. Have a pair of 2, a pack of 3 and a pack of 5 Dummies really clustered up together in 3 different groups far apart enough that most AoE spells don’t randomly touch the others.
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Have dummies of different health levels, like 100% for usual openers that heals faster than once every 5 seconds so that it cannot go under 80%, then one at 1% for execute phases for any class, maybe one at 50% who will always cast healing spells that are interruptable to try to go back to 50% when lowered, ect.
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Have healing dummies that are better made than what we have. Some meters have trouble with healing HPS when the player isn’t in combat, and in Boralus at least getting in combat was possible if you were to grab one of the mob super far from there and heal from far away. Maybe make it so you can talk to an NPC to have him attack you (while being invisible to others and doing 1 damage a spell without interrupting or lowering your cast time), also have individuals dummies and grouped up ones to test multiple kind of healing. Also for classes like Monk, make a circle of healing dummies around a damaging one, so that they can attack it to heal.
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A way cleaner area than the cluster of trees, walls, houses and bushes that we have currently in Stormwind, allowing for a better view of our surrounding, allowing for a better distribution of the Dummies so that spells can’t clip everything at once.
In conclusion
I think training areas all lack something but also all have their own way of shining, like Boralus/Zandalar or Valdrakken with their grouped up training dummies, or the class halls for usually having a more vast zone of testing or less dummy clusters in general, or Stormwind / Orgrimmar for their OG zone vibe, but I think it’s really time to have 1 dedicated Testing ground for people.
It could even be pushed further, Turning Proving Ground into Testing Ground, having that NPC who you could talk to to change from Healing Dummies to Tanking Dummies to DPS Dummies, to having a pair of 2 or a pack of 3 or 5 or 8… just having OPTIONS.
Also, for the love of god the almighty Sargeras, ALLOW FOR LUST TO BE REMOVED ON DEMAND. Waiting 10 minutes between realistic raid opening tests is simply absurd. On the beta mostly, I want to test every talent but will I really do that when I have to wait 10 minutes between each pull…?