It’s a double edged sword for sure. I mean, I get the idea behind it; here’s a solo scenario that shows you can complete basic tasks that you might be asked to do in a Heroic Dungeon. But the tasks you’re asked to do, for me, don’t always match up with what goes on. I picked an example from each of something you are asked to do (or not asked to do) that make me feel like I’m playing a different game just to play the game I want to.
Tanking Silver
The fact that I need to tank a mob in something that hurts us both if we are in it seems alien – and I’ve yet to find an ability in a dungeon or raid that has asked me to do that. The fact that the NPC puts out poor healing and only mediocre damage leaves me feeling like this is less about whether I can hold aggro, use my mitigation and move correctly and more about whether I can carry a group that isn’t doing its job properly.
DPS Silver
Totally imbalanced for class for a start; this was orders of magnitude more difficult on my shadow priest than on the paladin. But more importantly the damn thing never once asked me to move, and never did anything damaging. How often do DPS players die in fire under their feet because they didn’t notice? Yet this simple to add function isn’t present in the challenge, only a simple positioning puzzle that once you solve, makes the fight trivial. Once I was in the right location, I never had to move, I was never targeted by a relevant ability and I never had to use a personal cooldown to survive unavoidable damage. This is completely different to a dungeon or raid environment and still leaves me running heroics with DPS who don’t pay attention and stand (and die) in the fire.
Healing Silver
Of all the proving grounds this felt the closest to a real fight. The tank took steady damage and there was raid damage to heal through. Dispels are needed and if you don’t plan, you can go OOM. It was also the challenge I found the easiest precisely because of this; It was like healing a bad PUG, complete with tanks whining and DPS standing in the fire. However it felt once again like the challenge was about carrying incompetent players.
Future versions
For me the idea of a skill test before running heroics is a great plan; but the challenge should reflect the dungeons more. People should be expected to move out of void zones in all the challenges, not just the Tank and Healer. The tasks should be balanced more for classes and think about including similar mechanics to actual fights.
Learning to Heal (and other roles) 