Hall of Novices actually make a small reference to positionals during the first DPS exercise that requires defeating the opponent. It tells you that attacking from behind an enemy can deal more damage. The problem is that it doesn't mention that some attacks are meant to be performed directly behind the enemy while others are intended to be done from the flanks, and where one ends and the other begins.

The big problem with programming something like this is jobs aren't truly homogenized. Different though similar skills between jobs get added at different levels. We also have jobs that start at higher levels. When do these exercises get introduced? Also jobs and abilities get redesigned occasionally. Change when abilities get added and exercises may no longer work at the level they were programmed to be learned.

Certainly I would love to see Hall of Novices expanded to include more exercises relevant to all jobs, such as common mechanic markers and Limit Break, but going into job mechanics may not be realistic for the system.

Quote Originally Posted by Shougun View Post
I heard a number of good things with the in essence hall of X job WoW had with it's 'Proving Gounds'. Wonder if SE has checked that out, not saying to make a 1:1 copy but for inspiration and to see what worked well and what didn't.
Unless it's been radically changed since I quit playing, Proving Grounds was a test, not a teaching tool. Either you beat an encounter and moved to the next wave, or you didn't and had to start over from the beginning. There was no advice on what to do or what went wrong (outside of snarky NPCs in the Healer trials talking about how you needed to heal faster if they died while standing in AoEs). It was still left up to the player to turn to other players or third party sources to try to figure out what they needed to do to improve then go back to try again.

Ultimately, it didn't solve the problems that players were hoping it would solve in end game dungeons - making certain players were ready for the content. Someone could beat Gold or even Endless - and still not give a crap about putting in effort when joining random groups for dungeons or raids.

Attitude is as much of a problem as skill. Someone can have all the skill in the world but if they have a poor attitude, they're still going to cause problems for the groups they join.