Stone, Sky, Sea

[Eul]

PC mustard rice \o/

[Bamadeus]

As nice as it would be for SE to provide some form of in game parsing or official toolset, I think this dummy content should do the job. People that use parsers in general, as well as content like this is only ever so that people can observe their own progress and be critical of themselves in order to improve.

The basic premise being "you have 3 minutes to kill this thing. If you can't do it you need to learn your rotation a bit better".

I assume this content will be updated with any major patches to keep hp in line with gear level.

Though this isn't the same as fully parsing something (where you could potentially collect numerous bits of data, rather than just get an idea of damage), it'll finally give people who play console and do not know their dps a means to see whether or not what they're doing is correct without relying on anybody to use a parser and tell them specific numbers. "If I can kill this then my rotation is more or less correct and I can start doing hard content"

I see so many people every day whilst doing my roulette that are clearly not bothering with any positional, keeping up buffs or dots, using the wrong skills etc. Maybe they're lazy and just want an easy no stress roulette, maybe they are new to mmos in general and are having a hard time knowing what to do with this huge list of abilities and are overwhelmed.

I don't know if this is just me, but since 3.0 and the introduction of more complicated skillsets I've seen a much, much higher proportion of players that play badly then I have since 2.0 began. I LOVE that square added a bit of complexity to pretty much every class and would like them to continue down this path going forward, but I was starting to grow concerned for the community at large, which seemed largely unaable to sufficiently grasp these new class mechanics. With the introduction of the newbie hall, the mentor system and this dummy dps test I have a lot of hope going forward that I will see less poor plays and more smooth, nice runs, and more casual players making successful party finder groups.

[PArcher]

I remember in one preview/interview/whatever that this was going to have actual fight mechanics included in the fight selected. Like, if you choose "A3 Phase 1" you'll have to deal with a basic Protean Wave and Sluce. "T13, Phase 2" could have an add dummy you have to DPS, as well as some friendlies that you need to position between yourself and the orbs so you don't get more than 2 stacks and fail. Perhaps Titan will have the occasional Plume on the ground you have to dodge. And so on.

The trailer showed a short clip of a DRG using a few attacks. Nothing more.

[Waliel]

Can't wait until people release videos on "How to beat Stone-Sky-Sea Stage X" and nobody learns anything but how to parrot a video for small time frame.

So people would actually learn their proper rotation then? Damn...

It's of course a different thing how they can do it in a real fight, but at least they should have a pretty good grasp on how to dish out the deeps if they can get past the dummy.

[BristolRuss]

The only issue I have with it is that it doesn't look like it's going to tell you why you fail if you fail. It's one thing for the game to say "You don't do enough DPS" but if it still makes players go outside of the game to a third party source just to find out what they are missing then it's never going to be as successful as it could/should be. If a player is already failing the DPS check there's a pretty good chance they aren't someone who's going to want to do homework.

If you fail the DPS check it should make you wear a dunce hat and send you to the beginners hall to be mentored.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

If you fail the DPS check it should make you wear a dunce hat and send you to the beginners hall to be mentored.

The troll in me believes that arriving in the beginners hall upon failing and leaving the instance would be a nice touch to this content lol.

[Felis]

I assume this content will be updated with any major patches to keep hp in line with gear level.

HP of the dummy will not get a HP update
But every boss will get a own dummy

[Zohar_Lahar]

I'm glad they gave training courses for late game content.

[Fourbestintoner]

I only fear it will be too lenient and allow anyone doing 700 dps to pass.

[Remus]

I only fear it will be too lenient and allow anyone doing 700 dps to pass.

I don't think someone doing 700 dps will be able to beat the alex gordias savage dummy. I remember watching yoshi-p doing it not sure which one he was doing a test for but he almost failed it messed up rotation a bit which was kinda funny.

You can watch it here Stone, Sky, Sea