Extending Hall of Novice

[Correl]

While listening to the most recent episode of Sequence Break XIV (http://zantetsuken.net/sequencebreak...e40-u-wot-mate), the topic of how to teach newer players how to play the game and get them involved in end-game stuff. There are two systems that have been added to help address the issue recently (Hall of Novice and the Mentor Network). Personally, I feel like Hall of Novice was a step in the right direction and I’d like to see them follow it up with more training in a similar vein. This inspired me to do a brief a write up of new training mechanisms I’d like to see them add to the game. Let me know what you think!

[Correl]

Hall of Journeyman
While Hall of Novice focuses on the basic mechanics that are going to show up in the leveling dungeons, the hall of the journeyman would focus on common mechanics/roles that appear in the 50+ plus content. Similar to the Hall of Novice, these would be individual exercises that focus on role training, so they would cover the following tactics/scenarios:

Tank

• Tank swapping - both as the tank w/ hate and as the tank that needs to gain hate.
• Rotating cooldowns - Having a defensive cooldown up for multiple attacks over the course of several minutes.
• Off tanking.

DPS

• More focus on DPSing while dodging.
• Stacking cooldowns to meet DPS checks.
• Threat management while attacking mobs.

[Correl]

Healer

• Healing through burst damage.
• Common status effects and how to deal with them (IE full healing types of doom, shielding to prevent knockback/statuses, etc…)
• The ever controversial DPSing while healing/stance dancing.

Hall of Journeyman would need appropriate rewards to incentivize people to do them, so I would throw out that upon completion, the player gets either a barding or a mount that properly embodies the role that it was completed on.

Hall of Master
While the previous halls were role-based, Hall of Master would be job-specific. The goal of this hall would be to train the player to be able to play their job in max-level content. Each of the floors would be catered to particular scenarios that are likely to come up in while running max level dungeons and trials. Some of the classes I play would probably cover the following:

[Correl]

Scholar

• Pre-shielding a tank buster.
• Using Deployment Tactics + Sacred Soil to mitigate raid damage.
• Recovering from AoE damage (using Indomitability + Succor + Emergency Tactics)
• Pet placement
• Ability synergies: (Rouse + Whispering Dawn, Swiftcast + Raise, Fey Illumination + Whispering Dawn/Adloquium)
• Basic DPS rotation.
• DoT priority/uptime training.

Warrior

• Triple Fell Cleave rotation.
• How to use Raw Intuition and not take all the crits.
• Keeping Storm’s Path and Fracture up.
• Combining offensive cooldowns while MT (Berserk + Unchained + Bloodbath).
• Stance dancing while maintaining hate.

[Correl]

Black Mage

• Basic 60 rotation (Enochian + Fire IV).
• Maintaining Enochian during mechanics.
• DPSing while moving.
• Utilizing procs.
• When to pop the wards.
• When you can move without interrupting the casts.

The above are just meant to illustrate what sorts of training would be involved. The goal being that by the time you’re down with the Hall of Master, you are reasonable at your job in most circumstances. For people learning their jobs for the first time, this training will probably take a while, so the rewards would have to be of commensurate value. I was thinking that this would be a great place to put a relic catch up feature, so that when you complete the training, you get your relic, but a step or two behind current level. This would make the time investment in the training worth it, as well as giving an alternative way to catch up with the relic without needing to do the grind.

[Correl]

Hall of Specialist
This would be the go-to place to learn specific end-game fights. I’d view this as an advanced version of the Stone, Sky, Sea where it’s fight specific, but instead of just being a single long DPS check, each fight is broken into individual phases with each phase mapping to a challenge/floor. It would take place in an actual arena and it would feature a shadow version of the boss. Each floor would focus on the mechanics of each phase like:

• AoE patterns
• Debuffs that need to be swapped/purged
• DPS checks
• How to deal with adds
• Tank busters

I don’t think there really needs to be a reward for this (being able to clear an end-game fight is rewarding on it’s own).

[MsFo]

Overall a very good idea, but there's one point I disagree with:

I don’t think there really needs to be a reward for this (being able to clear an end-game fight is rewarding on it’s own).

I think some sort of extrinsic motivational factor (e.g. a shiny looking armor set) would at least help getting new players started with taking their time to learn those basics.

[Deathgiver]

I fully support this idea! I do agree with MsFo though, rewards would be good to funnel people into the content that might otherwise pass it by thinking that they're playing "good enough" already.

[Correl]

Overall a very good idea, but there's one point I disagree with:

I think some sort of extrinsic motivational factor (e.g. a shiny looking armor set) would at least help getting new players started with taking their time to learn those basics.

One of the things I had though of was that for the EX primals, upon the first completion of all the training exercises for them, you could receive one of the token things used to purchase the weapons. That would provide some motivation (saves you a run) without making it "required" (IE I want the armor, so I have to run it).

[ZiggyE]

Can't upvote this suggestion enough. Love this idea.