Defeating the Operations Training Dummy should give conquest points and loot

There is an epidemic in this game of players not knowing how to play their class, even though the game has training dummies and guides written by some of the best players in the game. I think that part of the problem is that there aren't any in-game incentives to practice rotations on the training dummies, and given that some players have more limited time, they are less likely to do something that isn't going to give them some sort of rewards. Players should be rewarded for working on getting better at their spec. These rewards could be loot (gear and tech fragments) and RXP dropping from the dummy as well as dedicated Conquest objectives worth a specific amount of points.

In order to make sure people are actually focusing on getting better, how much you get rewarded would depend on how quickly you can defeat the dummy at a given health level, like if you defeat the 6.5m dummy in less than 5 and half mins you get 2k conquest points and a little bit of gear and if you defeat the dummy in less than 5 mins, you get 4k conquest points and more gear. Those amounts of conquest points are just examples and please don't get hung up on this specific point, but I do think it could be interesting to balance the conquest points given byy this activity such that if you defeat the dummy fast enough it's one of the most efficient ways to get conquest and loot. For example, if you manage to pull NiM numbers by defeating the dummy in under 5 mins, it provides conquest points similar to what you'd get out of doing EV Farm and loot similar to what you'd get out of a NiM boss and if you do it in under 6 mins or whatever your requirements are for HM, you get HM level loot and still a pretty efficient way to earn conquest points.

A new modulator for the dummy could be used to track time for rewards and would provide a simple in-game way for players to track their progress without having to install any 3rd party software like StarParse. This modulator could also prevent multiple players from attacking the same dummy to try and game the system by behaving similarly to the Infernal Council bosses in EV where only the first player that attacks deals full damage and anyone else that attacks them gets a debuff that reduces their damage and healing output. Achievements could also be granted for defeating the dummy at a given health level within a certain amount of time for each discipline or advanced class.

That's *endemic* in all MMORPGs.
Players should be rewarded for playing the content they like playing. If that means they get better at playing their spec, so much the better, but the per-player goal should be *having*fun*. It's a *game*, not a job.

Standing there killing dummies is a job.

More to the point, perhaps, fighting against the dummy is not even half the puzzle. It doesn't teach anyone how to heal, how to tank, how to avoid standing in stupid, when to kite, when to push the point, which way the tank should orient the boss, when to get out of the way of implicitly-telegraphed things like the big laser in Toborro's, etc.

Great idea for a farming exploit.

A lot of people are not interested in perfecting their rotation or fine tuning their equipment or don’t have time to do so and adding the dummy won’t change anything to it. They’d just bash the training dummy the same way they kill other stuff in the game and that’s ok. It’s a game, everyone can play it as they like.

Story mode operations and flashpoints, save a few MM like Meridian, are a joke and it’s easy to carry people. Those players won’t get into Vet or Nim ops (save perhaps KP, EV) anyway, many won’t go beyond vet fps. Also, as mentioned above it doesn’t solve the mechanic shortfalls.

Instead some MM FPs like Meridian, BOR, Nathema and Chiss should be put in a separate tier for the queue and the reward for those FP should be adjusted. They are not difficult but you’ve got to minimally know how to play your class and get out of stupid. No need for the dummy to get into those though.

Anyway, loot for defeating the dummy? People would just farm it instead of playing actual content and grouping up. The dummy should remain accessory for those wanting to get into more advanced content.

I was about to say that. While I get what OP wants... no, please no.

The only ways to exploit this as a loot or CQ objective would be to have multiple players attack the same dummy or put it on the very low health level and repeatedly kill it. The multiple players on one dummy issue would be taken care of by making it so that only the first person who attacks the dummy could continue to damage the dummy. This mechanic already exists on the Eternal Council fight in EV. The very low health level part could be alleviated by making it so that you don't nearly as much of a reward (or none at all) if you don't kill the 6.5m health level and you get less rewards the longer it takes to kill it.

If you just think it would be a boring grind, I don't really see how it's any less of one than doing Hammer Station or EV farm over and over and over again and it's not like you'd have to do it if you didn't want to. I really don't get why anyone would ever think that adding a reward to something would make it compulsory.

Next time actually read the post before commenting. You're just wasting everyone's time by bringing up things that were already addressed.

There doesn't need to be a gear related carrot on a stick incentive for learning the basics of your class. The incentive for learning how to play is being able to play correctly and efficiently so you can be better at doing what you like to do in this game (ops, pvp, ect.). If they don't feel incentivized to do so then those players just won't progress to do harder content.

Besides we already have something like this that they can expand upon that doesn't involve turning training dummies into loot pinatas. The arena on Zakuul has rewards and requires you to know how to play(to an extend, some of it is easy but that's why different difficulties exists) I'd rather them expand on that, make more encounters and challenges that are adjusted to what class/spec you are. So healer/dps/tank have different challenges to overcome that show you know how to play your class/role and get rewarded based on how you did.

Its like the same concept as practicing on a training dummy, but at least this would be an actual encounter and not beating on something that doesn't even fight back that gives you loot.

If it's repeatable daily, or once-per-conquest, it can't be *exploited* (as such) by anyone, because you can't do enough of it to make it worthwhile. (But then the proposed value as "encourages people to learn their spec" is essentially nil because it only rewards once a day or once a week.)

If it's "infinitely repeatable" and can earn the player 4K CQP (is that before or after the SH bonus?) and a bunch of gear for five minutes' work, that's exploitable by dedicated people who are good at killing dummies, for 48K CQP an hour with no risk. (If the 4K is *before* the SH bonus, then it's 120K CQP an hour...)