Talents Forever

Training Grounds rules

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Update log

, update 3 of 3

  • Ranked 2v2 is here. Pick 2v2 in Ranked Arena or on the home screen, queue alone or with a friend, or play 2v2 against bots, and climb your own 2v2 ladder.
  • Team rules follow the game: guards and heals go on your partner, Grounding Totem covers the team, and each heal lands on your partner's frame as it happens. Bots in 2v2 go for the kill together and peel for their partner.
  • In 2v2, Enter opens party chat only your partner sees and /s talks to all four. If you die you walk as a ghost and watch your partner finish, and the result has Details, the Combat log and every fighter's rating change.
  • On a big screen the frames, bars, chat and nameplates grow to fit, and Options has a UI Scale slider to set your own size.
  • Play with a gamepad: LT and RT reach four bars, the sticks move and turn the camera, the D-pad targets, and Options lets you rebind every button.
  • After a duel against a bot, Watch replay plays it again in the arena, with pause, double speed and a timeline you can drag to any moment.
  • A new Rules page explains the fight, diminishing returns, Dampening and how ranked works in about 30 seconds.
  • The ladder has a Matchups page that shows how each spec does against every other spec in ranked over the last 7 days.
  • Options has a Graphics setting with Auto, Low, Medium and High, so older phones and laptops can keep the fight smooth.
  • When you come back after a patch, a small What changed card shows the newest changes, with See all for the whole log.
  • A duel against a bot or another player now opens with a short Arena Preparation. For 10 seconds you wait in your start, behind the gate in the Hollow Drain or inside a marked circle in the Ring, and you can buff yourself for free: shields, Blessings, Mark of the Wild, stances, forms and Stealth. Whatever Mana it costs comes back when the gates open.
  • Bots buff during Arena Preparation too.
  • A swing timer under your cast bar shows when your next melee swing or shot comes, and a thin line under your target's frame shows theirs. Melee classes and Hunters get it on by default, and Options turns either one on or off.
  • In ranked, if your foe leaves or goes quiet you no longer take the loss for waiting on them. The player who went quiet takes it.
  • Right-click one of your own buffs, or hold it on a phone, to cancel it, as in the game.
  • Spells cast at a Shaman's totem now hit the totem, Ghost Wolf counts as a Beast, and Purge no longer takes off Templar's Bulwark.
  • In a duel with a friend the win shows only once both screens agree on it, and the Voidwalker no longer spins in place. Joining the Ranked queue many times in a row now makes you wait a moment instead of sending you away.
  • The Spellbook on the Create screen shows the talents of the fighter you are making.
  • Spells work with each other by the game's own data now. A kick only stops what the game lets it stop, so Aimed Shot and Wild Growth keep going, and a kicked Frostfire Bolt locks both Fire and Frost.
  • Divine Shield, Divine Protection and Ice Block can be cast while silenced and take the silence off, Divine Shield gets you out of Repentance, and a Mage can Blink out of a stun while silenced.
  • A missed Sap, Distract, Premeditation and Hunter traps no longer put you in combat, so you can still drink after one.
  • Interrupts respect immunity: a kick on someone inside Divine Shield or Ice Block does nothing.
  • Blind, Polymorph, Fear and Hammer of Justice can be cast while facing away from your target, as in the game.
  • Putting a poison on your weapon no longer touches your foe, so it can't break their Blind.
  • You keep one Blessing from each Paladin at a time, and a crowd control debuff shows how long the hold really lasts after diminishing returns, which now follow the game's own groups.
  • A Judgement cast on a pet stays on the pet instead of landing on its owner.
  • Judging Command or Righteousness no longer takes Judgement of the Crusader off your target: it stays for its 40 seconds, your melee strikes keep refreshing it, and it adds its Holy damage to that Judgement too.
  • A pet's abilities reach a little less far than yours, as on the real server.
  • Pets start on Defensive: they wait until you attack, until you or they are hit, or until you press the new Attack button on the pet bar.
  • If you open chat in the count-in and type nothing, it closes at the go, so your keys move and cast from the first second.
  • On a phone, a Rogue in Stealth gets the Stealth row they set in the Spellbook, in their own order.
  • Dampening starts a minute after the first blow instead of at the go.
  • Arms Warriors: Execute's Rage part now gets your talent and crit bonuses (a 100 Rage crit went from 3,910 to 4,248). Paladins: Holy Shock and Light's Vigil now grow with healing power.
  • Subtlety Rogues: Rupture deals the right damage for Serrated Blades. Druids: Primal Bite adds the 77 its tooltip says, and Tranquility now grows with healing power.
  • Arcane Shot, Wing Clip, a Hawk's dive, Holy Nova, Penance and Prayer of Mending now match the game's numbers.
  • Enhancement Shaman's totems were counted twice in its damage, and Retribution's Two-Handed Weapon Specialization is now the game's 6%.
  • Five default builds now take the talents most real players take, such as Furor for Feral Druids.
  • A blow a shield fully soaks still counts as a hit, and a feared Paladin no longer swings.
  • Your buffs show your auras, stances and aspects, a small stack tracker sits over your bars, totems have nameplates you can click, tap or Tab to, and Grounding Totem shows as a buff.
  • Every nameplate carries the fighter's class icon, and your foe's cooldowns show under their target frame.
  • Every result screen has a Details breakdown of damage, healing, damage taken and control, spell by spell.
  • The duel home shows how many people are here, in queue and in duels, and your latency shows under the clock.
  • The Spellbook names the rank you cast at 60 instead of rank 1's level. On desktop, Camera following (Never, Smart or Always) is in Key bindings.
  • Anyone can mute a player with /ignore and undo it with /unignore or the Muted players list in Controls. Players who abuse chat can be muted or kept out of ranked.
  • Every class plays its true numbers: the Training Grounds no longer scales any class's damage, healing or shields for balance. Shadow Priests deal their full Shadow damage, Shadowform cuts Physical damage by its full 15% and Power Word: Shield absorbs its full amount.
  • Consecration no longer keeps anyone in combat when it hits nobody: standing outside it keeps you out, and a Paladin whose Consecration hits nothing can be Sapped once their own combat ends.
  • The Spellbook lets a spell sit on your Stealth or stance bar and on your normal bars at once: dragging it onto one no longer takes it off the other.

, update 2 of 3

  • Your character's spoken error lines ("Not ready yet", "Out of range") are off by default. Turn on Error voices in the sound panel if you want them. The red error text still shows.
  • A quick right-click on your foe now targets them and starts your attack, as in the game, even if the mouse moves a little. Right-drag still turns.
  • Escape works as in the game: it closes a window, stops your cast or clears your target, then opens a Game Menu. Leaving the duel is a choice in that menu, and it asks first in ranked and friend duels. No key leaves a fight any more.
  • Turning with the mouse shows the browser's "has control of your pointer" notice far less often, and a quick right-click no longer takes the pointer at all.
  • A Blinded fighter walks the way they face, at walking speed, instead of sliding sideways.
  • An error like "You are facing the wrong way!" shows once, instead of stacking the same line again and again.
  • Stealth, Prowl, a form or a stance that is on now lights its button with the game's gold rim, so you can see at a glance whether Stealth took or you were knocked out of it.
  • Debuffs on your target are bigger, each with a sweep and a countdown that turns red in its last 3 seconds, so a stun or a sheep is easy to read and to time.
  • Druids and Warriors reach every form and stance button on a phone: a form's own buttons come first while you are in it (the Bear's Maul, Demoralizing Roar and Enrage were behind Healing Touch), and Shred, Dash, Frenzied Regeneration, Disarm, Overpower and Retaliation are on the phone too.
  • Priests who heal find Greater Heal on their phone bar again, without opening More.
  • Damage and healing over time can crit exactly when the game's spell says so: Rake, Pounce, Siphon Life, Devouring Plague and Healing Stream now can, Deep Wounds, Ignite and Consecration never do.
  • An auto attack held up by facing says "You are facing the wrong way!" once, Feign Death ends when you turn in place, and Flurry speeds the very next swing after the crit.
  • Enhancement Shaman: Lightning Bolt no longer counted its spell power twice (now 292 to 313).
  • Shadow Priest: Blackout stuns at its tooltip's 10% chance again.
  • Duels load less sound up front, and a rare error on phones with a slow graphics chip is fixed.

, update 1 of 3

  • A Training Dummy DPS board: a 1 minute run in the Ring goes on the board, checked by replaying your run on the server, with the best for each class and spec. Find it on the Ladder page.
  • Abilities land the instant you press them: stuns, sheeps, finishers, Mortal Strike and Frostbolt no longer wait up to 0.4 seconds to take effect.
  • Every press shows on the next frame: the cast bar, the cooldown sweep, the animation and the sound no longer wait for the duel's next 50 millisecond step.
  • On a phone, a tap made early in the global cooldown is kept and cast the moment it ends, so an early tap is never lost.
  • A Rogue's or a cat's press a little short of Energy waits for the next Energy tick when it comes within 0.4 seconds, instead of failing.
  • A and D now strafe, and the mouse turns you (hold the right button). Prefer the old way? Turn on Classic turning at the top of Key Bindings.
  • Your foe is targeted the moment the fight starts, so the screen stays clear. On a phone a tap out of reach no longer runs you in: move with the stick, as in the game.
  • Rogues: Rupture bleeds for every spec, the off hand carries Crippling Poison, Expose Armor takes the armor off, Distract no longer turns a foe who is fighting you, and Sprint and Blind sit on the default keys.
  • Combat is your own: Vanish and Feign Death take you out of combat while your foe stays in, Stealth, Prowl and Charge are refused in combat as in the game, Sap works again on a foe who has left combat, and health comes back out of combat.
  • Water for every class that uses Mana: you carry 20 Morning Glory Dew, and a Mage carries 20 Conjured Crystal Water and can conjure more. Sit and drink out of combat; moving, pressing a button or taking a hit stands you up. No food.
  • Buffs come back after a dispel: when a Purge or Dispel Magic takes your Blessing, Fortitude, Arcane Intellect or Mark of the Wild, its stats go with it, and your class's buffs sit on Bar 4 so you can cast them again.
  • Warlocks can summon a new demon from their bars and use Demonic Sacrifice for real, with Fel Domination, Master Summoner and Soul Shards as in the game, and Blood Pact now keeps its health.
  • Talents: 443 of the 465 talents now work as their text says, every talent spell your build gives sits on a key, and Arcane Wrath and Elemental Mastery can be cast.
  • Healing: a heal shows its whole amount, overheal included, heals over time keep the healing they were cast with, F1 or a tap on your own frame targets you, and Dampening cuts every shield too.
  • Casters can wand through a silence or a kick, a Mage or Warlock wears one armor at a time, and Mage Armor keeps half your Mana regeneration while casting.
  • Mages and Warlocks: Ice Lance on a Frozen foe always gets its Frozen damage, Arcane Blast is a buff on you, Demonology can cast Conflagrate, Fel Domination lasts 15 seconds, and the Felhunter's Devour Magic takes a buff off your foe (Purge and Dispel Magic now take off Arcane Power and other Mage and Warlock buffs too).
  • Shamans and Hunters: a totem replaces the one of its element, Grounding Totem works at 30 yards, the Frost traps share their cooldown, and Auto Shot runs on the bow's 2.4 seconds. A Hunter's Boar runs its Charge at the game's speed and strikes when it arrives, instead of jumping there.
  • A Feral's Enrage gives all 30 Rage and keeps it while it lasts, Flurry speeds three swings and fades after 15 seconds, and Intimidation sent from the pet bar starts its cooldown on your own bar too.
  • Bots play their class at every level: Easy and Normal no longer stand idle, a Protection Warrior keeps Defensive Stance, melee steps around a trap it saw go down, and bots press their talent cooldowns.
  • Moving: holding Jump keeps hopping, a light push on the phone stick walks, two fingers zoom the camera on a phone, and the camera pulls in when you look up from below.
  • Sound and look: 39 more of the game's sounds, each spec's own weapon sounds, demon voices, quiet ticks for damage and healing over time, a stun you can see at a glance, enemy nameplates in their class colors and the game's power bar colors.
  • In-fight tips are gone, for a cleaner screen.

, update 4 of 4

  • Choose your pet before the duel: a Warlock brings the Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus or Felhunter, a Hunter one of seven beasts (Boar, Cat, Wolf, Scorpid, Raptor, Bear or Spider). Right-click a pet button (long press on a phone) to turn its autocast on or off.
  • A second arena joins the rotation: the Hollow Drain, a flooded Halloween vault with pillars and waterfalls. About one duel in three is fought there, and the Ring the rest.
  • Stealth and stance bars: in Stealth a Rogue's keys 1 to 6 are a bar of their own, and a Warrior gets one for Defensive Stance and one for Berserker Stance, as in the game.
  • Diminishing returns work as in the game: the same kind of stun, fear, root, sheep or silence within 15 seconds of the last one lasts half as long, then a quarter, then the target is immune, and the timers and the Combat Log show the real time.
  • Dampening: after the first minute of a duel, all healing and shields are cut by 10% more every 10 seconds, the same for both players, so a healer can no longer outlast the clock. It shows as a Dampening aura on both players. Never on the Training Dummy.
  • Hiding never wins on time: a player who spent more than half of the last minute, or of the whole duel, in Stealth, Prowl or Shadowmeld can no longer win when the clock runs out.
  • About 50 class fixes: Divine Shield and Divine Protection work inside Blind and Freezing Trap, and Bloodthirst deals its damage on any spec that takes it.
  • 221 more spells use the game's own effects, 312 in all.
  • The ladder shows each player's race, with a new page on how each race does in its class, and a countdown to WoW Forever's launch sits on the home screen and after every duel.
  • Practice and the Training Dummy start up to 3 seconds sooner on a phone, and practice bots play smarter: Rogues Vanish when losing, Mages put Ice Barrier back up, Shamans drop Grounding Totem.
  • Phones: Jump now sits on the right with your other buttons, so your left thumb moves you and your right thumb jumps.
  • Fixes: mouse buttons 4 and 5 bind and cast, Shred works from behind, Survival's shots use attack power, the sound setting is remembered, the "A pillar is in the way" tip is gone, Water Shield shows its globes, and each demon's health in the pet window matches the duel, your fighter no longer turns white for a moment after you leave a fight, the Voidwalker keeps its bracers on its wrists, and nameplates glide aside instead of jumping.

, update 3 of 4

  • Greyed talents now work for Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Shaman, Mage, Warlock and Druid, each by its tooltip. A talent that still does nothing in a duel says why.
  • Strikes the game normalises (Mortal Strike, Multi-Shot, Backstab, Stormstrike and 12 more) use its normalised weapon speed: Multi-Shot on Marksmanship hits for 368 to 425.
  • Beast Mastery and Marksmanship Hunters: Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite and Counterattack deal their damage.
  • Connection: a reconnect that hangs is tried again after 2 seconds instead of waiting up to 20.
  • Practice and the Training Dummy reach the fight about 4 seconds sooner.
  • Chain Lightning shows its real arc, Holy Light its sparkle, and the Frostbolt and Frost Shock hit is softer.

, update 2 of 4

  • Spells now use the game's own effects: Lava Burst, Lightning Bolt, Frostbolt, Fireball, Shadow Bolt, Arcane Missiles, Cone of Cold and about 80 more.
  • Phones: the DPS meter and the queue are small pills you tap for more, the frames are slimmer, and the pet buttons sit at the edge.
  • The Training Dummy's nameplate no longer jitters at some distances.
  • Gore Drinker works, and so do the Arms talents that were greyed out. A talent that still does nothing in a duel says why.
  • Multi-Shot deals its damage again; Mocking Blow, Distract and Mend Pet from a bar work; Hunters swing their two-hander.
  • Animations: Ghost Wolf has its cast pose, a polymorphed sheep walks, Slam swings, Ice Block holds you frozen.
  • Connection: the countdown evens both players out before the fight starts.

, update 1 of 4

  • Shadow Priest tuned down in duels: Shadow damage 15% lower, Shadowform takes 5% off physical damage instead of 15%, Power Word: Shield absorbs half as much, Blackout procs half as often.
  • Every class checked against WoW Forever's tooltips, about 75 fixes: Mind Flay slows 50%, Blackout rolls once per Shadow spell, Recklessness, Death Wish, Holy Shield, Aspect of the Monkey, Cold Blood, Lightning Overload, Cone of Cold, Entangling Roots and more.
  • Fingers of Frost: both charges now count as Frozen for Shatter.
  • Feral: Shifting Power works, turning 55% of your base mana into 40 Energy in Cat Form on an 8 sec cooldown.
  • Warlock: your mana bar no longer runs dry on its own after a minute of casting, and Life Tap gives its full 424 mana.
  • The 30 Oct talent hotfix: rebuilt Paladin and Druid trees, Arcane Blast, Swiftmend, Revenge, Light's Vigil.
  • Smoother opponents: far fewer corrections at normal ping.
  • Fewer freezes: a dead connection comes back in about 3 seconds, and a slow opponent no longer slows you down.
  • Friend duels survive a dropped connection for 20 seconds.
  • Switching tabs no longer freezes your opponent's screen.
  • Desktop: even frame pacing on high refresh screens, and a Smooth or Quality choice under Graphics in Key Bindings (K).
  • Slower computers now lower their graphics on their own when they struggle.
  • Phones reach the first fight faster.
  • Holding both mouse buttons to run works again after a long turn.
  • Proc tracker above your cast bar: Maelstrom Weapon, Heating Up, Shatter windows, Overpower and more. Turn it off in Key Bindings.
  • The training dummy never dies.
  • Key bindings are saved per character, and the HUD can be moved (Edit layout in Key Bindings).
  • Piercing Howl, Improved Berserker Rage and Strider Kick fixed, and the sound button is easier to find.
  • Polymorphed pets turn into a sheep, and the Felhunter is its real size.
  • On phones the chat button is gone; chat is Enter on a keyboard.

The rules

Everything that decides a duel here, short enough to read before your next one.

The fight

  • You fight at level 60 in your class's Tier 1 set with Molten Core weapons.
  • Every button's damage, cost, cooldown and cast time is the number in WoW Forever's own beta files. Nothing is tuned for balance.
  • Most buttons share a 1.5 sec global cooldown. A Rogue's buttons and a Druid's in Cat Form have 1 sec, as in the game.
  • Before the go you get 10 sec of Arena Preparation in your start: take a stance, form, Aspect or Stealth and cast instant buffs on yourself with a cooldown of 30 sec or less, free of cost.
  • A duel lasts 3 minutes from the go (2 minutes against an Easy bot). When the clock runs out, the higher share of health wins and an even share is a draw.

Diminishing returns

Crowd control on you lasts at most 10 sec, as in TBC arenas: a Sap, Polymorph, Fear or Freezing Trap stops there. Each kind of control lasts 50% as long the second time it lands on you, 25% the third, then you are immune to it until 15 sec after the last one wears off. Death Coil, silences, disarms and slows keep their own time, except Hamstring, which also stops at 10 sec.

Which controls share a group

The groups are the game's own:

Stuns
Charge, Intercept, War Stomp, Hammer of Justice, Cheap Shot, Bash, Pounce, Concussion Blow, Intimidation
Stuns from a chance on hit
Impact, Pyroclasm, Blackout, Improved Starfire, Seal of Justice, Improved Concussive Shot
Kidney Shot
its own group, apart from the other stuns
Incapacitates
Freezing Trap, Gouge, Sap, Repentance, Hibernate, Wyvern Sting, Polymorph, Scatter Shot, Confounding Flash, Chastise
Fears
Intimidating Shout, Seduction, Fear, Psychic Scream, Howl of Terror, Scare Beast
Silences
Silence, Counterspell, Kick, Shield Bash
Roots
Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, Nature's Grasp, Earthbound
Roots from a talent
Frostbite, Entrapment, Improved Hamstring, Improved Wing Clip, Counterattack
No diminishing returns
Inferno, Blind, Death Coil, Spell Lock, Feral Charge, and every slow and disarm

Two rules made for a timed duel

The game's duels have no clock, so these keep a timed duel fair.

  • Dampening. Starting a minute after the first blow, all healing and shields are cut 10% more every 10 sec, up to 100%, the same for both sides.
  • Hiding never wins on time. A side in Stealth, Prowl, Shadowmeld or Vanish for more than 50% of the last minute, or of the whole duel, cannot win when the clock runs out.

Ranked

  • Each class has its own rating. It starts at 1500 and a win or a loss moves it by up to 32 points, more for beating someone rated above you.
  • A draw is not ranked. The same two players are rated against each other 5 times a day at most.
  • When someone else queues you both get an invite and have 20 sec to enter.
  • The server plays every ranked duel again from both players' inputs before it counts.

Leaving and going idle

  • Leaving a ranked duel once it has started, or closing the page, counts as a loss.
  • If your connection drops you can come back and the duel goes on, but a connection gone for 60 sec while your foe’s is not is a loss.
  • Idle forfeit in ranked: no move, turn or press for the first 30 sec after the go, or for 60 sec at any point after, and you forfeit. If both sides go idle, nobody is rated.
Play in the Training Grounds

Fan-made and unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment. Game sounds, icons and art belong to Blizzard Entertainment, used here in a free fan project. Rights holders: [email protected]