Proving Grounds - Damage to Silver!

As I talked about in the tanking version of this article, Proving Grounds will play a somewhat bigger role in Warlords of Draenor. In order to queue for random heroic dungeons, you'll need to first qualify by completing the Silver Medal in your given role. This will give you an achievement that is account-wide, but does not carry over from Mists - so you'll have to do it again if you did it during Mists.

One thing that I hadn't mentioned (it may not have been on the Beta yet) is that when you hit level 100, you'll be sent on a quest to complete the Bronze medal proving grounds in any role in order to get a shiny new iLevel 610 weapon. This should function very similarly to the Arena of Annihilation weapon as a good "grats, you hit 100, have a halfway decent weapon!" I'm sure both normal and heroic dungeons at 100 will award higher-quality pieces, but this will definitely start you on your way.

So, damage:

Damage, known to most as DPS, is the role that every class can play, and it's also generally the easiest role, as it's far more forgiving. One of the reasons for this is that you'll almost never be the only DPS in your group, and so the load is shared by the largest number of people.

This is, to be frank, why some DPS players may have coasted by, not realizing how, well, bad they are.

Having bad DPS is something you can compensate for. In 5-person dungeons, bosses don't have enrage timers, so as long as the healer doesn't run out of mana, you can have really poor DPS and still succeed. So while I think most players are smart enough to get a sense of whether they're good at their role or not, this could prove a rude awakening for some players. Then again, if you are comfortable and familiar with a spec, you shouldn't have any trouble getting Silver. On my Beta-built level 100 Frost DK, I beat every wave with about half of my allotted time to spare.

So what will you face when you do the Damage Proving Grounds? Once again, the feature is set in the Temple of the White Tiger (much like Arena of Annihilation, come to think of it) and you'll be dealing with illusions based on Pandaria creatures.

Unlike for tanks and healers, there's no helpful NPCs here, and the enemies simply don't attack you, except for one targeted ability you'll have to deal with.

Saurok: Saurok in this are very simple. They simply stand still and let you attack.

Virmen: Likewise, Virmen simply stand and allow you to attack, but they come in large groups, so you'll want to use AoE abilities to take them down.

Mogu: The Mogu will generate a shield that protects them from all attacks from the front. You'll need to get behind them before you attack them. After a few seconds, they'll re-cast the shield while facing a different direction. so if you haven't killed them by then, you'll have to move.

Jinyu: The Jinyu are healers, and will begin to cast a heal when any of the illusions (including itself) are low on health. Take these guys out first, and interrupt them if you can. I don't know if there's a difference in how they work for classes that don't have interrupts (though I suppose that's only a small few these days.)

Mantid: The Mantid are the trickiest illusions, but also useful in a way. They will create a glob of amber that will chase after you. You'll want to kite the amber in such a way that it hits an illusion rather than you, as anyone near it when it goes off will take a bunch of damage and be stunned for several seconds, including the Mantid who cast it.

Putting it All Together:

The challenge teaches you some of the principles of good DPS - you'll want to remain focused when dealing with problematic enemies, but things like the amber glob will also test your situational awareness. None of the challenges are all that horrible, but it will require a decent, solid floor of competence that is sometimes lacking in random groups.

Whether people think to apply the lessons taught here in dungeons is a whole other story.