In Defence of DPS meters.

I wouldn't mind having something like that in game for my own edification. I'm not a savage/ultimate/whatever raider, and I will certainly never be in the top 10 percentile, but it'd be really handy to have a guide that can tell me "No stupid. You're struggling with this fight/content because you're doing about 1,000 less dps than you should. Figure out why and come back." The Stone, Sky, Sea (or whatever it's called) is helpful, but it doesn't actually tell me what my damage is. Nor does it give a realistic view of the fight since you're just dancing around a striking dummy like mechanics don't exist and the boss is frozen in place.

As a rule all I can find is what the absolute best of the best should be dishing out, and while that's not really BAD per se, it's not always particularly helpful either. I don't play the way they do, and have no intention of it, but I also pride myself on being good enough to run everything but savage/ultimate well.

Meters and/or logs and/or analysis tools for logs are all useful and important tools for self-improvement. I don't run them myself, but I definitely look up my character on log sites because a lot of folks upload logs and it's useful to know how much mustard I'm cutting.

I'm still not sure that I want such tools to be officially endorsed, because I remember what WoW is like. I like that you're not supposed to talk about parses in pick-up groups, and I can't think of any way to officially implement a parsing system (because that's what's important - comparing your output to a statistical body of people doing the same fight on the same class with ideally similar level gear) that wouldn't cause people to bring it up. Rules or no rules, if it's officially supported then people will assume it's fair game to put people on blast. I don't want to see that; down that path lies madness (or at least a much more hostile environment).

I think a personal DPS meter would be a good thing. If the devs are worried about people demanding screenshots, they could simply make the DPS meter appear as plain white 14 point Arial text with no glows, shadows, or other effects on a solid black background, so it could easily be faked, even in MsPaint. Or they could simply make demanding screenshots a punishable offense.

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Originally Posted by Feronar

I think a personal DPS meter would be a good thing. If the devs are worried about people demanding screenshots, they could simply make the DPS meter appear as plain white 14 point Arial text with no glows, shadows, or other effects on a solid black background, so it could easily be faked, even in MsPaint. Or they could simply make demanding screenshots a punishable offense.

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Worrying about screenshots seems a little moot. Anyone that cares that much will just look you up on FF logs anyways. Anyone that cares about seeing how people are doing in real time will just run the parser.

A self-only meter, at this point, would just make it easier for people to look at only their own performance (especially console players, but also PC players that don't want to go through all the hoops of installing and setting it up). SE could leave their policy of "don't talk about parses in game, don't harass people about it" etc intact just fine.

One more thing: If they don't really care about people using DPS meters as long as you don't meter-shame other players, their official written policy should reflect that, especially if such meters are needed for savage and extreme content.

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Originally Posted by Jimmymagic

Thank you for proving my point lev 75 smn and you wont be top tiered because your lazy. Again being high level does not matter with knowing the job. Practicing has to do with knowing rotations how and when to implement depends on competency. Also im not referring to Savage, if I was the only way to get competent party is static. PUGing it is a waste of time. But hey go ahead and lookup videos all you want. Your learn form doing not from watching imo.

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... what? I proved the precise opposite. No one expects top tier performance. What they want is competence—which is easily achievable if you dedicated even a little bit of time on a dummy. And no, you can learn a great deal from simply watching videos and then going to an aforementioned dummy to practice. Not doing even that is pure laziness.

I've also pugged this whole tier just fine. Statics are obviously better but you'll still clear. Regardless, Savage should never be where you're learning the basics of your job.

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Originally Posted by Elladie

And this reply is why they are against it. Your assumption is that someone who is struggling is lazy, but there could be a myriad reasons why they are having issues that have nothing to do with laziness. They are a new player, they are new to the role, they are new to the fight, they take a long time to learn fight mechanics for whatever reason, they are disabled, their mouse/controller glitched, they got cramp etc and so on. I am not denying the existence of lazy players but the fact that it is your first assumption is very much the reason that parsers aren't allowed

I am not denying the usefulness of parsers to improve one's own gameplay either, I am pointing out that we are the reason why parsers are banned. Maybe if we stop behaving like knobs and treat other people respectfully (including not assuming I'm a guy, which is really starting to annoy me lol) then we might get our private parsers one day.

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See, this is the other reason why they are against it. The moment one dares to call out people who are not pulling their weights someone will instantly jump to their defense and pull all sorts of cards to excuse the called out player while also acting as a victim himself (Yes, that is in fact aimed in your general direction, deal with it). And since those make up a huge amount of the population, SE is ever so eager to defend the fragile players.

a) make it just for savage content

b) if no - then at least block savage behind dummy target test, where player need to do perfect rotation with food, melds, potions, ( at lest newcomers will know what button to press and adapt it in actual fight )

Which is fine, not every game has to cater to hardcore players.

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Originally Posted by Paidhi

Which is fine, not every game has to cater to hardcore players.

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This 'argument' has been reurgitated a gazillion times and it's honestly one of the most ridiculous dimwitted things I've heard on this forum. Which says a lot, actually.