In-Game Parser.

[Zeful]

We can argue semantics if you want but for every DPS class out there, there exists a rotation. Said rotation though can barely ever be followed as you mentioned due to fight mechanics which means that now once your opener's done, the priority system kicks in. What people are asking is for people to know what said rotation is so that they can better adapt in actual, non-dummy DPS scenarios and then can properly manage their class's priority system. If people can't be bothered to learn that, then they probably can't be bothered to learn a fight's mechanic which just creates a bad domino effect.

This paragraph quite clearly shows why implementing a parser is not worth Yoshi's time. The rotation exists, but it's existence has no real impact on endgame fights due to mechanics; which makes the argument that a player must learn it blindly (and make no bones about it that's exactly what you are advocating, as your reasoning for learning it can be summed up as "for it's own sake") actively harmful to a player's performance because there's no context as to why. Even in your post you fail to point out why the concept of the rotation even exists within the context of the fight.

It's easy though. The rotation shows how a Job's abilities synergize, and how each one affects the other positively to use the whole potential the class provides. It's a concrete example of the value of each move.

The endstate behind the parser is being able to better oneself as a player, not to attain perfection. As such, this answer your second question. People should carry their own weight, not drag down a group and a parser helps tremendously in that department.

And how much "betterment" is enough to have succeeded? No, "betterment" cannot be the end-goal of adding a parser, as that only has meaning in the transition. While perfection is unreasonable to expect, it is a fully formed idea that has concrete meaning within the context of the game and the raiding player base's expectation therein.

What about the other elements of social engineering? Adding a parser is all well and good, but you'll find that it'll have little effect if there's no reason to use it. So why not add reward mechanisms for actual excellence. Take the upgrade items like Oil of Time/Carboncoat out of the loot tables for all new content and only reward them to players that achieve performance milestones. There's now a connection between your performance and your progression.

[randysquirrel]

IMO we should have a parser, but it should be optional whether others can see your numbers, it is set to "private" so only you can see your own DPS, or turned off entirely.
PF should get the option of excluding people that have their parser set to private/off.

--> PF parties that are looking to improve through measuring their DPS can do so.
--> people that don't like having their DPS visible to all the party see "oh that party is running a parser, I won't join that one, I'll make a different PF party"

Everyone wins.
Except the people who like to sneak into farm parties and get stealth carried.

Genuinely interested if anyone can suggest any reasons why this set-up would not work?

[Atomnium]

IMO we should have a parser, but it should be optional whether others can see your numbers, it is set to "private" so only you can see your own DPS, or turned off entirely.
PF should get the option of excluding people that have their parser set to private/off.

--> PF parties that are looking to improve through measuring their DPS can do so.
--> people that don't like having their DPS visible to all the party see "oh that party is running a parser, I won't join that one, I'll make a different PF party"

Everyone wins.
Except the people who like to sneak into farm parties and get stealth carried.

Genuinely interested if anyone can suggest any reasons why this set-up would not work?

Your idea is brilliant.

[Riardon]

Well it would be good but never trust mmo players with such tools. We all know what they gonna do with them. Like: "OMG bard you suck plz dps moar kk thx bb".

[Taika]

IMO we should have a parser, but it should be optional whether others can see your numbers, it is set to "private" so only you can see your own DPS, or turned off entirely.
PF should get the option of excluding people that have their parser set to private/off.

--> PF parties that are looking to improve through measuring their DPS can do so.
--> people that don't like having their DPS visible to all the party see "oh that party is running a parser, I won't join that one, I'll make a different PF party"

Everyone wins.
Except the people who like to sneak into farm parties and get stealth carried.

This is a great idea.

[lyndwyrm]

Genuinely interested if anyone can suggest any reasons why this set-up would not work?

I think the obvious possible flaw is people demanding it be set to public in DF and any/all content they do. The partner with this is some people would assume everyone with it private has lower DPS. Something that may mitigate that a little is to have it set to private every time you log on, so not all people would want to be bothered to change it to public every time they log on whether their DPS is above or below average.

I like this idea though, and the important thing here is that you can see if you are under-performing compared to at least anyone that has it set to public. That way, if you're running anything really, and you see someone with a DPS much higher than yours that isn't much or at all better geared, then you can ask yourself how you can improve or even ask someone else how to improve.

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I just wanted to throw this out there, but if the dev team can overcome whatever issues for add-ons they mentioned in this article, then I think you can be pretty sure some add-on will implement a parser.

[randysquirrel]

That is a fair point, perhaps it could be something that is "locked" in as you enter the dungeon or whatever, ie if you had it set to public/private when you go in, that's what it stays. Then no-one could demand that you suddenly change your settings to be public once you're inside. As seems to be general concensus though, parser isn't generally REQUIRED in anything outside of coil, except for learning/improvement purposes (or in my case general nosiness, if a fellow BLM is putting out materially more DPS than me, I'd want to know how he was doing it! )

[Massterchef]

Well, I've said all I needed to say on this thread. Seems people can't really openly debate without resorting to insults. So I'm gonna now lurk and see how this plays out.

I haven't seen any insults, only logical arguments. Even though you are attempting to debate, facts are needed to carry an argument.. The fact is you haven't and don't raid content when its relevant. You raid content when you over-gear it by 20 ilvls. That's not even mentioning the fact that the content you have seen has been nerfed mechanically so you haven't even experienced the content at it's peak of difficulty. It's very ignorant for someone to claim that parsers aren't useful when you aren't even pushing final, let alone second coil this update.

[Set-Abominae]

I still see no benefit to parsing someone, whether it be negative or positive. If this game was all about numbers I'd just hire an accountant to play the game for me.

Well if you had ever beaten anything harder than a full echo t5 i might accept your argument but you might wanna put that accountant on retainer cause this whole game already is all about numbers, talk to us again when you lose a run 20 times to not meeting a dps check

[Kyuuen]

That is a fair point, perhaps it could be something that is "locked" in as you enter the dungeon or whatever, ie if you had it set to public/private when you go in, that's what it stays. Then no-one could demand that you suddenly change your settings to be public once you're inside. As seems to be general concensus though, parser isn't generally REQUIRED in anything outside of coil, except for learning/improvement purposes (or in my case general nosiness, if a fellow BLM is putting out materially more DPS than me, I'd want to know how he was doing it! )

As someone who's been staunchly against the addition of an in-game parser, the quickest fix to your suggestion would be simply to not allow the use of parsers within any type of DF. If one wants to improve their performance through the use of a parser then the last place you'd expect reliable data would be DF. As you already said it, allow it in custom made parties and PF where like minded individuals can group and help each other out. Expecting the sort of min/max perfomance out of DF is nearly unrealistic for a number of reasons besides just player skill/knowledge.