Self-Parser

[Krylo]

This would be fantastic. I don't trust 3P add-ons and am a paranoid git. I would love to know how I am improving as I play more with my Summoner.

A self-only parser would not lead to anyone being harassed because you still don't know their DPS numbers. Other than the development cost (and I would hope this is minor since damage/aggro is already being tracked within the game engine) there is literally no down side.

It'd be a step in the right direction but it still wouldn't have the utility, either for improvement or static raiding, that a full parser does.

A personal parser's inadequacy in a raid or static situation should be obvious ('Hey we aren't meeting Faust's DPS check, but all I can look at is my own and I'm hitting 1300, and that should be enough for a DPS. I guess I will never know the problem').

As for in self-improvement, dummy training only goes so far. Different fights require different things to stick to an enemy and keep your DPS, and sometimes they aren't obvious and/or are risky enough that you might not think them possible. In T9's first phase, for instance, a monk could shoulder tackle to Nael after she leapt away for her iron chariot, hit her once, and then retreat from the chariot to the center, and keep up GL. Not doing that meant GL fell off every time she jumped off and made monk dps tank. But, considering how that seems like something that would kill you if you tried, how are you to discover this on your own? With a personal parser it's easy to just assume the lower DPS is part of the fight, just like it is with Oppressor's untargetable phases, or Ravana's beetle phases, etc. etc.

With a group parser, in any situation where there's a group DPS drop, you can look and be like 'wow I'm way lower than the rest of the party, maybe I should ask or look up what I can do to improve on this particular fight,' or 'my DPS is about on par with/above most people's I'm probably doing okay here, and can concentrate on tightening my rotation around mechanics instead of trying to find ways to get around them.'

You could, of course, go and check leaderboards or whatever with a personal parser, yes, but the fact remains that the information you'd be given in game would be just numbers with very little context--and numbers are completely useless without context.

I really don't get why we can't have this.

Mostly because there are so many people that are SO TERRIFIED of their numbers being known by anyone for any reason that they'll attempt to shoot down any concession to parsers at all. I'm not sure why they're so worried. The game isn't difficult. My mother, who has nerve damage in her hands (and everywhere else) and very poor eyesight, can get good, if not first day raid-tier, DPS. Almost anyone can if they put in any effort to improve/tighten their rotations/whatever else.

And, the fact of the matter is, with Square's encounter design in Heavensward (ALL DPS CHECKS ALL THE TIME), those people, and Square, are going to need to start making concessions. Not having a parser was okay when the majority of DPS checks were pretty loose and a mantra of 'damage is important but mechanics are more important' was acceptable. That isn't the case anymore. If you want to clear things like Faust, or, hell, even BisEx, anywhere near release, you basically need to be running a parser so you can tell where things are going badly and try to help people DPS better--or remove them, if it comes to that.

And, honestly, the latter--removing them--is the only, and first, option, if you don't know them personally, in a 'parsers are illegal' world. How do you know their DPS is bad if you didn't parse? And if you admit that you parsed them and they get even a little bit offended they can report you and have your account banned. It's safer and easier to just kick people who are doing poorly with minimal explanation, temporarily blacklist them so they can't join your PF, and replace them.

People would start to put their solo numbers on reddit, and then the comparisons would begin.

This already happens. In fact there are websites dedicated to FFXIV parse posting, which I won't post here but it shouldn't be hard to find. There are leader boards for any current content.

There is no reason to worry about this happening because it already happens. Pretty much anyone you play with who is at all serious about the game has a third party parser that they can, and will, run in any kind of static environment--and sometimes in casual ones just to make sure they're keeping up their rotations properly. World first clear screen shots tend to be using the ACT overlay when they're posted and congratulated by the devs.

And they post those parses to reddit, to parse sites, to leaderboards. Reddit was full of Mch parses when 3.0 dropped because people were trying to prove how bad/good it was and discussing rotations to use, to figure out how to play the new class. Same with Brd.

There's no reason to worry about something that already happens all the time.