5 reasons why PS4 players need a parser in game

[StarRosie]

So... you're relying and basing your argument on the fact you play with people with parsers who can see if your SSS practice is working and would let you know otherwise?

FWIW, I'm not bashing SSS. I think they were a welcome implementation to the game.

Not quite, more making a point that it is a testament to how much you can advance and improve with just SSS if people WITH parsers are leaving you, the person WITHOUT a parser, alone. And if you can advance that far with just SSS, then why add a parser? Again, everything needed to optimize your job is readily available online, so why need a parser to tell you what you can easily just google and then practice in SSS? I mean, that way is kinda boring but if you are going for full efficiency, then yeah, that works just fine.

I once raided with someone who boasted about their SSS numbers, and they were good, they knew their rotation. However, in raid, their numbers were worse than mine (the PLD). SSS doesn't translate into a battle situation very well. It's nice that you can practice on SSS and be good in raid, but the two don't equate, you are missing phase knowledge, dodging, mechanics, and interruptions to your rotation that all affect your final damage output.

Yeah, that's where I go and learn the raid either by doin' or watching the several dozen guides, readily available online and add the knowledge to the skills developed in SSS, all of which parsers don't do. Parsers don't teach you a raid and they don't teach you the mechanics. Which is actually starting to become annoying, everyone is becoming so obsessed with their overall DPS numbers that they are forgetting about mechanics. Least that's been my raiding experience recently. Man, anecdotal evidence is fun. (And yes, that's a double edged jab.)

Anyways, I gotta be hopping off, need that magical thing call sleep. If anyone replies to me, I'm not gonna be replying for a while.

[Tigerlilley]

Not quite, more making a point that it is a testament to how much you can advance and improve with just SSS if people WITH parsers are leaving you, the person WITHOUT a parser, alone. And if you can advance that far with just SSS, then why add a parser? Again, everything needed to optimize your job is readily available online, so why need a parser to tell you what you can easily just google and then practice in SSS? I mean, that way is kinda boring but if you are going for full efficiency, then yeah, that works just fine.

How would you confidently know that your SSS practice is translating to a real fight with mechanics and adds? You said earlier that you are sure because you have friends with parsers. How would people without parsers manage this?

As for googling rotations - are you aware that you can accurately see the best players rotations skill for skill, play by play on FFlogs? It's a wonderful tool to see how great players are doing and how you can mimic it to improve yourself. Know how that information is gathered? By the same program everyone uses to parse.

[StarRosie]

How would you confidently know that your SSS practice is translating to a real fight with mechanics and adds? You said earlier that you are sure because you have friends with parsers. How would people without parsers manage this?

Again, really gotta be hopping off for bed, so I'm just gonna point you to the edited in portion of my last post. If that doesn't answer, I'm sorry. I will try to reply after work tomorrow but again... I gotta sleeeeeep. Anyways, have a lovely night!

[Tigerlilley]

Parsers don't teach you a raid and they don't teach you the mechanics. Which is actually starting to become annoying, everyone is becoming so obsessed with their overall DPS numbers that they are forgetting about mechanics. Least that's been my raiding experience recently. Man, anecdotal evidence is fun. (And yes, that's a double edged jab.)
[/SIZE]

You're right, they don't. SSS also doesn't teach you mechanics or a raid.

My questions was, in the context of DPS, in which you stated your friends who parse have told you you're fine. "How would you confidently know that your SSS practice is translating to a real fight with mechanics and adds?" if you couldn't parse.

You can't actively protest against a parser where you yourself have benefited from having one in your raid group. You've found out that your dps is up to scratch from your active research, because someone in your group has a parser.

[HoodRat]

There has only been one occasion where I witnessed someone being harassed by someone else using a parser. And, in my honest opinion, they deserved it. When you go into level 60 content with full end game gear and your dps is less than what it should be for your class at level 50, there is just absolutely no excuse for that. If you want to play however you want, that's fine if you're doing stuff on your own. But when you want to play with other people, it's incredibly selfish to expect them to carry you because you can't be bothered to improve yourself. It's a shame that this game has such a huge skill gap and people would rather run and cry to SE to stop people from telling them they need to improve instead of actually improving.

[Sebazy]

And if you can advance that far with just SSS, then why add a parser?

Because SSS is a flawed concept that is far too detached from the realities of savage/ex content whilst it's current.

Picking up a rotation and doing it in a sterile environment is one thing, actually applying it in Savage is another. Not to mention SSS has no means of demonstrating the need to hold or push DPS, keep GCDs going through movement mechanics, preserving stacks and buffs through movement, multi dotting. It's not even much use for working out an opener with the fixed time limits.

It's a pretty obvious rush job in my eyes which is a shame as it could have been so much more useful and interesting than what it is.

I also would like to know why you'd refuse information given to you.

Afraid of change imo =(

[Nyxn607]

Afraid of change imo =(

I don't necessarily think it has to do with being afraid of change. I think it as difference of want and need. PS4 doesn't need a parser and honestly PC doesn't either. As long as you can clear content without one, there is not a need for it.

If people are asking for a parser for the sole purpose of clearing already cleared content a fraction faster, then it is a want, not a need.

[Sebazy]

I don't necessarily think it has to do with being afraid of change. I think it as difference of want and need. PS4 doesn't need a parser and honestly PC doesn't either. As long as you can clear content without one, there is not a need for it.

That's a good point and I suppose a big portion of this debate hinges on the difficulty of the upcoming raid tiers in SB.

If we see another Gordias, then I disagree, very strongly infact. Both A3S and A4S required a level of play optimisation that the overwhelming majority wouldn't be able to achieve with either a parser or at the very least, strategies derived from parser data. (And before the 'but muh SSS!', that doesn't teach you how to push DPS on Hand of Pain or burn key points of A4S in time to pull of the wonky strats the majority required to beat it)

If the future consists of Creator grade raids though, then as much as I might appear as a zealot for parsers, I actually agree with you there. Absolute top tier DPS was pretty much optional in Creator from the get go, right from week one either your raid had strong DPS and you can skip a good chunk of mechanics, or you had slower DPS and thus had more mechanics to deal with as a result. Even Zurvan tells the same tale, it's a shame it wasn't quite tuned right and that people promptly lost their minds over it.

[Lambdafish]

If the future consists of Creator grade raids though, then as much as I might appear as a zealot for parsers, I actually agree with you there. Absolute top tier DPS was pretty much optional in Creator from the get go, right from week one either your raid had strong DPS and you can skip a good chunk of mechanics, or you had slower DPS and thus had more mechanics to deal with as a result. Even Zurvan tells the same tale, it's a shame it wasn't quite tuned right and that people promptly lost their minds over it.

Don't forget the super hard tier that the devs hinted at that comes after Savage. PS4 players would most certainly want parsers for that.

[SpookyGhost]

I don't necessarily think it has to do with being afraid of change. I think it as difference of want and need. PS4 doesn't need a parser and honestly PC doesn't either. As long as you can clear content without one, there is not a need for it.

If people are asking for a parser for the sole purpose of clearing already cleared content a fraction faster, then it is a want, not a need.

That's cool and all, but we're talking about a hypothetical world where they did implement the parser and you're opting out of it by disabling it for yourself. I feel like that's pointless if the parser already exists, you're just denying yourself information.

e: Also I don't really buy that optimal openers only exist because of parsers, it doesn't take a mathematician to do the maths necessary to work out what's a gain or loss based on potency alone. Parsers help you get a concrete number to prove your work (though simply just showing the maths you did would work just as well), but they're not necessary for actually figuring out your opener.

A parser (in terms of one that just displays damage dealt, crit rate, misses, etc) is basically useful for one thing: Knowing how much damage you're doing overall and at certain phases of the fight (and how much you're critting + missing). I think a better argument that puts parsers in a better light is that we wouldn't know the accuracy cap for any of the raids without having a parser. You could sift your way through the entire combat log or stare endlessly at your floating damage to see if you missed, but it's far easier to just have the parser track it.

There's two reasons I believe people are against parsers:

1.) They're afraid they'll get called out for not pulling their weight.
2.) They feel like they'll be unjustly called out for not pulling their weight when they've needed to sacrifice DPS to handle mechanics or their gear simply isn't high enough ilvl to pull the numbers others are expecting of them.

Both of these already exist, people just don't say "you're pulling low numbers, bye". They either kick you or just say that they think you're underperforming. There's also the helpful instances that people often overlook (because it's easier to paint with big broad strokes) of people who actually can see you're pulling low numbers and help you. This doesn't even include people who can see that they're pulling low numbers and excuse themselves or ask others for advice on how to get better.

Parsers give valuable information in a game where DPS checks exist and the end goal is to make the boss' HP reach zero. The amount of useful information gained from adding a parser far outweighs the microscopic amount of toxicity that would get introduced from the fraction of a fraction of players on PS4 (no toxicity would be gained from PC players as they already have parsers). It's, frankly, insane to me that people are still arguing against parsers in 2017 when PC players have had them since the game launched.