Built-in Parsers

[Raven2014]

Before I say something, let's me say that I don't have anything against a parser itself. I had used it in another games, and it's a great personal tool to quickly identify quirk and improve yourself. When someone I run with post a fflog for me to look at, it's a great piece to analyze your performance. But having said that. I also fully understand why the developer refuses to put one in game, because ... to put it bluntly - it can make people really stupid. Let's me share a few story:

- I was once healing a O3S. One of the pull is incredibly messy and we hit the enrage. Except me (the AST) and one of the tank, the rest of the party (all the DPS, the other tank and healer) have all died to mechanic at one point in the fight or another. In the end we miss the killed by 1 or 2%. Do you know what was the first thing said after the wipe? "Hey AST, can you please throw a dot on the boss, we could have clear had your DPS wasn't 100". So, let's me get this straight, let's forget that everyone had been dying left and right, let's forget that despite the other healer and tank kissed the floor we didn't wipe, the only reason we wiped was because of me, the healer who is probably the reason why the party even lasted to that point ... didn't put up a dot, and not all the people who died to mechanic. I'm not an anti-DPS healer, when things goes smoothly I do more then just throw a dot. But this was a fight where I my swiftcast doesn't come back fast enough for raise, that I have to give myself extended ewe just to scrape enough MP to heal and raise ... So why did I got call out? Because my number was at the bottom of the list I bet. One of the DPS said something like: You can't control other people dying but you can control your DPS. To which I reply: you can't control other people DPS, but you can control yourself from dying to mechanic. Petty I know, but like I said, number makes people stupid.

- I play all 3 healers, and despite consider it the most boring out of the 3, I usually go on WHM in pug. Do you know why? It is to spare myself from having a WHM as a healing partner. Again, another time I was healing O3S, this time as a SCH and my partner was a WHM. I think everyone know that out of the 3, Stone IV is the LOUDEST DPS ability, so you always know what the WHM is doing base on the sound of it, and I know the WHM was doing it none-stop, even when he's really supposed to be healing. It's infuriating when you see several people on half heath, the boss is casting spell blade AND you still hearing STONE 4 goes off instead of a heal. People die, we wiped, over and over. Finally I told the WHM that if the party is low, he should heal instead of trying to DPS and left. The WHM came after, whisper me his log, telling me how I should match his number before complaining to him. Couldn't see the number btw, his log was set to private but I don't doubt his point about a #. As someone who play all 3 healers, I know matching a SCH to a WHM number is fool errand, so the fact that this WHM was pinning it against a SCH tell me one and only one thing: all he sees is number, and nothing else. I never care much for HPS as a healer, it's never about how much you heal, but how in time you can heal so people don't die!

- Another story, this is when I was playing a RDM. I was talking to a SAM who used to be in the same static before it got disbanded. I forgot what we were talking about but he end up pulling one of my recent clear that someone else uploaded, and that having 2800DPS is not acceptable because I didn't die, and how I shouldn't try to DPS just because I can and that's disrespectful to the party ...etc... I told him that sure, I didn't die, but did he notice how other people was dying? Who does he think was doing the raise? Did he notice how much healing I was casting on myself so I didn't end up dying? He told me: that's not your job, as a DPS you should only focus on DPS and not doing the healer job for them! I replied: dude, but if I don't do that the party would wipe anway, what is the point of maintaining high number if the fight gonna end in a wipe? As someone who live the pug life I'll do anything for a clear, if I have to cover people mistake and bottom out the DPS table I'll do it, just ... give me the clear for the week. And it should be noted: this is the SAM that will NEVER Lb3 unless you specifically ask for it, usually because you wipe in a previous pull due to no one LB. I had a few run with him after the static break up, and it's often the case if he's the only melee in the group, you will either wipe or finish the fight with a full LB3 bar.


And this is something getting worse, when I learn about the whole FFlog upload and percentile rank, I was not surprise why people acting the way they are. So yes, there is a very good reason why I have never seen an MMO developers put something like this officially in their game or outright endorse it. Remember they gave us the OK to use things like reshade, but never officially ok a parse. Because I bet at the very least they want to have a soft detterent when people misues it and harrash others, then the GM has some ground to take action. I can't even begin to imagine the level of muppetry would ensure if it becomes an official tool.