Would you like an in-game parser?

[RiyahArp]

I'm responding to the lala from Bryn, who is on my data center. And I'm not the one claiming all players are so horrible that outside of a premade it takes 50% more time to do a single run. As for proof, nothing is ever is purely beneficial. People use parsers to improve, but they also use them to kick people and belittle, or to try and make normal content into a big status race (cough, fflogs.) There's always positive and negative to any change, and you have to look at it honestly. POTD was positive in that it let people get exp solo and experiment, negative in that it let people shortcut normal party roles if overused.

if people aren't honest about stuff, we'll get horrible changes in response. We'll get parsers, and everyone will be wondering why the playerbase still isn't good at raids. The real problem won't get answered.

[akaneakki]

Riyah give us proof people get kicked in dungeons doing okay dps. Give us proof of everything you said . While you at it.

[HoodRat]

And I'm not the one claiming all players are so horrible that outside of a premade it takes 50% more time to do a single run.

Don't ask questions if you don't want to hear the answers.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

People use parsers to improve, but they also use them to kick people and belittle, or to try and make normal content into a big status race (cough, fflogs.) There's always positive and negative to any change, and you have to look at it honestly. POTD was positive in that it let people get exp solo and experiment, negative in that it let people shortcut normal party roles if overused..

First and foremost, let's not conflate kicking and belittle. The former can be warranted, especially in harder content if said player isn't performing well. That being said, no one is denying the negatives. We simply disagree they would be any more prevalent than they are now. People willing to harass due to parses will still do so, they'll just avoid mentioning numbers. Anyone whining about parses in a dungeon are, bluntly stated, idiots. Ironically, this is now you exaggerating. Very few people even care about dungeon; many raiders avoid doing them entirely. In over two years, I have never once seen anyone mention parses in dungeons or normal modes. I won't argue it doesn't happen since I can only cite my own experiences but nowhere near to the extent you're insinuating.

Parses aren't a magical fix nor has anyone suggested otherwise. They'll simply be a helpful tool. I'm a far better player now than when I started people I looked up guides and parsed myself. Add a proper difficulty curve and we'll start to see improvements over the long term.

[Sebazy]

Parses aren't a magical fix nor has anyone suggested otherwise. They'll simply be a helpful tool. I'm a far better player now than when I started people I looked up guides and parsed myself. Add a proper difficulty curve and we'll start to see improvements over the long term.

This, the simple in game parser output most people are asking for here isn't going to be anything like as detailed as what you see on logs.

Rather it's an easy to read and understand data point with the goal of sparking a players curiosity about there own performance and hopefully start them on the road to improving where possible. As is, this game simply doesn't provide enough feed back for many DPS jobs to have any idea about how well they are doing or not. I'd argue that 2.x-3.x SMN was almost impossible to optimise to a high standard with how dots are displayed, look at how poorly people thought of them in 2.0 before we had any parser data to work on.

[Reinha]

Add a proper difficulty curve and we'll start to see improvements over the long term.

Right now it goes something like this: leveling content and roulettes, Shinryu nm, Omega nm, Rabanastre, Susano+Lakshmi ex, Omega 1+2 savage, Shinryu ex, Omega 3+4 savage, Coil ultimate. Do you feel like there are steps missing on the difficulty ladder or do you think the ratio of easy and hard content is not properly balanced when progressing through the (end) game?

[ovIm]

Right now it goes something like this: leveling content and roulettes, Shinryu nm, Omega nm, Rabanastre, Susano+Lakshmi ex, Omega 1+2 savage, Shinryu ex, Omega 3+4 savage, Coil ultimate. Do you feel like there are steps missing on the difficulty ladder or do you think the ratio of easy and hard content is not properly balanced when progressing through the (end) game?

The issue here presents itself in the fact that Shinryu, Omega, Rabanastre, Exprimals, Omega Savage and Coil Ultimate are all things that you only do when reaching level 70. But there is a whole 69 levels in between that, with a dungeon roughly every 2-4 levels starting from level 15. In those dungeons, very few are actually a bit harder than the majority of the rest, and even those are so easy that they pose no threat. A good thing would be to ease the players to more challenging content while leveling and playing the game instead of just presenting them Shinryu normal after Ala Mhigo (I still remember the days after launch. Many people were overwhelmed.)

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Right now it goes something like this: leveling content and roulettes, Shinryu nm, Omega nm, Rabanastre, Susano+Lakshmi ex, Omega 1+2 savage, Shinryu ex, Omega 3+4 savage, Coil ultimate. Do you feel like there are steps missing on the difficulty ladder or do you think the ratio of easy and hard content is not properly balanced when progressing through the (end) game?

If I were to split each into categories, which I'll preface now by saying is entirely subjective...

- Leveling content; roulettes are complete jokes that barely require a pulse
- Shinryu Normal was a decent incline
- Omega normal is, once again, a complete joke
- Rabanastre is... sadly, very easy. I'll give credit to Hashmal, and Mateus has some potential but otherwise it's slightly above Void Ark
- Susano/Lakshmi EX were laughable
- Alte Roite has no business being labelled Savage; Catastrophe isn't much better but would have been an okay entry fight
- Halicarnassus and ExNeo are fine
- Shinryu EX is fine
- Ultimate is so far above everything else, it shouldn't be compared. Even Gordias and Midas veteran will struggle

The issue stems from the amount of easily tuned content verse what comes after. Imagine if Omega normal were reasonably challenging—perhaps to Susano EX levels. Yes, the reward structure needs to change but it allows the more casual playerbase to experience a "harder" fight that will actually prepare them for Savage if they so choose. The gap between Catastrophe and Halicarnassus is enormous. Not just in DPS requirements but mechanical awareness. It's even worse with Shinryu EX as that fight demands competency from everyone. Illustrating how easy Alte Roite was, people in full ilvl 290 gear melded Vit into their accessories and beat him before enrage. He was tuned 30 ilvls below the lowest raid relevant gear. What a lot of raiders found irksome about this is how it crept into our content but I digress. What often happens with fights is these huge jumps in difficulty. Ultimate suffers similarly. Clearing Neo means very little when the tier above it demands 90-95% perfection over almost twenty minutes.

It's those large gaps they need to start closing. Going from V2S to V3S or Shinryu should feel like a gradual incline not a punch in the face. On a lesser example. Should I be capable of clearing dungeon bosses with the healer dead? Because I have. Hell, a few very good players and I managed to mitigate our way through multiple screw ups on Hashmal. Almost the whole three Alliances were dead and we still pushed him. I appreciate the game needs some easy content, and I don't wish to deny it such. Just the amount creates the aforementioned gaps.

Edit: I only just thought of this comparison but look at Titan Hard mode. He actually hurt when relevant yet remained entirely reasonable. Why couldn't Susano normal be similar? Even if they wanted to keep harder content separate from story, then scale V1N with Titan in mind.

Another aspect I didn't touch upon is job rotation. Players are never taught how basic openers work. Hence why you see so many Monks using Tornado Kick on CD. Without a parse, they likely have no idea it's actually hurting their damage.

[Tridus]

Another aspect I didn't touch upon is job rotation. Players are never taught how basic openers work. Hence why you see so many Monks using Tornado Kick on CD. Without a parse, they likely have no idea it's actually hurting their damage.

Exactly. How would they? The game conceals that information despite it being fairly important.

"Google the proper rotation as discovered by people using third party tools" shouldn't be the proper path to getting your DPS rotation right, but it's not like the game gives you a viable alternative.

[LyraKuroneko]

Exactly. How would they? The game conceals that information despite it being fairly important.

"Google the proper rotation as discovered by people using third party tools" shouldn't be the proper path to getting your DPS rotation right, but it's not like the game gives you a viable alternative.

True. They made novice instance to learn basics, but nothing about that. It could be add in here. Or in job quests, i don't know.