Is this truly wrong?

[KaivaC]

Took some time over the last couple of days to just focus on actually playing the game. Not just to figure out how to get my deeps up, but just playing the game through beast tribes and dungeons like I used to do. Funny how different it feels as opposed to how I started playing when Delta dropped in that I solely logged to raid and have big numbers. Riyah suggested something a page or two ago, so I'm going to give that a try - have to figure out how to record video with my PS4 and then track down some summoners willing to give it a good look. As for the current raid, I've sort of got stuck on SMN because of O7S. I despise the missiles because of their hit boxes. I'm not sure what it is, but I just cannot dodge the missiles in that instance if I'm a melee. I usually go DRG with that, but I don't get nearly as upset over damage numbers on that class because it's a different style than what I'm used to and I jump potioned that without a complete understanding of the job.

About playing for others' approval...I don't really play to get outright approval, but I do feel as if I should be skilled enough that others I happen to join in raids can count on me. And I feel a big part of that is having a high percentile. But that's just how I view my own playstyle in Eorzea. It's not something I push on others.

Given the variety of responses that I read through this morning, maybe it's time for me to admit that I need to back off from raiding for a little while. Not sure how many of the responders saw my other thread about a similar subject, but this is my first MMO (in the sense that I've played beyond two weeks). Seems like there's some real concern about my health - I can say that I'm fine, just getting overwhelmed at what I personally viewed as failure on my part. Thanks for the words and thoughts...I'm just going to try to break away from FFLOGs and raiding for a week, see if that helps at all.

[ChaoticCrimson]

<snip>

If you'd like to record something on the PS4, just press the Share button on the left of the touchpad and then push the Square button. That should generally record everything up to the last fifteen minutes of gameplay, or however much time went by since your last recording if you've recorded less than fifteen minutes ago. You can then find your video in the Capture Gallery app on the PS4 later, where you can trim down the video, copy it to a USB drive, etc. I've actually made a habit of recording my first clears on trials lately so I can go back and see how I've improved.

I'm glad you're taking time to cool off and try some other stuff though. The raids will always be there when you're ready. I could recommend maybe giving Eureka a whirl for now during your downtime. It's not the most thrilling content available, but once you're levelled up enough to start getting loot boxes from the fates there's actually some pretty decent stuff that can drop, like tier VI materias as well as cracked clusters (which can definitely be useful for raids later), and of course the mount and barding. Depending on your current gear, you may or may not benefit from the Relics on this tier but it'd probably be worth investing in, if not for them most likely going to be top raiding gear in the final relic tier then at least for the cool glamour. Personally, I feel like the SMN relic weapon and body gear probably has the best-balanced potential stats for SMN next to their respective Savage pieces, so I'd recommend at least considering those for your progression. There's, of course, plenty of other things you could try out too in the game if that's not your cup of tea. Whatever you choose to do, I hope it helps you relax and feel better about things.

[Aylis]

I'm kind of in that boat now, to the point that I've pretty much dropped DPS'ing entirely because I am incapable of keeping up with my peers. It's gotten to the point where I kinda shunned myself off because I feel like I don't belong with my peers anymore. This is more or less myself wondering if anybody is, or was, in that position. Or knew someone like this on the verge of...well, essentially calling it quits.

Self doubt, self loathing, self cannabalization and seeking to be a perfectionist and stressing over every second is one of the greatest downfalls of any player seeking to get better. I've seen and been in the situation before. Always staring at my numbers and getting mad at myself for doing less then I should be doing. Turns out a constant focus on my numbers was what the problem was.

What did I do? I learned to just let it all go. I learned to seek a sorta "zen" state in a fight. Where numbers don't exist at all, where hot bars and abilities and everything technical doesn't exist at all. Just natural instinct. When that side of me takes over, timers and everything technical is in the back of my mind. Muscle memory is enough to let me know whats ready and what isn't per cooldown systems. Numbers only exist at the end of the fight when the boss is down and the state of zen ends. Only then did I see improvement. Not to mention a healthier life and mental state too. No more stress or sleepless nights and when in this state. The rest of the party doesn't exist. They're only shadows so to speak.It's as if I'm the only one there. It helps me to not get annoyed at others performances and if a wipe happens it makes it easier to move past it and try again

Zen For the win!


Seek calm even as the world around you is collapsing and just do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjs2vPR19mQ

[KaivaC]

Hey Riyah are you still monitoring this thread? Do you use discord? Wanted to link up with you outside of the forums.

[Noshpan]

I don't raid (even though I would like to, I just have nobody that would want to take me) so I just assume that I'm mediocre at best: dependable but I can always improve, & don't make the healer's job more difficult by standing in poop.

[KaivaC]

I don't raid (even though I would like to, I just have nobody that would want to take me) so I just assume that I'm mediocre at best: dependable but at least I'm not making the healer's job more difficult by standing in poop.

From personal experience, learning parties are common enough in the pf that you could pick up the fight. I have yet to be in a static myself. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try. I'm on mobile, so I dunno what server you're on, not if you're in the aether Datacentre, I can go in with you when I decide to raid again

[Melixy]

I think it's really easy to say "You need to take a break lolz because video gaem is just a gaem!!!111" when someone is upset that they're trying to seek improvement and aren't finding any improvement. It's obviously not good to get super wound up over a game, but there's no harm in trying to get better at a game either. Just know that everyone starts somewhere, so don't beat yourself up too much over it.

Anyways, I decided to take a look at your logs, Kaiva, and I just wanted to point something out. A lot of these logs are fairly old, dating back to February/early March. So I'm not really sure how well you're doing currently but I'd like to echo what Shihen suggested. Have a SMN main look over your logs. I recently stumbled upon a good guide for SMN. I can see if I can dig it up somewhere in my 3000 billion Discord servers. It was by Aymeric's Waifu, who is a pretty dang good SMN. I recommend giving it a look over. I don't know many SMN things, unfortunately, but I do know that checking the following will prob help:

1. Gear. Keep in mind that percentile is based on you vs other people and other people might have more gear or, most importantly, a better weapon.

2. BiS is a thing. You might not be getting gear that has optimal substats for your jobs.

3. Melds, pots, food. They make a huge difference in terms of your numbers. Don't have gil for it? Find a friend that can make you pots and food. Materia is pretty easy to get with hunts nowadays.

4. "Padds". That's what my group's PLD calls any group of adds. Like I said, fflogs is you vs other people and if other people are padding on adds with AoE... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

5. Keep in mind that FFlogs is kind of... well, just don't take it too seriously. It has great tools to look up people's performance, but seeing as we're past week 10 of the tier, it's gotten to the point where people are pulling silly parse runs and racking up really high numbers for "the lulz" or whatnot (there are people paying statics gil to give them parse runs...). If you're looking to have good numbers to get into a static, then keep in mind any good static worth joining won't just look at percentiles at face value. They will investigate what happened and why those numbers are like that.

Anyways, keep at it and don't get discouraged!

[Trensharo]

If you are doing everything right, and you know for a fact you are, then everything else falls into place. The focus needs to be on yourself, not others. Don't compare, just do.

I used a parser in WoW for awhile since they are permitted there. It actually made me do worse because I was always watching my numbers compared to other people. When I deleted that addon and began to focus on my own skill and made sure I was doing what was required, I was better for it. Usually in the top 5 at the very least in most cases there.

Carried that mentality over to XIV and it has never led me astray, but I'm always looking to improve my rotations if I'm able.

There is a setting in the parser in WoW that tells it to only show it when it is not in combat. Everyone I know knows the setting is there. People who are annoyed or distracted by the parser in combat used it. I did.

And, while parsers are annoying when people flaunt them or use them to grief others, how else are you going to gauge your improvements or regressions? Beg others to parse for you and upload to a website every single time you want to see something?

I don't see a point in inconveniencing myself simply because I'm too lazy to set up the software in a way that wouldn't distract me during an encounter.

[Noshpan]

From personal experience, learning parties are common enough in the pf that you could pick up the fight. I have yet to be in a static myself. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try. I'm on mobile, so I dunno what server you're on, not if you're in the aether Datacentre, I can go in with you when I decide to raid again

I play on Primal data center & I must have great coincidental timing when I do check the PF I usually only see farm groups.

[Nerael]

I enjoy SMN a lot, yes, and I pretty much have my rotation/priorities down as opposed to say, DRG or SAM or RDM.

There are a couple of things you're forgetting. Gear makes a BIG if not HUGE difference.
When you have ilv 371, top food, top pots, get buffed up the wazoo, perfect party composition... yea it ain't that hard to make one perfect parse.
Does it mean it's reality? Hell no. Reality is, people make mistakes, people don't always have perfect stats, etc.
Never look at FFlogs assuming its reality. The other day i had a "top percentile raider" only interested in top DPS... ohhh boy did he let it be known he was a top percentile raider.
The guy was dead on the floor due to mechanics more than the first-timers.

So focused on damage, DAMAGE, DAMAGE!!!!! that he forgot the massive AOE going straight to his face...

If you're certain that you improved rotationally? have you considered that it might be the gear you're wearing? I'm no expert summoner, but I am someone whom knows Bard through-and-through.
If I drop an item with crit on it for something with skillspeed or det? I can see my damage take a nosedive. Might want to look into that direction

Most importantly; numbers are not an accurate representation of skill, I rather have someone with lower damage whom rarely fails mechanics than someone whom is top damage but failing repeatedly.
In the end it's more important to get the job done and have fun while doing so.