Quote Originally Posted by Forever_Learning View Post
Yes, it does happen. I can list you plenty of examples and anecdotes, and many of them come from WoW where parsers are more prevalent. Players absolutely do make decisions, bad decisions, in hopes of doing more DPS. Yes, they are bad players, yes they make bad decisions, and yes, some or many of them are influenced by the parsers. As I heard one content creator comment on her show when trying to tell someone to do mechanics better, the response she received was “but the meters, I gotta stay high on the meters”. As I said before, stating that parsers can make some people overly focused on their DPS isn’t a controversial statement.
You're moving the goal posts here. The original argument pertained to tanks intentionally not using CDs because they're too focused on their DPS. This makes no sense because using CDs has no impact on your DPS. Not using Shadow Wall or Shelltron isn't going to make your DPS increase. In fact, it's liable to decrease your DPS since you'll inevitably die. Hence why I responded as I did. You cannot abruptly shift the argument to people making bad decisions because parsers. Do that happen? Sure. Is it the majority? No even remotely. You also have to consider what is a "bad" decision, which can be a subjective term. If a Black Mage eats a magic with Manawall to remain in their Leylines, it's better for both them and the raid unless that decision forces the healer to overcompensate.

Regardless, your initial premise: tanks aren't using CDs because ACT exists, is flawed. They're bad because of sheer incompetence, inexperience or some other factor. Not due to a parse.