Quote Originally Posted by EnigmaticDodo View Post
Title.

I've been watching streamers do high end stuff and I see and hear programs announcing mechanics before they even exist on screen. Certain mechanics are randomized in the order they will occur and people are reacting to them far in advance.

Folks try to rationalize this as ok by saying, 'oh it's no different than having your raid lead call it', but let me counter with this; does your raid lead have precognition and can tell the order of random mechanics before they happen all the time? If not, then you're cheating. Plain and simple.

Reject me, oh forums mine.
What totally random mechanics would those be? Most mechanics come in a a very predictable order once you've done a fight a few times.

When the mechanics are actually random, how often are they not preceded by audio/visual cues that a specific mechanic is coming in a few seconds, giving a party leader time for a quick call out?

SE's been pretty clear on the third party tool policy. While prohibited in general, they aren't going to take action against those using tools solely to customize UI elements.

If you're seeing things in streams that aren't UI customizations, report it. Keep in mind that a parser is a customization of the battle log, a UI element. But if you're seeing things like mechanic countdown displays or "go here" arrows, those are outside what the UI provides and should be reported.