Parsing unfair but okay?

[Risvertasashi]

What I don't get is, how is one supposed to know that FFlogs is even accurate? It's a third party website that relies on information obtained from an addon that you would be banned if you got caught having to begin with, so it's already dubious. For example, I don't have it, but I've found sometimes people have submitted logs of fights I've been involved in. On my highest parse according to FFlogs, a fight where I didn't die, maintained consistent damage output, didn't fail any mechanics, and have full 580 gear materia'd correctly as a SAM, I only did high green parse.

Like, I don't get it. I get fights where I died multiple times but fights where I performed perfectly I'm somehow still doing low parses as one of the highest dps jobs. On one fight, a machinist was the top parser which is absurd. I have to question if, when I'm performing my rotation correctly and consistently, not failing mechanics, and not dying, highly geared and fully materia'd, if I'm STILL registering with medicore parses, if this information is even worth taking seriously. I'm highly geared with the right materia, performed properly, did all the mechanics right, didn't die, and the boss went down and very fast, and that's still not enough according to a third party website to net me high parses.

I literally don't care, and I can't take anyone who does care seriously. If these logs didn't exist I would just assume I did well.

There is a level of inaccuracy/estimation and simulation involved, but they're pretty transparent about exactly how they make their calculations, and as far as rankings go, well, everyone gets the same approximations. if you want to compare, go hit the SSS dummy and look at the numbers the game reports as your DPS and compare to FF logs or whatever. It should be very close, but not perfectly matching.

Now, as for your personal rankings, there's a lot that goes into it and isn't necessarily within your control. For example, having a food buff up and using potions has a substantial impact, even if all other elements are perfect or close enough. And right now people aren't highly geared, so gear differences have a big impact as well. And then if you're not in a party that provides raid buffs, or people can't keep their windows aligned, that'll be another hit to ranking.

If you really want to know, throw up your logs somewhere and ask for feedback and people can identify specific things that may be an issue - whether or not that's your rotation. (Also, be careful getting your advice from The Balance, they're ok for getting to a baseline but somewhat often make suggestions that are actually terrible for optimizing your DPS in the high end).