They Should Add An Official Damage Meter With One Condition

[Crescence]

First thing first, why do you want official damage meter in the game, that's the question.

if: you want it to see your very own numbers only.
That'd be pretty much pointless. How does the number matters if you don't know the average and how you do compared to the average? It shows you number, it doesn't tell you whether you're doing it right or not and where to fix. You need target of comparison to know how you're doing. And I'm 100% sure you'll get bunch of ppl automatically consider ppl who set theirs on private as "not good enough to be shown on public", which is one risk of toxicity (gatekeeping, at minimum).
Example, let's say we got this feature ranking your DPS and you got an "C". Party wiped on enrage. Ppl start asking each others' dps and everyone's DPS rank. Will you be able to say that you're C when everyone's B? And will you believe it when ppl claim that they're A? Or that they're higher than you even when they died once? What would you think when someone goes "I'm not telling you my numbers but I guarantee you I'm doing good"?
"Private" setting doesn't help, it just won't work.

if: You can't clear content without DPS meter.
It's not about DPS meter to begin with. DPS meter shows plain DPS numbers. It doesn't show you the fight's mech nor why you die (and I'm assuming you don't need any DPS meter to know if someone died or not mid fight).
It may show you "who" lacks the numbers and causes the enrage, but then what? Tell them to DPS more? If they can they'd have done it. Kick them from the party? That's exactly what the dev want to avoid.


Here I'm assuming that the "DPS meter" mentioned here is basically "a feature to show your DPS numbers" and nothing more. Nothing logs, nothing analysis, nothing to show rotation nor timeline, no timer nor mods, nothing.

Now back to the main question, if you get this DPS meter, how would it be of your use? Do you actually need it?

[Skiros]

i have seen first hand how elitist and toxic it can be to rely solely on dps parse numbers when recruiting for parties in other MMOs, i am not eager to have that mentality brought into 14. You tell us to form a thought of our own, meanwhile you blindly reject any and all thoughts that don't agree with you, talk about hypocritical.

I seriously don't get why people think this when high-end statics already filter with FFLogs lol?? A lot of players also kick you from weeklies if your logs look shit. This has been a thing since early Stormblood, if not late Heavensward (when they introduced cross-world PF).

It's not like you're preventing anything when it's already in FF14.

I'm personally against a damage meter not because of toxicity (shit argument), but because all it does is push players into approaching encounters in a highly one-dimensional way, which is exactly why Savage fights are such a snoozefest these days because it's designed EXACTLY to the parameters of the parsebrains. Official damage meters will cause even the casuals to tunnel on DPS and whine and cry whenever they lose more than one GCD of uptime.

Savage is literally so boring now even during progression because melee uptime is given to you for free. And I'm 100% sure it's designed this way because both NA and JP players care too much about DPS.

This isn't a toxicity thing, it's a "let's dumb down our game so that only one metric matters" thing.

I'm playing tank this tier and I genuinely feel like my mitigation is completely useless EVEN in Ultimate (DSR), outside of tankbusters. Bosses barely auto, my mit on party members don't mean jackshit because healing can be solved completely with healer oGCDs, etc. My mind is focused on optimizing damage even in Ultimate, on what in literally every other game would be considered a support with utility (tanking, aggro etc.)

(This is also why I'm having way more fun in Lost Ark compared to literally everything in FF14 below Ultimate because there are a LOT of things that all simultaneously matter: dodging, teamwork, DPS, using battle items, etc.)

IF they were to implement a damage meter, I want metrics other than DPS to be shown as well, like Lost Ark's MVP screen. Damage mitigated should be a thing on such a meter, along with eHP healed (i.e. HPS adjusted for mitigation and overhealing), mechanics successfully executed (track across a lockout), etc.

[forsakee]

Now back to the main question, if you get this DPS meter, how would it be of your use? Do you actually need it?

I'd argue I did need it not too long ago but being a ps4 player I was oblivious to my mistakes. Thank god my friend helped me resolve this issue and my dps went up 25%. I'm confident in saying I doubt I would have ever found out the ideal rotation/stats etc without that individuals help. I doubt I would've cleared p4s let alone be progging DSR. Most of the time the meter would be used on a target dummy for testing different openers to adjust to mechanics etc.... All those guides etc online are made with people using act.

[Crescence]

All those guides etc online are made with people using act.

I'm not sure I can 100% agree with that, ppl who are good (and who make good guides) are good even without ACT, reading and analyzing the potencies on the tooltips should be good enough to be decent up to a certain extend. Remaining seconds on dummies should be good enough to compare skill rotations, and finding ideal rotation for certain contents based on other ppl usually requires more than simple DPS meter (e.g. xivanalysis, fflogs etc). I do get your point cos I was pretty much the same, but the problem is I don't think people will stop opting for such features even if the game has its own official DPS meter. Basically what people want is not the meter but the things beyond that, simply having DPS meter doesn't give as much merit compared to the risks.

That said, I do think there are some benefits we indirectly get from people using act. BiS, sub-status calculation, well yes ideal rotation is included too. Again, that basically requires something 'beyond' DPS meter. In the end what people want is not the meter, it's the logs, in the least. And not simply your very own logs, but others' as well.

idk personally I feel like "use at your own risk" is just the most efficient situation for both players and dev

[Caitlyn]

If they fail to meet the requirements of the game, let them fail. People do not get better until they fail and learn.

And how do people know, that they failed? In a group of 8 players? Who knows if the entire group failed or just a single person?
How can you tell, without a meter, if someone is doing its job?

Clearing content and doing a good job are 2 different things.

[Skiros]

I'm not sure I can 100% agree with that, ppl who are good (and who make good guides) are good even without ACT, reading and analyzing the potencies on the tooltips should be good enough to be decent up to a certain extend. Remaining seconds on dummies should be good enough to compare skill rotations, and finding ideal rotation for certain contents based on other ppl usually requires more than simple DPS meter (e.g. xivanalysis, fflogs etc). I do get your point cos I was pretty much the same, but the problem is I don't think people will stop opting for such features even if the game has its own official DPS meter. Basically what people want is not the meter but the things beyond that, simply having DPS meter doesn't give as much merit compared to the risks.

That said, I do think there are some benefits we indirectly get from people using act. BiS, sub-status calculation, well yes ideal rotation is included too. Again, that basically requires something 'beyond' DPS meter. In the end what people want is not the meter, it's the logs, in the least. And not simply your very own logs, but others' as well.

idk personally I feel like "use at your own risk" is just the most efficient situation for both players and dev

I mean the optimization that we have today are built on theorycrafters using ACT to figure out exactly what all the various jank in the game do. Like the damage calculations, how DoTs exactly work etc.

Optimization currently is so precise they go down to the milliseconds. You have people debating over buff cascading, figuring out the precise animation delay down to the 0.1 second etc. IDK how you'd do this without ACT.

Not my cup of tea, I find it extremely stupid that theorycrafting in ShB/EW is nitpicking over 10 or 20 potency here and there. And rankings are just based on crit farms. But alas, that's just what happens when you have a dumbed down game with a sophisticated parser. What happens is information overload over the simplest of encounters and job designs. Guess what people do with this combination...

[LaylaTsarra]

Keep praying daily it's good for the soul I've been told. I wouldn't hold your breath though The Director has literally given the 3rd finger to the use of an official parser in this game. It's not ever going to happen and I fully support his decision.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ingame_parser/

[DamianFatale]

NO. It doesn't matter if devs make it voluntary, players will demand it and kick you when you refuse to abide to their terms. Wouldn't matter if they banned this as well, because lets be real. EVEN IF its a reportable offense, do you really think they can keep up with all the players that would do this? It's better to just keep it off the table.

Players would inevitably get in trouble, when gm jail takes as many hours as it does to talk to a GM, it's painfully obvious they have a queue, and not enough people to keep up. Parsers are a terrible idea, and should never be supported.

[Upirlikhyi]

I'm not sure I can 100% agree with that, ppl who are good (and who make good guides) are good even without ACT, reading and analyzing the potencies on the tooltips should be good enough to be decent up to a certain extend. Remaining seconds on dummies should be good enough to compare skill rotations, and finding ideal rotation for certain contents based on other ppl usually requires more than simple DPS meter (e.g. xivanalysis, fflogs etc). I do get your point cos I was pretty much the same, but the problem is I don't think people will stop opting for such features even if the game has its own official DPS meter. Basically what people want is not the meter but the things beyond that, simply having DPS meter doesn't give as much merit compared to the risks.

That said, I do think there are some benefits we indirectly get from people using act. BiS, sub-status calculation, well yes ideal rotation is included too. Again, that basically requires something 'beyond' DPS meter. In the end what people want is not the meter, it's the logs, in the least. And not simply your very own logs, but others' as well.

idk personally I feel like "use at your own risk" is just the most efficient situation for both players and dev

I tried it for a bit and I could never get the overlay to work in game. And while my numbers looked decent from what I saw as I leveled it became a source of frustration for me.. I would see posts where people did x..x on a bard at lvl x=n.n and I wasn't hitting that so I was getting frustrated.

I just returned from some personal issues and I'm honestly not worried anymore if im hitting numbers as i level. My fc has a couple raid teams so Hopefully i can get lvled quick and in one

[CKNovel]

I find it stupid that when we struggle with an enrage, which is an ingame mechanic, we are forced to use third party tool to see what we are doing wrong. Or even if we are doing something wrong.

Easy use case we just went through yesterday, one of our DPS was slightly too far from the DNC and didn't received the buffs.
Why do we need to have a replay/combat logs analyzer to see that mistake?

If not an ingame damage meter, we need a better combat tracker