DPS Parser - ToS Violation?

[Ervin]

A third party parser program would be against the ToS.

And what need is there with a parser? People drew up nightmare stories and nightmare scenarios when I was still leveling, about how this, that and his grandma being "so hard unless you are geared". For instance AK, Garuda, Titan etc. I started doing them straight of the bat (except Titan) in the 50/55 class pieces, random collection of rings/necks/ears etc of different levels (28-40 some white non HQ and some pinks) and an ifrit weapon as a warrior tank. I've had no trouble whatsoever, AK has probably been the most simple dungeon there is so far (not counting zerg fest 8 man castrum and that other place where you can be half asleep most of the time).

The troubles I've had havent been healing, damage or tanking issues that a parser can show. It's been people issues, bad players that couldnt handle it even in the BiS gear. People that dps their brains out as healers, people that wont avoid AoE, people that cant follow simple connect-the-dot tactics. There arent enough option when it comes to gear or specs in this game to give a parser any real value. No optional traits or talent trees, just 30 attribute points and 5 optional skills (not many to pick from). Peoples reaction times are whats killing 8 man Titans, just like poor timed stuns or the lack there off kills Ifrit runs, but thats not something you need a parser to figure out.

[Glyini]

Wait, hold on, are you (you elite gaming athlete you) saying that you cannot identify when a tank or healer is being a dolt, or when a DPS simply isn't pulling their weight (or for that matter is pulling too much aggro) without an extra tool to tell you? What's next, let your iPhone and Siri do it?

Whatever happened to people using their brains? If you need a DPS parser to see when someone is doing crap damage, or blowing through their MP quickly, you obviously are not paying much attention while you play.

Wait you are able to watch the drg in a highly moblie fight to see if hes clipping his dots and using jump at the right time. He can look like hes doing fine while flubbing 40% of his damage. Heck where you time the jumps in your rotation alone can change a drg dps by 5%

[AntonIdas]

Wait you are able to watch the drg in a highly moblie fight to see if hes clipping his dots and using jump at the right time. He can look like hes doing fine while flubbing 40% of his damage. Heck where you time the jumps in your rotation alone can change a drg dps by 5%

This. So very this.

[Gonzothegreat198]

What's really funny about this, is that the DPS Parser in question was originally made for and has been used since FFXI. You would think that if said parser was considered illegal by SE, it would have been dealt with by now.

[Kosmos992k]

Im interested to know how you determine when someone is "doing crap damage" without using a parser? Could you explain that please?

It's simple, I watch the course of the battle and watch how long things take to go down, how many groups of adds come along and how much pressure I or the healer are under.

Look, you enjoy your game however you like, I don't really care, but I don't find much enjoyment in any game when it is reduced to a mathematical exercise in maximum efficiency for DPS. I've played a lot of games in my lifetime, and the most funI have had in any of them was when a fight went badly and yet we still pulled it out by the skin of our teeth. Highly efficient, fast, battles that are performed according to mathematical precision may turn you on, but for me, that's just running a program and not very much fun. I'll trust my judgement every day over a soulless piece of code.

[svann]

It's simple, I watch the course of the battle and watch how long things take to go down, how many groups of adds come along and how much pressure I or the healer are under.
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That doesnt tell me how you can tell which dps is slacking. OMG why cant you just be honest about it? You cant tell which dps is slacking without a parser. And maybe you dont care. Thats fine if you dont care. Play how you want. But be honest whatever you do. Dont say you can tell who is slacking when you cant.

[Gonzothegreat198]

It's simple, I watch the course of the battle and watch how long things take to go down, how many groups of adds come along and how much pressure I or the healer are under.

Look, you enjoy your game however you like, I don't really care, but I don't find much enjoyment in any game when it is reduced to a mathematical exercise in maximum efficiency for DPS. I've played a lot of games in my lifetime, and the most funI have had in any of them was when a fight went badly and yet we still pulled it out by the skin of our teeth. Highly efficient, fast, battles that are performed according to mathematical precision may turn you on, but for me, that's just running a program and not very much fun. I'll trust my judgement every day over a soulless piece of code.

FYI, all battles in this game are based on this kind of precision. Especially once you get to the raids from the way they talk about Coil, if you don't care for that type of precision, then I would suggest you not try raiding.

[KisaiTenshi]

That doesnt tell me how you can tell which dps is slacking. OMG why cant you just be honest about it? You cant tell which dps is slacking without a parser. And maybe you dont care. Thats fine if you dont care. Play how you want. But be honest whatever you do. Dont say you can tell who is slacking when you cant.

You can tell who is slacking because either they are taking too much damage and need to be raised the most often OR the tank takes too much damage making the healer unable to heal the DPS's taking damage.

The game really does boil down to a simple strategy of:
a) Tank is to take all damage
b) Healer is to heal only the tank
c) DPS is to avoid taking all damage

A party with 1 tank and 1 healer and 6DPS is going to try speed-run by removing the safety of having two healers. You're right you probably can't tell which DPS is slacking in this configuration because this configuration lets 2 DPS slack while doubling the work required of the tank and healer.

Personally I think if you need any tool or service not provided by the game itself to play the game, then you're just a bad gamer. This goes equally for botters, spammers, gil buyers, people who multiclient/multi-box, game modifications, etc. Likewise if the game developer (particularly in freemium games, but subscription games are just as bad) makes certain necessary things only available by paying extra, then the game is broken by design (eg mounts, inventory capacity, "revive right here",etc) The worst thing that FFXIV does is not providing a mount before joining a Grand Company, but if you bought the collecters edition you got one.

[ZohnoReecho]

The parser i know reads the logs available in the character's directory. It works even when the game is not running. It's like opening them with notepad.
And dots cannot be parsed but estimated. The server sends you a total of the dots applied to the mob from all the players every tick, so even if they were in the log, it wouldn't tell you the dot of a single ability.

[ZohnoReecho]

Personally I think if you need any tool or service not provided by the game itself to play the game, then you're just a bad gamer

So if I try to gather precise info I'm a bad gamer?
Go tell the same to the car racing world. I bet they tune their cars following their feelings.