Better combat logs (mostly for combat parsing)

[mkaito]

I googled for this, and am surprised it hasn't been brought up. If it has, and I missed it, then I guess google failed me. My apologies if I'm reposting.

Elitism aside, combat parsers are a great tool to analyse a fight and improve as a player. I miss the incredibly detailed analysis that was available to players in Everquest 2. Parser programmers are being incredibly creative in order to obtain the data they need, but even with less than orthodox methods, we can only work with limited data and an incomplete picture of what's going on in the game.

I'm fully aware that if they intend at all to improve the logs, it's a low priority concern, but we should still express our desire for better logs.

I'm not a parser developer, so my knowledge is less than complete. I have a few ideas, but I hope people with more knowledge chime in.

• Damage over time is excluded completely.
• Ground targeted spells such as Fire Arrow or Shadow Flare are impossible to link to a player.
• Lines denoting damage taken by mobs carry no information whatsoever except for the amount of damage and the mob who takes it. It should also include who did the damage, the kind of damage, whether it was a crit, and what skill was used to do the damage.
• Pets are completely unlinked from their owners, resulting in two separate entities, and different pets with the same name being indistinguishable.
• Heals that actually heal something and those who are over heals should be differentiated.
• When a shield absorbs damage, it should be specified.
• Health absorbs should be specified.
• All heals and shields need to be linked to the caster.
• Zone names should be present in the logs, or otherwise accessible.
• Log data should be conserved, as to have a log history available, so one can go and look at parsed data from old fights.