I have an idea for DPS gauging

[Omskahn]

Well 2 really.

1. A ramp/momentum system, where the more dmg you can put out within an interval, essentially boosts your dmg for the next interval. Monks kind of have this, but it is more about finishing a chain instead of performing. You get stronger for doing better. To a cap I guess.

2. Soft/qualitative meter, where no numbers are shown at all, but you have something that tells you how your doing on a scale (bad/average/awesome/Gaben etc.) based on some calculated average from your stats/ilevel. If you're having trouble understanding this one, think of like skateboarding/fighting games where you're essentially given 'ratings' for a combo based on how good/intricate/long it is. At the end of an engagement you get a stacking buff or something to know that you did well and gives a personal extra incentive to do so.

Both of these only work if there are visual cues to show you that you are doing well though. Which I think is part of what ppl fundamentally want - to know how well they're doing.

Any other ideas for unorthodox methods fixing dps ignorance?

[Krylo]

Buffs are visible to the party, as such you may as well just put in a parser as everyone will know if you're doing bad or good or whatever.

[Catwho]

It's a nice idea in theory, but what Krylo said.

They need to just add a parse to a level 60 striking dummies, with a timer option. How much damage can you put out in 2 minutes?

[Omskahn]

I get what you guys are saying. But my goal was to add something interesting while at the same time filling a hole. SE does very little with the game that hasn't been done elsewhere. This could add more of an excitement/positive reinforcement factor

[elemental10]

A combo meter perhaps?

But instead of measuring how many hits you pull off, it calculates how much damage you do.

Instead of a numbering system, make it a bar system where 1 bar = a certain amount of damage. Every bar you hit will increase your bar count by 1. Then at the end of certain time period, you can softly calculate how much bar of damage you do.

For example, a DRG with a Chaos Thrust combo can hit up to 6 and a half bars, and then it'll go back down to 3 bars when you restart your combo for a Full Thrust combo. A MNK, on the other hand will start off at 2 bars, then 3 bars, then 5 bars when he gets to GL3 and will sustain that damage throughout the same time period.

This is somehow a soft way to measure your damage while maintaining accountable damage measurements.

Edit: I should clarify this a bit more.

When combat starts, a bar would appear on your HUD. It will be empty and a zero would be beside it. As a DRG, you start with True Thrust and the bar gets filled up halfway. Then, you combo with Vorpal Thrust, and the bar gets filled, number becomes 1, and the bar becomes empty again. Then you go for a Full Thrust, the bar gets filled, the number becomes 2, then the new bar gets filled halfway. After the combo ends, the number goes away with the bar and restart at zero.

The same thing happens with your Chaos Thrust combo.

Thus, if you want to calculate the TOTAL amount of damage you do under a certain period of time, you would have to add all the numbers of bars you filled up.

There is, however, another variation in which the bar DOESN'T reset to zero. Instead, it will continously increase as long as you are in combat. After a certain period of time of no enmity generation, it will reset back to zero.

This way it doesn't really say in numbers how much damage you do, but how it puts it in relation to how many bars you've filled up. I guess this is a pretty good way to measure your DPS without all the supposedly hatred/angst towards parsers.

[Omskahn]

^essentuakly building your own limit break bar. If you were accountable for building your own, you'd be that much more invested, and be able to directly see your own gains. I like the idea.

[Twilite]

No got damn meter of any kind.