One potential solution to the parser 'problem'

[Sebazy]

Well, you sort of got your fix. Stone, Sky, Sea. Which I'm not sure anyone actually uses anymore. Sure you can get high numbers on a stagnant dummy, but how does that relate to an actual encounter. Standing still and doing a rotation does not correlate well with moving around and doing mechanics, while doing a rotation.

Stone sky sea was a weak addition yeah, the numbers it asks aren't even particular relevant to the fights they are tuned for either. It's really more a test of Can you do your rotation for X minutes and do you have enough gear? and even that's a stretch.

The Yojimbo gate is is really closer what I had in mind. That but combined with a wider variety of mechanics to do and a side of having to DPS/Heal through it would be amazing.

[FALCSMASH]

Yes implement parsing so we can easily identify the plebs and kick them out of our parties^^

[Colt47]

Parsing is kind of a complicated issue because it's both a player problem and game design problem rolled into one, and it's been around ever since this style of game was first created. Effectively, the only way to make parsers obsolete is to make the rotations easy and intuitive to pick up, with just enough buttons to them to make sure they are not too boring to play. Thankfully, the game lets people play multiple jobs so it's a lot harder to get bored on a simpler rotation than something like WoW, where you got one class and you basically have to master that one class.

They successfully managed to do it with a few jobs like Machinist and warrior, but warrior also illustrates how delicate a balancing act this can be.

[TTiscancer]

There are no parser problems.

Anyone with a brain can see DPS is crap without a parser, and who is doing a bad job. When you see a SAM with a 50% uptime on it's DoT, you don't need a parser to tell you anything.

[kaynide]

The easiest mid-way solution would be to have a sort of tug o war with an NPC for aggro.

Lock the iLv to something like 100, then just you and an NPC fight a mob. If the NPC has aggro, some bar builds up (or his hp goes down).
Either a) at the end of x time who has aggro longest wins or b) when the bar is full (or empty hp), the fight ends.

..so it’s either a race for aggro or a kind of time trial.

Make it so every 30 sec the NPC’s potency increases until it becomes impossible to keep aggro from him.

No need for a specific score...but maybe “I survived Maat2.0 for 2 minutes!” is fine?


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As is in game, the aggro numbers and bars where the party list is honestly enough information for myself. If I’m #7 or 8… I want to diagnose the problem. If I’m top 4, I can safely assume for the situation I’m in, everything is fine. I know that’s not a really good tool of dps measure, but for my purposes it works.

[Hysterior]

I really think that a personal parser is the way to go
E.g. get a score card at the end of a fight / dungeon about YOUR DPS ONLY and a grade based on where your DPS should be