Please implement a parser to increase AST performance

[Ghishlain]

TLDR: A core aspect of the AST toolkit are their card buffs. An AST can't determine who to give their DPS-oriented cards to if they cannot see the raw DPS values their party members are outputting. Please allow parsers to provide DPS information to assist in one of AST's core functions.

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One of AST's core functions is to augment their party via buffs drawn from their cards and using these buffs on the appropriate player. While some cards are dependent on the situation of the fight at the time the card is drawn (Bole / Ewer / Spire / Spear), its less obvious which player to give the DPS augmenting cards (Balance / Arrow / Spear in some circumstances). Without a parser and the DPS information it provides, it's difficult for an AST to gauge exactly which DPS are performing well and thus potentially make incorrect choices to whom they bestow their card buffs too.

While it's true you can have a small rule of thumb for card usage, it doesn't mean it's the correct decision in many scenarios. For example:

Give the DPS card to the DPS based on a hierarchy
For single target melee DPS, you can pretty much go most melee will generally be better than their ranged counter parts. However, just because a Job may have higher maximum potential doesn't mean said player is play it at maximum potential. Unbeknownst to the AST, that BRD who's pewpewing hard and fast behind them is outputting the most DPS and they won't know if they can't see their DPS values.

Using Enmity to Gauge DPS performance
With the prevalence of enmity reduction abilities like Quelling Strikes, Elusive Jump, and Shadewalker; enmity doesn't always properly gauge how hard a DPS is hitting a target based on how much that target wants to tear said DPS to shreds. This is especially true if the WAR OT you have in your group is just leading the DPS meter (unfortunately because that implies your other DPS are terrible). An AST would think "of course they would be ahead in enmity, WAR enmity combo is their best combo". So, while reading the enmity gauge can work, it's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination either.

Base it on the ilvl of the DPS
While generally speaking players of high ilvl should have a higher DPS potential, that thought process is totally marred by the varying levels of skill that this game caters too. You can have a DRG in i240 that's being bested by a DRG in i220 because the i240 DRG just isn't maintaining Blood of the Dragon and/or Heavy Thrust in any fashion. Or of course the "I play how I want players" like the fabled Ice Mage or the "I WANT TO STAY IN RAPTOR FORM" MNK. Unfortunately, ilvl isn't a good gauge of card selection because of the varying levels of skill in this game.

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Thus I reiterate my original though - please provide an in-game parser just to help AST perform better. If they know which DPS in the party are performing well, they can give those DPS the appropriate cards when drawn and help augment the raid DPS much better. A Balance on a 1,400 DPS is much better than on a 900 DPS and we can only gleam that information if S-E can provide it for us by implementing an in-game parser.

[Kitfox]

While not a solution, buffing each DPS at a time will avoid the situation of only buffing the worst DPS.

[Titor]

A somewhat ok way to tell would be to go with the highest enmity dps. However, if someone is using quelling strikes they can be doing a lot better than their enmity would say. I think this is the best way with the current system.

[Warlyx]

SE should make all the buffs AOE (50% potency) ...use royal road to doble the duration and call it a day....

[Yahallo]

And yet another reason why SE should add parsers to give us that add on API so people can implement in game parsers. Seriously, any cons an in-game parser has is completely outweighed by the pros.

[Zojha]

While they're at it, they should also show to ASTs all the cooldowns affected by spear that are still available on each person.

Similar goes for PvP. I can tell you: People often play atrocious because they have a very poor time gauging danger levels. Things such as medal stacks, important CDs and adrenaline need to be displayed openly to allow for maximum performance.

[Andrea]

Sadly just by mentioning the word parser in your title your thread is certain to attract some interesting people.

On topic I agree and would like them to include stuff like this, sadly at this moment of time however I doubt they will.

[Lego3400]

You don't need to min-max to clear content. If you've reached the point where this is actually something you NEED to clear the content, your group is undergeared. Just toss it on a DPS and move on. That same group can clear the content just fine without any AST buff at all if you're geared properly.

[Cherie]

They just added that Sky, Sea, Air or whatever it's called. That was to quell that desire. That's their answer for now.

Believe me, I'd love them to add some kind of their own parser for this game. I wonder if the PS3 UI could handle it. I mean, look at FFXI, it took them a really long time for them to even make their own "windowed" mode for that game...what like, 5 years for them to do it?

If I were to guess, PS3 limitations? I'm sure there is some reason they aren't doing it. I really doubt it's because of the "harassment" argument. I mean, personally I find RMT very harassing but we still only can block 200 people at a time so... I think it's the same logistic issue on both of those. It's hard to implement on all console/platforms? I could be wrong... take with a grain of salt.

[NailBach]

No, we don't need a parser.

Just yesterday i was in a Ravana farm group. We did well, ignored the add phase, downed him quite fast. After the first down the party leader told one of the DPS that his DPS was too low and we could clear it 10 seconds faster. This was followed by a kick. I then left too, as i can't stand that kind of attitude. I also blacklisted said partyleader and i once in a while check his farm progress. He still hasn't his pony and i hope it stays that way.