Would you like an in-game parser?

[Dorander]

I am not sure if you fully read my post. It made little sense because you said, "The closest thing to an official parser is already in game." SSS is not the 'closest thing to a parser' - so by that extension, I made the assumption that you were saying 'the closest thing [in the game] to a parser'. However, that may have been an incorrect assumption. In which case, your sentence makes sense, it is just incorrect.

To add on to the second part of your post. The devs have said mixed things regarding parsers, and I am unsure exactly their stance. To be honest, I feel this may have to do with meaning lost in translation of interviews and live letters. That said, even if the dev team is strongly opposed to a parser, if the majority of their user base wants one, it would probably be in their best business interests to oblige. I believe that is the entire purpose of this thread and the votes on the first page.

Oh I fully read your post. "The closest thing to an official parser is already in game." means exactly what it means. Something that messures your dps output. Stop being obtuse. SSS is exactly that. Something you can do in game to find out if you have enough dps for a particular encounter.

As for the dev's stance: No they have not said mixed things. They do not want them. They turn a blind eye to them if you don't use them for harassment purposes. However, they will not ever officially endorse or code one in the game.

That's not something you say to someone, unless you are genuinely concerned and you phrase it more respectfully. It's a very rude way of disagreeing with someone.

Smart enough to pick up on that one, huh? That was the point.

[Asmodai]

As for the dev's stance: No they have not said mixed things. They do not want them. They turn a blind eye to them if you don't use them for harassment purposes. However, they will not ever officially endorse or code one in the game.

Well you are wrong. They said they would never make an official one but once add-ons are allowed there will be one. You guys can keep complaining all you want, you cant stop it.

PA: There’s been a lot a lot of discussion around add-ons, parsers, and whether they are allowed in game. Do you think there will be a time in the future where damage parsers and the like are sanctioned by Square Enix?

YoshiP: First of all, about add-on plans, I am sorry of the delay because of our work on the PlayStation 4 version, it delayed the initial plans we had in mind. You’ll definitely be able to change the skin of the interface, and on the technical side of things, if a technical person creates an add-on you’ll probably be able to pull some data which is send from the server to the client’s side.

Talking about tools to monitor DPS damage made by players: at the moment we have no plans to introduce an official tool because I do feel that if we introduce this tool, the players who are enjoying the DPS role but don’t necessarily have the player skill of other players I think it’s going to make them really uncomfortable in the game and in the party they might be blamed for the results. We don’t want encourage that. We’re not going to say we’re forbidding players to use that kind of tool if they make it, but I think that’s really up to the community and players for that decision. For example, with the World of Warcraft with DPS add-on, if players are not necessarily good enough, then you get that skeleton on top of their head, and I don’t think this is pleasant for players.

[Dorander]

snip.

That's all well and good, but until they completely get rid of consoles as a device to play on (read ps3/ps4), you might as well kiss add-ons good bye.

[Kaurie]

Oh I fully read your post. "The closest thing to an official parser is already in game." means exactly what it means. Something that messures your dps output. Stop being obtuse. SSS is exactly that. Something you can do in game to find out if you have enough dps for a particular encounter.

As for the dev's stance: No they have not said mixed things. They do not want them. They turn a blind eye to them if you don't use them for harassment purposes. However, they will not ever officially endorse or code one in the game.

You seem unnecessarily angry. I am sorry that I have provoked you.

SSS is not the closest thing to an official parser. I feel like that is a weird measure, as what does 'closest thing to an official parser' mean? I'd say the closest thing to an official parser would be an official parser. After that, it's fairly unclear what that would include. I'd argue that posting everyones numbers at the end of an encounter (like on PvP) is closer to a parser than SSS. I'd argue that having your numbers posted in SSS would be closer than current SSS. I'd argue that having the total hitpoints of the SSS dummy be displayed in-game would be cloesr to an official parser than current SSS.

I have read mixed responses on the matter of add-on support and parsers from various interviews.

[Dorander]

snip.

There will never be official numbers posted. EVER. SSS tells you if you are doing enough dps to complete an encounter before enrage mechanics happen. Parsers - tell you what your dps is. You know what DPS stands for right? Damage Per Second? All they are doing is giving a numerical value to the exact same thing that SSS does.. just SSS doesn't show numbers. It just says "pass" or "fail." In the end, that's all you need.

[Kaurie]

There will never be official numbers posted. EVER. SSS tells you if you are doing enough dps to complete an encounter before enrage mechanics happen. Parsers - tell you what your dps is. You know what DPS stands for right? Damage Per Second? All they are doing is giving a numerical value to the exact same thing that SSS does.. just SSS doesn't show numbers. It just says "pass" or "fail." In the end, that's all you need.

You are right, they likely will never have official numbers. It's a shame though, as I feel it would help this game and its playerbase immensely.

I realize what DPS stands for, and the numerical number is useful. I mean it's similar to any sort of numerical measure of something. "I know that when I drive home, it takes 10 minutes" vs "I drove 100 kph on my way home". Obviously, the reasoning for those values are very different than in the game - where you don't want to go too fast to stay within legal limits or close to, whether your concern is for safety or for avoiding tickets.

In terms of the game, DPS meters are useful for guaguing how your damage changes based on encounters and your changes within those encounters. During SSS, sure you can pull whatever DPS - great job. That isn't going to show if it is actually better to save your cooldowns for when Twinkledinks is large or small in A5S (note that it appears it is not better to save your cooldowns and to use them when you can). It won't show you how your numbers change when you adjust your rotation on Ravana ex with the damage up/down buffs. It won't show how your numbers change when you have to swap between AoE/single target for add phases. It won't show how your numbers change as you are doing mechanics. ... and so on.

SSS has one use, and that is to see if you are worthy of attempting content or not. It doesn't actually help you improve yourself within said content. It also doesn't help your team understand what needs to be addressed when not meeting DPS checks. An interesting aside, hard DPS checks are extremely prevalent in this game, which seems counter-intuitive given the stance on parsers.

From my personal experience, I've only seen SSS used as a "I beat A8S dummy! \o/" announcements via FC chat. Often these are announcement by people who actively parse on PC. Players on PS4 that I know don't even know where SSS even is. A NIN in my static, for example, was asking me just the other day - and he actively works to improve his numbers.

As one final aside:

You know what DPS stands for right? Damage Per Second?

That's not something you say to someone, unless you are genuinely concerned and you phrase it more respectfully. It's a very rude way of disagreeing with someone.

While not exactly the same thing Rawrz was referencing, it's the same idea. When you are asking these questions, you are phrasing it in a way that is extremely condescending and rude, rather than honest and helpful.

[Dorander]

snip.

All that comes from just 'doing' the dungeon. Again, you don't even need a parser to tell you those things. As a dps, your cooldowns should be used as much as possible. Sitting on them, for any length of time is a waste. Only in certain circumstances do you hold off till something is over. You don't need a parser to tell you that. SSS gives you exactly what the devs want you to know: Can you, in your current gear and with your standard rotation, defeat this encounter? No? Get better gear/work on your standard rotation. Yes? Go have fun.

And as I said to Rawrz. That's the point. Amazing you picked up on that. /eyeroll

[Kaurie]

All that comes from just 'doing' the dungeon. Again, you don't even need a parser to tell you those things. As a dps, your cooldowns should be used as much as possible. Sitting on them, for any length of time is a waste. Only in certain circumstances do you hold off till something is over. You don't need a parser to tell you that. SSS gives you exactly what the devs want you to know: Can you, in your current gear and with your standard rotation, defeat this encounter? No? Get better gear/work on your standard rotation. Yes? Go have fun.

That is not always the case, certain encounters promote sitting on your cooldowns. For example, in Bismark Extreme, you should save Raging Strikes for the Snakes (I mean when it was a relevant DPS check). In Ravana, using your cooldowns when he has the Sword buff instead of the Shield dramatically increases your overall damage output. Parsers help you test out different strategies and see how it affects things. It also helps you see stuff for your team, back to Bismark for example, in that you could see that as a team you are dying on the snakes. However, everyone on the team floored the SSS (hypothetically), so what gives? Oh this handy parser is showing that DPS#1 is using all his cooldowns right at the start and his DPS drops dramatically during the Snake phase. Then you can easily address it. Can you address stuff without a parser? Yes. However, it is a tool that helps.

The SSS does nothing to translate your ability to DPS in an actual encounter with mechanics, or know how/when to use your cooldowns, among other things.

And as I said to Rawrz. That's the point. Amazing you picked up on that. /eyeroll

...

[Rawrz]

...

Agreed.

I remember when I was first doing ravana and bismark. The carapice sometimes was an issue to break. Back then I was doing the standard rotation in every encounter. Bio II, miasma, bio, aero, shadowflare, because they were my highest potency attacks. Many groups could not clear the carapice. I wondered, am I doing this right? I wrote down every skill a SCH had and made a chart on how effective each skill was over time. You could see how Bio and Aero shine in burst phases, by the graph. Instead, using the data, I would bio, ED, aero, swift, ED, Broil, ED/aetherflow, Broil spam instead in that 18 second window. Figuring out that, increased the success rate of my parties. If I could have used a parser to see how low my damage was on the target, I probably would have been able to improve sooner.

This trial was a real cornerstone to how I DPS. Without it, I would never have developed the way I dps now.