Would you like an in-game parser?

[tjw]

I speak only the following from my experiences with parsers, both good and bad. Key phrase being 'both good and bad'.

As a healer, parsers aren't as effective for my role, but even then, I can go through the logs afterwards and see where I'm overhealing/in which areas I can DPS just a bit longer. In the same regard, it also gives me greater feedback at which stage of the fight that I need to prep cooldowns or be prepared for some hard hitting raid damage. I can definitely see the benefits for our DPS; they are able to streamline their damage and be more consistent with it, as well as pushing themselves to do better in the raid. As I have never been parsed for my DPS, I can't comment much save that there is noticeable improvements within a static community. It also makes all of us accountable to one another and the static as whole, which is never a bad thing.

However, the reliance on parsers is an issue, because in the very end, parsers are just a tool. They don't teach you how to do mechanics. They don't teach you how to do your rotation properly. They aren't the teachers of the system; they are merely a tool. Over-reliance or dependence on the numbers a parser shows is very detrimental.

For example, our raid static was progressing through M2S. After our first week in there, where we barely managed to clear Brawler, our DRG, NIN and BRD start fine-tuning their DPS based on the parser, with a lot of small and useless things that ended worsening our progress. Things such as telling the tanks to wait for cooldowns of 3 minutes, odd pull macros of 18 seconds, telling the tank not to move too far from mines because 'positionals', frequently stacking mirages because 'positionals' or 'casting', getting hit or wrongly baiting mirages because 'positionals' or 'casting', pulling before the tanks do because 'Huton/BotD uptime', not moving for single drill because 'DPS uptime', frequently stunning other party members with double drill because 'positionals', getting clipped by Gamma orb because 'DPS uptime', not coming into range for AoE heals to prepare for Beta orbs because 'DPS uptime' or 'casting'. And then blaming the tanks and healer for blowing them up/not topping them off. Reason? To see their numbers on the parser get higher.

Of course, the tanks and the healers pretty much gave no shits after two days of this and told them off. Keep in mind that this was only the second week we were in there, barely any progress. Our end result was we were just wiping faster with little actual progress made. Our DRG tried to do the same thing with our second week in M3S, suggesting that the healer (me) take the caster jail so our SMN would have higher uptime on the boss. We all just gave him the lecture on what happened in M2S and he quickly relented.

Point is, I can see the benefits of the parser and it has done lots of good for the raiding community and our static as well. However, I am seeing some unhealthy obsession with the 'numbers' on these parsers that can make it detrimental rather than beneficial to the party. I think most people need to keep in mind that it is merely just a tool. It can't be used to carry anyone, or magically improve someone.

[randysquirrel]

Reason? To see their numbers on the parser get higher.

We had a bit of this in the early days too, I think it came from the mindset of being in Gordias where squeaking out every last bit of dps actually did matter. Glad to see Midas switch to being more mech-focussed, with overall dps being higher only if you respect the mechanics.

I've been guilty of it myself, waiting a little too long trying to get a cast off before moving, after you die to it a few times you soon realise hehe