5 reasons why PS4 players need a parser in game

[Sebazy]

Parsers in and of themselves do nothing but tell you your crit rate if you missed and how many times you missed and overall dps number with no context. FFlogs is what provides that context so unless SE teams up with fflogs or makes their own version a parser will do nothing for you.

Going to politely disagree there, parsing has been around in various forms since BCOB, long before fflogs was a thing. Like it or loath it, these parsers were an essential ingredient in figuring out optimal play for some jobs given the hassle factor with tracking dot damage.

It doesn't even need to give an actual number tbh, just a simple ranking would be enough to give players some kind of feedback on their performance.

[Vanitas]

LOL when Yoshi tried to walk out of the room and they weren't done with the question. Me personally as a ps4 player, I'd love to see my numbers whenever I so please just to see what I put out on a regular.
Sadly this horse has been beaten to death and I honestly doubt they will ever add it. Harassment will always be the main reason why it will never be added. Like it or not we don't NEED parsers to know what we are doing and if all it'll do is add a tiny bit of convience for some, and a crap ton of harassment for others, why would they bother?

[Derio]

When they fix the skill bloat there will be no need. Rotations will be simple to where if you need a parser then something is probably wrong.

[Vanitas]

Lahabrea is D A N C I N G in his grave as this silly thread of a long overused topic that people have long since needed to get over and accept reality, sows chaos and discord over the realm, in service to the One True God.

[Reiryuu]

1) While I feel the devs should stop this, I support their reasons for not doing so (as long as people are doing it for themselves and not judging others, it's fine if they want to do it.)
2) This *should* be a banable offense and if it's not. They should make it one.

Adding in game parsers would be a huge mistake. If you think it's bad currently, it'll get 5000x worse as soon as SE gives that part of the community an inch.

[akaneakki]

This *should* be a banable offense and if it's not.
Adding in game parsers would be a huge mistake. .

I will say it again. Being offensive will be there with or without parser. So yes it's already in game. Offending people with it will lead to warning(s). This is nothing new. Not adding tools so toxic people who talks bad about people who actually does great if not best in group, will be a mistake. If people gets offended knowing they do bad, is like saying I shouldn't eat sushi because the dude doesn't like fish. We talk savage and extreme primals here.

[thegreatonemal]

I will say it again. Being offensive will be there with or without parser. So yes it's already in game. Offending people with it will lead to warning(s). This is nothing new. Not adding tools so toxic people who talks bad about people who actually does great if not best in group, will be a mistake. If people gets offended knowing they do bad, is like saying I shouldn't eat sushi because the dude doesn't like fish. We talk savage and extreme primals here.

You act like we all dont already know toxic people exist. All we are saying is the problem will get much worse and for what 10% of the playerbase to actually use parsers and fflogs for what they are intended: optimizing your dps in a given fight. without an fflogs type of add on to go with all you are doing is giving the keys to be even more toxic to half the player base that can't access yet and the other half to fully use it.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Not gonna turn this into a Parsers vs no Parsers thing, but I'm all too aware that if you give people any means or criteria to judge others against, they will whether it actually means anything or not. Humor me for a moment if you will.

8v8 Feast, and I'm on a team with someone I had an openly bad relationship with as my SCH and another very good player playing BRD which they weren't as experienced on. The SCH makes a snide quip to me to "try not to get killed to quickly", which I was then focused almost immediately and taken out 4 times (I can't and won't speculate whether that was arranged or circumstance, but I wouldn't put it past them). Taken out 4 times right away, but I then turn around and not only score the most kills for the team but I pull the second highest numbers in damage, only off from the BRD by a slight margin. I had 10 kills; the BRD who out damaged me had 0. Perhaps out of spite, the SCH then tries to cite that the BRD did more damage than me, but in the end, who really put the work in for the win?

Story time over: Fact is people are gonna find SOMETHING to judge with. If PS4 gets a parser, I wouldn't be surprised if PC players go trying to discredit or judge PS4 players for using that parser instead of what they use. Granted, if you focus more on technical mastery of your job instead of "must get X kind of parse!" You're likely to achieve it regardless. Unless somehow executing rotations properly, timing usage of skills and cds effectively, moving efficiently without wasting movement, and utilizing your party's synergies the best way doesn't produce good results?

[HyoMinPark]

@bswpayton - While you're correct in saying that toxic players will be toxic regardless of having a parser or not having one, using "No Bonus" PFs is not a very good example of toxicity. A better example would be something more along the lines of some people you meet in DF who bail after a single mistake in a piece of content (bonus points if they were the one who caused the wipe, and even more if they were wearing Savage gear), or these individuals in 24-mans who start MT wars with the other alliances. That's a better example of immaturity and toxicity. Not "No Bonus" PFs. That's simply parties wanting members who have already cleared the content (and hopefully know said content) for fast and efficient farming.

To OP, I played on PS4 for over a year before I switched to PC, and started looking at ACT to judge my own performance. Before I switched, I knew people who parsed, and my numbers stayed the same, of course increasing as my gear improved. So I do not feel like I was at a significant disadvantage by not having a parser while on console. I don't even look at my parser during duties, since I play in Full Screen, and rather tend to check the data on it after I've done several different duties to see what my numerical performance was like (if I even bother to run it--a lot of the times I don't, and only tend to use it when I'm doing Savage or Ex primals). I don't use parser callouts for mechanics; I prefer to rely on my own eyes and awareness for that.

What I'm saying is, I performed just as well without a parser, as I did with one. Any improvement I made with either due to gear changes, or not being cheap and actually using consumables. Before I even looked at Krietor's bard guide or looked into using a Double-EA versus Double-IJ opener, I still had an opener fairly similar to Krietor's. Sure my parser is useful for judging my burst damage in one opener compared to another, but even when I was on PS4, I knew people who parsed, so I just asked them to watch my dummy parses for me.

Anecdotal, I know. But that was my experience, and I can't be the only one in this sea of players who faired fine without a parser.

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ADDITION HERE: Sorry, it's late here, and I've been out all day so I'm a little tired and scatterbrained right now.

I wanted to add that I don't really approve of this division you're suggesting: that PS4 players are at a terrible disadvantage compared to PC players just because they lack access to a tool like ACT. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who play on PS4, who do not have access to parsers, and who perform just as well as Savage raiders who parse every piece of content this game has. Success and performance are all based on skill, not a parser. While parsers may help with analyzing your performance and analyzing what may help you succeed/clear a particular piece of content, insinuating that PS4 players will always be at a disadvantage or less skilled or whatnot compared to PC players just because they cannot parse themselves is sort of insulting to the PS4 playerbase.

You don't need a parser to be an amazing player. Quite personally, some of the most amazing people I have met are people who don't care a thing about parsers or parsing. Do they have lower numbers than a Savage raider? Maybe, maybe not. But that doesn't make them any less amazing, and some have taught me a lot of the stuff I know, not ACT. Any further knowledge I gained was based more off of me reading guides, and trial-and-error, some involving parser analysis and some not.

(And when it comes to things like learning how to handle mechanics, parsers can't teach you that. They may be useful for watching DPS during high DPS checks, but they can't teach you how to handle Zurvan's Soar mechanic, or Sephirot's Mad Hops, or Refurbisher's Double Scrapline. Parsers are useful, but they can't teach you everything. Some things take more than just high parses.)

My experience may be anecdotal, but I do know of some players who play on console, who do not parse, and yet they still perform well. Maybe they have had friends parse them and help with rotations. Or maybe they haven't. But my point is, don't create a PS4 versus PC division when we don't really need such a thing. I know it already exists to some extent, but let's not exacerbate it.

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While I would not be opposed to personal parsers (not public ones) being added into this game, it has been said time and time again by the developers that no such add-on will ever be supported by SE. And there have been many examples of why that is so. Just because we pay SE a subscription does not mean they have to give us everything we demand. We pay them for this game (a service), and they reserve the right to develop it as they ultimately see fit. I can't say I know of many people (or anyone really) who have threatened to stop playing if an in-game parser isn't added.

It would be like me going to McDonalds and demanding they serve me food from a Burger King menu, because it's what I want, regardless of how it may or may not profit them. I'm a paying customer, so I should get everything I ask for, right? No. It doesn't work that way. Businesses strive to make their customers happy, but they don't bend over for us, or ask us "how high" when we tell them to jump.

It's a sad thing that you're threatening to leave if SE doesn't add in an in-game parser. But, in the grander scheme, you are just one $15/month sub in a sea of hundreds of thousands of subs. And I am not saying that in a mean way, but from a business perspective. FFXIV losing one subscription isn't something that will prompt SE to suddenly go back on their countless "no's" to parsers. And, like I said, I know of no other people who have threatened to quit over the lack of such an add-on.

[HiroKirito]

1) While I feel the devs should stop this, I support their reasons for not doing so (as long as people are doing it for themselves and not judging others, it's fine if they want to do it.)
2) This *should* be a banable offense and if it's not. They should make it one.

Adding in game parsers would be a huge mistake. If you think it's bad currently, it'll get 5000x worse as soon as SE gives that part of the community an inch.

Personally I feel this assumption is part of the problem, I'm guessing by "that part of the community" you mean raiders, and you're lumping them in with people who harass in random DF and PFs? Sorry if I have misinterpreted that ^^

Anyway, when it comes to raiding and in particular progression raiding I think it's widely accepted that even if it's technically a no go, it is something that is still used on a wide scale. "Judgement" is a part of it, if you're a commited group then you will ultimately be looking where there's space to improve.

As a PS4 player, when I started raiding (I thought I was ready) it became apparent very quickly that there was a gap between myself and others. No one harassed me over it just the data was made available, and I took a step back and thought "wow I need to fix this" and I did. If this had been allowed in game I would have known this for myself and could have acted on my own sooner.

In addition ik statics looking for players for 4.0 right now and during a fight you don't have time to watch every move the person on trial makes, I feel it is kind of obvious anyway without a parser but it clarifies the "gap" with factual information, plenty of people are unaware there's an issue until the information is avalaible for them. I mean they may not be doing half the dps of the next closest person (talking strictly dps classes here) which is fine imo in random parties, can't have those expectations of others.

I completely agree that if group parsers were made available throughout content then bad apples would call people out and harass them and that it's a legitimate concern for the wider community.

But I fail to understand the concerns about parsers being made available for personal use, especially within a savage raid environment. That's what I personally feel the majority of the pro-parser crowd would be content with.

I just get the impression that people don't think the pro-parser crowd want to self-improve and that the only reason they request it is for harassment purposes.