Is this truly wrong?

[Granyala]

A good portion of us here on the forums look actively seek to improve ourselves, whether its be min-maxing, figuring out optimal rotations, etc. After my thread in which I found out that I was, at best, a 9th percentile raider, I took some time to work on SMN and 'git gud'. Managed to hit that 50th percentile bracket...only in sigmascape normal, and it looks like I've just gotten worse as a player trying to get better. I'm not satisfied with being a 50th percentile player, because that's actually worse numbers wise amongst Savage raiders than what I was doing back when I started that toxic elitist thread.

First of all, please read up on mathematics and assess the logging sites in order to understand how these percentiles are derived.

You will quickly notice that FFlogs does NOT take item level into account (for a long time WoWs logging sites also did not do that).
Next up, please realize that the top parses are done by people that AIM for parses and have the support of bored raidgroups that have everything on farm.

As such, unless you wear BiS and are in one of these groups it's virtually impossible to get a 95%+ log.

That being said: if we're not talking about wipe tries (long inactivity crashes your DPS) or a bloody novice stepping into a raid for the first time, 9% or even 50% is BAD. If you and your group play well and you are not too far behind gear wise, you should get some score around the 80% mark.

That being said: Remember that FF-XIV is a "mechanics first" game. It is rare that you are allowed to ignore a given mechanic, soak the damage in order to maximize output.

[SaitoHikari]

First of all, please read up on mathematics and assess the logging sites in order to understand how these percentiles are derived.

You will quickly notice that FFlogs does NOT take item level into account (for a long time WoWs logging sites also did not do that).
Next up, please realize that the top parses are done by people that AIM for parses and have the support of bored raidgroups that have everything on farm.

As such, unless you wear BiS and are in one of these groups it's virtually impossible to get a 95%+ log.

That being said: if we're not talking about wipe tries (long inactivity crashes your DPS) or a bloody novice stepping into a raid for the first time, 9% or even 50% is BAD. If you and your group play well and you are not too far behind gear wise, you should get some score around the 80% mark.

That being said: Remember that FF-XIV is a "mechanics first" game. It is rare that you are allowed to ignore a given mechanic, soak the damage in order to maximize output.

Pretty much this. This late into the raid tier, most people getting 90% or above either already have the tier on farm or are close to it. Either that, or they cleared the fight with an early performance so good that their Historical rating shows them as being at a high percentile for the time period that it was cleared, even though it would only be about 50-60th percentile today.

I'm largely in the latter category with my own O5S/O6S parses, hitting 98th/92nd percentile historical week 2 in ilvl 350 gear (as Bard). My parses since steadily fell due to being stuck on O7S for about 5 weeks (and thus falling behind in gear) and due to my lack of a static until very recently. It also doesn't help that Bard reliance on Dragoon is now so absurd that the mere presence of one contributes about 400-500 extra DPS for the Bard, which is something the developers really need to take a long, hard look at. I've only been able to climb back up to 96th/93rd this week with ilvl 360-370 gear. It took me too long to clear O7S and I've yet to clear O8S, but I have no delusions of ever breaking 90% on either fight.

I also have two historical 100 parses, for the last boss of Rabanastre and for Byakko EX, only because I had the highest recorded DPS of all Bards in the world for both fights during the first two days of release. A similar performance today would only count at around 80th-90th percentile.

https://www.fflogs.com/character/id/120007

There's always a lot of factors to consider, instead of taking the numbers at face value. It's kind of absurd that FFLogs does not have any way to record player ilvl. For instance, Bard is not only possibly the most gear-reliant of all the DPS, it is also by far the most reliant on party comp, due to the nature of how the critical hit stat works for them. No Dragoon and/or Scholar? You're not hitting 90+% this late into the raid tier.

[Alien_Gamer]

You've gone from 9th percentile to 50th...from far below average to an average raider...and you say you're regressing? That actually sounds like an accomplishment to me.

There is a phrase i learned in school to the effect of "the first 80% of something will be done in 20% of the time, the last 20% will take up the rest". Its easy to make the big strides to get something done, such as going from not using combos to using them, to using your buffs with your combos but the fine points in refining your rotation is what will take the time and dedication to perfect; its not something anyone develops quickly.

Keep trying and little by little you'll improve. It'll be hard, frustrating, aggravating and you'll have a lot of set backs but don't give up on it and you'll get there.

[Granyala]

I really wish FFLogs didn't exist, because it makes me feel as though I'm constantly under pressure to perform flawlessly in savage when I'd normally be able to just be happy with something being dead. I find myself being bothered by even small mistakes like missing a GCD while Trick Attack is active lately.

As a good DPS such mistakes should bother you. Just as any overheal bothers the crap out of me, despite WHM being a mana-god and OH not mattering that much.

Ofc you should not be bothered to the point of losing the fun. Avoid people that discriminate over logs. Important thing is still that the boss dies w/o too much trouble. In my 8+ years of raiding experience, doing mechanics cleanly is infinitely more valuable than raw DPS. Sure both is awesome but also exceedingly rare. As an officer, I always preferred reliable players with a little less DPS over E-Peen fixated ones that skimp on every mechanic possible and play at maximum risk for parses.

There is a phrase i learned in school to the effect of "the first 80% of something will be done in 20% of the time, the last 20% will take up the rest".

In music it's: "The last 5% polish take 95% of the entire effort".
It's easy to get the hang of general melody and rhythm, making it a fluent performance with very few mistakes... HARD. Raiding is pathetically easy by comparison.

[Granyala]

I had that feeling 3 days ago, I went for my weekly o6s in PF and we wiped over & over again on 1% .
I was Ast and a Mch who parsed complained I did 400dps when the sch did 2000dps, he said he could do 2500dps "easy" as a whm.

2.5K "easy" in a PF group? I call bollocks on that one.
Even in a group that plays perfectly that would be hard to do.

Also, his trolling is quite obvious if he nags at a healer for DPS when there are DPS players dying due to mechanics lol.

I dunno why they kept encouraging me - I know most other statics would've kicked, so I'm grateful, but afraid of having that happening to someone else if I get involved with an actual static.

Not exactly sure how experienced you are both with your class and with savage raiding in general but please keep in mind that it will take a few patch cycles (meaning years) to truly get used to it, have a good general overview of the battlefield and stay calm in most situations (exp near kill situations when the heart gets pumping). Staying cool and making rational split second decisions is the real secret of a good player.

Give yourself time.

As for the 9 vs 50: Yeah a lot of crap people log themselves in normal, that's why I said that 80% should be easy. It's way more difficult to get a nice healing log in normal b/c there simply isn't enough to heal (and I refuse to pump unnecessary OH)

[micropanther7]

Apologies in advance for the really looong post, well long for me anyways... but I feel it needs to be said, it's heartfelt and with the best intentions so if I do cause offense then accept my sincere apologies for that as well.

I've been playing MMO's for quite a long time now, and I'm probably old enough to be a Mum to most of you (yes I AM gonna probably sound like your mother lol). I've seen too many younger people run themselves ragged trying to be the utmost best they can be, I've also met a fair few young gamers who suffer from various mental health and/or physical issues.. to be honest it makes me very sad to hear some of the stuff you guys been through, and see myself when I was younger, I didn't get the right sort of help I needed.

I have now thank goodness *thumbs up* so I'm gonna pass on some of what I learnt, with help from experience and good people I've met in my life.

1. Look after your mental health first, if you're strong in heart and mind you can take anything that's thrown at you, get the right support for the love of god, FIGHT for it, you have the right to it.

2. It's great you push yourself to be the best But you gotta know when it's time to let it go.. take a break, do something silly that makes you laugh.. you will burn yourself out and that will trigger depression, anxiety.. but I think most of you know that already

3. You don't need anyone's approval or permission to know your self worth, trust yourself you can do better, and stop being so hard on your selves (yes I'm not just talking to Kaiva ) I mean it, don't make me come over there >.>

Ok, enough from me, I'm out, enough nagging

[Granyala]

2. It's great you push yourself to be the best But you gotta know when it's time to let it go.

3. You don't need anyone's approval or permission to know your self worth

2) Absolutely agree on that one. In fact I always assessed what effort would be required, cut off the top 5% performance and got through with great (but not the best) values while being relaxed. That way I avoided the strain of trying to "beat everyone" yet still never held my team back because I was among the most skilled of them.

3) Sorry to be harsh here but if you look for self worth and approval of others in a video game, you already have severe mental issues that need to be addressed out there in the fabled thing called "real life".
You know the game with super realistic graphics but really monotonous and boring gameplay.

[micropanther7]

2) Absolutely agree on that one. In fact I always assessed what effort would be required, cut off the top 5% performance and got through with great (but not the best) values while being relaxed. That way I avoided the strain of trying to "beat everyone" yet still never held my team back because I was among the most skilled of them.

3) Sorry to be harsh here but if you look for self worth and approval of others in a video game, you already have severe mental issues that need to be addressed out there in the fabled thing called "real life".
You know the game with super realistic graphics but really monotonous and boring gameplay.

Oh yeah I totally agree there, with both your points! I think your approach and mindset is really good on how you raid And you're not being harsh, just realistic, I've had a few verbal kicks up the backside from my best friend she's pretty blunt lol... I got addicted to gaming, it was my whole world, the only way to break the habit was I gave my power cords to my best friend, best thing I ever did. I used to get bad migraines, pains from bad posture, I limit my gaming to couple hours now, two nights a week give or take

Edited to add: ugh sorry Kaiva, just realised I kind of derailed the thread a bit >.< Please don't punt me >.<

[Granyala]

I think your approach and mindset is really good on how you raid

Raided, my dear. Raided. I am retired now and observe young whippersnappers getting cleaved in half from my veranda.
Was rather hilarious though: I went into Omega savage 5/6/7 the other day in order to help out. Apart from being rusty it was interesting how easily and quickly it all came back to me.
The difference between O6 and 7 gave me a good chuckle though. What a cliff.

But alas, after 8.5yrs of active raiding I am done with the "scheduled" gameplay thing. Helping out now and then, sure but planning evenings around raids, being there whether you really feel like playing or not because your people need you to progress ... naah. I rather poke away at my piano these days.

PS: Kudos for getting over your addiction!

[Aniise]

As I am reading your posts Kaiva, I get the feeling that maybe a break from the game will help you to calm down a little.

I'm usually not someone to suggest this, as I probably love this game just as much as you do and can understand that not playing it, even though you want to, is much to ask.
But really, I get kind of worried when I read what you write..because you really sound sad and dissapointed at yourself. This clearly isn't healthy for you.

And in no way I am saying that you should just give up at getting better, because if you keep at it you will surely improve. You already have.
BUT there are so many things more important in life than a high dps output or big numbers on FFLogs.
Ingame, you are so focused on your numbers right now that it will be hard to keep away from it and just focus on something else, of course you can try it, but habits are hard to fight most of the time.

So taking a break for like...maybe a week or so might help you to clear your head from everything. And then, when you come back, you might have a different view on things
Always remember that your health is the most important thing. Don't stress yourself so much that you don't enjoy playing anymore.
As some people already wrote, it's a game, not a reallife job.