Is this truly wrong?

[BluexBird]

In case it hasn't been said, logs are EXTREMELY reliant on equipment - especially weapon wise. I can guarantee you that by now, everyone in the 90% bracket have their ilvl 370-375 weapon, and are close to (if not) ilvl 370. And it makes a huge difference.

Also, you absolutely have to use pots. If you don't use pots, you'll struggle to break past 80%. Hell, even 70% is a struggle without pots sometimes.

And now for a somewhat minor variable you might not be aware of - padded runs. A ridiculous amount of people will end up with better parses than you, simply because the AST is giving them all the Balance cards, and stuff like that. But you don't have to worry about this if all you want is to get close to the 90s.

For starters, just focus on getting to ilvl 370. Get your weapon, and THEN try showing what you're capable of.

[Nhadaly]

Gear, potions and padded runs

Im sorry but the first two points are just false, logs are very reliant on player ability, not logs or potions, heres a good players alt who has an iLvl of 35x : Cherry Cordial, look her up wherever.

As for potions they make a difference but not that much, they do not make or break a parse, as for padded runs, they are few and inbetween, yes, they exist and it sucks, but they wont make nor break your percentiles, all they break are All Star points which almost nobody cares about.

Its mostly about player ability, thats the first and foremost hurdle for anyone that has low percentiles, saying its about gear, potions or padded runs.....those are just excuses, anyone can get purple with enough work and dedication, regardless of gear or whatever.

[Granyala]

Im sorry but the first two points are just false, logs are very reliant on player ability

Of course player ability factors into it but given 2 players of equal skill, the one with a significantly lower item level won't stand a chance. It is simple mathematics.
Yes, the gap isn't as ridonculous in XIV as it is in WoW but gear is still of paramount importance.

If you parse yourself as a 350 alt you won't stand any chance against a 370+ that knows what he is doing. Pretending otherwise is ignoring the truth.

I simply said to the group, thats gotta be better. And they responded with something surprising.... "We cleared it, you didnt die or get grabbed, who cares"? Before I could reply.... another person in the discord said, "you did better than me and I have better gear, who cares"?... So then I asked "why are you logging"? and they just said they only cared about themselves, for personal benefit, and dont judge others so long as they are clearing

And thats when it dawned on me, no one really SHOULD care, unless you are way under par and/or dying (causing the group to not clear).

Pretty much my stance. I look at the logs 95% in order to assess MY performance.
I only looked at others in depth when we somehow struggled to see whether I could pinpoint any issues and try to help.

Logs are a wonderful diagnostic tool once you get past the %ile / DPS E-peen contest.

[HyoMinPark]

Im sorry but the first two points are just false, logs are very reliant on player ability, not logs or potions, heres a good players alt who has an iLvl of 35x. . . .

Of course player skill plays a huge role. But if you take two equally skilled players, 1 with full 350 and one with full 370 BiS, the 370 BiS will numerically perform better than the 350 player. With the tier being almost halfway over, more and more players have i370 with their 375 weapons, and take up the top percentiles. They raise the bar that others have to meet to get into the higher percentiles. And yes, some of those oranges are heavily padded to give people pretty front pages, but it is much harder for an individual to get higher percentile parses the later you get into a tier. Just because of sheer competition.

Its mostly about player ability, thats the first and foremost hurdle for anyone that has low percentiles, saying its about gear, potions or padded runs.....those are just excuses, anyone can get purple with enough work and dedication, regardless of gear or whatever.

Again, see above what I said about two equally skilled players in different gear and the discrepancy there will be between them. Some jobs are also heavily reliant on others (BRD/MCH on DRG), and will perform lower than an equally skilled player that has the necessary party comp: a 370 BRD without a DRG will have a lower parse than an equally skilled 370 BRD with a DRG. It's not just player skill that make logs, because a lot of top logs are padded to give pretty numbers, or completely optimized between the entire static to give those perfect runs.

I am an i363 BRD. My last parse on v6s was 52 percentile the night it was uploaded. The time before that (~2 weeks prior) was 90 percentile. The difference in DPS was 5087 (52) and 5752 (90). Why was my percentile so much lower?
-I'm competing against speed runs with BRDs who have their BiS
-I'm competing against optimization runs that Min-Max every GCD
-I also had no DRG, and no AST.

My kill time was actually shorter on the 52nd percentile run, but just the fact that I was competing against players with better gear, and BRDs that have a DRG (which is the biggest hit to a BRD's DPS--I can still get purples with no AST). I did nothing different: same food, same rotation, potted at the normal times, I even had 2 more 370 pieces in the 52nd run. But my lower percentile wasn't due to my lack in skill, but my group's lack of ideal circumstances for BRD and my lack in gear. At most, if I lacked a bit it was because it was the first time I had done V6S since my 90.

Not trying to toot my own horn or saying some god-tier BRD because I've never managed an orange (my highest is 94 on Exdeath), but I can get purples. My blue isn't due to my lack in ability, but other external reasons. They can add up more than you think.

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 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.

Saito knows the pain.

[BluexBird]

Im sorry but the first two points are just false, logs are very reliant on player ability, not logs or potions

Yes, logs are very reliant on player ability. As in, it doesn't matter if you're ilvl 371 BiS everything, perfect party comp, and chugging pots - if you don't play your class properly, your numbers are still going to end up sucking.

THAT SAID, if all you do is play your class properly, zero deaths, everything lined up, THE PERFECT RUN... if you're running crafted ilvl 350 items, don't use pots, and your party is like... 2 WAR, 2 WHM, 2 BLM, a SAM, and you're the extra DPS... Dude, you can come up with the best rotation in the whole server, you're still not getting close to 90 percentile. Not at this stage, months after the raid has come out. Look how close the brackets are currently. You might just barely break 80, but ask yourself... why bother? Using pots will easily give you the boost you need, assuming your rotations are on point.

And the extra 20 item levels do help A LOT. Stop pretending "it's all skill". Next thing we know, you'll want us to believe the easy DPS increase that comes from getting your ilvl 370 weapon is due to lucky crits. LMAO