An alternative to parsing?

[Sigma-Astra]

I've never had a problem with people using or not using parsers. It all finitely depends on the user whether the tool itself is used for learning or for personal enjoyment through harassing others with it. And if someone is harassing you non-constructively because they can see your numbers? Well, there's a report feature for that. But, people also need to stop, and I mean stop, jumping up in arms anytime someone offers some constructive criticism regarding their performance in-game. There's nothing factually wrong nor is it a personal attack on you when someone offers to tell you that you have the wrong tank stance on or if you're doing a part of your rotation out of order.

Personally, I enjoy using fflogs as a tool to improve myself, especially since I started doing Savage content. It makes me feel really good when my numbers are even a smidgen higher than the last time and if they're lower? Oh well, off day or I messed up, stuff happens.

[Slick7]

You have stone sea sky to check your basic rotation and gauge improvements in damage.

Easy enough. Just copy everything in the damage log into Excel and start calculating as you wouldn't want to attribute a dps change to a rotation change where in reality it just was luck with crits and direct hits on big potency skills, would you?
Or you'd just do a higher amount of SSS per rotation change and take the average. Very convenient. Sounds like it would really keep people in the game that like to improve their gameplay.

[KaivaC]

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Only problem that I see with this is uptime. The key fight that comes to mind particularly for melee is Byakko Ex, especially as one will not always have true north available to use. I would support some changes to SSS that mimic the fights that the dummy is representing, ideally, mechanics that don't exactly kill you, but affect your damage - with an increased timeframe, of course. As it is, I don't like SSS because some of the HP on them are overtuned. I have yet to beat a dummy for the current Savage tier, yet I can perform fine in actual Savage. SSS needs some key QoL improvements for it to be a good source of information. All it does is just inform you that your rotation is sound when you are in a pure burn phase and have zero mechanics to worry about.

[Sigma-Astra]

I have yet to beat a dummy for the current Savage tier, yet I can perform fine in actual Savage. SSS needs some key QoL improvements for it to be a good source of information. All it does is just inform you that your rotation is sound when you are in a pure burn phase and have zero mechanics to worry about.

This. Exactly just this. SSS isn't a good way to gauge a person's overall damage performance unless some QoL adjustments are made because there will literally never be a current fight where you can just blindly ignore mechanics and not once, ever move from a single spot. I could have the soundest BLM rotation known to man on a Savage dummy or even just a trial dummy.....and then reality will hit that mechanics beg to differ and I'm really playing DDR instead of Red Light, Green Light.

[thegreatonemal]

This. Exactly just this. SSS isn't a good way to gauge a person's overall damage performance unless some QoL adjustments are made because there will literally never be a current fight where you can just blindly ignore mechanics and not once, ever move from a single spot. I could have the soundest BLM rotation known to man on a Savage dummy or even just a trial dummy.....and then reality will hit that mechanics beg to differ and I'm really playing DDR instead of Red Light, Green Light.

That's not the purpose of SSS. The purpose of SSS is to test weather or not the rotation you are using is enough to pass the dps checks and contribute to damage in a boss situation.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

That's not the purpose of SSS. The purpose of SSS is to test weather or not the rotation you are using is enough to pass the dps checks and contribute to damage in a boss situation.

It, however, remains a poor indication due to the lack of raid buffs. Bard and Machinist will both be severely punished, especially Bard, since their damage depends heavily on Crit. Likewise, they are heavily gear dependent, which is far less punishing in actual Savage content. A prime example of that was Alte Roite. With vit melded accessories, you could beat him in i290 AF3 yet you wouldn't come close beating his SSS equivalent.

[thegreatonemal]

It, however, remains a poor indication due to the lack of raid buffs. Bard and Machinist will both be severely punished, especially Bard, since their damage depends heavily on Crit. Likewise, they are heavily gear dependent, which is far less punishing in actual Savage content. A prime example of that was Alte Roite. With vit melded accessories, you could beat him in i290 AF3 yet you wouldn't come close beating his SSS equivalent.

Yea it stumbles for classes that are proc based no denying that. No system is perfect.

@sigma

Again its not testing mechanical knowledge the entire rest of the game has been teaching you that. All SSS truly test if your rotation is enough to beat the content and by beat i mean make sure the dps is pulling their weight to meet an enrage check. Mechanics by and large don't change your rotation outside of your opener depending on your class i.e ninja.

[Sigma-Astra]

That's not the purpose of SSS. The purpose of SSS is to test weather or not the rotation you are using is enough to pass the dps checks and contribute to damage in a boss situation.

Which is all fine and dandy, but SSS doesn't account for doing said mechanics of the fight. You could meet the DPS checks on Byakko EX or Shinryu EX just fine on a training dummy because nothing, and I repeat, nothing is getting in your way. Now, try meeting the DPS checks while dodging AoE's, other people, aligning stack markers, etc.

The SSS only lets you know two things: 1) You know your job and rotation intimately enough and 2) You're appropriately geared for that fight. Person A could do legitimately well on a Byakko EX training dummy and still under perform in the actual fight because they're not that intimate of how to maintain a constant flow of damage while following the fight patterns. And there's nothing in the game that is teaching said things except the fight itself which makes parsers a variable learning tool for some because you're getting actual numbers to represent how well you're performing during the fight in real time.

This is what makes SSS fall short and flat of being extremely useful.