A self-improvement tool is needed in this game, especially for end game

[Dualgunner]

My experiences from other games (WoW being the biggest one) tell me that the potential for abuse could be quite high. You're right, I don't know that for sure. But judging from what I've seen in the past? Yeah, I'd bet gil on it. People will be people. Always.

Will people abuse it? Yes.

Will enough people abuse it that it outweighs the benefits of having it? I don't know, and you don't either.

[SenorPatty]

The devs can start by improving the dummies. Instead of just a time limit, how about an isolated room (similar to the inn) where players can see the damage and skills used in succession displayed, similar to fighting games. You could even make it so that they can "save" 3min sessions up to two slots where the player can be shown comparisons as to why they did better or worse in one session and the other.

Hall of Novice needs a continuity in the form of hall of the seasoned or intermediate. Explain things like a giant yellow cursor does not mean its a bomb radius waiting to happen (as one sprout explained hilariously to me when he ran away with it) and is actually a stack marker to share damage. Maybe even throw hints that savage/ex content cannot be done with "casual" gameplay and that it would be best if the sprout spoke to veteran raiders for extra advice (maybe even point to popular raid centric lodestone blogs). The hall should initiate exercise that highlight the main assets of a job the player entered with and stress their importance.

I know YoshiP has this belief that the community should teache one another all the nitty gritty about the game but it's not a realistic view and I feel like putting resources into not just this suggestion but any that requests improvements for halls and battle log transparency could go a long way.

[Liam_Harper]

I know YoshiP has this belief that the community should teache one another all the nitty gritty about the game but it's not a realistic view and I feel like putting resources into not just this suggestion but any that requests improvements for halls and battle log transparency could go a long way.

Indeed. The problem isn't players teaching the game to others. Many of us would like to help. The issue lies with players who refuse to accept help or ignore advice.

A minor gate, like a mandatory extended Hall of the Novice, nothing complex, would be targeted at that type of player.

[LeoLupinos]

Make a SSS dummy, rating your rotation from F to SSS, similar to Devil May Cry combo rating system.

Allow the dummy to show two scores, solo and group.

Solo = rating your solo rotation.
Group = rating your rotation based on current group synergy.

It surely would take some dev time, but it's needed. Let's start with that, and if it works fine we can put this for every boss.

Scores updates for every server tick.

I think this works fine for self improvement. If someone asks for screenshot your score, simply join other group or create yours. This feature is not guilty, the comunity is, and it's up to you to report that.

[Dualgunner]

So I guess we'd need to figure out what SE considers harassment.

If I'm in an end game dungeon and a dps is doing like 2k damage, I wonder if saying something politely would count as harassment or not.

Harassment is in the eye of the beholder. My breathing could be harassment in some circles.

[SleepyNeko]

There is the SSS, even if its bare boned.

Maybe make it a requirement for you to kill the dummy to be allowed in the duty. Add a timer so you get some kind of time keeping on how fast you killed the dummy. Basically if everyone in the party can kill the dummy then you "potentially" have enough dps to kill the boss.

[Kirsten_Rev]

Honestly, I'm not sure that tools like parsers or (an augmented) SSS are really going to address the issue. It's possible that the primary issue is players being unaware of how to properly play their job, but I suspect the real problem is that they simply can't be bothered to care. If it's the latter, tools might not do a lot. I'd welcome them anyway, to be sure, but the fact remains that outside of EX, Savage, or Ultimate content, XIV simply provides little incentive to be a good player.

As an example, the other day, I ran a 24-person Alliance Roulette. We landed on Weeping City of Mhach. Between Forgall and Ozma is that door-looking boss, where each alliance has to activate a platform in order to charge a shield in the middle that protects everyone from an insta-kill mechanic. The insta-wipe move, for those who haven't done the Raid in awhile, has an insanely long charge time - it feels like 30 seconds, even though it's probably closer to 10-15. Either way, it's long - and when the shield is up, it's obvious (giant glowing column and such).

Now despite all this, on this run, I saw a Machinist standing outside the shield. They didn't move to the side platform matching their party. They didn't shift targets to pick on the adds that spawn at one point (though they kept attacking, so I know they weren't AFK). They didn't move to charge the shields. They didn't move within the shield. They just sat there - and finally got one-shotted.

This is not an issue that can be solved by a parser. It's not an issue that can be solved by one-time skill checks like a hypothetically-augmented SSS. This is a player who simply doesn't care, and knows that despite their atrocious performance, they'll get the clear, and all the attendant rewards.

In my mind, this is more likely the root problem. I don't feel like I see incompetent players, so much as I see lazy, selfish players. They're perfectly capable of playing up to a reasonably high standard, they just don't want to bother. A one-time check will push them exactly once, and then they'll go back to doing what they always do: sucking it up and letting others cover for their mistakes. And so long as XIV's Vote Kick system is hamstrung by combat and loot restrictions, so long as replacement times for tanks and healers make even successful kicks not worth the effort, so long as players get the same reward for disparate effort, this situation will keep arising.

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With this in mind, what I'd propose - and which SE certainly won't implement - is FATE-style reward tiers for instanced content. This would require a mechanism that measures, in a rough sense, how well a person is executing their job: oGCD usage, rotations, DoT uptime, healing, enmity. It can't be a simple parser, because that would naturally prioritize damage alone, rather than job performance, and would also penalize players significantly for lower-quality gear. Now, supposing such a tool was implemented, a player running an Expert Roulette wouldn't necessarily get the full 90 Tomestones of Genesis. Say their performance was the equivalent of a bronze: they might only get 20% of the base dungeon reward, and 20% of the Roulette bonus. Say that they're running Ridorana, and a Glamour item they want drops, but they got a low performance rating on that fight and were barred from Needing on it.

In this scenario, individuals who suck slow themselves down. Now there's incentive to improve: it saves you a lot of time. Better reward ratios means fewer dungeons to run. It means faster leveling. It means higher likelihoods of getting the rewards you want.

This approach would address both player skill, and player motivation. That's the ticket forward, in my estimation. It's possible that player ignorance is the primary culprit, but from my perspective, I see far more of an issue lurking in the realm of player motivation.

[Slevin_Impudicus]

The way that combat in this game is programmed, everything is choreographed (just call it "Final Fantasy Ballroom Dance Simulator"). A rotation is just a dance routine that everyone is expected to learn (by going outside the game to web tutorials). The only variable left in the normal content is player skill variability within each run. This is like having a team of npcs in a single player game and being dissatisfied with their performance.

Poor team performance makes it more difficult. People have to pick up the slack. I would say "carry", but that now means whoever had least dps, whether or not it was good dps.

In any case, people here are requesting a parser to try to reduce the player skill variability... to make the content easier.

YOU ARE INDIRECTLY REQUESTING A NERF TO ALL NORMAL DUNGEON CONTENT. This is just another "Nerf dungeon XX plz" thread, and quite franky, I'm appalled.

(about 80% sarcasm)

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

No need for a tool. Just put enrage timers in normal. Leniant ones for sure but not overly so. Like 15 minutes for normal alphascape fights, 7 minutes for dungeon bosses etc. People will either wise up real quick, stay out of the content or quit.

Jokes on you - normal mode raids already have enrage at around 15min each since probably Gordias (can confirm A8N Brute Justice and O3N Halicarnassus based on own experience).

Despite that you could have dragoons never using blood of the dragon, black mages never using fire spells and bards never use songs and still not hit that enrage timer, so thats not gonna help.

[TURBODOG]

Seems to me, the simple answer to a lot of these requests and the solution to a lot of division in the community is a difficulty setting. You want a challenge, set your difficulty up, take more damage, deal less; challenge yourself to the max. For those of us that don't want it set it down, take less damage, deal more. To balance it out, rolls for loot would favor higher difficulty settings first. No freebies for the carried, but no lockout from a large part of the game for the uncoordinated either. win/win.