Why do you commend DPS?

[SturmChurro]

I commend DPS fairly often, mostly because I assume people are giving them out to the tank or healer/other healer. Usually at random, I commend somebody after every duty I do. I won't ever commend a mentor of any role though, unless they really proved themselves.

[Allegor]

As a healer main, it's easy to spot who's doing mechanics and who's taking our role for granted. We see you, it's also easy to identify when someone is new and doesn't know what's going on and someone who simply refuses to move.

Also for what it's worth, since it's partially related: If you're an offtank that doesn't grab adds or a healer that doesn't esuna (DOOOOM!!!)/heal because muh dps, you lose my comm, so more reason to throw it at a DPS /shrug

[Avidria]

If they stand out as doing really well
If the healer and/or tank aren't doing so great or are rude
If I'm with friends and the pug is a dps :P
And sometimes just if it's a drg or dnc and I get the eye/dance partner lmao
Occasionally if the run isn't great overall I'll just comm whoever was cool or had a cool name, which is sometimes a dps as well

[Malmstrom]

Because 1 in 100 knows that the Limit Break isn't a finishing move and will actually use it when it is available.

Otherwise, I don't.

[Esmoire]

Mostly superfluous reasons.

• If you are a roegadyn
• If you are a nice-looking elezen
• If you use Pelaton
• If you said hello
• If your glam is nice
• If your character seemed cute
• If you make an effort to teach in a pleasant and informed way
• Lastly, if you seem to be playing well

How to never get a commend from me:

• If you are rude
• If you are ranged and don't Pelaton
• If you one of those dumb RDMs that are off in Africa and out of range of AOE healing when raid-wide attacks come
• If you are a Parse Princess
• If you deliberately step out of line, like DPS pulling intentionally
• If you use any kind of macro that spans several lines

[Hasrat]

I rarely pay enough attention to who's doing what to really care at all. I'll notice bad players far more than good.

Tanks might get a comm if the run was smooth and swift, owing to their skill through trash pulls.
Healers might get a comm if I noticed they had to put up with something awful the entire run.
DPS might get a comm if I felt everything died especially fast.

If I didn't notice anything particularly good or bad, average run of little note, it just goes to someone random.
If the run is really bad, and I notice everyone failing at one thing or another, nobody gets a comm.

But I also don't have the comm message in my usual open chat window, so I don't ever pay attention to when I get any of them. Watching to see if you actually get any seems like it puts too much importance on them. They're meaningless and not worth noticing.

[Enla]

I think you underestimate how many players there are out there that don't do the mechanics and/or their proper rotation. Competency can be all that's needed to get a commendation.

[Saefinn]

It varies. It might be because that DPS has shown a good example and attitude. It might be that they've done their job well as far as I've seen. It might be they're new and they've put in a good effort and listened to mechanics or advice if they've needed any. It could be that the other people in the party I don't feel deserve my comm and that DPS was doing fine, it might be that the others were sloppy and the DPS weren't. If they first struggled, but persevered and learned from their mistakes, then I might comm them. If they've been especially social and helped make the experience more pleasant or enjoyable, then i might. It could be that they have my back. Or they do something that I think was impressive. It might be just that they've executing their rotations fine, sometimes I pay attention to what other players are doing, particularly when healing because you can pre-empt more when you're seeing what people are doing. Or everybody else has ran out before I got a chance to comm. If that DPS takes initiative where others might not have, then a comm.

I also try to actively avoid giving a tank or healer bias in comms. DPS can do good jobs too. If I'm ever not sure who to comm, then it'll be for completely arbitrary reasons, like their name or glamour or they're on a job I like or at random.

[Reinfeld]

I usually try to identify who I think tried hardest to contribute to the run. I never comm DPS who don't aoe or have obviously bad rotations, healers who don't DPS or tanks who take it slow.

[Dreamsoap]

All I do is kill things and do mechanics correctly. [...] is this really worth 3 comms?

Yes.

Surely you'd notice when a party is killing things considerably more slowly if you're mainly playing tank and healer. I main AST as a healer, and end up finding my cards being of more use on my tank in pugs as he's consistently doing more dmg. When I used to main mnk, I'd get comms in high end content and I chalk it up to making full and purposeful use of my kit. I'll absolutely throw a comm to a smn or rdm who was tossing heals and rez's. Pretty much anyone playing their class properly (not even optimally) is a shining star in a lot of group content. My comms usually do go my to co-healers as a matter of priority, but only if I didn't end up carrying the damn thing. Otherwise I immediately shoot it to the dps that weren't sucking on chalk in the corner.

The only exception is comming leafs that ask questions and are actively trying to learn content, despite however they perform at it.