What is parsing?

[ForteNightshade]

You don’t need numbers to tell if you’re making progress or not. You either are, or are not. If you’re not dying and you’re hitting your proper rotation, odds are your performance is good.

Or your team mates are carrying you through said content. When I'm within the top ten on Warrior in something like Paradigm's Breach. Suffice it to say, people aren't "hitting your proper rotation."

I don't need to see my numbers to know if I'm getting better. I'm already aware if my rotation could improve, where I messed up my rotation, or where I messed up on the fight that hurt my dps. Get enough experience and that comes naturally.

You do realize that rotation you're using is made through a parser, yes? So even at face value, you're indirectly benefiting from a parser.

[Ranaku]

Or your team mates are carrying you through said content. When I'm within the top ten on Warrior in something like Paradigm's Breach. Suffice it to say, people aren't "hitting your proper rotation."



You do realize that rotation you're using is made through a parser, yes? So even at face value, you're indirectly benefiting from a parser.

Yes! Wait...what? Let us be fair here, i learned my rotation from the game not from some parser. But yes i guess for some people it's too hard to press 1-2-3 (etc.) without a addon or rotation guide. Jokes aside there are some valid arguments for damage meters, you don't have to make stuff up lol.

[ZedxKayn]

Yes! Wait...what? Let us be fair here, i learned my rotation from the game not from some parser. But yes i guess for some people it's too hard to press 1-2-3 (etc.) without a addon or rotation guide. Jokes aside there are some valid arguments for damage meters, you don't have to make stuff up lol.

But have you ever searched up a guide for your job or your character on fflogs before?
If not, how would you know that the rotation you're doing is correct? Because the game teaches absolutely nothing and gives no feedback, which is why a lot of people, unbeknownst to them, aren't exactly stellar.

I wonder, because I see a lot of players claiming they know what they're doing when they're not using crucial parts of their kits.

[Ranaku]

But have you ever searched up a guide for your job or your character on fflogs before?
If not, how would you know that the rotation you're doing is correct? Because the game teaches absolutely nothing and gives no feedback, which is why a lot of people, unbeknownst to them, aren't exactly stellar.

I wonder, because I see a lot of players claiming they know what they're doing when they're not using crucial parts of their kits.

The game teaches you everything you have to know. Heck how do you think the people who made the guides found out? Throug some visions from hydaelyn and yoshi p after they smoked too much? And how did stuff worked before damage meters were a thing? Guess in ancient times people never did their rotations right. The really linear job design of FFXIV isn't really rocketscience.

I can see how guides are useful to many players but heck saying the rotations exist just because of some damage meter and everyone using a jobs rotation in the right way does that cause of these guides/damage meters is a really really bold statement.

[Avidria]

The game teaches you everything you have to know. Heck how do you think the people who made the guides found out? Throug some visions from hydaelyn and yoshi p after they smoked too much? And how did stuff worked before damage meters were a thing? Guess in ancient times people never did their rotations right. The really linear job design of FFXIV isn't really rocketscience.

I can see how guides are useful to many players but heck saying the rotations exist just because of some damage meter and everyone using a jobs rotation in the right way does that cause of these guides/damage meters is a really really bold statement.

Most of the guides and rotations I've read are in fact developed using parsing and simulation to figure out what's actually optimum, down to exactly what gear and materia is actually best in slot. They didn't magic the information out of nowhere, but odds are good that a fair number of people didn't do it solely with what's available in game either. I'd imagine the people who made the mods and did the math put in the time to learn how the game works, but I also don't know anything about how they were actually put together so I dunno really. And I mean, I'm sure it's entirely possible to figure out something fairly close to the most optimal rotation just from the game alone, but how many people are going to actually do that? Easier to look up a guide made by someone who did the work already, and even better if they've got quantifiable data and tools to help define what the best options actually, definitely are.

I don't run a parser and never have but one example that ZedxKayn's post reminded me of is this bard I used to play with back in Heavensward who was absolutely convinced that they were doing more damage without using minuet EVER than a bard who is using it. Based on the numbers that could be found online though... they were consistently doing less than half of my damage, and I was by no means an amazing bard. They thought they had the class figured out based on what the game was telling them but they very clearly did not. Bit of an extreme example since it involves someone actively ignoring part of their kit, but I've seen enough people who were very confidently wrong that it wouldn't surprise me if there were plenty who genuinely believe they've figured it out from just playing the game when they're really way farther off base than they think.

[HyoMinPark]

The game teaches you everything you have to know. Heck how do you think the people who made the guides found out? Throug some visions from hydaelyn and yoshi p after they smoked too much? And how did stuff worked before damage meters were a thing? Guess in ancient times people never did their rotations right. The really linear job design of FFXIV isn't really rocketscience.

I can see how guides are useful to many players but heck saying the rotations exist just because of some damage meter and everyone using a jobs rotation in the right way does that cause of these guides/damage meters is a really really bold statement.

Players that make job guides use parsers. Combined with analyzing tooltips, they also spent countless hours on dummies and using rotation simulators to find out the most optimal openers and rotations. DNC and GNB theorycrafters were crafting openers and rotational guides before Shadowbringers even released. I’m sure it will be the same for Sage and Reaper once we have tooltip and potency information on them.

This game doesn’t give you anything beyond tooltips and dotted lines around 1-2-3 combos. It doesn’t tell you anything more than that outside of quest blurbs about new skills (though those certainly don’t tell you how to use said skills). It fell to the playerbase to determine things outside of the bare basics of pressing 1-2-3 in the correct order—and the ones who did all this theorycrafting utilized numbers and parsers.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but this game isn’t as straightforward as you think. It may handhold a lot, but it doesn’t handhold when it comes to rotations.

[Liam_Harper]

The game teaches you everything you have to know.

Oh no. Make it stop.

[Shurrikhan]

The game teaches you everything you have to know.

No, it does a pretty notoriously bad job of that.

Heck how do you think the people who made the guides found out?

Through actual testing, which generally included the use of parsers, else we'd never be able to catch such blatant errors as a skill potency being outright wrong (not as listed on its tooltip), let alone know what percentage of player potency "pet potency" would be worth at a given level.

[Rilifane]

The game teaches you everything you have to know.

The only thing the game gives you is:
- raw potencies without any modifiers
- flashy frames for combo actions to tell you which one to press next

That's it. It doesn't give you information on:
- animation lock of oGCDs and thus clipping vs weaving
- caster tax
- slidecasting
- many modifier values (fairy potencies, tank potencies, AF/ UI potencies)
- main stat values
- substat values/ tiers
- which skills are affected by certain buffs, e.g. some RDM oGCDs and Embolden, fairy skills and Fey Illumination etc.
- how party buffs stack
- which skills are unaffected by SkS/ SpS

The difference between someone only knowing the first part and someone also knowing the second part is huge.

[Caitsithhh]

Or your team mates are carrying you through said content. When I'm within the top ten on Warrior in something like Paradigm's Breach. Suffice it to say, people aren't "hitting your proper rotation."



You do realize that rotation you're using is made through a parser, yes? So even at face value, you're indirectly benefiting from a parser.

Shhhhhh, the sheep will riot.