What is parsing?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Here we go again...

[IckeDerTyp]

Parsing can be very helpful for personal improvement!

Sadly a lot of people don't feel the need to improve themselves. That's fine in most content imho.

But I dislike the mindset those people have, just as I dislike the people that try and blame dps, or the lack thereof for all things wrong in this game.

However, playerbase is broad enough that everyone can find like-minded people and hey, those can play the game however they want ^^

[Caitsithhh]

I never denied that the players who make the guides use parsers. Never denied it isn't helpful for new players etc. who maybe want to get into the endgame quick buy boosters and need to learn quick how to perform well.

But sorry to burst your bubble, the game is really straight forward when it comes to rotations. There isn't any variables like for example on world of warcraft where you can use differend specs or talents and all that stuff. In XIV there is one fix rotation made by the developers, there is one way how a job is meant to be played. And you don't need a guide to tell you that especially if you play from lvl 1 up to max level where you can get used with every new action to said action and new combo chains they give you.

And it still doesn't answer the question, how do you guys (and gurls) think they did it before parsers and guides? Guess fellas never cleared stuff before these people descended from the heavens to bless us with their wisdom cause we can't use our brains. Guess back then in ARR all our clears were just pure luck, especially when the game came fresh out. Weird.

Nah, the clear rates were abysmal and such. Not to mention this addon was originally made for games much older than most seem on the forums. They’ve always been around. You’re free to play blind and freestyle all you want but you are the exact person that should make parties for people just like yourself.

[Rinhi]

I thought I was doing my rotation correctly too and that I was doing a ton of damage and the sole reason the enemies were dying quickly - till my friends showed me I did less way damage than the tank on average throughout multiple dungeons, trials and whatnot
just because you THINK you play well doesn't mean you are playing well

I mean what do you guys think, that the devs developed that game with the hope that for sure a community about it with a parser will form cause there is no other way to figure out the stuff they push out?

considering that 90% of the content is tuned in a way that a light/full party of people who don't know what they're doing can clear it (albeit slowly)? I don't think they care about the rotations that much either - which is pretty bad
only some duties can't get cleared if everyone is playing badly and I think more duties should have an enrage tbh

[xxmiamorecadenza]

It’s interesting how a majority of folk who have harsh opinions against parsers and their general use are people who have either no experience in higher tier content or people who have deep, deep gray parses to show off.

[SwordswornFox]

It’s interesting how a majority of folk who have harsh opinions against parsers and their general use are people who have either no experience in higher tier content or people who have deep, deep gray parses to show off.

I don't do high end content and usually avoid the talk of parsing in threads. Been bullied in several games 'casual' content for poor numbers in a parse when I even flat out told people I'm learning content/class/etc. And that just turns me off of the whole thing.

I have no problem with people using it for personal improvement, just don't talk to me about it.

[Naaura]

I don't do high end content and usually avoid the talk of parsing in threads. Been bullied in several games 'casual' content for poor numbers in a parse when I even flat out told people I'm learning content/class/etc. And that just turns me off of the whole thing.

I have no problem with people using it for personal improvement, just don't talk to me about it.

I wonder what made parsing so popular in FFXIV. Surely lack of dps meters is to avoid bullying and gameplay compelling. And the increase demand in popularity is a result to off-FFXIV gamers such as WoW gamer's habits leaking into FFXIV? I hope not.
I understand the need for it, I am just concerned with the toxicity that gets generated from it :/

[Risvertasashi]

I wonder what made parsing so popular in FFXIV. Surely lack of dps meters is to avoid bullying and gameplay compelling. And the increase demand in popularity is a result to off-FFXIV gamers such as WoW gamer's habits leaking into FFXIV? I hope not.
I understand the need for it, I am just concerned with the toxicity that gets generated from it :/

FF14 has a lot of strict and difficult-to-meet DPS checks. In high end content, failing to meet the DPS check is one of the most common failure points, especially with pug/PF parties.

And it's relatively obvious when other mechanics fail - like if someone didn't stack for the stack marker, or a DPS ate a tankbuster, well, it's pretty obvious from the sudden loss of health and life.

When the boss enrages you know there isn't enough DPS. But if people are just good enough at their rotation to look competent, it isn't obvious exactly where the problem is unless you turn to third party tools. (And if someone just wants to know if they're doing their rotation right so they're not bringing down a group, that also isn't really discernable via the tools and feedback mechanisms available in game)

[Shurrikhan]

I wonder what made parsing so popular in FFXIV. Surely lack of dps meters is to avoid bullying and gameplay compelling. And the increase demand in popularity is a result to off-FFXIV gamers such as WoW gamer's habits leaking into FFXIV? I hope not.
I understand the need for it, I am just concerned with the toxicity that gets generated from it :/

Toxicity tends to be proportionate to the (A) need and (B) room for finger-pointing.

If you think not having convenient information on hand somehow denies people the room enough for tossing blame, you're in for a rude awakening. Suspicion with no shared grounds or frame of reference only deepens that area of toxicity.

The only "advantage" you get out of DADT policy in regards to parsing is people are discouraged from telling you what you did wrong and will instead kick you in silence.

The only "advantage" you'd get out of having no parsers whatsoever (an impossibility, but let us imagine) is you'd have to roll the dice far more often before getting a party who are actually sufficiently prepared for the content they've signed up for, as you'd be that much less able to cut only the chaff and thus be forced to simply disband outright.

Far more of this community's toxicity is resultant from the soft-exclusion of parsers (and the ways that has bled over to soft-bans on advice or constructive criticism and expectations of at least minimum competence) than from parsers themselves.

[Risvertasashi]

If you think not having convenient information on hand somehow denies people the room enough for tossing blame, you're in for a rude awakening. Suspicion with no shared grounds or frame of reference only deepens that area of toxicity.

Just to add on to this, I want to note that from time to time, you'll still see things like, say, a tank or party blaming a healer for not healing, when the tank took 500k damage and so obviously failed a mechanic.

But a healer that knows how to use death reports or other info available to themselves can defend themselves from this.

But but but, even still, some people just really want to be toxic, and will (in this example) blame the healer or whoever else anyways, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

By the way, I do hope I'm not giving an impression that FF14 is super toxic. Some parties are, but most I've been in have been polite, and helpful when someone messes up (though if someone gets upset at being corrected, that can go downhill...), and so on.