What is parsing?

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I would like to know how one can tell if others are underperforming if you can tell how. I personally cant tell unless I can visually see that they are distracted and just not doing their rotation and following boss mechanics.
And this thread is about what is parsing because I kept hearing for years but I finally remembered to ask since it was mentioned earlier

If you never played said classes, chances are you’re stuck to wild guessing & probably something like: ”I just refreshed my Combust DoT, but then I see my SCH coheal does not refresh their Biolysis. I wonder if they forgot about it…”

If a player have experienced the firsthand gameplay & familiar enough, it is very easy to tell because all classes only has -one- way to play optimally. Obviously not everybody does the same rotation at 100% accuracy. But when one deviate 180° degree from said optimal rotation, their output becomes barely mediocre at best (see: Ice BLM)

Magical classes are the easiest to spot even when you’re not proficient with them. Hint: caster bar (Hardcaster RDM, Ice BLM, DoT-less/Ruin III SMN, overhealer/netflix healers)

Physical classes on the other hand requires -slightly- more observation & experience but can still be spotted without much effort. I.e 1-2-3 combo maniac, AoEless during big pulls, lv80 SAM in dungeon constantly sitting on 4th in enmity list, DoTless/Songless BRD, DNC without partners, paper cooldown-less tanks, PLD & DRK that has 10k MP 99% of time, DRG that never uses their plethora of buffs, 0 Trick Attack/Ninjutsu-less NIN, and many more.

Casual contents don’t see much importance because they are made to be as faceroll as it can be—it’s intentional. But you definitely can spot those ‘oopsies’ & ultimately, feel the difference. It’s somewhat scary how mere 4 players being fairly decent at what they’re doing can easily melt a dungeon run.