So this game has dps checks but we can't talk about our dps in game?

[Lunalepsy]

You can't be serious and start whining about how there's the possibility of people harassing you over a parser or whatever scenarios y'all like to imagine in your heads when it rarely if ever happens in game. You know what does happen in game? People who don't know how to press their 1-2-3 combo or quadruple weave their gcds. There's no way that open communication about trying to kill the boss and making sure everyone is up to par is worse than the player who still doesn't know their rotation at level 90 and doesn't even have the right food buff on. And often you don't even need to bring third party programs into the conversation. When I look at the aggro list and see the dragoon below the summoner, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that someone doesn't know how to play their class.

You can talk about it without pointing fingers.

[Silver-Strider]

As a console player, I'd like a way to check how well I was personally doing without having to join the random parse run in PF to check myself periodically. Dummy Testing only tells you so much after all.

[Eriane_Elis]

You can tell other players that they're not pulling their weight and how to improve. You just can't do it while being an a-hole or mention fight club. The moment you mention ACT or exact numbers is when you bring it against yourself. When you see the same person die a lot you can let them know about the mechanic that they keep dying or ask in general if anyone has a any questions and you'll be happy to answer them. It's the purpose of the mentor crown after all. BUT, if you want to play it safe, don't talk about anything to random players. Have your own circle and you're free to talk as much as you like about DPS and improvement tactics but if you talk about ACT then you should do it outside the game obviously. Yoshi P made it obvious about his stance about it in the video he published. Everyone wants to play their own way and no one knows where to draw the line except just don't talk about it because they don't want it to become toxic like other MMOs. He gives us the privilege to play how we want to play (no spyware and GMs being lenient) so we must be respectful with the leniency that he/others gives us and should we hypothetically decide to use a combat tracker then it should be done with great respect to both the developers of FF14 and other players in the game. It shouldn't be a numbers game in the end, we should all have fun. We can never perfect our class but knowing the mechanics will always be more important than the perfect DPS number. Know your class and understand that everyone should be attacking while waiting on other actions at the very least. Enrage is serious business :P

[Atma]

You can't be serious and start whining about how there's the possibility of people harassing you over a parser or whatever scenarios y'all like to imagine in your heads when it rarely if ever happens in game.

Yeah, it "rarely happens in game" cause there's a freaking rule against doing it.

Harassing people over DPS performance is like the official national sport of other MMOs. It's not allowed here, get over it. You can run it if you want for your own personal edification. You can't talk about it. Deal with it.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Yeah, it "rarely happens in game" cause there's a freaking rule against doing it.

Harassing people over DPS performance is like the official national sport of other MMOs. It's not allowed here, get over it. You can run it if you want for your own personal edification. You can't talk about it. Deal with it.

I cannot like this post enough. Well said, Atma.

[Azuri]

Use the thing anyway, determine the free loaders, kick them without saying a word. "Difference in Playstyle". Simple.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Use the thing anyway, determine the free loaders, kick them without saying a word. "Difference in Playstyle". Simple.

And then people wonder why they are kicked, surprise surprise!

[SenorPatty]

When I look at the aggro list and see the dragoon below the summoner, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that someone doesn't know how to play their class.

*Laughs in 2nd place dps shown in ACT latest 8man raid as SAM but listed as 4th place aggro".

Yes, aggro list "very accurate" in showing who doesn't know how to play their job.

[Raelsar]

Just based on my own observations and experience (mostly over a decade of WoW), these are the general issues with parsers / DPS meters:

• Parsers are CHRONICALLY misused and misinterpreted, very few people actually use them properly. More often than not, they're just used by people to stroke their own egos.
• More often than not, parsers enable harassment and other bad behaviours. You have to remember, jerks don't need a good reason to bother someone. They just need an excuse. You'll instantly see a lot more people call others "bad" under the flimsiest of excuses than see anyone take the time to analyze and advise how to improve performance, far more harassment than constructive criticism & assistance.
• Moving into the more subtle psychological effects of parsers, they push the community to place a lot more value on performance and subsequently the culture becomes significantly more competitive... and it's not the friendly type of competition either. As noted in the previous two points, you see a lot more misuse of the tool and abuse of other players than actual benefits socially.
• A very subtle one, but players stop paying attention to mechanics or even outright ignoring them in a bid to increase their performance on the meters. While both matter, measuring something tends to make it a lot more important to person doing the measuring for some reason.

While this game does have DPS checks (actually quite frequently, though those in the default difficulty for content are quite generous and usually restricted to intermission phases)... the developers have made it perfectly clear, they don't want people to obsess over the damage output. It just causes too many social issues.

We're here to enjoy the experience, not squabble over someone's performance not being "optimal".

[Kolaina]

*Laughs in 2nd place dps shown in ACT latest 8man raid as SAM but listed as 4th place aggro".

Yes, aggro list "very accurate" in showing who doesn't know how to play their job.

As you probably fail to consider a tank is one of the higher on aggro but lower in dps…