Some guilds post top-10 results publicly - in raid or guild channel - after each mob/event. Other guilds do not, utilizing parse data for "internal-use only" (i.e., raid leaders & guild officers). What does your guild do? And how would you characterize the pros and cons?
Publically posted. The main drawback is it provides information to recruiters from other guilds. The main advantage is it provides information to recruits from other guilds.
With my Guild we have a Channel setup for parses as well as a specific thread for it. I think as does the officers/GuildLeader that it helps show the consistant dps top end and witht he full break out in a forum that certain people require some assistance to increase their potential.
If I were running a raid, I wouldn't allow them to be posted during it. They incite arguments and are distracting in general. Afterwards, I think there are some useful applications of them on guild forums, discussing DPS strategies amongst classes, determining best placement of ADPS classes, etc.
Don't post parses to an audience that isn't intelligent and insightful enough to understand which information is useful and which is not. If the guild/raid can look at the parse, understand why some people may be lower than doesn't involve them being awful, and use the information constructively, then show it. If the guild/raid looks at it, blames the melee for parsing lower on a ranged only fight, blames lost DPS on a DPS class instead of the healer that is performing poorly letting them die, and in general can't handle the information appropriately, don't share.
I've personally always found that posting parses does nothing but spur me on and encourage learning. If someone else of my class is doing better than I am, I try to find out why and improve. If I'm close to passing someone and want to squeeze that little bit of extra DPS next time, it makes me want to try harder and be more critical of myself. On the other hand, there are occasionally some who just have to flaunt their to the point of drama, and they can at times cause issues.
We have a guild parse chat channel that people post their parses at after each fight. To the avbove poster, you really have to know how to interpret one, on each fight and understand what the circumstances are. Even at a basic level, if a melee is doing a parse, he will not pick up the casters sitting at max spell cast range, and similarly, the casters that parse, won't pick up the melee damage very well. Rarely does a parse actually pull in accurately all raiders DPS..due to proximity issues with picking up other peoples full DPS. However, if you use both parses to pull data from and combine in a summary (take highest DPS from each version) it should give you a better view...IF you want to post somewhere outside of direct context. We do not post to guild forum or anything. Maybe we should or should have a dps officer to combine and generally make sure the raid leaders know who their top DPSers are. Doesn't have to be exact, but the raidleaders need to know who theier top 10 and top 20 DPSers are to make srue they construct their groups well. .
We have a parse channel. Many complain about it, but I personally don't care. I want to get better and that how you find out how you are doing. Some people get butt hurt because of "proximity" issues to which my reply has always been to parse yourself. It is an invaluable tool for DPS to figure out what works and what doesn't. Some people's attitude towards it boggles my mind, but it their 15 bucks so they can play it how they want as long as they aren't actively sabotaging the guild effort.
A lot depends on the mentality of the guild, as long as they don't take the parse as 100% accurate and go on a witch hunt at those parsing lower than others, they can be a valuable tool. Parses are helpful in encouraging people to do their best, but it also helps if it is posted who cast what when, so others of the same class can see which combos work best. Even more helpful if it is also posted what the group make up was. So you can see if the lower parsers were the ones without DPS support.
ha, yeah yeah... that's rich coming from the Best In The World =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Excellent perspectives so far. Regarding accuracy of parses... I'd really like to see a comprehensive server-side parse application that accounts for the contribution of all raid members.
Parses are best outside of raids, and taken with more than a grain of salt. I would also argue that certain raids should be parsed, while others should not. Example, Lady Nevederia in ToV, possibly one of the worst DPS check events ever with the pushback. It won't be an accurate assessment of much of anything. However an event like Lord Koi'Dokenn in ToV on the other hand, pretty much pure tank and spank, the parses will be much more accurate, showing what DPS can really do uninterrupted. We have gone back and forth on parse showing in our guild, sometimes DPS lists have been banned for a short while due to people being incredibly stupid on purpose to make better parses. Such as not dpsing adds to get a higher dps score on boss mob. It can be a useful tool used properly, but during raids is typically just a source of unneeded drama.
We have a dedicated channel for parses so only those who care to see the numbers join it. Like others mentioned above, I find parses to be hugely motivating and a source of encouragement to do better and try harder every time. Obviously the parse isn't always going to be accurate, which is why I run my own also, which I rarely post in the channel but rather keep for my own edification.
Sony and The Devs would be very surprised if they made a server side parsing tool that is 100% accurate and sold that ability on the marketplace for SC. I know many, many people over the years wishing Sony would do one on their end that accounts for all damage and heals on a mob would gladly pay for it.
Or it could be an avenue for people to call for nerfs. Also there's always different parses of the same mob, from people in the same raid, one persons parse may say one thing, while someone else's says something totally different.
If they could guarantee 100% (or at least very close to it), I'd buy in a heartbeat. I know many others who would, as well. I'd prefer a $10 price point if they made it cash only, but would be willing to go up to 2000 SC, as long as it was an account unlock and not a per-character like Hero's Forge.
post the parses, post the healing parse from every tank and post spell counts, do this and find out who is under performing and either get them to do better or cut them loose. this is the only way to get a better raid force.
Pretty much. Just never post it outside guild, it's simply nerf call fodder for anon trolls then. This is a 180 of my stance a couple years ago, but, times have changed.
We frequently use parses for mini contests that involve mobs that are good for parsing. For instance just the other day during the Kael raid, my guild leader offered up 50k of his own pp to any mage that could top our top dps mage as a way of trying to motivate the others on the 2nd Yelinak. Ended up having several very nice parses from all of our mages and good fun had by all. During VoA we used to do Valley every week as a parse mob, just to measure our DPS and sometimes we'd have specific challenges. For instance, a paladin called out an SK, so we put them both in the same group with a bard and shammy and gave them as much dps support as possible to see who won. Never thought I'd see a Pally parse for 80k+. For the most part we use parsing for fun and not micromanaging, although outliers are usually talked to if they are far off from the top end and are showing numbers that we think should be higher.
