The tertiary-party program Human activity (Active Gainsay Tracker) is a existent-time combat log generator, created by people who raid in MMOs (massively multiplayer online function-playing game) to rails their DPS (damage per second)—it is an essential tool for players who want to take their raiding progress in MMOs to the next level. In this article, I'll exist going over using the Human activity Tool and Final Fantasy Fourteen'south alive uploader tool. In this commodity, I'll talk well-nigh what ACT is, why you should care, and how to set information technology upwardly.

#AD: For more information on my static grouping, the schedule is listed hither, and I stream on Twitch every Friday and Sun. You can also check me out on Final Fantasy XIV'south Lodestone here. If you're interested in my battle logs, just await me upwardly on FFLogs: Miss Moonie on Hyperion. 😉

Some Helpful Links To Get Started That Will Be Covered Throughout This Guide:

  • ACT
  • FF Logs Uploader
  • 14 Analysis
  • My stream >:) hehehe POG

DISCLAIMER: Do non E'er nether whatsoever circumstances utilise this as a tool to harass others! Act is a tool just for improving your skills and bettering yourself in raid content to be the best you can be!

final fantasy xiv tips

What is Human activity?

Human activity (Active Combat Tracker) helps calculate uptime, harm, and the skill level you lot're currently playing at on your class in comparison to others. ACT is an essential learning tool for raiders who are looking to improve their skills, and is non meant for attacking others in-game! ACT is merely bachelor on PC—for raid players who desire to track their progress on console, yous'll take to request assistance from a PC user who is in the same party equally you. 😊

Human activity is an amazing tool to self-better, only it can disheartening when you realize the people y'all're silently competing against aren't putting much endeavor. Information technology's exhilarating when in that location's someone running the same job every bit you and pulling slightly improve numbers—but being able to come across some other party fellow member non giving it their all in higher-tier raids can make you jaded. Just remember to take a break, and always utilize ACT for farther self-improvement—never harass a party member!—in fact, it's best if y'all avoid bringing the topic up at all. I'll talk nearly this more throughout this article because it's a very serious rule.

Tools like ACT are technically against the rules, but Square Enix has made an exception to this rule so long as you do not use it equally a means to harass other players in the game. Square Enix will and has banned players in the past. ACT produces data that can be processed with the Last Fantasy Log uploader (explained more below). This tool will upload your ACT information to the FFlogs website, which can provide a number of dissimilar insights and analysis both for your own play and for the execution of your entire group.

Some bones terms to look for in Final Fantasy logs:

Parse %: Parse % rates DPS and Healing. Peradventure the quickest way to pair yourself up against other members in your party; simply look and encounter what number yous get. In that location are seven parse colors: gray, dark-green, blue, purple, pinkish, orange, and gold. Parsing gold ways parsing a perfect 100.

Casts: Agile % and CPM (Casts Per Infinitesimal)

Damage Taken: Damage received from enemies. If yous find yourself dying to a mechanic over and over, yous tin run across how much impairment information technology's doing, and accommodate with cooldowns (especially useful for tanks!) Likewise useful for figuring out when to popular DPS mitigation such equally Machinist's "Tactician" skill, etc.

For more data on FF Logs help and ranks analysis, you can check out their guide on the site hither.

You tin can even use FFlogs to see what abilities hurt the virtually (or who took the well-nigh damage! 😉), who had a debuff (debuffs will sometimes decrease damage and increment impairment taken!), deaths, how long the fight lasted, the dominate % you reached before the wipe, who used potions/foods; you tin can also compare log uploads. There's a lot of information to exist gleaned from these logs, so make the virtually of it.

Human activity General Rules Before Getting Started

When it comes to DPS meters (parsers) in Final Fantasy 14, Yoshi-P stated that they will never be added into the game. The Concluding Fantasy 14 squad does non actively chase downwardly people using them, and the squad also stated that they'll never exist installing spyware to check what's on your computer, because, you know, that'southward illegal (non that that stopped ArenaNet from doing it).

ACT Rules FF XIV

If you'd similar to read more about Terminal Fantasy's Rules & Regulations, check out the full post in the Back up Center.

Notes from Yoshi-P During the February 6, 2020 LiveLetter:

Yoshi-P: "Nosotros've been turning a blind eye to Deed as long as the elitists don't harass, only nude mods is beyond what we tin stand."

TLDR: Don't harass people with it!

The squad will never add an official parser, and they stated that simply having ACT installed will non get you banned. Mods that add textures and add together/remove clothing is frowned up by Square Enix and can result in a banned business relationship, but using Human action responsibly will not. What's the fun in using appearance mods that may result in a ban? There isn't. Information technology's not immune. Don't do it. We're just focusing on how to read Human activity in this article!

If you haven't washed and so, it'southward worth checking out the LiveLetter translation on the Final Fantasy XIV Discord channel to read Yoshi-P's stance on third-political party tools. Look in the "translations and liveletters" channel!

How to Install + Setup Deed

That nigh sums up what ACT is. If you're interested in trying it out on your own, keep reading! First, you have to find and download the ACT installer. I've got it right here, then become ahead and download that to your PC (under "Main Program Downloads" and "Advanced Combat Tracker – Setup").  Run the "Avant-garde Combat Tracker" file. ACT will install, and and so you'll need to download the Final Fantasy XIV plugin.

ACT install stuff

Click "Options" at the superlative, and click "Prove Startup Wizard". Deed will walk you lot through setting upward the plugin. Be sure to download/enable the "FF Fourteen Parsing Plugin" as y'all come up across information technology in the Human activity installer (mentioned below). This plugin contains the Last Fantasy Fourteen extractor for ACT (at that place are other plugins which allow Human action to parse the data for other games). Information technology captures the network packets sent/received by the game and additional data from memory and writes that information to a log file. Deed and then reads that file and parses information technology with help from the plugin.

act auto version check

You should also enable the "Auto Version Check" to go on everything updated and running smoothly. Every fourth dimension you launch ACT (granted you're connected to the ACT), information technology will detect if you are using the latest software version, and prompt yous to update when possible.

act test game connection

As an actress precaution earlier y'all begin parsing in-game, any changes you brand should exist first tested. I would be sure to employ the "Test Game Connection" tool located in Plugins > FFXIV Settings > FFXIV Game Data.

ACT should always run as Administrator and excepted from Windows Firewall to make sure information technology works properly. This is because Deed uses retentivity reading and parcel inspection to collect accurate information, which Windows doesn't allow past default. In one case that's completed, you'll probably want Deed to to be setup as an overlay in Last Fantasy XIV so you can come across the numbers as yous get in and out of raid instances. To exercise that, find your Human activity binder. On a Windows PC, an easy way to do this is to press the Windows key on your keyboard, search for Deed > Right Click > Properties. If y'all still can't find the program, look in your C:\ bulldoze for the "Active Combat Tracker" folder and right-click the ACT program hither. Select the "Compatibility" tab, then select "Run equally Administrator".

When ACT first launches, it will take you through a setup wizard.

ACT Installer Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy XIV Parsing Plugin Act

When prompted "Will ACT exist used for Final Fantasy Fourteen?" Cull "Yes" and click "Next", then close to accept the default settings. At this pointFFXIV_ACT_Plugin.dll should exist enabled inPlugins >Plugin Listing.

ACT plugin enabled

Side by side, enable the overlay.

ACT download and enable

In the Get Plugins window (to the right), select the [FFXIV+others]Overlay Plugin option and click onDownload and Enable. This will add the latest OverlayPlugin to ACT (the OverlayPlugin auto-updater may also run during this step).

The OverlayPlugin should at present be setup. Click on theX to close theGo Plugins window. Restart ACT, and go back to the Plugins menu and "OverlayPlugin.dll" tab. Click "New" near the lesser of the window, and blazon in a name like "Overlay" then select the driblet-downwardly arrow under the "Preset" dialog box, and select Kagerou. You can select whatsoever of these, only I actually like Kagerou's overlays. Click "Ok" to close the menu. You can click and elevate this overlay where you want on your screen. Go on in heed that this overlay volition be on top of your Concluding Fantasy XIV game client while yous're raiding, then make certain it is placed somewhere not in the way of anything important…like your health bar.

ACT Overlay settings

You can change the settings of this overlay by clicking "settings" and filtering through the settings options in the menu box.

ACT click and drag

To modify the size of the Act overlay, click the lower-right corner of the overlay and drag to your preferred size. Personally, I exit everything else alone except for the colors. To alter the colour of your overlay, click "Style", and here you can change the color, transparency, give it a background image, etc.

At this signal it is recommended to restart ACT before continuing on.

The Final Fantasy Logs Uploader

If you're interested in sharing your logs (example) in a alive tracker with friends or your raid teammates, y'all'll demand to upload them to the Final Fantasy log uploader. Download the program here, and run the installer. The awarding will ask you whether to install for all users or just yourself. Click on theInstall button after selecting your selection and Finish in one case the installation is washed.

Note: You lot will need to register for an FFLogs account in society to upload logs.

Run the FFlogs Uploader application. Enter the account data you lot used to sign up.

Final Fantasy XIV Log uploader

Once you lot are authenticated, click on theUpload a Log button. If you're interested in sharing logs with your friends and running a live log in existent fourth dimension, you tin can click that instead. Click onChoose to select the log to upload.

In the File Explorer, navigate to the folder where the log is saved. The default location is at%APPDATA%\Avant-garde Combat Tracker\FFXIVLogs. Y'all tin can copy and paste that path in the explorer bar to go directly to the default folder. In the log folder, selected the desired log to upload, and click onOpen. To ensure the latest log is on top, yous can sort byDate modified.

Notation: to find your log location in Human action, open ACT > Plugins > FFXIV Settings > Log File Location.

Choose the desired access level for the log:Public,Individual, orUnlisted. Public will be ranked and Individual and Unlisted are un-ranked. Anyone volition be able to view a Public log. Private logs tin only be viewed by you. Unlisted logs tin can be viewed by anyone with the link to the log.

If yous desire to upload just a specific run into, toggle theSelect Specific Raids To Upload choice, then click on theGo! button. Select the specific run across you desire to upload from the list and click on theGo! push button. You may select multiple encounters by holding Ctrl or Shift on your keyboard.

Note: this view is but available if you selected specific raids to upload.

Once the uploader is finished uploading the encounters to the FFLogs website, you can click on View Report to open upwards the log page in your default browser and view the log results.

Using ACT During Raid Progression

To come across your numbers while y'all're playing, simply launch ACT earlier yous enter a raid instance. That's it. That'south all in that location is to it.

Using Human activity For Dummy Parsing

If you're really serious about joining a static group, you should consider parsing on dummies outside of gainsay. This fashion you tin can show other players what your skill level is, and practice your class/rotation in a controlled environment. They can exist crafted and they are sold on the market board. There are several areas that accept combat dummies, but the all-time solution is to visit a Gratuitous Visitor firm (or personal housing) in the diverse housing districts (players have these all over their yards—just meander around until you notice one). Be sure to use a grooming dummy that is the same level every bit your character (grooming dummies are level 60, 80, and and then on).

If you practice your rotation on a dummy that is below your level, y'all will either run across your skills missing (if the dummy is a higher level) or the dummy volition die too quickly if the dummy is a lower level; it will also repeatedly cleanse your "dots" (impairment over time)—like White Mage'due south "Dia" skill.

Using ACT XIV Analysis

A tool that goes hand-in-manus with FFLogs is 14 Assay. A bunch of actually smart people fabricated this third political party tool to dissect your FFLogs and bear witness you areas where you can meliorate on. Just paste a link to a log and it volition spit out a summary of your functioning. Y'all can fifty-fifty take it to the Remainder Discord server where they review it for you.

Epitome Credits: Square Enix, Final Fantasy 14