How to Navigate Through Logs

Learning how to use FF Logs is the best way to improve your performance and become a better player— but getting into combat logging, analyzing your own gameplay, and using the data to improve can be daunting. This guide will go through many of FF Logs' features and data views, in addition to how interpret it all, to help you process all the information that is available. This will also go over some of the terminology used on the site.

If you have questions, the FF Logs team and the community are always happy to help on Discord.

General Report Navigation and Tips

Navigating through the different report views will help you understand how a log page is built and what views are best suited for what you are looking for. The best tip we can give you is to just jump right in and try things for yourself!

Interact With Everything!

Click on names, spells, and abilities, and you will find that each click will bring you another layer deeper to show you more specific data. Hovering over things with your mouse can give you additional information or tooltips. Check everything out!

Encounter Overview

When clicking a report link from a guild or on the site, you will see Encounters listed in order. If a boss has more than one pull logged, the Show All button will bring up each pull along with the duration and a colored progress bar. This bar indicates how far through the fight you made it.

You can then select a specific pull, or a combined summary can be created to view all wipes, including or excluding the kill pull. Alternatively, the select specific fights option will allow you to specify which pulls to include in a summary. Once you are viewing an encounter, you can use the dropdown at the top left to return to the all encounters view.

Look for Dropdowns

There are dropdowns to help organize and specify data. Select individual players, enemies, phases or spells to have a closer look at the specified data.

Aura Filters

You can find aura filters at the top of a table on in a log. This is a quick and easy way to filter data to only show when auras, also known as buffs or debuffs, are active on you or an enemy target. Clicking this multiple times can either show only data when it is present, or only when it is absent.

The + Icon

Clicking on any + icon will create a new filtered graph displaying whatever data you selected. This allows you to continue browsing more data while still being able to see something from another section.

Selecting a Timeframe

There are two ways to select a specific timeframe in an encounter log. If a fight has multiple different phases, you can select a specific phase to view by clicking on all phases and selecting one. If you are instead looking to select your own timeframe, you can do so using the graph. Simply hover over the graph to find the starting point, then click and drag to a stopping point to create a selection. Reset this selection by clicking reset zoom.

Report Options

At the top of your report, there are a set of four buttons found alongside the date and time. These buttons allow the report owner to edit or delete the report, or to turn the report private or public. The last button gives any user the option to view any report in an anonymous mode, hiding all player names and information.

Data Tabs

These tabs section out different types of data available in a log.

Summary

The summary tab shows a quick breakdown of the encounter, with some details of each player.

Damage Done

The damage done tab each player by highest to lowest damage dealt to the target(s). By clicking on a player, you can view their overall damage, organized by ability.

Damage Done to Shields

To view only damage done to shields, you can create a query using the expression absorbedDamage > 0.

This view includes a graph of the DPS dealt throughout the encounter. All players are listed at the top, and each individual's DPS can be toggled off or on as an overlay on the graph. If you are viewing an individual player, you can instead use this graph to toggle specific abilities!

Damage Taken

You will find that the damage taken tab functions in an identical manner to the damage done tab— just by damage received rather than damage dealt. Hover over a player name to see what targets they took damage from. Click on a player to see breakdowns of each ability they took damage from.

EHRPS

EHRPS stands for external healing required per second. This shows how much external healing was required on each player by calculating damage taken - self healing.

Mitigated

This is how much damage the player avoided receiving from passive stats, or from damage reductions, potions, and other methods.

Healing

The healing tab also functions similarly to both damage and damage taken. Hover over the bar next to a player's name to see absorbs and raw healing. Use the graph to inspect intense areas of healing.

Overhealing

Overhealing is healing done to a player that is already full health.

Threat

This tab shows the threat throughout the encounter by showing which mobs are attacking which targets and when. This is a helpful spot for tanks players to see if they made errors.

Buffs and Debuffs

Displays the uptime of any buffs or debuffs. Total buff/debuff applications, stacks, and uptime can be found here. This view makes it easy to see if cooldowns are being used as expected, as well as if players are standing in good buffs (healing cooldowns) or staying out of bad debuffs (fire on the floor)!

Deaths

When a player dies, usually everyone notices. However, sometimes deaths aren't as simple as they seemed, and multiple players are at fault for an individual's death. Use the deaths tab to help diagnose what went wrong in a pull that lead to a death.

By clicking on a player, a more detailed breakdown of their death will be shown. Total hit points, healing and damage taken (and from what target), and buffs will all show here. Play arrows can be found to the far right of every line. Clicking these will bring you to the exact moment in the replay function. This powerful tool combination can allow you to determine all events and player or mob locations to find out what errors led to a death.

Interrupts

All interrupts that were used, and all casts that were not interrupted, can be found here.

Dispels

Not all encounters have important dispel mechanics, but when they do, this tab will help you determine when dispels have been missed and which players may not be using their dispels.

Resources

Hit points, energy, combo points, mana, and all other resources can be viewed here. Use this area to determine if resources are being spent correctly and waste is being minimized.

Casts

The casts tab shows all abilities used by all players (or enemies). Use the spell names at the top of the graph to turn off and on the display of specific spells. You can view this data in multiple ways— try out the timeline view for good visual analysis!

By using the + icon to pull out a specific spell, you can compare the data within other tabs to see if you are using spells at optimal times.

Data Views

These tabs offer different ways of visualizing data.

Analyze

This is the main section of a report, where you will find most of your data. FF Logs has three main ways to format this data, each allowing you to view the information in a different way.

Tables

The tables view is the most generalized way to view data, and is the default format upon opening a log. You can quickly gather information using this format, which contains plenty of numeric data.

Timelines

Here, you can take a look at what is going on at any given moment of the encounter. Every event from both players and enemies are recorded in this visual timeline. Due to the overwhelming amount of actions recorded, it may help to use this view to inspect individual players or spells.

Events

The events view presents each event with a very specific timestamp, making it the best way to get extremely accurate information about every single occurrence during an encounter. Clicking the triangle play button to the right of each event will bring you directly to that exact event in the replay. This powerful combination allows you to dive incredibly deep into each second of the fight to break down exactly what occurred.

Queries

Using queries, a user can filter a log through a set of specifications to pull up precise information. You can fill out the fields presented in the user interface, or create your own expression. A pin will then be created, which will present the specified data in the table and event views.

Compare

The compare section of a log allows one player to compare themselves directly to another, which is extremely useful for looking at multiple players of the same job Using the provided search functions, you are able to find someone to compare to in three different ways:

• Manually, using the URL of another report. You can also bookmark the current report you are on, allowing you to browse other reports and still be able to pull the bookmarked log back up when you visit the compare section of a different log.
• View two players in the same report.
• Search for parses similar to a selected player by using a variety of specifications.

Once two players are selected, their data will be placed side by side. You can navigate this comparison log in the same way you would an individual log. By clicking the X next to the players’ names at the top left, you will be able to compare the entire raids instead.

Mechanics

In this section, you can find specific boss mechanics and view a quick recap of how players handled them. This may not be supported for every boss. Additionally, you can quickly find potion uses, slow deaths, and threat issues in this area.

Rankings

The rankings tab will provide an overview of the execution, speed, and player rankings from a boss kill. This can be viewed currently or historically. There is a lot to learn here, so we suggest that you read this article about how FF Logs handles rankings and parses.

Replay

The replay function is one of the most powerful analysis tools within a report. It allows you to track the exact movements of each player and enemy mob throughout an entire encounter using icons on a map. You can use the replay function in coordination with other aspects of a report in order to pinpoint problems in individual and group movement. Being able to review these problems in a replay is extremely important as many mechanics require precise movement to avoid or properly execute them.

This view also provides a meter section where damage, healing, damage taken, or many other options can be viewed while replaying the fight. Additionally, a raid frame interface is included so you can easily watch players’ health bars. Clicking on a player on these frames will highlight their icon to make their movement easier to track.

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