Advanced Combat Tracker vs Combat Metrics

Advanced Combat Tracker is a free Windows desktop tool for parsing MMO combat logs through plugins. Hosted plugins are listed for EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XIV, Rift, Age of Conan, Aion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and The Secret World. It can parse logs in real time, import complete log files, or look up older encounters in its History Database. Tables and graphs show combat from an encounter overview down to individual actions; Encounter VCR and Encounter Timeline provide graphical encounter views. Spell timers and custom triggers can respond to matching log lines, capture part of a line, play sounds, or start timers. Exports include formatted text, HTML, XML, and web pages, with FTP uploads and ODBC connectivity also supported. Its .NET plugin system accepts precompiled assemblies or C# and Visual Basic.NET source files. The download page lists ACT Setup version 3.8.5.288 and points users to Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8.1; .NET Core and .NET 5–8 will not work with ACT. An installer and ZIP archive are available.

Combat Metrics is a free addon for The Elder Scrolls Online that records and analyzes combat logs. It measures damage per second, breaks down damage by skill and can show who caused incoming damage. It also analyzes healing given and received, healing per second, buffs and debuffs, and magicka or stamina use and regeneration. Players can filter combat logs to investigate specific issues. A resource-light mode shows current-fight DPS and HPS, while the CombatMetricsFightData module can store combat data separately from settings; that module must be enabled in the game's addon manager. The addon requires LibAddonMenu, LibCustomMenu, LibCombat and LibDataEncode, which are downloaded separately; LibDebugLogger is optional. It can export builds to the ESO-Hub build editor, but older fight exports may omit role, passives and attribute points, and alternative skill bars are not supported. The maker says many heavy fights in succession can reach the Lua memory limit and suggests limiting stored fights. Minor Savagery is ignored, and PvP statistics require disabling “Light Mode in Cyrodil.” The project is described as still in beta.