ACT, short for Advanced Combat Tracker, is a damage meter for multiple MMOs, with plugin support to extend the range of games it can support. It's widely used in FFXIV to keep track of your DPS and the DPS of other people, as well as other stats, such as HPS and emnity. This isn't all that ACT can do; ACT has a wide variety of function because it can be extended with plugins, so it can also do things such as make personalized callouts for the fight you're in and even add UI elements for certain job mechanics that didn't exist before.
Needless to say, ACT is a useful and powerful tool, but it can be a bit intimidating to set up at first. A lot of effort has recently gone into making it easier to install ACT and get the relevant plugins installed, but given that this still might be confusing to some, this guide will serve as a resource for how to install ACT, as well as how to set up plugins such as Cactbot and Triggernometry.
It's worth noting that this guide is only pertine