FFXI Skill

I think Im a skillfull player ; ;
Am I?

I'd like to go down on you in a tasteful manner.

do you still play :p?

lolyeah

Experience and skill go hand in hand possibly.

I think experience contributes to becoming a skilled player. And that you probably need to be at least a little skilled, to learn from your experience. I've seen people make the same mistake, over and over.

And I've seen situations where a lvl 65 with shitty gear has lasted longer on a mob than a lvl 75-80 with supposed excellent gear. It's no good having years of experience under your belt, and end-game gear, if you also happen to be HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.

Edit: I type the word HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, like I'm HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE.

wtf is the point of an op saying inb4troll? you're the first post...

LMFAO!! I was going to just say "No." But after seeing this I'm going to say:

Mayhap.

As with what other people have said, being a good player comes down to paying attention, and the experience to use your abilities to the best advantage. These are things that most people can achieve with a little effort, but sadly too many fall short on.

Skill comes down to how you react when ***hits the fan. The players I consider skilled are the ones who I have seen time and again save the day when things don't go as planned.

Great players don't need windower macros to be good. Some of the best players I know don't use windower at all. It gives you a bit of an edge in that you can make the most use of the gear you have, but with a bit of effort, most jobs can do quite a bit even with normal macros.

Skill is when you get an average geared player being able to do something better than a player with above average/"1337" gear. It's about knowing your job. Sure gear makes the player better, but say you give a level 80 whm a level 80 thf. They aren't going to be really skilled in that job. Best they prolly will know is Sata.

This thread reminded me of when a certain someone tried telling me that Duelist's Chapeau MAKES a RDM, best part is he was being serious.

A skilled player knows how to gear their job, and macros accordingly to maximise their potential. Doesn't have to be UBER 1337 gear, but shouldn't be wearing something that makes no sense at all or is beyond gimp (Onyx earrings on a 75 SMN for example.)

Also a skilled player would read up on their job via wiki and forums, or asking more experienced <job> in game for advice to try grasp at least the basic mechanics of the spells/abilities they have. Knowledge is power :P

But...skill can only get you so far, some situations require you to have x piece of gear no matter how great you are with macros/reaction time etc without certain gear you wont be able to land that enfeeb/kite the mob/have utsu timers up in time etc etc.

skill is someone who can make important decisions at a split second, deciding which spell to cast, which /ja to use, knowing the mechanics to disable a mob before it has a chance to kill everyone weather it be through giving up dmg for a stun /ws or knowing which debuffs will stick on a mob.

Sometimes you kite, sometimes you zerg, you should know both and everything in between. (player > gear)

That's not allways the case.
I've played thief on another char and did just fine, same with other DD jobs (but what's the difference eh)
I even jumped in on a PLD char once, without EVER having played it before, and i did a decent job. (Not saying i did as good as an experienced PLD >_>)
As long as you arent an idiot you can play any job at any time.

Between the contrast of gear and skill, I've always seen it like this:

Gear is merely a threshold, giving a wider freedom of allocation of one's skill. Having shitty gear but great skill will limit the capacity one can stretch their skill with given results. Great gear in combination with great skill will give outstanding results benefiting everyone. However, great gear with bad skill will only get you so far when you still fail to function to the needed demands in an ever changing situation in battle.

As for bad gear and bad skill... well let's not go there lol.

In my opinion:

A SAM using a Turban, Haubergeon, Dusk and Fumas

is more skilled than

A sam using Askar head, Haubergeon+1, Dusk+1 and Fumas



Someone using Askar head, shows a lack of skill, even if other pieces of his gear are better, and even if the stats stack the same.

Purposely gimping yourself, whether it's due to lack of knowledge of stubbornness makes you unskilled.

skill + gear > skill > gear > neither


To me the most skilled player knows not just the capabilities and nuances of his own job but all the other jobs as well.

Being able to work together with and compliment your team mates takes the game to a whole other level:D

Which often means Knowledge > Pride

I had to admit I was NOT the best before I could get better:p

THIS ^
I had a debate with a SAM friend before over Turban vs Askar (he was for Askar), not even gonna start that again lol

But i've given up trying to argue with RDMs that pick Jet Seraweels over Mahatma and they consider it an upgrade to NQ Errant Slops, a good RDM will not try use "But it has no negative stats" or "I can melee in these"

A good RDM will look at the stats and think "Ok, i can use these for mage based situations, stoneskin enfeebs and nukes, and the extra 1 INT/MND will help me with those, But when i'm meleeing or being beat on by a mob i'll swap them out into something that helps me in those situations." Not hard to make a basic -physical dmg taken macro that swaps out of errant and puts in -PDT% and DEF gear.

And i don't buy the "casual gamer" excuse for one second, when they play this game exactly the same amount of time as i do lol.
I don't mean to sound like im trolling or anything <.< I just personally believe for what you would primarily use those legs for, 8INT/MND > 7INT/MND no -stats, which is exactly the same arguement as 5% haste > 4% haste with some stats.

One thing that has not been said is that skilled player usually have
No. They both suck as much. If anything I'll claim the second one to be more skilled. Building gil is entirely part of the game, it's another form of skill. Inbefore "his is richer than me he must buy gil". Some people suck at making money some don't.

The first SAM understands his job better than second, but the second one understand the gil making part better than the first.

He might be \drg making the last % haste on turban useless, as he would easily cap haste with askar\ace's!

Understanding a job > Understanding how to make gil

I think theres a skill cap, you cant really be overly skilled. But, you can definitely be underly skilled. Once you have a general understanding of the game and experience, you pretty much know your ***. The worst thing to me is when ppl are mad and challenge you to ballista like that proves something....

No, because if you understand your job you understand that you need gil to make it better. This is skill. A sam in Full AF that understands his job is a gimp. This is FFXI ; the best skilled players are most of the time the richest too. Old news.

A SAM in full AF that knows when to use Polearm and when to use GK is better than a SAM wearing full Usukane that stores TP to 300 so he can use Tachi Hobaku and stun mobs for a long time. >.>

This doesn't exist. In any case it's superior gear (by far) and MUCH less restarded than full AF.

So now people are restarded for not having the money to fund a Haubergeon?

Actually, you're probably right. With how cheap stuff is nowadays, there's no excuse to not have at least some passable gear.

Skill in this game boils down to the players that while under an immense amount of pressure, can still adapt and react in the best possible way. 95% of the players cannot do this, myself included. These are the players that can single handedly save an alliance with their quick decision making and strategies. Thats not saying that 95% of people suck and cannot do great things, it just means that there are situations that you may freeze or make the wrong decision and die where other players would persevere. Gear is not a big part of skill, gear can increase what a skilled player can do, but it will not make an unskilled player a skilled player. Take Avesta for example since he is one of the most known skilled players. Yes he has a TON of good gear, but even without it, that doesnt take away from the skilled player that he is. Alot of the stuff he has done he probably could have done it without his great gear, all it does it make it a little easier.

A truly skilled player, would not neglect to take the time to get the appropriate gear. If you refuse to make the Gil to get the best gear for the situation (within reason), you are intentionally gimping yourself. So when people break it down like, Skilled Player > Player w/ Gear.. Where in the world will you find a truly skilled player in bad gear? Atleast thats how I've always felt about it.

As stated a lot before though, a skilled player shows up to something prepared with as much previous understanding as possible while retaining the ability to adapt when the need arises.

Apparently according to this one player, i need 2mil more exp and a higher rank on this site to be considered anything but "amateur" >.>

but i think to be skillful, they have to know what they're doing, take good criticism and basically not be a jerk. last part really has nothing to do with anything, but my own personal feeling on it.

^That, I believe is a fairly simple, yet accurate representation of the weight or importance of "Skill" and it's relation to other common factors in this game.

But to add to that, and to be more direct to the topic of what exactly is "skill" in this game.

I believe general skill will come, first of all, with "knowledge" and the ability to use that knowledge effectively in the game, along with good reaction time and good judgment and decision making.

Nevertheless, an aspect that I believe is one of the most important ones when talking about skill is: use of macros and gear swaps appropriately.

And I don't mean necessarily having Windower macros(although it can help a good player, the truth is that a bad player is still not likely to benefit much from windower macros if that bad player doesn't know how to use and execute macros and gear swaps appropriately etc.), but the ability to execute and use macros effectively, along with actually knowing what macros to make, what gear sets to have such as a PDT set, an MDT set, TP set, WS set, different magic sets for different spells, and when to actually use these macros and gear swaps with good reaction time specially.

Example: shadows or Third eye is down and your recast is not up yet, and you're being hit by the mob... a good player, in my opinion, would know to quickly switch to a PDT set here, then when recast is back on shadows or third eye, recast it (if you're being hit still, if not...you may consider using hasso if you're a SAM or using /sam), and then switch back to your TP set.

There's a lot more examples and situations that can be named;however, it's not necessary to make this post any longer than it already is...

The main idea, in my opinion, is that knowledge about the game and how things work, good reaction time, good judgment and decision making, and how to make, use, and execute macros and gear swaps appropriately and effectively is definitely something I would see on a "skilled" player.

To the OP: In my opinion, yes... there are definitely players who are more "skillful" than others in this game. Specially since different people don't all have the same knowledge and reaction time while executing certain in-game tasks.

I had a screenshot of some1 in excellence once saying this:

"Being a skilled player and having great gear goes hand in hand. A skilled player knows how to make gil and will advance their jobs as far as possible using that knowledge. A player's skill is best detirmined through their success on the game. For example, excellence will not accept any blms who don't have full morrigan's gear. By this time in ffxi if you are skilled, you should be able to get full salvage gear with no issues. If you are unwilling to put in the work then you are not skilled or you are lazy."

That is somewhat paraphrased as I no longer have the screenshot. What was said was pretty logical.