Quote from Rime;78231:
It depends on the situation, as one person can be great in one dungeon and awful in the next. As a player that focuses on holding enemies down, I myself find it extremely easy to deal with bosses and melee-type enemies, but I have a difficult time holding my own against groups of archer-type enemies. For instance, I can haxors a Sliab Cuilin golem on Hard without getting hit by using only well-coordinated smash mills and pet rams, but I have a difficult time against groups of shadow archers since they're always a bit out of my reach.
Edit: As ironic as this may sound, I think that the simple notion that total levels indicate being the "best" is the one we should focus on since most of us only have a cursory understanding of what it means to be proficient in Mabinogi.
You're right, that people perform better in dungeons that are better suited for their individual styles of play. I don't think that variance is significant enough to make this discussion futile.
For example, after I learned how to pet swipe, suddenly ciar adv was so easy to solo. I could handle blue rats. But when I stepped into rundal adv, the multi aggro skels weren't hard at all. BSRs, peaca mobs, bug bears, I could somewhat handle. Point is, picking up core skills makes you better nearly everywhere. Extending from this, I began to learn how to swipe ranged and magic mobs midbattle. Maiz garg ghosts and slate multi aggro, handleable. Against peaca ghosts, it wasn't unusual for me to be last person standing.
I believe that the highest levels of solo play make heavy use of pets, because they cost nothing to use, are amazingly distracting, and never run out. The only limiting factors, besides nx, are fast fingers and a nimble mind. So someone who is proficient at pet play tends to be far more effective than someone who is not.
Pet play is just one example. The most interesting things that make a good player, I think, happen in party play.
Anyway, the difference between the strongest player and the best fighter in mabi is similar to that which exists in real life.
Compare this man,
[video=youtube;17ptVrk4vo8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ptVrk4vo8[/video]
with these dudes,
[video=youtube;ih4LJ3e4Y2g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih4LJ3e4Y2g[/video]
Strong stats are just a means to an end. Who is the better fighter, the one who learns the weaknesses and strengths of the human body and trains their reaction time, mental toughness, and spirit, or the one who simply has more muscle?
A thread about the highest level players goes something like "I saw this dude afk river botting and his cp was over 2000!!!" "Wow his total must be over 6k!" /thread
It isn't very interesting and misses the far more fascinating discussion of who is the best fighter. Sure H1111 can deadlift a small house, but can s/he handle multi aggro when there isn't an impenetrable shoreline separating them? Or perhaps if we don't waste time talking about botters, and speaking more generally, who do you think is the better fighter?
Player A spends their time developing their ranged+pet play to handle multi aggro and emphasize their r1 magnum, and learns to integrate skills like barrier spikes and ice spear for further aggro control.
Player B grinds the same old single aggro SMs and ends up with more AP, so they rank up their life skills and get a +10% dmg edge over player A, but can't do anything beyond ice-zero shot.
In fact you can already see that in many situations player A outdamages player B. Total level doesn't have much of an effect on dmg, simply versatility...something player B opts not to develop anyway.