So, this a very hastily made chart, as anyone can see. It went through a couple of edits/minor revisions, and i'd say this is somewhat accurate to general player damage output, and the sources of the damage. To go over the points, i'll list them out below.
KEEP IN MIND, THE "100" ONLY INDICATES A MIDDLE-GROUND: THE POINT IN WHICH A PLAYER IN ANY CRITERIA IS PLAYING NOT AT THEIR BEST OR WORST. ANYTHING BEYOND 100 IS HOW MUCH EXTRA DAMAGE A CRITERIA INNATELY DOES AT ANY POINT.
Bad Players
- Typically rely on getting best-in-slot equipment, especially over-augmented equipment for the current content.
- Cannot clear Solo Profound Darkness or Phaleg(even with a C rank), with or without gear.
- Requires great gear to see any notable change in their "improvement"
- Even when taught or having seen tutorial/educational videos and streams, are unable to retain, or utilize the information.
- Typically don't care about getting better, or lack general gaming fundamentals. Usually falls under "casual" categories.
- As a result of not caring enough about getting better, will under-perform or even leech in any run they choose.
Average Players
- The general populace of PSO2, or any MMO. Not too concerned about whether they're amazing at the game or not. Comprised of both casuals and to-be skilled players. Drive to learn and improve varies, but knowledge will help their damage out quite a bit.
- Gear affects an average player's damage by a fair amount, but isn't gamebreaking. Will be able to clear content such as Solo Profound Darkness and Phaleg without best-in-slot gear. Perhaps not with an S rank, but is capable of clearing. Motivation dictates whether they want to clear harder content faster or not.
- Understands games as a whole well enough. Potentially capable of learning, understanding, and even creating good builds. Just needs proper direction/motivation to improve.
- May or may not put all their effort into runs. May sometimes leech, depending on how casual the person is.
Good Players
- Average players, or innately talented players, that broke out of the general mold. Capable of carrying runs on their own.
- Capable of clearing solo content such as Solo Profound Darkness, Phaleg, easily with an S rank and consistently. Capable of clearing said content with multiple classes, or just one class, but exceptionally fast.
- Gear only adds to their power; either poorly-augmented or god-tier augmented gear hardly makes or breaks their damage output: they will still outdamage anyone with great gear, while using stock/common gear.
- Knowledge still influences their play, and using knowledge, helps them optimize runs for even faster clear times until they hit the absolute peak speed they can go at.
- Limited only by their innate talent-- good player skill widely varies between people: both effort and raw ability can bring anyone up to this criteria.
Talented Players
- The 1% of the game/population. Whether they were taught or just learned on their own, they are beyond the reach of bad and average players. The mere presence of a talented player is equal to that of an entire party, or potentially more(4~6 people). Can easily carry the hardest content on their own.
- Sets ridiculously good records on any sort of challenge(speed kills on Profound Darkness, Phaleg, etc.)
- Can use any gear(within level of content), and will always deal the most damage.
- Whether it is through sheer motivation for any reason, or just genuine enjoyment of the game, greatly outperforms others. Prior experience, or months/years of playing does not factor into their skill.
Unlisted: MUTANTS/PRODIGIES
- The 0.1% of the game/population. These players are equal to 12 people in terms of raw damage output.
- Will outdamage anyone, including talented players.
- Will outdamage anyone with any kind of gear(within reason level of content).
- Experience/Total Playtime does not matter. They are just natural gods at the game.
- Sets impossible records on specific classes for speed kills: no one can break said records aside from other prodigies.
- Their bar on the chart will primarily be red and green: purple and blue will not be visible simply because there is no space to put those colors in.
Unlisted: Whales
- Keeps the game alive(Thank you!)
- Can fit under any criteria, from bad to prodigious
- Usually doesn't have much time to play, only 30 minutes~6 hours a day.
- Can be generous and give people freebies.
- Farming SG? What's that?
- Farming Meseta? What's that?
- Farming augments? What's that?
- Their bar on the chart is simply a question mark. They fit in any criteria: add +20% damage output under any criteria, and you have the "WHALE BONUS". Does not mean game is inherently p2w.
- Keeps the game alive(Thank you!)
Anyway... again, not the most accurate graph, but gives people a better understanding of what category they might fall under. Is this elitist? If the reader thinks it is, then it is. If not, then it isn't. This is an observation, a hyper-generalized one, at that.
Feel free to debate, share your opinion, or even state what category you might fall under. It took me longer to form this post than it did to scribble up this chart.
Also, bad and average can improve to good. Good improving to talented is a lot harder, and likely does not work. Nothing can improve to prodigy: those are just mystical creatures that happen to exist in the same plane as us.