What's the difference between a good and exceptional player?

[JKim]

What do you guys think is the difference between a good and exceptional DPS, Tank, Healer?

[Zulandia]

Time.
(10 chars.)

[Resentful]

Dedication to the game

In other words

The time that they have

[Epiclurker]

The difference is skill. Some people have been playing a class since vanilla WOW and are still average players. Others pick up a class incredibly fast and surpass the veteran players.

[Cluasen]

The ability to learn from your mistakes and perform well under pressure imo.

[Fiercethirst]

the ability to adept to an encounter and improve...those who strive to be the best learn by reading forums asking questions those who wont settle for good being just good enough.....it also helps when u have a core group of people that work well togther know how each other plays and are willing to work as a group to become better....


in all honesty if someone is working there butts off and are doing what needs to be done and things just flow instead of feeling clunky and like u probably shouldnt of got the kill. then your doing great

[juzalol]

Good Players know what to do.

Exceptional players know why they do it.

Exceptional players understand the mechanics and abilities and
can make up valid strategies and tactics.

Good players read the tactics and can execute a strategy made by
someone else.

[Amethystlyn]

Situational awareness is HUGE. Quick reflexes after that. The truly exceptional players I know don't tunnel vision on their recount, they don't just know whats around THEM, they can see what all the other players in the raid are doing, where they are, and they are busily plotting in their heads how to react if this or that situation arises, and they have a contingency plan for whatever bad RNG might occur. Quick reflexes are nice to have, but without a brain behind them constantly watching everything and planning, then you have a merely good player, not an exceptional one.

[Tziva]

I like how this thread says it.

[Azerate]

Good player can play he's class well, exceptional player can adapt to new circumstances and execute tactics while playing his class well.

[Snowmist]

Apart from situational awareness, for dps it's the ability to transend the normal rotation, by implementing precise timed overlaps, fast target switching, trinkets at exact right time, and other abilities which some players may ignore or forget about...i.e. herbalism haste for example or using bombs, and dps pots throught the fights. Macro'ing abilities to always be up. Applying dots or bleeds on more than one target with absolute zero drop off........I'm sure the list is endless. All of this is beyond what most good players bother with or only do some of, and takes a certain kind of insane dedication.

[henern]

To bring your A game, not just once or twice, but consistently, all the time.

[Franzeska]

Good Players know what to do.

Exceptional players know why they do it.

Exceptional players understand the mechanics and abilities and
can make up valid strategies and tactics.

Good players read the tactics and can execute a strategy made by
someone else.

This, really, was pretty much what I was going to type.

The key difference between a good raider and a truly excellent raider is knowing and understanding the game mechanics. Plenty of people can follow strategies posted for them but it's the people that actually understand the mechanics behind the strategy who actually know the fight and therefore will have the ability to adapt and react to the unexpected.

That's what makes the difference.

[Deleted]

Confidence.

[Imadraenei]

Depends.

Good vs. Exceptional DPS? In my opinion, exceptional DPS know when to stop DPSing to do other things (bandage/self/offheal, interrupt, kite, use those abilities that you don't keybind because you rarely use them but oh-shit-you-have-to-do-something [see: Rockbiter/Unleash Earth]).

Good vs. Exceptional Healer? Not too sure about this one. I can feel the difference in runs I do, but I can't really explain it.

Good vs. Exceptional Tank? Reflexes.

[Dunee]

I believe it mostly lies in adaption and ability to see two steps ahead

[Etikilam]

Commitment to actually learning HOW to play the class, dedication to learning the content without having to be told what to do, situational awareness [ability to recognize that something might go screwy at any moment, and be able to react without causing a big commotion], ability to see where damage will be incoming and avoid it again without causing any commotion, and also reliability.

[Herecius]

A good player plays their class well, and knows how to not stand in fire. An exceptional player is constantly getting better and better and maximizes his or her class' potential in every fight, and is equally aware of the abilities of other classes.

An exceptional player can create tactics on the fly, a good one can follow tactics made by an exceptional player. A bad player knows the best way to ruin those tactics. :P

[Shroud]

time and skill id say im a good player with most of my classes Jack of all trades, master of none if you will.

[Docdruid]

I love how 2 people replied with time.
I will give you an example, I met this player, he had never played WoW, he is about 17 he leveled a Ret paladin, I invited him to our alt BoT he did more dmg than people in full 359, never died and managed to listen what was asked from him.
3 month this person playing, he as a 3's team at 2400, and since he is in pre-med and has a lot of extra curricular activities he plays less than 8h a week.
This is an exceptional player...
I play around around 20h a week, I am pretty good at the game and can play pretty much any class at end game level, yet I don't see myself as exceptional as the player above, that is for me the difference between good and exceptional, the ability of fast learning, adapting and executing flawlessly.