Skill

[Orson]

and not just from being underskilled. player skill has gone out the window because of atmas. mages that dont know how to conserve mp, melees that blindly WS at the start of fights. "tanks" that dont know how to tank properly, the list goes on. atmas have become a major crutch on the game, and i think the biggest mistake that SE has ever made.

I think you're oversimplifying. It's not that people don't know how to conserve mp it's just you don't have to. On that note you play that out like a bad thing. It's not really that fun to be a blm having to rest every 4-6 nukes like you did in the past. The only negative I see is that support jobs have become a bit more vestigial for mages.

As for not needing a tank that wasn't caused by atmas. DD tanking was simply the way the game was moving. The majority of players were using DD tanks on everything and I mean everything. Pld and to a lesser extent War will probably never become the natural go to tank in this game unless SE does something extreme to shift players to use them.

Atma/Cruor buffs have nothing to do with skill at the game. I'm completely talking about weapon and magic skills.

P.S. I've had the misfortune of being stuck helping with a PUG occasionally and I can tell you no amount of atmas/cruor buffs can make up for just being foolish and not doing any research at all.