Originally Posted by
Stryker
Not really. There are plenty of instances in which you need gear no matter how good are you. Skill does not overcome every formula. Doesn't happen in real life, nor does it happen in games.
Some bad players use gear as a crutch, but for good players it give them an even greater edge/advantage. It's the saying that hard work overcomes talent, except when a talented person works hard. Then the person without any talent but works hard gets surpassed.
In the OP's instance I can only assume that he's trying to supplement his skill with gear not necessarily overcome his flaws with it. But then again I've never seen him play and he could be super scrubby. Or maybe he doesn't wanna be a gimped scrub that gets carried through stuff by other people.
Using shit gear is a reflection upon the player. It means you don't want to reach the pinnacle of your potential by trying to squeeze out every advantage you can for whatever reason (time constraints, laziness, etc). I'm sure there are great olympic sprinters out there that can be very fast barefoot, but why do they wear cleats? To get a competitive edge to be the very best, that no one ever was...(gotta catch em all).
That being said, some content can be cleared without certain things, like AK. But from what's been said you can't really clear titan hm if everyone just sported AF.