Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-110.146.149.161-20150813074512/@comment-14909251-20150903025109

LiveandSound wrote: It only means she's better, or focuses much more, on it than the others seen so far. Especially since, let's be honest, Myrtenaster only goes so far and most of Weiss's real damage comes from Glyphs and Dust, even the W-Trailer shows us this, while Pyrrha doesn't need Dust, Ruby doesn't need Dust, really the only one that actually needs it among the first-year students shown so far, it's Weiss.

Plus, it doesn't actually mean much. The fact that she has difficulty using only her Aura and not her Semblance to use Dust still remains. That the others do not use Dust, need to use it or even care enough to train on it changes nothing Devil. Obviously, Weiss is going to have more of an impact with Dust then without and that probably goes for most of them. I think it is wrong to suggest Weiss needs Dust but Pyrrha and Ruby don't as that has not really been the case. Sure, Ruby can use her Semblance to run up and chop an enemy using her Scythe, but that only works so well for so long. The only way she has any meaningful ranged ability is if she uses Dust. With Pyrrha, we do we have to consider that her weapon is kind of shit. The rifle doesn't seem to have much punch from what we have seen and only in the spear form does it seem to be especially useful.

Weiss has a Semblance that can be used effectively without Dust or a weapon, though not as effectively as Pyrrha's Semblance, which makes up for the relatively poor nature of her weapon. As we saw, her biggest strength even in close combat is to use her Semblance. Ruby can run around fast and maybe kick or punch fast, but that is not gonna be nearly as effective as using her Scythe. Blake's Semblance basically makes her manueverable and offers no real strength absent some sort of weapon or with the use of Dust. Yang's Semblance obviously makes her stronger so that can be used effectively without a weapon, but her weapon is not much good at long-range.

I think with all of this it becomes clearer that there is nothing to really be said about whether Weiss is more or less skilled than any of the others. She has clearly chosen the style that works best for her and that may be all there is to it.