Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-65.94.50.112-20131215233249/@comment-82.12.156.248-20140106194914

In terms of the overall capabilities of each current students:

Ruby Rose - Has intelligence born from recklessness. Whilst she is extremely proficient with Crescent Rose against multiple, more simplistic opponents she has continuously shown an inability to adjust her strategy for the more major opponent, blindly charging at the Nightstalker. That is also a major quality to her though, there was little Team RWBY could do to the Nevermore conventionally, it was through a blind and stupid plan that RWBY managed to defeat it in Players and Pieces. This is likely linked to how she rarely studies the monsters she fights and instead learns to combat said enemies whilst in combat with them. Which may lead to her being much more versatile than everyone else later on in the series.

Yang Xaio Long - Yang has never shown herself to be incapable no matter the enemy. She seems, at least to me to possess the most skill in Team RWBY handling herself extremely well in a hand to hand combat with just about every enemy she has come across (including the Nevermore). Her major downsides though seem to related to her short temper and seeing Ruby in danger. Yang nearly gets herself killed in Players and Pieces, rushing to Ruby's aid and her anger, whilst allowing her to do some weird super saiyan stuff, could potentially lead to her being far too unfocussed on a fight later on.

Weiss Schnee - Easily the most powerful character at this point in time. Weiss has shown exceptional ability when it comes to combatting major AND minor threats. Saving Ruby's life in Players and Pieces, defeating a giant suit of armour in her trailer and being more than capable of quickly dispatching of the boarbatusk in The Badge and the Burden Part II. However most of her ability is derived from her near endless supply of dust used by Myrtenaster and her semblance. Whilst she is still skilled in swordplay there are many that surpass her.

Blake Belladonna - Blake has grown up as a pacifist partaking in peaceful protests with the White Fang. I highly doubt she really did any fighting back then so her skills were likely honed in the last five years since the White Fang was overtaken. To that end there is no reason to believe Blake, despite her clear allegiance to more military-based organisations is any more skilled than Ruby or Weiss. She likely has just as much experience as Ruby despite being two years older than her. That being said, Blake has shown herself to possess plenty of skill, easily overcoming Roman's forces in Black and White as well as standing toe-to-toe with Roman, whom seems to possess quite a bit of skill and likely years more experience than Blake. Blake also showed herself to be more than capable enough of distracting and surviving around larger enemies including the Nevermore, the Spider Droid and Nightstalker (and let's not forget Blake's initial performance versus the Spider Droid was leagues better than Ruby's performance versus the Nightstalker). There are people better than Blake, Pyrrah and Yang seem to showcase more skill and Weiss, through her use of dust can deal a lot more damage, but she is far from weak and is certainly braver than most which may prove to be her downfall with Blake continually taking up arms against opponents that also outmatch the REST of RWBY and JNPR (Roman, Spider Droid, Nevermore, Nightstalker),

Jaune Arc - OK, Jaune's lack of skill has been made very clear from the get go... Jaune likely has little training with the sword and shield he wields (likely being trained by his parents, only to rarely hone his craft personally outside of training). However Jaune has shown more courage than most despite his usual show of fear and has shown great improvement against the giant Ursa (though admittedly Pyrrah did lift his shield for him). He is definatly the weakest of JNPR and RWBY, I doubt he's the weakest in the show though as Jaune believed he could defeat the Ursa whilst the rest of Team CRDL left Cardin for dead.

Nora Valkyrie - From what we've seen Nora seems to be perfectly capable of handling herself, almost the point of arrogance. However her bubbly nature and the fact that we've only really seen her fight in Players and Pieces has made it so that we can't truly judge her skill, though it is likely that she at least matches up to the rest of her team.

Pyrrha Nikos - From her canon background it is clear that Pyrrha possesses a lot of skill with her weapons and also seems to be the most psychologically ready character. Pyrrha is calm and collected on the battlefield knowing when to strike and, as seen in Emerald Forest Part 2 knows when she is outmatched (as she knew not to tangle with the Nightstalker single-handedly... unlike Ruby). Pyrrha may very well be the most skilled fighter at the moment, though it's likely she has already peaked in terms of ability whilst Weiss, Ruby, Jaune, Nora and even Yang have shown room for improvement, so it's easily possible that it won't stay that way going forward.

Lie Ren - Ren seems skilled enough with his weapons to get by, but we have never seen him in sustained combat before. His use of Stormflower is minimal and seems to be more for defense at range until he can get in close and use his aura to boost his offensive capabilities and protect himself (As seen in his fight with the King Taijitu). He seems to be a master of using aura and may have an overdependence on it given how sustained use weakens it. That being said Ren has shown himself to perhaps even surpass Pyrrha with remaining calm and collected on the battlefield. Lie Ren may have less skill with his weapon than everyone but Jaune, and that will likely change going forward. However Ren is currently unmatched with aura use.

Team CRDL - We have only ever seen Cardin fight, the others clearly have skill as they made it to Beacon but seem to lack the mindset to fight superior odds and the skill to overcome being outnumber (they ran from the giant ursa and I doubt they would be able to handle the enemies that we saw Yang, Ruby, Weiss and Blake defeat in their respective trailer and would likely be slaughtered by Adam Tauros/Roman Torchwick/Cinder Fall whereas the rest would at least be able to last against them (well Cinder may be stretching that a bit, she certainly appears to me a more powerful sorceress than Glynda)). That being said Cardin has shown himself to be skillful, earning the rank of leader of Team CRDL and even defeating Jaune in a duel.