Skill Subtiers

I've talked before on how I think combat skill should be divided for vs debating so wanted to make a blog that gives a more in-depth explanation on the various skill subtiers, and what qualifies for them. My goal with this blog is to make it more clear how to classify how skilled a character is and how much of an advantage that is. I am going to be going through the skill subtiers and gives examples using 3 different types of skill; combat skill, artistic skill, and chess skill, to show how this can also be applied to any skill that needs to be quantified. Also just like you don't need to destroy a planet to be planet level if you are stronger then a character who did, skill can be scaled similarly.

F Tier: Superhumanly Unskilled

F tier characters are characters who proficiency in a skill is worse then a human could potentially be. In rare circumstances this may actually be an assest as a form of power if their ability to perform a skill is so bad that it can reliably cause the opposite effect. I think for instance of Newton Pulsifier from Good Omens who is superhumanly unskilled at technology to the point that any technology he tries to improve stops working. This becomes a plot point when he stops a computer that was going to launch nuclear missiles by trying to improve it.

A character with F tier combat skill might accidentally knock themselves out before every fight. A character with F tier artistic skill will try and draw a picture of a person and somehow draw a photorealistic apple. A character with F tier chess skill will be checkmated on the third turn by a baby. 

I haven't subdivided F Tier, but if you wanted to I would put High F Tier as low superhuman unskilled, Mid F Tier as high superhuman unskilled and Low F Tier as transcendently unskilled

D Tier: Unskilled

D Tier characters are characters who are within the average range of proficency at a skill with little to no experience towards the skill. 

Low D Tier: Poor Skill

Characters that are Low D Tier are characters that are bad at the skill but more realistically bad then the F tier characters. Generally speaking a character here will have some anti-feat demonstrating their lack of skill in the area or demonstrate a quality that would translate logically to being bad at the skill. A character with Low D tier combat skill might be uncoordinated. A character with Low D tier artistic skill might only be able to draw stick figures. A character with Low D tier chess skill might have trouble thinking ahead.

Mid D Tier: Average Skill

This is the average level of a skill for a human. One needs no feats for this level as it's default assumption a character will be average unless there is reason to think they wouldn't be, similar to any other stat. A character with Mid D tier combat skill would be evenly matched in a fight with a person with no combat training who is similar in size and weight to them. A character with Mid D tier dance skills will be able to draw things with some rough details. A character with Mid D tier chess skills will be able to win a chess game about half the time against someone who has little to no experience playing chess.

High D Tier: Above Average Skill

This is the level of skill that is in the upper range for the general populace. This can be quantified as having approximately 1 hour of experience (each sub tier after this will be 10 times the experience level). In other words this is equivalent to practicing a few times, or being instructed briefly by a mentor in the field. It's people who have a realistic natural talent for it but no training, or who have other skills that would translate to some proficency in this area. A character with High D tier combat skills would be like someone who has taken a self-defense course or a professional athlete who has some degree of physical awareness and coordination. A character with High D tier artistic skills would be someone who can intuitively add some level of depth or perspective to their drawings. A character with High D tier chess skills would be someone who perhaps has played casually several times or someone who has a lot of experience with similar games like Go.

C Tier: Proficient

C Tier characters are characters with some level of focus and actual training or signifigant experience towards the skill and while not masters are at or approaching the level of professional. A lot of fictional characters will probably get here in combat skills just because we usually use characters that have been in a lot of fights that will accumulate over time. 

Low C Tier: Amateur

Low C tier characters are characters who are considered rookies, beyond the casualness of the High D tier, but below professionals. To reach baseline of this tier requires 10 hours of experience which is equivalent to a few days of light practice or 1 work day of serious practice. A character with Low C tier combat skill is a character who perhaps has taken a few combat courses so far, or a character who has been in a few scrapes before. A character with Low C tier artistic skill could maybe draw a fairly good recreation of a character. A character with Low C tier chess skill can probably consistently beat a computer program to teach chess for beginners and most often beat people without experience in chess.

Mid C Tier: Professional

Mid C Tier characters are characters who are considered baseline professional tier, able to help more experienced individuals in official environments and can reliably perform professionally in their skill. To reach baseline of this tier requires 100 hours of experience which is equivalent to weeks of light practice and at least over a week of serious practice. This is the tier a character can likely earn money from their skill. A character with Mid C tier combat experience is a character who  can serve as a milita if need be, has fought on and off for an extended period, or who has attained a higher rank then a beginner in a martial art. A character with Mid C tier artistic skill might start be able to selling their artistic skill online for money, learning how to and drawing characters requested. A character with Mid C chess skill might be able to win in local chess tournaments. 

High C Tier: Veteran

High C tier characters are characters who are commended for their signifigant skill over a long time in a particular domain. Those of this skill level are signifigant on the local level and might be the most skilled person in a small town or village. To reach baseline of this tier requires 1,000 hours of experience which is equivalent to months to a year of practice. Truthfully this is moreso what "professional" usually means, but I wanted each subtier to have 10 times the experience of the last one, so C tier gets kind of fuzzy. A character with High C tier combat skill is probably a professional soldier or a serious student of a martial art or similar fighting style. A character with High C tier artistic skill can probably draw basically anything on request to a fair degree of fidelity. A character with High C tier chess skill can perform difficult chess feats like beating chess hustlers or beating opponents blindfolded.

B Tier: Master Tier:

B tier characters are in the range of the most skilled of people on Earth, masters at their skills. These are characters who are considered exceptionally good at the skill for a person.

Low B Tier: Master

Low B Tier Characters are considered masters of the skill in question, and are signifigant on the regional scale and might be most skilled person in a city. It takes 10,000 hours to master a skill and so to reach baseline of this tier requires 10,000 hours of experience which is equivalent to years of practice, or months of heavy practice with natural talent. A character with Low B tier combat skill is likely a high ranking military professional or a martial arts black belt. A character with Low B tier artistic skill can create art that could be featured in art exhibits for it's quality. A character with Low B tier chess skill can win national chess competitions and make a living solely from chess.

Mid B Tier: Grandmaster

Mid B Tier characters are considered grandmasters of the skill in question and are signifigant on the global scale. They might be the most skilled person in their nation and are in the running for most skilled person on the planet, able to at least compete with anyone on the planet. To reach baseline of this tier takes 100,000 hours of experience which is equivalent to decades of practice or over a single decade with heavy practice and natural talent. Someone with this level of skill can revolutize the field they are skilled in. A character with Mid B tier combat skill are equivalent to high ranking black belts able to create new martial arts styles or the best agents of special forces. A character with Mid B tier artistic skill are able to create art to go into museums and create new art styles. A character with Mid B tier chess skill would be able to compete in world championships and can beat a grandmaster.

High B Tier: Peak Human 

High B Tier characters are considered one of the most skilled people to have ever lived at the skill, and likely the most skilled person alive. A person at this level of skill will go down in the history books as an exemplar of this skill. This is equivalent to 1,000,000 hours of experience, literal centuries, something impossible for a human currently to achieve. As such it can be better said to be equivalent to decades of experience and heavy practice along with natural talent, the human condition taken to peak performance at the skill. A character with High B tier combat skill would be able to beat anyone else in the world given equal equipment and would be able to create not just new fighting styles but whole new sets of fighting styles and ways of fighting. A character with High B tier artistic skill would be the next Michelangelo able to create artistically defining pieces across history. A character with High B tier chess skill would be the world champion or be able to beat numerous grandmasters at once. 

A Tier: Superhumanly Skilled

Character performs to a superhuman degree in the skill. This is where things obviously get more speculative but this is my best guess on how it should work.

Low A Tier: Millennia of Experience

Character can perform superhuman feats of skill, for instance I think of Dragon Ball characters copying Ki techniques after seeing them only once, or they can perform unrealistically well performing Mid to High B Tier skill feats despite circumstances that would make them normally impossible like beating grandmaster fighters with your arms and legs bound. If High B tier is equivalent to centuries of experience, then Low A Tier seems like it would be equivalent to millennia, thousands of years of experience, the lifespan of kingdoms and nations. I would also speculate that if a High B Tier character would be the most skilled on a planet, upwards of a Type 1 civilization, a Low A Tier would be the most skilled in a Type 2 civilization, a stellar scale civilization. A character with Low A tier combat skills would be something like a wandering warrior who has fought so long that kingdoms and nations have fell in that time and could likely beat someone multiple times stronger then them (like 3-4x stronger then themselves) just via skill. So feats of doing things like beating a stronger clone of yourself I think would be here. Fun fact: as there around 170 martial arts and assuming each takes 50 years to master going off Karate taking 50 years to reach 9th degree black belt, the relatively common feat of mastering every martial art would likely take at most 8,500 years, meaning it would likely be this tier. A character with Low A tier artistic skills is a character who has painted for millennia, or who can perform superhuman feats of artistry such as creating a High B tier work of art with one's eyes closed the whole time. A character with Low A tier chess skill would be a character who has played chess for millenia or could perform a superhuman feat like beating an advanced computer at chess. They would also be the best fighter, artist, or chess player in a star system spanning civilization.

Mid A Tier: Megayears of Experience

Character can perform feats that are more clearly and signifigantly superhumanly skilled in the area of their skill. This level of skill is equivalent to millions of years of experience, a span of time large enough for there to be continental drift and longer then human civilization. I would also postulate this would be a good level of skill for characters who are the most skilled in a Type 3 civilization, a galactic wide civilization. This level of skill is for characters who can perform clear and dramatic skill feats. A character with Mid A tier combat skill could do things like defeat many opponents with their exact same powerset purely through skill, or defeat an opponent many factors of power or an order of magnitude of power above them, equivalent to a physically average human defeating a physically peak human through skill or a human defeating a gorilla via raw skill. A character with Mid A tier artistic skill could create a painting so realistic that a person who is a close friend of the person the painting resembles would not notice the difference. A character with Mid A tier chess skill could defeat numerous advanced computers at once in 2-3 turns. They would also be the best fighter, artist or chess player in a galactic spanning civilization.

High A Tier: Gigayears of Experience

Characters can perform cosmic or absolutely impossible feats in their skill through transcending the level of skill a human can understand. This level of skill is equivalent to billions of years of experience, a span of time which the celestial bodies exist within, the universe itself's lifespan being less then 20 gigayears. Unlike the prior feats whose feats while signifigantly superhuman are feats who mechanisms can be somewhat explained, while this tier the feats can simply defy explanation. I would suggest this being the level of skill for most skilled in a Type 4 civilization, a universe-spanning civilization. A character with High A tier combat skill could defeat an opponent many orders of magnitude such as a physically street level character beating a herald level character via raw combat skill, or defeating a large army of entities with their same powers via combat skill. A character with High A tier artistic skills could draw a few lines on a piece of paper that causes all who see it to go into complete shock, as the image breaks their comprehension. A character with High A tier chess skill could play against a computer that has simulated every single possible move in the universe, and checkmate them on turn 1. They would also be the best fighter, artist, or chess player in a universal spanning civilization.

S Tier Skilled: Divinely Skilled

I use this tier to denote the characters whose skill actually allows them to perform other abilities strictly through their skill. This does not count when the skill in-universe is a special style or technique that causes the abilities. For instance if a character learns a special drawing technique that can summon a snake, that's not S Tier Drawing, it's just a technique. What I'm talking about here are characters who are legitimately just so skilled that it becomes other abilities. Due to the blurry border with High A Tier, as well as the fact that you could argue it's more a rule of the universe that being good enough skill causes thing rather then a degree of their skill I can understand if people want to reduce this tier to just one subtier with High S Tier just being S Tier though I do contend what I call High S Tier would still be above High A Tier. I take it as axiom that being so skilled that you can perform supernatural abilities is by default better then any level of skill that is "conventional" regardless of how advanced it is though I can understand if that is an unpopular idea.

Low S Tier: Demigod Skill

Character is skilled enough to replicate supernatural abilities with their skill. If one is to extend the civilization scale from earlier for some quantification, this can be seen as the level of skill of a finite multiversal civilization. A character with Low S tier combat skill could punch their opponent and kill their family or knock them into another dimension, not via technique but simply because they are that skilled. A character with Low S tier artistic skill could draw a picture of the sun and make a sun appear just because of how good at drawing they are. A character with Low S tier chess skill could make their chess pieces manifest as monsters and chase their opponents just because they're so good at chess.

Mid S Tier: Godly Skill

Character is skilled enough to warp reality with their skill and affect higher forms of being. This would be equivalent if one keeps the civilization scale from earier to be the most skilled character in an infinite multiversal civilization, or in other words a character who is infinitely skilled. The difference between this tier and the last is that the former could only replicate some abilities while this is far more general. A character with Mid S tier combat skill would be able to punch death to not die, or sidestep destiny with a feint just by being so skilled at fighting. A character with Mid S tier artistic skill would be able to draw anything and it would appear just from how good an artist they are, even making esoteric things appear like drawing a metafictional line dividing a room into two halves. A character with Mid S tier chess skill would be able to make each chess piece and square mean anything in the multiverse and manipulate the events of the multiverse through their chess game.

High S Tier: Transcendent Skill

Character is the concept of the skill itself or a character who scales to such, such as an overarching concept that includes them or a character who can match them in skill. Logically to try and defeat them in that skill without being at this tier is impossible as all actions you take in an attempt to beat them at this skill would be a part of them, although fiction does allow relatively normal characters to scale to them regardless. A character with High S tier combat skills would be the concept of battle itself, omnipresent in every fight and being every single move and style one can use in a fight. A character with High S tier artistic skill would be the concept of art itself, appearing in every note of music, dash of paint, and step in a dance. A character with High S tier chess skill would be the concept of chess itself, or indeed concept of any game, with every possible game and every move tried to be used against it being a part of it.

How to conceptually use this

For the human levels of skill, I tried to make it so that each part was higher then the next tier by a proportion, that being roughly 10 times the experience level so it could be used for analogy and for something akin to the axiom of replacement. Let's say that you are an average human in terms of combat skill. If you want to know how big a difference being one skill subtier apart is you can use the skill subtiers one apart from yourself to intuitively understand. Fighting a character one skill subtier lower then you would be like you getting into a fight with a person who is timid and uncoordinated. Fighting a character one skill subtier higher then you would be like fighting someone who has taken a self defense course or certain types of athletes (one that would not give them a physical strength advantage over you but would still suggest greater coordination). If you are a different skill subtier you can analogize this by moving one skill subtier in the direction of importance.

You can use multiple skill subtiers for a greater difference in skill between in characters and this allows for even extrapolation into the A Tier. Each subtier in A Tier has 1,000 times the experience of the prior. This is approximately 1 tier in the human scale.

Low S tier almost by definition can not be quanitifed although Mid S tier might be able to if you take the infinitely skilled argument that the most skilled character in an infinite multiversal civilization should be infinitely skilled. In that case they will obviously be infinitely superior skill-wise to any prior tier. High S Tier would be superior to an even higher degree as every possible infinity of skill existing in the same reality as a High S Tier would be incorporated regardless.

Examples:

Here I'm going to give some ideas how I would use this by giving a skill tier for each of my favorite verses. These aren't neccesarily the most skilled in the setting, just a general example.

Axis Powers Hetalia: Countries are anthromorphic concepts of countries with the battlefield experience spanning their countries history, which is usually thousands of years qualifying them as Low A tier.

Bayonetta: Bayonetta can shoot with pinpoint accuracy using 4 guns at once, 2 of which are on her feet which easily qualifies as superhuman combat experience, somewhat consistent with fighting Jeanne who has lived hundreds of years and implied to have fought continually through that period, both of whom regularly fight angels who have existed over a cosmic period of time, though the amount of combat they engage in is unknown. This qualifies her for at least Low A tier.

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Fight grants Sakura martial arts mastery. To become a master at something suggests with it Sakura would be around Low B tier in combat skill.

Commedia: The Ascended have all information pass through their minds to God which would grant a superhuman level of combat skill equivalent to at least Low A tier. If the accumulated combat experience of mankind would rate as millions of years, they could possibly rate as Mid A tier.

Cutie Honey: Cutie Honey in the original manga has fought off Panther Claw in dozens of fights taking place over decades. She also shows regularly proficiency with a wide variety of weapons. This suggests she would be considered veteran tier or High C tier at least.

Danny Phantom: Danny eclipsed Vlad Plasmius' two decades of experience with his ghost powers by season 3, which would probably qualify for Low B tier. He could hypothetically be stronger for beating generic ghost soldiers who have possibly fought semi regularly for thousands of years however due to the nature of this fodder their time of origin and whether he beat them via skill or raw power is unspecified. 

DC Comics: There's some hypothetically extremely high end skill scaling that one could do based on Wonder Woman being able to regularly fight Ares, the literal concept of warfare, although this might be a skill outlier. Most skilled fighters should scale to baseline Amazons who have thousands of years of combat experience and perform superhuman skill feats like beating modern nations despite vastly inferior technology. 

Freedom Force: Iron Ox before gaining his superpowers was a champion boxer. Being a regional champion should qualify him for at least Low B tier.

God of War: Beyond his numerous decades of experience, Kratos was able to beat numerous dark clones of himself created by Ares at once while protecting his family in God of War 1, which would arguably qualify for Low A tier, possibly Mid A tier.

Magic Knight Rayearth: Lafarga is said to the greatest warrior of the world of Cephiro and Tatra is stated to be the greatest warrior in the world of Chizeta. Hikaru and Umi beating them in combat would thus qualify for High B tier.

Magicka: Wizards do not have any combat training but in the novel "The Ninth Element" they are made to go through dangerous obstacle courses to train their quick thinking and improvisation skill for dangerous situations like combat which would put them at High D tier.

Metroid: Samus is considered a master of all forms of combat and one of the most skilled fighters in the galaxy, a type 3 civilization, suggesting she should be at least Low A tier if not Mid A tier

Okami: Amaterasu is implied to have fought evil for millennia, although how often is unknown it is likely she is at least in the upper end of B tier.

Ouran High School Host Club: Legendary Martial Artist Mitsukuni Haninozuka was able to defeat a large amount of grown men armed with modern technology via skill suggesting he would be at Low A tier.

Over the Garden Wall: The Woodsman is an accomplished lumberjack and would likely be at least High D tier based on his performance against the Beast

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: Stocking deflects several bullets manipulating their trajectory by bouncing them off the sides of the screen. As an impossible skill feat, this would likely be High A tier.

Pretty Cure: Pretty Cure are given heavy combat prociency by transforming equivalent to at least Mid C tier or higher depending on season.

Princess Tutu: The series gets up to S tier in terms of dance skill but in terms of combat skill there's not as much. However Fakir was able to defeat numerous opponents in a row in sword duels, which would suggest he would be at least Mid C tier at sword skills.

Puella Magi Madoka Magicka: Mami Tomoe is considered one of the most skilled magical girls where even magical girls that are the best in their region/cities with 7 years of experience considers her one of the best which would be at least Low B tier, possibly Mid B tier.

Sailor Moon: Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Uranus are shown to be black belts in judo which would qualify for Low B tier.

Saint Seiya: Every candidate to become a saint must train for numerous years (Seiya starting at the age of 6 and only becoming one at 13), the training being exceptionally difficuly and life-threatening. This suggets that every Saint would be at least Low B tier.

Shamanic Princess: Yord is an omnipresent being that is at one with all things. This includes numerous planets worth of information which would qualify for at least Low A tier, possibly Mid A tier.

The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo is a master of numerous martial arts and can fight against all 3 Powerpuff Girls at once who are conservatively at his level of strength, though their abilities are different, suggesting he is at least Low B tier, possibly Mid B Tier. 

The Stanley Parable: Not applicable, all characters have Mid D tier combat skill.

Tokyo Mew Mew: Zakuro is a national scale dancer suggesting she would have at least Mid B tier dance skills. This is suggesting to apply to her combat skills as it is stated that she fights like she dances, directly paralleling the two as similar, although to be conservative one would probably just say she starts out at High D tier from increased coordination. The Mew Mews grow to the C tier from repeated battles. 

Undertale: Royal Guard are veteran elite soldiers who should be at least High C tier in combat skill, with characters like Undyne and Asgore scaling above them.

Wander over Yonder: Truth be told, not as familiar with the skill feats of this verse, but every major villain in the Yonder Galaxy has an army whose generic skill level would default to being Mid C tier. 

Xiaolin Showdown: Chase Young and Master Mong Guan have lived over 1,000 years and Chase has regularly fought that entire period equivalent to Low A tier combat skill, consistent with regular lower level superhuman combat skill feats.

xxxHolic: Clow Reed created all the clow cards from his magic and can do the same as them including the Fight mentioned above.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Kibano in the anime is stated to have mastered every martial art in the world which would be equivalent to Low A tier as it would be 8,500 years of experience.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: There's a lot of skill in dueling, with even low tier named characters being regional champions in duelist kingdom arc but not a lot of combat experience feats.

Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Karin Miyoshi trained to be a hero for years which would be at least High C tier.

Quick Reference Table:

What qualifies for each tier:

F Tier: Superhuman feats of being bad at skill

Low D Tier: Realistic feats of being bad at skill, having mundane physical or psychological traits that would be counter to being good at the skill

Mid D Tier: Baseline Assumption

High D Tier: Proficiency in similar skills, 1+ hours of experience, a few experiences with skill

Low C Tier: Being an amateur or rookie at skill, 10+ hours of experience

Mid C Tier: Being a professional at the skill, 100+ hours of experience, being able to make money with the skill

High C Tier: Being a veteran at the skill, 1,000+ hours of experience, being able to make a living with the skill, Being commended by those at Mid C tier, being the best at the skill in a local area

Low B Tier: Being a "master" at the skill, 10,000+ hours of experience, being the best at the skill in a region

Mid B Tier: Being a "grandmaster" at the skill, lifetime devoted to skill, being one of the best in the world, 100,000+ hours of experience

High B Tier: Being one of the best at the skill to live, comparing to the famous historical best examples of the skill, 1,000,000+ hours of experience, best in a type 1 civilization

Low A Tier: Being superhumanly good at the skill, thousands of years of experience, able to beat numerous Mid to High B tiers at the skill at the once via skill, being able to beat someone a few times more powerful via skill, best in a type 2 civilization

Mid A Tier: Being vastly superhumanly good at the skill, millions of years of experience, able to perform comically high feats of the skill, being able to beat someone many times as powerful or an order of magnitude more powerful via skill, best in a type 3 civilization

High A Tier: Being impossibly good at the skill, billions of years of experience, able to perform impossible feats of skill, being able to beat someone many orders of magnitude more powerful via skill, best in a type 4 civilization

Low S Tier: Able to perform superhuman abilities via skill, best in a finite type 5 civilization

Mid S Tier: Able to warp reality and effect higher planes of reality via skill, best in an infinite type 5 civilization, infinitely good at the skill

High S Tier: Conceptually skilled, being or beating the concept of the skill