Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25908228-20141222101442/@comment-6697950-20141222154956

Most of the top players in ALO are at around the same level. But anyway, if you've only watched the anime, then you probably won't hear much of Kirito's side. But if you go beyond the anime, you would know that in some instances, he was only able to beat Asuna because of using tricks to confuse Asuna (ME1 for example). So yes, they are around the same level.

You're forgetting the fact that Nobuyuki doesn't even know how to swing a sword properly. Although virtual abilities don't carry over to the real world, a person used to battles is much more likely to be alert and have at least some idea what to do in a fight than some showoff who has never even held a weapon in his life.

I didn't say that he doesn't take part in quests at all. If you read Rainbow Bridge, you'd know that he actually does still do some overnight grinding to catch up to the others. But tell me this, how many scenes have you seen him actually doing something and how many scenes have you seen him either sleeping, resting, having lovey dovey time or the last two at the same time? Even the other girls complain that the last one is very common. So, my point is, Kirito spends far less time on grinding than he used to in SAO, since he has real life and even in-game he spends a lot of time either with Asuna or just resting. Couple that with his life not being on the line and you get that his skills became rusty.

Of course, XaXa did spend a lot of time honing his skills, so his perspective isn't awfully reliable, but it's still enough to understand that Kirito isn't at the level of his SAO days.