Board Thread:News and Events/@comment-933831-20160127201216/@comment-17970636-20160130102839

Mmkay, was getting bored so I thought I'd toss my two cents in here after reading all of these lovely OC's, and my inner reviewer has been crying out at times questioning the acceptance of one character in particular, and it's not Liath.

Alright, for starters, Liath. Cry from today all the way to doomsday, but his dust casting abilities as well as his semblance are a product of sheer work, the character was literally written to be a fighter and a damn good one at that, Schnee's have their things and then we have the mobile artillery unit known as Liath Azure. He's got a decade of training under his belt and can handle himself fine in most combat scenario situations from his semblance which gives him good range to his kickboxing capabilities in close quarters, as well as being able to conjure up a bastard sword. Fact of the matter is, he's strong and nothing's going to undermine that, Orion and Ulric will be more capable up in his face simply due to the styles they've developed, however, for all intents and purposes, the best way to beat Liath is to rush him again, and again, and again, he can't use his glyphs in close proximity situations (from what I've read/been told) and as a result a person who can rush him can take him out, this is neither Ulric or Viridis simply due to the fact that no matter how strong Ulric may be, he's not slow for all intents and purposes, but he's not fast. Liath can kite him for days. Sure, he has a shield but that's only covering a certain part of his body, Liath's semblance's sheer versatility is what makes it powerful, regardless of how the shield is held Ulrc does not have the speed to dodge death from twenty glyphs. Viridis can rain down death from afar, sure, but if Liath has his eyes on Viridis, then even Viridis' semblance can't help him dodge bombardments from twenty different directions, much like Ulric. And also, it's all open plains and tall grass. You've got Pride rock all the way over there but if Viridis heads over there it's game over to Ulric because he can't be setting up and providing covering fire at the same time, so in essence it becomes two 2v1 situations one after the other, the latter team falling out at all times. In areas like these, the ranged users do have a place to shine, but in these two ranged user situations, Liath wins.

Orion, resident slicey, stabber, thingamabobber. His weapon, frankly, puts him and Ulric on par. I'm sorry Viridis but if this man catches you GGWP, see you in the losers bracket. Yes, there's the fact that Ulric has a shield and an axe to go with it, so Orion could be hailing blows on him all day with little effect, but a six times increase in strength and even Ulric's going to feel that. Especially if Orion doesn't feel like he's getting anywhere he'd just back off and let loose a barrage of Dragon's Breath rounds. Although in return Ulric's explosive lance could make Orion feel the burn quite literally. This fight goes either way for me, but if we're taking partner's abilities into consideration then it goes to Orion and Liath simply because Viridis' arrows can't be shot with the timing nor the accuracy glyphs gives, Liath could set them up in a manner as to not hit his teammate, whereas if Viridis is going for an AoE attack he'll most likely hit Ulric as well seeing as they're basically doing everything except doing the dirty.

Ulric. Probably the biggest contender on this side of things everything considered. Two weapons and he can use his axe in tandem with his shield. If he manages to catch Liath and start hailing down blows, he'll go down, but Liath's not really squishy and Ulric's not really fast enough to catch him. All things considered, his explosive lance could be useful but for every blow he lands on Liath he'll get five blasted back at him in return, and Liath's not gonna be standing still either so. Versus Orion, things are much more even, again, explosive lance, deadly, granted he gets to use it enough. Orion's strength enhancements are going to be deadly while the weapon is a lance and thus, Ulric probably won't use it much after taking an enhanced hit once, leaving him to his axe. Considering that he's got good healing, but crap aura, if this was a tournament style fight Ulric probably would be the first out due to the fact that his aura wouldn't hold for very long considering he's going to be defending against a rabid attacker.

Viridis, I read this page a few times and the reviewer in me questioned the acceptance, regardless, not the time to gripe about that. His semblance is basically a complete stat boost to accuracy, speed, evasion. Against Orion, good luck, Viridis may be fast but he's not dodging slugs at practically point blank range. His arrows could do some damage but if he wants to be effective he'll have to keep running all the way to Pride Rock, and that basically allows Liath to consistently take shots at him. Now, on the odd change that hey, he comes out, decides to fight Liath one on one. In a CQC contest, Liath wins all day everyday due to the fact that he's got kickboxing skills and can create a bastard sword. Now I have zero idea what kind of staff this is but regardless, Liath's ice element attacks as well as being able to setup Glyphs in a manner to rain hell down on Viridis, good luck surviving.

Please note that everything above was done by mixing in the combat sections on the OC pages with a mixture of their backstory added in, if I got anything wrong then forgive me, it's five in the morning.

Alright, in terms of training... I'd say it goes Liath > Orion > Viridis > Ulric (Ulric's page gave me around two years of training?). This alone tips the favour in Team SmashyMageWhatchamacallit, don't underestimate the might of a drunken father's whaling on a young child.

Jokes aside, there's also a few points which apparently people missed so I'll point them out.

For starters, Liath is not a Weiss Expy, just because he uses Glyphs, doesn't mean that he's suddenly a Schnee, they're glyphs in name only, the way Liath uses them is a manner of which Weiss rarely does - constant attacks. Weiss shows this once in the battle against Flynt, but all other times, she rarely uses her glyphs for construction purposes, preferring to use them for movement. And his stamina isn't drained from using it, it merely requires concentration. Adding another ten onto the twenty means another second of casting, it's not instantaneous, meaning that within four seconds or thereabouts Liath could theoretically have fifty glyphs up. Crapton of concertration? Yes. Easy to break? Yes. Powerful? Oh hell yes.

Then relating this to the Amber fight, those three were basiaclly assassins, one had killed his assassin FATHER. Comparing them to the average Beacon student is ludicrous especially considering that Mercury could probably whoop the ass of every OC in this tourney. Those three taking on a maiden took her out, but what destroyed Amber in the end? It wasn't the three AoE arrows, those merely took out her aura, ie, her method of protecting herself, but she still fired back with Maiden powers and probably would've killed Emerald if she hadn't been shot in the back (Oh how I wish it was the knee, the jokes that could be made).

However, the main thing here which hasn't been touched on all that much is the teamwork between partners. Viridis and Ulric could have a degree of tandem, but they don't know each other as well as Orion and Liath, and thus can't work around each other's abilities as well as the other two. In fact, Ulric and Orion probably would go at each other right from the get go if their personalities speak true, meaning that if it's up to the ranged fighters to decide the fight, it goes to the guy who's got enough firepower to make Roman proud.