Thread:Elektro7/@comment-28257386-20140529152442/@comment-24911350-20140529173120

- Dust is energy, but a dedicated type that interacts with its surroundings differently, and specifically depending on the type. Fire (Release heat), Ice (Absorb heat), Electric (Movement of Electrons), Impact (Kinetic energy), Gravity (Graviton momentum). "Energy Dust" is like saying "dust dust", its ambiguity leaves it open to being OP.

Although from what you're saying now, I get the feeling you mean Kinetic energy, is that right?

- I must have misunderstood the part about dust as ammunition, sorry. Using the dust itself as a projectile did seem a bit odd, but it says that the crystal loses mass with each shot so I made an incorrect assumption. That leaves only the spread and the shockwave as problems, and you mention addressing the spread, so just the shockwave.

Can you imagine the recoil? A shockwave of that magnitude is like a coupls sticks of dynamite with every shot, and all that force is coming from a small hole, Zahn would be sent flying 30 feet backwards every time he fires. Most characters in RWBY utilize recoil to their advantage with melee-gun combo weapons, but VV is really just a gun. You could use the shield for bashing, but that requires moving the shield in the opposite direction from where the recoil would send it. It's not like Ember Celica either where it fires upon impact, and the shield is along the side anyway, yes? So that wouldn't work regardless. He's right handed, so the only way he could use recoil with a shield like that (after you tone the shockwave down a lot) is to let it spin him clockwise, and then bash an opponent behind him, or make a full rotation for one in front. It could be used to attack bare-handed with his left hand as well, but unfortunately the short-range, and small effective attack area of a shield limit the recoil's use.

- Dust's raw function beyond their basic form, and its energy releases/absorptions has only been shown as nil, except for when semblances come into play. Combinations have never been shown or mentioned in any way, and since they are simply energy catalysts, I can't imagine mixing them would have special results beyond their normal functions. It's a bit of a gray spot in the rules though, it says the known colours are allowed, but it doesn't explicitly say that making up your types isn't allowed.

I'd ask an admin about it, and if you want to do that and it gets denied, or you want to change it anyway, you could just change it to something like gravity dust grenades. You could make that work nearly the same way by just increasing the gravity in a small area to immobilize targets.

- The second part of that is right, characters don't have to list a semblance to be accepted. That doesn't mean that they are entirely without a semblance, just that they don't/can't use it, or haven't discovered it yet. Canonically, everyone has a semblance, it's like aura. Aura however has stock effects and is basically the same for everyone aside from quantity and colour, semblance is less understood and more guesswork is involved, that's why it's optional.

I started on the story, but it might be a little while to get through it all, thne I'll get back to you