Arbiter and Claw

[Skye]

Fun fact, Zena is more prepared than Baral.

How do we know this?

Baral will repel Geburah's Vertical Slash after the animation, as well as after it came down a bit.

Zena though? She just steps back immediately after the dice roll, there is no Vertical slash animation for Geburah.

Also we know that this is Anti-E.G.O, or at least Anti Geburah because Furioso (a regular combat page, not an E.G.O. weapon or card) can hit them.

[Skye]

Also. Zena ignores any potential dice being sealed, while Balar doesn't.

[hurricanelily.j.a]

Originally posted by Skye:

Also. Zena ignores any potential dice being sealed, while Balar doesn't.

Maybe, artbiters can counter locks, if they use it themselves.

[Hoopla]

Interesting, I like little details such as those.

[ArchivedGarden]

So we really didn't have a chance against them. Looks like Garion really wasn't expecting resistance when they attacked L Corp if an Arbiter can shrug off EGO like that.

[CarThief]

Huh, guess that's something to try.
Wouldn't say they where unbeatable though, maybe in current conditions, because Gerbura just woke up, Roland was still severely weakened from the previous battles, Binah lost a lot of her power, and the Library in general was weak/inactive (no additional power from passives, E.G.O, abnormalities, or the likes).

Suppose they always attacked when they had something to exploit (like Garion releasing abnormalities) or when the enemy was weak (like Zena when the library had currently no power).

I'd imagine Colours, Distortions, high-tier Abnormalities, strong E.G.O users and such can stand toe-to-toe with a Claw or Arbiter. Atleast in better/fair conditions, anyway.

[Skye]

CarThief I am 99% certain a strong E.G.O user can stand toe to toe with a Claw, maybe not an Arbiter anymore if they really are Anti-E.G.O but I'd say a claw wouldn't be too hard to fight, even though now they also seem a little EGO resistant.

Kali killed (2) Claws and (1) Arbiter in her time, and if we remember right. Maxed out employees in L. Corp with ALEPHA gear are on about the same level as a Grade 1 Fixer is.

And it makes sense the Head would attack when they can exploit or take most advantage of the situation, especially since I am of the notion that if we had the Library working we'd have absolutely floored them and kicked them down easily.

Hell, Baral and Zena seem sent as Explicit Counters to what we have. Zena counters Binah in almost every way. Zena counters Geburah in almost every way.

Moreso counters Geb since, well, sealing one of those infinite speed dice is annoying, on top of also being hard to counter. You'd have to use Wheel Industry's to reliably beat that speed dice sealing.

And if they stayed much longer, Geburah can Manifest EGO but they leave the exact turn you manifest it, or just before you get the card.

Even if you did Manifest EGO, the only benefit is that Geb would have her Stagger Resist back, since Zena already ignores all power changes which would render a large majority of Geb's kit pointless. (If they can block Vertical Slash, there's a good chance they'd also block Horizontal Slash too js)

It's possible to end the fight with Roland near max stagger resist, if you just use Crystal Atelier as the third page and you block Trail.

If the fight was extended and EGO was manifested, it'd be perfectly possible for Geb to also have max Stagger resist

And we've already seen in the time allotted it's possible to basically fully kill Baral or leave Baral at 1 hp.

Another Key Detail:
Baral and Zena at emotion level 2: 7 light
Baral and Zena at emotion level 5: 10 Light.

We've never even SEEN any character come CLOSE to 10 light without using Mountain of Corpses or some other trick like Wrath to get up to 9 light.

And sure, Light isn't an inherent measure of power but we've generally seen stronger characters start with 4 light

Backstreets started with the least, then you'd have people like San and Walter and them having 3.

Then you'd see Yan, Xiao, Black Silence and so on starting with 4.

If these people start with so much light they could potentially be holding back a lot of power, or they're just really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ strong.

[【Silver】]

Originally posted by Skye:

Also. Zena ignores any potential dice being sealed, while Balar doesn't.

Wait, I swear I was able to seal Zena's die with Binah's pages. I can't check at the moment either since I've restarted my playthrough again...

I really wish I had tried using Gebura's vertical slash on her now too to see that detail. I had rotten luck getting the pages for Furioso during my throws at the fight so I never got to see or use it sadly.

[Skye]

Originally posted by 【Silver】:

Originally posted by Skye:

Also. Zena ignores any potential dice being sealed, while Balar doesn't.

Wait, I swear I was able to seal Zena's die with Binah's pages. I can't check at the moment either since I've restarted my playthrough again...

I really wish I had tried using Gebura's vertical slash on her now too to see that detail. I had rotten luck getting the pages for Furioso during my throws at the fight so I never got to see or use it sadly.

When you use Vertical Split on Zena, make sure to have it be a one-sided attack, because iirc all of her attacks are 'Dice does not recycle on use' or at the least, almost all of them do.

So just make sure to stick to a one-sided attack when you use vertical slash, here's how it goes.

>Dice roll for Vertical Slash
>Zena moves back
>Game continues on as if nothing happened