Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1.40.59.59-20160717064827/@comment-5104557-20161127183810

Semblance may consume Aura, but generally at a lower rate than the Aura is regenerated. Having one's semblance ready to activate at a moment's notice may also have a small cost, analogous to the difference between holding a sword out versus having it sheathed at one's side.

Clearly that minor cost would vary from person to person. Weiss' semblance seems unlikely to have a particularly high 'readied' cost, but reactive ones like Nora's and Yang's probably would.

Aura capacity and regeneration rate may be entirely limited by biology, but to compensate, Semblance could increase in efficiency. To test this, we would have to observe a character's development. If that character's damage output increases significantly but their toughness does not, then this would imply increased Semblance efficiency rather than increased Aura capacity.

I played too many video games recently.