Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-107.15.104.101-20130725061023/@comment-75.131.35.203-20130924132234

People keep mentioning that Ruby is skiled at short range. she is not. she is a mid to long range fighter as dictated by having a Reaper scythe fused with a high caliber sniper rifle. close range is being close enough to punch your opponent and still being able to effectivelly use your weapon.

since Ruby built her weapon herself, i presume that she built it in a momet of "this is totaly awesome" and was horible with it before Qrow took her in to teach her how to actually use a scythe in combat. watching her combat Ruby is very fast, necessary to control target placement, and is very good at keping track of multiple targets, necessary to control own and weapon placement. only 2(?) of the beowolves get close enough to actually hit her without her moving away. one that knocks her backward and the one she uses the guilotine function of her scythe on.

there is a very good reason that scythes are considered impractical in combat and that is because it is the only polearm lenght weaopn that i have ever heard of that requires you to pull your target toward yourself to cut them. the whole point of a poe arm is to attack your target at a distance. guilotine, or pull through weapons, are effective at close range (scikles and garrotes) because the weilder can supprt the trapping effect with their limbs and close body strength. the best use of the Reaper scythe in combat (anime) that i have seen would have to go to Dr. Franken Stein of Soul Eater who used the blunt outer edge of the scythe blade as a fast moving shield and attacked with his fist. all that said it is still fun to see in anime because you know know that the person using the scythe is that much faster, stronger and better than the others. Even if she is completely incompetent in a fight without Crimson Rose, as the main character this is unlikely, Ruby is easily on of the most dangerous characters with her weapon in hand. On her team definatly.

whie Weiss has the ability to play variable magic support, she has too much of a duelist's mindset right now. check Emerald Forest where she focuses on one beowolf to the exclusion of the others. that tells me that she, unlike Blake and Yang (possible the best actual fighters on the team), has not had much combat experience against more than one target. Blake and Yang i term the best fighters beause their abilities are not conditional or situational like Ruby (condition of having Crimson Rose) and Weiss (situational to having a single target). though i expect this to change as the show continues.