Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-62.155.218.241-20171021220319/@comment-30530552-20171128230632

Looking at all of this, I do agree that Blake overall has the best balance out of the team, with about mid-level strength in all of the categories, and arguably the most effective defensively on her team.

Based on weapon power alone, I would call her weapon 3rd or 4th strongest in raw, singular power. Her weapon is built more for versatility, due to the wide range of functions it has without one being particularly powerful, compared to more specialized weapon's, like Weiss' Dust casting through Myrtenaster, Ruby's cutting and/or pinning strength with Crescent Rose, and Yang's blunt and explosive force with Ember Celica. Also leads me to wonder if her bullets are Dust-compatible, given we've seen Gambol Shroud can accept Dust.

Semblance-wise, it's meant for evasiveness. Before Volume 4, Ruby had poor control with hers but a very useful utility if used competently, Weiss had the very versatile glyphs which helped with her agility, were Dust compatible, could induce summoning later on, and in terms of usefulness, was probably the best-suited for most situations. However; her's is a very obvious Semblance, and tax her Aura heavily if she uses too many too fast, and as we saw with Flynt's unorthodox fighting style, could easily be exploited because her fighting style is too cookie-cutter and by the book compared to other members of her team. Yang's Semblance is effectively a trump card that they save for a big, easy finale, and without it, she can get absolutely wrecked for shit. She relied on it too much, which ended up costing her her arm (which is funny, since she's the character on team RWBY who has used their Semblance the least overall). Blake's Semblance is an easy way to dodge, can be made offensive or defensive with effective Dust use, if available; and compared to someone like Weiss, she doesn't rely on it as heavily.

Defensively, her evasiveness, her level head during combat situations outside of the White Fang, and her Semblance allow her to be able to fight effectively. She uses her environment to her advantage, as we see in her duel with Reese (the only member of RWBY who was able to defeat a member of ABRN visually unsupported, I might add). Plus, experience means that in terms of strategizing and being an asset, she's likely the best to use in a variety of situations.

Contextually, we can't definitively say who would win, but we also tend to know how a speculative RvWvBvY fight would turn out, at least, circa V3. Now, in V5, it's a bit more difficult. Ruby was horrible in many respects combat-wise, having raw power but lacking in skill and smart moves, poor stamina and inept without her weapon. Weiss had glyphs, but had the record for being knocked out the most on RWBY, was the support role of the team, and her fighting decisions were not well informed. She didn't use her Dust enough or effectively in most combat situations, had an overreliance on Ice Dust, and whenever she had someone who could either tank her planned moves and catch her or outwit her like Flynt, she loses. Summoning changes it a bit but still takes a lot out of her. Yang was only effective if she got hit, and her reckless fighting style made her easy to exploit. Plus there was the overreliance on her Semblance I mentioned earlier. Blake could probably win if she took initiative and could avoid getting her shit wrecked by Semblances. Yang endures but takes the most damage, Weiss is easily taken out if she's hit, and Ruby is, well, Ruby.

Now, if we go at this from the Volume 5 perspective:

- Ruby has grown with her Semblance, but straight combat-wise is still inept. She was easily taken down by Tyrian in just a few hits (plus, proof of her terrible defensive capabilities against someone who could get up close), was forced to be the evasive support during the Geist fight, and really didn't do much against the Nuckelavee other than shooting it a few times and managing to pin one of its arms.

- Weiss uses a wider range of Dust capabilities, utilizes her environment, and has greater control of her summoning. Plus, based on how much she did in the Anima Skies fight, she has greatly improved her stamina, enough so to fight off Lancers and their Queen single-handedly, and still have enough gas in the tank to slow the airship's crash landing AND survive it.

- Yang has become more evasive and smarter with her combat from what little we saw against the bandits (who are still pretty weak and incompetent anyways) and chose not to use her Semblance against them and didn't lose her temper until people actively did something to trigger her (Shay trying to touch her hair, Raven instigating her anger, Shay shooting at her when distracted.)

- We only saw Blake fight against the Sea Dragon and ~ick~ Ilia. Her clone (yes, clone, since we've seen it once) was solid and interacted actively by throwing her forward, and power-wise she was ineffective due to the limitations of her environment (stuck on a boat fighting a giant sea monster when range is not her specialty) and the fact it was a heavily armored monster. All she did was set up the kill for arguably the most dangerous Grimm we've seen in terms of raw power, and even then I doubt most of RWY could even deal with it as effectively as she did based on other limitations. Ilia was a trashy "fight" for one thing, contextually there were a few factors too:  neither Blake or Ilia wanted to hurt each other, Blake was weaponless, and Ilia's objective was presumably not to engage, as she was spying on them.

Based on the biased limitations of what we've seen, Weiss would be Blake's best counter, Yang and Ruby would roughly be on a similar level providing they could actually hit her. The problem with Blake is that combat-wise, she doesn't take the initiative: she prefers to think things out and rationalize by reacting instead of potentially acting successfully, which means in a straight fight; unless she's motivated to take that initiative, she will merely react, which is almost always less successful than someone who can act and react.