Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20140815002519/@comment-11188061-20140819003236

Had Yang not have her Semblance, they would not have been able to take down the Paladin so fast or easily. It's basically one of the most powerful 'Counter' Semblance ever, where you use your enemy's strength against themselves in addition to your own. It took Blake and Ruby together to just cut off one of its limbs, without Yang how long do you think they need to destroy the main body?

Even then they had to slow the Paladin down before they can let Yang commit to a single finisher and destroy it - no one else in Team RWBY can output so much damage at once, and Ruby did not have the environmental advantage like last time where she could create a powerful enough mini tornado, nor will Roman just stand still and let her hit him. The Paladin showed itself to be resillent enough that an individual's Semblance are mostly ineffective on him (Pyrrha's an exception, Yang's an exception), and even Nora will have trouble trying to bash her way at its armor.

No one can deny that Team RWBY's amazing teamwork helped a lot in bringing down the Paladin. However, any less coordinated teams or random groups of individuals are going to get destroyed by the Paladin. Even those who are lacking team members (Sun and Neptune) can be brought down with ease. And I hope you guys didn't forget that Roman isn't a mech pilot - imagine this in the hands of a dedicated and trained pilot, and if lucky enough with a Semblance that somehow enhances their mech combating skills (I'm no Hunter/Huntress, I am GUNDAM!).

Finally, as I've stressed before and will again, the Paladin is likely not meant as a standalone unit. It is built mainly to combat against the Grimm (unless I'm interpreting the 'at the borders' comment incorrectly), and fight in a group with support. It is handicapped. It is a machine that cannot grow. As compared to Hunters and Huntresses whose potential can grow with seemingly no limits, the Paladin had challenged a full team and could've won, if this was any other team than RWBY (CDRL is an example, and Jaune is said to be able to best anyone in their team individually except Cardin, like real). I'd argue that even Team JNPR might lose because Jaune is curretly a dead weight until he spots something that they can exploit, or when he develops his defense Semblance.

Finally, considering its mobility, the Paladin has likely more speed than armor. Its armor platings are weaker than say, the Spider Droid or the Golem. And this thing took relentless attacks from Team RWBY without trouble until Ruby+Blake double slash cut of its limb, and Yang delivering the crippling blow.

I'd say that it had done well. Now cue Ironwood's comment for the kinks, 'Well, that's just not enough, isn't it?'