Best Halfborn

[IlstrawberrySeed]

WoB confirmed that natrally born ferring/mistborn and minsting/fuerochemists can be born. What are the most useful halfborns?

There really seems to be 4 categories: Direct combat, Support combat, General use, and Unkeyed Metalminds. (Please mention any others you can think of)

Combat has gold compounders pretty high, but I'd probably put bloodmakers above augurs. Augurs are probably about equal to pewterarms, durilium gnats, and steelrunners, with windwisperers and soulbearers (if I understand them correctly) being just behind. Worst is probably aluminum gnat, and second worst subsumer.

Support has Steelrunners and Sparkers at the top, with connectors possibly coming close depending on how it works. The worst are probably the best at direct combat not aforementioned.

General is tough. I believe subsumers have the best single metal for general use (easy to fill up metalminds for invested material, silver is a common alloy) but less necessary with compounding garentied.

Unkeyed metalminds have to be fuerochemists, or have medalian/hemalurgic f-aluminum. windwisperes are the best in the later case, but the former would probably be augurs or pewterarms.

Edited February 28, 2023 by IlstrawberrySeed
Unkeyed not Unsealed.

[Quantus he/him]

Making some assumptions on how F-Nicrosil works: Feruchemist/Nicroburst, since there's a strong chance that just by borrowing allomantic medallions for a single use (and thereafter managing your Metalmind stores responsibly), you'd be able to Compound all the metals with that combo. 

[alder24]

I say A-steel+Feruchemist. Being able to compound speed is the best power you can get. This is just insanely powerful in combat, and you still have one of the best combat oriented allomantic powers. Even in daily general use, speed is always useful. I would always go for Feruchemy. Steel, gold or pewter compounding are the best options for combat, zinc, chromium and duralumin compounding for general use. And I'm mostly focusing on compounding, as this is so much better than normal Allomantic powers. Yes, they're useful, but having unlimited fortune or mental speed is just beyond anything Allomancy can provide.

[Mistchemist16]

Remember, the combat value of Feruchemists changes drastically based on how much time they get to make stores. But that being said, Mistborn are easier to use in combat since they don’t have to be weak for any time 
 

Direct Combat: Mistborn + Steelrunner takes it easy. Not only can you run at the speed of sound or higher, but you get bullet time. Which implies a kind of discount atium. 

<snip>

Brandon Sanderson

No... It'll bullet time a little bit, it certainly will, because you're thinking faster than everyone else, but it has applications beyond bullet timing. Bullet time is really--

Kurkistan

That’s steel’s thing?

Brandon Sanderson

That’s kind of steel's thing. They kind of overlap on that one, because the steel thing... But yeah. It's more like "I think fast, but my reaction speed is not sped up".

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

So a steel compounder effectively has Atium for any attack they can see. Plus, they also have pewter, time bubbles, and all the other fun tricks. And I’d bet even a Coinshot Feruchemist would have trouble catching up since if their Mistborn counterpart has equal speed, the pewter would still create a decisive advantage.

That being said, there are other really good metals for combat compounding. F-Iron is great on a Mistborn who can do all of Wax’s stunts + building crashing on demand, though way less good on Feruchemist Mistings. F-Tin gives you Spook’s Savantism with no drawbacks. Pewter and Brass give you awesome destructive power if you can actually hit the opponent up close. And gold is good, especially when backed by pewter, but you’ll still get taken out by someone on the same level as you or with aluminum. 
 

Support combat: Im not sure what you mean by this. But I explained what I believe to be the best metals to Compound in combat. I guess Steel is still good for harrying, but Compounded steel is busted in general

General Use: Probably Rioter + Feruchemist. You can outthink any problem and Feruchemy is way better for general use anyway. You have copper for knowledge, tin for sense, bronze to stay up, and really anything as long as you accept storing attributes

Unsealed metalminds: I’m not sure what you mean. Are you talking about how good the Halfborn is at filling metalminds? Or is it more like “using unsealed metalminds + their powers?”Could you please elaborate? 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Mistchemist16

[IlstrawberrySeed]

19 hours ago, Mistchemist16 said:

Remember, the combat value of Feruchemists changes drastically based on how much time they get to make stores. But that being said, Mistborn are easier to use in combat since they don’t have to be weak for any time 
 

Direct Combat: Mistborn + Steelrunner takes it easy. Not only can you run at the speed of sound or higher, but you get bullet time. Which implies a kind of discount atium. 

<snip>

Brandon Sanderson

No... It'll bullet time a little bit, it certainly will, because you're thinking faster than everyone else, but it has applications beyond bullet timing. Bullet time is really--

Kurkistan

That’s steel’s thing?

Brandon Sanderson

That’s kind of steel's thing. They kind of overlap on that one, because the steel thing... But yeah. It's more like "I think fast, but my reaction speed is not sped up".

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

So a steel compounder effectively has Atium for any attack they can see. Plus, they also have pewter, time bubbles, and all the other fun tricks. And I’d bet even a Coinshot Feruchemist would have trouble catching up since if their Mistborn counterpart has equal speed, the pewter would still create a decisive advantage.

That being said, there are other really good metals for combat compounding. F-Iron is great on a Mistborn who can do all of Wax’s stunts + building crashing on demand, though way less good on Feruchemist Mistings. F-Tin gives you Spook’s Savantism with no drawbacks. Pewter and Brass give you awesome destructive power if you can actually hit the opponent up close. And gold is good, especially when backed by pewter, but you’ll still get taken out by someone on the same level as you or with aluminum. 
 

Support combat: Im not sure what you mean by this. But I explained what I believe to be the best metals to Compound in combat. I guess Steel is still good for harrying, but Compounded steel is busted in general

General Use: Probably Rioter + Feruchemist. You can outthink any problem and Feruchemy is way better for general use anyway. You have copper for knowledge, tin for sense, bronze to stay up, and really anything as long as you accept storing attributes

Unsealed metalminds: I’m not sure what you mean. Are you talking about how good the Halfborn is at filling metalminds? Or is it more like “using unsealed metalminds + their powers?”Could you please elaborate? 

Support: Necrobursting & sliding allys, are the 2 main magical supports, though mundane supports can be used if one can be thought of.

Unkeyed: Making unkeyed metalminds. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by IlstrawberrySeed
Unkeyed not Unsealed.

[Mistchemist16]

39 minutes ago, IlstrawberrySeed said:

Support: Necrobursting & sliding allys, are the 2 main magical supports, though mundane supports can be used if one can be thought of.

Unsealed: Making unsealed metalminds. 

Got it. Then I’d probably say,

Combat Support: Coinshot + Feruchemist beats out Mistborn + Steelrunner here. You still get the benefits of absurd speed for harrying, but you can also give unkeyed metalminds created via aluminum to your allies, including with the aforementioned speed. They’d need to be Metalborn but it’s ultimately better for support. Alternatively, you could use a Mistborn + Windwhisperer to play scout and even sustain things like bronze or steelsight.

Unsealed: Augur + Feruchemist. Healing is something everyone needs and you have great supplies with Compounding. Plus, the users of the unsealed metal mind benefit long term, even with no other medallions. With enough resources, you can even make a sort of 1-Up by providing enough healing to resurrect the recently dead. But if you’re more frugal, Rioter + Feruchemist uses a cheap metal and a useful ability for the common person.

Honestly, Steel Compounding is always a good choice and is for any of these. It may not always be the BEST choice, but it’s never really out of contention. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Mistchemist16

[Sky Breaker]

I think a-pewter and full feruchemist because pewter basically boosts everything including speed of body, speed of thought, healing especially for savants, energy, wakefulness, breath ( I’m pretty sure you don’t need as much air when you’re burning pewter), and warmth. It’s basically like second rate compounding for all but 8 attributes and actual compounding for muscle mass which lets you store more weight than you normally could. Plus I’ve always thought being a feruchemist would be better than being a mistborn because it just seems more everyday useful than being mistborn also you can make unlimited feruchemy medallions.

[alder24]

12 hours ago, IlstrawberrySeed said:

Unsealed: Making unsealed metalminds. 

Depending on how Excisor works, I believe you need to compound Nicrosil (to "copy" a power) and from WoB, feruchemical Duralumin is also necessary (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/122/#e3345). So you need to go A-nicrosil/Feruchemist.

[IlstrawberrySeed]

3 hours ago, alder24 said:

Depending on how Excisor works, I believe you need to compound Nicrosil (to "copy" a power) and from WoB, feruchemical Duralumin is also necessary (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/122/#e3345). So you need to go A-nicrosil/Feruchemist.

I menat unkeyed, my bad.

[Radium he/him]

On 2/27/2023 at 12:41 PM, IlstrawberrySeed said:

WoB confirmed that natrally born ferring/mistborn and minsting/fuerochemists can be born. What are the most useful halfborns?

I know this is a year old post, but can you link me to the WoB that states these halfborns can exist. 

I always thought it was one or all deal with the Metallic Arts. 

Hope you don't mind and thank you.

[alder24]

1 hour ago, Radium said:

I know this is a year old post, but can you link me to the WoB that states these halfborns can exist. 

I always thought it was one or all deal with the Metallic Arts. 

Hope you don't mind and thank you.

Here:

Spoiler

Doc_John

Hey, you've mentioned before that for the Lord Ruler to be able to be a Mistborn and a Feruchemist he had to alter his spiritweb in some way because a person can't normally hold all 32 powers. What about a Mistborn Ferring? Would it be possible for someone born with all 16 powers of Allomancy to also be born with a Ferring power? What about a Ferring Misting? Thanks

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible now, when it once wasn't, but would be very unlikely.

Doc_John

Just as getting a Mistborn nowadays is very unlikely but that hasn't stopped people from trying

Follow up, having past a certain number of medallions doesn't work currently in world. Is this because of this same issue? Or is it more of a technical hurdle with the medallion?

Brandon Sanderson

The core root is the same issue, but it's not insurmountable with technological improvements.

General Reddit 2020 (Aug. 13, 2020)

By Halfborn we mean a Mistbron + Ferring, or a Full Feruchemist + Misting combo. It's still one or all within each Metallic Art. But there are no Full Feruchemists or Mistborns because those genes are so diluted in the population. But it's possible for someone to be born like that.

Edited March 19 by alder24

[Colors]

I'd say Mistborn with F-steel. The only major downside in my opinion is you lack the healing the feruchemist has access to. 

[Radium he/him]

4 hours ago, alder24 said:

By Halfborn we mean a Mistbron + Ferring, or a Full Feruchemist + Misting combo. It's still one or all within each Metallic Art.

Ok that makes it clear to me, I just assumed that if you were a twinborn, you either had one of each or all. 

I had thought that being a Mistborn-Ferring or vise versa was just not able to happen

[Trusk'our he/him]

On 2/27/2023 at 11:41 AM, IlstrawberrySeed said:

WoB confirmed that natrally born ferring/mistborn and minsting/fuerochemists can be born. What are the most useful halfborns?

There really seems to be 4 categories: Direct combat, Support combat, General use, and Unkeyed Metalminds. (Please mention any others you can think of)

Combat has gold compounders pretty high, but I'd probably put bloodmakers above augurs. Augurs are probably about equal to pewterarms, durilium gnats, and steelrunners, with windwisperers and soulbearers (if I understand them correctly) being just behind. Worst is probably aluminum gnat, and second worst subsumer.

Support has Steelrunners and Sparkers at the top, with connectors possibly coming close depending on how it works. The worst are probably the best at direct combat not aforementioned.

General is tough. I believe subsumers have the best single metal for general use (easy to fill up metalminds for invested material, silver is a common alloy) but less necessary with compounding garentied.

Unkeyed metalminds have to be fuerochemists, or have medalian/hemalurgic f-aluminum. windwisperes are the best in the later case, but the former would probably be augurs or pewterarms.

As this topic has been resurrected, I hope it's alright to give my opinion. 

Before, I might have chosen a Full Feruchemist + Coinshot for combat ability, mobility(flight and speed), and even keeping a hand out for their allies and being able to make Unkeyed/Unsealed Metalminds for them.

However, Tapping physical speed makes your metals Burn faster, essentially Flaring them more powerfully than would normally possible. As such, a well prepared Mistborn + Steelrunner would have serious augmentations to all their Allomancy, plus super speed.

What's more, because A-pewter increases your physical speed, that can be Stored almost like a lesser form of Compounding, and by increasing your A-pewter's power when Tapping that extra speed, you gain more speed and a comparable level of protection from friction. 

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

16 hours ago, Trusk&#x27;our said:

As this topic has been resurrected, I hope it's alright to give my opinion. 

Before, I might have chosen a Full Feruchemist + Coinshot for combat ability, mobility(flight and speed), and even keeping a hand out for their allies and being able to make Unkeyed/Unsealed Metalminds for them.

However, Tapping physical speed makes your metals Burn faster, essentially Flaring them more powerfully than would normally possible. As such, a well prepared Mistborn + Steelrunner would have serious augmentations to all their Allomancy, plus super speed.

What's more, because A-pewter increases your physical speed, that can be Stored almost like a lesser form of Compounding, and by increasing your A-pewter's power when Tapping that extra speed, you gain more speed and a comparable level of protection from friction. 

It is so hard to not choose  full Feruchemist with A pewter for me as well. Super speed is fun and exciting but A pewter enhances all of your physical attributes.  

You get to store heightened proprioception into tin. 

You get to shake off some of the negative effects of storing health into gold.  

You get to compound strength minus the massive bulk that comes as a downside to F strength. 

You get to store more speed into steel while lessening the issues that you would feel with it. 

That is just the benefits of burning it to aid your feruchemy storage. Tapping it with any of these things will pseudo compound nearly every aspect of a pewter plus the ability to burn it faster, or slower, with steel. Its easy to think about tapping a few hundred % speed and doubling or tripling your pewtergains... but what if you just wanted it to be a really low and slow burn for some monotonous manual labor where you are paid by the hour?  You could extend out the use of that pewter by storing a bit of speed while burning it low and slow as well. 

.... 

As for a character that I really want to play?  

Warbreaker spoilers: 

Spoiler

A blind full feruchemist with A tin and a handful of biochromatic breath. 

You could compound all of the beneficial heightening bonus senses which would allow you to then store away the actual breaths as well and negate the aura. With a single bead of atium I would say you could even store youth while holding all of the breath and, while perhaps not gaining permanent agelessness while going around as a drab, you could keep on keeping on for a really really really long time. 

Being blind is just a flavor thing. 

I like the idea of Daredevil meets Vasher. 

 

[Trusk'our he/him]

57 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

It is so hard to not choose  full Feruchemist with A pewter for me as well. Super speed is fun and exciting but A pewter enhances all of your physical attributes.  

You get to store heightened proprioception into tin. 

You get to shake off some of the negative effects of storing health into gold.  

You get to compound strength minus the massive bulk that comes as a downside to F strength. 

You get to store more speed into steel while lessening the issues that you would feel with it. 

That is just the benefits of burning it to aid your feruchemy storage. Tapping it with any of these things will pseudo compound nearly every aspect of a pewter plus the ability to burn it faster, or slower, with steel. Its easy to think about tapping a few hundred % speed and doubling or tripling your pewtergains... but what if you just wanted it to be a really low and slow burn for some monotonous manual labor where you are paid by the hour?  You could extend out the use of that pewter by storing a bit of speed while burning it low and slow as well. 

Actually, in terms of pure combat ability and overall utilility, you're right, a Full Feruchemist + Pewterarm is better than Mistborn + Steelrunner; there's just more synergy there, including to F-pewter and F-gold.

Mistborn + Steelrunner combo does still have Ironpulling, Steelpushing, Leeching, and A-duralumin though, so there's definitely a tradeoff, but your combo has enough pros that I'd pick it over my original suggestion most of the time.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

19 minutes ago, Trusk&#x27;our said:

Actually, in terms of pure combat ability and overall utilility, you're right, a Full Feruchemist + Pewterarm is better than Mistborn + Steelrunner; there's just more synergy there, including to F-pewter and F-gold.

Mistborn + Steelrunner combo does still have Ironpulling, Steelpushing, Leeching, and A-duralumin though, so there's definitely a tradeoff, but your combo has enough pros that I'd pick it over my original suggestion most of the time.

The only think I really think it lacks is leeching. 

Depending on who you are fighting in the cosmere as a whole I think that A chromium may be one of, if not the single most, best powers in the possible tool kit. 

It's about aiding someone to stay dead.  But that is so insanely cosmere specific and further specific to only a tiny tiny % of possible opponents. 

Although it would come with other perks too right?  If fortune is more like a precog sort of buff it could be that either set of powers combined with double chromium could be the most busted thing in the cosmere. 

In the MAG it so happens that chromium simply grants rerolls which is awesome, however you want to flavor it... be it luck or a bonus to just feeling like something should be done this way vs that... it is extremely powerful and could make either choice dangerously effective.  

 

[+robardin he/him]

From the little we know, or see characters speculating, about how "unsealed metalminds" could be constructed, you don't even need Compounding except for leveraging up the generation of stored attributes instead of it being at the normal Feruchemist storage pace/cost.

A (full) Feruchemist could shunt off Identity by filling an aluminummind, fill a metalmind (say, a goldmind for health), and fill the Investiture for for that metal (e.g., F-gold to use a goldmind) into a nicrosilmind.

At the end of it, you'd have a goldmind/nicrosil ring medallion that anyone could tap for healing, if they knew that's what it was, at the cost of having to spend time recovering from the missing health you'd stored into the goldmind.

Given that, then, obviously the most powerful (useful to society) combo would be A-gold with full Feruchemy, eh?

Unless filling a nicrosilmind with a Feruchemical ability meant you lost that power (or its full use) until/unless you tapped it back, and one would need nicrosil Compounding in order to do the Excisor Trick (since we never found out about that)?

Edited April 2 by robardin