Windrunner vs Skybreaker

[Qianweilian He/him]

Who would win in a fight?

[Steel Speedster ♂]

What it basically comes down to is that the Surge of Division is better than the Surge of Adhesion, at least in this specific scenario. Adhesion is most useful in tight spaces when you can really get your opponent stuck to things, but since both of them can fly, that will make it harder for Adhesion to be used. It's also possible that the Skybreaker might be able to just use Division to destroy the object they get lashed to and free themselves that way.

Windrunners do have access to Reverse Lashings, but against a Skybreaker who can also manipulate gravity, I don't think it would be very useful.

I have speculated that Skybreakers don't get a Shardblade until the Fifth Ideal, but we don't know for sure either way. If they don't, then that would give the Windrunner an advantage.

If it's a fight to the death, then it basically ends when one of them run out of Stormlight. The things that will use up Stormlight faster is using their Surges and healing wounds. This means that the winner will be whoever is more conservative with their abilities and/or inflicts more damage on their opponent. Shardblades would definitely be good at forcing your opponent to use a lot of Stormlight, and I would imagine that Division would as well.

Edited August 17, 2024 by Speeding Steelrunner

[Qianweilian He/him]

I suppose. Do we know if Skybreakers need to touch something to use Division on it?

[Steel Speedster ♂]

1 hour ago, Qianweilian said:

I suppose. Do we know if Skybreakers need to touch something to use Division on it?

Yes, I'm pretty sure they do. The one instance we've seen of Division did seem to, and it also would just be really overpowered if they could destroy things from a distance. Soulcasting works at a distance, but it seems to require a lot more force of will or something. Most other powers, including Adhesion, Gravitation, Abrasion, Progression, and Cohesion all require touch, so I would assume the same for Divison.

[bmcclure7]

On 8/17/2024 at 7:34 AM, Qianweilian said:

I suppose. Do we know if Skybreakers need to touch something to use Division on it?

 

On 8/17/2024 at 9:20 AM, Speeding Steelrunner said:

Yes, I'm pretty sure they do. The one instance we've seen of Division did seem to, and it also would just be really overpowered if they could destroy things from a distance. Soulcasting works at a distance, but it seems to require a lot more force of will or something. Most other powers, including Adhesion, Gravitation, Abrasion, Progression, and Cohesion all require touch, so I would assume the same for Divison.

Isn’t there official artwork that the pick sky breaker using division from a distance?

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

In a "fair" duel to the death, I would say skybreakers all day every day, but...I cannot imagine a scenario where a windrunner would both want and need to fight a skybreaker 1-on-1 with no capacity for retreat and, historically, it seems like there has almost always been more windrunners and squires than any other order can shake a stick at.

So...I'm voting Windrunners because, if it came to a fight to the death, they would definitely either retreat and regroup, or else bring everything they have and, except during the first 5 stormlight books, that should always be far more in aggregate distributed total than the skybreakers, even if (big if) someone managed to marshal them all together perfectly.

[Qianweilian He/him]

Now I'm imagining the Skybreaker summoning his shardblade and then a highstorm approaching with hundreds of windrunner squires riding it. The horde comes...

[alder24]

37 minutes ago, hwiles said:

In a "fair" duel to the death, I would say skybreakers all day every day, but...I cannot imagine a scenario where a windrunner would both want and need to fight a skybreaker 1-on-1 with no capacity for retreat and, historically, it seems like there has almost always been more windrunners and squires than any other order can shake a stick at.

So...I'm voting Windrunners because, if it came to a fight to the death, they would definitely either retreat and regroup, or else bring everything they have and, except during the first 5 stormlight books, that should always be far more in aggregate distributed total than the skybreakers, even if (big if) someone managed to marshal them all together perfectly.

Windrunners picked up Shanay-Im tactics and are fighting one-on-one, so numbers are irrelevant. The assumption is a one-on-one fight anyway. A Radiant that retreats loses the fight, so personally for me it doesn't matter if it's to the death or to first blood, a Skybreaker will win.