Except... Stealth isn't doing nothing.
It's disengaging and forcing her to spend her own actions tracking us down or cede the initative to us, which we can then flip to set up the full FVM suite unopposed if she decides to concede.
I just don't get why this is in doubt? Especially since we know the number one weakness of Music cultivators are when they're getting set up, which is exactly the period she can use to close with us. (I have little doubt a dedicated Wind/Thunder facepuncher can threaten a target around a hundred yards away, and she only needs to interrupt us on the second round where she actually definitely reaches us and we have to start the FVM cycle fresh, if she has some ability to stop us from playing for even a moment)
Yeah, if she can interrupt the stealth attempt, that doesn't work--but that's a problem no matter what, because FVM getting interupted is a hell of a lot worse than just not being able to teleport into a shadow and vanish, because it means we've wasted a turn doing set up that we need to start from scratch.
FVM being interrupted is better than stealth attempt being interrupted, as we would have higher defences when she interrupts FVM and unless she uses a dispel (which we are good against) it will continue playing for 4 turns.
Stealth being interrupted means being dunked on with our defences down, and it means having used more qi to create that stealth too (12 vs 0).
Having Ling qi's own actions being forced to maintain stealth is no better than Chu Song being forced to chase her, and if she catches us her prize is better than our prize for distancing her, as we don't really win anything from that.
Are you kidding? Liling wrecked our Melody, we didn't have time to play it after the first round because she was in our face until we ran away and broke contact.
Meizhen just dispels our melody directly because she's overpowered too, and that's how she responds to it.
... Sun Liling managed to blow away FVM once (which is impossible now), but the second time couldn't dispel our Melody, and lost the fight against Meizhen once she had knocked us out because of it. She stabbed us in the chest, and it
didn't work. Sun Liling is a very good example of someone overpoweringly stronger than us not being able to do anything about it.
Three out of four our stealth beat Liling's perception with and without outside assistance. If it weren't for Fu Xiang Dhartri would have known where we went, but seeing as how at that point we had gotten to Snow Mom's we would have been safe. So it's safe to say our stealth is good I feel, even with Liling using her blood tracking arts. We can assume Chu Song doesn't have that level of tracking, because she didn't grow up in a hell jungle where keeping track of your prey was so important.
In honest speak, this means that we lost 3 stealth clashes out of 5 with no assistance with us having
really lucky rolls. That's not saying our stealth is good, sadly. Stealth has to be won each turn, and if it isn't won then she can get back to us while double running and we need to spend our main action re establishing it so we can't double run ourself.
Losing a stealth clash
once means a high chance of getting a Chu Song in our face and when our defences are down. Not only that, but:
Yes, don't take the old dice as representative.
All the dice have been reworked since then, be it combat or perception or stealth. Here is current Ling Qi's perception and Stealth:
Perception Wits 5 + Composure 5 + Passives 13 (AM 5, AE 5, EPC 3) + Buff 4 (discerning Gaze) =
27 dice.
Stealth: >
Low Light: Dex 7 + Stealth 6 + Speciality 1 + Passives 0 + Equip 4 (Robe 4) + Buff 2 (EPC 2) + Buff 5 (OWS)
3 autos (SCS)=
25 dice +
3 autos.
So, current Ling Qi, who couldn't track Shen Hu at all in the last fight and had to rely on him taking off his stealth, has fairly good chance of catching a Ling Qi with OwS on (27 dice vs 32.5 dice equivalent). For the record, in the last fight against Shen Hu, Shen Hu caught us with his spiritual offence of 29-35 +1 auto multiple times, when we had 47-55 dice for defence (so a bigger gap).
For each time Shen Hu caught us with his art, it's the equivalent, dice wise, of Chu Song being in melee with us when we have our defences down.
No, but every keep away action we succeed at, we get a little further, and once we get to the point where we can get set up without her punching us in the throat or otherwise stopping us from setting up to Traveller's End, we can actually get our territory together and come down on her like the wrath of god.
The whole point of my plan is to deny her the chance to get in our way, rather than assume that she doesn't as an axiom.
This is not how it works. Every time we fail, she is catching up. We can't double turn the turn we put stealth in, while she can. Stealth has to be checked every turns. We are expending a lot of ressources to re-establish stealth, and she is not expending those ressources to catch up.
It doesn't deny her anything because we'll fight her anyway in your plan, except that unless we take a pill we'll be weakened and she'll be stronger. And that's if your plan goes perfectly.
Shen Hu couldn't break our mist because we already had traveller's end up. Our mist was fully expressed, fully buffed. It is much easier for someone within striking distance of us, to just stop us fully expressing our mist before we can get it all out.
Sixiang can stop spiritual taunts sure. But we apparently need like, 3 rounds before we can fully express our mist into a self sustaining fog of doom. If Chu Song hits us before that, we have to start the melody all over again.
It's harder for someone to stop us playing than it is for someone to stop us stealthing. It doesn't matter if someone stops us playing, while if someone stops us in stealth while our defences are down, it matters.
The repercussions are not equal, here. Ling Qi won her fight against Heizui by literally forcing him to dispel her mist. It's
good for us.
[X] Plan Untethered
[x] Set up and Stick in
