1) We are literally working on a S-Rank trick right now, RRBs.
RRBs are not an S-rank trick, though? An S-rank trick is like *the* shiny of an Essie. Even SC is not an S-rank trick, only made a "maybe" S-rank trick via exploiting FOOM, and its of growth type, and even then you still have to take care of stagnancy so its very helpful but not quite there. RRBs are nowhere near as good as FOOM, and I expect that a Jounin-tier Rune would be quite a bit above them in terms of potency based on the description provided for Paper vs 3D sealing and how much more potent its effects are (explosives example).
2) Runes are not portable. Jounin level Runes are (most likely) going to be too large to carry. Anything more than ~25kg is unworkable. That's only 10 L of granite. 0.01 m^3. This is based on the GS being TN ~100 and large enough be a hill, and TN ~5 Runes being the size of a dinner plate. So we can't use our new seal in the field.
I don't think we have reason to believe that there is a direct correlation between the size of a Rune and its DC, rather than bigger ones packing more chakra and thus more oomph, which the Great Seal needed? I might be wrong of course - could you provide a reference for such a claim?
On the smaller side of things, a typical dinner plate has a volume of around 123 cm^3. Given the typical density of granite (2.5g / cm^3), that is barely 0.3kg. Hardly anything unfeasible to carry. A massive Rune would get too unwieldy of course, but the smaller ones are hardly a burden. Besides, it depends what you are using them for. Say you wanted a Rune version of Monuments of the Thunder God, or a Rune version of the Fourfold Seal of Preservation? That doesn't need to portable to be extremely useful, and a Sealmaster can quickly prepare the ground they are fighting on (Skyslicers, Hyena fight). Home field advantage can be invaluable as well (like preparing the Rift exit/entrance).
3) Hazou can't spend on rerolls and invokes freely. He's FP limited right now. Assuming we only research one seal at a time (which, to be clear is a waste) and we devote all our FP to it, we only get 1 per update. So we would need to spend XP on buying FP to keep up with rerolls.
True. Large amounts of FP have an inherent cost to them, and would have to be purchased via XP. Still, if its just that, Jounin Runes are imo worth it.
Also potentially important is the fact that we don't lose all that many levels in PS while researching with SC. They can't SSA, but since only a third of Sealing value carries over, we only lose a third of its value. So with eff. 68 PS with Prime prep, we get to research as an eff. 60 PS Runesmith with every single one of our clones! I hope you see why that might be good.
Your whole plan ignores that Hazou can't research jounin runes and do necromancy at the same time. If we do that, we delay necromancy while pouring FP into this mythical jounin-level rune. I do not think you are considering the implications of a eff 68 vs an eff 59. They ain't that different.
Except the 7 Sealing levels that are part of said plan (which is necessary to get eff. PS 68) make project Necromancy a lot easier and give us a huge safety net for sealing research with SCs. Yes, we might have to choose between Necromancy and Jounin Rune depending on the timetables involved - but if we have that little time, won't we be grateful for those 7 levels of Sealing that come from the 1k XP detour when the alternative is Akatsuki gets Pain? think I am considering the implications of Jounin Runes quite fine. They are likely to be game changers and being able to research them in 3-4 months vs not being able to research them at all, are very, very different situations to be in.
You're modeling Hazou as fighting Akatsuki? Fine, one jounin rune instead of a high-chunin rune isn't going to be the difference there either. But this is a dumb situation to consider anyway. If we're fighting Akatsuki in the relevent time frame, we're fucked anyway.
Not directly, but the only enemies that pose a threat to us as a Leaf Clan Head with all the resources at our disposal, are S-rankers, yes. Being able to ward our Estate / Leaf with a huge ass S-rank defensive Rune, or providing a defensive Rune for Mari to use while fighting Essies to let her utilize her genjutsu to the fullest, are things that help. A lot. But slightly higher personal, Chuunin-level melee prowess? That is of no use in relevant scenarios, if an essie attacks us that will not let us survive a round. We will only start getting value out of levelling fundamentals once we hit SJ tiers, and that's a year out, not three months, so I propose we do that after making sure our PS is sufficient to research Jounin Runs, and thats just three months away.
We will have plenty of fights exploring the Rift, and 50Alt/49Ath/49Tai absolutely will matter there. Hazou can take on many fresh jounin at that statline.
And Jounin tier runes / several points of paper Sealing more for improvements in the meantime won't? Hazou is not alone, he has people like Mari and Yuno and strong Summons. He sucks as a direct fighter and will continue to suck as one relative to his XP-peers unless we spend a full year rectifying that. Those are the people that should actually fight while Hazou prepares the ground with his Sealing tricks and gives them useful Seals and Runes to act as power multipliers. Also, I don't think we finish necromancy within three months or the whole discussion is kinda moot, because thats not a useful amount of stats and we will have no means to survive the slightest Akatsuki encounter on that timer. 6-9 months out is what I find more realistic, and at that timetable getting useful PS levels gets us a lot more than higher but still chuunin combat prowess.
Remember, as I already pointed out, to continue growing Hazou has to fight. He has to do it every 1000 XP. These will not be Akatsuki level fights.
To avoid stagnancy modifiers he has to fight yes. Guess what, the entire detour I am proposing is 1k XP. That's one, single barrier. And fighting through clever and prepared use of your Seals/Runes is still fighting, last I checked.
There are relatively low cost ways to make him much better at combat. If his build is efficient, he will be at less risk during his unstagnation fights.
Yes, and in my perception investing 1k XP (a small amount all things considered) to make him go from an "Elite Jounin" Sealmaster to a "Jiraiya" Sealmaster, and from "Genin" Runesmith to "Jounin" Runesmith is one such way, and its superior to just putting that 1k XP into fundamentals. After that he hits a bit of a wall on Sealing though, so I am really not opposed to working on fundamentals for a full year afterwards or however long SJ-tier in them takes him. I don't disagree on principle that he needs to improve them and fast, I just believe that eff. PS 68 (and +few points of Sealing) are worth a lot more than you give them credit for.
...Damn. Runesmith sounds so cool, why isn't that the official term?
