I want damage that sticks. Yes, damage itself is likely to be done via explosive tags (lots of them), but the main idea is to have damage that sticks. Also, spirit damaging charms should be helpful (OOC) against Edo zombies, whose toughness is regeneration based.
Edo zombies are unlikely to be our responsibility.
Besides, the Dead are labeled creatures of Darkness, which means Holy attacks deal aggravated damage.
And Solars have tons of ways to deal Holy damage.
Gaara's defenses...honestly Perfect attacks are marginal. Less skilled ninjas can hit him through the sand parry, we could onslaught through. He's much more of a soak monster than anything else.
This.
We need to be considering ways to get past the soak as much as the Hardness.
Which is why I'm such a fan of Spirit Weapons + Sun-Sword Concentration; we get the Piercing tag from the chiaroscuro weapon option, then stack another -4 soak from Sun-Sword Concentration's [P]tag, for a total of -8 soak.
To a point, but it's worth noting that by default he doesn't start out using his Sand Armour; it takes up too much chakra. Whether or not that'll apply against us depends on how he judges our threat level, but it's at least possible he won't start off with it- and either way, making him use it is a good way to wear down his chakra levels.
We kicked the everloving shit out of Temari and broke her jaw in front of every other contestant in the exam.
And say what you will, he had a healthy respect for Temari's skill in canon; he hazed her less than Kankuro.
Furthermore, we're Lee's teammate.
I think you underestimate our perceived threat level.
Which would be like Tenten, because she doesn't socialize enough to understand how her performance would have been perceived.
Sand armor - Soak/Hardness based. Protects against attacks he's not aware of as long as it's active, but he doesn't invest a great deal into it by default, since the thicker the sand the less he's able to see and act. When fully invested, it grants enough soak for him to ignore any attack less damaging than Chidori or other similarly hard hitting techniques.
Sun-Sword Concentration: E2, Melee 3,Hungry Tiger Technique.Martial-Ready: Archery, Martial Arts, Thrown. Add Piercing tag. Ignore Hardness.
1m cost.
If it's Hardness, we can obviate it pretty damn quick.
Soak would be harder.
Seeing that Tenten prefers a lot of weaker attacks to a single strong one maybe we could just ping him to death? Can we deal Overwhelming style damage?
Fiery Solar Chakram increases the Overwhelming damage of our Spirit Weapons to 3.
Or you could simply spam Fire and Stones Strike, but that's more mote-expensive.
Though more seriously, the classic application of explosive tags work poorly on sand armor, which is very nearly the best way to stop explosive tags since they have to be spaced out a certain amount....without stunts.
This.
I do wonder if explosive tags would work with Melee damage boosters, but who knows.
I reckon we can get one hit in before he tightens his defenses, then stunt an overpressure attack( equidistant explosive tags taking advantage of his heavier armor reducing mobility to crush him from all directions at once) to crack the armor, then either Melee charms or the Thrown crippling attacks while hes open....going to need to switch it around a lot, since you can't repeat stunts.
Nah.
You open with Joint-Wounding Attack for 2m to apply Crippling effects to his physical pool and DVs; it's Martial-Ready, so it applies to all combat abilities.
Then you use Iron Raptor[2m or 4m] + Hungry Tiger[1m] + Fiery Solar Chakram + Sun-Sword Concentration[1m] on him to deal Overwhelming damage + automatic knockdown that ignores his hardness from ~20 yards away at a cost of 4-6m per hit. Add One Weapon Two Blows[3m] to double that damage.
If his armor remains that much of an issue, you go for a shonen power-up of
Molten Sun-Blade[E3,Melee 4, Sun-Sword Concentration. Strips 4 Soak from armor per use for 3m]. I am very much an advocate of saving XP for mid-exam/invasion flexibility for the ability to pick up a charm or two mid-event.
I'm just not how sure what priority we should put on Infinite(Ability)Mastery right now, as opposed to going for the more esoteric charms.
And we should probably look at some of the Athletics mobility charms to enhance our ability to dictate the range of engagement, especially since Gai gives a discount.
