In my defense, Summit is the superlative scout. She can rush ahead, spot magical forces very quickly, is tough enough to weather blows, and can rush back with info in a heartbeat. There was no reason not to call in help for Herokiller Mica or Val-Kroppi. Summit was less bailed out than participating in a group effort.
First Starlancer encounter was mean, but I recall that there were tricky ways to beat Oversoul Priad and the first Juggernaut encounter. (In fact, Headhunters had a tricky way. A dead simple tricky way that still had a bit of panic involved until someone pointed out how to sink Re-class...)
Don't worry I am not blaming you at all, just pointing out Summit was often outclassed when on her own.
Also, that changed. Of all the enemies we faced only the Goddesses and their minions are still beyond us and frankly they should never have been our problem in the first place. Val-Kroppi was more of an inconveniently elusive enemy menacing our allies, than a real threat to Summit.
In fact, nowadays conventional combat no longer poses an issue for Summit. Instead, it's those special snowflake tricks that need to be worked around, that give her pause.
Although mind you, the one time Summit actually bothered to do her intended role as a scout properly she got ganked by Goddess Grey, repeatedly.
[] [EXP] Plan Protection Paramount (1910 EXP)
-[] Upgrade Aegis Field from level 25 to level 30 (1350 EXP)
-[] Purchase Formidable Defenses (210 EXP)
-[] Purchase Devour Magic (350 EXP)
[] [EXP] Plan Wave Force Supreme (2105 EXP)
-[] Upgrade Twisted Paths from level 13 to level 15 (270 EXP)
-[] Purchase Standing Wave (245 EXP)
-[] Upgrade Wave Force from level 20 to level 25 (1100 EXP)
-[] Purchase Intense Wave (490 EXP)
Prayer of Blades
-Summit may Negate or Intercept attacks against allies she can reach as a free action. Boost damage for Intercepts made this way by +400%.
As a general rule "Pinching" space with Elsewhere does about half the damage of Summit's weapon and takes much longer to focus. Ex. Summit could carefully mess with space so that a demon's heart can't push blood around and wait for it to pass out, or she could break every one of it's bones by Shifting next to it and giving it a good wallop. Things that are too tough to be hurt by a half-strength attack (600 Resilience, 1200 MM, percentage-based DR, other form of defenses...) are functionally immune to having their insides fucked with in this manner (so use the surroundings instead).
Given the description given in the quote above, I am unsure that Summit can use pure spatial warping as a base form of Intercept as granted by Prayer of Blades, even though she gained Twisted Paths and can use spatial warping much more liberally than before. Can she, Kelllogo?
Which is a damn pity, because the idea of any mook attacker within Summit's spatial warping range (currently 130m for Halting-Elsewhere) eating an effectively 4000 damage (800 Base, +3200 Prayer of Blades) Intercept out of nowhere tickles my amusement quite a lot.
On a different note I think Summit can be well positioned to develop Space Affinity sometime in the far-off future (thirty to fifty years down the line). And it is a damn pity it is so far off and the second battle of Hope so close because I definitely don't think Summit can develop spacewarping-based effects for herself in the time remaining, and they are potent:
My attacks no longer strike flesh and armor, but instead cut apart the space that those happen to occupy. This is however dangerous, I dare not use this technique carelessly.
Summit gains Unstoppable (melee only) as a Panoply ability.
I have known how to force the space around me to be somewhat tangled and clumped to achieve Halting. I have now managed to focus and Stabilize the effect to make it more potent and affect even attempts to move in normal manner. Now, the space itself will become a morass you have to wade through, and if I focus on the target, I can make them stop, completely, for there is no longer any give in the space around them.
Summit gains a spell with Lockdown/Total Lockdown as an effect, with a side effect of making target mostly immune to damage for the duration.
Summit also gains an ability that penalizes enemy movement related abilities and APT spending in the area affected by Halting. (Double all enemy APT costs. Effects that sacrifice all actions for the turn cannot be activated on consecutive turns. Reduce the effectiveness of enemy movement-related abilities by (level of Twisted Paths)%).
I have come to realize that my ability to warp space, to affect it, is rarely interfered with by whatever happens to occupy the space. And so most barriers don't offer any cover or protection from it. I harnessed this effect for my attacks, striking not through the air between me and my target, but striking at the space my target occupies directly.
Summit gains Omnipresent as a Panoply ability.
It can be really, really hard to evade my attacks once I am zeroed in on someone. I know where you are and can ensure that any attack I launch will land a hit while I can sense you in my spatial perception.
Attacks against targets affected by Mark are considered Undodgeable (if not Unblockable).
Hmmm. Yeah, I think these are all the ideas I have for space warping based tricks. Unstoppable, Omnipresent, Lockdown, conditional Undodgeable, and a movement debuff aura effect as a side effect of Halting.
EDIT - Well, there is also the idea that Summit can learn to inflict Reality-Rending Force stacks with her basic attacks, but this is also very much overpowered and post-quest content. Also related to space warping since RRF is inflicted by Wave Force which is a culmination of those.
And may require the target to already have at least one stack.
--this is either Ability Trigger: RRF (because hitting with Wave Force to make target gain a stack is a conditional) or Boost Stack: RRF (because obviously it boosts the number of stacks on the target).
--Actually Ability Trigger:RRF is the more powerful effect because RRF is a doubly conditional ability: (1) If the target is hit by Wave Force, they gain a stack of RRF; (2) If the target is hit by a Discovery-based attack, they suffer additional +75% bonus damage per stack of RRF. Ability Trigger would both inflict an additional stack of RRF on any attack, AND inflict bonus damage if the attack is not Discovery-based.
And it only now dawned on me that Summit's Tool-Assisted Spellcasting automatically makes all of her spells have Discovery Affinity and trigger the damage boost from the Reality-Rending Force.
Summit at the end of Book 2 has officially reached the old benchmarks reserved for Big Leagues, and is capable of casually dealing 153k in Melee, and 320k damage in Range, as burst damage. The values can snowball dramatically should she have opportunity to use Slayer, pre-charge Laser, or chain attacks together with Ray. She is, however, reaching the end of the line for her damage snowballing.
Her best and biggest upgrade is getting Panoply 50 and SuperSlayer. Expected damage in Melee would jump from current casual value of 81k to 774k, which with knock-on effects of Slayer and the Flurry exploit makes Summit utterly lethal in close combat. At range, Summit has Rain of Light competing in a similar niche to SuperSlayer and the end result goes from 320k to 669k.
Then come the training-based upgrades, namely getting Bullet Hell for Ranged combat, and Blitz and later Full Combo for Melee Combat.
The only one of these upgrades I truly endorse is Bullet Hell, as it improves values as is, and with SS50, to 534,000 and 1,111,600 respectively. Or if we calculate it without boost from Anti-Air or Heavy Caliber, to 111,600 and 186,000 respectively.
Overall, I believe Summit will benefit more from expanding her repertoire of tricks (when it comes to training actions) than from tripling down on damage output.
I seem to be yearning to share some thoughts about Summit and her future progression so here goes.
Disclaimer: this is a personal opinion that does not reflect the intentions of QM and the beliefs of the Workshop. Take it with a grain of salt.
PREFACE: On combatants and combat archetypes
There exist a lot of combatants and combat styles in CMGQ and UtOS, and in detail they may vary immensely and notably. However, I do believe most of them will take on traits of one or more combat archetypes. They are as following:
1) Power Archetype - reliance on Big Numbers
2) Speed/Skill Archetype - reliance on active interference to disrupt enemy plans and dictate the flow of battle
3) Ability Archetype - reliance on Abilities to fundamentally alter how the flow of battle go
Do note that the truly fearsome and successful combatants in the setting incorporate more than one of these archetypes to reach their level. That said we will not examine the archetypes closer.
Power Archetype
This is the most easily quantifiable and simple of archetypes. It relies on Big Numbers to bring victory. There exists a really old but still viable quote that Big Leagues require the person to be able to reach 80,000 damage, and that Really Big Leagues have a prerequisite of being able to casually throw around 150,000 damage. That is true, and you only need to take a good look on some of the setting's powerhouses like Grand Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Michael or Goddess White to see why it is so. For Summit and her opponents, well the last time she fought someone seriously they had 650k health. How do you intend to kill someone like that if you only do at most 10k damage?
What this archetype prefers to omit is that for every person who boasts they can kill you with a single strike... there will exist someone who pedantically points out that it's only true if the attack lands true. Those who are Unskilled but Strong, who rely on power to the exclusion of everything else, will find themselves unable to land a hit or otherwise with their power made irrelevant. In UtOS this was the end of Oversoul Priad, who was rendered immobile and then dead in short order.
On the flipside, those who cannot muster sufficient power to defeat their enemy will one day find themselves ineffectually struggling to make a difference and failing.
How it pertains to Summit: Summit has struggled with mustering sufficient power for years, but as of the end of Book 2 she has truly grown into the powerhouse capable of fighting some of the best that enemy has to offer and winning, if she can land a proper hit.
Speed/Skill Archetype
Something of a composite, this archetype relies on ability to dictate the flow of battle through deceptively simple means of parrying strong enemy blows, dodging deadly spells, repositioning faster than enemy can react and striking before they are ready. Truly gifted combatants can often defeat opponents with raw power immensely greater than theirs. Suffice it to say that Sumire Saber, who otherwise does not demonstrate the overwhelming power almost expected of veteran magical girls, is a member of Top Twenty and someone who plays merry hell with Summit and her bag of tricks.
Of course, all the skill in the world can at times fail the user. In UtOS that is what happened to Nightmare of Thomas, who died to a single opening she was forced to present to Summit.
This is arguably the most difficult archetype to write well, because it is so deeply rooted in narrative and lacks many of the cue cards other archetypes have.
How it pertains to Summit: with her high level of flight, teleportation, and potentially very high number of attacks per turn, Summit is often the one who forces enemies to experience this. However when she meets someone better, she often struggles - like she did against Juggernaut Drive who was both faster and capable of much greater skill-based bullshit despite only her Divinity Affinity bolstering her capabilities in that particular panoply-noodle incident.
Ability Archetype
The broadest and most variable, this archetype encompasses any and all Abilities that specifically change the flow of battle, that break the established rules-by-default in some way.
Take Starlancer, for example. Her Defensive Roll and Mana-Forged Armaments bolster her health, offense and defense - but they hardly change how a given battle will go beyond determining how lopsided the difference in strength will be. Contrast it with any and all Greater Nightmares, whose False Existence makes them very nearly unkillable save for very specific opponents and effects. Listed Abilities of Starlancer are not examples that fit the Ability Archetype. False Existence however, fits.
To be fair to Starlancer, her Punch-Through spear is exactly the type of ability that fits the necessary criteria.
To fulfill the criteria the ability must have a notable impact on what tactics and methodologies work against the character, or give them options beyond hitting hard. Some abilities like those of Goddess White and Red Rose make raw power of their opponents irrelevant, be it by ignoring their strongest attacks or killing them with a single blow.
How it pertains to Summit: Summit can, to an extent, dial-a-solution to most ordinary opponents via Protean. She can also take much more punishment than could be expected, and has her spatial manipulation.
On Goddess Gold
If we examine The Strongest Magical Girl, we will see how truly suited she is to being such. Her raw destructive power is immense and skillfully wielded, she has reflexes so fast that few can hope to get a drop on her, she is immune to the majority of enemy tricks - and she has multiple ways to shut down enemy abilities, making her own advantages all the more applicable. Her spells are both Instant Wins when she can apply them to her opponent.
She is the gold standard on how to make a character sheet both simple and supremely powerful.
Chapter 1. Summit and the path to Unlimited Power
Summit is already plenty strong. So long as Summit is allowed to play to her strengths, allowed to fly and teleport around the battlefield, allowed to strike targets from afar, her burst damage in combat can and will exceed 150k in melee and 300k at range, letting her destroy opponents with impunity and efficiency. It is only when she meets an opponent that counters her advantages that we may need to step in.
Does Summit need more raw power?
I would probably say "No".
She is already strong enough that most opponents will die with a single blow. Especially those who counter her with gimmicks since their power is less likely to be great. The caveat of needing to actually land a hit, however, applies still.
It is for that reason I am reluctant to upgrade the abilities that do nothing but raise her damage output. In Summit's case, having a better toolbox is more advantageous. If she does need more damage output, Laser is probably a very good option for her. It has been hinted that she could improve it to interact better with multi-hit effects like Rain of Light, and it already interacts well with damage multipliers, Slayer abilities and abilities that increase number of her offensive strings. For ranged attacks specifically she may instead use Ray that interacts favorably with all of those already.
It should also be noted that for opponents lacking overwhelming defense or instantaneous regeneration, Rend may spell their death from a single hit they let through. Or if their defenses are particularly lacking, Shred can force an auto-kill by treating their resilience as a secondary pseudo health track.
The primary reason to get SuperSlayer is not to improve damage (that is a secondary reason) but to always be able to bypass most defensive measures of enemy.
Chapter 2. Summit and the Need for Speed
Well. It always took dedicated effort, considerable bullshit or endangered friendlies to make Summit stay put when she did not want to be there. Problem is, anyone genuinely capable of this is never someone to fight on their terms. This is especially evident with UtOS Juggernaut Drive and Goddess Grey, and to lesser extent Sumire Saber, Nightmare of Night Sky and Nightmare of Thomas. Also these opponents are far, far too likely to have the False version of High Speed Combat so even leveling Flight is not guaranteed to help.
Summit is too well known to allow her to fly free when you confront her. Her flight, teleportation and spellcasting Wave Force are the three advantages most likely to be targeted.
Chapter 3. Summit and the Quest for Powerups
Overall, Summit would probably benefit the most from expanding her list of options. Sadly, her affinities (Discovery, Protection, Implacable) are not oriented offensively or destructively. Even Peerless Explorer and (in the future) SuperSlayer can be considered the extent to which Summit's themes can accommodate offensive focus. Well, barring Wave Force, though that can still be considered a refinement of previous discoveries.
Conversely, her affinities strongly accommodate the need to keep Summit alive, and to have Summit as a protector. To be honest I feel that Summit has a somewhat excessive number of defensive abilities and an unfortunate lack of abilities that would make her stronger in presence of allies. Though abilities like that can be overpowered.
