Ran'ji > WoD + Oracle of Light + Scorn!?

[Edax]

The "Eulmoran army that has been fighting sin eaters for decades" is not a single person who has been training for that long. There is no guarantee that any one person who has been in the army over that time is stronger than Ran'jit is.

I'm not sure how you can even go about comparing them.

That also brings up a point, the Eulmoran army has been allied with the Sin Eaters for an entire generation, which means Ran'jit would have his combat experience eroded away for decades by peacetime.

[Alleo]

The problem with this line of logic is that the Eulmorean Army that has been fighting Sin Eaters for decades and thus should be stronger than Ran'ji. Instead none of the Eulmorean Army come close to Ran'ji, along with any in the Crystalium Army (also been fighting Sin Eaters for decades).

Also if he somehow can solo all of us (after we just took out a Lightwarden) why did he never fought against a Lightwarden? Was it common knowledge that the one that defeats it will turn into the next one so he never attemps it? Because if he is that strong..why not take out one of the leaders of the sin eaters?

My problem with such characters is: First we have to fight them in a battle where we normaly dont have much problems until the NPC uses his plotattack to take us down with one hit. If he is that more powerful then show it. Make it so that its really hard to not lose to him in maybe a minute. (At least it was nice that we were standing the longest thus showing how much better we were) Or if you dont want him to be that powerful then let those enemy use bad tricks. Not everyone has to play by the rules so why not have him use some unknown poison on us? Thus the next fight as Thancred, he is prepared against that.

I am just more annoyed how he seemingly always knew where we were. Even in the labyrinth in the woods..

[TankHunter678]

Also if he somehow can solo all of us (after we just took out a Lightwarden) why did he never fought against a Lightwarden? Was it common knowledge that the one that defeats it will turn into the next one so he never attemps it? Because if he is that strong..why not take out one of the leaders of the sin eaters?

My problem with such characters is: First we have to fight them in a battle where we normaly dont have much problems until the NPC uses his plotattack to take us down with one hit. If he is that more powerful then show it. Make it so that its really hard to not lose to him in maybe a minute. (At least it was nice that we were standing the longest thus showing how much better we were) Or if you dont want him to be that powerful then let those enemy use bad tricks. Not everyone has to play by the rules so why not have him use some unknown poison on us? Thus the next fight as Thancred, he is prepared against that.

I am just more annoyed how he seemingly always knew where we were. Even in the labyrinth in the woods..

All you have to do is look at Titania to see why he would consider not fighting a Lightwarden directly. Titania probably also fought a Lightwarden early in the war. Not to mention probably many other would be Heroes that Ran'jit fought alongside of against them. As well as probably the many Minfilias.

Anyways, Ran'jit explicitly mentions that he figured you out in that early fight when he immobilizes you. He is clearly a master monk of the strongest martial art on the first. He may not overpower us, as we were actually beating him in that first fight, but he was able to contest us. The other Scions with us at the time were simply not the best match for him, Thancred could but Thancred had spent a much longer time having to deal with Ran'jit then the rest that were with us. By the time we face him again we have figured out how to deal with his as some would see it "cheap shot". Then we just beat him like we would have at Laxan Loft.

He also, due to Vauthry, knew where each of the Lightwardens were and how to get to them. If there was only one path to get to the Lightwarden in Rak'tika then him knowing it is not that big of a surprise. He also has a familiar that could have been tracking us since it is not in every scene with him until he summons it.

[Zackneifein]

Ran'jit is the strongest individual of the First. The kind of guy that are Raubhan, Estinien, Gaius or Zenos in ours.

And to be honest, there is a large difference between our first fight against Zenos and Ran'jit.

Against Ran'jit, we could have probably stand up and fight again, we were temporarly disabled only. I mean we were probably surprised by his attack, and after that, when he use it against us, it's far less efficient.
Against Zenos, it's an absolute defeat.

I just find it funny that the only expansion to not do this is Heavensward, the one where we're supposed to be depowered and vulnerable.

Actually, it was only against Ascian that the loss of Hydaelyn's blessing is problematic. Midgardsormr explecitly say that it would not affect our strenght.

[Crushnight]

He refers to it as "Beast borne of mine own blood," which suggests it's some kind of hemomancy or something. I don't know if his black sclera and white irises are a side effect of however he got that power, or if he's been partially infused with Light or something.

The Klousia Huracan A rank touches on this they are a familiar born from their partner's aether this being also has sentience as can act independently to its owner as evidenced by the A rank existence while the person it was bound to had become a sin eater, this style of fighting seems to passed down through the generations Ran'jit's father is the owner of the A rank so both of them has this technique. It may have been Ran'jit's intention to train pass Minfilias in this way of fighting alas it was not meant to be thus his form of fighting is probably lost now.

[Sylve]

I would absolutely love for Ranjit to return.
Yeah, he knew what was going on in Eulmore and accepted it, But the moment I saw him fight me in the quest mentioned in the OP I wanted his job as a playable one.
A close to mid range melee caster wielding a scythe and a familiar would be absolutely amazing. Feels like it'd be a waste not to use such a great concept as a job.

[KaitoAsaha]

Personally I come to find that people let our feats go to their heads and forget how our blessing seems to work. It gets us out of trouble more times than not and makes the impossible possible against beings beyond mortal standards, but in legit fights against a mortal opponent who's just as skilled or experienced as us the blessing cannot be applied as it comes down to just being a matter of skill on skill. Ran'jit, Zenos, Raubhan and many more fall under this. As someone whose grown up watching badly dubbed martial films I loved Ran'jit being this much older, seasoned veteran that can give young upstarts a run for their money, and the fact that we go to another world and we're no longer the strongest doesn't seem that strange in the slightest, and it was good for as brief as it was. If the devs plan to keep him on as a villain then I hope there's more than meets the eye here. As some have mentioned Ran'jit is out of the ordinary, in both skill and features. And given what Eulmores diet consisted of maybe he's some kind of hybrid. So maybe down the lines we may face a metamorphosed and younger Ran'jit?

[TinyRedLeaf]

Yet, I don't understand how our story that when we rescue the Oracle of Light, met with the Scorn, and having Crystal Exarch near by, we still lose against Ran'ji in this such an upper hand situation!!?

I expected such grouses and, sure enough, here they are.

Firstly, I should point out that it is a fair question to ask. How is that a primal-slayer multiple times over could still be defeated by another mortal? How could there be any other person as powerful as, or even more powerful that Zenos, whom the WoL had defeated twice, in both Zeno's mortal and primal forms?

My first answer would be, why not? There will always be a higher mountain. And indeed, if there isn't some bigger, more challenging conflict to overcome, you wouldn't have a story to tell.

In short, story-telling will always take priority over game mechanics (which are, in any case, just tools for playing a game; any mortal who gets stabbed in the heart would still die instantly, regardless of many thousands of HP he has; it's only logical).

My second answer is more of a hypothesis, but please indulge me: I would suggest that we shouldn't forget that the WoL was fighting in a different world, a world where the flow of aether has been massively disrupted and brought to a standstill in many places. And this would presumably have an impact on the way he or she would fight.

Actually, this reminds me of a pet peeve of mine: I remain annoyed by how the story has conveniently forgotten about a premise it had set up from the very beginning, that the concentration of aether in Eorzea is higher than in any other part of Hydaelyn. I had wondered whether the thinning of aether — the farther we travel away from Eorzea — would weaken the WoL, or at least produce some kind of brief, physical symptom, but it hasn't. And that seems like a glaring omission to me.

I guess it's a matter of gameplay segregation from lore. Be that as it may, it's worth remembering that the WoL's first encounter with Ran'jit occurred fairly early in his journey into Novrandt. So, it's not hard to imagine that he had not yet fully acclimatised to the new conditions before he was forced to fight the Eulmoran general.

Even then, do note that the WoL was able to last several rounds against Ran'jit, before he was finally overpowered. When he first faced Zenos in Rhalgr's Reach, the WoL was KO'ed almost immediately. And this alone suggests that, while Ran'jit was very powerful, he too would probably not have been match for Zenos in his prime.

So, as you can see, there are ways to rationalise the apparent disparity between the WoL and Ran'jit in the early part of the story.

Ultimately, the WoL is just another mortal, albeit a very powerful one. He can be killed, especially when he's up against overwhelming odds. And, more pertinently, the WoL is far from omniscient. And so, he can still be caught off-guard by an unfamiliar enemy, fighting on unfamilar ground, and with an unfamiliar combat style.

I mean, even real-life top-performing athletes can flop at the most inexplicable moments, for seemingly trivial reasons like them not being in the right mood at the right time to deliver their best results.

It's only human.

And if even godlike individuals like the Amaurotines can make mistakes, what more a mere mortal like the WoL?

[Hazama999]

I know that the WoL is far, far from invincible, but we have one hell of a resume. I played through the MSQ, expecting to find some reason as to how this man could be so powerful... but whatever was shown to us, it felt rather limp. I'm not denying that there were reasons to support Ran'jit's strength, but to me, it felt he still needed to be supported with some degree of mental gymnastics in order to make it work.

It just felt like he was stronger than us because the story required him to be stronger than us. In short, plot armor.

[Theodric]

The story would be very dull if every enemy was cut down with minimal difficulty. As for 'plot armour', that goes both ways - some of the antagonists are clad in it at times yet the vast majority of major protagonist characters are also clad in it. Unless both are considered to be an issue then there's little point in debating the matter.