Gunbreaker vs. Dark Knight

[Absimiliard]

I am not really certain how people will react to this type of thread, but uh... Curiosity abounds as to what opinions this might draw out.

If we take a gunbreaker and a dark knight as we understand them to function in lore and place them in a 1v1 confrontation, which one is more likely to come out on top? We'll assume luck to play no part, equal skill in their respective disciplines and equipment between combatants, and a completely open battlefield.

I personally am a bit stumped by this question. I feel like a dark knight might have the edge in raw power, but my personal familiarity with guns and explosives makes it really difficult for me to make that assessment conclusively. I do feel that a gunbreaker would probably be much more agile than a dark knight.

[Edax]

I am not really certain how people will react to this type of thread, but uh... Curiosity abounds as to what opinions this might draw out.

If we take a gunbreaker and a dark knight as we understand them to function in lore and place them in a 1v1 confrontation, which one is more likely to come out on top? We'll assume luck to play no part, equal skill in their respective disciplines and equipment between combatants, and a completely open battlefield.

I personally am a bit stumped by this question. I feel like a dark knight might have the edge in raw power, but my personal familiarity with guns and explosives makes it really difficult for me to make that assessment conclusively. I do feel that a gunbreaker would probably be much more agile than a dark knight.

I guess lore wise the Dark Knight wears heavy armor and the Gunbreaker does not which would give the DRK a realistic advantage.

In real life, weapon range grants a huge advantage in a duel, so once again DRK gets an advantage as the Gunblade is shorter then the 2-handed weapon. The Gunblade does have some ranged capability with the explosive slashes it makes so I can't really tell whom has the true advantage in weapon range.

So if I apply what little I've learned from the show Deadliest Warrior, the DRK would have a slight advantage because of his lore armor.

[Cilia]

It would be a toss-up, in my opinion.

DRK has sturdier armor and better reach, but is considerably more sluggish. Its weapon and armor are both incredibly heavy, which would greatly hamper both mobility and attack speed. The "power of darkness" might be able to compensate somewhat, but it's low speed is still its weakness.

GNB has lighter armor and a shorter reach, but the higher speed could end up being key. Its weapon is also much faster, and its explosive force / vibroweapon capabilities, depending on just how powerful they are, could be used to cut through the DRK's armor like butter.

So... who knows?

[Absimiliard]

You've both pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The explosive force and vibrations produced by gunblades would probably shred any normal armor. And even should the dark knight have armor that will hold up, concussive force isn't the easiest thing in the world to stop. Just being bludgeoned by a hammer would cause catastrophic injury to a man in armor, so we can only guess at the sort of trauma one could expect from such powerful explosions being released in such close proximity. This is worsened when one considers that there really isn't anything stopping a gunbreaker from whipping out an actual sidearm with their free hand and just straight capping somebody. I believe there's even a gun holstered on their AF gear, isn't there? On the other hand, the way dark knights use aether so extensively in their attacks (not to mention how massive their weapons typically are) might actually give them the advantage in destructive power.

My thinking is that a gunbreaker could end the fight very quickly if they managed to avoid the dark knight's first strike and capitalize on the opening provided by swinging such a huge weapon around. I would argue that there are numerous means of countering this, but all such arguments are made exceptionally difficult by the sheer size and weight of the weapons dark knights wield. I will say, however, that it may not be so cut and dry if dark knight is capable of manipulating aether into configurations other than what we see in-game. The raw power of their aether-based skills could potentially turn them into a truly horrific opponent in the event that they are more versatile in story than what game mechanics show.

tl;dr: My opinion is that gunbreaker wins if it can get in fast and hit hard. Dark Knight's chances of winning begin to rise if the gunbreaker fails to take advantage of the first opening.

[Edax]

so we can only guess at the sort of trauma one could expect from such powerful explosions being released in such close proximity.

There may be a certain irony that the Gunbreaker with their trenchcoat may end up being more affected from the close ranged explosions then then one wearing the heavy metal armor. Even if parts of the armor are being degraded, that's metal shrapnel flying in every direction from the impacts, which a trenchcoat is not going to be able to stop. Understandably, the Gunbreaker is not terribly practical and is more heavily influenced by the "cool" factor. Metal is quite effective at deflecting blasts and protecting vital organs and the Gunbreaker job armor does possess some metal plates, however it leaves the most vital area unprotected: the head. Conversely the DRK job armor included a helmet.

[Absimiliard]

Good points

As you say, there is a lot of "rule of cool" in play with Gunbreaker. They would most likely kill themselves with their own attacks if not for healthy dose of suspension of disbelief. If not by shrapnel then certainly by getting caught up in the force of their own attacks. The explosions produced by their weapon are much too powerful for anyone to be that close and stay safe.

As for the dark knight's side of things: Armor was honestly pretty terrible at stopping concussive force beyond a certain threshold. This is why certain weapons became so heavily favored during the eras in which people wore metal armor. Weapons such as maces and hammers were exceedingly effective at slaying opponents whose entire bodies were clad in armor. Sometimes, depending on where a blow landed, the person in the armor might die with only minimal damage to the armor itself. That said, it seems reasonable to me to assume that a gunblade's shells would exert far more force than any mere bludgeoning weapon. The weapon itself may not be all that effective against armor due to its (generally) slim profile and light weight, but those are some pretty darned big explosions being set off right up against the Gunbreaker's unfortunate target.

[xJimmehx]

Bullets penetrate medieval armor. Id say a GNB would win 100% of the time so long as they manage to shoot the enemy in the head at the start. Traditionally, real life gunblades were kind of bad to use and were intended as guns foremost while being swords second. If you were shooting your enemies and you needed to reload you could melee a bit as a last resort if you were interrupted. Back then people had to shoot one bullet at a time and they poured powder into the gun similarly to a flintlock. It was later decided that gunblades were not as efficient as rifles with knives on the end of the barrel. Thus we ended up with bayonets.

Realistically, if one fought with a gun that was also a blade for close combat vs a man who held a 2h sword and heavy armor, the gun would make fast work of him. Now, if the dark knight was tossing around black magics theyd still die in one head shot so hed better cast faster than the gunner can pull the trigger.

If the GNB for some reason could not shoot the drk in the head or some other vital spot, I have no doubt that the drk would eat them alive. Drk has a lot of strength and protection from swords with the armour. GNB wears a flimsy coat. Even if the drk couldnt hit the gnb with the large slow greatsword, he could just plunge him, toss magic at him or just about anything. After all, the gnb has no real protection from any type of attack. A single unmend to the eyes would likely take his eyesight. Any other attack would be like a butcher chopping into a hanged meat.

[Absimiliard]

Yes

I don't think Gunbreaker gunblades can actually shoot. They work like Squall's did in FFVIII, as far as I'm aware. I.e. the trigger pull sets off an explosion that runs powerful vibrations down the blade. Now Garlean gunblades.. yeah, those can definitely shoot.

[Rayo]

Problem with that is that GNB's don't use the Garlean's Gunblade which are closer to traditional real life gunblades, they use the FF8 version of the Gunblade which can be best described as "causing the sword to fire an explosion at point blank and using the force of that recoil off that explosion to super heat and power slash your sword"
Not to mention DRK hits me as the kind of job that would have the user not just using dark magic, but running on it. As in the speed we see the DRK move their blade is only possible with magical assistance. And I imagine DRks are the only job that can up and ignore death until they finish what they started.

[Absimiliard]

Not to mention DRK hits me as the kind of job that would have the user not just using dark magic, but running on it. As in the speed we see the DRK move their blade is only possible with magical assistance. And I imagine DRks are the only job that can up and ignore death until they finish what they started.

I'm inclined to agree with you. And thinking about it, we actually do see them moving pretty quickly at times. Sidguru has even shown the ability to wield that big honking sword of his as if it were little more than a longsword at times. Unfortunately, this does conflict with their actual combat animations pretty heavily. If you watch them, it looks an awful lot like they are struggling to swing that sword at times. Lorewise, the job becomes significantly more dangerous if they're capable of fighting and moving in the ways we've seen in some cutscenes rather than being limited by SE's odd decision to make their combat animations seem like their sword is way too heavy for them.