How strong is the Warrior of Light?

[SentioftheHoukai]

If I were to make a comparison, WoL would be about the same as Lu Bu is in fiction. An immensely powerful fighter who can turn the tide of a fight almost single-handedly, but still mortal enough to be brought down through strategy, attrition, sheer numbers, or immense amounts of firepower.

WoL demonstrates blatantly superhuman ability even by the standards of the setting. They're able to catch a sword the size of an office building and deflect the blow off to the side. In the Monk questline their daily training regimen includes more than ten hours of continuous practice, including fighting forms, calisthenics, and shadow boxing that has the Fist of Rhalgr collapsed in a heap on the ground from exertion. They then proceed to sprint through the craggy Gyr Abanian wilderness and proceed to single-handedly beat the Corpse Brigade into submission and don't even look winded at the end of it all. Widargelt considers them the first of all living monks of the order and they unlocked all fourteen chakra when seven alone is supposed to grant you godly strength compared to a normal man. A sidequest in Garlemald has them move rubble heavy enough to require a team of men to lift to save a girl's mother according to a nearby Maelstrom officer. The end of the Warrior questline has them crowned the greatest practitioner of the warrior art alive, a title they keep even after Dorgono proceeds to knock grown Roegadyn men clear across the Wolves' Den with a single blow. Estinien also considers WoL his superior as a combatant. Estinien is fully capable of acts of enormous destruction like destroying the cannon of Castrum Abania with a single strike or disabling a prototype version of the new series of reverse-engineered Ultima Weapons that nearly brought Eorzea to its knees.

I'm not trying to say WoL is unstoppable or invincible or whatever, but they're very clearly exemplary among mortals and only a handful of characters can take WoL in a single fight that they're completely and utterly devoted to winning. That said, even WoL is wise enough to fear the wrath of an angry Manderville. Godbert and Julyan are clearly above every other character in the setting without question.

DO NOT PURSUE THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT

[Cleretic]

WoL demonstrates blatantly superhuman ability even by the standards of the setting. They're able to catch a sword the size of an office building and deflect the blow off to the side. In the Monk questline their daily training regimen includes more than ten hours of continuous practice, including fighting forms, calisthenics, and shadow boxing that has the Fist of Rhalgr collapsed in a heap on the ground from exertion. They then proceed to sprint through the craggy Gyr Abanian wilderness and proceed to single-handedly beat the Corpse Brigade into submission and don't even look winded at the end of it all. Widargelt considers them the first of all living monks of the order and they unlocked all fourteen chakra when seven alone is supposed to grant you godly strength compared to a normal man. A sidequest in Garlemald has them move rubble heavy enough to require a team of men to lift to save a girl's mother according to a nearby Maelstrom officer. The end of the Warrior questline has them crowned the greatest practitioner of the warrior art alive, a title they keep even after Dorgono proceeds to knock grown Roegadyn men clear across the Wolves' Den with a single blow. Estinien also considers WoL his superior as a combatant. Estinien is fully capable of acts of enormous destruction like destroying the cannon of Castrum Abania with a single strike or disabling a prototype version of the new series of reverse-engineered Ultima Weapons that nearly brought Eorzea to its knees.

I suppose the disagreements here are that, while you're looking at the WoL being considered the top of their field as 'clearly superhuman' along with a few of the feats of strength in-story, I actually think those things are probably within the theoretical ability of regular people in the setting. That doesn't mean it's easy, but the setting is clearly one of a fairly nuts power scale. Lu Bu ain't a bad comparison, but I'm not looking at it as if there's only one person of that scale.

Estinien might be a bit of a weird example, where his main feats aren't actually combat prowess but more just RAW DESTRUCTION. I'm not sure he needed a lot of combat prowess to smash that cannon.

[Carin-Eri]

I suppose the disagreements here are that, while you're looking at the WoL being considered the top of their field as 'clearly superhuman' along with a few of the feats of strength in-story, I actually think those things are probably within the theoretical ability of regular people in the setting. That doesn't mean it's easy, but the setting is clearly one of a fairly nuts power scale. Lu Bu ain't a bad comparison, but I'm not looking at it as if there's only one person of that scale.

Estinien might be a bit of a weird example, where his main feats aren't actually combat prowess but more just RAW DESTRUCTION. I'm not sure he needed a lot of combat prowess to smash that cannon.

Agreed. Estinien's tactics tend to be sort of 'limit break'-esq. By that I mean that he generally uses one, overwhelming, move to end things quickly. The already mentioned cannon being one obvious example, and his rescue of Mehvan's baby (assisted by Vrtra) being another. And Endsinger demonstrated how to counter said tactics.

[Vyrerus]

About as strong as a small pony, and that's rather strong, that is.

[AwesomeJr44]

However strong the current story needs us to be, and I'm not joking.

[Jandor]

I tend to think of my WoL as a sort of 'Captain Eorzea' in terms of strength. Among the best of the best when it comes to mortal fitness and fighting ability, with a knack for recruiting the right allies and coordinating them in the heat of battle, but not outright superhuman.

[Lustre]

WoL is the eorzean equivalent of a Strategic Nuclear Missile, you just point it at whatever and it ceases to exist

[RukoBoshi]

WoL is the eorzean equivalent of a Strategic Nuclear Missile, you just point it at whatever and it ceases to exist

If it doesn't work the first, you just keep doing it until does.
Worked pretty well with Zenos, Elidibus and Ranjit.

[ICountFrom0]

Quite a few of the most dramatic moments required there to be 8 total people, copies of ourselves from other worlds.

In terms of general power, if you strip away all the protections, all the borrowed power, we're one sliver more powerful then anybody else because we rejoined with Ardbert. If we can track down other fragments of ourselves from other worlds we might gain more.

[Korbei]

Quite a few of the most dramatic moments required there to be 8 total people, copies of ourselves from other worlds.

In terms of general power, if you strip away all the protections, all the borrowed power, we're one sliver more powerful then anybody else because we rejoined with Ardbert. If we can track down other fragments of ourselves from other worlds we might gain more.

This is wrong. Partially. Very few other characters residing on the Source are sundered. They're all entirely new life that has sprung up after the sundering. None of them have benefitted from the previous Rejoinings. They don't have other parts of their soul out there in the Rift. They're just 1/14th the aetheric density or whatever of the Ancients. The only exception I can currently think of is Fandaniel.

Those who were sundered and had been gaining strength via Rejoinings were mostly recruited by the Ascians and subsequently dispatched.