Mercy's Melee Miracle Tech

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

Technique Name: Path of the Body - Flow

Technique Class: 8

Technique Type: General Spiritual

Usable By: Anyone

Technique Element: None

Technique Cost: 10 reiatsu per post (Learned), 5 Reiatsu per post (Proficient), No Cost (Class 8 Standard) at Mastered.

Description: Around the world, Martial Arts and other physical combatants have been plagued by a critical weakness to those of superior spiritual standing. However, it really didn't take much time or effort for them to come up with an answer. This technique circulates the user's reiryoku through their body and any weapons they are holding, nullifying cutback.

How to Use: Channel Reiryoku through one's body and /or weapon. This doesn't require any finesse, concentration or skill to do this, and in fact some individuals may subconsciously use this technique entirely on accident without even realizing it through pure instinct.

Drawbacks: Takes up a Technique slot. Without some practice this CAN actually result in minimal drain, or significant drain if someone has very low energy reserves, however once one masters the ability of circulating the energy rather than just dumping it throughout their body, pretty much any individual can learn how to sustain this technique without any energy consumption whatsoever. Additionally, any Cutback-based techniques of sufficiently superior class will override this ability.
Costs 150 TTP to train per level.

Made By: Mercy

Reserved?: No.

[Leonie Dallmann]

Given how cheap C8 techs are to learn, I'm gonna ask that the TTP cost for this is either noticeably increased, or the Class itself is noticeably increased. While I do agree that cutback is problematic for physical builds (playing one myself), I won't disparate its importance to a spiritual character's aptitude in dealing with the aforementioned physical builds. Especially given that both Strength and Speed on their own are effective win-conditions.

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

Added TTP cost of 150 per level.

[Leonie Dallmann]

1/2!

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

Experiencing cutback can suck a lot but I still think there needs to be a limit here. There may be times when someone has a difference of like 800 points and this technique is basically saying that means nothing, but it's a Class 8 technique. Since cutback starts at a difference of 150, let's say something like this is only effective up until a stat difference of 400, and that's where the cutback starts instead, so like 400 becomes the new 150. This will still cover a good number of lower-Class characters but gives people with high spiritual builds a chance to still face off against high physical builds in that way.

[“Mizu Tsuraiko" Orina]

I would argue that this would have no such affect on high rank fights. Ultimately speaking, Cutback is primarily an annoyance. There are ways around it if you really want to be competetive, and in fact the fighting styles it encourages (grappling) in fact are FAR more dangerous for caster types to be subjected to anyway when facing a physical character. The only real accomplishment Cutback gives is to be a pain in the ass. It forces physical types into awkward fighting styles or into releasing. OR forces them to spend reiatsu they generally don't have to begin with to increase their sppr, which bee tee dubs, won't even be sufficient anyway because no fighter is going to have enough RS to significantly increase their Sppr to match a caster anyway.
Effectively, this just means that Fighters don't get to fight the way they'd like to outside of release or a technique.
Frankly, given the fact that the ONLY example of cutback we have is KENPACHI against ICHIGO (But did NOT have this issue against say, Kaname or Komamura, or any of the other individuals Kenpachi ever faced) would indicate that the difference would have to be incredibly vast for it to actually matter, and so why the baseline gauge for cutback, even if it were a good defensive mechanic, is so incredibly small as to be a mere 150 in the first place is beyond me.

The provided reasoning for the grading implies that the existence of cutback as a mechanic will meaningfully mitigate a physical fighter's ability to beat up a caster. That is not the case.
As such, I don't believe that in HIGH LEVEL, COMPETETIVE RP, that the efficacy of this technique will have any actual bearing on the results of a fight. If a physical fighter wants to beat your ass, they will. This technique will simply mean that they will be allowed to do so in the manner that might be more cool or anime-esque.

This technique requires considerable TP investment.
This technique requires a technique slot.
And ultimately, the primary benefit mechanically will be to low level characters who don't have a release, techniques, or sufficient auxillary tools/skill to get around cutback.

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

So I know we talked about this a bit on Discord but just so that my thoughts are made more verbal, I'll go through what made me come to this decision. Also, that decision is that the technique is "denied" because of the talk we already had about the compromise being rejected, which is fine, but then here are my reasons for the denial.

Cutback is not just a "Bleach" thing. It is used in a lot of different shows and media to show the extreme difference in strength from one person to another, which a lot of times is what leads them to change their fighting style slightly to account for people who expose that individual to cutback. It's about flexibility, and yes, sometimes it forces a physical fighter to release so that they can keep up with the spiritual fighter. There are going to be pros and cons to investing heavily any sort of way on this site. High spirituals means devastating cutback. High physicals means shockwaves and borderline invisible attacks due to higher speeds. High senses/instinct means they're practically psychic and able to predict just about anything. Each of these comes at a cost to other stats, but the benefits go to those who invest in them. I don't believe it's in fair play at all to create techniques that intentionally exclude these benefits simply because it's "a pain in the ass." That is not sufficient justification for any argument.

To dive into canon usage a bit more, using "canon" as an argument also isn't proper justification because while we do what we can to keep things close to canon, obviously not everything can be since we are an AU site. If things were exactly the same as canon, we would have zero custom orgs or even allow such a thing, and only a single member (likely number four) of the Espada would even be able to use Segunda Etapa. We would also never have anything custom at all, on that note, and everyone would be forced to play a character who had already been made in the canon series. We have made modifications over time to make this site more customizable and are still working on doing that since it is not restricted to only following what exists in the show and we do allow for more personal abilities based on individual creativity. So just because you only remember seeing it used a single time in a single fight in Bleach does not mean it isn't a viable drawback for investing heavily into high physicals or high senses. Everything comes with a cost.

You're right in saying that someone with high physicals can still beat up someone with high spirituals, and I've personally experienced this in Shizuka's fight against Celes. She packs a punch! Literally! And I've said before that cutback has not truly decided a fight. Helped? Sure. But not decided. It simply exists to assist in some way, when applicable. Same with the other benefits of investing heavily in the other stat groups. They exist to assist when applicable. In Camila versus Zeich, Camila was able to use cutback to render Zeich's arms useless, as in they were completely destroyed. Despite this, the fight was VERY close, and even Paste has admitted that. So it helped, but didn't decide the fight. Zeich still had a chance, but Camila had the upper hand due to her abilities and their mechanics.

Given this, I don't believe there needs to be a technique that blatantly disregards a site mechanic. Yes, we have techniques passed that are workarounds in some way. Col even mentioned to me already that he made one. But it's more of an indirect thing, not something that is clearly being used to negate a site mechanic simply because the player hates it.

Having a high TTP cost means nothing when the technique, at mastered, is free. It also means nothing when someone at Class 8 can use it. Training Tier can be difficult, but that's the point. If we got everything for free all the time and life was easy, video games wouldn't be fun.

Requiring a technique slot also means nothing in the long run. They can have the tech until they're a higher Class and then throw it away if they don't need it anymore.

Again, low level means low level. You have to grind in order to level up in literally everything. Our forum, though it is writing-based, is still essentially like a video game. What the character experiences in their early times builds them into who they are once they become more powerful. They learn how to deal with this stuff properly after having a bad experience. Leon got beaten up with cutback when he punched Shizuka and he's physically stronger than she is despite being a lower Class. It's all just a way to balance those who invest heavily in one group of stats over others.

So ultimately this is what I have, and I'm sure there are other thoughts I've had that I'm leaving out or forgetting, so I can always discuss further if you have any questions. But for now, this technique is denied. I'm not going to pass something like this now, and I won't pass something like this in the future. Please let the mechanics work the way they were intended. If we don't do that, then we might as well take away all the benefits for high investments in other stat groups and that isn't fair to the players who have a build to suit them.