Board Thread:The Heroes of Olympus/@comment-29729973-20170602033139/@comment-31636400-20170918022526

Zandris Hugal wrote: Ea225225 wrote:

Tier One: Thalia, Frank, Reyna

Tier Two: Jason, Percy, Annabeth

Tier Three: Piper, Hazel

Tier Four: Nico

Tier Last: Leo

Now, I agree Frank has a lot of potential. Apparently, he is one of those demigods who can become a top tier sword fighter just a couple weeks after swinging one for the first time, and with crappy instructors (and I thought Percy's rate of advancement was unrealistic. Wow, who needs training anymore)...That aside, potential is potential. Yes, weapons come very easily to him, but he is nowhere near Reyna and Thalia level yet. He isn't even on par with Percy and Jason. I highly doubt Frank would last a minute against Polybotes, much less defeat him in single combat.

As for Annabeth...I wish I could say she was on par with Percy and Jason. That was one of the things I liked about TLT movie - Annabeth was by clear margin better than Percy whenever no water was around. Unfortunately, in the books Percy surpassed her as early as TLT. In that book, Percy mentioned that his sparring sessions were exclusively 1 v 1's with Luke, as no one else could stand against him. When Luke turned traitor, Percy started sparring against entire cabins. In SoM, despite both Luke and Percy himself acknowledging his skills had rusted over the year, Percy easily beats the Apollo Cabin, and mentioned he should spar against the Athena Cabin for a challenge. The cabin at the time had 12 members. Annabeth was the best of the twelve, but that still shows a huge gap between her and Percy, one that she never overcame.

That being said, Annabeth is still the best warrior at Camp Half Blood after Percy and Jason (discounting Nico, we'll get to him later). It's just that Percy and Jason are a couple leagues ahead. Thus, having Hazel be on par with her shows extreme prodigy. Remember, Percy and Jason are demigods that beat Titans. Only 0.1% of Big Three demigods would ever have the potential to do that. Even the likes of Perseus, Bellerophon, and Theseus would assuredly die. Jason and Percy are not prodigies. They are anamolies. I doubt Hazel will ever be as good as they are with a sword, but there is no shame in that.

Piper. You would put Piper above Nico? Sure, Piper slashed some monsters to bits. And she took on a flock of Harpies in BoO. But these were all weaponless monsters. She honestly just needed to be able to dodge and swing her knife/sword quickly. And Periboia is not really much of a feat, as she was clearly a spoiled princess, and was the weakest of the Gigantes. Piper may be above average, but she is nowhere near top tier, and never will be.

Y'all are really underestimating Nico. Nico survived the Battle of Manhatten, which saw many demigods fall (the Ares Cabin even congratulated him). Hazel was pretty impressed with his skill level. He kept up with Reyna when fighting Lycaon and his wolves. And yes, the six Romans were running after Will. But once Nico tripped one, the others "all turned." They faced him head on. But Nico managed to beat them in ten seconds. Don't forget that Nico was at an all time low. Like I said above, his battle precog, speed, and energy were nigh depleted since they come from his divine side. A side which was threatening to fade. Yet Nico went on to fight at the front lines. This shows pure skill, as he was essentially mortal. Far above anything dear Piper has shown.

Oh, and you mentioned Piper taking on Earthborn? Nico did that too in HoH. Except with one hand, as his left was holding the scepter. And he was practically a walking skeleton due to his experience in Tartarus. In full out fighting, Frank would probably actually hold his own, if not defeat Polybotes because of his shapeshifting ability. However, if he couldn't use his shape shifting ability, he would probably not win. However, Frank will still hold his own. I agree that Frank probably isn't near Reyna or Thalia's swordfighting and he probably isn't on par with Percy or Jason either. However, he is close to being on par with them and has the potential to be even more skilled than them. While Frank isn't close to being more skilled than the above mentioned characters he advanced at an abonormal rate in swordfighting, a bit like Percy. While he didn't train probably he was able to defeat many of the extremely skilled demigods in the First and Second Cohorts. He also many managed to defeat hundreds of katobleps with a sword even though he had rarely used the weapon before. So I do agree that Frank isn't as skilled as Percy or Jason, I just want to make clear that he definitely is really close.

I do agree with you on Annabeth though. Annabeth is nowhere near as skilled as Percy or Jason. While in the beginning, Annabeth was able to best Percy, that was when he was still very inexperienced and he wasn't probably trained at the time. Percy's swordfighting lessons were with Luke one on one and by all means, Luke is much more skilled than Annabeth. Later, Percy started sparring against entire cabins and was actually able to thrash them without breaking a sweat. "Even weakened and just out of the pit, this guy was fast. He moved like a tornado, slashing so quickly I barely had time to dodge the strike before his spear impaled the rock where I'd been standing." Percy was able to hold his own against Iapetus, a titan by all means while having a critically injured shoulder and being exhausted from allowing Thalia and Nico cross the Lethe. "I raised my arms like I was lifting something over my head. My bad shoulder burned like lava, but I tried to ignore it. The river rose. It surged out of its banks, flowing up and then down again in a great arc-a raging black rainbow of water twenty feet high.. The riverbed in front of us turned to drying mud, a tunnel under the river just wide enough for two people to walk side by side." He did have Thalia and Nico helping him but they didn't actually do much. I doubt Annabeth could have even lasted a minute about Iapetus. And about Jason, he held his own against Percy at completely equal footing. It is unclear who will win at the end but Jason is definitely very close with Percy in swordfighting. "Piper rolled to the edge of the road and looked back, dazed and horrified, as Percy and Jason crossed swords, gold against bronze. Sparks flew. Their blades blurred-strike and parry-and the pavement trembled. The first exchange only lasted a second, but Piper couldn't believe the speed of their sword fighting." So yeah, Annabeth ISN'T NEAR as skilled as Percy or Jason. About Piper, I'm not sure about Piper vs Nico. While Nico's feats are more impressive, Piper was able to obtain really good feats with barely any training which is really impressive as well. But I have to admit, while I hugely dislike Piper, she is still a skilled fighter. Ea, however, I have to say that just because Hazel is Piper's mentor, that doesn't mean that she is more skilled than her as sometimes, the student can surpass the mentor. However, Hazel probably is more skilled than Piper. Zandris, I need to mention that I am NOT underestimating Nico. I didn't read the last part of Ea's post so I was only agreeing with him at the fact that Piper and Hazel should have been higher. I am fully aware of Nico's feats especially the more impressive ones. However, Nico did catch the six Romans by surprise. Catching someone by surprise means to surprise someone with something unexpected or, in battle, to attack someone who is unprepared for the attack. Wouldn't you agree that Nico attacked the Romans while they were unprepared for the attack Zandris? While Romans are well disciplined, and are prepared for most extensive circumstances, they cannot always be prepared for everything. The Romans will most certainly not be expecting Nico as they would have thought that Mike Kahale would have captured him. And while the Romans did, turn, it would have taken them some time to interpret the situation. I am sorry for all who think that I am a bit inconsistent because I said before I completely agree with him but now, I am saying I disagree with him on some aspects of the topic but I missed the last part of Ea's post.