Before I give my opinion on this, I must say that, for once, I'm impressed the tone of this discussion. Aside from a bit of verbal sparring with enemies (who can resist, really?), I think both sides have tried to put forward decent arguments, and the

re are points on both sides.

Having said that, I'm afraid I have to disagree with Blueskull and Orinoko on this one. Armageddon is a convergeable rit, and it seems to me that decision was intentional, and that the others were excluded because the Gods deemed that converging ever

ything would give the mage too much of an advantage.

The issue here isn't challenges, it's whether using these skills is legitimate, and I believe it is. Personally, the only reason I don't regularly use armageddon in challenges (Aside from lacking people to sketch) is that I wanted to learn how to suc

ceed without it, not because I don't think it's 'fair'. I certainly wouldn't use it a challenge against someone smaller, but I would use it otherwise if we hadn't agreed on not doing so.

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I have had few opportunities to participate in gem quests, but I recall being able to use my skills in these contests. I'm certainly not going to share how, but I can attest to Zakath's statement that the best fighters can sit in rits for ages withou

t taking any significant damage. Armageddon slows them a bit, but I'd had fights where someone didn't leave my rits for well over 10 minutes. Clearly, if someone can stay alive in rits that long it's not THAT overpowering. Yes, a mage in alkar with

deadening and armageddon is tough to beat. We get to this advantage in just ONE location in avalon. The downside is that in every other location we lose these skills that are supposedly so hard to defeat. What's more, as soon as we leave the locati

on we have to wait 10+ seconds to converge just our basic rituals to have a chance while an opponent--particularly a knight--can cause significant damage before the mage can do much. If the mage is too tough is this location I have yet to meet a comp

etent fighting who can't get out before the mage can finish them off. Even with armageddon converging, you can more anywhere else in avalon and heal completely before we have another shot at you. Yes, an aggressive mage will chase and finish you off

if you waited too long to get out. If not, you can VERY easily move/pill faster than the mage can converge and do significant damage. And if you can't heal faster than a mage can hit with respected swordplay or brilliance outside of their rits, the

n you have much bigger problems than Armageddon converging. In fact, most good knights LOVE it when a mage comes out of rits to try to finish them, since the tide shifts immediately back in their favor and they can rapidly go back on the offensive.

In short, it's a legitimate skill that we should be able to use anytime.

Written by my hand on the 30th of Paglost, in the year 1071.