Originally posted by Sinious
There are eras where the likes of Darth Malak can become a dark lord of the sith. That doesn't make them superior in power or skill though.
Malak became a Dark Lord of the Sith in a highly competitive era actually; when Malak's time came to prove his mettle and ability to lead a Sith Empire after Revan's fall, he was absolutely successful.
On Leviathan cruiser, when Revan, Bastilla Shan and Carth Onasi confronted Malak, they all failed to defeat him.
But Malak had greater plans; he began to harness the power of Star Forge to control it and fuel his own. Keep in mind that Star Forge is known to break individuals who are not strong enough to control it.
So I don't get the Malak sucks mentality at all. BioWare never projected Malak as a weak-sauce. Mr. Miller's ill-planned presentation of Malak in the comics did some damage which he is not proud of by the way. However, we can safely assume that Malak substantially grew in power with passage of time as he began to hone his talents in both martial aspects and dark side.
You know the name? Malak is the strongest of us, and the strongest always rules. (Yuthura Ban)
"When Revan fell we had hoped the Sith threat was ended. But Malak quickly assumed Revan's role, and has embraced the dark side power as fully as his old master ever did. Now Malak leads the Sith armada against the Republic. Hate and vengeance for his master's death draw Malak ever further down the path of the dark side, fueling his powers until they surpass those of his old master." (Vandar Tokare)
The ruling Dark Lord of the Sith is a master of the Dark Side of the Force. (KoTOR-CG)
In Knights of the Old Republic: Campaign Guide, Malak is identified as a powerful Force-user and his dueling stats are comparable to that of Exar Kun at the time of his reign as a Dark Lord of the Sith.
Greatest issue of TOR timeline is lack of ample literature on its characters. Star Wars authors are to blame.
Nonetheless, BioWare made good effort in creating useful literature for SWTOR. It the literature and lore that gives us perspective of power of characters of TOR timeline.
Originally posted by Sinious
Vitiate's DC purge feat is a vague one true, but there are so many other examples to his superiority. Both Nox and Vitiate have faced Revan. Vitiate literally stomped Revan with his FLS where Nox got stomped by Revan via TK. Do you think a Vitiate level force user would be sent flying like that by Revan? Now, I know that Revan had grown in power after the novel but I also know that there isnt a huge difference in power like between ROTJ Luke and DE Luke. Revan just got a bit more powerful overall and so it doesn't justify the huge performance difference between Nox and Vitiate against Revan.
I am not asserting that Vitiate's DC purge feat is a vague one or not a good example to cite. In-fact, it is arguably the greatest display of offensive power in single combat in the mythos thus far. Emperor is even promoted as the most powerful Force-user in galactic history in official literature, and the DC purge feat lends credibility to this promotion.
As for Revan's confrontation with an Imperial Strike Team, its details are vague at the moment. We don't know exactly who confronted Revan, we can only speculate about the Imperial agents sent to confront Revan on the Foundry. However, we can safely assume that those Imperial agents were really powerful and skilled and forced Revan to teleport from the Foundry.
Unfortunately, you cannot prove that Revan ever stomped Nox with his powers.
As for Revan growing in power after the events of Revan, this is also a speculation. SWTOR does not promotes Revan being at his prime in the era of Satele Shan, it would be a stretch to assume that Revan is at his prime after enduring 300 years of torture and internally fractured as a consequence.
In-fact, Revan's best performance is against Emperor Vitiate in which the Jedi Master managed to control himself while sent packing across the hall, resisted Emperor's powers for a while and momentarily overwhelmed Emperor on two occasions with his actions. Emperor Vitiate had never been pressed to this extent in history by any foe and this confrontation forced him to re-evaluate his defensive measures and strategies. It was after this confrontation that Emperor created Voices, Children, and Emperor's Wrath to increase his safeguard and expand his reach on galactic scale to observe his enemies and destroy them when they would plot against him.
Originally posted by Sinious
Also, in SOR Vitiate is stated to be above any other force user by a margin. Revan is definitely superior to Nox yet he doesn't even come close to Vitiate.
Emperor
is the most powerful Force-user in the galactic history. However, Nox seems to be catching-up with the giants of his era his own strategy for binding powerful ghosts to himself to fuel his power.
Nox's growth in power by virtue of his sorcery-oriented techniques is so fast that he dismissed a supremely powerful rival in a span of 3 years. The rival spend decades in honing his talents in the dark side and secure a position in the Dark Council, while Nox accomplished all this in a span of 3 years.
Never in the history before, a Sith have ascended to Dark Council in a span of just 3 years.
Originally posted by Sinious
Vitiate spent more than a millennium doing exactly that. Nox would be a fool to think he could challenge the Emperor.
Only time will tell.
Though Emperor Vitiate is stated to have explored the most sinister and uncharted depths of the dark side in official literature so it is possible that he have an answer for a threat like Nox. But only Emperor Vitiate have this luxury at the moment.
Originally posted by Sinious
That was far from Nox' prime so I don't see how it matters here.
I expected better argument from you at-least.
What exactly is Nox's prime? Nox grows in power by virtue of his sorcery-oriented techniques and actions, we do not have a measure of his so-called "prime" as a consequence.
"The powerful Darth Thanaton has made it clear he wants you dead. You've learned a ritual that will allow you to defend yourself against him - but you must steal the power of Sith apparitions to use it. The apparition on Taris is guarded by Jedi. Elios Maliss has suggested that you may be able to corrupt one of their Padawans - Ashara Zavros - into taking you to the ghost - who is also her ancient ancestor."
Taken from SWTOR
Sith Sorcery and Sciences are a gateway to levels of power which mortals can never hope to attain with their natural potential; this is the message that TOR era content and Darth Plagueis have conveyed. As an example, Emperor Vitiate was becoming like the Celestials by virtue of his sorcery-oriented actions.
Originally posted by Sinious
Yeah, an accolade from the S. Intelligence by itself isn't enough but Jadus has ale shown what he is capable of in several occasions. The only thing he is missing is a victory against another powerful force user.
Don't get me wrong, Jadus have impressive Force abilities and would be capable of defeating many foes. However, in contrast, Nox have actual history of defeating powerful foes including one of the strongest Dark Council members to have ever existed in history.
Originally posted by Sinious
Then why do you think the protag strike team failed to just stomp Malgus right away? Malgus was able to force choke 3 of them simultaneously and send them all back flying in the beginning of the fight. Nox clearly lacks the skill and experience to defeat beings like Malgus on his own let alone beings like Vitiate and Sidious.
Malgus became so powerful that even Sidious greatly admired him after learning about his history and command of the dark side, knowledge that proved beneficial to Sidious himself. However, Sidious was still open-minded enough to regard Malgus as "among" the best of the Emperor's followers. It is likely that Sidious had some idea of other powerhouses that co-existed with Malgus (excluding Emperor Vitiate).
Your evaluation of Nox is without basis unfortunately.
Originally posted by Sinious
We don't know how powerful a single ghost is though. Nothing suggests that the ghosts boosted Nox' power enough to be a challenge to top tier sith.
🙄
You are among the few sensible Star Wars fans left in this forum who don't troll and ridicule opposition, rather debate respectfully and I respect you. However, this argument, in particular, could not stop me from rolling my eyes.
Coming back to the point:-
Every Sith ghost is a powerful manifestation of the Force with the potential to influence materialistic realm, possess, harm or break mortal individuals.
Sith ghosts that resided inside the Dark Temple had broken and killed many trespassers in history. Only few managed to resist their influence and power; I am aware of Emperor Vitiate and Nox.
Nox binded the ghosts of Ergast and Andru from the Dark Temple. Ergast, in particular, gave Nox significant trouble and proved to be very difficult to properly possess and control.
Later on, Nox possessed the ghosts of Kalatosh Zavros and Horak-mul. The former was the ghost of a Jedi Master so it did not present much threat but the latter was a ghost of a powerful Sith Lord who became the right-hand of Ludo Kressh. Horak-mul was so strong that it took 5 elite assassins to subdue him in an ambush. Even in ghost form, Horak-mul proved to be very dangerous, with history of possessing and breaking many individuals. In-fact, Horak-mul allowed himself to be possessed after Nox completed a task for him.