Legend (quote function not working):
My argument is that you tend to discredit Vitiate's raw power by attributing his effectiveness to the environment around him.
It certainly played a role, yes. Do you actually have a reason to ignore the nexus beyond your own say-so?
The fact of the matter is that Vitiate had a powerful dark side nexus on his side, and still only defeated Revan when he took several seconds to gather his energy. It's not very convincing when he has to face a combatant with significantly superior speed and close quarters feats, who has himself pulled off feats of the Force Vitiate never has, and has a particular accolade that vaults him above Vitiate - but you dismiss just because you don't like it.
Revan is commonly assumed to be approaching Yoda-level strength as of his Reborn story arc.
Lmfao, based on what? Revan never TK'd droid control ships, nor did he ever match blades with "the most powerful sith lord in history", nor did he casually evade lightsaber strikes from three legendary swordsmen while barely moving in place.
Note that vague aphorisms about being "beyond light and dark" or being one of the most powerful to his time doesn't do anything to explain to us how he's Yoda's level. Can you present us with some substantive analysis beyond that?
Dromund Kaas was somewhat strong in the Dark Side before but not a nexus environment on the whole. Vitiate corrupted its environment further, to the extent that notions of day and night became irrelevant, natural threats intensified (i.e. storms occurred more frequently and flora and fauna became more dangerous) and the entire planet became unusually strong in the Dark Side. More importantly, these shifts were permanent.
You're missing the important point; whether the nexus was created by Vitiate doesn't change the fact that he benefited from said nexus during his fight against Revan. The benefit is important to consider because, though he may be good with sorcery, he's not going to be able to create a nexus in the middle of a fight. Ergo, we cannot just say he's going to be able to do everything he did in the Revan novel.
Therefore, Vitiate's ability to alter an environment dwarfs that of Darth Plagueis in both scale and potency. One reason for Vitiate's superiority in this area is that he is a master of Sith Sorcery and similar arts.
Unbalancing the Force itself over a few months of effort far exceeds being able to generate some lightning storms on a planet over hundreds of years.
It likewise doesn't make sense to downplay Plagueis's effects on Naboo because he didn't impact it for as long; sure, but he didn't stay there as long either. The point is that Plagueis had an immediate impact without even trying or using any overt ritual, whereas Vitiate needed to dabble in esoteric arts for hundreds of years to produce his own effect.
Your assumption that the corruption process of Dromund Kaas spanned centuries, is also misplaced. The time-span of this corruption effort is unknown at the moment but no source implies that it took Vitiate centuries to accomplish it.
I'm pretty sure it was suggested in the Revan novel; regardless, since it's your feat, the lack of clarity is your problem, not mine.
Darth Plagueis also possessed the ability to alter environmental conditions but he could not compete with Vitiate in this area due to lack of expertise in the field of Sith Sorcery. He (temporarily) affected weather conditions in a part of Naboo. You don't think that the entire planet experienced intensified Winter, do you?
It didn't just say part of Naboo.
Moreover, whether Darth Plagueis's inferred manipulation was a product of his mere presence or some degree of effort was involved behind it, is left to the reader's imagination. On the whole, this feat is too ambiguous to quantify.
There would be no motive for him to consciously try to affect its weather patterns. But talk about ambiguity when you just acknowledged that Vitiate's feat doesn't even have a timescale.
Here:
The child who will come to be known as the Sith Emperor is born. Black-eyed, heartless, and supremely strong in the dark side of the Force, the boy seizes control of his homeworld by the age of 13 and earns the title Lord Vitiate.
From Star Wars: The Old Republic: Encyclopedia
While I cannot quantify 'supremely strong' remark in the cross-era context, it certainly makes it clear that Vitiate had extraordinary potential and we cannot rule out the possibility of Vitiate's potential being greater than that of Darth Plagueis.
Nobody's ruling out the possibility; we just find the evidence lacking.
Vitiate did not invite them to his stronghold; he was alert and waited for them to make a move. Moreover, no source implies that he 'prepared' for this confrontation; this is your assumption.Vitiate is stated to have explored the Dark Side at a greater depth than anybody else, so expect lot of surprises from him. Unless you mistakenly assume that Force lightning is the only offensive option at his disposal. Doesn't makes sense or does it?
You didn't answer the question. If he didn't prep or use any favorable circumstances, why do we never see him use this ability ever again? Either:
a) He's really dumb, or
b) He can't, for some limitation of the power we aren't aware of.
Both possibilities preclude its use against Plagueis.
You can check this blog to learn more about his powers: http://comicvine.gamespot.com/forum...thread-1556713/I am not interested in writing an essay about his abilities.
No, no, I want you to provide arguments for novel Vitiate demonstrating feats or accolades beyond Plagueis, when you adjust for the powerful nexus.
An extraordinary Force-user is expected to take lot of punishment from (conventional) threats before going down. For example, Darth Malgus tanked lot of shit in the battlefield, shit that would utterly disintegrate a normal human. Unless you assume that knives and cutting tools are more lethal than military weapons and Force powers...A battlefield is a brutal environment, my friend. Why do you think Palpatine felt that Darth Malgus's accomplishments as a warrior are largely unparalleled in history and perceived him as one of his strongest predecessors? One of those reasons is that his defensive abilities were really good.
You might have noticed that Revan also had excellent defensive abilities. This explains his incredible performance in the battlefield and is one of the factors that enabled him to give Vitiate a taste of his own medicine for a while. With the exception of Revan, Vitiate floored any other opponent who dared to cross his path.
You could be really strong in the Force but you would terribly loose in a major confrontation unless you hone your abilities in the defensive applications of the Force. Revan and Darth Malgus understood this fact really well.
You're basically arguing against yourself here, given Vitiate's utter lack of combat experience or adaptation, with his inability to sense the droid until right before, and his likewise inability to prevent himself from being disarmed and almost killed by Meetra's saber throw. He couldn't dodge or deflect his own lightning bolts, something that, say, Dooku did casually against Yoda. He's so used to facing weaklings that when he encountered Revan, all he could do was just try to dominate his mind and then launch some lightning bolts at him.
Vitiate would have a more profound impact on the balance of the Force than any other Force-user (or many combined), due to his extraordinary power and mastery of Sith Sorcery.
This doesn't answer the point at all. The fact of the matter is that Plagueis pulled off a feat in the Force that massively surpasses anything Vitiate, or Valkorion for that matter, has ever accomplished.
You focus too much on semantics (or more importantly substandard writing of an author) instead of logically looking at stuff.Vitiate's so-called charging effort lasted only an instant because he had to attack Revan before the latter could close the gap and score a hit on him. You make it sound like as if Vitiate had a minute to perform that act.
We know that Revan had time to put his lightsaber away and stretch his arms out. And yes, the author did make it look like a long time, and the fact that the novel was not very well written doesn't allow you to invalidate things about it you personally don't like.