With Graham vs Angelo I'd say it's a tossup over whether Graham can use his Flag's superior mobility and his melee skills to overcome Angelo's newtype abilities and weapons, but they should be about on par. Anyway, yeah, the thing about VSBRs is that if they're used on pierce mode they don't really cause much damage over an area. They'll definitely keep going through obstacles with more ease than a regular beam shot and cause collateral like that but a shot to the arm will just rip it off without extending the damage to the rest of the suit, at best. At worst it'll just put enough of a hole in it that it becomes unusable.

The tradeoff is that there's pretty much no stopping a pierce beam. A single shot completely destroyed an anti-beam cloak that can take 5 or so regular beam shots and it's been shown as going right through two beam shields one after the other and only stopping when it's parried with a beam zanber, a beam saber also capable of cutting through beam shields produced a decade after the F91 was fielded out. Obviously, that parry was not a normal thing to happen and the impact was still bad enough that it damaged the Crossbone X1's sensors.

IIRC the only way to really, effectively stop one is using a very powerful i-field, which tends to be the purview of mobile armors. That the Phantom Gundam's i-field could do so, with trouble, was seen as outstanding and only worked because it can put more energy into its field thanks to the Minovsky Drive. The V2 Assault gear has an even better version since it's more advanced than the Phantom. I'm guessing it can pierce through most GN Fields and planet defensor barriers as well? The mechanics should be about the same.

Gn Fields? maybe. Planet defenders? Unlikely. Planet Defenders on Murcurius showed to be able to take a full powered TBR rifle shot or at least a pretty hefty shot.

The thing is that VSBRs on pierce mode sacrifice area damage in order to actually punch through barriers, armor and beam shields. It's a tradeoff, the TBR is massively powerful and capable of dealing much more damage than a VSBR, no doubt, but the VSBR's pierce mode is designed specifically to make beams thinner, more concentrated and faster entirely to punch through defenses, even if it makes them deal less structural damage than a standard beam shot, which they can also fire I might add.

It's possible I suppose but the damage it would do may not be enough to actually destroy the machine behind it afterward with the armor. Granted Leos can destroy Virgos as of endless waltz but grunt units aside that's just how I view things. Likewise GN fields may weaken the shot a bit too but it has been known to disperse energy just like an I-field so maybe they are similar. After all a physical weapon did get through the GN field of Virtue in one episode.

I'd settle on being able to pierce a Virgo's defensors to start with, since there's less, and needing multiple shots to shut down, say, the Mercurius or the Scorpio, and with each upgrade the VSBRs get deadlier against defenses. But being pierce beams is seriously their whole shtick and something they're pretty good at decades after the technology is first introduced.

I'd guess that would be fair as long as they don't instant kill the enemy after they piece the shields like you said.

Depends on where the shot lands, really. Again, it's made to pierce defenses but it doesn't deal wide, explosive melty damage like regular beam shots. A piercing VSBR shot will not cause the catastrophic booming reaction of regular beam shots unless it hits something vital nor will it melt down shit on proximity. But it will punch through armor even better than regular beams, it goes right through beam shields and most i-fields and it easily evaporates anti-beam coating. An anti-beam cloak which regularly takes 5 or 6 beam shots got shredded in just one, a VSBR shot is shown going through the Crossbone X1's two beam shields, one after the other. And it didn't hit the vulnerable emitter, it went right through two energy fields.

Hence, if I shoot at anyone trying to block the VSBR beam with those defenses, well, the shot should go through (sans exceptions or heavily stacked defenses), because it's what it's built to do and what it actually does. Their MS have less chances of exploding, however, unless the beam goes through something explody like the reactor. Hit an arm or a leg, even if close to the joint? You'll be fine, sorta, because area damage is minimal. Better than getting hit with a regular beam. But if it's a nice shot right on the chest, chances are it's gonna hit something important and still cause a big boom or go right through the cockpit. It's a sharpshooter weapon, you don't get the regular "battleship's firepower" thing with it, it goes through defenses but each shot needs to land right.

Really, I can turn up, let loose at Angelo, he survives by the skin of his teeth because lelnewtype but the shot still punches through the i-field shield and the arm underneath, because he wouldn't expect a beam weapon to go right through it but his newtype shenanigans can still let him react fast enough that only his arm gets pierced.

I just realized Gabriel's surname is "Cross' and he pilots the "X" Gundam...pun intended?

Lol no pun intended but you will get a cookie if you can name the Anime I took the name from.

Also to respond I think Donna does start in the same level as Quatre. Makes sense too with who her mentor is and I feel she'll eventually surpass him with more aces and enemies against her.

More than likely Sug seeing as Quatre isn't as much combat oriented as he is in for leadership and moral support for the team.

waiting for at least art to post before I post again'

Alright I just switched it over to Paul fighting Stella...Graham's being well Graham....

I forgot a minor detail, the optical camouflage of the Celestial Being Gundams doesn't work when they're moving, so the Virtue is sort of sneaking about, stopping, cloaking, checking surroundings, then decloaking and sneaking about again, Metal Gear Solid-style.

It's totally feasible if some enemies catch her in the middle of such shenanigans.

well it helps that Rondo's charging everyone of his soldiers head first into Sug's team while Paul and Beta Team quite frankly just walked in and flat out crippled or murdered everyone on that flank.

I'll force things along if I have to by the end of the day.

Thinking of effectvie counter and seeing if anyone will intervene.

Alright Zero that's your opening cue right there. Hopefully you can save Paul's ass as he doesn't have much choice but to either let Stella get shot or try to deflect the blow otherwise.

Well I just noticed I put 'are' without the D in it so Angelo sounded retarded because of it but I fixed it.

Also I'll post tomorrow as I'm not up to posting much today.