Okay I’ve been contemplating this issue for quite a while.
The possibility of Greats at end of ROCH being weaker than they were in beginning of ROCH
Let’s start with some numbers
As of last chapter LOCH
All Greats 1000 (OYF wasn’t stronger, he was just displaying weird moves, which took the ITELLIGENCE of HYS/H7G to find out his style. This is similar to ZZR against Wudang Heros)
QQR 900-950
Guo Jing 700-800
As of beginning of ROCH
All Greats 1050
Guo Jing 1050
Clear through GJ vs OYF, OYF vs H7G
GWM at this time 950
Would anyone like to suggest GWM would win out on GJ or other Greats as of beginning of ROCH? We do know GWM was slightly injured by GJ at the First Heros’ Meet. I know of the excuse given for GWM that he was trying to show off but even so…
Also the phrase saying it would require several dozen stances to determine a winner or loser between GWM and GJ. That’s kinda little to be honest. Was this changed in the 3rd Edition?
Let’s just say GWM was given similar novel description as QQR in LOCH.
As of end of ROCH
All Greats 950
QQR 900
Guo Jing 1100
Yang Guo 1100
GWM 1100
As of First Huashan
WCY – 1050 to 1100
Greats - 950
Essentially the Greats to QQR distance. Note the novel treatment of QQR, he was ranked among the Greats, just not quite so. This is consistent with WCY needing 7 days to convince others he was greater.
I would also like to suggest that WCY’s top level was about 1050-1100 which the Greats just reached in their peak, which is NOT at the end of ROCH. This fits better with the author’s intent to keep Greats roughly the same and WCY actually higher if anything. I don’t really agree with end of ROCH Greats being significantly stronger than that in earlier chapters. Another point to note HYS described YG to be “not weaker than OYF from years ago”, which is more consistent with this system.
This is mainly because of age. By the end of ROCH, original Greats were nearly 100 years old with much less stamina. I reckon the prime age of martial arts level is 70s tops.
This also brings in the issue of the DOUBLING OF POWER by GWM. From my system, GWM increased from 950 to 1100. Not quite double but I reckon power cannot be directly translated to overall fighting prowess.
The original Greats had barely any fights in ROCH and it was clear that any one of Yideng or HYS would’ve lost against GWM in a 1 on 1 during their encounter at end of ROCH.
My theory basically means that the magnitude of improvement is not as drastic, like a 100% spike and fighting ability actually drops in old age.
I’ll be happy to hear some of your thoughts on this and maybe examples from the text which do not agree with this, I’ll be glad to analyse that. This is pure speculation and probably not the new norm of rating Greats . Thanks for reading.