Some more (hopeful) rousing from death of this board:

1) Per Dom, in the AoL, a woman as weak as Daigian could learn to split her flows as many ways as someone like Lanfear. Meaning this wasn't a strength related thing, nor is it a sign of the dexterity factor RJ spoke about. But the Aes Sedai have lost something about training with the OP, and thus are severely curtailed in this regard.

My own points: this could well explain the huge gap between the Aes Sedai and the Foresaken. It isn't that they're much weaker in the OP, its that they really are half-trained girls in comparison. The Wondergirls, especially Egwene, seem to have circumvented this to an extent.

2) Per Terez: "Moridin is tip-top for men, and Lanfear for women. We're not sure from what we have seen how many levels are between them, but we suspect there are six male levels above Lanfear. (Not Cyndane.) RJ said that the male bottom and the female bottom are roughly equivalent. Moiraine appears to be rock bottom."

3) Terez: "It may be that Moiraine is not strictly rock bottom and there are as many as 3 levels below her, but in that case there would probably be fewer male levels above Lanfear (totally possible). We know of at least 3 male levels above Lanfear from the Forsaken notes of KOD era, Aginor being the only dead one included."

4) Terez: "The reason we have this 3-level error estimate is because we suspect RJ meant for there to be 72 total levels of strength. Team Jordan, if they do include strengths, might choose to simplify it to a 72-scale. (I probably would; RJ's way of doing it was entirely idiomatic and intended to avoid errors when he switched systems.)"

Thoughts?