I'd say it's more like

Cadsuane = 2 (Moiraine's reaction to her leads me to believe that Cadsuane is closer to the FS than she is to regular AS too)

Egwene = 3 (in tGS her shield is almost always held by 2 "strong" Reds despite the forkroot)

Nynaeve = 3.5 (Semirhage's shield was maintained by 3 women at all times, Daigian being one of them so really only 2.5 AS).


Bode’s future would be brilliant. Her potential almost equalled Egwene’s.
- Crossroads of Twilight, What the Oath Rod Can Do


What makes you think this? There is no evidence to support this as all of them have been addressed and Be'lal couldn't even feel their strength! Moghedien is in no way solely addressing Nynaeve! She comes in, slaps some compulsion on them, starts talking about them being strong enough to be trouble, then looks at Nynaeve and says "especially you"... implying that she is even stronger than Elayne (as we know), but clearly Elayne even as far back as TSR was strong enough to be a problem.




So now 3 times equates to "often"? And we have no idea what the circumstances of these battles were like, there is no evidence that these women had anymore change than Tovien and her group did. I agree that Lanfear can match even one as strong as Ishamael/Rand, but that's more to do with her strength combined with her dexterity. She beat back Alivia who was at least 2x stronger with angreal on her side! I think strength has little to do with dueling (especially between men and women)... obviously you can take on a channeler of more than 2x your own power if you are more highly skilled.



I think her poise against a swarm of Sul'dam gives us plenty of indication! She fought off 20-some (50 pairs originally figure 30 went to the ground to gather AS) pairs of women who she has a deeper seated fear of than any Forsaken she'll ever battle! Strength issues aside Egwene has some major skill and IMO would do much better than 6 linked AS against one of the FS.



I agree that Cadsuane's status is part of it, but do you really think Semirhage would have reacted to Verin or even Moiraine in the same way she did to Cadsuane? I doubt it, i think Cadsuane has enough strength to be noticed by even one such as Semirhage.



When does Egwene say this? The entire book 2 "strong Reds" hold a shield on her. Not to mention we know that even back in TFoH (or maybe TSR) Amys tells her that she would have broken through her shield soon. Amys is stronger than most sisters (probably around Moiraine level), so it's very doubtful that any one AS could hold Egwene.

Amys's strength is further supported by Melaine announcing to Alviendha that she herself is stronger than most AS, and we know from earlier in the series that Amys is stronger than Melaine.



This point kind of goes against what you are saying though. Nynaeve should never have been able to shield Moghedien or Talaan, not be unable to shield Elayne!