Sousou no Frieren

[Buffalobiian]

"Modern" magic shifted to attacks that are just as fast as activating Zoltraak, but the Barrier spell can't defend against it unless it is improved (which he showed by fractalizing the facets of the Barrier), but that takes longer to cast and requires even more mana, so it effectively does nothing against the elemental magic. The mages saturate each other with strong attacks that blast through the standard barrier with physical force behind them.

Why that school of thought doesn't work on Fern or Frieren is because the former has flawless pinpoint control, minimizes the size of her barriers and therefore never uses too much mana on her barriers; the latter has an overwhelming mana pool and can just buff up the barrier when she really needs it.

So if barriers don't actually use mana to block magic but simply cost mana to maintain duration and area, then weak physical attacks are simply pointless - such as the girl with flying rocks. If a physical attack's advantage is in circumventing barriers, then those that don't are just as (in)effective as Zoltraak. A barrage of rocks requires the same shield size/duration to block as much as similarly-sized Zoltraak attacks. I suppose lifting 100 rocks might be different from controlling 100 Zoltraaks though.

Fern also said it "feels like a cannon" when she blocked her rocks. If the shields only cost mana to maintain duration and area, it shouldn't "feel" like anything. It either blocks or doesn't, or feels draining to maintain because of a long duration or large area of effect.

The magic system works the way it needs to in order to support the narrative. It is constantly retroactively tweaked, along with all the lore of the series.

I've heard this a few times, and while it may be true - until the anime has gotten ahead enough for us to conclude that it does retcon old lore, I'll only be able to look forward with what we're shown thus far.

People in this thread thought more deeply about this anime than its creator.

From what I've been told so far (per above about rectonning etc), it may be true. So this discussion is about "based on what we've been shown, this is how the system would work if the information presented thus far is true and intentional". Anything that doesn't fit is either yet to be explained, or is a miss/sleight/oversight/disregard by the author for the sake of other aspects of the story.

[Ryllharu]

So if barriers don't actually use mana to block magic but simply cost mana to maintain duration and area, then weak physical attacks are simply pointless - such as the girl with flying rocks. If a physical attack's advantage is in circumventing barriers, then those that don't are just as (in)effective as Zoltraak. A barrage of rocks requires the same shield size/duration to block as much as similarly-sized Zoltraak attacks. I suppose lifting 100 rocks might be different from controlling 100 Zoltraaks though.

Fern also said it "feels like a cannon" when she blocked her rocks. If the shields only cost mana to maintain duration and area, it shouldn't "feel" like anything. It either blocks or doesn't, or feels draining to maintain because of a long duration or large area of effect.

The barrier spell is made for Zoltraak. It is not made to deflect rocks. It does deflect rocks to a degree, but Richter's point is that unless it is modified, which slows down the casting time, the barrier is not strong enough to block repeated physical attacks.

Fern correctly realized the same thing Richter was explaining to the duo.

Stop overthinking this.

Frieren and Fern use the basics because it always gets the job done. Zoltraak is made for killing. Barrier is made for defending against Zoltraak. Zoltraak is very efficient, has no telegraphed casting, its casting time is effectively zero, and when well-controlled has incredible range (as shown by Fern when she was young).