User blog comment:Piyush Banerjee/Shin DxD 2 discussion/@comment-2602:306:CD9A:C860:141A:858E:1B9B:BDB-20190201001403/@comment-10330822-20190201063519

Who are you considering the second HD? Ddraig? He doesn't really count because he's not usable until the late game. Honestly, if you overpower Issei in the early game, which is what we are talking about; like Rias should have, you can win without even seeing Ddraig.

Rossweisse isn't really stronger than Akeno, the fact they fought the entire time against each other proves that, and Rias defeated Grayfia. So, whether Grayfia was giving her all or not, Balor Rias is implied to be beyond Satan-Class, which is what Grayfia is. So, even if Grayfia is more experienced, Balor Rias has more overall power.

Likewise, Irina, Xenovia, and Ouryuu Nakiri all had to fight Vasco, but the only reason Ouryuu was even in that fight was because Roygun placed a trap on Lint, hence "numbers advantage".

In short, the teams about even but with Crom, Balor Rias, and Vasco; Rias's team has the power advantage. Also Kiba might have had an edge over Fafnir due to his dragon slaying equipment, but we never got to see that, because Kiba insisted on fighting Issei who he couldn't have won against, in stead of taking on an enemy there was a higher chance of winning against.

What is not said to be even is the power difference between Pseudo DxD Issei and Crom Cruach. Crom is the only member with the highest likelihood of beating Issei, and he's not even the King, and he didn't even need to do that, as long as you beat Issei down to exhaust him, you give Balor Rias a better shot than taking him purely off of Kiba's battle damage.

The fact is if you aren't using Crom to fight Issei, you are wasting Crom, pure and simple.

Both Asia and Valerie were eliminated, so Rias didn't even get an advantage in terms of having a team healer, which makes the value of having Crom retire Asia significantly lessened. Especially since there wasn't even a need to eliminate Asia, you just need to stall her and prevent her from healing others, particularly Issei.