That is, you can use more of it safely and you can use it without wearing yourself out so quickly.
Actually one of the reasons her sa'angreal was so powerful is because it didn't have the safety buffer. I actually think by definition, sa'angreal do not have any buffers at all. Only angreal have buffers. The Choedan Khal have their buffers in their access keys, not the sa'angreal themselves.
As far as i can recall, Sa'Angreal is basically a classification inside the definition of Angreal, meaning they are Angreal, that surpass a certain (undefined) amount they can increase a channeler's ability by. Otherwise it would be quite unreasonable to state that the Choedan Khal are the most powerful Sa'Angreal to have ever been made. It is possible though that Sa'Angreal can increase a channeler's power to a point where it is impossible to handle all of it for a single human being. Unfortunately, there are not really any tasks performed inside the story, that require ALL the power the Sa'Angreal can supply, apart from fighting the dark one. But when it comes to that, Rand is so powerful that he can do quite a bit of destructive fun without any augmentation of his powers.
And for our kind guest:
Egwene Al'Vere is considered immensely powerful even before being properly trained in using her abilities. Later on, we rarely see her doing anything great in terms of using the One Power without any augmentation of her ability, so it's quite difficult to give distinct information about her power. With the aforementioned Sa'Angreal, she should be able to destroy a decently sized medieval town by herself though.
All of the sa'angreal that we ever see in the story specifically lack the buffer. So far that really seems to be their defining characteristic. When Verin is discussing the Choeden Khal she even mentions that only a handful of Aes Sedai are powerful enough to safely handle them. Even this implies that it drags so much of the power into a channeler that it would harm them which means no safety buffer in the sa'angreal itself. It's not until later that we learn the buffers are in the access keys.
Second, Egwene is level 15. We actually have very distinct information about her power. She is equal in the power to Elayne and Aviendah but is weaker than all the Forsaken, Nynaeve, several windfinders, Sharina, and Alivia.
With the aforementioned Sa'Angreal, she should be able to destroy a decently sized medieval town by herself though.
On several occasions she summons massive lighting storms and huge bolts of lighting. It's pretty damn obvious she could wreck a small town.
1
u/Klondeikbar Nov 24 '14
Actually one of the reasons her sa'angreal was so powerful is because it didn't have the safety buffer. I actually think by definition, sa'angreal do not have any buffers at all. Only angreal have buffers. The Choedan Khal have their buffers in their access keys, not the sa'angreal themselves.