While there are some stories of failure in ratcheting wrenches in high torque situations here in this thread, ratcheting wrenches might be stronger than they are often given credit for, when it comes to breaking loose fasteners.
Of course, it depends on the mechanism and the quality of manufacture, as well as the condition and the torque of the fastener.
Here is a video that tests a Taiwanese-made Kobalt flex-head ratcheting wrench vs a Snap-On reversible.
The amount of stress the Snap-On can take is quite impressive. According to this guys's test, the mechanism is stronger than the Snap-On dual-80 ratchet. In fact, the fastener he made failed before the wrench.
Unsurprisingly, the Kobalt failed earlier, and the failure point was at the flex-head. But it still had fairly impressive results.
While there was science involved in the testing, we are still only examining single examples of only two manufacturers, and non-similar wrench types, so real life results may vary. I wish he had used a GearWrench for an example of an offshore-made wrench, since they are the most popular.
The point is that ratcheting wrenches might be stronger than often given credit for, despite manufacturer warnings about breaking loose bolts, and despite some anecdotal evidence. Again, it may depend largely on the manufacture quality and the design, so take that for what it is.
Practically speaking, it mostly depends on the size of the fastener and the proper torque. Fasteners with moderate torque should never be a problem for ratcheting wrenches to break loose – even for decent-quality Taiwanese-made wrenches. Whenever you are dealing with high torque situations (such as with suspension parts, or where rust and corrosion are a significant factor, for example), it's probably safest to use a regular, non-ratcheting wrench to break those fasteners free, as many have pointed out, here.
But for any fasteners that are supposed to be torqued to under, say 40 ft/lbs or so, and rust/corrosion is not a factor, ratcheting wrenches should easily do the job, assuming there is space for the larger closed end that a ratcheting wrench requires.
If you are just starting out with an entire wrench set, regular non-ratcheting wrenches are the way to go, imo, because of their versatility. But you can add ratcheting wrenches, based on need, over time. Do you need strait or offset? Do you need flex or reversing? Long pattern or shorties? Almost all of my ratcheting wrenches have been pawn shop finds or specials on eBay.
Anyway, that's my (more than) 2¢ worth.
That way you could break a fastener with the closed 12pt then flip it over for the ratcheting end.
