8th Edition Magic Items Summary questionable ratings

[Malus99]

hey all, as a follow up to: D.R.A.I.C.H-Magic Items Summary - 8th Edition Update I am setting up this thread for everyone to say what they think the ratings should be for some 'controversial' items. Rather than running multiple polls I thought it would be easier if I put down each item's original entry, then anybody who disagrees with it just makes a post, copies the original entry into their post and then edits it to say what the rating should be and why. I will put down those items I was most unsure of first and then anyone who disagrees with an item can put it in their post to be discussed. So firstly the format, each item is given a rating and is colour coded:

0/10- This item is more than useless, if anything it makes your hero worse than he was to start off with
1-2/10- This item is pretty dodgy, most likely highly situational with only little effect
3-4/10- This item is clearly sub optimal, but perhaps could be used as a novelty now and again. Most likely situational and/or overpriced
5-6/10- This item to other items is mediocre and pales in comparison but wont earn you stunned looks of surprise if you take it to a tournament
7-8/10- This item is a good choice and greatly improves your hero but isn’t exceptional and wont cause dark looks of envy. Often taken once the great items are used up on other heroes
9-10/10- This item is fantastic and a must have in any army if at all possible

Secondly, the entries I am least sure of:

Dark Venom- 3/10
This item might see some increased use now that assassins and Death Hags cannot be used to simply scythe down the enemy front rank and receive no attacks in return. Challenges are now the main way of keeping a Khainite character alive through a round of combat against ranked infantry thanks to step up and supporting attacks, so Khainite characters will challenge more often and so this item will see increased use, it’s bonus on the other hand still isn’t fantastically useful because of steadfast often annulling the advantage of loads of CR, and steadfast comes up annoyingly often against our expensive infantry, so whilst the situation it is used in will be seen more often, its effects still aren’t very good.

Venom Sword- 5/10
With assassins now being used more often (surprisingly) as assassins this item may see some more use. Its main uses being against models with lots of wounds (although KB can be got a lot cheaper and only needs that special 6, and also bypasses armour) but mainly against those with a really high ward save, which KB isn’t effective against. This item is generally most effective against a model with a reasonably low toughness (Withering can help here) and low armour save (Plague of rust), but with a ridiculous ward save such as 2+, which even those nasty sniper spells from the lore of death can’t remove. Situational and abit overpriced requiring magic support to work and difficult to use, but can provide a means of removing a monster or character which would otherwise be almost impossible to shift, would be a lot more useful if it still counted as poisoned.

Rampager’s standard- 6/10
Requires a BSB and is quite expensive for what it does, but for that extra insurance, this standard is not a bad choice.

Cloak of Hag Graef- 5/10 , on lone hero 8/10
Not particularly good for a hero in a unit but for a hero on his own, this item is great for preserving him from shooting, especially good for protecting your character from cannons and similar war machines which would otherwise squash your armour

Glittering Scales- 0/10
The -1 to hit will not be stalling many attacks, but the real problem with this item is that it is light armour, this means you can’t have heavy armour and so your maximum armour save is reduced by 1, meaning it actually makes your armour save worse rather than better whilst being 26 points more expensive than heavy armour.

Chillblade- 4/10
A complicated way to explain that this sword doesn’t really do anything exceptional and that there are cheaper and better weapons available.
Reason to use Sword of Ruin: Your chance to wound is higher.

S4 against T3 wounds on a 3+ (failing T test is a 4+).
S4 against T4 wounds on a 4+ (failing T test is a 5+).
etc.

The Chillblade is nice against characters, most likely, but against units it's definitely weaker.

Sword of Anti-Heroes- 7/10
An interesting item with an interesting effect, good for heroes you intend to send after enemy characters looking for a challenge but the effect is variable and can leave your character with no bonuses whatsoever if he doesn’t get near the enemy characters making it abit situational. It is rare to see more than two characters in a unit, and usually there is only one, so you will rarely get a huge boost out of this item. The other problem with this item is that if you actually do kill the enemy character you will (ironically) make yourself weaker, so you will have to pick your targets carefully, not the easiest thing to do in the midst of battle.

Fozzrik’s Folding Fortress- 1/10
There might be some clever tactical use for this item, but generally I leave scenery to random selection and do not waste a Lord’s magic items quota on a watchtower, generally you are better off with more ‘sensible’ items.

Black Staff- 1/10
This used to be a staple of every single one of my lists, now I don’t think I will use Black staff atall. Because of the new bound spell rules, you need to use Power dice to cast the bound spell, even worse, you get no bonus from wizarding levels which your opponent most likely will, this item can only be taken on a lord-level caster, meaning your opponent will most likely also have a lord level caster to dispel, which without going into some detailed maths means on average you will need an extra dice used to cast this and your opponent doesn’t need to use as many dice on average to dispel. All of this means that if you are very fortunate, you will gain one or possibly a couple of dice, usually you will break even or lose a dice, and if your dice roll is sub-par, you may be losing more than one dice, which for the item’s cost is very bad. The only reason you should take this item is if you desperately need an extra Power of Darkness spell for whatever reason, otherwise, it takes up over half of you supreme sorceress’ magic items quota and stops you using any other arcane items, which is not good.

Wand of Jet- 2/10
The sacrificial dagger for wusses, more expensive, less powerful, and saves the life of that poor spearmen. If you are using this then go play High Elves, otherwise take a power stone giving double the dice for nearly half the cost, the only advantage this item has over a power stone is that it can be used when definitely needed, rather than when you think you need it. Better yet, take the Darkstar cloak and get an additional dice every turn.

So just copy them into your post with any corrections you think should be made and suggest any more items which need amending.

The 8th edition summary can be found Here

Thanks for your input!

[Demetrius]

Venom Sword should be much lower IMO, maybe 2 or 3 out of 10. Its abilities are nice, but at only 3 S4 attacks, your unlikely to even wound anything worth killing with it.

[Malus99]

Venom Sword should be much lower IMO, maybe 2 or 3 out of 10. Its abilities are nice, but at only 3 S4 attacks, your unlikely to even wound anything worth killing with it.

has been lowered to 5 because in combination with some good hexes can deal with something we would otherwise find nearly impossible to get rid of quite easily.