D.R.A.I.C.H-Magic Items Summary - 8th Edition Update

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D.R.A.I.C.H-Magic Items Summary - 8th Edition Update

Post by Malus99 »

Magic Items Summary-8th Edition

An important thing for any aspiring Druchii General is their choice of Magic Items. This summary gives a comprehensive description of all our magic items and what situations they are best used for.

This article is an update of Bounce’s fantastic summary for 7th Edition which can be found Here.

Magic Items Each item has a rating out of 10 to reflect the items usefulness and is colour coded appropriately.

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


Temple of Khaine

Rending Stars 7/10 - with Manbane 9/10
Rending Stars are very useful but only with the right builds of Assassins. With a range of only 12” they aren’t much good if your Assassin is deployed in a large block of Infantry especially if you want him hidden until the unit gets charged. The rending star assassin is best suited for a unit of Shades where he can nicely complement their shooting abilities. Whilst the stars are good on their own, with Manbane they are absolutely lethal as due to the GW FAQ they will wound on a 2+ against T5 or less creatures and have a maximum strength of 7 (against T5+ models), they should be used mainly to snipe at small/lone units which are tough to bring down such as characters or monsters, Giants in particular hate this one.

Dance of Doom 4/10
There are two reasons why not to take this item.
1. If you take Dance of Doom you reduce the amount of killy items you can take on your Assassin or Hag and this isn’t good as their main purpose is to kill things.
2. With no other armour whatsoever a 5+ ward will often not save you, it on average should save every third wound, and only being used on models with 2 or less wounds you will be lucky if it helps even once, the points would be better spent elsewhere.

Touch of Death 7/10 with Black Lotus 8/10
Great for killing enemy characters and heavily armoured troops. However this does conflict with the Assassins innate poison attacks. This can be made up for by swapping to Black Lotus to increase the chance of a killing blow.

Rune of Khaine- 10/10
There is no reason not to take this on your assassin or Hag. The extra attacks are cheap and efficient. Well worth the points, doubly so with the increased usage of light infantry.

Witchbrew- 4/10
A somewhat unconventional item that is situational. The witchbrew offers the advantage of ignoring the CR bonus the opponent gains for flanking you. This isn’t really that great as if you are flanked you will most likely lose combat by a lot anyway. Now that outnumbering no longer applies (which was one of the main things this item offset) and you can Combat-reform to face flank chargers after the first round, this item lost quite abit of its previously already-limited usefulness.

Hand of Khaine- 3/10
With step-up, limiting attacks back against Khainite characters has become more important, however, dropping only one attack against units with supporting attacks this still won’t make much of a difference and there are several caveats. This item is still very situational and of limited use.

Cry of War- 5/10
It would be a lot better if it reduced the opponents WS to 1, rather than by -1. Often by -1 won't change anything depending on what troops you are using.

For instance give this to a Witch Elf hag in a unit of witches. Being WS 4. Cry of War only makes a difference if the enemy has WS 2, 4 or 5. Otherwise nothing happens and you have wasted your points. Plus you can't take any other magic items for hags. Also, now that BSBs allow re-rolls for all failed LD tests and their increased occurrence, a nearby BSB will often remove the chances of this item taking effect. Could tip the balance in a closely-fought combat, but rather situational.

Manbane- 9/10
A very common and good item seen on Hags and Assassins although it does have its drawbacks. It removes your normal poison attacks which is a pity. Also on a Death Hag or Assassin it has no effect against T3 or less troops. So it only has minimal use against Elves, Men, Goblins, Demons, Skaven and Undead troops. For a normal Hag this is a great buy as it really lends the unit a little bit of punch.

Black Lotus- 7/10 with Touch of Death 8/10
Useful but takes up points and means you can’t have Manbane. Like Manbane this means you lose your poison attacks which sort of lowers the advantage considerably. Combined with Touch of Death this is a great way to increase your chance of killing blow.

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- 6/10
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. It is situational and overpriced, it does prevent you from taking any other upgrades for your assassin bar the handbow, it is difficult to use and requires support from magic, but it can provide a means of removing a monster or character which would otherwise be almost impossible to shift. This item would be a lot more useful if it still counted as poisoned, as it is, it is expensive, difficult and situational, but can pay off, don't use it out of hand, this item is for a specific use in specific combinations to take down a specific type of enemy.

Cloak of Twilight- 5/10
Unfortunately bound items took quite a hit in 8th edition, needing power dice to cast them, they eat up some of those valuable dice from the winds which are so often in short supply to send your vulnerable assassin whizzing off. Also if you use the cloak you have to reveal your assassin prematurely which is always a bit of a waste. This item is useful for getting rid of war machines, weak archers and cheap support units, but these things could be accomplished so much more easily with other methods.
Last edited by Malus99 on Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:15 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by Malus99 »

Magic Banners-DE

Banner of Nagarythe- 3/10, Khainite CoB BSB-centred army- 6/10
Brilliant fluff but sadly this banner is hugely overpriced. If you do want to take it, it requires revolving your whole army around it to attempt to make full use of the extra combat res and unbreakable. A good place for this standard is on a CoB BSB, the CoB with this banner gives every Khainite unit within 12" stubborn, a BSB re-roll and +1 combat Res, aswell as being able to bless a unit for 350 points, which means it provides a good centre for a khainite army, not very cost-effective though.

Hydra Banner- 4/10 with Cold One Knights 8/10
Aside from the Cold One Death Star this just isn’t worth it because it is, again, over expensive, the Cauldron can do the same thing but has greater versatility. With Cold Ones this banner becomes incredibly nasty especially if also boosted with the Cauldron but you will still have problems with stupidity and armour ignoring attacks.

Dread Banner- 0/10
As Thanee rightly pointed out, only the BSB, CoK and BG can carry this standard, CoK already cause fear, the BG are ITP and don't need it and putting it on a BSB is a waste of points as it is very expensive for the minor benefit it gives, buy a Cold One instead, it eats people too :D .

Standard of Slaughter- 6/10
This standard has taken two hits under 8th, firstly, getting the charge is less important under 8th because of striking in I order, before, charging with elves was mandatory, now, it is important, but not absolutely vital. Secondly, Combat resolution often plays less of a part now because of steadfast, this standard is probably best on Cold One Knights, but it is more situational and less useful than in 7th.

Standard of Hag Graef- 6/10
Now that attacks are made in initiative order, there are only two reasons to take the Banner of Hag Graef: Firstly, to strike at the same time as other ASF troops such as those annoying High-Elves for example, and secondly to gain the re-rolls to hit for ASF and higher initiative over the enemy. The first use will therefore be very situational unless you know who your opponent is, the second use will be for everything else and so will be the more common benefit of this standard. Re-rolling missed to-hits is a bonus which is obviously pointless in the first round as we have hatred, in subsequent rounds it comes into play and sustains the accuracy we get in our first turn, and is now much more important with the increased prevalence of protracted combats under 8th edition. The generally most cited beneficiary of this standard is the Executioner unit as it allows them to strike in I order, however, as has been exhaustively discussed elsewhere this requires a BSB Death Hag to be with them (as do Witch Elves), a state of affairs which rarely lasts as the Death Hag is so fragile. Generally this banner is either very situational, risky or of little use to many of our units, the main exception being the 'cold-one deathstar' of 10+ CoK who really benefit from the re-rolls in subsequent rounds of combat and are the unit who are now most commonly given the standard of Hag Graef, fitting, considering Hag Graef is famed for its Cold one Knights.

Sea Serpent Standard- 8/10
If you are taking Corsairs than this is the best banner for them for two reasons. First and foremost they become Immune to Psychology and secondly they get an extra attack. This makes them very similar to Witches but with armour. Nice!

Banner of Murder- 8/10
Best used on Witches as they have more attacks and will make the best use of this banner. Can also be used on Knights, BG and warriors for their standards, I think that giving it to a BSB though is a waste of the other banners/items s/he could get.

Banner of Cold Blood- 6/10 but only ever on Knights
A good way to ensure the passing of 1 stupidity test, depends on your personal playstyle to be honest.


Magic Banners-Common

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.

Wailing Banner- 4/10
Very expensive, and as has been previously mentioned, terror is not as powerful as in 7th, if you want terror then buy a Hydra.

Ranger’s Standard- 3/10 with Cold Ones 7/10
Skipping on dangerous terrain tests is often not a bonus worth the cost of this standard, it does however allow CoK to ignore all the dangerous terrain tests they have to take as cavalry, this is useful for charging units which are hiding behind terrain in the mistaken belief that it will stop you.

Razor Standard- 7/10
if you want to take armour piercing on more than one unit then this is the standard you need, I am reliably informed it goes well with CoK and Black Guard :)

War Banner- 8/10
Can be very useful, but CR is not quite as important as it was in 7th, still a good choice.

Banner of Swiftness- 7/10
Mobility is a very important factor of Warhammer, if a unit can get where it needs to go just that little bit quicker, it is usually worth it, this standard is cheap, and especially considering the need for good manoeuvring with the Druchii army this standard can be a useful addition if you have spare points lying around.

Lichebone Pennant- 4/10
The same as a Null Talisman except it doesn’t need a character, a 6+ ward is still not great though it could become more useful when combined with the CoB ward save.

Standard of Discipline- 10/10
An excellent standard if your general has LD9 or less, stick it on a unit, stick the general in the unit and then not only does your unit have the General’s LD+1 but so does everyone using his/her inspiring presence rule, great if you are using a sorceress general.

Banner of Eternal Flame- 7/10
Situational, flames are great against the flammable, the regenerative, and the annoying gits sitting in the watchtower. it doesn’t cost much and those flames can come in very handy when they are of use, but in many games this standard may be a waste of points.

Gleaming Pennant- 8/10
Not an awe-inspiring effect, but for what it costs this standard is quite good, great for negating the turn the averag CoK unit should spend stupid.

Scarecrow Banner- 2/10
Fear in flyers? Very situational, many flyers are either small and weak or are big, mean beasties who cause fear or terror themselves, you will find a lot of battles where this banner does nothing, get the Gleaming Pennant instead
Last edited by Malus99 on Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:15 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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Post by Malus99 »

Magic Armour-DE

Armour of Living Death- 1/10
Not worth it despite the awesome fluff. T4 and an extra wound is just not worth the points. Plus it can cause stupidity as well, and since it can only be taken on a Dreadlord who is likely to be your general, that could cause problems.

Armour of Eternal Servitude- 9/10 With Dragonbane Gem 10/10
A cheap effective defence for any hero, the dragonbane gem gives protection against fire, which is AOES’s weakness. However it must compete against the Armour of Darkness. As a simple rule of thumb AoES is better if you have a 2+ save such as being on a Cold One with full mundane armour. Otherwise the AoD will end up giving you a better save. People might not believe me here so I will write out the calculations.

Armour of Eternal Servitude with mundane armour giving a total 3+ Armour Save and Regen
Vs S3 Fails 1/6 of the time
Vs S4 Fails ¼ of the time
Vs S5 Fails 1/3 of the time
Vs S6 Fails 5/12 of the time

Armour of Darkness- 1+ Save
Vs S3 Fails 1/6 of the time
Vs S4 Fails 1/6 of the time
Vs S5 Fails 1/3 of the time
Vs S6 Fails ½ of the time

As you can see AoD is better against S4 and equal against S3 and S5 but loses out against S6 or higher. Whilst being overall a lot cheaper as the AoES has to take Mundane armour as well. It’s also important to note that the AoES alone is defeated by fire but AoD is defeated by armour ignoring spells and weapons.

Armour of Eternal Servitude with mundane armour giving a total 2+ Armour Save and Regen
Vs S3 Fails 1/12 of the time
Vs S4 Fails 1/6 of the time
Vs S5 Fails 1/4 of the time
Vs S6 Fails 1/3 of the time
If you have the better armour then Regeneration is well worth it although this is considerably more expensive as well.

I’ll quickly sketch out which situations should take which armour
Lord on Dragon- AoD
Lord on Pegasus- AoD
Lord on Dark Steed with Lance or similar- AoES
Lord on Dark Steed with Crimson Death or similar- AoD
Lord on Cold One- AoES
Lord on Foot- AoD

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.

Armour of Darkness- 9/10 with Pendant 10/10
In any case where full mundane armour can’t be taken this is a great way to get a very tough save and when coupled with the Pendant of Khaeleth for high strength attacks you have a hero who is virtually unkillable.
It will take 144 WS4 S3 attacks to reliably kill him, even more astounding it will take 216 S4 or S5 attacks!
Just beware of attacks which ignore armour saves such as Killing blow. Also the AoD is wasted on a Hero mounted on a Cold One as they can get 1+ saves with just mundane armour.

Shield of Ghrond- 4/10
Taking this means you don’t have AoD or AoES, it also clashes badly with the Pendant and isn’t particularly exciting. In effect it makes your hero T4, for a lot less than the Armour of Living Death which is ok but there are better things to spend points on.

Blood Armour- 7/10 with Heartseeker or Hydra Blade- 8/10 Sadly using this item means you have to risk getting into combat with a Hero with low armour, not such a great thing, bring a shield and a SDC with it if you can. Combining it with Heartseeker or the Hydra Blade gives a good complement to those weapons and I find is a useful combination on a combat Master, with the increased number of large infantry units in 8th, stick this master in one of your footslogger units (spearmen provide good, cheap static CR and often need something to help them do damage) and send them straight at the enemy infantry, your Master will rack up kills when striking first with his high I whilst the rank and file provide support and static CR. Just make sure you don’t match him up against something nasty until he has improved his AS, go for the cheap light infantry hordes first.


Magic Armour-Common

Armour of destiny- 6/10
The 4+ ward save is a useful ability but it can be taken as a talisman instead and that frees up the armour slot to be used with our rather excellent selection of magic armour, either way having a 4+ ward will basically increase your wounds by %50, barring bad rolls and things which bypass wards, which is a handy way of improving the survivability of our squishy elves, but there are cheaper ways of getting better protection.

Trickster’s helm- 4/10
Forcing the opponent to re-roll wounds is bound to annoy them, having the effect of halving the number of wounds dealt on a 4+ and so on, unfortunately, with our T3 elves enemies will often find it very easy to be wounding on 3+ or 2+, at which point this item starts to become less useful, so it is most useful against low strength enemies, then why not just get a 1+ or 2+ armour save which will prevent such wounds far better? The other problem with this item is that it costs a very large amount of your magic item points, so the occasions where this item beats a normal, decent set of armour will be quite rare.

Armour of Silvered Steel- 3/10
AoD is cheaper and gives a better save, if you have already used that then you can get a 2+ save from full mundane armour and the dragonhelm or an enchanted shield, or with a Cold One mount, all of which are much cheaper and don’t take a huge chunk out of the magic items quota. This item isn’t bad in itself, alittle overpriced, but we can get a 2+ or better save so much cheaper.

Armour of Fortune- 6/10
Again, not a bad option but we can get much better protection for less, the AoES for instance gives a better save for the same amount of points for instance.

Helm of Discord- 5/10
Enemy characters being hit automatically and being unable to attack is great, unfortunately they tend to have a rather high LD, this item has an interesting effect which might pay off once or possibly twice in a battle, but it is not something to rely on and costs quite a lot.

Glittering Scales- 2/10
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. If you are concerned about being hit with attacks which bypass armour (for instance, you are worried about Killing Blow) then this item might be of some use, but it is very situational for little effect.

Shield of Ptolos- 4/10
2+ armour against shooting can be gained with full mundane armour including a SDC, add in the enchanted shield or dragonhelm for example and the AS is equal against shooting and 2+ against everything else for the same cost or less. The item isn’t bad, but as with so many other common items, we have many cheaper options which are equal or better.

Spellshield- 3/10
A 6+ ward against magic is pretty rubbish, this item won’t help protect your hero much and eats up quite a lot of magic item points, there are better options.

Gambler’s Armour- 3/10
A six up ward isn’t going to be much help, you’re better off spending the points on a good armour save.

Dragonhelm- 8/10
On its own this item doesn’t look like much, but at its tiny price it gives +1 to armour, not bad, but more importantly, it makes flaming attacks almost completely useless against the bearer, this is great because it stops those nasty spells from the Lore of Metal bypassing your armour and negates damage from the Lore of Fire.

Enchanted Shield- 7/10
The enchanted shield is good for improving your save by that extra point to get 2+ on foot. Unfortunately the enchanted shield can't be taken with Crimson Death, Executioners Axe or Armour of Darkness. The Dragonhelm will give you that +1 though for 5 less points, annoyingly enough this item costs next to nothing in the rulebook and I would give it a 10/10 for being reduced by 66.’6’% in cost, however, we must use the cost printed in the armybook.

Charmed Shield- 3/10, character on monster/peggy- 7/10
Many (if not most) hits do not go on to wound and will not be much use for a character in a unit, it is useful however for surviving the first canonball, good for a lone character on a monster or peggy who is usually a prime target for such weapons.
Last edited by Malus99 on Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:35 am, edited 8 times in total.
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Post by Malus99 »

Magic Weapons-DE

Executioners Axe- 4/10
A very expensive item which could be very useful if it were not for the fact that it Always Strikes Last, unfortunately, the Dark Elf Lord with this weapon will most likely be struck first before he can strike back. Because the Lord with this weapon cannot be mounted and cannot use a shield, his maximum AS is 3+ (with Dragonhelm, or 4+ at first with Blood armour). This can leave a very expensive Dark elf Lord very dead before he has had a chance to use this item, it can be of use, but is very situational and over-expensive.

Sword of Ruin- 5/10
Another item that sounds good initially but when you think about it a simple lance is usually just as effective for 45 points less. The main difficulty is the fact you remain at S4 which means you won’t get enough wounds to compensate the lack of armour saves. If you know you are playing Brettonians or Warriors of Chaos then this item is very useful, in general though don’t bother.

Web of Shadows- 0/10
Perhaps the most useless item I have ever seen. There are few situations this could ever be used and a mundane weapon is always a better option. The Web of Shadows will on average give you 7 hits, 3.5 wounds against T3. However it can only be used on 1 model, no normal warrior is worth a 50 point, one use item and any character is going to have some defences, most likely a 2+ Armour Save plus a Ward meaning the Web wont even do a wound. It would be possible to kill off Mages, however this could be done just as easily with a normal 3 S6 attacks. The only possible combination perhaps would be to boost your character with Killing Blow from the Cauldron however this is even more expensive and still unlikely to be successful

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.

Heartseeker- 6/10 with Potion of strength 7/10
re-rolling all failed attempts to hit and to wound can come in very handy if you have bad dice rolls (like me), now that combats often last longer than one round of combat in 8th thanks to hordes and steadfast, the re-rolls to hit actually come in handy, the problems with taking Heartseeker is that you are stuck at S4, but the re-rolls to wound help to some extent with that, all in all it is not a great item, but it does give consistent results, always handy for those ‘as long as I don’t roll a 1’ situations. For a Dreadlord, the PoS and Heartseeker give one combat of very reliable damage output, 4 WS 7, S7 attacks re-rolling missed hits and failed wounds means that against most opponents you will be hitting on 3s and wounding on 2s re-rolling every miss, giving a very reliable damage output which is likely to put many things with 3 or less wounds and lacking a decent ward save straight in the ground, the only problem with this combination is that it is expensive and one use only, so good for killing that single, really nasty enemy monster or character, but can leave you abit high and dry elsewhere.

Hydra Blade- 6/10 with Potion of Strength 7/10
Rolling more dice is always fun, however, all your attacks are S4 which sucks. Potion of Strength can remedy this nicely but it is then very expensive for a one use of lots of moderate strength attacks.
Being optimistic and saying you get the full 3 attacks with Hydra Blade.
If we look at a Dreadlord vs. Ws 4, T3 5+ Armour
Total 7 attacks, hit on 3's 7.26 hits
wounds on 3's, 4.84 wounds
6+ armour 4.04 dead models

With Lance
Total 4 attacks, hit on 3's 3.56 hits
wounds on 2's 2.97 dead models.

So the Hydra Blade will kill on average 2 more standard troops than a lance and can be used in secondary rounds of combat. Although this assumes the Hydra Blade gets 3 attacks.

However against Ws 4 T5 4+ AS the story is very different
Hydra Blade
Hits on 3's 7.26 hits
Wounds on 5's 2.42 wounds
5+ Armour 1.61 wounds

Lance
Hits on 3's 3.56 hits
Wounds on 3's 2.37 dead models

Here the lance does a lot better and for a good 25 points cheaper.
So this is really situational depending on your opponent.

Caledor’s Bane- 6/10
A slightly more powerful lance for a lot more points. This can be combined with potion of Strength for a total of S10 which while not really needed is sort of cool, the negation of scaly skin saves is fluffy but not particularly necessary, S7 has a -4 save modifier which will wipe out most scaly skins and render the rest basically useless. S7 no longer auto-destroys chariots as it did in 7th which also reduces the reasons for taking this weapon, and with cavalry now often facing more than one round of combat if they pick their fights badly, the character can be left high and dry with only S4. If you are facing T5+ such as Orc lords etc this item comes in handy, otherwise, a lance usually does almost as well for a lot less, making this item rather situational.

Dagger of Hotek- 5/10
Again a restrictive and situational item, ASF is nice but what’s the point when you only have 5 S4 attacks? Instead take the Banner of Hag Graef for just slightly more and make your whole unit ASF and free your Character to use other magic weapons.

As a side note this would be a fantastic weapon for a Death Hag as they can’t be mounted and can only carry hand weapons anyway but sadly this can’t be done.

Lifetaker- 7/10
I really like Lifetaker, especially on a flying mount however it’s points cost is very restrictive as there are few 20 point items in our list. This means if you give it to a hero level character they often can’t take a killy sword, special armour or arcane items for Sorceresses. Sadly it can no longer be combined with Blood Armour as only wounds from CC will improve your save.

Lifetaker can be useful for a hero on Dark Steed however remember that heroes aren't fast cav and so can't march and shoot. Lifetaker's attacks now count as Magical attacks aswell incase you feel like shooting some ghosts.

Crimson Death- 10/10
Sure it won’t win many games outright, and is unlikely to Slay Dragons and kill Vampires but this is perhaps the most popular item in our book and for good reason. High Strength all the time is something that is desperately needed in our army and this gives it to you for a ridiculously low points cost and with almost no restrictions aside from being two handed. Being so cheap you can easily fit in a lot of defences for your Hero as well.

Deathpiercer- 7/10
S6 Killing Blow on the charge is good for the points, however, it loses both the strength bonus and the KB in subsequent rounds, so if you don't get them on the charge, you may end up in trouble. Still worth considering.

Whip of Agony- 10/10
+1 attack, S5 even if hexed, Armour Piercing. Nasty. Thanks Thanee and Maldor for correcting me on this one, this is an item I have never used before, but now certainly want to try out.

Soulrender- 5/10 with ASF Banner 7/10
Useful for a character on foot however striking last in 8th is a serious handicap. It is also considerably more expensive than a great weapon and not really that much better. One good point about Soul Render is that if the character is in a unit with ASF then the main disadvantage is reduced and this weapon becomes a lot more useful.


Magic Weapons-Common

Giant Blade- 8/10
The only way to get constant Strength 7 in our army, most of the time S7 is overkill but it does come in handy for taking out the most nasty things your opponent can bring forth, strength is one of the things our elves lack so this item can help rectify that, but it does cost a lot.

Sword of Bloodshed- 4/10
Lots of low strength attacks are what we have Corsairs and Witch elves for, 7 attacks are all well and good, but at S4 several of those attacks will go to waste when they fail to wound, your points would be better spent upping strength.

Obsidian Blade- 5/10
Exactly the same weapon as the Sword of Ruin and so gets exactly the same score for exactly the same reason.

Ogre Blade- 7/10
= Giant Blade - 1 strength and 20 points, S6 can be gained a lot cheaper with Crimson Death, so the only reason to take this is if Crimson Death is already taken or otherwise unavailable.

Sword of Strife- 3/10
Bloodshed with less effect and at less points, the reason it has a lower rating than the sword of bloodshed is because if you are going to take extra attacks, take lots of them.

Fencer’s Blades- 3/10
Elves have a decent WS and the only other benefits gained from this item is +1 attack, which as already mentioned is not particularly great, this might be a great item for goblins, but for elves, give them something more beneficial.

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.

Spellthieving Sword- 2/10
At first glance it might seem like an interesting idea, but, if he is there, in combat with you, and you can wound him, why not just spend the points on a more ‘killy’ item and kill him outright? Might be of some use if you want to take a spellcaster out of action who has 5+ wounds and don’t think you will survive long enough to finish him, but for the most part, this item is pretty useless.

Sword of Swift Slaying- 5/10
Always Strikes First is not the best upgrade for an elf character, we have high Initiative and some measure of re-rolls, you can easily spend the points on much better options elsewhere.

Sword of Battle- 2/10
1 attack is useless if it means you are stuck with strength 4

Berserker Sword- 2/10
+1 attack is not much of a bonus as mentioned above and the ITP that comes with it is also not amazing, in return there is a chance (a small, but undeniable one) that your character will be tugged out where he doesn’t want to go thanks to frenzy, not a great item.

Sword of Might- 8/10
This is quite useful however a Halberd does have the same effect for less points, although the Sword of Might allows you to use a shield in combat for an extra point of AS and also deals magical attacks.

Gold Sigil Sword- 2/10
Elves already have a great initiative, nothing more to be said.

Sword of Striking- 2/10
We don’t really need a better chance to hit with high weapon skill and hatred

Biting Blade- 5/10
If you have the spare points you can put this on a Sorceress, otherwise another weapon would be a better option.

Relic Sword- 6/10
Increasing Strength is a better solution if you are really worried about those sixes but if you are stretched for points and facing a high T enemy then this item isn’t a terrible buy for its cost

Shrieking Blade- 5/10
If you want fear buy a cold one, if you don’t want to or can’t buy a cold one then this sword is the other option, however, fear isn’t a great bonus.

Tormentor Sword- 4/10
Situational and is anticipating your character not finishing the fight against the enemy he comes up against, you would probably be better off getting a mundane weapon, but it does cost pittance.

Warrior bane- 4/10
If engaged in a war of attrition, for instance a multi-round challenge, wearing down your foe then this item could come in handy, but its benefits assume you wound in the first place and S4 attacks aren’t going to put anyone in the bag who can hang around, you’re better off upping strength or similar.
Last edited by Malus99 on Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:10 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Post by Malus99 »

Enchanted Objects-DE

Deathmask- 3/10
Terror is not a difficult option to come by in our army, and its effects are not as powerful as in 7th, for eating up half a Lord’s or the entirety of a Hero’s magic items quota you can occasionally make an enemy unit flee and sometimes reduce their WS to 1, however so many units are Immune to Psychology in some way that the number of units this item can affect is quite small, especially considering the frequent use of BSBs. Also the Terrifying Mask of EEE! (common magic item) has the same effect for half price, although you can’t use the character’s LD for other models with that.

Hydra’s Teeth- 2/10
This gives you 5D6 WS2 S3 Close Combat attacks which initially sounds good but translated on average it will give you 17.5 attacks, 8.75 hits, 4.375 wounds and then your opponent can still make armour saves and that’s for T3 troops. Not much good for the princely sum of 40 points. Its only redeeming save is that it can be used to snipe characters which would be useful in some situations but getting your Hero close enough could be tricky if your opponent knows you have it.

Crystal of Midnight- 3/10
Again very situational. It might remove a spell from a wizard but then again it might not and there’s 35 points wasted. One good point is as an enchanted item it can be taken with arcane items, the BSB re-roll can now also be used to stop this item’s effect. If you are set on using it then look for Lv 1 wizards with low leadership such as Goblins and Skaven as then the chances of nulling your opponents magic is pretty good.

Black Dragon Egg- 7/10
A very useful item now that breath weapons can be used in combat, it is most efficient in combat because you can use all of its effects there, T6 is very useful for elven characters, for all of those who have looked on that Orc Great Shaman’s Toughness characteristic and bemoaned the squishy fate of their magic caster, 2D6 S4 hits is a great bonus and can lead to a nasty surprise for an enemy if your sorceress gets in combat, suddenly all attacks bounce off her skin and she burns the enemy to a crisp, sometimes its worth it just to see the look on your opponent’s face. Or if you need to stall an enemy unit for a turn outside of combat, hitting with the template (template weapons now affecting more models usually) breath weapon and then hoping they fail a LD test to stop them from charging, this could be used very effectively on a character in a repeater crossbowmen unit holding up a flank because not only does the approaching enemy take more damage, but might also have to face another round of shooting, good value for money.

Gem of Nightmares- 4/10
With the removal of outnumbering, more specifically the fear auto-break rule concerning it, this item has become much less effective. Large units can no longer use it to auto-break smaller enemy units in combat, and so it’s use is reduced to reducing the enemy’s WS and stopping the model and attached unit from suffering from the same thing, many of our units are ITP or cause fear/terror themselves and so have no use for this item, leaving very few options for its use. Too expensive for a single turn of fear since fear has lost one of its biggest benefits.

Guiding Eye-5/10
Not an item to rave about, but it does have its uses, a sorceress with this item can sit in a unit of RXBs, shoot spells and give the RXBs a round of re-rolls which could be useful if they get a particularly good target, but it is one-use-only and a little overpriced, good for RHB corsairs' stand and shoot aswell but does require a character to 'babysit' them.


Enchanted Objects-Common

Wizarding Hat- 1/10
240 points for a Dreadlord who is a Lv2 wizard and only allowed to use mundane equipment? Like a broken pencil. Does give you access to lores we otherwise can't take and gives you a Lv2 who can fight, but ridiculously expensive and takes all of your magic items points

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.

Arabyan Carpet- 1/10
Obviously for armies who can’t get flying mounts, buy a Dark Pegasus instead, it doesn’t take up magic item points, costs the same, gives you some handy attacks, allows you to join units and (in the case of heroes) gives you an extra wound. The only advantage it has over the Dark Pegasus is that the Character remains as infantry rather than monstrous cavalry, which does have a couple of benefits which rarely come into play such as allowing him to take the 4+ look out sir roll from a nearby infantry unit.

Crown of Command- 10/10
With our expensive elves, Steadfast is not very common as we are often outnumbered, and, excluding the Black Guard, nobody gets it as a standard rule. So you can either spend a fortune on extra ranks of elves, or stick a character with the crown amongst their ranks, as he passes his stubborn on to the unit he has joined whilst he is with them, which can make a unit nigh-on unbreakable, especially with the BSB around. This can also be used with the ‘unkillable’ master on Dark Pegasus, he charges into a nasty unit, laughs off their attacks with the PoK or AoD or similar, and whilst he continually takes break tests because of the enemies static CR, he is stubborn and so takes tests on his basic leadership, allowing your master to hold up this evil unit for much of the game.

Healing Potion- 7/10
This item has a useful effect for its points, and is one of the very few ways of recovering lost wounds, the only other one the Druchii have access to is Soulstealer, which is only available to Sorceresses. Its only drawbacks are that you cannot use the item to its fullest potential, since we only have characters with 3 or less wounds capable of taking this item, it also costs quite abit, meaning you can’t buy much more magical protection, and a decent set of magical protection will stop you from taking the wounds in the first place. However, for a character wearing mundane armour or a Sorceress looking for abit of insurance against miscasts and such, this item is an interesting option.

Featherfoe Torc- 4/10
The writers of the rulebook apparently really have something against flyers, maybe they don’t like dragons. Very situational, you’d be better off taking all-round protection than an expensive item which singles out models with a not-very-common special rule.

Ruby Ring of Ruin- 4/10
Bound spells, as have been previously mentioned, have taken a hit in this edition, can be put on the Black Guard or CoK champ in order to hit things with regeneration (such as units of trolls) and deny them their regen saves for the magic phase, or can be used against units in buildings, in conjunction with the Lore of Fire spells (kindleflame lore attribute) or if you have no sorceresses, a situational item.

The Terrifying mask of EEE!- 5/10
Terror at a discount, it does stop you using the character’s LD so only put it on a character whose LD you don’t need, Terror isn’t great but if you want it, this is the cheapest way to get it.

Potion of Strength- 7/10
Situational but you can easily create the situations where it is extremely useful. Combine this with a Lance and all of a sudden your opponent is facing 4 S9 attacks which will gouge a hole in almost anything with ease. However you have to time when you want to use it and if you challenge a big nasty and don’t kill it in one turn you will be back to S4-6, a good one-trick-pony item for its cost. Note that it costs 30 points as per the entry in our DE armybook.

Potion of Toughness- 8/10
Toughness is something we elves lack, having T6 for a turn, usually the turn when you are charged by some horrible gribbly or enemy character killer, can be the difference between a triumphant Druchii lord and a splatter of greasy mush on the ground. It can give you the time needed to finish off said horrible gribbly, or alternatively if the opponent’s bonus is ‘first round’ or ‘on the charge’ (such as a lance) it can blunt their advantage. Very handy.

The Other Trickster’s Shard- 5/10
This item is quite situational because not that many models have ward saves, however, most ward saves are 4+ at best, usually 5+ or 6+ so forcing the opponent to re-roll it will often on average increase the wounds they take by 50% or more. If you know you’re coming up against an enemy with lots of wards then this item will double their chance of failure, but for tournament-play or similar it is probably better to get an item you know will be useful, rather than a handy bonus every once in a while.

Ironcurse Icon- 6/10, 8/10 on BG champion
The main reason for taking this item is to protect the unit from warmachines, a 6+ ward isn’t great, and the CoB ward is better, but if you don’t have a CoB lying around with nothing to do and a spare 5 points then this item can protect those expensive, poorly armoured special choices we have, because enemy generals just love to squash BG, Execs and WE with giant stones, BG and COK champions can take this item and their units are often a prime target for warmachines.

Potion of Foolhardiness- 4/10
Not a fantastic item, + 1 attack when charging and ITP might come in handy, but neither are a great bonus as we have good LD and a single extra S4 attack won’t come to much, especially against something you need ITP for, scary things are scary for a reason!

Potion of Speed- 2/10
Elves already have a great Initiative.


Talismans-DE

Black Amulet- 6/10
If we didn’t have the Pendant or the Ring this might get used more often as it is a fairly decent item. A great way to kill enemy heroes such as Bloodthirsters or Dragons but is otherwise situational. If your opponent knows you have it they are unlikely to attack you in the first place.

Ring of Darkness- 8/10
A great way to defend units from enemy fire. Often seen on a Manti Master or in a Deathstar unit such as Shades or Black Guard as it’s pretty expensive.

Pendant of Khaeleth- 10/10
There is no real reason not to take this ever, its fantastic and way underpriced. Most of the time it gives at least a 4+ Ward Save for just 35 points which is ridiculous, however against S5 or more it gives a 2+ Ward Save allowing your hero to simply ignore Cannon Balls, Bloodthirsters whatever. The Pendants real weakness is the fact that while your Lord may be unkillable his mount or escorting unit aren’t and without care he might just run off and get cut down so don’t think you can just send him straight into Greater Demons and expect to win.

The other problem with the Pendant is that people are taking it when it is not really needed and just using it as a crutch which doesn’t make you a very good player. For instance full mundane armour, AoES and the Pendant is overkill, just Mundane armour is often enough for your general to survive the battle, not taking the pendant will also greatly increase your army composition and people will look more favourably on your list. However if you are just out to win don’t let this stop you. The PoK is now very useful for a sorceress as it will protect her from those nasty high strength miscasts

Seal of Ghrond- 6/10
Since both the Ring of Hotek and the Null Talismans have become less powerful in 8th, this item is seeing more use, it gives an extra bit of insurance if the winds of magic favour your opponent and is one of the few, consistent magic defence items we can get. It is still a little overpriced though I think.

Pearl of Infinite Bleakness- 5/10 with Sacrificial Dagger 8/10
This has one fairly good use and that’s on a Sorceress with Sacrificial Dagger in a big unit of Warriors so you can butcher them as much as you like and they won’t panic and run. Most of our other units either can’t get it or don’t need it, and psychology has less impact in 8th than in previous editions.

Ring of Hotek- 6/10 on lone Pegasus Master ‘behind enemy lines’ or similar 10/10
Sadly the Ring of Hotek was given an amendment so that it can no longer give blanket protection over our units, now it only affects casters attempting to cast within 12”, not spells targeted within 12”. Despite this, with the new and more dangerous miscast table the ring can still have a great physical and psychological effect on nearby casters, the only difference is that now you must get close to them for this to take effect. It is particularly evil with the lone Pegasus master build, fly him to the back of the mage’s unit and just stare at the back of the caster’s head whispering “Do it” in a sinister voice. He will be looking nervously over his shoulder all game. Just remember to keep your own sorceresses away from it unless using the ‘magebomb’ tactic.

Null Talisman(s)- 4/10
With the new rules for Magic resistance, Null talismans are not as useful as they were before, a single Talisman gives a 6+ ward against magic attacks which is pretty rubbish, 2 give 5+ and 3 give 4+ which is not too bad. The problems with null talismans is that to give them a decent MR you need two or three which eats up a lot of points, they only save you from spells which do damage, some of the most useful spells in this edition are hexes which your ward save will not protect you from atall and some of the more powerful spells don’t allow ward saves such as purple sun and pit of shades (which, granted, we aren’t very vulnerable to) or final transmutation and the dwellers below (which we are). The talismans are most useful in a unit you know the enemy is going to fire spells at such as a deathstar or any suitably nasty unit your opponent is afraid of, and combined with the CoB ward you can get such a unit to the other side in hopefully (mostly) one piece, but there are no guarantees and as mentioned before, the best spells for dealing with such units deny you those ward saves. As a point of note these should really only be taken to protect a unit the character is accompanying, there are much better ways of giving your character all-round protection than the talismans.


Talismans-Common

Talisman of Preservation- 7/10
4+ ward at a reasonable price, this item is pretty useful, its only flaw being that it takes up (basically) all of a hero’s magic items quota and nearly half of a Lord’s.

Obsidian Lodestone- 4/10
Identical to 3 Null Talismans and so given exactly the same score

Talisman of Endurance- 5/10
5+ ward for its cost is, again, pretty reasonable, but it will probably only ever come into use once.

Obsidian Amulet- 4/10
Same as two Null Talismans

Dawnstone- 7/10 with a 1+ armour (such as AoD) 9/10
Obviously this item gets better, the higher your Armour Save, therefore combining it with the AoD is very efficient and will give your opponents a headache, it will reduce the number of failed 1 or 2+ armour saves by about 84%, 3+ armour saves by 67%, 4+ by 50% and so on. Just as a quick calculation an AoD+Dawnstone character should, on average, only be wounded by S4 or less enemies by 1 in every 36 wounds. It is, essentially, another suit of armour as good as the first, and because we can get very good armour, that makes this item very useful.

Opal Amulet- 4/10
A 50% chance of a complete waste of points keeps this item from being more useful, I would rather spend points on an item with a definite effect.

Obsidian Trinket- 4/10
Same as a null talisman.

Talisman of Protection- 3/10
Unless you roll a disproportionate number of 6’s this isn’t the best defence you can have.

Seed of Rebirth- 3/10
Basically the same as the Talisman of Protection except it costs 5 points less and can be negated by flaming attacks, still not very useful unless you have a habit of rolling 6s.

Dragonbane gem- 7/10, 10/10 with AoES
As with the dragonhelm this item is great for saving your character from the lore of Metal and Fire, but unlike the dragonhelm it can be used with the Armour of Eternal Servitude to preserve the regen.

Pidgeon Plucker Pendant- 5/10
Very situational, but for its points it doesn’t have a bad effect, could be useful if you are matching yourself up against Pegasus knights or the increasing occurrence of characters on flying monsters

Luckstone- 8/10
If used in the right place it is essentially an extra wound and so is a bargain at only 5 points.
Last edited by Malus99 on Thu Dec 16, 2010 12:27 am, edited 8 times in total.
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Post by Malus99 »

Arcane Items-DE

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.

Focus Familiar- 8/10
Perfect for a Sorceress on Dark Pegasus so they can hide from the enemy while still zapping them to death.

Darkstar Cloak- 8/10
Cheap and simple, great for supporting spellcasters, is good insurance in case you roll very low for winds of magic.

Sacrificial Dagger- 10/10
This can grant you between 3-5 PD per turn for just 25 points! However you have to judge this against the cost of killing off so many warriors which reduces the unit’s effectiveness.

Tome of Furion- 8/10
A very useful item for increasing the chances of getting the spells you want, on a Lv2 caster there is over a 1/3 chance of being allowed to choose a spell by rolling a spell twice, which can be very useful, with a Lv4 you are almost guaranteed to get which spells you want from a lore. The tome is also the only arcane DE item you can get with the PoK on a Lv1 or 2, meaning that if you just want to get off a huge spell with irresistible force and survive the miscast then the tome increases the chances of getting the purple sun, or the pit of shades, useful for a magebomb.


Arcane Items-Common

Book of Ashur- 6/10
Not a bad item to give your main sorceress who will be used for your dispel attempts, on a level 4 that’s a total of +5 to cast and dispel meaning you can cast any spell with a casting value of less than 13 with an average roll of two dice, so you can cast anything in the lore of dark quite comfortably on 2 dice. Its only drawback is that it is phenomenally expensive

Feedback Scroll- 7/10
A nasty little item which can give your opponent quite a surprise. On average a 2 wound caster will need to roll 4-6 dice on a spell to be killed outright and a 3 wound caster should use 6-9 before being killed by it, so the feedback spell is good for targetting those casters who are just there to throw all of their dice at a game-breaking spell. Note that the item description states it is used ‘instead of attempting to dispel the spell’ which means you can’t use this scroll if you couldn’t dispel the spell in the first place (IF), so for those enemies using the power scroll or other ways of getting irresistable force you may find it difficult to use this on a spell with enough dice used to do sufficient damage. If your opponent is not rolling enough dice for you to use this item to kill them outright, the other use for this scroll is to make the enemy spellcaster worry about a miscast even more if they are knocked down by a wound or two which is an interesting psychological angle. All in all this item has a variable effect depending on what you face, it could make quadruple its points, or be very little help whatsoever, it will use up a lot of points, but if you’re a gambling man...

Scroll of Leeching- 5/10
A case of exchanging a greater evil for a lesser one, but why not take a dispel scroll, have a crack at removing the lesser evil with dispel dice and then scroll the greater evil for half the points? This item might be more useful than a dispel scroll against someone who rolls two or three dice and then follows this with a deluge of single-dice castings but for the most part people start small and work their way up, so to actually gain a decent amount of dice from this item, you need to wait until they’ve used a load up and let them have a free spell go off in order to gain loads of DD, at which point they either throw all their remaining dice at a spell hoping for IF, or just leave the rest of the magic phase and get on with it next turn. This item could shut down a crucial magic phase if you are fortunate, but the dispel scroll is much more certain.

Siverjir’s Hex Scroll- 4/10
Amusing, but it is expensive and not particularly effective, the more powerful the spellcaster you want to affect, the more likely you have completely wasted your points, and it is only likely to keep him out of one magic phase at most. Probably the greatest benefit is if the caster is travelling with a unit, that unit must either leave him behind, or travel at 1” this phase (2” if marching) which is good for slowing down a wizard bunker or getting that caster out in the open where he is vulnerable, but units escorting wizards aren’t usually too keen on advancing and getting closer to the enemy where they can get charged anyways.

Power scroll- 8/10
Increases the chance of getting off that game-breaking spell, if there is a spell you must get off, this item can help. Good for a sorceress who is just there to cast an uber spell, beware that it also causes a miscast.

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.

Forbidden Rod- 3/10
+ D6 powerdice? Great! In exchange for my caster? No thanks. The chance of killing your very expensive magic user in return for getting more dice (which she then can’t use because she is dead!) is not great, yes it might not kill her, but it will kill a hero 2/3 of the time and a lord 1/3 of the time, and otherwise severely weaken them, it bypasses the PoK, so you should only use this if you are a Supreme Sorceress with Soul Stealer, or have a very good ward save such as 4+, which is very expensive. We can get more powerdice quite easily; there is no need to kill a caster for it.

Trickster’s Shard- 6/10
As the enemy dispeller is usually their most powerful caster, use this item on your most powerful spellcaster with the most spells, then fire off as many spells as possible, your opponent is then caught between the Devil and the Dragons Below, does he let the spell through? Or risk suffering a wound? You either get a couple of spells let through or deal a wound or possibly even two on his caster, not bad for the points. The only drawbacks are firstly, it is unusual to be able to get off more than three spells with one caster, this means you are only likely to deal one wound, secondly, you must use this item before you roll on the winds of magic, meaning that you could end up having no dice to cast with (not so bad because we can get PD easily) but more importantly, your opponent might be left with no dispel dice, so if they can’t dispel much of anything, you have wasted the points.

Earthing Rod- 8/10
If you are worried about the miscast table then this is the item for you, for its points, what it does is reasonable, as a Druchii though the only reason you should take this is to cause more destruction! Might sound like an odd thing to say, but look up the magebomb, a miscast result of 6 or under is what you are aiming for, 7 is acceptable, 8-9 is annoying but not calamitous and 10-12 is bad. The Magebomb in combination with this item is much more reliable. If you are taking this item to avoid the bad effects of a miscast, don’t bother, they are all bad effects, it’s a risk you will have to live with, spend the points on the sacrificial dagger instead which will help actually avoid a miscast rather than change it.

Dispel Scroll- 8/10
Always useful, except against Dwarves.

Power Stone- 6/10
I have rarely seen these used, especially as we can generate PD so easily. Only really needed if you are going OTT.

Sceptre of Stability- 5/10
The seal of Ghrond gives six times as many dice for only twice the points, but if you want an extra bit of security then this item will help abit, generally I prefer to reserve arcane items for improving my offensive capabilities, but if you want a defensive wizard then this item might be something to consider, only if you already have a dispel scroll and the Seal of Ghrond though.

Channeling staff- 4/10
Will on average give you an extra power dice and an extra dispel dice per game, but you can’t choose when so use any of the other options we have for gaining Power and Dispel Dice, there are quite a few.

Scroll of Shielding- 6/10
For its points this item isn’t bad, like having MR3 against one spell, the only problem is that many of the most dangerous spells either don’t allow ward saves or don’t deal wounds, they simply remove the models as casualties. It is however more economical than MR against a reasonably low-magic enemy.

Staff of Sorcery- 5/10
Nice, but other arcane items are cheaper and better


Combinations
The following is a list of item combinations which various people have used.

Master with Lance, Sea Dragon Cloak, Cold One/Chariot, Shield, Dragonbane Gem and Armour of Eternal Servitude.The Armour of Eternal Servitude is now more useful; first, it's cheaper, and second, it's Heavy Armour. A 1+ Armour Save and his Regeneration Save for cheaper than a Ward Save, the AoES’s weakness to fire is negated by the Dragonbane Gem's 2+ ward against fire. He will suffer from a Cold One's stupidity, and will not get a Look out Sir! roll unless he is in a unit of cavalry. As a Master, he has a 1/6 chance of suffering from Stupidity, so, statistically that's one turn out of six that he'll spend smelling daisies. It's a gamble, and it isn't all that cheap, either, coming to 159/229 Points, but I believe the advantages of this character outweigh the disadvantages, he does still have 10 points of magic items to spend aswell.

Now, this is plainly not a general kind of character. I'd deploy him on a flank with his Cold One Knights/Chariot, and have him counter attack into the flank, or have him and his bodyguard go off and scare light cavalry away and run into warmachines. While he comfortably compliments a Chariot or a unit of Knights, he just isn't what I'd consider to be General material.

Master, Dark Pegasus, Ring of Hotek, Deathpiercer, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield, Lance, Pair of Repeater Handbows. Okay, so this is 210 Points of character that, again, isn't general material. He is, simply put, someone who hunts down warmachines, mages, skirmishers and light cavalry, and yet can make a supporting impact when used in combination with other units. He can more effectively shut down an opponents magic phase with the help of the Ring of Hotek, potentially shutting it down entirely for a turn. While he has a number of uses, just like the previous character he is not a general, and more importantly, he has no special kind of save to help him out in drawn out combats where high strength opponents will maul him.

Master, Dark Steed, Lance, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, Lifetaker. 149 Points of character who, again, isn't a general sort. He's unfortunately not Fast Cavalry, but in a Dark Rider unit with Shields and Repeater Crossbows, and possible a Standard Bearer, he becomes part of a medium cavalry unit that can comfortably take on light cavalry, skirmishers, smaller units, warmachines, and mages. In the long run, he's as well armoured as he would be on a Cold One, and he saves the 8 additional Points that would take up. To me, that's another Warrior. Not only that, but because he isn't riding a Cold One, he doesn't suffer from Stupidity and thus doesn't risk that 1/6 chance of becoming stupid. While his bodyguard only have a 4+ save, there's likely to be other threats hanging around that cause enough threat for enemy shooting to target, with some luck. With the Lifetaker he also becomes a mobile shooting platform, to an extent, and can assist the Dark Riders in targeting those units that need one more loss to be panicked. A good way of increasing the punch of DR, who may see more use as medium cavalry than heavy.

Master, Armour of Darkness, Crimson Death. 130 Points, simple, and designed to lead a unit of infantry, such as Warriors, Corsairs or, even better, Black Guard. While he can only deal so much damage, he's also what I'd use as a General, keeping at the centre of the army to support leadership. He has 3 WS6 S6 attacks with Hatred at I7, which can help tip the balance of the combat in your favour when without flanking support, and in case of loss of combat, his healthy LD9 will help most units from breaking and running. In the case of Black Guard, his LD9 is less of an issue for his own unit, but for the surrounding units it becomes an incredibly important factor. If you combine him with a Battle Standard Bearer somewhere nearby, then the chances of your units running can drop by a healthy proportion.

Master, Battle Standard Bearer, Banner Of Nagarythe, Cold One, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak. You're probably wondering why the Cold One? If not, well done, give yourself a cookie. If not, it's because it gives him an additional +2 to his Armour Save, which makes him more survivable. In a unit of Black Guard, maybe the same unit that your General's in (Or maybe the unit next door. Depends on how you like your eggs). This gives a wide-round bonus to Combat Resolution that can be extremely useful, combined with his unit being Unbreakable. What's more, if the General does just happen to be in the same unit of Black Guard, there's nothing wrong with putting a Banner of Hag Graef in there. So long as this unit isn't flanked on both sides, or rear charged, it shouldn't have a problem. Sure, this is a good 258 Points worth of Battle Standard Bearer, along with the cost of the Black Guard and the General, so if you're a bit worried about them surviving, there's always the 200-250 Points you could pay for a Cauldron of Blood to give them a 5+ Ward Save while they're brawling. Or make everyone gain an additional attack...

Anyway, let's continue.

Sorceress, Tome of Furion, Crystal of Midnight. A slight alternative to Magic. Don't want to spend the points on a Level 2, then a Level 1 is good enough. The Tome of Furion, while not a personal favourite, will help with Magical Diversity, hopefully to ensure that at least one spell isn't going to be useless. The Crystal of Midnight, however, has long been a toy I've liked to take every so often. Sometimes it can really screw a Mage up, sometimes it gets rid of the spell that they never, ever use, and either way, I think it's a brilliant item, regardless. Then again, with this combination even if the price hadn't gone up, right now you could afford zilch.

Sorceress, Focus Familiar, The Guiding Eye, Level 2. Don't feel like taking part in the battle? Lean back with a Sorceress in a Crossbowman unit, maybe a large one, and have her set her Focus Familiar for best effects to blast at enemy units. The Focus Familiar is possibly going to become one of my favourite items, getting taken more and more often, mainly because I'll be able to hide a Sorceress in a forest somewhere, and then start blasting stuff from within it, regardless of the trees (unless the trees try to eat her, maybe not such a good idea, stick with the Xbows). She could join a Shade Unit also, and at a critical moment they could, potentially, kill what's needed because of the Guiding Eye. Mounting her on a Dark Steed and putting her in a unit of Dark Riders could also become effective with some sneakiness.

Death Hag, Rune of Khaine, Manbane. This one's simple. Put in Witch Elf Unit. Charge it into Enemy. Poison them lots with 6-8 Poison Attacks from the Death Hag herself, hopefully at a pretty high Strength. Laugh. Hope there are no attacks back. You will need to pick your targets well for this one though.

Master on a Cold One, BSB. Hydra Banner, Shield, HA, SDC. Toss him in a unit of 5 CoK's, you have 15 S6 attacks and 12 S4 attacks on the charge, with the Hatred re-rolls.

Master with Blood Armour, Heartseeker or Hydra blade, SDC and shield. A basic armour save of 3+, which will quickly become 1+, the mundane armour is just there to make sure he survives long enough to get that AS to 1+ so take as much or as little as you feel is necessary, he will be striking with either 3 WS6 S4 attacks which are always re-rollable, or 4-7 WS6 S4 attacks, either way he should have great armour and decent hitting power, the flaw being he is at low strength. Costs 136 which is not bad.

Master with Dragonhelm, Caledor’s Bane, Cold One, full mundane armour and a Luckstone. The anti-dragon crusader, probably not the most practical combination, but if you want a dragonslayer, this is your man. He probably spent too much time raiding Brettonia and getting funny notions from the Knights he tortured, but S7 on the charge, 2+ ward against fire and a 1+ AS which is re-rollable once should do some damage.

Lastly, the unkillable* anti-character Dreadlord. Mount on a Cold One, give him the Deathpiercer, Armour of Eternal Servitude, and Pendant of Khaeleth. Charge him into a character and watch as he eats him alive. For bonus points charge a unit and challenge the character you want to kill. Supporting him properly is necessary, either with multiple charges or a CoK unit, but he'll eat up pretty much anything you can throw at him. Enough KB attacks to slaughter most characters and on the charge he can seriously threaten monsters. But mostly, it comes down to the fact that against almost any geared character, he's got a 1+ armour save, effectively a 2+ ward save (assuming they have 5 strength, you need to roll 5 or less) or maybe a 3+ if they're only S4, and Regeneration for another 4+ save. Chances are that as long as his unit isn't wiped out, he'll live long enough to kill pretty much anything. Against S5 he can survive a whopping 432 attacks! However this is perhaps over the top.

There are many hundreds of other builds and if anyone has one in particular I would be more than happy to add them in.

How Many Items is too many? Everyone has their own personal preference on the number of magic items and it really depends on your army’s build and playstyle. I would like to just point out though that there is no requirement for taking as many magic items as possible and taking items simply for the sake of it is not a good way to make a strong list. Many of our items are simply not worth taking or only taking in specific situations so try to avoid feeling tempted to simply use up spare points by taking highly situational items. Use only what you need, if you have plenty of spare points and are not having to make hard choices on what to include and what not to, get some more troops.


Recognition of Tactical Brilliance
This article is an edited version of Bounce’s fantastic 7th Edition magic items summary to bring it up to 8th Edition, so much of the work is from his original 7th edition article, below are the credits from the original article:

- I’d just like to recognise that all of the above is not entirely my own work but includes the thoughts of others, who put a lot of time and effort into adding their own ideas. So I’d just like to say thanks to No One, Darmort, Calisson, Dalamar, Moon Blade, Mordru, Dyvim Tvar, Quinn and many others.

A big thanks to all who have submitted their opinions and thoughts on this article. Thanks to bounce for writing the brilliant 7th edition article upon which this has been based and thanks to Calisson for all of his help in getting this article written and on the forums, not to mention his fantastic D.R.A.I.C.H series.

Further reading:
7th Edition D.R.A.I.C.H.- Magic Items Summary
Poll for 8th edition: Various Character Builds - Masters
8th edition: Various Character Builds
8th Ed DE Items - what went up, what went down?
Poll: 8th edition: Various Character Builds - Sorceress

Thanks for reading!
Last edited by Malus99 on Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:51 am, edited 8 times in total.
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Post by Thanee »

Nice writeup! :D

Not sure I agree with all points, though.

Just some quick examples...

- Dread Banner is a clear 0/10 (only BSB can use it, and Fear is simply not worth it; besides a CO mount does more for less points)
- Banner of Murder is awesome on BG or COK, and also great on Spearmen
- Razor Standard is worse than Banner of Murder, yes, but it is still good! At least a 5-6/10
- Banner of Cold Blood is no more than a 4/10 IMHO, esp. compared to the Gleaming Pennant, which is highly superior
- Cloak of Hag Graef is surely more than a 3/10
- Blood Armour is also better than 5/10 IMHO (and surely not just when combined with some not so great weapons), it is a very easy way to get a 1+ save, eventually, if you otherwise cannot (because not enough magic item points left, or someone else is using AoD already)
- Armour of Destiny OTOH is only average IMO, Armour of Eternal Servitude is better (cheaper and not much of a disadvantage, which also can be mostly mitigrated for another 5 pts)
- Dragonhelm cannot be combined with AoES ;)
- Enchanted Shield is superb still 7-8/10
- Charmed Shield is also not that bad... not great, but at least average
- Whip of Agony ... a ... 6/10 !? It's more like 11/10

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Post by Malus99 »

Will start editing now, my bad on the AoES+Dragonhelm, got carried away with the idea and didn't notice :( , still have the dragonbane gem though :D
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Post by xFallenx »

Thanks for the write up, damn good read.
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Post by Malus99 »

Thanee:

- Dread Banner is a clear 0/10 (only BSB can use it, and Fear is simply not worth it; besides a CO mount does more for less points)
Agreed
- Banner of Murder is awesome on BG or COK, and also great on Spearmen
Edited
- Razor Standard is worse than Banner of Murder, yes, but it is still good! At least a 5-6/10
I've given it a 4 because I am not a great fan of AP and this standard takes up the CoK (who want gleaming pennant) or BG or the BSB standard options
- Banner of Cold Blood is no more than a 4/10 IMHO, esp. compared to the Gleaming Pennant, which is highly superior
I agree the pennanty is better, I've also given that one an increase, but for giving extra insurance for CoK stupidity on the turn you need it most...
- Cloak of Hag Graef is surely more than a 3/10
I don't have much experience with this in 8th so I didn't edit it and hoped a vet would come along and enlighten me, warmachines allow armour saves now so I will add that in
- Blood Armour is also better than 5/10 IMHO (and surely not just when combined with some not so great weapons), it is a very easy way to get a 1+ save, eventually, if you otherwise cannot (because not enough magic item points left, or someone else is using AoD already)
Agreed, I love it but it was given a poor score in the last version so I compromised.
- Armour of Destiny OTOH is only average IMO, Armour of Eternal Servitude is better (cheaper and not much of a disadvantage, which also can be mostly mitigrated for another 5 pts)
AOES is deffinitely better, I have dropped a point on Armour of destiny, but it is a good way of getting a decent ward without the PoK or the equivalent with AOES
- Dragonhelm cannot be combined with AoES
oops!
- Enchanted Shield is superb still 7-8/10
yes but dragonhelm gives a better bonus for slightly less so it will get 7/10
- Charmed Shield is also not that bad... not great, but at least average
I disagree, those 5 points could be used elsewhere rather than on a shield with very little in the way of a bonus, better just to get a shield
- Whip of Agony ... a ... 6/10 !? It's more like 11/10,
Another oversight on my part, it gets a 9 because the Crimson Death is the same points but better and you could get the sword of might for less but the same strength bonus (on a character), sorry for my AP bias but I don't think its that great

Thanks for your C&C Thanee, has improved some areas I was uncertain on alot!

Thanks xfallenx!
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Post by Vaari »

Amazing work Malus. I had put my hand up to do something similar, but got swamped at Uni. And it would have never been this good.

- Cloak of Hag Gref. - maybe 6/10?

I would say its a situational item. Yet halving the strength of all range/magic missles as well as the -1/-2 that a Cloak gives is pretty nice.

I have a dreadlord that combines the Cloak with the Ring of Darkness on a Peggy - missle fire, not a problem.

- Standard of Discipline

As you have it worded it looks like the unit gets to use the General's LD. This is not the case. The unit gets LD+1 , as would the General. All units bar the Banner unit get to test on the Generals new LD.





Edit as you see fit - looking forward to seeing this DRAICH develop.
Last edited by Vaari on Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Tethlis »

A few things I would mention:

-Venom Sword: Good for killing all multi-wound models, not just characters, providing you can inflict a wound. Especially with the presence of magical augments/hexes to help an assassin out, this item is even better in 8th edition than it was in 7th. Lore of Shadow to debuff an opponent's Toughness or Lore of Metal to reduce their armor, and suddenly your Assassin can drop a dragon with a reasonable expectation for success. Situational, but no more situational than lots of things being used these days.

-Razor Standard: For anyone using more than one unit of elite infantry, this standard becomes very useful. Banner of Murder on Witch Elves, and you can still give very useful Armor Piercing to either Black Guard or or Cold One Knights (both benefit enormously from it.)

-Glittering Scales: Most enemies will only hit your Dreadlord on a 5+. Some will only hit on a 6+. This isn't terrible, in my opinion.

-Charmed Shield: Survive a cannonball.

-Power Scroll: This can virtually guarantee a game-breaking spell, and is hated and reviled as a result. Sure, it's expensive with drawbacks, but is also very powerful too.

Besides those minor changes, I think it looks excellent. You put some great work into all of this.
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Post by Maldor »

I had completely overlooked the AoES/Dragonbane Gem combo, good call.

A few points of contention:

Whip of Agony also now grants an extra attack in addition to the S bonus and AP. As it can be used with a shield as well, I'd personally put it on par with Crimson Death.

I don't think Deathpiercer is an 8 under 8th rules, as the BRB states that lances are only used on the round following a charge and in all other situations (subsequent rounds and being charged) hand weapons are used. Therefore for 25 points you only get KB for that single round. Hardly comparable to ToD.
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Post by Sulla »

Maldor wrote:I don't think Deathpiercer is an 8 under 8th rules, as the BRB states that lances are only used on the round following a charge and in all other situations (subsequent rounds and being charged) hand weapons are used. Therefore for 25 points you only get KB for that single round. Hardly comparable to ToD.
It's probably worth an FAQ because you have 2 contradicting rules with the one you mentioned above and themagic weapon rule requiring you to always use your magic weapon.
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Post by Malus99 »

Thanks for all of the replies, now I gues its my turn for some answers:

Vaari:

Cloak of Hag Graef: it has a 5 because for a character in a unit it will be very little use as most shooting and ranged attacks will either not hit him or give him a look out sir! roll, making it a situational item, but if that character is on his own then suddenly he becomes a bullet magnet, so the worth of this item becomes much greater, which means for a character on his own it gets an 8

- Standard of Discipline

As you have it worded it looks like the unit gets to use the General's LD. This is not the case. The unit gets LD+1 , as would the General. All units bar the Banner unit get to test on the Generals new LD.


That is because the item's entry states that the unit cannot use the general's inspiring presence rule, it doesn't say it cannot use his LD, if he has joined them, the unit uses the highest LD in the unit for LD tests, which will be the general's+1 with the standard of discipline, they are not using the inspiring presence, only the highest LD in the unit for the test which is not inspiring presence, it was FAQed as such:

'Q: If the General is in a unit with the Standard of Discipline will
he gain +1 Leadership and then be able to pass it onto his unit
(because he is in it) as well as other units in range of the Inspiring
Presence special rule? (Reference)
A: Yes.'


This means as long as the general is in the unit with the standard of discipline, everyone including the unit he joined who is within 12" gets to use his (or her) base LD+1 for their tests.


Tethlis:

-Razor Standard: For anyone using more than one unit of elite infantry, this standard becomes very useful. Banner of Murder on Witch Elves, and you can still give very useful Armor Piercing to either Black Guard or or Cold One Knights (both benefit enormously from it.)


There seems to be a general consensus that I am underestimating armour piercing so I will edit and give it a higher score and have to go use AP some more to find out what all the fuss is about :)

-Glittering Scales: Most enemies will only hit your Dreadlord on a 5+. Some will only hit on a 6+. This isn't terrible, in my opinion.


its the -1 to the overall AS that concerns me, I don't want to spend 25 points on a set of magical armour which actually lowers my overall Armour save (assuming you were going to take heavy armour) I'm certainly not sure on my verdict for this item, but for now I will leave it as it is until I get some more chances to test it or there is some other persuasive evidence to the contrary of the current score

-Charmed Shield: Survive a cannonball.


Thanee mentioned it aswell, what score do you think it should be? I'm not really inclined to give it much more than a 5 but I'm certainly interested in hearing ideas on this one.

-Power Scroll: This can virtually guarantee a game-breaking spell, and is hated and reviled as a result. Sure, it's expensive with drawbacks, but is also very powerful too.


Ok, 4-6 then for a situational item?

-Venom Sword: Good for killing all multi-wound models, not just characters, providing you can inflict a wound. Especially with the presence of magical augments/hexes to help an assassin out, this item is even better in 8th edition than it was in 7th. Lore of Shadow to debuff an opponent's Toughness or Lore of Metal to reduce their armor, and suddenly your Assassin can drop a dragon with a reasonable expectation for success. Situational, but no more situational than lots of things being used these days.


7 then? I always rather liked this item, shame it isn't poisoned,

Maldor:

Whip of Agony also now grants an extra attack in addition to the S bonus and AP. As it can be used with a shield as well, I'd personally put it on par with Crimson Death.


I was just thinking as i updated the whip of agony after Thanee's comment 'now if only it gave an extra attack like the ordinary beastmaster's scourge counting as an AHW', I even went back to the rulebook and checked, 'yup, a magical weapon cannot be used with a mundane hand weapon to get the two hand weapon extra attack.' Then after reading your comment I went to the FAQ and realised that the beastmaster's scourge had been FAQed to give an extra attack by itself, now I feel abit of a prat :oops: sorry Thanee! It will be given 10 to be on par with Crimson Death.

I don't think Deathpiercer is an 8 under 8th rules, as the BRB states that lances are only used on the round following a charge and in all other situations (subsequent rounds and being charged) hand weapons are used. Therefore for 25 points you only get KB for that single round. Hardly comparable to ToD.


as Sulla said:
It's probably worth an FAQ because you have 2 contradicting rules with the one you mentioned above and themagic weapon rule requiring you to always use your magic weapon.


I personally would allow myself to use the deathpiercer in multiple rounds of combat as it is better than a hand weapon, but then I am biased in favour of my characters lopping people's heads off, so I'm hardly an impartial advisor
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Post by Maldor »

While the general rules for special and magical weapons state that they are always used over a hand weapon, the specific rules for a lance say on the charge only. Combined, this would mean that a lance must be used on the charge, with a hand weapon used otherwise. Further, magic weapons follow all the rules for the weapon type listed unless otherwise specified. It follows therefore that a magic lance must be used on the charge and can only be used then.
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Post by Malus99 »

Maldor wrote:While the general rules for special and magical weapons state that they are always used over a hand weapon, the specific rules for a lance say on the charge only. Combined, this would mean that a lance must be used on the charge, with a hand weapon used otherwise. Further, magic weapons follow all the rules for the weapon type listed unless otherwise specified. It follows therefore that a magic lance must be used on the charge and can only be used then.


okey kokey, editing now.

P.S. 101st post, yay!
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Post by Meteor »

Tethlis wrote:A few things I would mention:

-Venom Sword: Good for killing all multi-wound models, not just characters, providing you can inflict a wound. Especially with the presence of magical augments/hexes to help an assassin out, this item is even better in 8th edition than it was in 7th. Lore of Shadow to debuff an opponent's Toughness or Lore of Metal to reduce their armor, and suddenly your Assassin can drop a dragon with a reasonable expectation for success. Situational, but no more situational than lots of things being used these days.


It absolutely rocks. It is exactly what I've been toying with now, and it has met with success 4/5 attempts. It does cost you most of your magic phase, but to get rid of a very big nasty target just like that, it's well worth it.

Tethlis wrote:-Razor Standard: For anyone using more than one unit of elite infantry, this standard becomes very useful. Banner of Murder on Witch Elves, and you can still give very useful Armor Piercing to either Black Guard or or Cold One Knights (both benefit enormously from it.)


It is quite good allowing you to equip two units with AP. But imo, only BGs and CoKs really benefit from it in an all rounder way. Against 1+ save enemies, commonly heavy cavalry, there's no difference in using S3 AP and just plain S3, or even plain S4. It all results in the enemy passing on a 2+. AP will only make an impact here when it's S4 with AP, bringing 1+ AS to a 3+. Again, that's situational, but so is using S3 AP against HA/LA w/ Sh infantry.

Tethlis wrote:-Glittering Scales: Most enemies will only hit your Dreadlord on a 5+. Some will only hit on a 6+. This isn't terrible, in my opinion.


It's a very good form of protection that'll help you avoid many attacks in CC. After all, that's why Word of Pain is good. It's 25pts, but that still allows you 75pts to get other useful magic items. A Cold One mount will make up for the missing AS point anyway.

Tethlis wrote:-Power Scroll: This can virtually guarantee a game-breaking spell, and is hated and reviled as a result. Sure, it's expensive with drawbacks, but is also very powerful too.


It is very powerful when used at the right time. And is potentially a game breaking item too, you don't always have to use it on a game breaking spell. As long as you use it on a spell you really need to go off this turn, it'll pay for itself. A typical example is frenzy corsairs charged into a block of chosen warriors with general. Powerscroll and IF Mindrazor, now you're dropping 30 S8 attacks with rerolls on them.

Or Venom Sword Assassin goes into combat with a Dragon of some description, powerscroll and IF withering, now your Assassin is wounding the dragon anywhere between 3+ to 5+, sure better than 6+.

It's hated because it significantly raises your IF chance, even possible to go 100% guaranteed with 7 PD that your opponent can do NOTHING about. It's why Teclis is hated so much too :)

Finally, lets not go into Deathpiercer. Its been debated previously before, and I believe the thread was locked because it was causing too much grief as either side of the argument held truth.
Last edited by Meteor on Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Equipment
Short Sword, MC Long Sword*, Dagger, RxB & RHB [20/10] MC Shade Cloak, 4 Throwing Daggers, 3x Healing Vials, 451C, [3]Dark Venom, [4]Unseen Chains, Food, Dark Steed- Spike

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Eye of the Jabberwock

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Post by Malus99 »

rightey-hoo, what should the glittering scales be at then do you think?
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Post by Meteor »

0/10 is a bit harsh haha. Admittedly, I haven't been using it much, but that's probably because I don't use a Dreadlord to lead my army often because I enjoy dominating the magic phase where my Sorceress is mostly safe from harm.

It passes in my eye, so maybe a 4 at least?

A few things I'd point out is
Ruby Ring, whilst may seem useless, it is a 25pt item, which our CoK and BG champs can use. Its value is its ability to remove regen on a target for your other casters to attack in the magic phase, since it's a flame attack. So taking that into consideration, it might justify itself in your eyes ;)

PoK is indeed a great item, but I wonder whether giving it 11/10 is a bit too much credit? It's not exactly without weaknesses. There are quite a few S2/S1 no AS missiles out there, death and metal lore will ruin your day since their attacks have no strength value. So a standard 4+ ward is always more safe than a PoK. But I guess the cost of the item is what justifies its value, 35pts for a talisman is indeed a bargain. Though its rating will drop like a brick if it's given to a Sorceress because she's got no armour to keep low strength attacks away. Being T3, she's pretty easy to wound.

Some things for you to ponder about if you didn't prior to the ratings. Nonetheless, it is a very very well written and laid out piece of work. So thanks for taking the time to do all that Malus! :)
What's mine is mine, What's yours is mine.
Now that we understand each other, lets get down to business.

Jacks -Shade
- WS 5 - - S 3 - - T 2 - - D 6 - - I 5 -

Equipment
Short Sword, MC Long Sword*, Dagger, RxB & RHB [20/10] MC Shade Cloak, 4 Throwing Daggers, 3x Healing Vials, 451C, [3]Dark Venom, [4]Unseen Chains, Food, Dark Steed- Spike

Skills
Basic Stealth, Awareness, TWF, Suithenlu Khythan, Ride

Magic Item
Eye of the Jabberwock

*Magical properties possibly imbued
User avatar
Dangerous Beans
The Guiding Eye
Posts: 1120
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2002 9:19 pm
Location: Sat drinking 'soul stealer' cocktails in the city of Vilebrier with Morathi...

Post by Dangerous Beans »

Great thread dude! I have yet to trawl through it all but picked up on this point that you made at the start:

Malus99 wrote:add in the BRB’s potion of strength and for one turn’s shooting you can hit at S10 with throwing stars


Er... how do you give an Assassin the potion of strength when they cannot use magic items from the BRB or Druchii items? ;)
Malus99 wrote:Lifetaker - Flying Models can make a full flight move and shoot but they are more open to enemy fire.

Er... can they? Remember moving anything beyond 10" when flying counts as marching now... I thought this meant that we cannot fly 20" and still shoot - could be wrong though!

As for the chillblade - even tried it with Shadow magic's -D3 Toughness and maybe in a unit of ASF Cold Ones or with the Potion of Speed to make sure you're going first? ;)
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Vaari
Black Guard
Posts: 296
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:53 pm
Location: NZ

Post by Vaari »

Good god, I hadn't seen the faq regarding the LD banner. That makes it even better than I thought, good to know.

The way things are going this will be an excellent resource in no time.

Glittering Scale is a difficult one. Some of the builds in the Character thread seem to make it appear to have some use. Maybe later on you could do a poll thread for what ranking it should get.
Last edited by Vaari on Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Group 28
Name - Seijl Illydrien Class- Shade
Character Stats
- WS 6 - - S 3 - - T 3 - - D 4 - - I 4 -
Equipment
MC Light Armour, MC Buckler, MC Longsword,, Repeater Crossbow, Dagger w/ UC, Dagger w/ DV Shade Cloak. Field Kit (Healing x3), Vials of Unseen Chains (x3 uses) , Vials of Dark Venom (x4 uses) , Lamia Fang, Harpy Claws
Circlets : 260, , Emerald Eye (200Circ.) Rations: 10/10 Bolts: 16/20 , Null Stone
Skills
Basic Stealth - Heal
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Nellamik
Black Guard
Posts: 278
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:10 pm
Location: Near the windy city Illinois

Post by Nellamik »

First off excellant work Malus99. You are a busy Druchii aren't you.

Malus99 said:
Lifetaker - Flying Models can make a full flight move and shoot but they are more open to enemy fire.

Dangerous beans said;
Er... can they? Remember moving anything beyond 10" when flying counts as marching now... I thought this meant that we cannot fly 20" and still shoot - could be wrong though!


Yes we can not marchfly and shoot in the 8th. I know because it made it bad for a wood elf highborn on an eagle with the bow of loren and arcane bodkins.

Lifetaker can be useful for a hero on Dark Steed however remember that heroes aren't fast cav and so can't march and shoot.

Comfirmed for Dark elves
FAQ BRB Page 82 – Cavalry, Cavalry and Special Rules
Add “If the mount has the Fast Cavalry special rule, then the
whole model has it.” to the list of exceptions.

So in our case a Dark steed is not considered Fast cav but in the case of a wood elf, an elven steed IS considered FC so they can march/shoot no matter who is riding them.
No amount of planning can ever replace dumb luck.
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Thanee
Rending Star
Rending Star
Posts: 5030
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2002 6:10 am
Location: Germany

Post by Thanee »

Malus99 wrote:- Whip of Agony ... a ... 6/10 !? It's more like 11/10,
Another oversight on my part, it gets a 9 because the Crimson Death is the same points but better and you could get the sword of might for less but the same strength bonus (on a character), sorry for my AP bias but I don't think its that great


WoA = +1A +1S AP one-handed, S cannot be modified
CD = +2S two-handed, S cannot be modified

I fail to see how CD is really better.

+1A AP and one-handed together is surely as good as another +1S.


But ok, at that point it is mostly opinions... something like this is always at least a bit subjective. :)



A few more (didn't see the last two entries yet :))...

Crown of Command -> 10/10 (so awesome on a lone char)
Sacrificial Dagger -> 10/10 all around (one of the best arcane items in the game)
Power Scroll -> definitely more in the green range (it is close to broken)

Bye
Thanee

P.S. AP rocks! :D
Falconrider
Corsair
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:10 am
Location: Melbourne Australia

Post by Falconrider »

Dawnstone coupled with Armour of Destiny 4+ ward i like as a combo as it leaves you with 25pts for one of our awesome weapons such as the ones listed above. Means you can save the PoK for a Peggy Master or your SS.
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