Yesterday,
someone made a hole in the MK3 piping and there have been quite a big leak.
Having now half of the full picture, since I still miss the core rules, I feel
confident enough to put out a preliminary review of the Legion of Everblight.
In the meantime, there will be some spoilers, but there is no link toward the
leak in this post, all information gathered here are still considered rumours
until the final release of the official cards, and the analysis is solely based
upon my understanding, my personal opinion and my gaming experience. Also,
there will probably be more than one post about this, ‘cause there is a lot so
talk about.
Let start
by the more important models of the faction, the Warlocks:
Absylonia,
Terror of Everblight, aka Abby1
- - Statswise, some minors change: -1DEF, +1ARM, -1SPD, -2RAT (but that one is irrelevant). The important part I feel is the back of the card. She keeps Resourceful and now gives Ashen Veil to all the Forsaken plus she has straight out Grievous Wounds, no more critical. Sadly, she loses Reach for Ashen Veil, and the Flight mutation’s also gives here +1SPD. Feat stays the same (except she doesn’t need to cut) and for her spells, loses Carnivore for Hyper-Aggressive and traded Playing God for something kind of similar.
- - Miss Abby was not very much played before, meanly because of the awesomeness of some others casters. Now, even if the loss of Reach is sad, I believe she will see more play. Hyper-Aggressive will let her run large battlegroup, and that’s what she wants. She still does nothing for units, but now that Forsaken are DEF15 with her, she will probably become the new Beast Heavy caster. Also, having Ashen Veil and the DEF bonus will help her survivability a lot. Don’t know if she going to be the new superstar, be she sure picks up good stuff.
Absylonia,
Daughter of Everblight, aka Abby2
- - Statswise, she is same same, but different, but still same. (Sorry, I had to plug that line from The Interview). She trades Teleport for Reposition 5”, keeps all her other spells and gains Hex Bolt. Feat is the same same, but different, but still same!
- - Abby2 was play before, and she will still be play. She does loose some treat, because now she can only back up to 5” instead of 8, and she can be freestriked while doing so. Hex Bolt is also kind of ok, I guess. There is nothing spectacular about that spell, and it has a very short range. We will have to see, but I have the feeling that she will play mostly the same, just maybe a bit less aggressively.
Bethyane,
Voice of Everblight & Belphagor, Sleeping Bag of Everblight
- - Statswise, she picks up +1ARM, and still has a Berlin Wall’s of text so that basically, she can go hide inside Belphagor while Belphy becomes the warlock rulewise. She also has 20 Beast points, so I believe she kind of has more of it even with the change to point cost. She loses Gallows, Eruption and Carni for Disintegration (-2ARM), Venom (Corrosive Spray) and Invocation of Blood (help her go hide, or let Belphy think he is a heavy if she’s hiding). New feat that everyone knows about, since PP gives it in the Insider.
- - Oh my gawd, where to start. Before she only wanted magical stuff for her feat, which limited was you would take with her. Now, she would love to have a couple of infantries, with several light beasts. Maybe a heavy, but no more, because the feat need several beasts to cover the board. You might even want to play Lessers with her, because their small bases will let you put more models against stuff like heavy. Also, her new spells list is very nice, especially for Disintegration. That means she can really run some lights around, and even tackle a Colossal. She will gets a lot more of play.
- - Belphagor on its own is a light tank. He hits squishily at range, and can do some works against lights and infantries. Despite losing -1DEF and -1ARM, he’s still a “free” channeler that Bethayne can use to cast Disintegration or Venom.
Lylyth,
Herald of Everlight, aka Lylyth1
- - Statswise, she is unchanged. She loses Bushwhack for Prowl, and now instead of having Witchmark and Blood Lure on each arrow, she must choose between the two, or the new shiny Inflict Pain. She trades Bad Blood for Pursuit, and Eruption is less violent. Feat stays the same.
- - Eeergh… What was wrong with her that she needed to be tune down?? Having to choose between Blood Lure and Witch mark is sad. First, that mean you need to hit a model twice to have both effect, which against Warcaster level model’s she will need to boost (so I guess she will only need to boost once, since after both boosted shots she won’t have enough fury left for Parasite [ok, she will be at 0 Fury, so unless it is a 100% assassination run, you won’t do it]). Sure if you input Far Strike, she gains range, but she’s already low on Fury, and Parasite+Far Strike leave her on 1 Fury, before any boosting. Maybe on her feat turn she can do some work, since her attack will be boosted. Also, Inflict Pain… what a crappy ability for her. She’s not a random solo that can lose his activation trying something, she’s a warlock, so why not something that also affect Focus? The only useful thing you could do with it is max out an enemy beast to stop from transferring, if the transfer mechanism stays the same. ‘ part from that, the warlock will only cut 1 or take a Threshold test at 1Fury. So, if you haven’t already realised, Lylyth1 was not very play, and that probably won’t change.
Lylyth,
Shadow of Everblight, aka Lylyth2
- - Statswise, Cool Lylyth gains Stealth (take that, prowling Lylyth1), and keeps all of her sweet killing abilities. She loses Shadow Pack and Pursuit for Mirage and Soothing Song. Her feat now gives Gunfighter instead of Snipe, and everyone get a second attack.
- - I believe PP messed up who was who between Lylyth1 and Lylyth2. She was already hated for her feat, and while the Snipe part is gone, which was somehow expected (well not necessarily that part, but Lylyth2 was expecting change in general), she seems as powerful if not more. Soothing Song will still let here run heavy on Beast and Mirage couple very nicely with the new Back Strike bonus will wreak havoc. The Feat affecting all models is just awesome. Deathstalker with extra attack? Raptors with extra poisonous attack?? Man, that’s just mean against infantry armies and Hordes in general. He believes she will stays one of our powerhouse.
Lylyth,
Reckoning of Everblight, aka Lylyth3
- - Statswise, she gets +1DEF, and also the Battle Engine abilities seem to be on the card now. She loses the Blade but can make charge attack with the mount. Spells list is the same, as is the Feat.
- - Frankly, I guess the DEF bonus is nice. My main idea is that with Far Strike being an animus and ROF 3, she will hit from further away and overall gained from the change to the rest of the Faction. Maybe more play, but not sure. That will depend of how the other warlocks fare and how Battle Engine works now.
Thagrosh,
Prophet of Everglight, aka pThag
- - Statswise, he is mostly the same, with some noticeable exception, he gains Tough, his Athanc gives him full Fury, not just 1, he can’t Feat back a huge base and Bad Blood become Twisted Form, which is different, but ultimately looks better.
- - Everblight sure loves his Prophet, since even if he didn’t really need any change, he gets goodies!! Sure, not much, but still. The Athanc part is really nice and will come handy, plus he can play beast heavy and forward, transferring like a no brainer and still having full fury (probably not the best tactic, but still). That also means that even if Thag is left alone, he’s still a brute and can kill you. Bonus, you don’t need to feel bad if you don’t bring that stupid Blightbringer, he can’t feat it back anyway. Thag was a mid-tier caster before, but I feel that with the tuning down of some big names and he’s slight upgrade, he will see table here and there.
Thagrosh,
Messiah of Everblight, aka eThag
- - Statswise, eThag is better: gains Tough, loses cold on the breath (but keeps critical freeze), the new Athanc rule of pThag, Blood Spawn on any damages. The rest is the same.
- - I expect eThag to be, with Abby1, the other beast heavy warlock, principally because of the number of warbeast points he can bring (even if everyone went up, it’s still feel like it is a lot for what he can do by himself). Plus, he still only like to play with beasts, even if Dragon’s Blood can affect unit. Will he see more games? I believe so, just because that still want to run a lot of beasts will probably take him.
Vayl,
Disciple of Everblight, aka pVayl
- - Statswise, Miss Winter Mk2 gains +1ARM, which she needed with Tenacity running away. Talion is more user friendly, since she can now transfer up to 5 damages, so if you take 7, you pass 5 and keep 2. Her spells list doesn’t change much, except that Rampager is gone, with nothing to take its place, and Incite is now 4 Fury but affects every model, so meh, guess it is ok. The big change appears on her Feat. She can’t move now, but all your army in 16” around her can. That’s so movement shenanigan right there.
- - Truly, pVayl was an awesome (and some creepy guys might even say handsome) warlock, which needed to be tamed. I feel she’s down a notch, but still very good. Incite is kind of a double edged blade. 9” is not that big for a bubble, and even if it gives the bonus to warrior models, there aren’t so much of them that are going to be able to get in the bubble, since you also need the enemy into that bubble. But hey, since she loses Rampager, it’s not like she has any other nice spells to cast now. Although there is one crazy thing she can do, since Far Strike exist… She can make any model at 6+12=18” of her an arc node and throw boosted Hoarfrost the ruin the day of a lot of people. I think she will be less played, but that’s because some other caster get better, and she feels like she’s more at a “Good” level rather than a “BOOM!! DIE MOTHAF**KA!!” level.
Vayl,
Consul of Everblight, aka eVayl
- - Statswise, she’s the same, but gets Reload 2 instead of ROF 3. Her feat is the same too, but her spells list has some change. Chasten instead of Purification, Deadly Storm instead of Obliteration (POW 13 Cloud Effect) and Boundless Charge instead of Refuge.
- - Ouch, she has taken the nerf bat full in her face. Didn’t anybody tell PP that you can’t beat up a lady? First off, she will play very differently than before. Her Feat is less powerful since she loses her most potent spells, and Deadly Storm is nothing near Obliteration, because once you land one, you give Concealment to your target. Just how silly is that? She won’t be assassinating anything soon with that spell. At least, between Fury 8 and other stuff in Legion, she will probably have no problem to use Chasten, even if it is not as good as Purification. The problem with her now is that… She loses all of her tricks, and doesn’t get any new ones. Her spells list seem like a bunch of random stuffs throw together, and even if she can do something for units and beasts here and there, it’s just feel weird. She doesn’t support beasts that much, neither does she support infantry. Before, she had games on her own, but not anymore. Time will tell, but I foresee the shelf in a near future.
Rhyas,
Sigil of Everblight
- - Statswise, she gains +1STR and finally overcome her old nemesis: walls no longer stop her. The rest is unchanged.
- - Rhyas does get better, but was it enough? Pathfinder was a given, and +1STR is cute, but I believe straight Decapitation would have been better, and would have let her see the table some more. With absolutely 0 changes, the downgrade of the Ogruns and the loss of Rearguard, I don’t know if she will really be more played. It feels like PP missed a nice opportunity to put her on the same level as the other Warlocks in the faction. I’m a bit disappointed with her; I was expecting the “Wow factor”, but nope.
Saeryn,
Omen of Everblight
- - Statswise, Saeryn is unchanged. Her only spell that changed his Blight Bringer, and it is straight up better, since from looking at it, you don’t need to place it on a warbeast. Don’t know if you just place the AOE inside the 10” range or if it is an Offensive spell that PP forgets to mark, but both ways are good. Her Feat now gives +3ARM to everyone and the battlegroup gets Retaliatory Strike. Different, but nice.
- - Saeryn might see more play, but I’m not sure. Her feat is kind of the permanent pThag debuff bubble, plus Retaliatory Strike. Her spells list is ok, nothing extravagant. She has become an all-around caster. She might have her days, but I doubt that she will rock tournaments.
Saeryn
& Rhyas, Talons of Everblight, aka The Twins
- - Statswise, they are the same that there regular version, except this Rhyas doesn’t have Pathfinder (maybe Mk4?). They do have lost their Bond of Blood. All their spells are the same, but Marked for Death no longer allow ignoring LOS. The Feat also state that if they hurt each other’s, they can’t feat.
- - Another weird move from PP here. The Twins weren’t play a lot, maybe because of other better choices. At least, Saeryn feels more powerful than her Omen form. The new beast points allowance will also help with the Fury, and they probably can run a huge battlegroup like no brainer, but they do nothing for the beasts.
Kallus,
Wrath of Everblight
- - No change at all. Like not even a little thing.
- - He was already a good caster, but not a lot of people play him because of his Feat, that require a least a dozen of incubi. That will probably be the same thing. Except that PP made the marketing move to not raise the PC of Incubi, hoping people will buy them, and then play Kallus. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. I hope it does, because with the changes made to Ogruns, there is not much reason to play Kallus anymore (and I’m not even speaking about Legionnaires: what a joke they are…).
Kryssa,
Conviction of Everblight
- - Statswise, well she not there before, so yep, that’s about it…
- - She should have been named Convection of Everblight, because she lit everything on fire. Her spells list is great for a combine arms list, and that’s also what she wants! Between Tactical Supremacy for movement shenanigan and Ashen Veil to help delivers units, she is a very good support warlock. Howling Flames is a bit so-so because of her Fury and Quickness is situational, and she won’t do a lot of work by herself since she need to Crit for the Sustained Attack, but her Feat is just amazing. +3STR in Legion is very powerful, and only for this Feat, she will see the table (and also because she is the battlebox caster, that will help, too).
Overall, the Legion Warlocks all seem more on the same level, put there is still some betters than others. If I had to do a Top 5, it will be pThag, Bethayne, Kryssa, Lylyth2 and pVayl, in no specific order. And my Top of the worst will be eVayl, Lylyth1 and that's it. The rest are all good casters, and not very far from some in my personal Top 5.
So yeah,
that’s about it for now. In the next days, I will cover the full faction, but I
think that all the casters is a good start. Of course, I didn’t go very deep
with each of them: that would take a lot more time. But I will! As I will play them,
I will try to do posts about what works with them and what doesn’t. Hope you
enjoy this short review. For these still expecting my after-tournament report
on the ND Open, it is underway, but with the finals, I didn’t have much time to
write.
