The Orbs of Despair

Soooo, 8" range, S1 AP2, blast, assault 1, ID.

No poison, no fleshbane, no nothing. Where were they going with this, killing GEQ on 6s to wound?
What am i missing here?

They suck.
They are so named because they cause despair in the user, no one else. Only used by the most masochistic of homunculi.

^^^^LOL^^^^ I thought maybe the S1 was a typo but sadly it is not.

Well...

They are multiple use, wound t4 on 6 and are AP2/Instant Death.

If you roll a 6, you can kill most ICs.

But at the same time, for the cost, there are better options.

Seriously, the worst. 25pts for the opportunity to scatter the blast off target, then hope you roll a 6, then hope the IC or whomever fails a LOS, then hope the target fails their cover/invuln save, and to add insult to injury prevent anyone else in your unit from throwing grenades if they have any?

Do we think this is a typo, or intentional??

it's have to be a typo surely, everything else we have that's S1 comes with fleshbane.

darthken239 wrote:

it's have to be a typo surely,  everything else we have that's S1  comes with fleshbane.

Or poisoned, which would work for me too.

My theory is they assigned one person the task of writing the rules for the Orb, Hellions, Beasts, and Wyches. And then they gave them a hefty raise for their great work at "balancing" the codex.

Balisong wrote:

Well...

They are multiple use, wound t4 on 6 and are AP2/Instant Death.

If you roll a 6, you can kill most ICs.

But at the same time, for the cost, there are better options.

Like a Lance, Blaster, or Blast Pistol - just for starters

Hell, a Shredder is a better option...

That can only ID T3 or less though.
That said, it is better at IDing T3 or less models than the Orbs, I'll give you that.

Point being is that with that Shredder, you will be causing more wounds. The Orbs will rarely cause 1 wound, and that wound will be LOS or not be applicable to the target you are trying to hit with it.

you can wound T4 on 6's can't you? just not T5+. It IS a grenade so you could use it in the assault phase , giving you an at-initiative source of AP2, BUT you only get one attack and only wounds on a 6. scissorhands would still be better for AP2 on a 6 and have multiple attacks, but arent ID. ichor claw thing is poisoned, and ID's on a 6 as well as giving multple attacks, but allow armor saves.

It seems like a fluffy, fun item that works just as fluffy as a hexrifle.

If by "fluffy fun" we also mean "not really good at doing much for the cost" I totally agree with you that it is fluffy fun.

That said, there are many non top-tier items that are also fluffy fun while not being terrible at their job. I don't consider 'fluffy fun' to be a fair excuse for 'poorly designed' unless the actual point of the weapon is to almost never inflict a wound. If that was the design goal they nailed it - but at that stage I find their choice of points cost for it really strange as there are a multitude of far superior items that work better than it - like, hell, even most of the grenades the HQ choices just inherently come with for starters.

It reminds me of those blue balls that the gungans use from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Wow I really just compared gungans to dark eldar...Jar jar is actually Vect?

Anyways back on topic. Gungans suck, orb of despair sucks, is there any way for dark eldar to lower enemy toughness other than allies and psychic powers?

Orbs wound gretchin on a 5+... winning!

Can you give your haemonculus sydriq's sump for poisonous attacks with the orbs of despair to wound on 4+?

The covens supplement lacks the bit in the Dark Eldar codex where it says you can "take one of the following" so I think you might be able to, yes!

Anyone think of a good reason why not? I feel I must be missing something.

Oh and Mr. Ghoti - the Orbs can't be used in CC. No good reason why, it just says so in their entry.

Riddip wrote:

Can you give your haemonculus sydriq's sump for poisonous attacks with the orbs of despair to wound on 4+?

Sadly, models do not confer the Poisoned rule to ranged weapons. The weapon itself has to have it.