Best changes in new codex

Hi everyone! It's been a few years since I last visited the Dark City (been labouring in a sub realm called "work")
The new codex arrived today and there are loads of bits to be happy about. Pretty much everyone getting an extra attack is fun (Wyches with base 3, plus lots of weapons options granting a bonus attack) but my faviurite so far is the capacities of Raiders and Venoms increasing to 11 and 6 respectively!

Best change for me is that we actually have a punch now. The increased damage of dark lances, the melee blender characters, Wyches, Incubi. They all hit like a ton of bricks and die to a stiff breeze, which is exactly what I've always felt this army should play like.

There are some things I would have liked to see that didn't happen (decent archons, better splinter weapons) but overall it seems pretty decent.

The punch is right, for a race of expert warriors, this hasn't been reflected in previous rules. They seem more lethal now.

The most difficult part of responding to this thread is picking a "best" change. So many small changes added up to an amazing whole.

If I had to pick two it would be:

-Incubi - They hit SO hard. They have enough attacks at good Strength that they can take out medium infantry hoards (like Necron Warriors), but also have Damage 2 weapons for taking out harder threats. Those same weapons go up to Damage 3 quite regularly, so they are very helpful when going up against -1 Damage units (like Death Guard, who are everywhere)

Dark Lances - Going up to damage 3+D3 makes them very reliable. In the past, it wasnt even worth shooting at anything with a 5++ save, because Murphies Law would kick in and the 1-2 shots that went thru would do a combined 3 damage XD. Now they actually hit VERY hard, and its worth taking those risks on the heavy units they are designed to hit.

Those are the best changes for my style of play.

I mainly face Necrons and Marines. Looking forward to having more of a chance!

The actual game-feel.

Finally, at long last, you can feel like an actual piratical raider once more - zooming up in vehicles and leaping out with a cackle as you take the foe in close combat. Whooping as you do fly-bys and get in the thick of things. It really looks like our weapons are Terror, Dark Lances, and Speed. (Okay, maybe not so much the Terror, but you can't have it all)

Like, I guess it was nice that we had a viable build in the 8e days of the Basic Bitch Spearhead doing fire support to As Many Taloi As You Can Cram Into Your List but god damn do I prefer playing the Dark Eldar, and not just a monster mash list backed up by some stationary disintegrator artillery platforms listening to the best of Vect's Spoken Word Slam Poetry.

Nicely put!

The synergies! It now feels like we are a army as a whole as opposed to in 8th where it felt like three smaller but separate armies forced together just to have enough choices to put together a sort of comprehensive list. Now we have things like grisley trophies, and phantom grenade launchers that work for wyches and incubi for no escape and tormentors, and an entire coven obsession that can help with that too, and we can have an archon that can buff EVERY core unit in the codex like an actual leader (i know its only in a Realspace Raid detachment but it's still nice to be able to do it)
And the cronos actually looking like the true support monster it was supposed to be, have a couple of those backing up a succubus blender and just keep healing her

The best change is the getting the glass cannon design off.

Cost effectiveness for units must weigh heavily in higher damage output if durability is low. That is a fancy way of saying for the points, units must swing above their weight.

It sounds stupid, but Blade Artists. The +1A across the army is a close second.

Charge after advance. More attacks, higher damage, same cost. Stratagems for Wyches in Cult of Strife.

Returning to sub-faction soup. Not having to deny myself taking a unit I want because it upsets the rest of my army.

my transports at 11 and 6!!! for me this changes just EVERYTHING! (without being broken at all!)

Heatlances. Now with S8 and D6+2 damage are no longer just for character sniping.

heatlances are indeed real winners in our new Codex!
i've destroyed 3x Custodes Bikers with 3 Talos each having 2heatlances, i had Twin Liquifier guns ready but for nothing, the Custodes were already just vague souvenirs

Honestly, I was never calling for the +1 transport slot. SO surprised they decided to bump that up after letting it stand for so many editions.

Pretty funny resurrecting this thread. Less than a month ago I was so happy for a balanced, non-OP codex, that gave us a few small buffs (an extra AP here, and extra Attack there, even extra Damage).

"This will make the playerbase happy, without making every Timmy bandwaggon over to us" thought Fisheyes.

Wow was I wrong XD