Librarian advice needed

[Giga]

So far I've mostly ran a barebones libby with null zone, the avenger, and power sword. He was generally great value for the points and I found he often killed a lot more stuff with his flamer and null zone than far more expensive melee HQs could.

 

Now I'm wondering: are any of the rulebook powers worth considering? Aside from telekinesis, I can't see anything that catches my fancy. What do you people think? IMHO, nothing can really compare to null zone, especially now with daemons being the way they are and null zone being their hard-counter.

 

Also, the SLAY THE WARLORD rule is making me consider upgrading my libby with termy armor (possibly with storm shield) and replacing the avenger with vortex of doom. So, with a 2+/3++ not only would he be harder to kill, he'd also have a good chance of surviving a failed vortex of doom psychic test. However, that's a considerable points investment and I'm not sure if it's worth spending so much on a support HQ.

[Naminé]

I like to run my Libby with the same setup as you, only with a jumppack and accompanied by a big squad of Assault Marines. With this he is very mobile and has some extra protection, and with Nullzone and the Avenger he is an annoyance to the enemy. Using the Avenger also means that my assault marines actually have a chance of wiping out MEQ on the charge, though honestly I use them more for harrassment.

 

However, if the libby is your Warlord, then yes Termy armour and a stormshield is great and I think worth the cost. The problem then becomes mobility, Avenger suddenly becomes far less useful unless you're using him as counter-assault (which is kind of a waste) and so with this setup I would consider the rulebook powers or simply some different ones in the codex.

Vortex is good, especially with Termy armour, but I do not think it is as good as Avenger. The range is only slightly more, you have way more chance for it to backfire, and 2" Coherency means it can easily be limited to just one enemy model.

 

I could see some fun things if you managed to get Iron arm whilst riding a bike, though :)

[Garath]

Give him Terminator armour, not getting him killed is well worth the points as it denies a VP for the opponent....and since you have a force weapon challenges are going to be a walk in the park against stuff without 2+ sv or EW

[pyroknight]

There is no other power as good as null zone.

 

But if you didn't happen to need null zone, there are some decent powers in the core book.

 

The problem with rulebook powers is that they are random. Some days I get two useless powers. Some days I get 2 awesome powers.

 

Biomancy has enfeeble and endurance, which are great utility powers that can rival null zone in the right situations.

Divination is full of great powers, not to mention its amazing primaris power.

Pyromancy is decent against unarmored hordes. The 4++ invul from Fire Shield is handy too.

Telekinesis is decent if you are not vanilla marines (who already have access to half those powers in their codex)

Telepathy is good if you are mastery level 2, but the low numbered powers are not that great against (or with) space marines.

 

Terminator armor can be helpful, but i usually give him a shield and axe. Then he can kill 2+ armor challenges. Otherwise run him in a sqaud with a character who can eat challenges.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

For the rulebook powers, I stick to Biomancy. As a primaris, Smite is pretty meh, but all the rest of the powers are actually pretty good. Endurance especially, since it grants three seperate benefits to the target (although It Will Not Die is really only useful on multi-wound models). Relentless and FnP are especially nice to throw on things like Tactical or Devastator Squads, since they improve mobility, survivability, and damage output.

 

Enfeeble is great against all kinds of targets; it makes non-EW MEQ characters vulnerable to plasma, and leads to absolute butchery against anything T3. If you go the Epistolary route, if you are lucky enough to combine it with Haemorrage, it's a winning combo (I killed half an IG blob squad in one turn using it!).

 

Life Leech, like Smite, is in my mind a little weak due to range and the number of shots, but you can't argue with S6 AP2 and the ability to gain a wound back (though I'd like it more if you go above your starting wounds). On the flipside, being S6 allows it to reliably threaten big'uns like TMCs and DPs.