Disintegrators!

[Thaelion Hexis]

Does anyone still get use out of disintegrators this edition? Are they now redundant due to how some of our infantry (incubi, wyches etc.) can blend similar targets, plus the point increase over the stock dark lance? I was a huge fan of them in earlier editions but there is never much mention of them these days

[Master Antaeus]

So, 9 months later, I will say no and explain why.

When you asked, the answer was a solid maybe, but since then, Ravagers AND Disintegrators got more expensive and GW introduced a dismaying amount of -1 damage to the game. Death Guard have it army-wide, all dreadnoughts have it, Aberrants have it, Eldar wraith units have it and KSons and others can do it with a stratagem.

Then there is Armor of Contempt. The average space marine standing in the open got a 6+ save versus ap-3 Disintegrators and that was fine. Now that marine gets a 5+ normally and a 4+ in cover. Terminators and Marines with storm shields and any kind of cover mechanic can ratchet down to an eye-watering 3+ armor save vs ap3.

Finally, the Disintegrator's strength of 5 does not mean what it once did with more Gravis units coming out every quarter and whole subsfactions (not just marines) getting transhuman physiology.

 

In light of this and the fact that the cost of the Disintegrator and any platform that carries it has not changed, disintegrators are effectively dead.

Currently,  no one I have seen uses Disintegrators, but YMMV.

[Magos Takatus]

I think that's pretty sad. Don't get me wrong, I don't play Dark Eldar/Drukhari (yet) but I've seen rules like Transhuman Physiology and Armour of Contempt artificially inflate space marine durability to ridiculous levels. I am starting to think that some marine players want the game to return to 3rd Edition where the AP system was wonky and blocked out the armour-piercing value of about 3/4 of incoming fire.

I am a little tired of space marine players complaining about the amount of weapons with -1 or -2 modifiers to armour saves. There are weapons out there that don't have the armour piercing value of plasma weapons that should still be fairly effective against marines (Decent strength, multiple wounds, middling AP, stuff like Heavy Bolters and Phosphor weapons etc) and if a weapon like the Disintegrator (that was specialized to deal with marines) can't do it's intended job properly because of durability creep from space marines something has gone badly wrong. A lot of people believe that 40k is getting too lethal and that may be the case but making space marine 3+ armour save more effective than any other 3+save because of space marine favouritism isn't the solution in my opinion. What makes space marine power armour automatically more durable than any other model with a 3+ save? 

Apologies for the rant but it is ridiculous that a weapon laser-focused at killing heavy infantry can't do it's intended job because some people seem to want to play the old "movie marine" rules.  

[Lord_Ikka]

On 7/18/2022 at 9:15 PM, Master Antaeus said:

Terminators and Marines with storm shields and any kind of cover mechanic can ratchet down to an eye-watering 3+ armor save vs ap3.

Armor of Contempt doesn't apply to storm shields, so any storm shield SM with cover goes from 1+/2+ armor save (termie/power) to 3+/4+ (storm shield and cover giving a collective +2 to armor, -3 from the disintegrator for an overall -1 to armor save). Of course, even non-storm shield marines with AoC get the same overall save due to its mechanics- termies go from 2+ to 3+ and power armor go from 3+ to 4+ (cover +1, AoC changes -3 to -2 for the same -1 overall). The only marines getting a 2+ against disintegrators would Eliminators/Scouts with their camo-cloaks giving them a +2 from cover.

[Master Antaeus]

On 7/21/2022 at 2:09 AM, Lord_Ikka said:

Armor of Contempt doesn't apply to storm shields, so any storm shield SM with cover goes from 1+/2+ armor save (termie/power) to 3+/4+ (storm shield and cover giving a collective +2 to armor, -3 from the disintegrator for an overall -1 to armor save). Of course, even non-storm shield marines with AoC get the same overall save due to its mechanics- termies go from 2+ to 3+ and power armor go from 3+ to 4+ (cover +1, AoC changes -3 to -2 for the same -1 overall). The only marines getting a 2+ against disintegrators would Eliminators/Scouts with their camo-cloaks giving them a +2 from cover.

You're right, my bad.