I personally think the spear men are the biggest threat, you can take the sub faction to give them 2 Aetherquartz which means you can put them on a 3+ save twice a game, the battalion you can take them in also allows them to reroll 1s to save which makes them very defensive. The output on them can be crazy good since they have 3” range and I think 2 attacks each with the 6s dealing mortals
Yes, but defense-wise petrifex is way worse. 3+ rerollable for the whole game and reroll 1's against shooting for mystic shield. But damage-wise Wardens are scarier. They can easily get in range with all the spears and deal 20 MW to a unit with power of hysh on.
The main issue with stone edge isn't the average output, it's that 6 or 7 wounds won't exactly be unheard off against a 4+ save either.
So are 0 damage rolls. Discussing possibilities is pointless. So is stellar tempest. It can, in theory wipe out a unit in one cast. But this will never happen. We can deal 12 MW with kroak to a single target or can do nothing. Dice are dice. Sometimes you one-shot a behemoth, other times you fail to kill a support hero with single wound left.
That's why we discuss averages. At least we know what to expect.
Which means very few heroes can go into his range without risking getting killed instantly
There are tons and tons of things, which can one-shot supprt characters. Literally any good shooting unit will 1-shot them. There's no surprise, that a 660-pts character can one-shot a 80-pts one. There is stuff like Mortek crawlers for 200 pts with similar effect. And we've learned to play around them somehow.
, if he wants to he should be able to easily pour 10-15 mortal wounds into a single target without needing to roll particularly good on his damage rolls
Ok, let's count. 4 casts in total. Mystic bolt = d3 MW, avg. 2. Living divide = d3 MW, avg 2. Stone attack into 4+ save = 0-10 MW, but about 1.5 avg. Innate spell - tricky here, but there is still more chances to roll only d3. But let's assume teclis got lucky and it is d6 MW, so 3.5 avg. So, we are at 9 mortal wounds into the singe target. This assuming: 1) none of his spells were unbound; 2) he didn't roll a single 1 for innate spell or living divide. 3) he rolled 5+ on innate spell; 4) He haven't used Protection of Teclis. Also don't forget that if you want to use Relentless Calm, Heavenly Blessing, Double move, Sparkling Light, which are all very good, you have to bring more supporting mages=less actual troops. This is not neraly "easily 10-15 MW at his will".
Also, you forgot his 4+ spell reflect bubble on the defensive side. That alone is probably already gamechanging as well.
I didn't forget it, I've talked about it before. Teclis has strong support abilities, while it's offensive capabilities are average for his cost.
They also lack any particularly pronounced weaknesses that you can actually take advantage off.
Oh, really? They are bravery 6, 1 wound models in 4+ save without any kind of ward. They can use their aetherquartz for a once-per-game buff, but that's it. They can take +2 bravery or 2 AQ per unit sub-factions, but that's it. Their main strength - Might of Hysh, can be failed or unbind - that's far from impossible. Yes, there's a shining company for Wardens, but it brings lots of restrictions.
Even at their weakest they're pumping out ~2 mortal wounds and 2-3 regular wounds per turn at 30".
Terrible damage for a unit 280-pts unit.
And on top of that if you face 2-3 units of em you're unlikely to have enough unbinds to deal with all of them on top of the spells from proper wizards.
Full units are 560 points, 3 units of 20 are 840 pts. Add on Teclis, add on battleline. You have nothing more left.
They're somewhat slow, but we have 2 movement based endless spells & a regular spell to make up for that. Not to mention plenty of ranged attacks.
Bridge is only good for shooting units to reach their target, while melee ones still have to make 9" charge. Ferryman is not used at all. As for double movement, it is still only one cast per turn. And who will cast it? 100+ pts mage or Teclis, who is too busy with offensive stuff to make his points back?
They're not super sturdy, especially baseline (no re-rollable 2+ stuff that also heals), but they do have a load of defensive buffs & they're not exactly super squishy either (no 6+ or even - saves).
We are in game where you need to remove a 40-pts mortek block with 3+ rerollable saves, 6+ save-after-save and 4+ return model. I'd think twice before calling an army-wide 4+ save "not too squishy". They are super-squishy without Protection of teclis and even with it they are not invincible. Look at stormcasts with their overall 4+ saves and at least 2 wounds per model. Where they are?
Aetherquartz are once per battle, shining company are only for wardens and requires lots of restrictions. Alarith units may tank some damage, but lack sunmetal weapons, so they are worse damage-wise.
Their regular wizards aren't too extraordinary, no +4 to casts or some such nonsense, but their actual spells-effects are good & they also have teclis.
And all of their wizards cost 100+ points, same with infantry. They have very similar prices with OBR. They simply cannot fit in everything they want.
They have issues they have to deal with and claiming they have no weakness is simply not correct:
1) They are low on models count, so have to think how to take objectives;
2) They are not ultimately good on defense, so they have to think how to protect themselves. Taking Teclis means taking less troops = more issues with model count;
3) They have very good spells, but they cannot cast them all at once. Teclis know everything, but he has only 4 casts, so he has to choose what to use. He cannot bombard enemy with MWs and protect all his units in the same turn. Taking more mages=taking less models (every wizard taken = -10 infantry models/-5 cavalry or guard).
4) They have low morale. And they cannot simply ignore it. You may take Cathallar to protect one single unit, but it is, once again, -10 models. You can spend CP, but we haven't seen any special ways to generate more CP for LRR. Maybe, there's a warlord trait or a relic, but they still can be wasted by subfaction ones. Taking battalions, once again, means less models. Even losing like 3-4 models means that some more can flee;
5) They have no summoning/healing/any way to return models. This means every wound made will count. Considering how squshy they are, this is huge weak spot.
Are LRR a top tier army? Looks like it? Are they oppressive to a lower tiers? Do they have no weakness? Definitely not. They require a player to make choices what to take and when to use what. They have issues to keep an eye on.