I've been taking a slann mage with focussed rumination, loremaster fire, ruby ring of ruin, and an itxi grubs. It's been super effective because of the extra dice added by rumination then the bonus d3 added by the lore of fire's ability (after the first hit). I've successfully cast 6 spells and essentially wiped out a night goblin unit. What do you think? is there a more effective Slann I should use?
I think Slann and effectiveness all comes down to personnal preferences. About the disciplines, some most people use the same you use, but a lot choose to add becalming cogitation in order to shut down the ennemy's magic phase. About the lores of magic... If you like to blow stuff up, Fire is insanely good. If you are looking to make you units stronger, Light and Beasts are great choices. If you want to make your units very hard to kill, Life is the way to go. Death and metal are 2 lores that are very devastating when used against the proper opponent. Every lore is strong in a way. In the end though, it all comes down to which lore is the more versatile for the army you are playing and to me, it's either Life or Light.
Your load out on your slann is not ideal. If your not taking Lore of Life then cupped hands of the old ones is a must. Ixti grubbs is a waste of points value as your casting with + 1 dice and then d3 lower casting value due to kindleflame. Bound spells are just not as effective as they used to be, as you are required to cast them still (p.37 WFRB). The load out I use in a unit of useally 20 TG is this...... Slann MP BSB - Sun standard of Chotec (shooting def) Cupped hands of the old ones (miscast defence + general enemy caster hate) Focus of Mystery (Lore of metal normally as I tend to play alot of WoC or Stunty shooty people) The Focused Rumination (With +4 casting value for wizard level, it nearly doubles my casting ability) And in tournements I'm going to trial Unfathomable Presence for a 4+ ward vs magic on the unit (deamons are looking to be around.... alot (which might mean i will choose lore of light for my Slann more than likely) He comes in at a hefty price cost if taken Unfathomable Presence but he makes my unit of TG nigh unkillable and makes him rather powerful. Just my $0.02 Lloyd
Just be careful with Lore of Light and Daemons. A lot of them run the Sundering Banner on their BSB; not only will you be at -2 to cast a lore of their choosing (and they choose after you declare what you will use), but any double 1's, 2's, or 3's rolled to cast will make you roll on the miscast table if you are using Light. Unless the BSB is a wizard and you Bane Head/ Cupped Hands him to death right away, it will ruin your Slann's effectiveness from the start. I hate how they gave Daemons a weakness to something, and then immediately gave them a way out. The banner, by the way, costs 50 points.
I have yet to try other lores but currently I use Lore of Light and love seeing my army being able to hold their ground and the frustration of enemy models trying so hard to kill them . @ Gor-Rok: *sigh* I didn't think Daemons could get any more broken. Apparently I was wrong.
Definitely something to consider here - While your combination can blast your opponent to smithereens, there are other options, and some may be more worth the while. Lore of Light is good if you're running a Slann Magic heavy list but with lots of blocks of Saurus and other hard hitters. If you're running a squishier kind of army and a Slann this Lore might be the wrong pick for you. Lore of Light Initiative 10, Weapon Skill 10, +1 attack and Always strikes first from two spells that can be cast at moderately low levels? Hell yeah. Dump this on your Temple Guard at signs of trouble or when you sound that battle horn and charge into the fray. Yeah, that's right Grave Guard, Chosen, Grail Knights and Phoenix Guard there's a new bad boy in the house. Not to mention the Lore's offensive spells absolutely put the hurt on demons doubling the strength of the hits and number of hits. Its almost as if GW gave us this Lore indirectly for the Lizardmen to use...Powerful against demons, good for buffing slow models and low weapon skills? Very fishy. And not to mention some of the other debuff spells for opponents can be handy in a tight spot. Overall I think the best Lore to use if you have a heavy infantry - Slann type list. People with those squishier kinds of lists with a Slann/Lone Slann personally I believe Lore of Life is the one for you... Lore of Life is jam backed with buffs and healing abilities that drastically change a battle by filling it with stone hard soldiers, or healing a wound or two off a hero, or even pulling a leaf out of the Vampire Counts abilites and bringing back some soldiers! Hell, you can even protect the Slann completely from miscasts! What's not to love? Maybe the lack of offensive spells. Sure Dweller's Below is a army composed of low Low strength models a nightmare, and Awakening of the Wood only super effective if you’re casting at something near the woods. Sure Light may not have that many offensive spells, but the thing is most of the Lore of Light’s spells affect something to do with combat. Life is defensive combat, which you DO NOT WANT when you don’t have many blocks of Saurus or Kroxigor infantry. Trust me. The strategy with Life is to sit back and let the enemy come to you while protecting and healing your units with buff and healing spells, and protecting your Slann from miscast damages with Throne of Vines. Usually you’ll want to run this list with a Engine of the Gods and keep the Slann near the Priest so whenever he takes a wound the Lore attribute will be able to heal him up. In 8th edition it’s usually helpful to pay the 40 points for a 4+ward save on the Skink Priest, allowing him to drop that Burning Alignment as long as possible.
You have made some great points. I too am a big fan of Lore of Life and have yet to try other lores. However, I may have to give Lore of Light a go sometime
Most people use life but all the lores have something to bring to the party, and also the mix up of magic makes things a bit different and funner
I use Lore of Life and keep my Slann with in 12” of my Ancient Stegadon. Auto healing by Life blooming wounds off a Stubborn Steg is a wonderful thing.
I once saw someone who had a Lore of Life Slann w/ 5 Stegs (EotG, 2 Normal Stegs and 2 Ancient Stegs) @ 2250 points
It's strange; a stampede list like that used to be considered cheesy as heck... Now it seems unique and daring. So, how well did the aforementioned stegadon list do?
It either passed a lot of stubborn checks until the enmy forces got stomped out of existance, or it was too crippled by shoting and/or magic to do it.