Sprues and Brews has some condensed thoughts on all the factions in the game, not super in-depth but some interesting stuff. https://spruesandbrews.com/2024/06/...gmar-4th-edition-faction-focus-and-deep-dive/ Comet's call as an anti-chaff spell makes sense, probably not unlimited just because of its potential output and how many wizards we have but it'd be nice if it was.
.... sigh..... what a waste of a mechanic. In general though; there's a lot of limitations on stuff in 4th shown in the goonhammer stuff so far. Traits, artifacts, spells; all of them are limited to 3 or 4 options. A lot of stuff is limited to once per combat. A lot of stuff only affects a limited number of units, or in a very limited range (subfaction abilities that only buff specific units, or only buff max 3 units, gitz's sneaky distraction being limited to wholly within 12" while being cast by some of the squishiest wizards... etc.) Loads of conditional limitations (SCE's envoy of heaven, SCE's lightning blast, Fyreslayer's Forge brethren etc.) Some of it is pretty thematic; and there are some cool effects. Some of the limitations even create some halfway interesting mechanics (SCE's lightning blast actually seems somewhat fun in the right situation.... but it being their only damage spell kinda spoils that fun) . But would it have killed GW to provide a few generic options? Or at least provide more than a handfull of options if they're going to be throwing around so many limitations? Seriously, either provide generic tools, or provide a lot of specialized tools (or a mix of both...). But don't provide only a handfull of specialized tools.
The specialized tools in the index stuff seems to be the unit abilities and warscroll spells, while the spell lores are the generic tools that're tailored to the faction itself. I definitely agree that it's a little lame to have everything consistently paired down this much, but it seems like you're incentivized to think more about what the things you're taking as part of list building are bringing to the table, over the rest of the stuff around them. A little bit more seraphon info from i think aoscoach's ama, I think relevant to the discussion. Kroak is the MW caster with that unlimited damage spell, but also a little squishier than before because its per turn and chip on him is going to add up. An interesting interaction is that things like maggotkin disease infections or the warpflame from tzeentch completely nullify his Dead of Innumerable Ages trait, since instead of healing he'll just automatically remove those debuffs and be wide open for further chip. These previews are prevented from showing off points for some bizarre reason, but it consistently seems like the god and other centrepiece unique models are being given a pretty massive power boost, which is fun on some level but also a little weird for their stated desire to diversify listbuilding options. Sylvaneth, for example, are tied at the hip to their wyldwoods now and so Belthanos (letting you pick a piece of terrain to count as one) and the Lady of Vines (who counts as one herself) are basically auto-takes just because you're otherwise at the mercy of spellcasting rolls/positioning the wyldwoods in exact range to use any of your battle traits.
All of it is very specialized and loaded with limitations Just look at the SCE stuff; there's only a handfull of faction related rules that don't come with some sort of limitation, like "only in friendly terrain" or "only units with keyword X", or "only if a unit died in the previous turn" or "after deepstriking" or "nearest unit with LoS that hasn't been hit yet". The only mechanic that provides consistent generic tools without (significant) restrictions is their prayer lore for some reason. Also, at this point prayers are just better than magic, especially when you reach that empowered ability. I would really love if GW could explain what exactly their vision is regarding wizards, priests etc. as archetypes and what exactly the advantage of one over another is supposed to be. Wizards have always been a bit weird in AoS, but especially in 4th there isn't anything particularly special about them anymore. Honestly; I'd be willing to bet they just didn't fully test that particular interaction. Wouldn't be the first time that the playtesters somehow missed a weird, but rather obvious, rules interaction.
Looks like we're getting our index on July 9th! From what I've heard though, some content creators have been leaking some faction warscrolls, so here's hoping we might see some juicy stuff before the 9th. I did read or hear somewhere that aggradons have had their weird Rage ability fixed, with them gaining a token whenever they Fight and only losing them if they do not Fight in the combat phase.