Heya New player here and all, and wondering what magic lore is the most effective for a slaan when fighting: Horde armies? (Skaven, orcs 'n gobboes) Heavily character dependant armies? (Vampire counts, tomb kings, etc) Is it just life all the way through, or are there any other suggestions. Also, if there are any, why these suggestions? Crude logic says fire for hordes and death for Character based armies, but hey, what do I know? Used a Slaan precisely once so far. Thanks in advance
Dwellers Below (life) is amazing against hordes.. You will on average wipe half the unit, so 20 models or more depending on how truly horde they are going. Both could be attacked similarly though, with a horde (particularly Skaven) you will greatly benefit from killing the general and BSB. This is of course the same for VC and TK. Once the leadership goes, the units tend to fall apart without too much trouble. Eh, I say find a lore that supports your army best no matter what you are facing and go with it.
This. With Lizardmen in 8th it's much more important to build your army around your lore than to tailor your lore around who you face. With that in mind, Life and Light are our two best choices overall.
I always use loremaster skill of the slann. Then i choose the lore of life, because you can restore easily restore wounds on stegadons. You can also make units very hard! First cast throne of viens, then you can boost thoughness and that shizzle. Finally you use the dwellers below.' It brings units to half of strenght! I will advise you to use this in combination with the free powerdice skill!
sorry if this is a ninja away from the OP... A lot of tournaments here are starting to nerf the big spells, typically by allowing a LoS roll against them. does this still leave life on top for us? i've recentley been thinking of giving heavens a go with the slann, anyone tried that? seems to me you get some pretty decent damage spells for early game, and some decent hex/augments for once combat is joined. maybe i'm just playing the wrong armies, but i seem to be struggling for decent targets with dwellers...
For me, any character killing with Dwellers is just gravy, I have no problem not being able to kill them, in fact I agree it is way overpowered as is and weakening them should be done. The spell is there to cut in half the massive horde units or take a good chunk out of elite units. A unit of 50 clanrats is scary, drop the spell and make them a unit of 25 and most things we have can take them down.
Dweller's is somewhat situation. With the off chance where you kill one of your opponent's heroes, they need to actually depend on that hero for the spell to be somewhat effective. I have had it cast against me five successful times in a game and still won the game. So it can be effective against certain lists, much less effective against others.
Another lore you might want to think of taking is Shadows. Most people rant and rave about Life and Light and for good reason. I almost always take Life, it's truely a great lore and life allows for some killer combination spells that make me cringe! But Shadows is a bit differant and altogether just as daunting. With Life and Light your augmenting your own units and dealing some nice direct damage to units. BUT Shadow creeps up from the hidden ways and strikes your opponent where he least expects it and hexes him so that he's hobbled and easy pickings. I know, I know. I used to play Skaven before I was turned to the light of the Old Ones...I can't help but revert on occasion! HaHa
Good thing is, Dwellers is definitely not the only reason to take lore of life. The other spells are fantastic for supporting your units too. In fact, if you just throw dwellers, assuming you use 5-6 dice, on average than only leaves you with a couple for other spells. Dwellers can be a diadvantage, it makes you think about just throwing all your dice at it rather than helping where help is needed in your army. If you find yourself without a 'good' target for Dwellers, simply don't cast it. Use the other spells, which can be just as effective in the right situations.
The Lore of Life seemed to be the hot choice for a few months at the start of 8th, and while I agree it has lots of good stuff in it, its popularity has really died down in favor of Light and Shadows among the better players in the metagame where I play. Good protection from miscasts with Throne can be a blessing if you bunker your Slann in Temple Guard and like to throw lots of dice at Dwellers. My biggest concern is most of the lore is mediocre or situational. The loremaster discipline for a Slann with Life is almost a necessity to avoid having your magic phase handicapped if you don't get one of the spells you really want. Dwellers works great against majority toughness 3 armies sure, and Flesh to Stone is nice (just don't cast a Throne-boosted version against an army with a Screaming Bell that has a chance to wipe out your T7+ models), but the rest of the lore leaves somethng to be desired in my opinion. Along with the magic missile and movement deterring spell, the signature spell is mediocre at best. I also think Regrowth is highly overrated. Getting models back is great, but it is very limited (you don't suddenly get to act like a VC army) and usually takes a good number of dice. Again, I'm not saying the lore sucks, I just don't like its limitations. The Lore of Light is my personal favorite for Lizardmen. First, it hugely supports the major weakness of your Saurus units (whether they be Warriors or Temple Guard), which is low initiative and movement, by offering spells that can either give initiative 10 (and WS10 too), or ASF with double movement and an extra attack. If you are facing someone with the Shadow or Death lore and are expecting templates forcing initiative tests, then Speed of Light is your best friend. Moreover, the rest of the spells can also be very good. Both magic missile spells are flaming, and Burning Gaze can be boosted to S6, giving you a great weapon against Hydras/HPA/Trolls with high toughness and regen. The Net spell is also a great tactical weapon to help you pick and choose your fights or gain a tactical advantage. The ability to impair your opponent's ability to hit you is also a very strong advantage. The only situational spell is the leadership one. Shadow is similar to Light in that there are mainly spells that debuff your opponent rather than help your troops counter a weakness. It's big selling point is offering Pit of Shades if you face a lot of other low initiative armies. Mind Razor is great, but Lizardmen don't have the blatant need for added strength they way they do for initiative. Anyway, those are my thoughts on Slann lores (Heavens and Fire could also be useful too though depending on how you like to play). The most important thing is that it works in your metagame and makes it fun for you.