8th Ed. Which Slann Disciplines are the best?

[Saurus Pure-Blood]

As a new player, I love to use the slann to own the magic phase.
i was just wondering, what are the best ones? I assume the Loremaster and Soul Of stone are a near the top, but what are the best in your opinion and why?

 

[david l]

Easy.

1) Extra Power Dice. Absolutely the best.
2) Discard 6s on enemy wizard. Only one that comes close for top spot.
Now it gets more debatable. I'd say...
3) Loremaster
4) Ethereal
5) re-roll miscast table
And the bottom ones are easy:
6) Magic Resistance. Available on a common item for 5 pts less, and pretty bad in 8th anyway.
7) Terror. Pretty much useless in 8th
8) Regeneration. Literally useless in 8th.

 

[Scalenex]

You'll see some differing opinions on precise order that 2-4 shoudl be in, but other than that this view is pretty much held by all LM players.

4) is not technically Ethereal because it doesn't give the movement options of Ethereal. It's very useful but it's very situation. It's mainly used to protect Slann not in Temple Guard bunkers and it won't protect against magical shooting (so you might as well skip it for Dwarves, Chaos Dwarves and the like). I usually prefer the Divine Plaque of Protection but taking (4) lets you tarpit a unit with a Slann.

An indepth review of the disciplines can be found here:

http://paint-hammer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lizardman-army-thoughts-party-slann.html

Just one of the many goodies put on the Tactica index.

 

[Taipan]

God-tier:

Rumination and Mystery every time. Sometimes I don't have points for both, so I go Rumination then get the Plaque for 5 spells on the other Slann (Light I don't need all the spells anyway). Slaan are overpriced until you take those two abilities and break your opponent in half with them. You can cast every spell in your Lore with good rolls. Rumination is especially important with random power dice, as it can save you from a terrible Winds roll.

Becalming is a great option though, if you can take it. Power scrolling is less prevalent nowadays, and you dispel like a boss anyway, so I don't take it, but it will stop IF's and big spells reliably.

Mediocre-tier:

Re-rolling miscasts is re-arranging deckchairs largely. All the results are pretty bad for a Slann, it might prevent you nuking your TG meatshield but it will still hurt anyway. You are better off taking Cupped Hands, or taking a lore that doesn't need IF or lots of power dice (ie Light or Life).

Worthless-tier:

- Ethereal is amusing, but its way too easy to get around. Spells still murder you just fine, as do magic weapons and magic guns. All it takes is a hero jumping you with a magic sword and you are dead. Just pay the TG tax, they're a good combat unit anyway and benefit from his spells. Empire just got new magic laser cannons and they can make their normal cannons magical easily (Lore of Metal), Dwarves almost always take runes...so yeah, gunline lists still don't care about Ethereal Slann.
- Regen is flat out useless, as you possess a 4+ ward and thus never use Regen ever
- Terror is meaningless with General+BSB bubble making Leadership a non-issue for most armies
- Magic Resistance will stop Death sniper spells (Metal sniper spells can't hurt you lol), but nukes will still roll over you unimpeded. A dispel scroll is a better investment, or even the Cube. You should be dispelling enemy sniper attempts anyway.

 

[Rhodium]

God-tier:

Worthless-tier:

- Ethereal is amusing, but its way too easy to get around. Spells still murder you just fine, as do magic weapons and magic guns. All it takes is a hero jumping you with a magic sword and you are dead. Just pay the TG tax, they're a good combat unit anyway and benefit from his spells. Empire just got new magic laser cannons and they can make their normal cannons magical easily (Lore of Metal), Dwarves almost always take runes...so yeah, gunline lists still don't care about Ethereal Slann.
- Regen is flat out useless, as you possess a 4+ ward and thus never use Regen ever
- Terror is meaningless with General+BSB bubble making Leadership a non-issue for most armies
- Magic Resistance will stop Death sniper spells (Metal sniper spells can't hurt you lol), but nukes will still roll over you unimpeded. A dispel scroll is a better investment, or even the Cube. You should be dispelling enemy sniper attempts anyway.

I would disagree with saying higher state (the ethereal like one) is worthless, you can definitely get some very good builds using that discipline,

Either the crown of command/bsb solo tarpit is definitely useful against armies with little magical artillery (so most then other than dwarfs and Skaven, if an empire army has the lore of metal and then taken enchanted blades and cast it on their cannons, you are on to a winner already!
Secondly against the aforementioned armies, just stick the slann in a saurus block, he gets a LoS from the unit and when in combat, a bunch of models will only be in contact with the slann therefore not be able to attack.

I have had good mileage out of this discipline and I would not say it was anywhere near as good as focused rumination or becalming, but it is certainly not worthless


Furthermore, there are a couple of inaccuracies in your response:

"- Regen is flat out useless, as you possess a 4+ ward and thus never use Regen ever" this isn't actually true, there are times you would use the instead of the ward (if hit with banishment or in combat with someone with the other tricksters shard). It is most definitely not worth spending a discipline slot on, but it isn't true to say it is never used

" Magic Resistance will stop Death sniper spells (Metal sniper spells can't hurt you lol)"
A 1+ ward still fails on a roll of a 1' so they can definitely hurt you, and if you roll unluckily you could theoretically lose your slann in one go even with MR(3) but again it isn't worth spending a discipline slot on this discipline.

 

[GrindingMadness]

Well I've got to say tht I prefer to make my slann as hard to kill as possible since he will do some okay damage in the magic fase no matter what (Almost, damn unlucky dice)
The disciplines i normally go with is:

- Loremaster (so you can use just the right spell you need for the situation you're in

- Etheral It's rarely that anything but a hero can do any propper damage (my next part will explain the rest)

- Magic resistance (which from what i understood will give him a 1+ wardsave aginst mgic attacks, which will save you against pretty much anything (except combat resolutions ending bad and you being unlucky as f**k with the dice once more)

- And of course the free powerdice if I'm not playing by ETC rules

This 'Build' Makes him more or less unkillable (if I'm not mistaken) And still deals a ton of damage in the magic fase.

Please tell me if I misunderstood the magicresistance, etheral and wardsave thing

 

[skillfull_dan]

Magic resistance (which from what i understood will give him a 1+ wardsave aginst mgic attacks, which will save you against pretty much anythin

You are right that magic resistance stacks with the slanns existing ward save. However this doesnt help at all against spells that dont allow ward saves like Dwellers, final transmutation, pit of shades, purple sun, or any hex spells.

Also an important note is that characters with magic resist grant magic resist to their whole unit.

 

[GrindingMadness]

Magic resistance (which from what i understood will give him a 1+ wardsave aginst mgic attacks, which will save you against pretty much anythin

You are right that magic resistance stacks with the slanns existing ward save. However this doesnt help at all against spells that dont allow ward saves like Dwellers, final transmutation, pit of shades, purple sun, or any hex spells.

Also an important note is that characters with magic resist grant magic resist to their whole unit.

That's true, but if i play ETC rules, there is lookout sir on template spells like purple sun. And hex spells can rarely kill any unit.

 

[Ferocious]

etc rules give look out sir to spells like dwellers yea, but purple sun alays has a look out sir, since it is a template,


dwellers, final transmulation arent template, but etc rules grand you a look out sir

 

[Rhodium]

Magic resistance (which from what i understood will give him a 1+ wardsave aginst mgic attacks, which will save you against pretty much anythin

You are right that magic resistance stacks with the slanns existing ward save. However this doesnt help at all against spells that dont allow ward saves like Dwellers, final transmutation, pit of shades, purple sun, or any hex spells.

Also an important note is that characters with magic resist grant magic resist to their whole unit.

Magic resistance only protects you against spells, (with the aforementioned exceptions) it doesn't defend you against all magical attacks, for example magical shooting or magical close combat attack, so if you get into combat with a lord/hero with a magical weapon you still only get a standard 4+ ward

 

[GrindingMadness]

Oh cool, I've been a bit confused on that matter so thanks for clearing it up for me