Eldritch Storm

[Magus Magi]

So. How does everybody feel about the damage this nuke does, the speed at which it manifests, and the inherent vehicle stunning utility it provides?

Because I think it's been grossly overpowered since retail, offering too much in a single ability, and that something should have been done about it before the game was even released. I know each faction is different. Each comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses, varying units and combos, but the eldritch is just too much too fast.

The Space Marine nuke takes a considerable time to go off, doesn't tie up vehicles, and units "lifted" on the periphery of each orbital beam take less damage (meaning that retreating into an orbital is less effective than retreating into the chaos ult would be, for example).

Speaking of the Chaos ult, the chaos ultimate focuses all of its damage in a single point, pulling in (although often over pulling) non-retreating infantry. Like the space marine nuke, the chaos nuke is fairly easy to evade with vehicles.

The Tyranid ult suffers from its slow appearance and the predictable order in which its tendrils arrive (mid, bottom left, top right, bottom right, top left, bottom, top), which makes it fairly easy to dodge. The damage against vehicles is conservative and you usually only get one to two tendril hits.

The Imperial Guard nuke offers considerable oomph, but only against infantry, and even then, it shines most against clusters of low hp high model count units. With the recent increase in the time it takes for the imperial guard nuke to go off, it's now easier to get out of the way.

Roks does drop a bucket of pain on your opponents. I think this nuke is most similar to the eldritch except the roks themselves arrive in fewer numbers and at a slower pace than the lightning bolts of the eldritch storm and roks doesn't come with an emp effect. If I was the God Emperor of Mankind, I would make eldritch storm more like roks, in that I would spread out the lightning bolts and slow the rate at which they appeared while keeping the EMP.

As most of you may infer, my post was inspired by the latest 3 v 3 that Indrid cast. I would like to emphasize that my criticism does not have its origin in replays. I've always thought that the Eldar nuke was ridiculous, that the damage needed to be toned down, or the spread/arrival time of the bolts needed to be changed. I've lost too many squads to an eldar nuke despite an immediate retreat.

[Raffa]

The problem with Eldritch is (not sure if this was fixed) it occasionally pretty much vaporizes targets, like a full hp Sternguard squad, with one bolt.

For all-round utility, I agree it is probably the strongest nuke. However it's not quite as simple to manage the other ones as you make out.

The Space Marine nuke gives you 3 manually targetable beams, which can have a fairly huge area of affect and strike targets very far away from each other even though it doesn't do apocalypse level damage.

Empyreal Abyss is the opposite - huge potential damage in exchange for less micro and combo potential. Rocket Run is the anti infantry specialist (along with Orbital). Tyrannoform gives the buff as the trade off to not being a specifically damage-focussed 500 red.

Roks is Roks, always found it to be the best balanced nuke, probably due to its (very) simple nature.

So if Eldritch no longer sometimes shoots Zeus' Master-Crafted Lightning Bolt, I don't see a pressing need for change.

[egewithin]

I agree on Raffas post. Centre of Eldritch is just impossible to survive. We should nerf it just like Rokz. Decrease big roks damage but increase smaller ones. Same can fit for Eldritch too; nerf centre, buff around.

[Toilailee]

Zeus' Master-Crafted Lightning Bolt

[PhatE]

But if it gets nerfed, how will I melt 2-3 armies at once with Phase Armour?