Which Chaos commander is best for newbies?

[Paradise Lost]

That's actually a good point Crewfinity, I'll try that.

Regarding the wargears I have a question. Why even bother with the LCs against jump squads if the Blood Maul is much better in that regard? (stun).I mean I'd rather take the 50 req cheaper wargear that's actually not that overpriced and it's ability is actually useful. Destructive Strike should be removed honestly, or replaced with something better.

[Crewfinity]

there's a couple reasons for that imo.
first of all destructive strike is not bad at all. a worse merciless strike is still an awesome ability.
EDIT:
after looking at the codex, it seems like destructive strike is actually better than merciless?
merciless does 20 piercing damage and weapon knockback in radius 5 along a line of 12.5
destructive does 30 piercing damage and weapon knockback in radius 5 along a line of 12.5
thats weird, destructive strike always seemed worse.... anyone have thoughts on that?

second, the lightning claws do 100 power melee dps, whereas blood maul does 100 melee dps, so its much better at tearing through commanders and heavy infantry and peeling models off.
finally, it has a very high attack speed, which synergizes with the harness of rage/dark halo loadout as well as the icon of khorne, so it lets him be much more of a solo melee bully, where the blood maul fits more in the role of supporting a melee blob.

as far as making the CL into a beatstick though its tough to beat the lightning claws/harness of rage/dark halo loadout. or armor of the inferno/icon of khorne if that's your thing

[Dark Riku]

It's basically what I said. You mainly used him to tie stuff up and absorb damage. You never used the BM nor the LCs, and most of your impact came from the rest of your army, mainly dreadnoughts and worshipped BLs, with NMs for gen-bashing and Tics/CSM/CL for ninja-capping. I don't recall seeing BS or MB being used either. Nice micro tho, learned a lot.

Then the CL did the job I wanted him to do You'll want more than just some of my replays to base your findings on. And I admit, my CL play could be better, with my play style I almost do not use MB, that doesn't mean it's a bad global. I also prioritise my purchases and upgrades in the way I deem necessary, if the opportunity didn't present itself in the game it's foolish to try and force it imo.

[Nurland]

Reason Claws are great versus jump squads is the ability. The ability has a low kb strength so the models affected get ganged up by Tics/KCSM/BL more easily than when using the Maul since the Maul knocks shit flying to insane distances giving you less time and chances to actually wipe or bleed the squad.

Blindness is awesome for denying vision if you do it before engaging, your opponent will have no idea what is coming his way and from what direction. For example. I have wiped several setups and a few Zoans by popping blindness and teleportting BL behind the setup. They can't see the markers or anything. So by the time they realize what is happening it may be too late. Also just popping it mid engagement when you push is good. It makes it impossible for your enemy to switch targets or to know where a part of your army is... That is pretty damn useful. Especially if you have something on their flanks that is yet to engage. It is not the easiest global to utilize properly in 1v1. In 3v3 it is almost always useful since even if you don't benefit from it every time you use it, one of your teammates will most likely get some mileage from it.

I am not sure if this is anymore relevant to the topic though. I feel this topic is derailing a bit.

[Paradise Lost]

It is, but thank you both for the tips.