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Eldar farseers have a great many options, and while some of them (especially the powers) will depend on the type of eldar force you field a few are more general.

The powers are often a matter of personal taste, but doom, fortune and guide are all excellent. Mind war is underrated and can be very powerful, especially in smaller point games. Eldritch storm just isnt worth the points.


Witchblade vs singing spear: Not a lot of points and it does allow a range attack at str9 on vehicles, but it is two handed. Most of the time the farseer isnt going to be in cc or throwing a spear so this may just come down to which figure you can get the easiest.

Rune of warding: With IG psycher units appearing en masse this is one of the best investments an eldar player can make. An average roll on 3d6 is 10.5, and getting a 12+ is going to happen a bit over 28% of the time. Its also nice for those chaos lash armies. Almost a must have in the current game.

Spirit stones: Double the use of psychic powers...one of the most common choices and well worth the points. Doom and guide, fortune and anything, so many good choices.




Now, Runes of witnessing. This is the real reason for this thread, since many eldar players are of the opinion that since the runes increase the chance that the farseer will have a perils of the warp attack these shouldnt be taken. Lets look at what actually happens:


Without runes a farseer will fail to use his power 8.3% of the time. When using spirit stones a farseer will perhaps be making 10-12 of these rolls during a game in which he survives. That means he will very likely fail at least one power usage.

With runes a farseer will fail to use his power 1.9% of the time. Even with a dozen rolls he is unlikely to fail one.


Without runes a farseer will suffer a perils of the warp 5.6% of the time. Of course, his ghosthelm stops most of these, lowering it to 1.87% actual attacks. Of which his invuln save will lower this to a 1.4% chance of taking one wound.

With runes a farseer will suffer a perils of the warp 7.9% of the time. This is because that while the odds of a double one are greatly increased, the only way to get double 6s is to actually roll a triple 6. Of course the ghosthelm stops most of these, lowering it to 2.63% actual attacks. Of which his invuln save will lower this to a 1.97% chance of taking one wound.


So the runes decrease the chances of failing a power check by more than three quarters, while only increasing the chance of taking one wound by about one third.


Failing to use a power will often critically affect the results of a turn; giving a farseer one more wound will only rarely be as critical. So not only are we having a far greater percent change on the beneficial effect, the beneficial effect is a much more important part of the eldar game plan.



Scrimp on the runes if points are just too tight, but dont drop the runes because of the tiny chance of a perils attack.




Both sets of runes should be an automatic purchase in the current gaming anvironment, unless the farseer is going to be a stripped down low point version. But if his psychic powers are important at all to the eldar game plan, then the runes are very important as well.



Sliggoth

Put him on a bike.

G

Green Blow Fly wrote:Put him on a bike.

G

QFT

And put his homeboys on bikes too, then just cast fortune once a turn. The Jetlocks will do the rest.

Just field Eldrad and laugh all the way to the bank

Eldrad is over done.

G

For a very good reason!

Sliggoth wrote:
Both sets of runes should be an automatic purchase in the current gaming anvironment, unless the farseer is going to be a stripped down low point version. But if his psychic powers are important at all to the eldar game plan, then the runes are very important as well.

I absolutely agree. From what I've seen, Eldar powers are pretty instrumental to Eldar victories. The risk of taking a wound just isn't high enough when compared to being able to have your powers go off darn near every time you need them to. Thanks for winning at mathhammer Sliggoth

Alerian wrote:Just field Eldrad and laugh all the way to the bank

This man Speaks the Truth.

Seriously, use Elrad. Yes he is over done, but he is just so much better than even 2 Normal Farseers.

Eldrad is the ultimate special character whore next to Vulcan. Unless you are specifically running a Farseer and Seer Council on bikes always take eldrad.

For his points eldrad just blows away a regular farseer, but sometimes in a smaller points game he just wont quite fit. Or in a larger points game eldrad plus a second farseer is a real option. But anytime that your farseer build comes in at 175 points or so, its going to probably be worth it to upgrade to eldrad.

Too bad the old coot never learned to ride a bike....



Sliggoth

Well, players at the last year's GT were pissed off from all those Eldrad list.
By the way, I was the only guy in heat I that played Eldar with a normal Farseer (Jetseer).

If you are running two farseers or a farseer/Eldrad you only need one set of Runes of Warding. I don't believe there is any benefit to having two. So, save yourself the 15 points.

Runes and stones are always a must IMO if you're going for a cheap HQ get an Autarch.

The benefit of having two is to lock out enemy psyckers all 5/6/7 turns. Odds are ONE of them will die, and as soon as it does, yay fun lash tiem!