On my aspiring sorcers I run either of the bolts they don't need the template, warptime is useless except on a prince.
Worse yet, hoods and worse on worse Runes of Warding just shut him down....all that for the price of a loyalist Land Raider?
You sir see the cup half full and I'd like to hear what you have to add that makes him competitive as your other suggests are sound and you sound like you have much more experience with him.
Well it really depends on how you use him. He's a space marine captain with one less
WS and 3 psychic powers a turn. Yes the neuter him by not letting use say doombolt 3 time a turn which blows but that would also be over kill. He does pretty well in assault unles your just horrible at the game. I run him in two different ways, put him in a rhino with 9 guys and just cast bolts until they need to get out or if its a 1850 or larger battle ill run him with an 18 man squad that has doombolt as its power move up and start casting gifts as soon as i get into combat. Watching necrons and and bugs turn into warpspawn is pretty funny, hell if you do it to any special character in the game he almost makes up his points cause of all the rules you get rid of. But I don't use him until higher point battles due to his price.