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I just picked up a librarian, and wanted to pick a few brains to see what the best psyker powers were? Thanks.

My vote goes for Null Zone and Avenger.

It really depends what you want to do with him. if you do as a lot of people do and roll him around in a Land Raider with his Termie buddies, Null Zone/Avenger or Null Zone/GoI works well. Mostly the former.

I haven't played a librarian once, but my friend plays them against me. He likes the teleporting/blast combo - gate of infinity and vortex of doom. He plays him as an unattached IC, so isn't too worried about either losing him or scattering. He also knows he is more vulnerable doing this, so doesn't tart him up with any special wargear like Terminator Armor.

Well, nullzone is mandatory unless you face Necrons, Nids, or IG that hardly have inv saves.
As 2nd power, I'd consider gate if you field Sternguard or Terminators, or avenger.

My thoughts on the matter is it not only depends on how you field him but also if you upgrade to use two powers per turn.

If you kept him bog standard then when you pick his two powers I'd choose to that compliment all scenario's, so Smite would be a good choice as a shooting attack and then another power to increase your close combat ability. That way, because you can only use one per turn you have a power that can hopefully be used for any situation.

If you upgrade him so he can use two per turn then you have a choice, either do the same as above to make him useful for any situation, or give him two similar powers so that he can excel in a particular field. Smite and (the one that has str10, called Null I think?) if you want to excel in shooting attacks, or two CC based powers if you plan to get the Librarian stuck into combat.

(apologies for not listing the Librarian powers names, at work and codex at home lol)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think gate of infinity and vortex of doom would make an excellent combo if you use an upgraded Librarian.

Without being able to check my codex until I get home, does that mean you could use gate to rapidly approach the enemy and then use Null to cast a str 10 ord blast template in a single turn? If so, thats nasty and would take my opponent by suprise as I'll use it in my next battle *laughes manically*

Ouze wrote:I haven't played a librarian once, but my friend plays them against me. He likes the teleporting/blast combo - gate of infinity and vortex of doom. He plays him as an unattached IC, so isn't too worried about either losing him or scattering. He also knows he is more vulnerable doing this, so doesn't tart him up with any special wargear like Terminator Armor.

he does realize that without Termie armour he wont be able to move and then use VoD? GoI+VoD is a sub par thing with SS&Termie armour and a horrible thing without

tedurur wrote:

Ouze wrote:I haven't played a librarian once, but my friend plays them against me. He likes the teleporting/blast combo - gate of infinity and vortex of doom. He plays him as an unattached IC, so isn't too worried about either losing him or scattering. He also knows he is more vulnerable doing this, so doesn't tart him up with any special wargear like Terminator Armor.

he does realize that without Termie armour he wont be able to move and then use VoD? GoI+VoD is a sub par thing with SS&Termie armour and a horrible thing without

... what? He's using the movement phase to port and the shooting phase to blast. He's not getting into CC with me at all. I play Orks.

Ouze wrote:

tedurur wrote:

Ouze wrote:I haven't played a librarian once, but my friend plays them against me. He likes the teleporting/blast combo - gate of infinity and vortex of doom. He plays him as an unattached IC, so isn't too worried about either losing him or scattering. He also knows he is more vulnerable doing this, so doesn't tart him up with any special wargear like Terminator Armor.

he does realize that without Termie armour he wont be able to move and then use VoD? GoI+VoD is a sub par thing with SS&Termie armour and a horrible thing without

... what? He's using the movement phase to port and the shooting phase to blast. He's not getting into CC with me at all. I play Orks.

Don't you have to upgrade the Librarian to be able to use 2 powers a turn???

Also, how Gate's of Infinity (or w/e it is) Works, is that you deep strike him and the unit he is in up to 24 inches, and if you scatter into cover you still have to roll on the mishap table, I think (Haven't really played them). But, also, because it counts as deep striking, if you turbo boost scout bikers with locater beacon up to their front line you can deep strike right up to their front line with out rolling to scatter as long as your with in 6 of the unit with the locater beacon.

Cambak wrote:Don't you have to upgrade the Librarian to be able to use 2 powers a turn???

Yes, but that doesn't require terminator armor or any other wargear...

Cambak wrote:Also, how Gate's of Infinity (or w/e it is) Works, is that you deep strike him and the unit he is in up to 24 inches, and if you scatter into cover you still have to roll on the mishap table, I think (Haven't really played them)

it shows, because the rule you are describing does not exist. I suspect what you meant was if you deep strike into difficult terrain it's treated as dangerous terrain.

Cambak wrote: But, also, because it counts as deep striking, if you turbo boost scout bikers with locater beacon up to their front line you can deep strike right up to their front line with out rolling to scatter as long as your with in 6 of the unit with the locater beacon.

... wait, What?

I'm describing a scenario where a single librarian is porting around blasting stuff, every turn against masses of Orks. You clearly have some kind of different scenario in mind, which I'm sure is valid, but is not the one I am describing.

Thanks for the advice. I thought of using one of the shooting powers, b/c he has a plasma pistol. (Nasty thing, those, always blowing up). I know that you do have to upgrade to use two powers in one phase. Thanks again.

Thanks for the advice. I thought of using one of the shooting powers, b/c he has a plasma pistol. (Nasty thing, those, always blowing up). I know that you do have to upgrade to use two powers in one phase. Thanks again.

Thanks for the advice. I thought of using one of the shooting powers, b/c he has a plasma pistol. (Nasty thing, those, always blowing up). I know that you do have to upgrade to use two powers in one phase. Thanks again.

Wow @ triple post. Good luck!

I know..lol..nice right.

I would take him with a TH/SS terminator unit and use the power quickening so you strike at initiative 10 and have fleet.
With that I would consider the smite power

Mind Worm

<3 Dark Angels.

GoI + VoD, Epistolary, default wargear. 150 point suicide bomber. And if he survives, all the better, rinse and repeat next turn.

Mind you, only do this against horde armies or in very large battles where losing 150 points won't hurt too bad. My Librarian never even gets fielded in any battle below 2000 points.

Use gate with sternguard, this combo will rock so hard, teleporting from combat and unloading more rounds to the unit you were in combat in.

I use my librarian in one of three configurations -

Jump pack librarian - he goes with an assault squad... takes the power avenger and null zone. their goal is to attack lightly armored or armed troops (tac marines) and do provide null zone for the terminator assault squads that are targetting harder to kill things.

standard librarian - he rides with a 5 man tactical squad in a razorback. Normal powers given are null zone and avenger. Again, he serves the purpose of providing null zone for the terminators, while targetting MEQ units to hit with avenger. This is my most used configuration, because its cheapest, and meshes with all MEQ lists.

biker librarian - Rides on a bike, leads a squad with 2x plasma guns, a multimelta, and a fist. He gives the squad LD10, so they are harder to kill. I normally give this guy vortex of doom or avenger, and null zone... their target is heavy infantry. pop null zone, fire on it from 12-24" away, then next turn get close, rapid fire, and assault. Normally work quite well.





other configurations I can imagine would work but have never used -

Terminator armor w/ stormshield, powers null zone + vortex of doom, in a raider with assault terminators. kept at coherency of 2", the librarian can fire vortex with no risk to squad members.... and if it misfires, he has a 3+ invul save. provides null zone for his own squad in hand to hand, and is quite durable. the +str and +init abilities are useless, because he only has 2 attacks in the first place.

power armor + combi-melta, in a sternguard unit with combi-meltas, in a razorback. powers would be gate of infinity + machine curse... obviously for tank hunting. Machine curse I think is underrated.. against open topped vehicles, (orks) a glance is only -1 on the table, and can do some serious damage. you can gate OUT of a vehicle, so if you NEED to hit a far off vehicle with combi-meltas, this squad can do it.

jump pack or biker epistolary with quickening and might of the ancients... an assassin librarian. uses quickening + force weapon to kill high-initiative targets, uses might of the ancients + force weapon to kill lower initiative targets. Never tried this, might be cool.

Ultrafool wrote:Use gate with sternguard, this combo will rock so hard, teleporting from combat and unloading more rounds to the unit you were in combat in.

I've done this. It's a hoot. Unfortunately the Librarian often fails to pay for himself in this instance.

I used to field my Librarian as an Epistolary with GoI + Smite, and field him with my Sternguard Veterans. Then I discovered the strategy I mentioned in my last post.

It seems marginally more effective.

But this strategy is still joy.