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I am going to start out by saying, there really isn't any question whether or not there are better psykers than these two.

There are a couple reasons why I'm saying this.

1-Mobility
Both Fateweaver and Be'lakor are Flying Monstrous Creatures. This gives them a complete advantage over most every psyker out there. With the ability to go 36" in one turn, and the average move+run to be 31", these FMCs can get where they want to be, when they want to be. They are also not hindered in their mobility as much as fliers are when flying, as they can return to glide mode, and have a 360 degree arc when shooting and casting psychic powers. Only a generic Daemon Prince, Hive Tyrant, or a farseer on jetbike has similar mobility, and we will delve into why these are far inferior psychics.



2-Flexibility of Psychic Powers
Be'lakor knows a total of 7 psychic powers. 7! He knows every single power in the telepathy discipline. And if i had to choose one complete discipline to have, that would be my first choice hands down. Most every power is either a blessing or malediction, allowing you to boost yourself to victory or cripple your enemy to defeat. These powers are not only varied but also potent, with great powers from Invisibility and Hallucination, to specialist powers like puppet Master and Terrify. Needless to say, it helps tremendously knowing what powers you will have going into a battle so you can build off of them. We will go into this later.

Oh and you thought Be'lakor was bad, check out this BAMF over here named Fateweaver. He knows a total of 8 powers. 4 from the Tzeentch discipline (varied shooting attacks), and 1 from each of biomancy, pyromancy, divination, and telepathy. This means that there is a very high chance that you will get a great power. Because each discipline helps with certain aspects of the game, you really have to base how you play Fateweaver off of what powers he gets. And the Tzeentch Discipline is nothing to shake a stick at.



3-Survivability
Both FMC psykers are T5. Fateweaver and Be'lakor have 5 wounds and 4 wounds respectively, with both 4+ invulns and Fateweaver re-rolling saving throws of 1. Be'lakor also has the added effect of Shrouded. Both are FMCs which can elect to swoop, in which you are relatively stronger against enemy shooting, as they need 6s to hit. Although they require a grounding check against hits in the air, I still believe that they are survivable that way because of Fateweavers re-roll (covered below).

As far as psykers go, both are extremely survivable. However, as far as FMCs and MCs go, both are relatively fragile and need attention and care. There are certain combos that can make both of these FMCs invincible, and we will talk about them later. Oh, and did I mention Be'lakor has Eternal Warrior, so only Fateweaver has to watch out for those ID or S10 attacks.



4-Potency
Fateweaver's go-to main shooting attack is a 4D6 heavy bolter with soul blaze. It also makes you take a toughness test or fall victim to D3 more wounds with no armour or cover. On average rolls, a psychic test, getting through a DTW, roling 4D6 shots, and hitting results in 9 Strength 5 hits. With combinations of psychic powers such as ignore cover, re-roll hits and wounds, re-roll saving throws, and other shooting attacks, Fateweaver can be a very fast, very brutal strike force. With a movement + shooting range of about 48", there aren't a lot of units that can hide from this shooting attack. This attack, coupled with a vector strike, can cripple enemy FMCs and lighter flyers. Fateweaver can also shoot a combination of higher strength, lower AP shots from the Tzeentch powers.

Be'lakor's go to weapon is his blade. With 5 attacks, 6 on the likely charge, master crafted, armourbane, fleshbane, S7, Ignoring Armour saves, Eternal warrior, fearless, 4+ invuln, I8, and WS9, Be'lakor, like any daemon prince, can handle a lot of enemies in close combat. Though 4 wounds isn't a lot to get through to fell him, he is also used like Fateweaver as a specialty unit. Be'lakor is mainly used to take out larger MCs, elite infantry, and vehicles that the rest of your army can't deal with. I would not suggest flying him into a unit of gaunts.
Nor would i suggest flying fateweaver into combat. He should avoid that at all costs, unless it is a last resort option.



5-Combination and Army Support
Fateweaver also has two added benefits:
a) - He allows you to re-roll both dice on the warpstorm table if you are playing Chaos Daemons primary and he is your warlord (which i would suggest both).
b) - This is the big one, and also why he is one of, if no the best, support units in the game. He allows one re-roll of a dice per turn (player turn).

His ability to grant re-rolls wins games daily. As a person who plays him in a majority of my games, I can tell you that the single re-roll given will take you from a losing situation to a winning situation. There are countless opportunities to use this. The major ones are the grimoire of true names in your turn, and grounding checks in your opponents turn. It allows you to comfortably take the GoTN in your army and use it to full effect. Also it allows you to fly your FMC up into the opponents face knowing you will get at least one re-roll on the grounding check. FMC enthusiasts will tell you that this is vital in many situations to keep FMCs alive.

Be'lakor offers slightly less when it comes to Army support, but him in combination with Fateweaver can be brutal. Psychic playing off of psychic, expert shooting and expert assault.

With that let's go into tactics.



TACTICS
There are two prominent builds in a Chaos Daemon Army that fit both Fateweaver and Belakor, as well as some more in the Chaos Space Marines.
The two builds for Chaos Daemons are: Flying Circus, and Hound/Seeker rush.

The reasons why I believe that Chaos Space Marines shouldn't be primary when including both Fateweaver and Belakor are the following
-I am a chaos daemon player by heart, the army is my pride and joy
-If Fateweaver is included, he doesn't do nearly as well if the Grimoire of True Name isn't. The only way you can get it as an allied detachment is with a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch in Heavy Support. And by then, you have 3 FMCs and you've turned your list into a Flying Circus. I am of the opinion that Chaos Daemon primary Flying Circuses are a lot stonger, with the Daemon DPs being more flexible and numerous at that. Also, his warlord trait of re-rolling the warpstorm isn't worth anything if you don't have a warpstorm. Be'lakor's warlord trait is mundane in the best situation.

Regardless of your opinion on the matter, I'm going to talk about the builds outlined above.


The GoTN
Both builds require the GoTN (Grimoire of True Names). In fact, I don't believe Chaos Daemons can be competitive without it. And with it comes its randomness. Roll a 3+ on one dice and you are safe and secure with +2 to your invuln saving throw for the game turn. Pretty awesome. Roll and lower and your unit is screwed with -1 to the invulnerable saving throw. This is where Fateweaver's re-roll comes in. Now your 1 in 3 chance of screwing a unit over goes to a 1 in 9. A much lower chance, meaning you can go about 1 and a half games without it failing versus a half a game.

This is vital in making those Khorne Hounds from a good unit to one that will crush half of your opponents army. It also helps when you need a Daemon Prince to become more survivable. Making your invuln go from a 5++ to a 3++ doubles your chances at success and negates 2/3rds of all wounds. Doesn't matter the AP or if it ignores cover. 2/3rd of all wounds are just shrugged off.
This piece of equipment can also go on Fateweaver or Be'lakor, pushing their invulnerable from 4++ to 2++, with Fateweaver re-rolling all failed saves. This means that Belakor will ignore 5/6 wounds put on him and Fateweaver will ignore 35/36 wounds. Crazy I know.


Automatically Invisible
Because Be'lakor knows all of telepathy, it means he has the invisibility power guaranteed. For those who do not know what this is, it is a blessing that gives a unit stealth and shrouded, as well as makes anyone in combat with them WS1. So not only are you hitting on 3s in combat and your opponent hitting on 5s (in most every situation), but now you have a +3 to your cover save, meaning a 4+ out in the open and a 2+ in anything else.
That Daemon Prince in area terrain now has a 2+ cover save that he re-rolls. Those 20 seekers behind that hill? 2+ cover. Fateweaver jinking in midair? 2+ cover re-rollable. This has many uses and makes for a very versatile tool.


The entirety of telepathy in your hand
Okay, so Invisibility is cool and all, but what if it's not your thing? What if you are going up against Tau or Wave Serpents that ignore cover? Well, you have all of telepathy. Puppet master can come in handy in many a situation, including firing off all of the Skyray's missiles in one go so it can't fire any of them. Or say you are facing a superheavy vehicle with D-weapons. Now each turn those D-weapons can be fired on your behalf.
Necron Wraiths got you down? Terrify works wonders at scaring them off or running them down. As it does for wraithknights alike.
Want to go to ground in your opponents turn, but need to charge or shoot with that unit? No problem, Mental Fortitude is here for you.
How about all those Paladins? Hallucinate them and 1/3 chance they sit where they are and do nothing, 1/3 chance they force weapon themselves to death.
Psychic shriek can get you out of a pinch very easily, as well as coupled with vector strikes it can be quite nasty.
Dominate is the really only sub-par one. But say you're facing Daemons and you don't want that blob of daemonettes to move, run, or charge.

Overall, telepathy has really a lot of options to help you through tight spots, as well as give you an advantage.



Putting it all together
Here's where the magic happens. This was a combination i used in my last game against Eldar. A pack of ravenous Khorne Hounds with a Herald with the GoTN, and Be'lakor shooting up behind. Fateweaver was in reserve for most of the battle.
I Grimoire'd Belakor to give him a 2++ invulnerable saving throw. Be'lakor in return made the pack of Khorne Dogs invisible, granting them a 2+ cover, as they were running through area terrain. So now you have two very, very unruly threats coming quite fast at you that are almost untouchable. And with that, Be'lakor was Puppet Mastering Wave Serpents and gunning down enemy infantry. Even if i needed to expose the Khorne Hounds in the open for a turn i could and still grant them a 3+ cover save. They would be invisible and GtG in the opponents shooting phase and then become Mentally Fortified to jump right back up and move/charge the next turn.

Now consider the Same situation, except replace the Hounds with a Tzeentch Daemon Prince. The Daemon Prince now has a 2+ re-rollable cover while Be'lakor has a 2++ invuln. Or Fateweaver, or any number of things from nurgle spawn to a Soul Grinder.

Point it, you can make use of Be'lakor so many ways due to him knowing all of telepathy. The combination of Fateweaver, Be'lakor, and the GoTN puts armies to bed by itself.
2+ saves and 2++ saves everwhere and many of those saves are able to be re-rolled.



In Conclusion
With what I've stated and the combinations that these two master psykers can achieve, I don't think there is any doubt on who the best two psykers in the game are.
If you have any comments on the matter, I would like to hear them below.

There was never a doubt that they were the kings, so far as I'm aware.

I appreciate the breakdown for both units. They are already considered two of the best units out there, but this was a nice post that can show people who have yet to buy the models some good reasons to consider picking the up.

I would argue that Fateweaver isn't a great psyker, but more of a necessity. You don't buy him for the psyker powers, you buy him for the re-rolls of Warpstorm and Grimour. His powers are extra so you don't have to get close. He doesn't even have access to good powers really, Tzeentch is the worst discipline over all, only flickering fire being worth it. 1 power on each discipline with no access to primaris powers is nothing to shout about, you are a lot more likely to get 4 useless ones then 2 good ones. His survivability is debatable, T5 means he can and will get bolstered down if given half a chance and lets face it, you won't have grimour on him when it could be on something else. He is only survivable if you play target priority right.

Fateweaver is a great utility character, but he is no psyker power house that he should be. I would argue that Tig, Loth and Eldrad all supersede him in psyker dominance when it comes to getting useful powers.

Fair to say I'm well and truly convinced, might even get some Daemons to battle with my chaos now.
Thanks For breaking all of that down.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
1 power on each discipline with no access to primaris powers is nothing to shout about, you are a lot more likely to get 4 useless ones then 2 good ones.

How do you figure he can't take primaris powers?

Be'lakor is probably the best psyker in the game, no disagreement there.

However, a Mantleseer is probably better than fateweaver for the points. As is coteaz.

What do you think about running belakor with nurgle units who also have shrouded. Get a lot of nice cover saves even though some of the nurgle units arent competitive. Would beasts and flies be stronger with belakor enough to be competitive?

jakl277 wrote:
What do you think about running belakor with nurgle units who also have shrouded. Get a lot of nice cover saves even though some of the nurgle units arent competitive. Would beasts and flies be stronger with belakor enough to be competitive?

Bel'lakor can't join units, as he's not an independent character.

Obviously...I meant flying behind or near them..

Granting Stealth+Shrouded to units already toting Shrouded is a bit wasteful, versus giving such rules to Seekers or Hounds or the sort.

 obsidiankatana wrote:
Granting Stealth+Shrouded to units already toting Shrouded is a bit wasteful, versus giving such rules to Seekers or Hounds or the sort.

I'd agree with Obsidian, wating 2 Warp Charge on a unit just to give them stealth is kind of wasteful, especially because they already get it when they are within 8" of their target. Although the boost to CC ability for them is nothing to joke about. Be'lakor is best suited for throwing invisibility on big, fast units that can benefit the most from it

I will agree with you as far as raw power, but if you consider points cost, a Farseer on a jetbike with MotLG for 155 points is hard to beat.

I'm trying to write up a list using Chaos Daemons + Black Legion utilising both Belakor and Fateweaver along with a Black Legion DP with the nova power artifact. I think it has huge potential in shutting down gunlines or getting to mid field and wrecking. General idea is to send DP up middle and activate the artifact on turn 2, and then use all the extra warp charges Belakor gets to throw an extra invisibility or two.

YAY PSYKERS!

HQ: Kairos Fateweaver - 300
HQ: Be'Lakor - 350
Troops: 15 Plaguebearers of Nurgle - 135
Troops: 14 Horrors of Tzeentch - 126
Heavy Support: Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, Demonic Flight, Warp-forged Armour, Staff of Change, Grimoire of True Names, Lvl 3 - 345
HQ: Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, Wings Power Armor, Spineshiver Blade, Last Memory of Uranthos, Spell Familiar, Lvl 3 - 370
10 Chaos Cultists - 50
Heldrake, Baleflamer 170
(1850)

3 Lvl 4 psykers ...

 obsidiankatana wrote:
There was never a doubt that they were the kings, so far as I'm aware.

I agree, when was this ever disputed?

Props for the rundown, it is appreciated and helps folks like me learn the ins and outs of the game. It's a well written and convincing piece, too.

What about for us CSM players out here, any tips and tricks you've learned?
Sounds like you've got more experience with Daemons, but I'm sure you could expand on that without too much strain.

I just picked up Be'lakor last week and got my first game in with him yesterday. 1500 vs TAC IG, I fielded him with a kitted out Black Legion DP of Tzeentch and a couple maulerfiends.
What I had trouble doing was prioritizing which powers to use where. Who to buff, who to debuff? When to rely on psychic shriek? How often should I be spamming terrify? (Tried that almost every turn, he passed all his saves bar one.)
Biomancy on the DP for Iron Arm, but what to do with Be'lakor? IG commander was pretty solid at making sure his heavy hitting tanks & Vendetta weren't aimed anywhere I could make use of them, relegating Be'lakor to invisibility duty. Granted he did drop a slightly damaged bastion down around the ears of the plasma vets inside, but I felt like I wasn't playing him up to his potential and don't know how to do so.