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Hello!

I'm new to ninth edition and the competitive enviroment, I'm watching yt video and reading preatty much everywhere that dark eldar are one of the strongest factions right now, so I was asking you: why are they considered so strong?

I get they are very fast, and some units are cheap and very good, but for example, wyches on rider, how can they be so intimidating?
On paper they are very strong but extremely fragile melee unit that with the rules of trasport in this edition can disembark only if the vehicle didnt move, doing something like 18" of charge at best.
There's something I'm missing? Maybe about the transports rules, or rules/stratagem in the Drukhari book?
Same thing for Incubi.

Thanks a lot!

Drukhari got nerfed days ago, I don't think anyone is quite sure of their current strength. Faction strength always comes down to pts-efficiency of units and Stratagems. A large part of it is just that they go in, blender something expensive in melee, get destroyed but they were very cheap before their nerfs so it ended up being a good trade.

Melee units help put pressure on the battlefield making it harder for the enemy and easier for you to score VP which is how you win the game.

Try watching some battle reports where players use Wyches and see how they are used, I'd recommend Skarredcast or Art of War 40k. That might get you some pro insights. You could also check out https://www.goonhammer.com/start-competing-drukhari/ which describes the benefits of some of the units, I think Skarri's reviewed the units in video format.

Extremely fast and extremely killy. Makes them great at trading/playing 9th ed style 40k.

In their latest codex, GW basically just made all of our units really cost-effective. A lot of our stats and weapons got a boost that kind of seem kind of like reactions to some of the recent marine buffs (ex: splinter cannons and incubi both got boosts to their Damage stats that make them better against marines). So basically, we're just really, really killy for our cost because we're not paying points for good armor saves. It's slightly irksome for me as a drukhari player, honestly, because it feels like they leaned into the "glass cannon" thing rather than coming up with solutions to some of our more nuanced design problems.

They just upped the points costs of a lot of things a few days ago, so it's unclear how cost-effective we are now.

Raiders specifically are probably considered as good as they are because
A.) They can take dark lances which went from Dd6 to Dd3+3.
B.) They compete as transports with venoms which got a lot more expensive and arguably less powerful in the new codex. Transports are essential to the drukhari playstyle, so you see lots of raiders. And if people are losing to drukhari and see raiders in every list, they might assume that raiders are amazing.
C.) They got an extra point of Toughness this edition and have a 5+ invul save. So they're a bit more durable than you'd expect against both expensive anti-tank like lascannons and medium strength weapons like assault cannons.

Incubi are basically made to kill marines (and got better at it in the new codex). Marines make up a big portion of the meta, so a unit that is cost-effective against one of the most common armies in the game is going to be popular.

Also, wyches' max charge range is a bit longer than you'd expect. Starting on turn 2, drukhari can charge after advancing, so a squad of wyches with Movement drugs can disembark 3", move 10", advance up to 6", and charge up to 12" (with a lucky charge roll) for a max charge threat of 31" (average threat range of 23.5").

^Basically what Wyldhunt said.

DE are (or were, pre-nerf) just really efficient. Also, the fact that they have a good transport means their fragile units can start off pretty well protected.

Honestly, it's a bit of a shame as they're strong in the most boring way possible. There's very little in the way of dirty tricks, eldritch weapons or really anything remotely interesting. It's like playing an army that's still using it's 8th edition index.

 vipoid wrote:

Honestly, it's a bit of a shame as they're strong in the most boring way possible. There's very little in the way of dirty tricks, eldritch weapons or really anything remotely interesting.

Very much this. Back in the day, winning with Dark Eldar felt like an accomplishment because you had to know your stuff and overcome your innate durability problems using a bunch of weird weapons that were just dripping with flavor. Right now, we just win by throwing more cost-effective numbers at the enemy. Like, what are we? Space marines?! ;D

Thanks to all of you.

I was missing the advance and charge from power from pain and the +2 movement from drugs (even tho they'll miss the +1 strenght right?).
So it is kinda of a 14" plus 24" charge with a turn of enemy fire between the two, but the protection of good cover fire by dark lances from raiders and ravagers (Ì read now they got slightly buffed).

I still don't get it completely, because seems to me that's not so hard breaking 3 raiders plus witches in one turn with a very shooty army, but it's sure because my mind is stuck in old editions and I should play against them.

DE are kind of a submarine. They're beatable, but deceptively strong when they get in your face. Admech were the real monsters, imo, but lots has changed recently.

Hurt wrote:
Thanks to all of you.

I was missing the advance and charge from power from pain and the +2 movement from drugs (even tho they'll miss the +1 strenght right?).
So it is kinda of a 14" plus 24" charge with a turn of enemy fire between the two, but the protection of good cover fire by dark lances from raiders and ravagers (Ì read now they got slightly buffed).

I still don't get it completely, because seems to me that's not so hard breaking 3 raiders plus witches in one turn with a very shooty army, but it's sure because my mind is stuck in old editions and I should play against them.

Terrain is very much a thing these days because shooting is so lethal. Most boards all come with enough obscuring terrain that almost the entire army can hide out of line of sight of shooting on turn 1. It is common these days to start with a very non eventful turn 1 as both armies hide themselves carefully out of line of sight.

The new obscuring rules for terrain gives them infinite height.

Hurt wrote:
Thanks to all of you.

I was missing the advance and charge from power from pain and the +2 movement from drugs (even tho they'll miss the +1 strenght right?).

Kinda. You can either select a single drug or roll for 2 random ones. Most people don't seem to intentionally take the Movement drugs most of the time. Almost any of the others are probably more useful. (Although the extra Movement is still nice to have.)

I still don't get it completely, because seems to me that's not so hard breaking 3 raiders plus witches in one turn with a very shooty army, but it's sure because my mind is stuck in old editions and I should play against them.

Drukhari are kind of deceptively durable. It's not hard to kill three raiders, but it's just slightly harder than you'd expect. Especially if you're relying on weapons that pay for good AP (plasma, lascannons, multi-meltas) because they run into your invuln save. Between terrain and careful deployment, you can probably keep most of your boats somewhat safe on turn 1. And from turn 2 onwards, you're killing and charging enough enemies to limit your opponent's ability to focus down your boats.

Hurt wrote:
Thanks to all of you.

I was missing the advance and charge from power from pain and the +2 movement from drugs (even tho they'll miss the +1 strenght right?).
So it is kinda of a 14" plus 24" charge with a turn of enemy fire between the two, but the protection of good cover fire by dark lances from raiders and ravagers (Ì read now they got slightly buffed).

I still don't get it completely, because seems to me that's not so hard breaking 3 raiders plus witches in one turn with a very shooty army, but it's sure because my mind is stuck in old editions and I should play against them.

You're right, it isn't difficult at all. But it assumes you can shoot them. Ideally boards in 9th have a lot of obscuring terrain on them to stop shooting alpha strikes and so the Drukhari player will often be skulking around them for the first 2 turns.

I played a game on Wednesday where the terrain on our board wasn't fantastic and it was a long-ways deployment mission and I was vs Iron Hands. Because I physically could not hide everything I lost multiple Raiders and a bunch of other units to turn 1 fire from like 5 Dreadnoughts. It was about 700 points in total and that wasn't even with everything he could have potentially shot.

"Why are Drukhari considered strong?"

Because a random average collection of models is already pretty close to an optimized tournament list.

Very early data as not all tournaments used every bit of the FAQ, but DE win rate this past weekend was 49%. Admech was 51%.

GK at 53%.
Imperium and Harlies at 55% as the highest win rates.

Good! Is a very good thing that the boards offers a lot more buildings and covers, makes the game lot more tactical.

I must upgrade mine, right now i play on a living room round table with three towers plus some trees.

 Daedalus81 wrote:
Very early data as not all tournaments used every bit of the FAQ, but DE win rate this past weekend was 49%. Admech was 51%.

GK at 53%.
Imperium and Harlies at 55% as the highest win rates.

What exactly constitutes an "Imperium" army? SOB + Guard? Loyalists + a knight?

Clearly whatever this "Imperium" force is, it needs nerfed.

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

 Daedalus81 wrote:
Very early data as not all tournaments used every bit of the FAQ, but DE win rate this past weekend was 49%. Admech was 51%.

GK at 53%.
Imperium and Harlies at 55% as the highest win rates.

What exactly constitutes an "Imperium" army? SOB + Guard? Loyalists + a knight?

It can be any of those, yea.

Remember when 9th was supposed to put an end to souping bs?

An occasional 55% is acceptable though, definitely not souping bs. Souping should be allowed and functional, just not OP.

9th was not supposed to stop soup, it was supposed to level it with mono dex lists.

I think we can call that one a success.

Wayniac wrote:
Remember when 9th was supposed to put an end to souping bs?

Ermm, well, it was 49 games out of 2600+ so not really that concerning. 9th soup is definitely nothing like 8th.

Highly mobile troop filled shooting platforms running around blapping and trading up consistently... they play like I wish Tau did (womp womp).

Great point above though that a lot of their 'optimized' lists are actually pretty 'generic' with a lot of the most basic units just doing great work and being super effective for the points. I don't think the points nerf is going to knock them down far though, they've got so many tools to use to stay nasty.