^What Wyldhunt said.
On the character issue, it's not just that auras don't work in transports. If anything, I think that's more of a symptom of a larger issue - no one at
GW gives a hoot about Dark Eldar, so no one really takes the time to understand them or to use any real creativity in their design or even just to argue that maybe they shouldn't lose even more wargear options.
Anyway, the real problem with
DE characters is that there are so few of them and that they are so limited in their roles. Other factions enjoy psykers, support characters, mini-
HQs, melee
HQs, ranged
HQs, and/or
HQs that can be customised to fulfil one or more of these roles (e.g. the Canoness can be built as a ranged
HQ, a melee
HQ, a support
HQ or some combination thereof). However, the Archon - once the most versatile and customisable
HQ in the faction - is now just locked as a dull melee
HQ, with his only choice being which of the 4 near-identical power weapons you want him to wield. You can no longer take a Blaster to make him a ranged unit. You can no longer give him drugs or armour or swap out his Shadowfield for a Clone Field. He might as well have rolled out of an assembly line.
Haemonculi, too, have fallen far from what they once were. Hell, they've fallen far from what they were even a mere edition ago. They were another highly versatile
HQ, with a trove of arcane wargear to choose from. Back in 5th, you also used to be able to take 1-3 mini-Haemonculi in a single
HQ slot, so you could take 3 of them and give each one of the mini-artefacts (effectively one-use-only weapons with special effects), putting each one with a different unit to give them some extra bite, plus a Pain Token. Even in 8th, with most of those options now having vanished into the aether, you could at least still give Haemonculi a Liquifier Gun or Hexrifle for a more ranged build. Now, though, even those meagre options have been removed and, just like the Archon, the Haemonculus is now cemented as being a mediocre melee character.
To return to the Archon for a moment, I can even give you an example of how 9th killed what had been my favourite build in 8th. See, amidst the plethora of boring artefacts (which read like a list of standard wargear for other factions), one option stood out as actually looking quite fun - the Soul Seeker. It was an artefact pistol with a wopping 18" range! Pistol 2 S1
AP-1 Dd3 Poison 2+. However, what made it fun was that it could snipe characters and ignored Line of Sight - so, whilst it was pretty weak, there was no escaping it. I combined this with Soul Thirst warlord trait (which felt by far the most appropriate) and the Huskblade, giving the Archon 6 S4
AP-2 Dd3 attacks in melee. So nothing outstanding but not awful. But roll on 9th edition and
GW decided that S4 was just too much for the Huskblade - instead it had to be S3. So now if I wanted my Archon to have even mediocre strength, I'd have to swap out his fluffy Warlord trait for one that accomplished nothing save for making his Huskblade a functional fething weapon. Oh, and you remember how I liked the Soul Seeker because it ignored Line of Sight? Guess what
GW also removed in 9th.
This is the sort of thing that really bothers me because it just comes across as needlessly petty, it feels like a change born out of spite than anything rooted in balance or flavour.
Also, just to expand on Wyldhunt's point about Dark Eldar no longer feeling fast, I think I can point to a couple of good examples for this. The first is Fleet of Foot. Prior to 8th, all non-Coven Dark Eldar units used to have this as standard (meaning they could run and still charge). But then in 8th, it was just removed outright. Harlequins still got it, and Eldar got to run and still fire their weapons, whilst
DE got... nothing. No speed bonus at all. Even in 9th, it's been restored but only in the form of the
PfP table - so if
DE ever try to ally they instantly forget their racial speed and reflexes.
The second example is the Ravager. In the past, it was unique as being able to move full speed and still shoot all of its weapons without penalty. This advantage was maintained in 8th, as its Heavy Dark Lances/Disintegrators were treated as Assault weapons. So, whilst the vehicles of other races suffered penalties for moving and firing, the Ravager could move at full speed and fire without penalty, and could even Advance and still fire (albeit with a -1 to hit). However, in 9th the rules were changed such that every vehicle in the game could move at full speed and fire all their weapons without penalty. Not only that, but Ravagers no longer count their Heavy weapons as being Assault, so they can no longer Advance and fire them.
IOW, not only was every other race given the advantage that used to be unique to Ravagers, Ravagers themselves were actually made
less mobile.
I think this is the sort of thing that has really eroded
DE's faction identity and playstyle.
Eldar- 4436 pts
-- $k 
-- 9k 
-- 6k 
-- 4k 
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