Editing Heldrake (section)

===Durability===
First and foremost, it's a flier, so your options for hitting it are already limited. More to the point, it was the first flier of the edition to be designed AS a flier (as opposed to Stormravens, which were designed as skimmers). The early meta had no idea how to deal with fliers, so anyone playing against a Heldrake wasn't prepared for it. Nobody had Skyfire weapons except Guard players with Hydras, and Hydras were falling out of favor since they couldn't hit ground targets very well anymore.

But just hitting the flier was the first step. You also had to get past front and side Armor Value 12. Keep in mind this was before 6th Ed. Tau, so almost everything that had Skyfire was S7. It's also a Daemon Possessed vehicle, so it had 5+ invuln. And unlike other fliers, it got this for ''free'', whereas other fliers could only Jink if they were willing to snap-shot the following turn. To ice the cake, they gave it It Will Not Die, so your hard-earned efforts of finally hurting the thing could be all for naught.