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Ultramarines: The Movie

2018-07-25T16:10:10Z

2001:BB6:505:D958:FD99:FDA3:216:1BB0: /* Plot */

{{Wh40k-stub}}

'''''Ultramarines: The Movie''''' Is a 70-minute CGI movie about the Ultramarines Chapter. Directed by <s>Martyn Pick </s> Matt Ward, produced by Bob Thompson (The guy who produced the Bionicle movies) and starring, among others, [[awesome|JOHN MOTHERFUCKING HURT]]

==Plot==
It is the 41st millennium, a savage and grim dark future when mankind battles for survival in a galaxy riven by bloodshed and destruction. Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, assailed on all sides by the most grievous enemies - aliens, mutants and traitors. Only the colossal numbers of the Imperial Guard and the indomitable strength of the Space Marines, genetically-enhanced elite warriors of superhuman power and devastating ability, can offer any defense. Of all the ancient and venerable chapters of Space Marines, the Ultramarines are arguably the most powerful, most respected and most fearless. Pure of purpose and loyal to the Emperor, the Ultramarines are regarded as the most driven and strict, the most disciplined and courageous of Space Marine chapters.

Captain Severus, a revered veteran warrior with a considerable reputation, has received an urgent request for assistance from the remote backwater planet Mithron. Mithron has only one site of strategic importance, a shrine defended for countless generations by a full company of Space Marines from the Imperial Fists Chapter. What dreadful fate could have overcome them that they ask for help?

Leaving the bulk of his company on Algol to prosecute the war against the nightmarish Tyranids, Severus sets off for Mithron with only a ten-man squad for support. Ultima Squad is a raw, untrained band of battle brothers, all recently promoted from the ranks of Space Marine Scouts and thirsting for glory. Mithron will be their first taste of action as fully fledged Ultramarines. Severus, with his sergeant Crastor and his apothecary Pythol, knows they’ll need to keep a careful watch on the recruits.

On the tough and unforgiving surface of Mithron, Ultima Squad discovers that a terrible battle has taken place. The shrine has been attacked, and some great evil has been unleashed. As unseen dangers close in around them, the recruits have to mount a tense and deadly insertion to find any surviving Imperial Fists, and the reason behind the distress beacon.

For ambitious new recruits Proteus and Verenor, competitors for their captain’s approval, the reality of the task ahead becomes clear. They want a glorious first taste of combat as fully fledged Space Marines to prove they are worthy of selection. But this mission is a savage fight for survival and, if the Ultramarines fail, events on Mithron will threaten the fate of millions of densely populated Imperial worlds starting with their fortress home of Macragge...

Things got off to a flying start as the Ultramarines disembark their Thunderhawk and take to the field, unfortunately enough for the Ultima Squad,(and great for /tg/) a full 2 Ultramarines die VERY early on in the movie, (keep in mind there are 13 of the bastards) then another dies, to the joy of every veiwer. After that, the Ultramarines make their way into the Shrine, unknowingly shadowed by a powerful Daemon of Khorne... Anyway, when they get inside the Daemon shows himself and kills off Severus by throwing him and himself off a cliff. For some reason however, Severus left orders to allow Proteus to take command.. huh, strange. So, instead of leaving this hellhole, Proteus commands the Squad to remain with him as he investigate the beacon. They happen upon the Chaplain Carnak (voiced by John Hurt) and his bodyguard Nidon, who are the only survivors of the Shrine Guard. They guard a tome which they claim was granted to the Imperial Fists at their founding by the God-Emperor, however things are not as they seem. The Imperial Fists and Ultramarines then begin the journey to their extraction point only to find the Chaos Space Marines in wait. After a pitched battle against the Traitors, wherein many Ultramarines are slain, and a Crozius Arcanum proves to be a canon raping sonic blaster, Captain Severus returns and turns the tide in the favor of the Loyalists.

After returning to their Battle Barge, Proteus and Severus confront Carnak and Nidon, after inspecting the Codex that they guard and finding it empty of text, Severus executes Carnak, however, it would seem it was all deception... For the apparent Captain of the Ultima Squad reveals himself to be the same Daemonic Spawn of Khorne who we saw at the Shrine!!

'''WHAT A TWEEEST'''!!!

Nidon, Proteus and Verenor pursue the Daemon, finding the remaining battle brothers wounded heavily, one dead and Pythol hanging on by a mere thread. They corner the beast in the Reclusiam, finding him engaged in a dark ritual to bring forth a legion of daemons. Nidon is summarily slain and the Warp Spawn attempts to draw Proteus to Chaos, Pythol appears and strikes the beast from behind, causing it to flee while roaring out; "FORGET GLORY! GET UP AND KILL THIS BEAST!" despite this badassery, Pythol too is slain. The only hope for out Ultramarine heroes is the mighty Thunder Hammer kept in the Reclusiam, remembering a technique taught to him by Severus, Proteus smashes away the beast with... a Space Marine Helmet... Huh.. Anyway, Proteus claims the hammer and proceeds to open up a Holy can of FUCK YOU! on said Daemon, sending it and the Heretical tome back to warp. Only Proteus and Verenor survive.

At the end of the film, they have been granted leadership over the Ultima Squad, and are presiding over a new group of Space Marines that they will lead into battle with these words;

"''You are about to receive the honor of going into combat for the first time as Ultramarines... You shall make your battle pledges upon the sacred Warhammer, wielded by the greatest of our veterans; it has slain both alien and daemon alike. One day you shall be worthy of it, but until then, you shall kneel before it. We march for Macragge! And we shall know no fear! ''

A fine first attempt at a Warhammer 40K film. Buy it (and the carrying case, and the comic book, and the making of extras, and all the other swag that comes with it. No, you don't have a choice, it's everything or nothing)(heresy, digital is better) so we can have a better one.

==Characters==
'''Ultramarines:'''
*Captain Severus (Terrence Stamp) - Captain of the Ultramarines 2nd company. No relation to Severus from [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]. Or Severus Snape. Or the Ultramarines Captain Severus Agemman, for that matter. <s>He does, however, [[Derp|have the same goddamned voice-actor]].</s> No he doesn't, that was Peter "Darth Maul" Serafinowicz.
*Brother Proteus (Sean Pertwee) - Newly promoted battle brother who is actually a trigger happy lunatic. Has a sort of [[anime]]-esque hate-rival relationship with Verenor.
*Brother Verenor (Steve Waddington) - A newly promoted battle brother and resident sniper. He has a rivalry with Proteus for the approval of Severus.
*Apothecary Pythol (Donald Sumpter) - Some old fart who's friends with Severus. Switches between "Captain Obvious," "Bitter, Cynical Old Fart," and "Stone-Cold Badass." Only member of the squad with more brains than balls, and guess where it gets him?
*Sergeant Crastor, Brother Junor and Brother Remulus (Ben Bishop) - Crastor was, in a way, the redshirt of the movie (Though, more of a "red helmet") because he, along with Lycos, was the first to die. On a side note Crastor was the only original member of Squad Ultima after most of the original squad got nommed by Nids. Junor went out in a badass way, he got wounded and his flamer started leaking promethium. After telling the others to fall back, he detonates the flamer and blows up a load of Chaos Marines. Remulus got torn to pieces by the daemon on the strike cruiser.
*Brother Hypax, Brother Maxillius and Brother Decius (Gary Martin) - Expendable Marines who exist pretty much to die. Hypax became the standard bearer after Boreas had his chest inconviently ripped up by an autocannon. Hypax met his end on the Strike Cruiser when the daemon disguised as Severus impaled him with the standard. Maxillius, armed with a heavy bolter, got his head split open by the daemon and Decius got shot up by Chaos Marines.
*Brother Boreas and Brother Lycos (Christopher Finney) - Hmm, 'Boreas'? Now where have we heard- [[Indrick Boreale|Oh Emperor...]] Anyway, Boreas served as the standard bearer until he <s>FEHLED TEH EMPRAH</s> was penetrated by an autocannon. Lycos served as the driver for the landspeeder until he got killed, along with Crastor, during said ambush, when a Black Legion Marine with a Stalker Bolter perforated their heads.

'''Imperial Fists:'''
*Chaplain Carnak ([[Awesome|John Hurt]]) - Chaplain of the Imperial Fists. He's the one responsible for sending out the distress signal. Helps the remaining Ultramarines in battling the Black Legion and returns with them to their battle-cruiser. Gets shot in the head by Severus (Actually, the Daemon Prince in Severus' form) **BUUUURN HERETICS**.
*Brother Nidon (Johnny Harris) - Carnak's Bodyguard. Possibly the most mush-faced marine in the movie and totally insane, being very protective of the Liber Mithrus (despite its contents being highly questionable). Is decently badass until (maybe) dying in a lame way by being thrown across the room into a stone column by a DEMON PRINCE. His death isn't confirmed.
*Nailed up in the Front gate [[Imperial Fists]] (Themselves) - They're having the time of their lives.

'''Black Legion'''
*The Daemon Prince - First attacks Ultima squad in the shrine and plummets to its supposed death along with Severus. It kills Severus and takes his form later on in fooling Ultima Squad. Almost succeeds in opening a warp gate on the strike cruiser, but Proteus goes Hammer-Time and the daemon gets banished to the warp. Given his red coloration and the Black Legion warband's preference for chainaxes, he may be a Daemon Prince of Khorne.
*Black Legion Legionnaires (Unknown. Possibly played by themselves) - The main enemies. The Majority of them are either raging psychopaths with Boltguns or Raging psychopaths with chainswords, chain-axes, and bolt pistols (including a serious badass who dual wields bolt pistols to little effect). For some reason, the majority of them are having trouble with their aim (possibly suffering from the infamous "Stormtrooper Effect"), and are taking more casualties than the Ultramarines despite having taken down nearly the entire Imperial Fists 5th company (FUCKING ULTRAMARINE PLOT ARMOR!!!). Of course, if the Fists went down to Furies, they're probably [[C.S. Goto| Alpha Legion impostors or some shit]]. It is possible that, due to their love of close combat and their leader being a Khornate Daemon Prince, this Black Legion is dedicated to Khorne.

'''Misc'''
*Horribly mutilated and decimated [[Imperial Guard|Imperial Guardsmen]] (Themselves) - Like their Imperial Fists counterparts, they're having a blast with their role.
*Servitors - Aside from one short bit of dialogue between a servitor and Crastor, they don't get up to much.

==Things that Rock==
*<s>Ultramarines</s> Who let Matt Ward in?
*A Warhammer movie for the first time in 24 years. Finally. Apart from [[Damnatus]], of course, and that ancient [[Inquisitor (film)|Inquisitor]] movie thing that no one remembers, but those were considerably lower in budget.
*[[Dan Abnett]] writes the story.
*Voice acting ranges form amazing to mediocre, but isn't overall bad.
*Space Marines who don't look like [[Dawn of War II|Hair-etics]].
*Have we mentioned John Hurt? (God rest his soul) His awesomeness is so great that we must do so. He stands second only to the Emperor.
*Chaos Space Marines are in it (Specifically, The Black Legion)
*Violence, glorious amounts of decently crafted violence.
*Lots of HERETICS die.
*Severus' armour looks awesome.
*Carnak's armour looks awesome.
*Carnak's line "BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN, HERETICS!"
*Pythol's line "FORGET GLORY! GET UP AND KILL THIS BEAST!"
*Pacing is nice.
*Character development.
*The soundtrack, especially the parts with Ominous <s>High Gothic</s> English Chanting (like PROUD ASTARTES)
*The ending.

==Things that Suck==
*Complete lack of [[Xenos|Eldar, Tyranids (stained glass murals don't count) or Necrons to name a few]].
*Complete lack of anyone without a Y-chromosome.
*Space Marines look exactly like their tabletop counterparts. This means that the Bolters are comically oversized and lacking in details compared to the armor. They also move like you'd expect tabletop minis to move: very stiff and exaggerated.
*Not a single [[Beakie]].
*The animation is constantly shifting quality of texture, movements, dynamics, lighting, detail and meshes. Some scenes show high quality designed animation while some were pretty sloppy, as if they were hurried. The absolute nadir is the jumping-across-the-broken-bridge scene; they move like they're playing hopscotch. Still, it does manage to look nice most of the time. As described by [[Araghast the Pillager]] "The production values and designs look like it was made in the 1990s."
* Not enough gigantic dark Gothic space cathedrals, and way too fucking many convenient scenery-obscuring dust clouds.
* The thickest part of power armor, the chest plate, <s>is somehow consistently punctured clean through by a single bolter round</s> actually it was an autocannon round.
*Carnak dies for no reason.
*Where the FUCK is [[Khârn|Khârn]]?
*Released only as a special edition. No regular release.
** While no longer true, it took so long for the DVD and Blu-Ray release to come out that everyone who wanted it probably already had it.
*It got delayed. Because of this, it caused lots of fans to go batshit crazy and [[rage]].
*Lore rape: Promethieum fuel is not gel, power armor sliced apart by a simple chainaxe in one hit (Although this is consistent with Abnett's other Space Marine works were Power Armor might as well be paper to Space Marine weapons), and the Crozius Arcanum shoots magic beams. Dan Abnett defended this weakly by saying "but yea, all Crozius Arcanums aren't the same, even if they've always been exactly described the same in every book and lore piece until this movie was released." Although you can think of it as the blessed holy aura of the Crozius and the Chaplain that are screwing with the Chaos Marines, it's still a weak explanation. (It seems likely that the slow motion beams fired from the Crozius were inspired by the Chaplain's special ability in [[Dawn of War]])
*Going with lore rape, they fucked up the drilled-in order of promotion through the Codex Astartes chapters. Tactical Marines are not fresh out of the Scouts - The scouts that are promoted first go to battle as Devastators then Assaults, to say nothing of portraying those scouts as young hotheads despite the fact that an ultramarine scout will have had decades of military training and experience.
*For even MORE lore rape, you can consider the following: a daemon of Khorne engaging in disguise and plotting. A captain abandoning his entire company in favor of dicking around on some random system instead of just sending a veteran sergeant. A ship having a reclusiam without an attendant chaplain. An ultramarine, one of the most highly trained soldiers in the galaxy, smacking a daemon with a helmet instead of just punching it.
* Speaking of Lore Rape: There's a stain glass window of what's clearly the Battle for Macragge, as the plot takes place shorty after this, meaning Cato Sicarius should be Captain of the 2nd.
*Now, a tactical squad in action with an old apothecary.... IS THIS ULTRA-VERSION OF 'BROTHERS OF THE SNAKE'?!
*With how the Chaos Space Marines act, it would have made more sense to use the [[World Eaters]] than the Black Legion.
*Space Marines are too wimp for their standards, yet still decimate the Black Legion.
*the space marines banner crackles with electricity when daemons are near.......*cough*frodo's sword anyone.
*The entire vessel is utterly deserted save for [[Derp|15 marines]]. Some argue the marine count is consistent with Battlefleet Gothic fluff states; the obvious rebuttal is that ''there are no serfs anywhere and only 7 servitors''.
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Last Stand - Hive Tyrant

2018-07-25T14:11:21Z

2001:BB6:505:D958:FD99:FDA3:216:1BB0: /* Overview */

The [[Hive Tyrant]] is the [[Last Stand]] hero for the Tyranids.

==Overview==
The Hive Tyrant is a unique, multi-role hero in [[Last Stand]]. Capable of summoning minions - and able to fight competently at short or long range, it can accomplish many different roles at once depending on its loadout and equipment, from close-combat bruiser to minion-heavy commander to offensive and defensive support. More so than other heroes of the same ilk, the Hive Tyrant eschews flash and fancy equipment and techniques in favor of being able to get a job done reliably. You won't rain destruction across the battlefield with Eldritch Storms or unleash missile barrages with the Tyrant - you will instead be a centerpoint of offense or defense in and of yourself, capable of devastating enemy squads or vehicles, ripping open threats in close-combat, and wearing opponents down with minions.

The Hive Tyrant excels at two roles in Last Stand, above all others: Battlefield control, and area denial. Control is established through a large number of disrupting, suppressing, stun, knockback, and fear effects the Tyrant gets - whether via the likes of armor abilities like The Horror, or accessory abilities like Seismic Roar, Psychic Scream, and the use of its minions, which are fewer in number than that of the [[Last Stand - Lord General|Lord General]], but much higher in quality. This makes the Tyrant a virtual master of support, as it can keep a team in the fight by dramatically hindering the ability of enemies to wear down its teammates. Area Denial is a huge advantage of the Tyrant as well - though it lacks an ability like the [[Last Stand - Mekboy|Mekboy]]'s mines or [[Last Stand - Tau Commander|Shas'O]]'s snare traps, Toxic Miasma allows it to make a sizable patch of ground dangerous or even lethal for enemies to cross for quite some time - by stacking it with itself, even huge hordes of enemies can be dissolved in short order, protecting vulnerable teammates and dealing with clusters of problematic opponents.

Unlike other Heroes with support or minion elements, like the [[Last Stand - Farseer|Farseer]], the Hive Tyrant is also a superior direct combatant. Even its weakest melee options are perfectly capable of tearing weaker opponents to shreds, and its ranged options contain some of the best AOE, anti-infantry, and anti-armor weapons that Last Stand has to offer. It also boasts a powerful offensive ability in the form of Bio-Plasma. Its strongest melee weapon is capable of turning the Hive Tyrant into the single strongest close-combat fighter in the entire game, bar none, and with one of the largest health and armor pools in the entire game - behind only the Tau Commander kitted-out for durability - the Tyrant is a force to be reckoned with. Even the Necron Overlord isn't as tough as this bastard, unless taking an unkillable tank build. As an even bigger upside, the Tyrant is permanently Fearless ''and'' Unshakable.

However, being as big, tough, and flexible as the Tyrant comes with drawbacks. It's a very big creature, and indeed, the biggest hero in [[Last Stand]]. This makes him a very large target and surprisingly vulnerable to area-of-effect weapons. It also means that the Tyrant can't take cover except to reduce the number of shots coming at him from a specific angle. He's also terribly slow and with only two ways to improve mobility (Articulated Carapace and Thornback), he can easily be targetted by enemy firepower for all his durability and utility. Careful balance is required to get the most out of this easy-to-get-into, but hard-to-master Tyranid hero.

==Armor==
*'''Carapace''' - ''Default''
**Armor: 105
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
***Standard armor. Like all placeholders, it sucks, but is pretty good as far as default armor goes.

*'''Poison Cysts''' - ''Level 1''
**Armor: 150
**-14% Speed, +50 health
**Ability: : Toxic Miasma (25 Energy: Emit a toxic cloud that poisons a large area. Nearby enemies take damage over time equal to half of the Hive Tyrant’s maximum health over 20 seconds.)
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
***Offering one of the largest armor bonuses and one of the most genuinely useful abilities the Hive Tyrant gets for crowd control, Poison Cysts also offers a massive health bonus as well - it is, without exception, one of the best armors in the game for the Tyrant. Toxic Miasma sprays a cloud that does damage over time; multiple applications of Toxic Miasma stack, so if all else fails, dropping a pair of these can be what ends a horde of charging Banshees or the like. The toxin ignores armor for the most part, as well, giving it limited anti-armor potential.

*'''Extended Carapace''' - ''Level 1''
**Armor: 144
**-14% Speed, +25 Health
**Ability: Bio-Plasma (10 Energy, shoots a ball of bio-plasma at a target, does splash damage)
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
***At a glance, Extended Carapace looks awful - it offers lighter armor, less health, and an ability much weaker than Toxic Miasma. Bio-Plasma, however, is much cheaper than Toxic Miasma, recharges faster, and has absolutely brutal synergy with the Tyrant's other wargear. Bio-Plasma benefits from both Implant Attack ''and'' Toxin sacs, enabling it to annihilate infantry targets, and the roiling bio-plasma blast, when upgraded, can easily wreck armored targets. The plasma ball's travel time and AOE take getting used to, and are much less exploitable than the likes of Toxic Miasma, but on the right build, this armor is deceptively powerful.

*'''Bonded Exoskeleton''' - ''Level 6''
**Armor: 134
**-14% Speed, +75 Health, +50 Health to minions, +2 Minion Health regen
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity)
***Bonded Exoskeleton has reasonably heavy armor - enough that the loss from the other two armor types is essentially negligible - and offers the largest health boost, which means it's the best at keeping the Tyrant alive, albeit at the expense of missing out on an ability. The bigger advantage is the absolutely enormous buff to Minion survivability it gives; with Bonded Exoskeleton, Genestealers are substantially harder to kill, and Raveners and Warriors are much more survivable - to say nothing of the meaty buff this gives to the Tyrant Guard. It's the single best armor to pair with Toxin Sacs due to the HP bonuses. A great upgrade for a commander Tyrant.

*'''Articulated Carapace''' - ''Level 13''
**Armor: 114
**Ability: Horror (20 Energy, Forces enemies to fall back)
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity), Swift (+15% Speed), Minion Swift (+25% Speed to minions)
***This one has less defense and no health boosts, but is one of only two carapaces with no speed penalty - rather, it gives you Swift, instead. Indeed, between the lack of the penalty and the application of Swift, this makes a Tyrant with this upgrade roughly 50% faster than normal - an advantage that carries over to the likes of Thornback and makes the Tyrant much harder to pin down. The availability of The Horror, however, and the version of Swift given to Minions, makes this one of the best overall support armors. If properly used, the amount of control this offers is fantastic, and it allows you to eschew Toxin Sacs on a given build - an enormous advantage when fighting the comp on Coliseum. Use it well.

*'''Reinforced Chitin''' - ''Level 17''
**Armor: 98
**- 14% Speed, +25 Health, +80 Minion Armor
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity), Reactive Armor (Tyrant temporarily gains +10 Armor each time it is attacked, stacking up until +300)
**IMPORTANT NOTE: Does not work in Chaos Rising and early versions of Last Standalone. Does in Retribution and current updated versions.
***Reinforced Chitin gives you increasingly tough armor the more you're attacked, allowing you to become harder to kill as a fight drags on, and which gives a very useful minion defense upgrade as part of the bargain. When maxed out, Reinforced Chitin offers incredible protection - almost 50% more defense than even a kitted-out-for-defense Tau Commander - and it offers a health buff, to boot. Even better, it also gives Minions a substantial defense buff. In practice, however, Reinforced Chitin is incredibly situational. The buff requires several hits before it even equals the basic armor types, and units with Searing, Corroding, or Armor Piercing attacks will continue to deal damage to you normally in spite of your heavy defense. This armor combines well with Bio-Feedback based builds, where tanking lots of hits while invulnerable is commonplace and the extra armor helps between summonings. The minion armor buff also gives you more control over when your minions die- ie, your stealers won't all be killed while they are on cooldown. And if they are, the extra 300 armor helps you stay alive those extra few seconds.

*'''Thornback Carapace''' - ''DLC''
**Armor: 190
**Traits: Fearless (Suppression Immunity), Unshakable (Knockback immunity), Barbed Armor (Any who attack the Tyrant take 20 damage for each attack)
***This is an armor which doesn't look very good at all when first viewed - it has massive armor - the heaviest of any Tyrant subtype, in fact - but no ability and no Health boost. In exchange, Thornback has one of the most absolutely vicious passives in the game. Anyone attacking the Tyrant in melee takes 20 points of damage - each and every time. This retaliatory damage is enough to easily kill lighter threats like swarms of Hormagaunts and Ork sluggas, and reduces the threat Banshees pose somewhat, since a Banshee can die in hitting a Tyrant with this in about 3 hits - though sadly, this heavy defense isn't so helpful against opponents with Armor Piercing or Corroding attacks, where the lack of a health boost makes itself especially well-known. Where the Thornback Carapace shines is as part of a caster build or feedback build - pair this thing with Psychic Scream and/or Warp Field, and it can absorb considerable punishment whilst amplifying any damage done, and pairing it with feedback lets you deal damage whilst lounging about, dangerous to touch. As an added bonus, it's the ''other'' carapace that lacks a speed penalty, although you still won't move as fast as a Tyrant with Articulated Carapace.

==Weapons==
All the weapons the Tyrant has take up both hands, so you'll have only one choice out of a rather vast and rather surprising list of weaponry available.

*'''Scything Talons''' - ''Default''
**Melee Weapon
**8.2 DPS
***Default weapon. As per all of them, it absolutely sucks and exists as a placeholder, mostly.

*'''Enlarged Scything Talons''' - ''Level 1''
**Melee Weapon
**16.0 DPS
**Traits: Minion Armor Piercing (Minion attacks can ignore enemy armor up to 100), Minion Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged damage)
***With roughly twice the damage per second of Scything Talons, and a pair of highly useful upgrades for minions, the Enlarged Scything Talons is a mediocre set of melee weapons in terms of actual quality, but provides immense benefits for your minions. It's your only non-DLC/achievement weapon to start, which kind of sucks, but the high special attack rate and huge bonuses to Minions means this gets better and better the further in your career you go.

*'''Venom Cannon''' - ''Level 4''
**Ranged Weapon
**13.0 DPS
**Traits: Armor Piercing (Melee and Ranged attacks ignore up to 240 Armor)
***One of, if not ''the'' best overall weapons in the entire game for the Tyrant, due to the Venom Cannon's high rate of fire, relatively high damage, and monstrous Armor Piercing trait. Between its huge range and ability to take on all comers, this biomorph delivers. It has a secondary - and highly useful - feature as well - the Armor Piercing trait applies to the Hive Tyrant's melee attacks with this weapon as well - which means that it can out-melee several dedicated melee biomorphs. All of this conspires to make the Venom Cannon an intimidating weapon, with few real drawbacks. It tends to get eschewed for more specialized builds, since pretty much all of the biomorphs are useful on some level or another, but if you lack better options, no Tyrant ever went wrong with a Venom Cannon.

*'''Heavy Talons''' - ''Level 10''
**Melee Weapon
**16.0 DPS
**Traits: Knockdown (Attacks can knock down enemy infantry), Minion Unshakable (Minions are immune to knockback)
***At a glance, this weapon seems like a tweaked Enlarged Scything Talons - same damage, and a different benefit (unshakable minions) for your minions. Unlike the Enlarged Scything Talons, however, the Heavy Talons offers a number of benefits to the Hive Tyrant, as well. It enables the Tyrant to easily knock foes down, allowing the Tyrant to essentially stunlock enemies that aren't vehicles/unshakable in close combat. Even better, the Heavy Talons boas the second-highest Special Attack rate of all melee mesomorphs, which means that the Hive Tyrant is less prone to suffer from being mobbed and is likely to use more attacks that cover an area. It's a very specialized choice, but has a place with several dedicated melee builds. A noticeable downside, each attack will bounce and enemy outside the range of the rest of your attacks so your slow tyrant ass has to waddle back up to it and slap it again, this is especially frustrating and humiliating when fighting the force commander.

*'''Crushing Talons''' - ''Level 14''
**Melee Weapon
**14.6 DPS
**+1 Minion Health Regeneration
**Traits: Feedback Zeal (Whenever a minion attacks, Tyrant gains back 3 Health)
***This weapon is weaker than the other two claw weapons seen thus far, but it provides one of the most absolutely amazing benefits for any tyrant who's willing to let their minions do the talking. Feedback Zeal can give the Tyrant back considerable amounts of health from its minions, especially when using Genestealers - it adds immense survivability to what was already an incredibly survivable class. Better still is that it also bolsters the health regeneration of your minions, letting them stay in the fight longer. The Crushing Talons also boast the highest Special Attack rate of any melee biomorph, somewhat eclipsing how big a drawback its lowered damage output could otherwise be. Paired up with Bonded Exoskeleton or Articulated Carapace, this can be one of the most directly-useful weapons a Hive Tyrant can use.

*'''High-Toxin Venom Cannon''' - ''Level 19''
**Ranged Weapon
**5.7 DPS
**Traits: Zealous Leadership (Attacks with Venom Cannon heal minions up to 5% of total Health), Area of Effect (Cannon attack damages over small area)
***A perfect tool to support your minions. Keep firing anywhere and it will keep healing your minions, making genestealers really hard to deal with and saving you from keep respawing them to reinforce. Also, your melee attacks will heal your inions for the same amount, so you better for melee on something since you have a shorter cooldown on your melee attacks compared to your ranged attacks, your minions will become immortal. However, it doesn't deal any damage and probobly useless for offence. It has very low damage, and its AoE is very tiny, and doesn't deal any damage. Even if you combine it with Toxin Sacs and Implant Attack, it can't even kill Heretics. Use this weapon if you are abusing your minions.

*'''Rending Stranglethorn''' - ''Achievement: Kill 20 enemies in 1 second''
**Ranged Weapon
**16.0 DPS
**Traits: Suppression (Can suppress enemies)
***A great ranged weapon, especially early on, with amazing synergy with Bio-Plasma and Toxin Sacs. This biomorph works especially well if you're teamed with other players who would otherwise lack a means of suppressing enemies - its relatively high damage and sizable AOE, paired with indirect-fire capability and huge range makes it an outstanding weapon for ranged support, especially given its relatively high accuracy. Additionally, it has a highly useful secondary feature - in close-combat, the Rending Stranglethorn does knockdown with every melee attack, meaning that in addition to being an excellent fire support weapon, it can be used to stun-lock high-profile threats, like the Lictors on Anvil of Khorne.

*'''Behemoth Claw''' - ''Achievement: Kill 25 Superheavy Units ([[Khaine|Avatar of Khaine]], [[Swarmlord]], [[Baneblade]], [[Land Raider]], [[Great Unclean One]], Ork Battle Wagon)''
**Melee Weapon
**30.0 DPS
**+50 Armor
**Traits: Armor Piercing (Attacks ignore armor)
***The Behemoth Claw is, without exception, the single strongest melee weapon in the game, exceeding even the Sorcerer's Cataclysmic Hellblade and the Mekboy's Zzap Knife. It isn't capable of burst damage like the Staff of Fate or Warp Spear, but it doesn't need to be - unlike these powerhouses, the Behemoth Claw is entirely raw damage - it completely bypasses armor, gives a huge bonus to your own defense, and thus boasts one of the highest DPSes of any close-combat weapon in the game, as well. Nothing survives this beast when the Tyrant has it equipped. Sadly, getting it is quite difficult, but it's definitely worth your time and patience. When you need to punch a rampaging Dreadnought in the balls, accept no substitutes.

*'''Devourer Cannon''' - ''DLC''
**Ranged Weapon
**7.4 DPS
**Traits: Gestate (Units hit by Devourer Cannon take 30 damage over 6 seconds)
***The Devourer Cannon is relatively weak on its own - it has a sluggish fire rate and does acceptable damage per hit, but without armor piercing or AOE, it's a rather lackluster weapon. Thankfully, the Devourer Cannon has other advantages - if it hits a unit, ''all units in that squad will be infested and take damage over time''. This effect also procs with Searing, allowing you to do considerable damage to squads with every single shot. Unfortunately, it's not an actual AOE weapon and has rather poor damage against armor (the infested damage isn't anything to write home about when targeting the likes of a Dreadnought). It's worth noting that whilst this weapon can be quite powerful, it's also terribly risky to bring to the Coliseum if not prepared - it'll easily wreck the shit of any minion-focused ally you have along, potentially ruining the efforts of allied Lord Generals or Tyrants, and it's a nightmarishly effective weapon against low-HP heroes like the Sorcerer. Be aware. Gestate kills don't count so you only "kill" one or two in each squad. Also melee heals your pets like the high-toxin venom cannon so can give them a boost with force attacks in between waves or when surrounded.

==Accessories==
*'''Seismic Roar''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Seismic Roar (15 Energy, stuns nearby enemies)
***Mediocre at the outset. It's a decent ability for one available at the start, but it has a huge lag before properly firing off and a surprisingly small radius of effect. If timed correctly, it's extremely effective for buying a few seconds of breathing room, but it's extremely easy to misjudge the timing on and wind up with a face-full of Banshees or Stormboyz if you screw it up. Synapse makes this ability infinitely better and much more versatile, since it costs bugger all and can be fired off whilst using ranged weapons. It's generally avoided by most high-level builds, but has some use on ranged Tyrants.

*'''Genestealer Nest''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Call Genestealer (10 Energy, summons 3 [[Genestealer]]s as minions)
***Genestealers are your first minion and the only one you deploy in groups. Individually, they're extremely fragile, tending to die ''extremely'' quickly if targeted unless you're packing the likes of Bonded Carapace or Reinforced Chitin. On the plus side, they're fast, extremely inexpensive, available right from the get-go, and have a built in Corroding trait when they attack that temporarily weakens enemy armor with each hit. Paired with their quick attack speed, these vicious little beasts are amazingly powerful with Enhanced Scything Talons and can easily act as impromptu medics with Crushing Talons. They're the go-to minion for Feedback Invulnerability chains. For raw efficiency, they're a tough minion to beat, even if they tend to wither under fire, and they make excellent screeners when dealing with large enemy groups or ranged units.

*'''Toxin Sacs''' - ''Level 2''
**+20 Minion Health
**Traits: Searing (Tyrant's attacks deal additional damage over time, scaling with the Tyrant's maximum health. Stacks with itself. Minions also get this trait.)
***A great upgrade for not only the Tyrant, but all of your minions, especially the Tyrant Guard. Causes both your - and your minions' - attacks to do 10% of the user's max HP over 2 seconds. This burn damage is particularly vicious when from ranged weapons from the Tyrant, and, due to it scaling off HP, it works much better for the Tyrant Guard and Warrior than for the Ravener and Genestealers. Make a note that this biomorph will make your doppleganger in Wave 16 a much bigger threat, due to the comp getting higher max health. Curiously, this upgrade also effects the Bio-Plasma attack from Extended Carapace.

*'''Tyrant Guard Nest''' - ''Level 3''
**Ability: Call Tyrant Guard (20 Energy, summons a [[Tyrant Guard]] as a minion)
***Sometimes called "Pangy" by fans, due to the Tyrant Guard's resemblance to a Pangolin, the Tyrant Guard is the second summon you get, and quite a good one. The Tyrant guard is a competent melee attacker, and more than this, the single toughest minion you get as a Hive Tyrant. It can survive for quite a while between its high health and heavy armor, and it has the ability to taunt enemies to draw their attacks away from the Hive Tyrant. Its enormous healthpool means that the Tyrant Guard benefits more from Toxin Sacs than it does Implant Attack, and that it's the most powerful minion you have if blown up with Explosive Decomposition. Note, however, that its damage output, whilst satisfactory, isn't great, and it's actually the weakest of Tyrant's minions on offense otherwise. Use it well.

*'''Warrior Nest''' - ''Level 7''
**Ability: Call Warrior (15 Energy, summons a [[Tyranid Warrior]] with scything talons as a minion)
***Tyranid Warriors aren't as tough as Tyrant Guards, nor as easily-spammed as Genestealers, but they make up for this with raw damage - in close-combat, they are easily your strongest overall minion, and the fact that they have a built-in minor Armor Piercing trait makes them even better. Seeing these guys eviscerate Space Marines or other heavy infantry isn't uncommon, and the fact that they have a leaping attack with knockdown means they often wind up drawing fire by getting in the enemy's face. Whilst they tend to go down fairly quickly, they're the second-toughest minion the Tyrant gets and probably one of the most consistently useful. Due to moderate health, they benefit more from Implant Attack than Toxin Sacs. Their innate armor piercing stacks with that from Enlarged Scything Talons - this enables them to act as vehicle harassers. Overall, an excellent minion with few real weaknesses. More specialized builds may have particular use for the other choices, but the Warrior benefits from pretty much all of the Tyrant's support equipment but doesn't explicitly ''need'' any of it to be effective. As such, it's useful on nearly every build and works well as a "set it and forget it" extra body for damage and distraction.

*'''Warp Field''' - ''Level 8''
**+50 Energy
**Ability: Warp Field (Force field that makes attacks drain energy instead of health)
***Warp Field's easy to ignore; energy shield abilities are normally stunningly mediocre. Warp Field, however, is ''vastly'' better than the others. The shield from Warp Field is not only more efficient than the others, and not only is on a class that needs it way more - taking it essentially doubles the Hive Tyrant's energy pool, which otherwise cannot get ''any'' improvements. The amount of survivability Warp Field potentially adds is ''insane'' - when paired with Psychic Scream, Toxic Miasma, or The Horror, and especially Synapse, Warp Field really comes into its own. Make a note - Warp Field doesn't shut off automatically when your energy runs out, which makes it easy to misjudge how much juice is left in it. Be careful.
*** Important Note: Multiple sources around the Internet claim that Warp Field reduces incoming damage by 50% when active; in-game observations seem to corroborate this claim. However, it is unclear as to whether this damage reduction effect is dependent on the Hive Tyrant's energy levels (that is, whether or not Warp Field reduces incoming damage when the Hive Tyrant's energy has been depleted). Gameplay evidence strongly suggests that Warp Field converts damage to energy at a 2:1 ratio, meaning that the Hive Tyrant loses 1 point of energy per 2 points of damage while Warp Field is active (meaning that 100 energy effectively represents 200 health). This is consistent with how energy shields of various kinds (such as the Iron Halo) work in Skirmish mode, and would provide a 50% damage reduction while Warp Field is active. If accurate, this means that if the Hive Tyrant's energy is depleted, an active Warp Field will ''not'' provide any reduction to incoming damage. Any builds incorporating Warp Field should consider this possibility.

*'''Implant Attack''' - ''Level 9''
**+20 Minion Health
**Traits: Combat Master (Tyrant has +30% Melee and Ranged damage), Minion Combat Master (Minion has +30% Melee and Ranged damage)
***Implant Attack provides not only much of the benefits of Enlarged Scything Talons (and indeed, stacks with it), but it gives those benefits to the Hive Tyrant, as well. This boost is absolutely ''amazing'' for Bio Plasma and gives immense benefits to both the Warrior and Ravener. Implant Attack is much less risky to use than Toxin Sacs, since it does ''not'' give disproportionate upsides to your doppleganger like Toxin Sacs does, and the fact that it doesn't require any use of HP-boosting armor means it's viable for more builds.

*'''Psychic Scream''' - ''Level 11''
**Ability: Psychic Scream (10 Energy, reduces attack and defenses of nearby enemies)
***Without a doubt, one of the most powerful and unsung abilities in last stand. For 10 energy, it all-but-cripples the offense and defense of every enemy in a massive radius around the Hive Tyrant (specifically, it reduces the damage output of effected enemies by 75% and increases the damage they take by 25%) - and it only gets better the more enemies it hits. If you're not a fan of Feedback Invulnerability Spam, and you like an ability which helps all your allies, lean in this direction.

*'''Bio-Feedback''' - ''Level 12''
**+25 Health
**Traits: Feedback Invulnerability (When a minion dies, Tyrant gains 5 seconds of invulnerability)
***If you bring something cheap to kill like Genestealers or a Warrior, than this will easily be your uber-tool to glory. Decried as cheese by some, but considering how much Last Stand loves to have its enemies openly fucking cheat, those claims can be safely ignored. Use it for powerful - if risky - invulnerability exploitation and laugh as you simply never die for as long as you can maintain energy.

*'''Explosive Decomposition''' - ''Level 16''
**+50 Health, +20 Minion Health
**Trait: Minion Death Throes (When minions die, they explode, dealing damage over an area. Damage scales based on the sacrificed minion's max health)
***If you're more fond of the minions with a tendency to die, like Genestealers, Raveners, and Warriors, this is potentially very useful - it makes your minions generate a potent toxic cloud each and every time one dies - whether because you re-summoned your minions, or because an enemy killed them. If stacked with HP boosting gear and Searing, this can be quite potent - simply re-summon minions for raw damage, or use them as sacrificial damage sources by throwing them at the enemy and forgetting about them.

*'''Ravener Nest''' - ''Level 18''
**Ability: Call Ravener (Energy, Summons a [[Ravener]] with a Deathspitter as a minion)
***The Ravener is the second-most fragile minion, being a little easier to kill than the Warrior despite the Ravener having slightly more health. However, it's by far the strongest minion offensively. Its dual [[Tyranid Bio-Weapons|Deathspitter]]s are incredibly powerful, capable of shredding lighter foes in seconds, and it can burrowstrike in order to disrupt and damage groups or get into position. This minion goes from being simply strong to being obscenely powerful with upgrades - with the right ones, this minion is beyond a shadow of a doubt one of the most dangerous ones - if something of a glass cannon. Even a Carnifex goes down in about half a dozen shots from a fully-kitted-out Ravener.

==Commander Items==
More than any other hero, the Tyrant has perhaps the best Commander Items in the game with the deadliest boosts to his playstyle.

*'''Thornback''' - ''Level 5''
**Ability - Charge (10 Energy, Tyrant charges over to destination)
***Causes the Tyrant to charge forward, hurling aside enemies in its way. This ability destroys some cover pieces, and has shorter range than it initially appears to. It also does little real damage, and has a reputation for being inefficient. Its main advantages are that it's the only mobility boost the Tyrant has until Articulated Carapace, and the only Commander Item ''period'' until Level 15. It can actually be useful all game long even past this if you know what you're doing - after all, it's the only mobility boost a Tyrant gets - but due to its finicky nature and tendency to stop short if you hit level geometry or large enemies, often isn't all that great for the most part.

*'''Synapse''' - ''Level 15''
**Reduces all energy costs by 50%.
***Simple, simple, simple. Never has such a simple upgrade been so absolutely ''amazing''. Synapse makes everything you do more viable - Toxin Misama spamming, Firing off Bio-Plasma, Psychic Scream, etc - It lowers the cost for absolutely everything and the advantages this provides to almost every build that doesn't specifically ''require'' the boost of Evolution or the mobility enhancement of Thornback can and will find a use for it.

*'''Evolution''' - ''Level 20''
**+2 Health Regen
**Traits: Minion Resilient (+50 Minion Health and +2 Minion Health regen), Minion Swift (+15% Minion speed), Minion Combat Expert (+25% Minion Melee and Ranged damage)
***It's rare that any Commander Item, let alone another of the Hive Tyrant's - is capable of out-performing the sheer, balls-out amazing power of Synapse, but by god, this one does. Evolution gives absolutely massive bonuses to your minions - roughly equal to having Articulated Carapace, Implant Attack, and Bonded Carapace's passives attached to your minions - ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Even better, it stacks with those, for extra awesome, and provides an always-useful health regen bonus to the Tyrant itself. Boosting survivability, boosting minions, and potentially turning even Genestealers into death machines, Evolution is one upgrade that is not to be underestimated. Unfortunately, you get it at level 20.

==Tactics & Strategy==
* '''On Achievements:'''
** ''Heavy Hitter'' (Which unlocks the Behemoth Claw) is an achievement that tests your skill on the Anvil of Khorne, as that's the only place where you'll be able to take down Superheavy Units. Even if you're only able to kill one or two of them, you'll be making progress. The real bugger is just making it there.
** ''Megakill!'' (Which unlocks the Rending Stranglethorn) is something that requires the use of either the Devourer Cannon, Bio-Plasma, or Poison Cysts, as these are the only tools the Tyrant owns ''other'' than the Rending Stranglethorn itself that can kill that many enemies in that span of time. Target a pair of high-number, low-health units with the Devourer Cannon (cultists on Anvil are ''ideal''), cluster up a bunch of enemies into a choke-point for Bio-Plasma, or camp a spawn during an Imperial Guard or Ork Wave with Toxic Miasma. Any of these three will earn you the Megakill award easily.

* '''On Minions:'''
** '''[[Genestealer]]s''' are your first available minion, are close-combat focused, and the only minion you get more than one of. As far as Minions go, they're not much to write home about on paper - they lack the things that make pretty much all of the other Minions better choices. They do less damage, and perhaps most annoyingly, they're ''excessively'' fragile. Indeed, they are barely more survivable than guardsmen. What they have in return is that they boast the highest attack rate of any minion creature. They have innate corroding effects on their melee attacks (they temporarily debuff enemy armor when they hit), but the effect is relatively minor and won't usually change the tide of battle. Genestealers as a whole will thus have two main attractions: The fact that you get three of the damned things per cast, and their relatively low cost. In addition: they are comparatively fast AND, as melee units, can lock ranged units in melee, thus potentially shutting down damage from a single ranged squad (though impossible to control directly, they tend to attack nearby enemies when they spawn, so deploying them carefully provides some level of control, though their AI can be unpredictable in this regard). Another curious merit they have that is often under-appreciated is their tendency to lock exceptionally powerful and dangerous enemies into their overly extravagant sync kill animations. It can buy you some few precious seconds when avoiding Dreadnoughts, Carnifexes, and the Avatar of Khaine while they spend several seconds showing off their melee talents to their friends. Meanwhile your new Genestealers are back to going choppy on everything else. Unbeknownst to a lot of players, enemy units are not completely invincible while sync killing; searing and corrosion will continue to liquify them, and the several stacks of searing they acquire while distracted will continue to devour their health bar.
***Genestealers become ''very'' attractive if paired with sacrificial abilities - Explosive Decomposition or Bio-Feedback. Indeed, they're central to both Feedback Invulnerability and Minion Bomber builds due to their extremely cheap cost and the quick cooldown of their summon. They turn into a ''very'' different threat, however, the second you get Evolution and pair this up with literally any other minion buff - keep a keen eye out for Bonded Exoskeleton, Articulated Carapace, Crushing Talons, Implant Attack, and Toxin Sacs. Though Searing damage seems counter-intuitive for them, the fact that they attack so quickly means it builds up quickly and doesn't give a damn about armor. They actually become halfway survivable with a bit of support, especially if you're using the High-Toxin Venom Cannon or Fire on their intended targets with the Devourer Cannon or Stranglethorn to soften them up. If all three Genestealers focus their attacks on one target, they can often do more damage than almost any other minion, but care must be taken given their small size and low health pool; without Evolution and Minion buffs, they're solely useful as screening troops or suicide minions, and don't expect them to do the former very long.
**'''[[Tyrant Guard]]''' Are your second minion. These guys are the "tanks" of your minions, having by ''far'' the highest HP and defense. In fact, seeing these things stay standing in the craziest of circumstances isn't unheard of. They have strong melee attacks, but with awkward hit rates that render them squarely average as a melee combatant. Their big edge is actually the fact that they refuse to die, and in fact, use a Taunt ability to draw attacks to them and away from you. In [[Last Stand]], this is a very useful feature, since any attacks directed at the oversized pangolin and not your Hive Tyrant is are ones you don't need to worry too much about. His high health pool renders him a natural choice for Searing, but with a mediocre attack rate, he's only so-so as an offensive choice. You choose the Tyrant Guard to be a meat wall that attacks. As an interesting note, The Tyrant Guard is also ''the'' most powerful minion to use for a Minion Bomber build due to his massive HP count.
***Uniquely, the Tyrant Guard doesn't change all that much when given Evolution. His attack power goes way up, as does his mobility and survivability, but none of this really matters to the reason you chose the damned thing to begin with, which is his tanking for you. Thankfully, that goes way up as well, making him one of the better utility minions. The Tyrant Guard may never solo certain high-profile enemies or dominate battles like the Warrior or Ravener, but his role - keeping you alive - is arguably more critical. They tend to shine brightest in the mid-game, where Evolution isn't available yet and the various assets the Tyrant Guard brings to the table make it the most valuable minion by a head and a hair, but they'll start to flag at level 20.
** '''[[Tyranid Warrior|Warriors]]''' are your first dedicated combat minion that aren't the Genestealers. The Warrior is fast, aggressive, and unlike the Genestealers has a special attack - it can leap into the battle to knock a target down. Even better, it is ''significantly'' stronger than the Genestealers and has a minor Armor Piercing trait. However, whilst quite fast and strong, he also is a melee fighter only, and has an abysmal health pool - whilst he is much tougher than a Genestealer, the fact that you get only one of him means that he's easily [[Tarpit]]ted and worn down. In essence, with this guy you trade the squad numbers of the Genestealers for putting all your eggs in one basket with a single Warrior.
*** Warriors initially are good for squad disruption and single-target damage. They are much more likely to survive close-combat with tougher opposition than the Genestealers, though the fact that you only get one means they tend to melt against ranged units. Early on, they're ideal carriers for Explosive Decomposition (due to their natural tendency to get in the enemy's face), and their high damage output means excellent synergy with Implant Attack. They really come into their own, however, when you have Evolution. Evolution bolsters these guys to an almost absurd degree, making them easily able to butcher enemies and take on small squads of opposition without trouble. Throw on minion buffs and Warriors are the second-most damaging minion, as well as durable enough to take abuse. Do note, however, that they aren't as durable as Tyrant Guard and will die with shocking regularity until fully kitted out. Interestingly, they're one of the rare few units that benefits more from Implant Attack than Toxin Sacs, owing to their high damage, but with their having the second-highest health of your minions, they can use Searing damage just fine as well.
** '''[[Ravener]]s''' are your last minion and arguably the most powerful. They're the only ranged minion as well, armed with a twin-linked [[Tyranid Bio-Weapons#Deathspitter|Deathspitter]]. They do significant damage with this attack, are competent in close-combat, and possess the unique ability to "burrowstrike" and damage and disrupt enemy units. They're also one of the fastest minions. However, what you get in damage and speed with this guy, you lose in durability - it's roughly as durable as the Warrior, whilst being both a larger unit and one that tends to draw ranged fire towards it due to being a shooter. This unit is as high in the level tree of the Tyranids for a reason - it's a staple of most minion builds owing to its considerable power and utility, though it's extremely fragile.
*** Evolution is practically a requirement for getting the most out of these bastards. The amazing part is that they're strong enough that if you load them with literally NOTHING but minion buffs, they can arguably win wave after wave for you. Seeing them gun down entire squads in a few volleys, melt Wraithlords into puddles, and punch gaping wounds out of the errant Carnifex is ''not'' unheard of. Without the all-important Evolution upgrade, Raveners struggle heavily; they can do decent damage, but their damage is notably less and not anywhere near as good against armor. With their survivability also taking a hit, their fragility often tends to impress itself on you. As such, the best option for the Ravener is to load it up with Evolution, or shelve it in favor of the other minions, which tend to be more useful in the mid-game (before Evolution becomes available).

==Builds==

'''BUILD 1 - INVINCIBILITY LAUGHING OUT LOUDS'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 16'''

'''Gear you need:'''
*Accessories: Bio-Feedback, any minion summoning (Genestealers recommended because of how cheap they are, especially ''with'' Synapse), maybe Explosive Decomposition.
*Commander Item: Synapse

'''Explanation:''' The big draw to this build is that you can kill your minions and re-summon them again, not only making them a cheap near-infinite shield thanks to Synapse and Bio-Feedback, but also a walking source of bombs if you decide to equip Explosive Decomposition. Armor, on the meantime, is a largely open choice, though Poison Cysts could help with clearing out some swarms. Weapons are also largely open, but talons and claws better utilize the free invincibility.

'''BUILD 2 - SUPPORT TYRANT'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 15 (20 if Evolution)'''

'''Gear you need:'''
*Weapon: Venom Cannon
*Armor: Poison Cysts
*Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Psychic Scream, Tyrant Guard Nest
*Commander Item: Synapse or Evolution

'''Explanation:''' If invuln-spamming Genestealers isn't doing it for you, and whilst there's a certain beauty to that to be sure, you may prefer a hands-on approach. Don't worry - /tg/ has your back. There's something to be said for a far more frontline build designed to work with teammates - and good god, does this build deliver. Venom Cannon has absolutely monstrous armor-penetration and high damage, whilst Poison Cysts gives you armor and health to spare - as well as the Tyrant's single greatest crowd-control move. Psychic Scream can effectively turn entire ranged force groups that would otherwise be terrifying (such as the Marine Squads on Wave 6 of Bloodied Coliseum) into a complete non-issue by crippling their attack and defense. This build easily can support an unoptimized team, and turns into complete murder when paired with a Tau Commander that has a shield drone: Bunker down in the shield-field and spam the hell out of Toxic Miasma the second enemies get close. Tyrant Guard is there to draw fire, something it excels at.

'''BUILD 3 - INFECTION TYRANT'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 20

'''Gear you need:'''
*Weapon: Devourer Cannon
*Armor: Poison Cysts
*Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Implant Attack, Ravener Nest
*Commander Item: Evolution

'''Explanation:''' This is a high-level build well-suited for squad support. Devourer Cannon's gestate affects an entire squad and stacks with Toxin Sacs. Throw in the Ravener for ranged damage boosted bu Implant Attacks and you can kick back and relax as your larvae-shooting gun quickly mulches squads and slowly grinds down even heavy enemies into submission.

'''BUILD 4 - MORE LIKE RAPE-VENER'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 20'''

'''Gear you need:'''
*Weapon: Enlarged Scything Talons
*Armor: Articulated Carapace
*Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Implant Attack, Ravener Nest
*Commander Item: Evolution

'''Explanation:'''Every single game needs some kind of "Nutter" build that makes absolutely no sense but somehow works well on its own merits, such as the infamous [[Daemonhunters|Krazypantzoff Walker Army of Doom]]. This is one of the most spectacular in Last Stand, and it's disturbingly powerful. The general gist is simple: create the single most powerful Ravener you can muster, and back off as it kills FUCKING EVERYTHING. With this loadout, the Ravener will kill any conventional enemy in one shot, a Wraithlord in 2-3 bursts, a Carnifex in 6, and a Warboss in less than ten. Vehicles, infantry, nothing can survive more than a few barrages from your hideously over-powered Ravener of doom, and all you need to give up for it is the ability to do much of anything but summon the damned thing. Articulated Carapace is, in a weird case of irony, the best armor for this build - The Ravener benefits from doubled Swift, as well as Fearless, and perhaps most critically, you have one target that you absolutely NEED to use Horror on in Wave 16 - your counterpart's Ravener, to take it out of the fight.

'''BUILD 5 - NIDZILLA'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 16 (But requires 'Heavy Hitler' achievement)'''

*Weapon: Behemoth Claws
*Armor: Thornback Carapace (DLC)
*Accessories: Implant Attacks; Explosive Decomposition; Warp Field
*Commander Item: Thornback (or Evolution for extra health regen.)

'''Explanation:''' This build is ungodly strong. You can kill pretty much anything with your Behemoth Claws, boosted by Implant Attacks. With Thornback Carapice and Behemoth Claws armor boost, you will gain 240 armor rating, making you exreamly hard to deal with. Thornback Carapice also does damage to anything that hits you. So you are also protected from Banshees and Stormboyz. In addition, you will be protected by Warp Field. Always keep using Warp Field, it regenerates energy even if it is on. You can easly take on Wraithlords, Great Unclean one, Swarmlord and even the Avatar of Khaine.

'''BUILD 6 - PSYCHIC MONSTROSITY'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 15 (16 if Explosive Decomposition, requires 'Heavy Hitter' achievement, and DLC)'''

*Weapon: Behemoth Claws
*Armor: Thornback Carapace
*Accessories: Warp Field; Psychic Scream; (Implant Attack, Toxin Sacs, or Explosive Decomposition)
*Commander Item: Thornback (for mobility) or Synapse (to reduce energy costs)

'''Explanation:''' This build is powerful, flexible, and durable. When Warp Field is active your energy effectively provides 200 extra health, and you have ways to deal with both large groups of melee units (which die simply by attacking you) and powerful single targets (which you can dispatch with melee attacks). Be conservative with your energy usage, because your energy is also your health when Warp Field is active. Try to maintain Psychic Scream consistently on a large number of mobs (further enhancing your endurance), and abuse line-of-sight to restore your energy where possible. Use Charge for mobility as-necessary; if your team composition emphasizes stationary gameplay (for example, if your team includes a Lord General), consider swapping Thornback for Synapse to reduce the energy cost of Psychic Scream.
* Though Warp Field and Psychic Scream are mandatory for this build, there is an extent to which your third accessory is more flexible. Toxin Sacs simply adds 10 armor-ignoring damage over two seconds for each melee attack. Implant Attack adds 9 damage (which also ignores armor due to the Behemoth Claws), but the bonus damage provided by Implant Attack transpires instantly; this reduces the number of hits required to kill a mob, thereby allowing you to perform hit-and-run attacks more effectively. Explosive Decomposition provides 50 additional health, which can provide a useful buffer against enemies with attacks that ignore armor, but given that the bulk of your health comes from Warp Field (the damage reduction effects of which may not apply when your energy is depleted; see '''Accessories''' section for more information), even 50 extra health is a comparatively small amount. Ultimately, your third accessory tends to vary based on player preference.

'''BUILD 7 - BOOMSHOT'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 18 (But requires 'Megakill!' achievement)'''

*Weapon: Rending Stranglethorn
*Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton
*Accessories: Toxin Sacs; Explosive Decomposition (for 50 additional health); Ravener Nest
*Commander Item: Thornback

'''Explanation:''' Though its damage output is not necessarily mind-blowing on its own, the Rending Stranglethorn spreads Searing to whatever it hits, and since you have 225 health, it's doing 22.5 damage per hit to EVERYTHING it hits (in addition to suppressing them). You can take out whole mobs in one shot. The Stranglethorn can also fire over walls, allowing you to abuse line-of-sight. With Charge, you're maneuverable enough to survive (this build doesn't work very well with Evolution, since you can't run when caught in melee), and the Ravener is, as usual, pretty gnarly (though not as gnarly as it could be with Evolution). The only drawback to this build is that the Stranglethorn really doesn't like cover, and your shots can start to become extremely erratic as explosions chew up the terrain. Hence, this build starts to become unreliable towards the late game as craters begin to accumulate.

'''BUILD 8 - MINION BOMBER'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 20 (But requires 'Heavy Hitter' achievement)'''

*Weapon: Crushing Talons
*Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton (alternative: Thornback Carapace, '''DLC''')
*Accessories: Psychic Scream; Explosive Decomposition; Genestealer Nest
*Commander Item: Evolution

'''Explanation:''' This build is a variation on the Invulnerable Tyrant, hybridized somewhat with the Psychic Monstrosity mentioned above. The Invulnerable Tyrant relies on minions dying to keep you alive; with the Minion Bomber, your Genestealers heal you while they are still alive. Evolution (and Bonded Exoskeleton, if present) make(s) your Genestealers stronger and beefier, allowing them to do more damage while they're on the field and heal you for longer -- but they are useful even in death due to Explosive Decomposition, which also benefits from their improved health. For this build, both Bonded Exoskeleton and Thornback Carapace are potentially useful; Bonded Exoskeleton provides beefier minions, whereas Crushing Talons can help compensate for the lack of a health buff provided by Thornback Carapace.

'''BUILD 9 - Toxin Sac Abuse Tyrant'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 20

'''Gear you need:'''
*Weapon: High-Toxin Venom Cannon
*Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton
*Accessories: Toxin Sacs, Tyrant Guard, Ravener Nest
*Commander Item: Evolution

'''Explanation:''' This build is about searing damage. Bonded exoskeleton and evolution combined give +100 health to minions and +75 to you. The tyrant guard is in this build because he's very tanky here and he has tons of health to make the most of searing. The ravener is in this build due to high health, great damage output and good mobility. The high toxin venom canon makes the +4.0 regen minions even harder to kill and the AOE damage combined with searing makes it quite useful against nearly any enemy. The minions generally last forever. This build is risky on bloodied colosseum, but it's great on anvil. Health raising items like explosive decomp and bio-feedback were left out because of diminishing returns- bonded and evolution have huge synergy with this rest of this build- taking decomp or bio would force you to drop one of the minions, which means a lot less searing damage and less meat between you and the enemy. Bio and decomp work best when used with CHEAP minions like stealers that you can spam again and again.

This build turns most matches into easy mode. With a boss pole mekboy, it's comedic. I actually saw a tyrant disconnect using this build in wave 2 and the minions stayed alive through wave 20, continuing to mulch pretty much everything from boss units to infantry blobs.

'''BUILD 10 - Artillyrant'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 20

'''Gear you need:'''
*Weapon: Venom Cannon
*Armor: Poison Cysts
*Accessories: Implant Attack, Ravener Nest, Psychic Scream
*Commander Item: Evolution

'''Explanation:''' Designed for Gunline support, ideally alongside a Tau Commander, Imperial General, or both. Set up amidst your allies, and use the Venom Cannon's monstrous raw power to demolish enemies that get too close. Ravener is there for allied fire support, and is plenty big a threat with just the doubled Combat Mastery of Implant Attack and Evolution. Psychic Scream and Toxic Miasma help keep melee aggressors away from allies. The armor piercing melee of the Venom Cannon contributes beautifully to this in close-combat as well.

'''BUILD 11 - Immortal Toxic Death'''

'''Minimum Lvl: 15 (Requires 'Heavy Hitter' achievement)'''

'''Gear you need:'''
*Weapon: Crushing Talons
*Armor: Poison Cysts
*Accessories: Bio-Feedback; Explosive Decomposition; Genestealer Nest
*Commander Item: Synapse

'''Explanation:''' Similar to the Support Tank build, this one is ALMOST unkillable if you're fast enough with hitting Genestealers when off cooldown. It also kills basically anything that gets too close, especially infantry. Watch your Energy with Toxic Miasma, using ALL of it is the most likely way to die as you will have to wait a few seconds to summon minions again and get your shield back. Toxic Miasma stacks however and ignores armor, and despite the energy cost is on a short cooldown... two or three stacks will destroy anything staying on them after a bit of waiting, and a single casting will wreck any infantry around you in a wide area. This is incredibly useful for any large infantry swarm and especially Ogryn swarms on Anvil of Khorne. This owes itself to Bio-Feedback and Explosive Decomposition together adding 75 health, a trait that has amazing synergy with Toxic Miasma, boosting its damage which ignores armor for 20 seconds to everything in a wide area every time it is cast, leaving a huge AoE pool of death for anything caught in it. It will be a fast death for lighter infantry and a slower death for anything heavy, but it will die eventually while you keep spamming Genestealers for invincibility, and the Crushing Talons causes the Genestealers to give a lot of health back while still shredding that armor so your own melee attacks will start to do damage in addition to the poison between castings. It is also effective against your clone on Waves 16 and 20, because unlike you the AI will only re-summon Genestealers when all of them die on their own rather than killing them for the invincibility. This build will turn you into a slow death for anything and everything near you while you will be nearly impossible to kill... just be careful of enemies with big AoEs that can easily chew up your Genestealers as fast as you summon them, as if they die too quickly the cooldown on them will last longer than your invincibility. Position of summoning is often key against enemies like the Space Marine superheavy on wave 20 of Anvil.

'''BUILD 12 - DoT Minion Master'''

'''Minimum Level: 7 or 20 (Both require DLC)'''

'''Gear you need.'''
*Weapon: Devourer Cannon
*Armor: Bonded Exoskeleton
*Accessories: Tyrant Guard Nest, Warrior Nest, Toxin Sacs.
*Commander Item: Thornback OR (very big "or") Evolution.

'''Explanation:''' This build is about supporting your minions (and sometimes your allies... sometimes) with the insane DoT damage you will be throwing out. With Toxin Sacs and Bonded Exoskeleton your Tyrant Guard will be all-but invincible whilst also dealing respectable damage and your Warrior will be able to survive long enough to make a difference in melee. You will focus on putting the hurt on squads of infantry that can overwhelm your minions. Prioritize large squads over tough, small squads. At absolute worst you will need two shots to wipe such squads in a few seconds. You are tough enough to suffer moderate attacks and energy management will be easy, seeing as the only thing you need to do is recast your minion abilities when they die once every few millennia. Melee and tough, singular units will be a problem (you will require several shots off in order to do ''decent'' damage against) but leave that to your minions and allies to handle. Also, you MIGHT actually want to consider taking Thornback over Evolution. Even without Evolution your minions will be very tough and very killy. If you are good enough at aiming Charge the extra maneuverability will really help once you get in between a rock and a hard place. Otherwise, enjoy mowing down waves of infantry while your demi-god minions tear apart anything in close combat.

{{Template:LastStand-Heroes}}
[[Category:Tyranid]]

Last Stand - Farseer

2018-07-25T13:59:56Z

2001:BB6:505:D958:FD99:FDA3:216:1BB0: /* Builds */

The Farseer is the [[Last Stand]] Hero of the [[Eldar]].

==Overview==
The [[Eldar]] [[Farseer]] is, at once, a paradox - she is surprisingly durable and survivable, but she's ostensibly a support spellcaster first and foremost. The [[Farseer]], like all [[Eldar]], is deceptive, a heroine that is at once extremely powerful and surprisingly ubiquitous. The Farseer is a hero who, unlike other spellcasters (such as the [[Last Stand - Chaos Sorcerer|Chaos Sorcerer]]) focuses primarily upon disrupting enemies, assisting allies, and debuffing enemies. The Farseer is quite capable of being used as an offensive caster as well, getting access to her strongest offensive spells surprisingly early in her career, ergo making her surprisingly friendly towards newcomers to last stand, though raw offense is not the Farseer's strongest suit by any stretch. The Farseer easily makes herself useful in a wide array of different playstyles, from a dedicated defensive supporter and medic to battlefield control. Surprisingly high defense and viable offense give her quite a bit of tactical viability with damned near any loadout as well, a rarity for any character in [[Last Stand]]. Indeed, no character in Last Stand can really multi-task on one loadout quite so well as the Farseer - she's never at a loss for strategic options and this is true for much of her career, making her in many ways the exact opposite, progression-wise, of the [[Last Stand - Captain|Space Marine Captain]] and [[Last Stand - Captain|Imperial Guard Lord General]].

However, what the Farseer has in tactical viability and useful secondary options she loses in raw power. Her nuke spell, Eldritch Storm, is neither as powerful nor predictable as the other characters' biggest, and her lone damaging offensive spell is likewise nowhere near as effective as those of other casters. Even when fully kitted out, her melee and ranged firepower is weaker than that of other heroes, and she furthermore loses out in one of the most crippling aspects of Last Stand: Mobility. Other than packing on the Runes of Swiftness or Pistol of the Warseer, the only mobility booster she has is the Runes of the Warp, which is predominantly useful as an escape teleport or to save allies. This makes her extremely vulnerable to being mobbed, as, unlike the Hive Tyrant, who is similarly vulnerable, she lacks a dedicated crowd control maneuver (such as Toxic Cysts).

Another major problem she has is that per progression is ridiculously lopsided, with the overpowering majority of her useful wargear unlocked before she's halfway through her leveling. An additional problem is that, with almost every build, her clone on Bloodied Coliseum turns the fight into a complete cluster-fuck where your team has to deal with an unshakable fearless teleporting asshole who strategically makes teammates invulnerable. Probably the biggest issue with her is ''when'' players realize that she's infinitely better at control and support than offense; this is not an easy playstyle to adapt to and many Farseer players choose to focus entirely on offense with her, which whilst viable, is done better by the Mekboy and Chaos Sorcerer.

Make no mistake, however: The Farseer is a powerful force, especially if kitted out well. She excels at manipulating battlefield conditions, turning enemies on one another, and making enemies easier to kill. It's important to note that what are (arguably) her strongest abilities are all extremely indirect - though its effect is far simpler, Veil of Tears can potentially accomplish more for a team than Eldritch Storm, and Confuse or Entangle are often vastly more useful than simply using Eldritch Bolt. Correctly loaded out, the Farseer is capable of bringing quite a bit to the table, and from surprising angles, making her a rather unique choice. When played well, she is easily the strongest character in Last Stand, but this takes a level of care and patience that not many are willing to exhibit.

==Armor==
*'''Farseer Armor''' - ''Default''
**Armor Rating: 16
***Default Armor. It fails at everything and should never be used.

*'''Armor of Vaul''' - ''Level 1''
**Armor Rating: 184
**Trait: Fearless (Immune to Suppression)
***This initial armor boasts absolutely gigantic defense for a caster, as well as the fearless trait - an incredibly powerful combination, to say the least. Right out the gate, the Farseer boasts very high survivability specifically because of this, and this armor remains useful for quite some time due to its heavy armor and Fearless trait.

*'''Rune Armor''' - ''Level 6''
**Armor Rating: 68
**+50 Energy
***This armor is more in-line with the Chaos Sorcerer's armors: Modest defense, but an ability specifically-designed to support a caster. In this case, one might immediately see the Rune Armor's ''vastly'' lower defense and immediately ignore it, but that does the armor a huge disservice; the Rune Armor gives a massive amount of secondary energy, and since the Farseer relies so heavily on her skills to do much of anything, this boon is absolutely gigantic and thusly not to be underestimated. It tends to lose its sparkle as the game goes on, however.

*'''Ghosthelm''' - ''Level 13''
**Armor Rating: 44
**+1 Energy Regeneration
***Like the Rune Armor, this lower-defense armor is easy to overlook - especially with access to another suit of armor on this list. On the other hand, +1 Energy Regeneration, for a character like the Farseer, is fucking huge. It dramatically improves her peformance and ability to stay in the fight by simple virtue of letting her cast far more often, and that's a particularly handy advantage to have, especially when one considers that it can be stacked with her other abilities for a veritable font of energy regeneration that lets her throw out spells in a barrage.

*'''Armor of Eldanesh''' - ''Level 18''
** Armor Rating: 132
** Ability: Psychic Shield (Raise a psychic shield which halves incoming damage and causes it to reduce Energy instead of Health.)
***Yet another overlooked armor, but this one has a few defenders owning to its heavy defense and access to Psychic Shield. Though often an avoided ability, the Armor of Eldanesh giving the Farseer a means to resist damage means that it makes a good survival option, especially if the Farseer gets overwhelmed. The drawback of course is that the Farseer is an immensely energy-reliant hero; burning off energy from her pool can leave you short of it in a bad situation.

*'''Mantle of Malan'tai''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Revive 75 Allies as the Eldar Farseer''
**Armor Rating: 165
**Trait: +0.5 Energy Regeneration
***This unlockable armor frequently is seen as the better version of the Ghosthelm armor, due to the fact that it has much heavier armor; On the other hand, however, the energy regen boost is only half as strong. Whilst at a glance, this means the Mantle of Malan'tai is much stronger, the energy regeneration rate boost available from the Ghosthelm is infinitely better for many builds. It is still a very effective armor, however, and one of the most commonly used. Curiously, it also has a hidden property not displayed on the item card, adding 10% to special attack chance for any melee weapon equipped, including the Laughing Stave for which it is otherwise always zero.

*'''Armor of [[Idranel]]''' - ''DLC''
**Armor Rating: 165
**+100 Health
**Trait: Unshakable (Immune to Knockdown), Foresight (All melee damage reduced by 50%)
***An almost bizarrely powerful armor that is undeniably the most-commonly-used, by simple virtue of its massive health boost and strong armor rating. Just as strong as the Mantle of Malan'tai defensively, the huge health buff it gives is what pushes it over; 100 extra health plus that level of armor means an incredible level of survivability, but when it has Unshakable as well, that's just outstanding. The Foresight buff is just icing on the cake- halving all melee damage makes the Farseer an extremely effective melee tank, and when paired with the Debilitating Witchblade only the most dangerous melee fighters will be able to hurt her in close combat. It bears mentioning that while this armor gives the Farseer incredibly strong ''upfront'' durability, she has no options to boost health ''regeneration'', so she can be worn down over a wave if she doesn't pace how she spends her health. Not even this armor allows her to stay in a blob for an entire wave like, say, a Space Marine with 7.0 regen. Perhaps more than any other Farseer armor, this one is the hardest to justify ''not'' using, since its advantages are truly massive. However, it carries absolutely no benefits towards her casting and has no active ability, as such it can be passed over for the specific benefits of other armors if desired. Or just because players don't want to pony up for it.

==Weapons==
*'''Witchblade''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.0 DPS
***Stereotypical default weapon that stereotypically sucks.

*'''Shuriken Pistol''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
***Bizarrely, the default pistol is just as effective as the other pistols in terms of damage output. Draw your own conclusions.

*'''Pistol of the Warseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Traits: Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged Damage), Swift (+25% Movement Speed)
***The Pistol of the Warseer's damage output is barely higher than the Shuriken Pistol (and even then that's due to Combat Expert), but the fact that it grants 2 of the most useful traits in the game make this one hell of an early game wargear. Do note, however, that it takes up an extremely contended-for slot; if you take the Pistol of the Warseer, the only damaging ability you get to take advantage of the Combat Expert trait is Eldritch Storm (which can actually be remarkably powerful with both the pistol and runes of war). On the other hand, Swift is amazingly useful, and stacks with the other speed boosts the Farseer can get, which massively increases survivability.

*'''Pistol of the Doomseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Eldritch Bolt (15 Energy, Fires a roiling blast of psychic energy at the target)
***Pistol of the Doomseer gives you your first legitimately good offensive spell, and indeed one of only three that the Farseer can use. It's actually remarkably cost-effective and fairly useful, though it needs Runes of War to get the most out of. If you're planning to go direct combat, Pistol of the Doomseer is a must.

*'''Witchblade of the Crone''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**20.0 DPS
***The Witchblade of the Crone has high DPS and.... That's literally it. Whilst it's brutally effective against softer targets, it lacks armor piercing and isn't anywhere near as good against tougher foes unless heavily bolstered by Combat Expert/Mastery. If you're planning to engage in close-combat, consider taking this along; otherwise, shelve it for the other melee weapons.

*'''Singing Spear''' - ''Level 4''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**19.0 DPS
**Traits: Unshakable (Immune to knockback)
***The singing spear looks abhorrently bad on paper: 2 hands for a weapon barely as good as the Witchblade of the Crone and with a trait easily-accessible from a piece of wargear that renders it largely irrelevant. So, worst weapon for the Farseer, right? Wrong. Singing Spear does damage in bigger chunks than the Witchblade of the Crone, has better reach, and a higher special attack rating, all in all resulting in better damage overall unless the Witchblade's paired with the Pistol of the Warseer. The Singing Spear is thus much better than it initially appears, and is especially good when stacked with the Armor of Vaul.

*'''Witchblade of Isha''' - ''Level 9''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**10.2 DPS
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration, +25 Energy
***It may be weaker than the Witchblade of the Crone, but this wasn't taken for its damage (which is still acceptable). Instead, you take it for the increased energy regen and capacity, all of which are great things for any caster. The ability to fire off another Confuse or Eldritch Bolt is always beneficial, and this weapon pays for itself in short order specifically because of this.

*'''Pistol of the Skyseer''' - ''Level 14''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Levitation Field (15 Energy, lifts enemies in the air and then tosses around for knockback damage)
***This Pistol has a hilariously useful ability that enables the Farseer to quickly deal with enemies that cluster up, throwing them all over the place thereafter. The damage tends to vary wildly, from doing barely any whatsoever to doing quite a bit if enemies collide with one another during the throw. The primary benefit isn't the damage, however; it's disabling enemies and launching them away from you. This even works on doppelgangers, but it will fail against any that happen to have the Unshakable Trait.

*'''Warp Spear''' - ''Level 19''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**12.2 DPS
**Ability: Warp Pull (5 Energy, pulls enemies toward the Farseer)
**Trait: Pitiless (Farseer has a 10% chance to cause 200 bonus damage on striking)
***A utility weapon through and through, whose mediocre DPS hides its real potential. On its own, its damage is pretty bad considering it eschews the use of a pistol, but it has a 1-in-10 chance of triggering a massive damage strike that is capable of one-shotting most targets, making it comparable to (but weaker than) the Chaos Sorcerer's Staff of Fate. The Warp Spear compensates, however, by coming with Warp Pull, which is an amazing control ability. You can drag enemies into close combat, pull them away from vulnerable allies, or pull them into the firing arc of teammates. The numerous applications of the Warp Spear make it surprisingly useful, so don't underestimate it!

*'''Laughing Stave''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Earn a Score Multiplier of 275 as the Farseer''
**Two-handed Ranged Weapon
**11.1 DPS
**Traits: Knockback (Enemies hit by this weapon will be knocked back), Laughing Runes (-25% Energy Cost), Unshakable (Immune to Knockback)
***There are three reasons to take the laughing stave, and any of them, on their own, are good reasons, but when together, they turn this weapon into an oft-unappreciated powerhouse. First, it's the only exclusively ranged weapon the Farseer gets, and it's a damned good one, offering a more-than-4-fold damage increase over the Shuriken Pistols. Second, it has knockback, which means it's actually very good for keeping the Farseer out of trouble - both in close-combat, and from afar. But it's the last advantage it has that's the most glaring: a 25% reduction in energy costs means that literally ''everything'' you cast is orders of magnitude easier to use - even the likes of Eldritch Storm will only cost 37 energy under this upgrade, allowing your average energy-focused Farseer to cast it twice with a full energy bar. It bolsters all your other abilities, too, making it a solid choice that should used for a great many builds. Like all Staves, it's also a melee weapon; this one packs a reasonable punch (roughly the same as the Witchblade of the Crone, but without special attacks and a slower swing speed but meatier damage output), but its major advantage is its ranged punch, knockdown, and cost reductions. It does, however, also give you Unshakable, which is brings this weapon from "great" to "fucking amazing."

*'''Debilitating Witchblade''' - ''DLC''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.1 DPS
**Traits: Sap (Reduces the target's melee damage by 50% for 5 seconds; note that Sap only applies to the individual model hit by the Farseer's attack), Energy Leech (Restores 10 Energy when this weapon kills an enemy)
*** The Debilitating Witchblade is a mixed blessing. Sap can allow the Farseer to stand toe-to-toe against foes with powerful melee attacks, and Energy Leech occasionally supplements the Farseer's energy regeneration. Unfortunately, Sap only affects the specific model the Farseer attacks (rather than affecting a whole squad a-la the Captain's Lightning Claws), and Energy Leech ''requires that the enemy be killed by the Debilitating Witchblade itself'' rather than any of the Farseer's abilities. That's right: this means that if you're using Runes of Wrath and the second strike kills an enemy, it won't trigger Energy Leech. The Debilitating Witchblade ''can'' be useful in a purely supporting role, but rarely can it be considered a good general-purpose weapon.

==Accessories==
*'''Runes of Warding''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Ward (25 Energy, grants ally temporary invulnerability)
***This is a lifesaver for the Farseer, as this can be the difference between saving your ally or dying and failing a run. Just beware when fighting your Wave 16 doppelganger as the enemy will use this with impunity against you. Especially if they're going for that Tau Efficiency achievement.

*'''Runes of Harlequin''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Confuse (15 Energy, confuses the target, forcing it to attack anything nearby for a while.)
***This is more situational than it looks, as if you use it at the wrong time, this will sic the squad right back at you, which may or [[Not as Planned|may not be what you intended]]. On the other hand, the doppelganger can't use it and it can interrupt their resurrection attempts, making it particularly powerful on the Bloodied Colosseum map. And, unlike Veil of Tears, with Confuse you can choose your target, making it extremely good against big bosses (do you remember Araghast??) or when you want to target a specific unit instead of going all random.
***Confuse is generally best used on fast-moving melee units (which can lock ranged units in melee) or on units with a whole lot of [[Dakka|dakka]]
***Confuse is the only way to prevent Unshakeable dopplegangers from resurrecting each other

*'''Runes of Fleetness''' - ''Level 2''
**Ability: Fleet of Foot (5 Energy, grants the Farseer a speed boost at the cost of her damage output)
***If you really want to work support as a Farseer, then this will be your go-to tool for making those quick saves. Take care though, as this is not a triggered ability, but a temporary one.

*'''Runes of War''' - ''Level 3''
**Traits: Combat Master (+40% Melee and Ranged Damage)
***If you play a combat Farseer, then this will be an auto-include, as it will make you much more of a threat than everyone would expect.

*'''Runes of Deception''' - ''Level 7''
**Ability: Conceal (20 Energy, grants invisibility to allies within the field)
***This is a bit more situational than other abilities, as this won't make much difference when you're being chased by swarms or Banshees, but it can let you make a [[Cyrus]]-style stealth save. Become almost broken in conjunction with runes of the warp.

*'''Runes of Fortune''' - ''Level 8''
**Ability: Fortune (10 Energy, reduces all incoming damage by 50%)
*** Fortune complements almost any team composition by providing significant damage mitigation. With the proper application of Fortune, a properly built melee Captain or Hive Tyrant will be able to weather entire waves, and ranged characters like the Lord General or Tau Commander will find their longevity under fire significantly extended, allowing them to spend more time doing what they do best. Fortune stacks multiplicatively with other damage reduction methods and even with itself (a character with two instances of Fortune cast on them will take 75% reduced damage). Fortune's low energy cost and long duration allow it to compare favorably with Ward (which is costlier, has a longer cooldown, and does not last as long). Fortune also complements health regeneration: high levels of damage mitigation mean that a little health regen goes a long way.

*'''Runes of Wrath''' - ''Level 10''
**Trait: Second Strike (Delayed psychic strikes follow each time the Farseer attacks in melee)
***Stack with the Runes of War to make your Farseer a bunch more deadly as and assault character. This rune benefits weaker melee weapons like the Witchblade of Isha or the Debilitating Witchblade that don't do a lot of damage on their own: the second strike ignores armor and adds a considerable amount of raw damage per hit.

*'''Runes of the Warp''' - ''Level 11''
**Ability: Group Teleport (15 Energy, teleport all nearby allies to a targeted location)
***Where a Sorcerer would teleport to get into combat, you have a teleport to get away from the ruckus. This can definitely help make shenanigans happen, especially against slower enemies or shooty prey. It can also be useful in getting near a fallen ally and rescuing them. Or you could more simply teleport the fallen body away from danger and then safely revive him, since this ability can teleport fallen team mates.
****A word of caution on Bloodied Coliseum: The enemy Farseer goes absolutely apeshit with this ability and WILL abuse it at the worst possible moments. Players on wave 16 and 20 may find themselves receiving a surprise gang-bang when the Farseer dumps Araghast and half a dozen Bloodletters your head while trying to kite enemies or revive team mates.

*'''Runes of Vigour''' - ''Level 12''
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration
***This is not a useful thing, as it takes up a slot better used for neater powers.

*'''Runes of Evasion''' - ''Level 16''
**Traits: Evasive (All attacks made at the Farseer have a 30% chance of missing)
***Whatever your role, you can never go wrong with some extra evasion to go along with it. Unless you're at Bloodied Coliseum, where your doppelganger will be just as annoying to kill.

*'''Runes of the Spider''' - ''Level 17''
**Ability: Entangle (15 Energy, ensnares an enemy, making them unable to move, but able to attack)
***This is a lifesaver when dealing with Banshees or other agile targets, as they will hound your ass at every opportunity. This can give your team the time it needs to wipe them out.

==Commander Items==
*'''Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might''' - ''Level 5''
**Ability: Eldritch Storm (50 Energy, Unleash a large psychic storm, disrupting and damaging enemies in a large radius. While channeling this powerful spell, the caster will be immune to damage but not regenerate energy)
***Curiously, whilst most classes get their big ol' nuke spell at the end of their careers, the Farseer and Mekboy get theirs early. The Farseer's is one of the weaker nukes; it immobilizes her during it, has a strange hitbox, and its damage buildup can be finicky. On the other hand, it's still a nuke spell and absolutely awesome at killing mooks in a substantial radius... Or at softening up harder enemies for further assaults. Bear in mind its high energy costs and weaknesses, and it's absolutely devastating. By rapidly right clicking as you cast the storm you should be able to move and attack regain energy and keep the invulnerability while the storm kills stuff. So with some decent energy regain or reduction you could nearly get the cost back by the time it's off cooldown and spam it. Or hitting stop right after cast is more effective.

*'''Spirit Stone of Illusion''' - ''Level 15''
**Ability: Veil of Tears (50 Energy, Confuses half the enemies on screen and makes them attack the nearest target regardless of alliance)
***This mass confuse spell is no less finicky than the damage on Eldritch Storm, and it's just as expensive, to boot, but it's potentially even more game-changing. The pandemonium it can cause can completely turn the tide of a fight, provided the thing the enemies target isn't you - just bear in mind that the enemies WILL if you're the closest thing in range. Used properly, it can quickly deal with swarms of foes.

*'''Spirit Stone of Vigour''' - ''Level 20''
**Traits: Invigorating Leadership (+0.3 Energy Regeneration for all nearby allies)
***Bizarrely, this is one of the weakest commander items, giving a tiny energy regeneration boost. It's of barely any use to the Farseer on her own, precludes the use of both Eldritch Storm and Veil of Tears, and boasting the same energy regen boost as another piece of wargear that's often best not taken. Unlike that one though, there are some benefits to the Stone of Vigour that make it worth using. For one, it removes the ability of the Wave 16/20 doppelganger to use your abilities against you. For another, it gives the energy boost to nearby teammates as well, which means this can actually be fairly useful to back up the likes of the Lord General or Chaos Sorcerer.

==Progression==

==Tactics and Strategy==
*'''On Achievements:'''
**''Grab Me the Paddles'' (Which unlocks the Mantle of Malan'Tai) is accomplished by reviving allies. If you use the Pistol of the Warseer and/or Runes of Swiftness or Runes of the Warp, this is a rather easy task as you'll be able to extricate yourself from the situation if it gets too hectic.
**''Advanced Multiplication'' (Which unlocks the Laughing Stave) requires both control over the Power Nodes and the ability to manage your allies. Since you need a multiplier of 275, you'll need to kill enemies quickly, protect your allies, and control the nodes just long enough to get that high.

== Builds ==
'''BUILD 1 - DECEIVER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' The most Eldar build ever, the idea of this build is to keep yourself out of the fight while you make the enemy do all the dirty work (sounds familiar to you? Yeah, you get the idea), keep casting Confuse on your enemies so they kill each other and Fleet of Foot whenever you see they are closing on to you (you are unshakable by the way, and the witchblade of Isha gives you a lot of energy), prioritize larger targets whenever you can as they can one-hit other units, watch how wraithlords, carnifexes, Juggernauts, dreads and dreffs decimate their own armies. Oh, and remember wave 16 at Bloodied Colosseum? If you see a clone trying to resurrect another clone cast confuse, this will disrupt him, and don't worry about your clone SHE CANT CAST CONFUSE.

'''BUILD 2 - RESURRECTER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Warding, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne

'''Explanation:''' A variant of the DECEIVER-RUNNER, the RESURRECTER is built to keep your allies alive, you just stay out of the fight as much as possible as you need yourself alive, then, everytime you see an allied die run to him with Fleet of Foot, cast yourself Ward and resurrect him, tell your allies to fight, no matter if they are going to die again, as long as you stay alive you can resurrect them, while a bit tedious this strategy is great whenever you end in a team of newcomers or low hp nukers, as in the long run they will decimate the wave.
Leads to annoyed obsolesce when with self reviving Necron Overlord tanks.

'''BUILD 3 - ...AND LET THE MON-KEIGH TAKE CARE OF LARGE GROUPS'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Fortune, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Explanation:''' At first glance, this build seems little different than the others, but it provides a number of advantages. Fortune reduces all damage taken by the target by 50%; when you cast Fortune on yourself, your damage reduction approaches 90% (88.5%, to be exact). Fortune is also much cheaper and easier to spam than Ward, and you can maintain it on multiple targets at once, allowing you to keep your team in the fight rather than simply resurrecting them when they fall. Runes of Wrath gives you excellent single-target damage (against large groups of weak models, try attacking one model, moving away, and letting the second strike do its work before moving in again), and the combination of the Witchblade of Isha and the Spirit Stone of Vigor means that you generally have enough energy to cast Confuse when necessary and Fortune at all times. This build has two weaknesses: it cannot deal with large groups of mobs on its own; and it has no real way to recover lost health without support.

'''BUILD 4 - SHADOWSEER'''

'''Min Level:''' 15

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Deception, Runes of the Warp, Spirit Stone of Illusion.

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build really shines on Bloodied Colosseum, since the enemies will need more time to reach you after you teleport away, giving you and your allies a lot of times to get some breath, and especially against your clone, that can't use Veil of Tears nor Confuse against you or your allies, but can also be devastating on anvil of khorne with the right teammates. The build itself is all about supporting your allies and heavily debuffing your enemies: if using it correctly, you should never die AND you should be the one reviving your fallen comrades every time without problems, turning your enemies against each other and keeping yourself and your allies safe through invisibility and teleportation. the Laughing Stave also let you knock back enemies coming at you, while letting you spam a lot more spells than you could without it, while the mantle of Malan'tai keep you reasonably safe while significantly boosting your energy regen. You prefer this to the Ghosthelm for a simple reason: you can already buy enough time with the Teleport/Invisibility combo to regen more than enough energy, and in the later waves the Ghosthelm means almost certain death from a single mistake. You can't die, ever, because you are the one keeping your team alive! On the offense, you should obviously use Veil of Tears against bigger waves and confusion against powerful, single opponents. This, combined with teleport, effectively let your team pick his fight, instead of trying to confront an entire wave on their own, and can result extremely powerful with strong ranged heroes, like the tau commander or the Lord General (especially with rocket run!). This build will not gives you lot of kills, but it will let you influence the battle more than any other hero could ever hope to, effectively turning you into the key-man to achieve the win, especially in bloodied colosseum.
*Fun fact: never forget that your teleportation can also teleport fallen comrades, making it extremely powerfull as an escaping tool: teleport near the fallen ally, immediately teleport away, then cast invisibility and revive your mate. This will not only gives yourself some time to regenerate the energy consumed, but also him the time to regenerate health and be ready when the fight will resume.

'''BUILD 5 - AUTARCH'''

'''Min Level:''' 20 (19 with Stone of Eldritch Might)

'''Gear you need:''' Warp Spear, Armor of Idranel, Runes of War, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fortune, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build is pretty straight-forward, making you what essentialy you shouldn't be: a melee monster! Ok, not really a monster, but significantly better than you could normally hope for. Warp Spear has some good damage (not optimal), good special attack rating, an area of effect special attack and the 1 in a 10 chance to really put the hurt on your enemies. But you don't take it for this, not only, at least: you take it for warp pull. This ability let you control your enemies with ease, making you able to better choose your fights while keeping yourself safe. Runes of Evasion, coupled with the Armour of Idranel, makes you almost invulnerable in close combat, and fortune boosts your survivability further, making you, paradoxically, one of the better tanks in the game, expecially in melee! Spirit Stone of Vigor and Runes of War are almost necessary to conclude the build: the first will give you the ability to spam fortune (you should never have it down) and warp pull, significantly increasing your ability to stay in the fight, while the second makes your weak melee attacks a lot more powerfull.
*You could also substitute the Stone of Vigor with the Stone of Eldritch Might, but while this would gives you some really powerfull AoE damage, it would also significantly decrease your capability to stay alive between Eldritch Storm.

'''BUILD 6 - Make Love not War-Hammer'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Armor of Idranel, Runes of Fortune, Runes of the Warp, Runes of Vigor, Spirit Stone of Illusion

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This is a 100 percent support build where you complete focus is on your teammates and keeping them protected so they can do the most damage possible and as such it is recommended against using this with low level teammates because, typically their damage just isn't quite high enough to get the job done. Since you are rocking Idranels' robes you can actually take a bit of a beating without having to worry about being squished which allows you to spend even more time focusing on your bros. In fact if you are teammates with a couple squishies you can do a fair amount of tanking for them. So the basis of this build is you spam fortune on EVERYTHING. Because of it's long duration and short cool down Fortune can be applied on up to 4 things at a time or double stacked for additional protection and you just continue the cycle as it wears off your allies. That a Tau shield drone hanging out over there? FORTUNE. Captain brought his Dreadnaught? FORTUNE. Oh no that Lord General is getting swarmed by melee! DOUBLE FORTUNE. With the cost reduction from the Laughing Stave and Runes of Vigor you should always have enough to cast it at least a couple times even after using the Spirit Stone of Illusion. Of course everyone knows Runes of the warp are great for defense and reviving downed teammates but since you are rocking some decent armor you can actually use it offensively as well. How does that work you ask? Its great for moving the less mobile damage dealers to where they need to be, your enemies faces. It does take a bit of teamwork but its especially good with those slow ass Hive Tyrants rocking poison cysts. With the Laughing Stave you are much more free when using Spirit stone of Illusion and it is super great at taking pressure off your team if you are getting overwhelmed and for taking one of your clones out of the situation on rounds 16 and 20 of BC but remember your main focus is Fortune. A note on doing damage. You're not. Really. Aside from intercepting an occasional melee unit for a ranged buddy any stuff you kill is incidental and that's ok because you dont get anything for getting a high kill count except for a big e-peen and a Tau complex. With that said the first thing you should do at the beginning of the match is switch to a melee stance. That's right your silly Laughing Stave IS BETTER IN MELEE! Just check for yourself. 26 damage per melee hit vs 20 for the ranged so you swing faster, have a 100 percent hit ration and a small chance to do a special attack in melee that you don't get in from ranged attacks. So aside from using the ranged knock back ability to prevent a clone from reviving you're going to want to be up close and personal and just be happy you can do some ranged damage if that one last guy is half way across the map.

'''BUILD 7 - offense'''

'''Min Level:''' 10

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of Warding, Runes of the War, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:'''

Aoe and high single target damage. Wait til ranged blob sits still and then storm. Can one shot zoanthrope if time right. Ward and melee when necessary. Can tank or support. Usually take a second of damage in between shields so better to support late if can get behind teammate and not aggro. Ward great for tanking clones and landraider. Run up and melee ranged clones or predators 16/20 is legit strategy. Easy if teammates can deal followup damage.

{{Template:LastStand-Heroes}}
[[Category:Eldar]]

Last Stand - Farseer

2018-07-25T13:59:33Z

2001:BB6:505:D958:FD99:FDA3:216:1BB0: /* Builds */

The Farseer is the [[Last Stand]] Hero of the [[Eldar]].

==Overview==
The [[Eldar]] [[Farseer]] is, at once, a paradox - she is surprisingly durable and survivable, but she's ostensibly a support spellcaster first and foremost. The [[Farseer]], like all [[Eldar]], is deceptive, a heroine that is at once extremely powerful and surprisingly ubiquitous. The Farseer is a hero who, unlike other spellcasters (such as the [[Last Stand - Chaos Sorcerer|Chaos Sorcerer]]) focuses primarily upon disrupting enemies, assisting allies, and debuffing enemies. The Farseer is quite capable of being used as an offensive caster as well, getting access to her strongest offensive spells surprisingly early in her career, ergo making her surprisingly friendly towards newcomers to last stand, though raw offense is not the Farseer's strongest suit by any stretch. The Farseer easily makes herself useful in a wide array of different playstyles, from a dedicated defensive supporter and medic to battlefield control. Surprisingly high defense and viable offense give her quite a bit of tactical viability with damned near any loadout as well, a rarity for any character in [[Last Stand]]. Indeed, no character in Last Stand can really multi-task on one loadout quite so well as the Farseer - she's never at a loss for strategic options and this is true for much of her career, making her in many ways the exact opposite, progression-wise, of the [[Last Stand - Captain|Space Marine Captain]] and [[Last Stand - Captain|Imperial Guard Lord General]].

However, what the Farseer has in tactical viability and useful secondary options she loses in raw power. Her nuke spell, Eldritch Storm, is neither as powerful nor predictable as the other characters' biggest, and her lone damaging offensive spell is likewise nowhere near as effective as those of other casters. Even when fully kitted out, her melee and ranged firepower is weaker than that of other heroes, and she furthermore loses out in one of the most crippling aspects of Last Stand: Mobility. Other than packing on the Runes of Swiftness or Pistol of the Warseer, the only mobility booster she has is the Runes of the Warp, which is predominantly useful as an escape teleport or to save allies. This makes her extremely vulnerable to being mobbed, as, unlike the Hive Tyrant, who is similarly vulnerable, she lacks a dedicated crowd control maneuver (such as Toxic Cysts).

Another major problem she has is that per progression is ridiculously lopsided, with the overpowering majority of her useful wargear unlocked before she's halfway through her leveling. An additional problem is that, with almost every build, her clone on Bloodied Coliseum turns the fight into a complete cluster-fuck where your team has to deal with an unshakable fearless teleporting asshole who strategically makes teammates invulnerable. Probably the biggest issue with her is ''when'' players realize that she's infinitely better at control and support than offense; this is not an easy playstyle to adapt to and many Farseer players choose to focus entirely on offense with her, which whilst viable, is done better by the Mekboy and Chaos Sorcerer.

Make no mistake, however: The Farseer is a powerful force, especially if kitted out well. She excels at manipulating battlefield conditions, turning enemies on one another, and making enemies easier to kill. It's important to note that what are (arguably) her strongest abilities are all extremely indirect - though its effect is far simpler, Veil of Tears can potentially accomplish more for a team than Eldritch Storm, and Confuse or Entangle are often vastly more useful than simply using Eldritch Bolt. Correctly loaded out, the Farseer is capable of bringing quite a bit to the table, and from surprising angles, making her a rather unique choice. When played well, she is easily the strongest character in Last Stand, but this takes a level of care and patience that not many are willing to exhibit.

==Armor==
*'''Farseer Armor''' - ''Default''
**Armor Rating: 16
***Default Armor. It fails at everything and should never be used.

*'''Armor of Vaul''' - ''Level 1''
**Armor Rating: 184
**Trait: Fearless (Immune to Suppression)
***This initial armor boasts absolutely gigantic defense for a caster, as well as the fearless trait - an incredibly powerful combination, to say the least. Right out the gate, the Farseer boasts very high survivability specifically because of this, and this armor remains useful for quite some time due to its heavy armor and Fearless trait.

*'''Rune Armor''' - ''Level 6''
**Armor Rating: 68
**+50 Energy
***This armor is more in-line with the Chaos Sorcerer's armors: Modest defense, but an ability specifically-designed to support a caster. In this case, one might immediately see the Rune Armor's ''vastly'' lower defense and immediately ignore it, but that does the armor a huge disservice; the Rune Armor gives a massive amount of secondary energy, and since the Farseer relies so heavily on her skills to do much of anything, this boon is absolutely gigantic and thusly not to be underestimated. It tends to lose its sparkle as the game goes on, however.

*'''Ghosthelm''' - ''Level 13''
**Armor Rating: 44
**+1 Energy Regeneration
***Like the Rune Armor, this lower-defense armor is easy to overlook - especially with access to another suit of armor on this list. On the other hand, +1 Energy Regeneration, for a character like the Farseer, is fucking huge. It dramatically improves her peformance and ability to stay in the fight by simple virtue of letting her cast far more often, and that's a particularly handy advantage to have, especially when one considers that it can be stacked with her other abilities for a veritable font of energy regeneration that lets her throw out spells in a barrage.

*'''Armor of Eldanesh''' - ''Level 18''
** Armor Rating: 132
** Ability: Psychic Shield (Raise a psychic shield which halves incoming damage and causes it to reduce Energy instead of Health.)
***Yet another overlooked armor, but this one has a few defenders owning to its heavy defense and access to Psychic Shield. Though often an avoided ability, the Armor of Eldanesh giving the Farseer a means to resist damage means that it makes a good survival option, especially if the Farseer gets overwhelmed. The drawback of course is that the Farseer is an immensely energy-reliant hero; burning off energy from her pool can leave you short of it in a bad situation.

*'''Mantle of Malan'tai''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Revive 75 Allies as the Eldar Farseer''
**Armor Rating: 165
**Trait: +0.5 Energy Regeneration
***This unlockable armor frequently is seen as the better version of the Ghosthelm armor, due to the fact that it has much heavier armor; On the other hand, however, the energy regen boost is only half as strong. Whilst at a glance, this means the Mantle of Malan'tai is much stronger, the energy regeneration rate boost available from the Ghosthelm is infinitely better for many builds. It is still a very effective armor, however, and one of the most commonly used. Curiously, it also has a hidden property not displayed on the item card, adding 10% to special attack chance for any melee weapon equipped, including the Laughing Stave for which it is otherwise always zero.

*'''Armor of [[Idranel]]''' - ''DLC''
**Armor Rating: 165
**+100 Health
**Trait: Unshakable (Immune to Knockdown), Foresight (All melee damage reduced by 50%)
***An almost bizarrely powerful armor that is undeniably the most-commonly-used, by simple virtue of its massive health boost and strong armor rating. Just as strong as the Mantle of Malan'tai defensively, the huge health buff it gives is what pushes it over; 100 extra health plus that level of armor means an incredible level of survivability, but when it has Unshakable as well, that's just outstanding. The Foresight buff is just icing on the cake- halving all melee damage makes the Farseer an extremely effective melee tank, and when paired with the Debilitating Witchblade only the most dangerous melee fighters will be able to hurt her in close combat. It bears mentioning that while this armor gives the Farseer incredibly strong ''upfront'' durability, she has no options to boost health ''regeneration'', so she can be worn down over a wave if she doesn't pace how she spends her health. Not even this armor allows her to stay in a blob for an entire wave like, say, a Space Marine with 7.0 regen. Perhaps more than any other Farseer armor, this one is the hardest to justify ''not'' using, since its advantages are truly massive. However, it carries absolutely no benefits towards her casting and has no active ability, as such it can be passed over for the specific benefits of other armors if desired. Or just because players don't want to pony up for it.

==Weapons==
*'''Witchblade''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.0 DPS
***Stereotypical default weapon that stereotypically sucks.

*'''Shuriken Pistol''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
***Bizarrely, the default pistol is just as effective as the other pistols in terms of damage output. Draw your own conclusions.

*'''Pistol of the Warseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Traits: Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged Damage), Swift (+25% Movement Speed)
***The Pistol of the Warseer's damage output is barely higher than the Shuriken Pistol (and even then that's due to Combat Expert), but the fact that it grants 2 of the most useful traits in the game make this one hell of an early game wargear. Do note, however, that it takes up an extremely contended-for slot; if you take the Pistol of the Warseer, the only damaging ability you get to take advantage of the Combat Expert trait is Eldritch Storm (which can actually be remarkably powerful with both the pistol and runes of war). On the other hand, Swift is amazingly useful, and stacks with the other speed boosts the Farseer can get, which massively increases survivability.

*'''Pistol of the Doomseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Eldritch Bolt (15 Energy, Fires a roiling blast of psychic energy at the target)
***Pistol of the Doomseer gives you your first legitimately good offensive spell, and indeed one of only three that the Farseer can use. It's actually remarkably cost-effective and fairly useful, though it needs Runes of War to get the most out of. If you're planning to go direct combat, Pistol of the Doomseer is a must.

*'''Witchblade of the Crone''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**20.0 DPS
***The Witchblade of the Crone has high DPS and.... That's literally it. Whilst it's brutally effective against softer targets, it lacks armor piercing and isn't anywhere near as good against tougher foes unless heavily bolstered by Combat Expert/Mastery. If you're planning to engage in close-combat, consider taking this along; otherwise, shelve it for the other melee weapons.

*'''Singing Spear''' - ''Level 4''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**19.0 DPS
**Traits: Unshakable (Immune to knockback)
***The singing spear looks abhorrently bad on paper: 2 hands for a weapon barely as good as the Witchblade of the Crone and with a trait easily-accessible from a piece of wargear that renders it largely irrelevant. So, worst weapon for the Farseer, right? Wrong. Singing Spear does damage in bigger chunks than the Witchblade of the Crone, has better reach, and a higher special attack rating, all in all resulting in better damage overall unless the Witchblade's paired with the Pistol of the Warseer. The Singing Spear is thus much better than it initially appears, and is especially good when stacked with the Armor of Vaul.

*'''Witchblade of Isha''' - ''Level 9''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**10.2 DPS
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration, +25 Energy
***It may be weaker than the Witchblade of the Crone, but this wasn't taken for its damage (which is still acceptable). Instead, you take it for the increased energy regen and capacity, all of which are great things for any caster. The ability to fire off another Confuse or Eldritch Bolt is always beneficial, and this weapon pays for itself in short order specifically because of this.

*'''Pistol of the Skyseer''' - ''Level 14''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Levitation Field (15 Energy, lifts enemies in the air and then tosses around for knockback damage)
***This Pistol has a hilariously useful ability that enables the Farseer to quickly deal with enemies that cluster up, throwing them all over the place thereafter. The damage tends to vary wildly, from doing barely any whatsoever to doing quite a bit if enemies collide with one another during the throw. The primary benefit isn't the damage, however; it's disabling enemies and launching them away from you. This even works on doppelgangers, but it will fail against any that happen to have the Unshakable Trait.

*'''Warp Spear''' - ''Level 19''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**12.2 DPS
**Ability: Warp Pull (5 Energy, pulls enemies toward the Farseer)
**Trait: Pitiless (Farseer has a 10% chance to cause 200 bonus damage on striking)
***A utility weapon through and through, whose mediocre DPS hides its real potential. On its own, its damage is pretty bad considering it eschews the use of a pistol, but it has a 1-in-10 chance of triggering a massive damage strike that is capable of one-shotting most targets, making it comparable to (but weaker than) the Chaos Sorcerer's Staff of Fate. The Warp Spear compensates, however, by coming with Warp Pull, which is an amazing control ability. You can drag enemies into close combat, pull them away from vulnerable allies, or pull them into the firing arc of teammates. The numerous applications of the Warp Spear make it surprisingly useful, so don't underestimate it!

*'''Laughing Stave''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Earn a Score Multiplier of 275 as the Farseer''
**Two-handed Ranged Weapon
**11.1 DPS
**Traits: Knockback (Enemies hit by this weapon will be knocked back), Laughing Runes (-25% Energy Cost), Unshakable (Immune to Knockback)
***There are three reasons to take the laughing stave, and any of them, on their own, are good reasons, but when together, they turn this weapon into an oft-unappreciated powerhouse. First, it's the only exclusively ranged weapon the Farseer gets, and it's a damned good one, offering a more-than-4-fold damage increase over the Shuriken Pistols. Second, it has knockback, which means it's actually very good for keeping the Farseer out of trouble - both in close-combat, and from afar. But it's the last advantage it has that's the most glaring: a 25% reduction in energy costs means that literally ''everything'' you cast is orders of magnitude easier to use - even the likes of Eldritch Storm will only cost 37 energy under this upgrade, allowing your average energy-focused Farseer to cast it twice with a full energy bar. It bolsters all your other abilities, too, making it a solid choice that should used for a great many builds. Like all Staves, it's also a melee weapon; this one packs a reasonable punch (roughly the same as the Witchblade of the Crone, but without special attacks and a slower swing speed but meatier damage output), but its major advantage is its ranged punch, knockdown, and cost reductions. It does, however, also give you Unshakable, which is brings this weapon from "great" to "fucking amazing."

*'''Debilitating Witchblade''' - ''DLC''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.1 DPS
**Traits: Sap (Reduces the target's melee damage by 50% for 5 seconds; note that Sap only applies to the individual model hit by the Farseer's attack), Energy Leech (Restores 10 Energy when this weapon kills an enemy)
*** The Debilitating Witchblade is a mixed blessing. Sap can allow the Farseer to stand toe-to-toe against foes with powerful melee attacks, and Energy Leech occasionally supplements the Farseer's energy regeneration. Unfortunately, Sap only affects the specific model the Farseer attacks (rather than affecting a whole squad a-la the Captain's Lightning Claws), and Energy Leech ''requires that the enemy be killed by the Debilitating Witchblade itself'' rather than any of the Farseer's abilities. That's right: this means that if you're using Runes of Wrath and the second strike kills an enemy, it won't trigger Energy Leech. The Debilitating Witchblade ''can'' be useful in a purely supporting role, but rarely can it be considered a good general-purpose weapon.

==Accessories==
*'''Runes of Warding''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Ward (25 Energy, grants ally temporary invulnerability)
***This is a lifesaver for the Farseer, as this can be the difference between saving your ally or dying and failing a run. Just beware when fighting your Wave 16 doppelganger as the enemy will use this with impunity against you. Especially if they're going for that Tau Efficiency achievement.

*'''Runes of Harlequin''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Confuse (15 Energy, confuses the target, forcing it to attack anything nearby for a while.)
***This is more situational than it looks, as if you use it at the wrong time, this will sic the squad right back at you, which may or [[Not as Planned|may not be what you intended]]. On the other hand, the doppelganger can't use it and it can interrupt their resurrection attempts, making it particularly powerful on the Bloodied Colosseum map. And, unlike Veil of Tears, with Confuse you can choose your target, making it extremely good against big bosses (do you remember Araghast??) or when you want to target a specific unit instead of going all random.
***Confuse is generally best used on fast-moving melee units (which can lock ranged units in melee) or on units with a whole lot of [[Dakka|dakka]]
***Confuse is the only way to prevent Unshakeable dopplegangers from resurrecting each other

*'''Runes of Fleetness''' - ''Level 2''
**Ability: Fleet of Foot (5 Energy, grants the Farseer a speed boost at the cost of her damage output)
***If you really want to work support as a Farseer, then this will be your go-to tool for making those quick saves. Take care though, as this is not a triggered ability, but a temporary one.

*'''Runes of War''' - ''Level 3''
**Traits: Combat Master (+40% Melee and Ranged Damage)
***If you play a combat Farseer, then this will be an auto-include, as it will make you much more of a threat than everyone would expect.

*'''Runes of Deception''' - ''Level 7''
**Ability: Conceal (20 Energy, grants invisibility to allies within the field)
***This is a bit more situational than other abilities, as this won't make much difference when you're being chased by swarms or Banshees, but it can let you make a [[Cyrus]]-style stealth save. Become almost broken in conjunction with runes of the warp.

*'''Runes of Fortune''' - ''Level 8''
**Ability: Fortune (10 Energy, reduces all incoming damage by 50%)
*** Fortune complements almost any team composition by providing significant damage mitigation. With the proper application of Fortune, a properly built melee Captain or Hive Tyrant will be able to weather entire waves, and ranged characters like the Lord General or Tau Commander will find their longevity under fire significantly extended, allowing them to spend more time doing what they do best. Fortune stacks multiplicatively with other damage reduction methods and even with itself (a character with two instances of Fortune cast on them will take 75% reduced damage). Fortune's low energy cost and long duration allow it to compare favorably with Ward (which is costlier, has a longer cooldown, and does not last as long). Fortune also complements health regeneration: high levels of damage mitigation mean that a little health regen goes a long way.

*'''Runes of Wrath''' - ''Level 10''
**Trait: Second Strike (Delayed psychic strikes follow each time the Farseer attacks in melee)
***Stack with the Runes of War to make your Farseer a bunch more deadly as and assault character. This rune benefits weaker melee weapons like the Witchblade of Isha or the Debilitating Witchblade that don't do a lot of damage on their own: the second strike ignores armor and adds a considerable amount of raw damage per hit.

*'''Runes of the Warp''' - ''Level 11''
**Ability: Group Teleport (15 Energy, teleport all nearby allies to a targeted location)
***Where a Sorcerer would teleport to get into combat, you have a teleport to get away from the ruckus. This can definitely help make shenanigans happen, especially against slower enemies or shooty prey. It can also be useful in getting near a fallen ally and rescuing them. Or you could more simply teleport the fallen body away from danger and then safely revive him, since this ability can teleport fallen team mates.
****A word of caution on Bloodied Coliseum: The enemy Farseer goes absolutely apeshit with this ability and WILL abuse it at the worst possible moments. Players on wave 16 and 20 may find themselves receiving a surprise gang-bang when the Farseer dumps Araghast and half a dozen Bloodletters your head while trying to kite enemies or revive team mates.

*'''Runes of Vigour''' - ''Level 12''
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration
***This is not a useful thing, as it takes up a slot better used for neater powers.

*'''Runes of Evasion''' - ''Level 16''
**Traits: Evasive (All attacks made at the Farseer have a 30% chance of missing)
***Whatever your role, you can never go wrong with some extra evasion to go along with it. Unless you're at Bloodied Coliseum, where your doppelganger will be just as annoying to kill.

*'''Runes of the Spider''' - ''Level 17''
**Ability: Entangle (15 Energy, ensnares an enemy, making them unable to move, but able to attack)
***This is a lifesaver when dealing with Banshees or other agile targets, as they will hound your ass at every opportunity. This can give your team the time it needs to wipe them out.

==Commander Items==
*'''Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might''' - ''Level 5''
**Ability: Eldritch Storm (50 Energy, Unleash a large psychic storm, disrupting and damaging enemies in a large radius. While channeling this powerful spell, the caster will be immune to damage but not regenerate energy)
***Curiously, whilst most classes get their big ol' nuke spell at the end of their careers, the Farseer and Mekboy get theirs early. The Farseer's is one of the weaker nukes; it immobilizes her during it, has a strange hitbox, and its damage buildup can be finicky. On the other hand, it's still a nuke spell and absolutely awesome at killing mooks in a substantial radius... Or at softening up harder enemies for further assaults. Bear in mind its high energy costs and weaknesses, and it's absolutely devastating. By rapidly right clicking as you cast the storm you should be able to move and attack regain energy and keep the invulnerability while the storm kills stuff. So with some decent energy regain or reduction you could nearly get the cost back by the time it's off cooldown and spam it. Or hitting stop right after cast is more effective.

*'''Spirit Stone of Illusion''' - ''Level 15''
**Ability: Veil of Tears (50 Energy, Confuses half the enemies on screen and makes them attack the nearest target regardless of alliance)
***This mass confuse spell is no less finicky than the damage on Eldritch Storm, and it's just as expensive, to boot, but it's potentially even more game-changing. The pandemonium it can cause can completely turn the tide of a fight, provided the thing the enemies target isn't you - just bear in mind that the enemies WILL if you're the closest thing in range. Used properly, it can quickly deal with swarms of foes.

*'''Spirit Stone of Vigour''' - ''Level 20''
**Traits: Invigorating Leadership (+0.3 Energy Regeneration for all nearby allies)
***Bizarrely, this is one of the weakest commander items, giving a tiny energy regeneration boost. It's of barely any use to the Farseer on her own, precludes the use of both Eldritch Storm and Veil of Tears, and boasting the same energy regen boost as another piece of wargear that's often best not taken. Unlike that one though, there are some benefits to the Stone of Vigour that make it worth using. For one, it removes the ability of the Wave 16/20 doppelganger to use your abilities against you. For another, it gives the energy boost to nearby teammates as well, which means this can actually be fairly useful to back up the likes of the Lord General or Chaos Sorcerer.

==Progression==

==Tactics and Strategy==
*'''On Achievements:'''
**''Grab Me the Paddles'' (Which unlocks the Mantle of Malan'Tai) is accomplished by reviving allies. If you use the Pistol of the Warseer and/or Runes of Swiftness or Runes of the Warp, this is a rather easy task as you'll be able to extricate yourself from the situation if it gets too hectic.
**''Advanced Multiplication'' (Which unlocks the Laughing Stave) requires both control over the Power Nodes and the ability to manage your allies. Since you need a multiplier of 275, you'll need to kill enemies quickly, protect your allies, and control the nodes just long enough to get that high.

== Builds ==
'''BUILD 1 - DECEIVER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' The most Eldar build ever, the idea of this build is to keep yourself out of the fight while you make the enemy do all the dirty work (sounds familiar to you? Yeah, you get the idea), keep casting Confuse on your enemies so they kill each other and Fleet of Foot whenever you see they are closing on to you (you are unshakable by the way, and the witchblade of Isha gives you a lot of energy), prioritize larger targets whenever you can as they can one-hit other units, watch how wraithlords, carnifexes, Juggernauts, dreads and dreffs decimate their own armies. Oh, and remember wave 16 at Bloodied Colosseum? If you see a clone trying to resurrect another clone cast confuse, this will disrupt him, and don't worry about your clone SHE CANT CAST CONFUSE.

'''BUILD 2 - RESURRECTER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Warding, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne

'''Explanation:''' A variant of the DECEIVER-RUNNER, the RESURRECTER is built to keep your allies alive, you just stay out of the fight as much as possible as you need yourself alive, then, everytime you see an allied die run to him with Fleet of Foot, cast yourself Ward and resurrect him, tell your allies to fight, no matter if they are going to die again, as long as you stay alive you can resurrect them, while a bit tedious this strategy is great whenever you end in a team of newcomers or low hp nukers, as in the long run they will decimate the wave.
Leads to annoyed obsolesce when wit self reviving Necron Overlord tanks.

'''BUILD 3 - ...AND LET THE MON-KEIGH TAKE CARE OF LARGE GROUPS'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Fortune, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Explanation:''' At first glance, this build seems little different than the others, but it provides a number of advantages. Fortune reduces all damage taken by the target by 50%; when you cast Fortune on yourself, your damage reduction approaches 90% (88.5%, to be exact). Fortune is also much cheaper and easier to spam than Ward, and you can maintain it on multiple targets at once, allowing you to keep your team in the fight rather than simply resurrecting them when they fall. Runes of Wrath gives you excellent single-target damage (against large groups of weak models, try attacking one model, moving away, and letting the second strike do its work before moving in again), and the combination of the Witchblade of Isha and the Spirit Stone of Vigor means that you generally have enough energy to cast Confuse when necessary and Fortune at all times. This build has two weaknesses: it cannot deal with large groups of mobs on its own; and it has no real way to recover lost health without support.

'''BUILD 4 - SHADOWSEER'''

'''Min Level:''' 15

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Deception, Runes of the Warp, Spirit Stone of Illusion.

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build really shines on Bloodied Colosseum, since the enemies will need more time to reach you after you teleport away, giving you and your allies a lot of times to get some breath, and especially against your clone, that can't use Veil of Tears nor Confuse against you or your allies, but can also be devastating on anvil of khorne with the right teammates. The build itself is all about supporting your allies and heavily debuffing your enemies: if using it correctly, you should never die AND you should be the one reviving your fallen comrades every time without problems, turning your enemies against each other and keeping yourself and your allies safe through invisibility and teleportation. the Laughing Stave also let you knock back enemies coming at you, while letting you spam a lot more spells than you could without it, while the mantle of Malan'tai keep you reasonably safe while significantly boosting your energy regen. You prefer this to the Ghosthelm for a simple reason: you can already buy enough time with the Teleport/Invisibility combo to regen more than enough energy, and in the later waves the Ghosthelm means almost certain death from a single mistake. You can't die, ever, because you are the one keeping your team alive! On the offense, you should obviously use Veil of Tears against bigger waves and confusion against powerful, single opponents. This, combined with teleport, effectively let your team pick his fight, instead of trying to confront an entire wave on their own, and can result extremely powerful with strong ranged heroes, like the tau commander or the Lord General (especially with rocket run!). This build will not gives you lot of kills, but it will let you influence the battle more than any other hero could ever hope to, effectively turning you into the key-man to achieve the win, especially in bloodied colosseum.
*Fun fact: never forget that your teleportation can also teleport fallen comrades, making it extremely powerfull as an escaping tool: teleport near the fallen ally, immediately teleport away, then cast invisibility and revive your mate. This will not only gives yourself some time to regenerate the energy consumed, but also him the time to regenerate health and be ready when the fight will resume.

'''BUILD 5 - AUTARCH'''

'''Min Level:''' 20 (19 with Stone of Eldritch Might)

'''Gear you need:''' Warp Spear, Armor of Idranel, Runes of War, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fortune, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build is pretty straight-forward, making you what essentialy you shouldn't be: a melee monster! Ok, not really a monster, but significantly better than you could normally hope for. Warp Spear has some good damage (not optimal), good special attack rating, an area of effect special attack and the 1 in a 10 chance to really put the hurt on your enemies. But you don't take it for this, not only, at least: you take it for warp pull. This ability let you control your enemies with ease, making you able to better choose your fights while keeping yourself safe. Runes of Evasion, coupled with the Armour of Idranel, makes you almost invulnerable in close combat, and fortune boosts your survivability further, making you, paradoxically, one of the better tanks in the game, expecially in melee! Spirit Stone of Vigor and Runes of War are almost necessary to conclude the build: the first will give you the ability to spam fortune (you should never have it down) and warp pull, significantly increasing your ability to stay in the fight, while the second makes your weak melee attacks a lot more powerfull.
*You could also substitute the Stone of Vigor with the Stone of Eldritch Might, but while this would gives you some really powerfull AoE damage, it would also significantly decrease your capability to stay alive between Eldritch Storm.

'''BUILD 6 - Make Love not War-Hammer'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Armor of Idranel, Runes of Fortune, Runes of the Warp, Runes of Vigor, Spirit Stone of Illusion

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This is a 100 percent support build where you complete focus is on your teammates and keeping them protected so they can do the most damage possible and as such it is recommended against using this with low level teammates because, typically their damage just isn't quite high enough to get the job done. Since you are rocking Idranels' robes you can actually take a bit of a beating without having to worry about being squished which allows you to spend even more time focusing on your bros. In fact if you are teammates with a couple squishies you can do a fair amount of tanking for them. So the basis of this build is you spam fortune on EVERYTHING. Because of it's long duration and short cool down Fortune can be applied on up to 4 things at a time or double stacked for additional protection and you just continue the cycle as it wears off your allies. That a Tau shield drone hanging out over there? FORTUNE. Captain brought his Dreadnaught? FORTUNE. Oh no that Lord General is getting swarmed by melee! DOUBLE FORTUNE. With the cost reduction from the Laughing Stave and Runes of Vigor you should always have enough to cast it at least a couple times even after using the Spirit Stone of Illusion. Of course everyone knows Runes of the warp are great for defense and reviving downed teammates but since you are rocking some decent armor you can actually use it offensively as well. How does that work you ask? Its great for moving the less mobile damage dealers to where they need to be, your enemies faces. It does take a bit of teamwork but its especially good with those slow ass Hive Tyrants rocking poison cysts. With the Laughing Stave you are much more free when using Spirit stone of Illusion and it is super great at taking pressure off your team if you are getting overwhelmed and for taking one of your clones out of the situation on rounds 16 and 20 of BC but remember your main focus is Fortune. A note on doing damage. You're not. Really. Aside from intercepting an occasional melee unit for a ranged buddy any stuff you kill is incidental and that's ok because you dont get anything for getting a high kill count except for a big e-peen and a Tau complex. With that said the first thing you should do at the beginning of the match is switch to a melee stance. That's right your silly Laughing Stave IS BETTER IN MELEE! Just check for yourself. 26 damage per melee hit vs 20 for the ranged so you swing faster, have a 100 percent hit ration and a small chance to do a special attack in melee that you don't get in from ranged attacks. So aside from using the ranged knock back ability to prevent a clone from reviving you're going to want to be up close and personal and just be happy you can do some ranged damage if that one last guy is half way across the map.

'''BUILD 7 - offense'''

'''Min Level:''' 10

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of Warding, Runes of the War, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:'''

Aoe and high single target damage. Wait til ranged blob sits still and then storm. Can one shot zoanthrope if time right. Ward and melee when necessary. Can tank or support. Usually take a second of damage in between shields so better to support late if can get behind teammate and not aggro. Ward great for tanking clones and landraider. Run up and melee ranged clones or predators 16/20 is legit strategy. Easy if teammates can deal followup damage.

{{Template:LastStand-Heroes}}
[[Category:Eldar]]

Last Stand - Farseer

2018-07-25T13:59:15Z

2001:BB6:505:D958:FD99:FDA3:216:1BB0: /* Builds */

The Farseer is the [[Last Stand]] Hero of the [[Eldar]].

==Overview==
The [[Eldar]] [[Farseer]] is, at once, a paradox - she is surprisingly durable and survivable, but she's ostensibly a support spellcaster first and foremost. The [[Farseer]], like all [[Eldar]], is deceptive, a heroine that is at once extremely powerful and surprisingly ubiquitous. The Farseer is a hero who, unlike other spellcasters (such as the [[Last Stand - Chaos Sorcerer|Chaos Sorcerer]]) focuses primarily upon disrupting enemies, assisting allies, and debuffing enemies. The Farseer is quite capable of being used as an offensive caster as well, getting access to her strongest offensive spells surprisingly early in her career, ergo making her surprisingly friendly towards newcomers to last stand, though raw offense is not the Farseer's strongest suit by any stretch. The Farseer easily makes herself useful in a wide array of different playstyles, from a dedicated defensive supporter and medic to battlefield control. Surprisingly high defense and viable offense give her quite a bit of tactical viability with damned near any loadout as well, a rarity for any character in [[Last Stand]]. Indeed, no character in Last Stand can really multi-task on one loadout quite so well as the Farseer - she's never at a loss for strategic options and this is true for much of her career, making her in many ways the exact opposite, progression-wise, of the [[Last Stand - Captain|Space Marine Captain]] and [[Last Stand - Captain|Imperial Guard Lord General]].

However, what the Farseer has in tactical viability and useful secondary options she loses in raw power. Her nuke spell, Eldritch Storm, is neither as powerful nor predictable as the other characters' biggest, and her lone damaging offensive spell is likewise nowhere near as effective as those of other casters. Even when fully kitted out, her melee and ranged firepower is weaker than that of other heroes, and she furthermore loses out in one of the most crippling aspects of Last Stand: Mobility. Other than packing on the Runes of Swiftness or Pistol of the Warseer, the only mobility booster she has is the Runes of the Warp, which is predominantly useful as an escape teleport or to save allies. This makes her extremely vulnerable to being mobbed, as, unlike the Hive Tyrant, who is similarly vulnerable, she lacks a dedicated crowd control maneuver (such as Toxic Cysts).

Another major problem she has is that per progression is ridiculously lopsided, with the overpowering majority of her useful wargear unlocked before she's halfway through her leveling. An additional problem is that, with almost every build, her clone on Bloodied Coliseum turns the fight into a complete cluster-fuck where your team has to deal with an unshakable fearless teleporting asshole who strategically makes teammates invulnerable. Probably the biggest issue with her is ''when'' players realize that she's infinitely better at control and support than offense; this is not an easy playstyle to adapt to and many Farseer players choose to focus entirely on offense with her, which whilst viable, is done better by the Mekboy and Chaos Sorcerer.

Make no mistake, however: The Farseer is a powerful force, especially if kitted out well. She excels at manipulating battlefield conditions, turning enemies on one another, and making enemies easier to kill. It's important to note that what are (arguably) her strongest abilities are all extremely indirect - though its effect is far simpler, Veil of Tears can potentially accomplish more for a team than Eldritch Storm, and Confuse or Entangle are often vastly more useful than simply using Eldritch Bolt. Correctly loaded out, the Farseer is capable of bringing quite a bit to the table, and from surprising angles, making her a rather unique choice. When played well, she is easily the strongest character in Last Stand, but this takes a level of care and patience that not many are willing to exhibit.

==Armor==
*'''Farseer Armor''' - ''Default''
**Armor Rating: 16
***Default Armor. It fails at everything and should never be used.

*'''Armor of Vaul''' - ''Level 1''
**Armor Rating: 184
**Trait: Fearless (Immune to Suppression)
***This initial armor boasts absolutely gigantic defense for a caster, as well as the fearless trait - an incredibly powerful combination, to say the least. Right out the gate, the Farseer boasts very high survivability specifically because of this, and this armor remains useful for quite some time due to its heavy armor and Fearless trait.

*'''Rune Armor''' - ''Level 6''
**Armor Rating: 68
**+50 Energy
***This armor is more in-line with the Chaos Sorcerer's armors: Modest defense, but an ability specifically-designed to support a caster. In this case, one might immediately see the Rune Armor's ''vastly'' lower defense and immediately ignore it, but that does the armor a huge disservice; the Rune Armor gives a massive amount of secondary energy, and since the Farseer relies so heavily on her skills to do much of anything, this boon is absolutely gigantic and thusly not to be underestimated. It tends to lose its sparkle as the game goes on, however.

*'''Ghosthelm''' - ''Level 13''
**Armor Rating: 44
**+1 Energy Regeneration
***Like the Rune Armor, this lower-defense armor is easy to overlook - especially with access to another suit of armor on this list. On the other hand, +1 Energy Regeneration, for a character like the Farseer, is fucking huge. It dramatically improves her peformance and ability to stay in the fight by simple virtue of letting her cast far more often, and that's a particularly handy advantage to have, especially when one considers that it can be stacked with her other abilities for a veritable font of energy regeneration that lets her throw out spells in a barrage.

*'''Armor of Eldanesh''' - ''Level 18''
** Armor Rating: 132
** Ability: Psychic Shield (Raise a psychic shield which halves incoming damage and causes it to reduce Energy instead of Health.)
***Yet another overlooked armor, but this one has a few defenders owning to its heavy defense and access to Psychic Shield. Though often an avoided ability, the Armor of Eldanesh giving the Farseer a means to resist damage means that it makes a good survival option, especially if the Farseer gets overwhelmed. The drawback of course is that the Farseer is an immensely energy-reliant hero; burning off energy from her pool can leave you short of it in a bad situation.

*'''Mantle of Malan'tai''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Revive 75 Allies as the Eldar Farseer''
**Armor Rating: 165
**Trait: +0.5 Energy Regeneration
***This unlockable armor frequently is seen as the better version of the Ghosthelm armor, due to the fact that it has much heavier armor; On the other hand, however, the energy regen boost is only half as strong. Whilst at a glance, this means the Mantle of Malan'tai is much stronger, the energy regeneration rate boost available from the Ghosthelm is infinitely better for many builds. It is still a very effective armor, however, and one of the most commonly used. Curiously, it also has a hidden property not displayed on the item card, adding 10% to special attack chance for any melee weapon equipped, including the Laughing Stave for which it is otherwise always zero.

*'''Armor of [[Idranel]]''' - ''DLC''
**Armor Rating: 165
**+100 Health
**Trait: Unshakable (Immune to Knockdown), Foresight (All melee damage reduced by 50%)
***An almost bizarrely powerful armor that is undeniably the most-commonly-used, by simple virtue of its massive health boost and strong armor rating. Just as strong as the Mantle of Malan'tai defensively, the huge health buff it gives is what pushes it over; 100 extra health plus that level of armor means an incredible level of survivability, but when it has Unshakable as well, that's just outstanding. The Foresight buff is just icing on the cake- halving all melee damage makes the Farseer an extremely effective melee tank, and when paired with the Debilitating Witchblade only the most dangerous melee fighters will be able to hurt her in close combat. It bears mentioning that while this armor gives the Farseer incredibly strong ''upfront'' durability, she has no options to boost health ''regeneration'', so she can be worn down over a wave if she doesn't pace how she spends her health. Not even this armor allows her to stay in a blob for an entire wave like, say, a Space Marine with 7.0 regen. Perhaps more than any other Farseer armor, this one is the hardest to justify ''not'' using, since its advantages are truly massive. However, it carries absolutely no benefits towards her casting and has no active ability, as such it can be passed over for the specific benefits of other armors if desired. Or just because players don't want to pony up for it.

==Weapons==
*'''Witchblade''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.0 DPS
***Stereotypical default weapon that stereotypically sucks.

*'''Shuriken Pistol''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
***Bizarrely, the default pistol is just as effective as the other pistols in terms of damage output. Draw your own conclusions.

*'''Pistol of the Warseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Traits: Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged Damage), Swift (+25% Movement Speed)
***The Pistol of the Warseer's damage output is barely higher than the Shuriken Pistol (and even then that's due to Combat Expert), but the fact that it grants 2 of the most useful traits in the game make this one hell of an early game wargear. Do note, however, that it takes up an extremely contended-for slot; if you take the Pistol of the Warseer, the only damaging ability you get to take advantage of the Combat Expert trait is Eldritch Storm (which can actually be remarkably powerful with both the pistol and runes of war). On the other hand, Swift is amazingly useful, and stacks with the other speed boosts the Farseer can get, which massively increases survivability.

*'''Pistol of the Doomseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Eldritch Bolt (15 Energy, Fires a roiling blast of psychic energy at the target)
***Pistol of the Doomseer gives you your first legitimately good offensive spell, and indeed one of only three that the Farseer can use. It's actually remarkably cost-effective and fairly useful, though it needs Runes of War to get the most out of. If you're planning to go direct combat, Pistol of the Doomseer is a must.

*'''Witchblade of the Crone''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**20.0 DPS
***The Witchblade of the Crone has high DPS and.... That's literally it. Whilst it's brutally effective against softer targets, it lacks armor piercing and isn't anywhere near as good against tougher foes unless heavily bolstered by Combat Expert/Mastery. If you're planning to engage in close-combat, consider taking this along; otherwise, shelve it for the other melee weapons.

*'''Singing Spear''' - ''Level 4''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**19.0 DPS
**Traits: Unshakable (Immune to knockback)
***The singing spear looks abhorrently bad on paper: 2 hands for a weapon barely as good as the Witchblade of the Crone and with a trait easily-accessible from a piece of wargear that renders it largely irrelevant. So, worst weapon for the Farseer, right? Wrong. Singing Spear does damage in bigger chunks than the Witchblade of the Crone, has better reach, and a higher special attack rating, all in all resulting in better damage overall unless the Witchblade's paired with the Pistol of the Warseer. The Singing Spear is thus much better than it initially appears, and is especially good when stacked with the Armor of Vaul.

*'''Witchblade of Isha''' - ''Level 9''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**10.2 DPS
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration, +25 Energy
***It may be weaker than the Witchblade of the Crone, but this wasn't taken for its damage (which is still acceptable). Instead, you take it for the increased energy regen and capacity, all of which are great things for any caster. The ability to fire off another Confuse or Eldritch Bolt is always beneficial, and this weapon pays for itself in short order specifically because of this.

*'''Pistol of the Skyseer''' - ''Level 14''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Levitation Field (15 Energy, lifts enemies in the air and then tosses around for knockback damage)
***This Pistol has a hilariously useful ability that enables the Farseer to quickly deal with enemies that cluster up, throwing them all over the place thereafter. The damage tends to vary wildly, from doing barely any whatsoever to doing quite a bit if enemies collide with one another during the throw. The primary benefit isn't the damage, however; it's disabling enemies and launching them away from you. This even works on doppelgangers, but it will fail against any that happen to have the Unshakable Trait.

*'''Warp Spear''' - ''Level 19''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**12.2 DPS
**Ability: Warp Pull (5 Energy, pulls enemies toward the Farseer)
**Trait: Pitiless (Farseer has a 10% chance to cause 200 bonus damage on striking)
***A utility weapon through and through, whose mediocre DPS hides its real potential. On its own, its damage is pretty bad considering it eschews the use of a pistol, but it has a 1-in-10 chance of triggering a massive damage strike that is capable of one-shotting most targets, making it comparable to (but weaker than) the Chaos Sorcerer's Staff of Fate. The Warp Spear compensates, however, by coming with Warp Pull, which is an amazing control ability. You can drag enemies into close combat, pull them away from vulnerable allies, or pull them into the firing arc of teammates. The numerous applications of the Warp Spear make it surprisingly useful, so don't underestimate it!

*'''Laughing Stave''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Earn a Score Multiplier of 275 as the Farseer''
**Two-handed Ranged Weapon
**11.1 DPS
**Traits: Knockback (Enemies hit by this weapon will be knocked back), Laughing Runes (-25% Energy Cost), Unshakable (Immune to Knockback)
***There are three reasons to take the laughing stave, and any of them, on their own, are good reasons, but when together, they turn this weapon into an oft-unappreciated powerhouse. First, it's the only exclusively ranged weapon the Farseer gets, and it's a damned good one, offering a more-than-4-fold damage increase over the Shuriken Pistols. Second, it has knockback, which means it's actually very good for keeping the Farseer out of trouble - both in close-combat, and from afar. But it's the last advantage it has that's the most glaring: a 25% reduction in energy costs means that literally ''everything'' you cast is orders of magnitude easier to use - even the likes of Eldritch Storm will only cost 37 energy under this upgrade, allowing your average energy-focused Farseer to cast it twice with a full energy bar. It bolsters all your other abilities, too, making it a solid choice that should used for a great many builds. Like all Staves, it's also a melee weapon; this one packs a reasonable punch (roughly the same as the Witchblade of the Crone, but without special attacks and a slower swing speed but meatier damage output), but its major advantage is its ranged punch, knockdown, and cost reductions. It does, however, also give you Unshakable, which is brings this weapon from "great" to "fucking amazing."

*'''Debilitating Witchblade''' - ''DLC''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.1 DPS
**Traits: Sap (Reduces the target's melee damage by 50% for 5 seconds; note that Sap only applies to the individual model hit by the Farseer's attack), Energy Leech (Restores 10 Energy when this weapon kills an enemy)
*** The Debilitating Witchblade is a mixed blessing. Sap can allow the Farseer to stand toe-to-toe against foes with powerful melee attacks, and Energy Leech occasionally supplements the Farseer's energy regeneration. Unfortunately, Sap only affects the specific model the Farseer attacks (rather than affecting a whole squad a-la the Captain's Lightning Claws), and Energy Leech ''requires that the enemy be killed by the Debilitating Witchblade itself'' rather than any of the Farseer's abilities. That's right: this means that if you're using Runes of Wrath and the second strike kills an enemy, it won't trigger Energy Leech. The Debilitating Witchblade ''can'' be useful in a purely supporting role, but rarely can it be considered a good general-purpose weapon.

==Accessories==
*'''Runes of Warding''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Ward (25 Energy, grants ally temporary invulnerability)
***This is a lifesaver for the Farseer, as this can be the difference between saving your ally or dying and failing a run. Just beware when fighting your Wave 16 doppelganger as the enemy will use this with impunity against you. Especially if they're going for that Tau Efficiency achievement.

*'''Runes of Harlequin''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Confuse (15 Energy, confuses the target, forcing it to attack anything nearby for a while.)
***This is more situational than it looks, as if you use it at the wrong time, this will sic the squad right back at you, which may or [[Not as Planned|may not be what you intended]]. On the other hand, the doppelganger can't use it and it can interrupt their resurrection attempts, making it particularly powerful on the Bloodied Colosseum map. And, unlike Veil of Tears, with Confuse you can choose your target, making it extremely good against big bosses (do you remember Araghast??) or when you want to target a specific unit instead of going all random.
***Confuse is generally best used on fast-moving melee units (which can lock ranged units in melee) or on units with a whole lot of [[Dakka|dakka]]
***Confuse is the only way to prevent Unshakeable dopplegangers from resurrecting each other

*'''Runes of Fleetness''' - ''Level 2''
**Ability: Fleet of Foot (5 Energy, grants the Farseer a speed boost at the cost of her damage output)
***If you really want to work support as a Farseer, then this will be your go-to tool for making those quick saves. Take care though, as this is not a triggered ability, but a temporary one.

*'''Runes of War''' - ''Level 3''
**Traits: Combat Master (+40% Melee and Ranged Damage)
***If you play a combat Farseer, then this will be an auto-include, as it will make you much more of a threat than everyone would expect.

*'''Runes of Deception''' - ''Level 7''
**Ability: Conceal (20 Energy, grants invisibility to allies within the field)
***This is a bit more situational than other abilities, as this won't make much difference when you're being chased by swarms or Banshees, but it can let you make a [[Cyrus]]-style stealth save. Become almost broken in conjunction with runes of the warp.

*'''Runes of Fortune''' - ''Level 8''
**Ability: Fortune (10 Energy, reduces all incoming damage by 50%)
*** Fortune complements almost any team composition by providing significant damage mitigation. With the proper application of Fortune, a properly built melee Captain or Hive Tyrant will be able to weather entire waves, and ranged characters like the Lord General or Tau Commander will find their longevity under fire significantly extended, allowing them to spend more time doing what they do best. Fortune stacks multiplicatively with other damage reduction methods and even with itself (a character with two instances of Fortune cast on them will take 75% reduced damage). Fortune's low energy cost and long duration allow it to compare favorably with Ward (which is costlier, has a longer cooldown, and does not last as long). Fortune also complements health regeneration: high levels of damage mitigation mean that a little health regen goes a long way.

*'''Runes of Wrath''' - ''Level 10''
**Trait: Second Strike (Delayed psychic strikes follow each time the Farseer attacks in melee)
***Stack with the Runes of War to make your Farseer a bunch more deadly as and assault character. This rune benefits weaker melee weapons like the Witchblade of Isha or the Debilitating Witchblade that don't do a lot of damage on their own: the second strike ignores armor and adds a considerable amount of raw damage per hit.

*'''Runes of the Warp''' - ''Level 11''
**Ability: Group Teleport (15 Energy, teleport all nearby allies to a targeted location)
***Where a Sorcerer would teleport to get into combat, you have a teleport to get away from the ruckus. This can definitely help make shenanigans happen, especially against slower enemies or shooty prey. It can also be useful in getting near a fallen ally and rescuing them. Or you could more simply teleport the fallen body away from danger and then safely revive him, since this ability can teleport fallen team mates.
****A word of caution on Bloodied Coliseum: The enemy Farseer goes absolutely apeshit with this ability and WILL abuse it at the worst possible moments. Players on wave 16 and 20 may find themselves receiving a surprise gang-bang when the Farseer dumps Araghast and half a dozen Bloodletters your head while trying to kite enemies or revive team mates.

*'''Runes of Vigour''' - ''Level 12''
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration
***This is not a useful thing, as it takes up a slot better used for neater powers.

*'''Runes of Evasion''' - ''Level 16''
**Traits: Evasive (All attacks made at the Farseer have a 30% chance of missing)
***Whatever your role, you can never go wrong with some extra evasion to go along with it. Unless you're at Bloodied Coliseum, where your doppelganger will be just as annoying to kill.

*'''Runes of the Spider''' - ''Level 17''
**Ability: Entangle (15 Energy, ensnares an enemy, making them unable to move, but able to attack)
***This is a lifesaver when dealing with Banshees or other agile targets, as they will hound your ass at every opportunity. This can give your team the time it needs to wipe them out.

==Commander Items==
*'''Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might''' - ''Level 5''
**Ability: Eldritch Storm (50 Energy, Unleash a large psychic storm, disrupting and damaging enemies in a large radius. While channeling this powerful spell, the caster will be immune to damage but not regenerate energy)
***Curiously, whilst most classes get their big ol' nuke spell at the end of their careers, the Farseer and Mekboy get theirs early. The Farseer's is one of the weaker nukes; it immobilizes her during it, has a strange hitbox, and its damage buildup can be finicky. On the other hand, it's still a nuke spell and absolutely awesome at killing mooks in a substantial radius... Or at softening up harder enemies for further assaults. Bear in mind its high energy costs and weaknesses, and it's absolutely devastating. By rapidly right clicking as you cast the storm you should be able to move and attack regain energy and keep the invulnerability while the storm kills stuff. So with some decent energy regain or reduction you could nearly get the cost back by the time it's off cooldown and spam it. Or hitting stop right after cast is more effective.

*'''Spirit Stone of Illusion''' - ''Level 15''
**Ability: Veil of Tears (50 Energy, Confuses half the enemies on screen and makes them attack the nearest target regardless of alliance)
***This mass confuse spell is no less finicky than the damage on Eldritch Storm, and it's just as expensive, to boot, but it's potentially even more game-changing. The pandemonium it can cause can completely turn the tide of a fight, provided the thing the enemies target isn't you - just bear in mind that the enemies WILL if you're the closest thing in range. Used properly, it can quickly deal with swarms of foes.

*'''Spirit Stone of Vigour''' - ''Level 20''
**Traits: Invigorating Leadership (+0.3 Energy Regeneration for all nearby allies)
***Bizarrely, this is one of the weakest commander items, giving a tiny energy regeneration boost. It's of barely any use to the Farseer on her own, precludes the use of both Eldritch Storm and Veil of Tears, and boasting the same energy regen boost as another piece of wargear that's often best not taken. Unlike that one though, there are some benefits to the Stone of Vigour that make it worth using. For one, it removes the ability of the Wave 16/20 doppelganger to use your abilities against you. For another, it gives the energy boost to nearby teammates as well, which means this can actually be fairly useful to back up the likes of the Lord General or Chaos Sorcerer.

==Progression==

==Tactics and Strategy==
*'''On Achievements:'''
**''Grab Me the Paddles'' (Which unlocks the Mantle of Malan'Tai) is accomplished by reviving allies. If you use the Pistol of the Warseer and/or Runes of Swiftness or Runes of the Warp, this is a rather easy task as you'll be able to extricate yourself from the situation if it gets too hectic.
**''Advanced Multiplication'' (Which unlocks the Laughing Stave) requires both control over the Power Nodes and the ability to manage your allies. Since you need a multiplier of 275, you'll need to kill enemies quickly, protect your allies, and control the nodes just long enough to get that high.

== Builds ==
'''BUILD 1 - DECEIVER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' The most Eldar build ever, the idea of this build is to keep yourself out of the fight while you make the enemy do all the dirty work (sounds familiar to you? Yeah, you get the idea), keep casting Confuse on your enemies so they kill each other and Fleet of Foot whenever you see they are closing on to you (you are unshakable by the way, and the witchblade of Isha gives you a lot of energy), prioritize larger targets whenever you can as they can one-hit other units, watch how wraithlords, carnifexes, Juggernauts, dreads and dreffs decimate their own armies. Oh, and remember wave 16 at Bloodied Colosseum? If you see a clone trying to resurrect another clone cast confuse, this will disrupt him, and don't worry about your clone SHE CANT CAST CONFUSE.

'''BUILD 2 - RESURRECTER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Warding, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne

'''Explanation:''' A variant of the DECEIVER-RUNNER, the RESURRECTER is built to keep your allies alive, you just stay out of the fight as much as possible as you need yourself alive, then, everytime you see an allied die run to him with Fleet of Foot, cast yourself Ward and resurrect him, tell your allies to fight, no matter if they are going to die again, as long as you stay alive you can resurrect them, while a bit tedious this strategy is great whenever you end in a team of newcomers or low hp nukers, as in the long run they will decimate the wave.
Leads to annoyed obsolesce when wit self reviving Necron Overlord tanks.

'''BUILD 3 - ...AND LET THE MON-KEIGH TAKE CARE OF LARGE GROUPS'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Fortune, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Explanation:''' At first glance, this build seems little different than the others, but it provides a number of advantages. Fortune reduces all damage taken by the target by 50%; when you cast Fortune on yourself, your damage reduction approaches 90% (88.5%, to be exact). Fortune is also much cheaper and easier to spam than Ward, and you can maintain it on multiple targets at once, allowing you to keep your team in the fight rather than simply resurrecting them when they fall. Runes of Wrath gives you excellent single-target damage (against large groups of weak models, try attacking one model, moving away, and letting the second strike do its work before moving in again), and the combination of the Witchblade of Isha and the Spirit Stone of Vigor means that you generally have enough energy to cast Confuse when necessary and Fortune at all times. This build has two weaknesses: it cannot deal with large groups of mobs on its own; and it has no real way to recover lost health without support.

'''BUILD 4 - SHADOWSEER'''

'''Min Level:''' 15

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Deception, Runes of the Warp, Spirit Stone of Illusion.

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build really shines on Bloodied Colosseum, since the enemies will need more time to reach you after you teleport away, giving you and your allies a lot of times to get some breath, and especially against your clone, that can't use Veil of Tears nor Confuse against you or your allies, but can also be devastating on anvil of khorne with the right teammates. The build itself is all about supporting your allies and heavily debuffing your enemies: if using it correctly, you should never die AND you should be the one reviving your fallen comrades every time without problems, turning your enemies against each other and keeping yourself and your allies safe through invisibility and teleportation. the Laughing Stave also let you knock back enemies coming at you, while letting you spam a lot more spells than you could without it, while the mantle of Malan'tai keep you reasonably safe while significantly boosting your energy regen. You prefer this to the Ghosthelm for a simple reason: you can already buy enough time with the Teleport/Invisibility combo to regen more than enough energy, and in the later waves the Ghosthelm means almost certain death from a single mistake. You can't die, ever, because you are the one keeping your team alive! On the offense, you should obviously use Veil of Tears against bigger waves and confusion against powerful, single opponents. This, combined with teleport, effectively let your team pick his fight, instead of trying to confront an entire wave on their own, and can result extremely powerful with strong ranged heroes, like the tau commander or the Lord General (especially with rocket run!). This build will not gives you lot of kills, but it will let you influence the battle more than any other hero could ever hope to, effectively turning you into the key-man to achieve the win, especially in bloodied colosseum.
*Fun fact: never forget that your teleportation can also teleport fallen comrades, making it extremely powerfull as an escaping tool: teleport near the fallen ally, immediately teleport away, then cast invisibility and revive your mate. This will not only gives yourself some time to regenerate the energy consumed, but also him the time to regenerate health and be ready when the fight will resume.

'''BUILD 5 - AUTARCH'''

'''Min Level:''' 20 (19 with Stone of Eldritch Might)

'''Gear you need:''' Warp Spear, Armor of Idranel, Runes of War, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fortune, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build is pretty straight-forward, making you what essentialy you shouldn't be: a melee monster! Ok, not really a monster, but significantly better than you could normally hope for. Warp Spear has some good damage (not optimal), good special attack rating, an area of effect special attack and the 1 in a 10 chance to really put the hurt on your enemies. But you don't take it for this, not only, at least: you take it for warp pull. This ability let you control your enemies with ease, making you able to better choose your fights while keeping yourself safe. Runes of Evasion, coupled with the Armour of Idranel, makes you almost invulnerable in close combat, and fortune boosts your survivability further, making you, paradoxically, one of the better tanks in the game, expecially in melee! Spirit Stone of Vigor and Runes of War are almost necessary to conclude the build: the first will give you the ability to spam fortune (you should never have it down) and warp pull, significantly increasing your ability to stay in the fight, while the second makes your weak melee attacks a lot more powerfull.
*You could also substitute the Stone of Vigor with the Stone of Eldritch Might, but while this would gives you some really powerfull AoE damage, it would also significantly decrease your capability to stay alive between Eldritch Storm.

'''BUILD 6 - Make Love not War-Hammer'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Armor of Idranel, Runes of Fortune, Runes of the Warp, Runes of Vigor, Spirit Stone of Illusion

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This is a 100 percent support build where you complete focus is on your teammates and keeping them protected so they can do the most damage possible and as such it is recommended against using this with low level teammates because, typically their damage just isn't quite high enough to get the job done. Since you are rocking Idranels' robes you can actually take a bit of a beating without having to worry about being squished which allows you to spend even more time focusing on your bros. In fact if you are teammates with a couple squishies you can do a fair amount of tanking for them. So the basis of this build is you spam fortune on EVERYTHING. Because of it's long duration and short cool down Fortune can be applied on up to 4 things at a time or double stacked for additional protection and you just continue the cycle as it wears off your allies. That a Tau shield drone hanging out over there? FORTUNE. Captain brought his Dreadnaught? FORTUNE. Oh no that Lord General is getting swarmed by melee! DOUBLE FORTUNE. With the cost reduction from the Laughing Stave and Runes of Vigor you should always have enough to cast it at least a couple times even after using the Spirit Stone of Illusion. Of course everyone knows Runes of the warp are great for defense and reviving downed teammates but since you are rocking some decent armor you can actually use it offensively as well. How does that work you ask? Its great for moving the less mobile damage dealers to where they need to be, your enemies faces. It does take a bit of teamwork but its especially good with those slow ass Hive Tyrants rocking poison cysts. With the Laughing Stave you are much more free when using Spirit stone of Illusion and it is super great at taking pressure off your team if you are getting overwhelmed and for taking one of your clones out of the situation on rounds 16 and 20 of BC but remember your main focus is Fortune. A note on doing damage. You're not. Really. Aside from intercepting an occasional melee unit for a ranged buddy any stuff you kill is incidental and that's ok because you dont get anything for getting a high kill count except for a big e-peen and a Tau complex. With that said the first thing you should do at the beginning of the match is switch to a melee stance. That's right your silly Laughing Stave IS BETTER IN MELEE! Just check for yourself. 26 damage per melee hit vs 20 for the ranged so you swing faster, have a 100 percent hit ration and a small chance to do a special attack in melee that you don't get in from ranged attacks. So aside from using the ranged knock back ability to prevent a clone from reviving you're going to want to be up close and personal and just be happy you can do some ranged damage if that one last guy is half way across the map.

'''BUILD 7 - offense'''

'''Min Level:''' 10

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of Warding, Runes of the War, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:'''

Aoe and high single target damage. Wait til ranged blob sits still and then storm. Can one shot zoanthrope if time right. Ward and melee when necessary. Can tank or support. Usually take a second of damage in between shields so better to support late if can get behind teammate and not aggro. Ward great for tanking clones and landraider. Run up and melee ranged clones or predators 16/20 is legit strategy. Easy if teammates can deal followup damage.

{{Template:LastStand-Heroes}}
[[Category:Eldar]]

Last Stand - Farseer

2018-07-25T13:58:36Z

2001:BB6:505:D958:FD99:FDA3:216:1BB0: /* Builds */

The Farseer is the [[Last Stand]] Hero of the [[Eldar]].

==Overview==
The [[Eldar]] [[Farseer]] is, at once, a paradox - she is surprisingly durable and survivable, but she's ostensibly a support spellcaster first and foremost. The [[Farseer]], like all [[Eldar]], is deceptive, a heroine that is at once extremely powerful and surprisingly ubiquitous. The Farseer is a hero who, unlike other spellcasters (such as the [[Last Stand - Chaos Sorcerer|Chaos Sorcerer]]) focuses primarily upon disrupting enemies, assisting allies, and debuffing enemies. The Farseer is quite capable of being used as an offensive caster as well, getting access to her strongest offensive spells surprisingly early in her career, ergo making her surprisingly friendly towards newcomers to last stand, though raw offense is not the Farseer's strongest suit by any stretch. The Farseer easily makes herself useful in a wide array of different playstyles, from a dedicated defensive supporter and medic to battlefield control. Surprisingly high defense and viable offense give her quite a bit of tactical viability with damned near any loadout as well, a rarity for any character in [[Last Stand]]. Indeed, no character in Last Stand can really multi-task on one loadout quite so well as the Farseer - she's never at a loss for strategic options and this is true for much of her career, making her in many ways the exact opposite, progression-wise, of the [[Last Stand - Captain|Space Marine Captain]] and [[Last Stand - Captain|Imperial Guard Lord General]].

However, what the Farseer has in tactical viability and useful secondary options she loses in raw power. Her nuke spell, Eldritch Storm, is neither as powerful nor predictable as the other characters' biggest, and her lone damaging offensive spell is likewise nowhere near as effective as those of other casters. Even when fully kitted out, her melee and ranged firepower is weaker than that of other heroes, and she furthermore loses out in one of the most crippling aspects of Last Stand: Mobility. Other than packing on the Runes of Swiftness or Pistol of the Warseer, the only mobility booster she has is the Runes of the Warp, which is predominantly useful as an escape teleport or to save allies. This makes her extremely vulnerable to being mobbed, as, unlike the Hive Tyrant, who is similarly vulnerable, she lacks a dedicated crowd control maneuver (such as Toxic Cysts).

Another major problem she has is that per progression is ridiculously lopsided, with the overpowering majority of her useful wargear unlocked before she's halfway through her leveling. An additional problem is that, with almost every build, her clone on Bloodied Coliseum turns the fight into a complete cluster-fuck where your team has to deal with an unshakable fearless teleporting asshole who strategically makes teammates invulnerable. Probably the biggest issue with her is ''when'' players realize that she's infinitely better at control and support than offense; this is not an easy playstyle to adapt to and many Farseer players choose to focus entirely on offense with her, which whilst viable, is done better by the Mekboy and Chaos Sorcerer.

Make no mistake, however: The Farseer is a powerful force, especially if kitted out well. She excels at manipulating battlefield conditions, turning enemies on one another, and making enemies easier to kill. It's important to note that what are (arguably) her strongest abilities are all extremely indirect - though its effect is far simpler, Veil of Tears can potentially accomplish more for a team than Eldritch Storm, and Confuse or Entangle are often vastly more useful than simply using Eldritch Bolt. Correctly loaded out, the Farseer is capable of bringing quite a bit to the table, and from surprising angles, making her a rather unique choice. When played well, she is easily the strongest character in Last Stand, but this takes a level of care and patience that not many are willing to exhibit.

==Armor==
*'''Farseer Armor''' - ''Default''
**Armor Rating: 16
***Default Armor. It fails at everything and should never be used.

*'''Armor of Vaul''' - ''Level 1''
**Armor Rating: 184
**Trait: Fearless (Immune to Suppression)
***This initial armor boasts absolutely gigantic defense for a caster, as well as the fearless trait - an incredibly powerful combination, to say the least. Right out the gate, the Farseer boasts very high survivability specifically because of this, and this armor remains useful for quite some time due to its heavy armor and Fearless trait.

*'''Rune Armor''' - ''Level 6''
**Armor Rating: 68
**+50 Energy
***This armor is more in-line with the Chaos Sorcerer's armors: Modest defense, but an ability specifically-designed to support a caster. In this case, one might immediately see the Rune Armor's ''vastly'' lower defense and immediately ignore it, but that does the armor a huge disservice; the Rune Armor gives a massive amount of secondary energy, and since the Farseer relies so heavily on her skills to do much of anything, this boon is absolutely gigantic and thusly not to be underestimated. It tends to lose its sparkle as the game goes on, however.

*'''Ghosthelm''' - ''Level 13''
**Armor Rating: 44
**+1 Energy Regeneration
***Like the Rune Armor, this lower-defense armor is easy to overlook - especially with access to another suit of armor on this list. On the other hand, +1 Energy Regeneration, for a character like the Farseer, is fucking huge. It dramatically improves her peformance and ability to stay in the fight by simple virtue of letting her cast far more often, and that's a particularly handy advantage to have, especially when one considers that it can be stacked with her other abilities for a veritable font of energy regeneration that lets her throw out spells in a barrage.

*'''Armor of Eldanesh''' - ''Level 18''
** Armor Rating: 132
** Ability: Psychic Shield (Raise a psychic shield which halves incoming damage and causes it to reduce Energy instead of Health.)
***Yet another overlooked armor, but this one has a few defenders owning to its heavy defense and access to Psychic Shield. Though often an avoided ability, the Armor of Eldanesh giving the Farseer a means to resist damage means that it makes a good survival option, especially if the Farseer gets overwhelmed. The drawback of course is that the Farseer is an immensely energy-reliant hero; burning off energy from her pool can leave you short of it in a bad situation.

*'''Mantle of Malan'tai''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Revive 75 Allies as the Eldar Farseer''
**Armor Rating: 165
**Trait: +0.5 Energy Regeneration
***This unlockable armor frequently is seen as the better version of the Ghosthelm armor, due to the fact that it has much heavier armor; On the other hand, however, the energy regen boost is only half as strong. Whilst at a glance, this means the Mantle of Malan'tai is much stronger, the energy regeneration rate boost available from the Ghosthelm is infinitely better for many builds. It is still a very effective armor, however, and one of the most commonly used. Curiously, it also has a hidden property not displayed on the item card, adding 10% to special attack chance for any melee weapon equipped, including the Laughing Stave for which it is otherwise always zero.

*'''Armor of [[Idranel]]''' - ''DLC''
**Armor Rating: 165
**+100 Health
**Trait: Unshakable (Immune to Knockdown), Foresight (All melee damage reduced by 50%)
***An almost bizarrely powerful armor that is undeniably the most-commonly-used, by simple virtue of its massive health boost and strong armor rating. Just as strong as the Mantle of Malan'tai defensively, the huge health buff it gives is what pushes it over; 100 extra health plus that level of armor means an incredible level of survivability, but when it has Unshakable as well, that's just outstanding. The Foresight buff is just icing on the cake- halving all melee damage makes the Farseer an extremely effective melee tank, and when paired with the Debilitating Witchblade only the most dangerous melee fighters will be able to hurt her in close combat. It bears mentioning that while this armor gives the Farseer incredibly strong ''upfront'' durability, she has no options to boost health ''regeneration'', so she can be worn down over a wave if she doesn't pace how she spends her health. Not even this armor allows her to stay in a blob for an entire wave like, say, a Space Marine with 7.0 regen. Perhaps more than any other Farseer armor, this one is the hardest to justify ''not'' using, since its advantages are truly massive. However, it carries absolutely no benefits towards her casting and has no active ability, as such it can be passed over for the specific benefits of other armors if desired. Or just because players don't want to pony up for it.

==Weapons==
*'''Witchblade''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.0 DPS
***Stereotypical default weapon that stereotypically sucks.

*'''Shuriken Pistol''' - ''Default''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
***Bizarrely, the default pistol is just as effective as the other pistols in terms of damage output. Draw your own conclusions.

*'''Pistol of the Warseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Traits: Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged Damage), Swift (+25% Movement Speed)
***The Pistol of the Warseer's damage output is barely higher than the Shuriken Pistol (and even then that's due to Combat Expert), but the fact that it grants 2 of the most useful traits in the game make this one hell of an early game wargear. Do note, however, that it takes up an extremely contended-for slot; if you take the Pistol of the Warseer, the only damaging ability you get to take advantage of the Combat Expert trait is Eldritch Storm (which can actually be remarkably powerful with both the pistol and runes of war). On the other hand, Swift is amazingly useful, and stacks with the other speed boosts the Farseer can get, which massively increases survivability.

*'''Pistol of the Doomseer''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Eldritch Bolt (15 Energy, Fires a roiling blast of psychic energy at the target)
***Pistol of the Doomseer gives you your first legitimately good offensive spell, and indeed one of only three that the Farseer can use. It's actually remarkably cost-effective and fairly useful, though it needs Runes of War to get the most out of. If you're planning to go direct combat, Pistol of the Doomseer is a must.

*'''Witchblade of the Crone''' - ''Level 1''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**20.0 DPS
***The Witchblade of the Crone has high DPS and.... That's literally it. Whilst it's brutally effective against softer targets, it lacks armor piercing and isn't anywhere near as good against tougher foes unless heavily bolstered by Combat Expert/Mastery. If you're planning to engage in close-combat, consider taking this along; otherwise, shelve it for the other melee weapons.

*'''Singing Spear''' - ''Level 4''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**19.0 DPS
**Traits: Unshakable (Immune to knockback)
***The singing spear looks abhorrently bad on paper: 2 hands for a weapon barely as good as the Witchblade of the Crone and with a trait easily-accessible from a piece of wargear that renders it largely irrelevant. So, worst weapon for the Farseer, right? Wrong. Singing Spear does damage in bigger chunks than the Witchblade of the Crone, has better reach, and a higher special attack rating, all in all resulting in better damage overall unless the Witchblade's paired with the Pistol of the Warseer. The Singing Spear is thus much better than it initially appears, and is especially good when stacked with the Armor of Vaul.

*'''Witchblade of Isha''' - ''Level 9''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**10.2 DPS
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration, +25 Energy
***It may be weaker than the Witchblade of the Crone, but this wasn't taken for its damage (which is still acceptable). Instead, you take it for the increased energy regen and capacity, all of which are great things for any caster. The ability to fire off another Confuse or Eldritch Bolt is always beneficial, and this weapon pays for itself in short order specifically because of this.

*'''Pistol of the Skyseer''' - ''Level 14''
**One-handed Ranged Weapon
**2.6 DPS
**Ability: Levitation Field (15 Energy, lifts enemies in the air and then tosses around for knockback damage)
***This Pistol has a hilariously useful ability that enables the Farseer to quickly deal with enemies that cluster up, throwing them all over the place thereafter. The damage tends to vary wildly, from doing barely any whatsoever to doing quite a bit if enemies collide with one another during the throw. The primary benefit isn't the damage, however; it's disabling enemies and launching them away from you. This even works on doppelgangers, but it will fail against any that happen to have the Unshakable Trait.

*'''Warp Spear''' - ''Level 19''
**Two-handed Melee Weapon
**12.2 DPS
**Ability: Warp Pull (5 Energy, pulls enemies toward the Farseer)
**Trait: Pitiless (Farseer has a 10% chance to cause 200 bonus damage on striking)
***A utility weapon through and through, whose mediocre DPS hides its real potential. On its own, its damage is pretty bad considering it eschews the use of a pistol, but it has a 1-in-10 chance of triggering a massive damage strike that is capable of one-shotting most targets, making it comparable to (but weaker than) the Chaos Sorcerer's Staff of Fate. The Warp Spear compensates, however, by coming with Warp Pull, which is an amazing control ability. You can drag enemies into close combat, pull them away from vulnerable allies, or pull them into the firing arc of teammates. The numerous applications of the Warp Spear make it surprisingly useful, so don't underestimate it!

*'''Laughing Stave''' - ''Achievement Unlock: Earn a Score Multiplier of 275 as the Farseer''
**Two-handed Ranged Weapon
**11.1 DPS
**Traits: Knockback (Enemies hit by this weapon will be knocked back), Laughing Runes (-25% Energy Cost), Unshakable (Immune to Knockback)
***There are three reasons to take the laughing stave, and any of them, on their own, are good reasons, but when together, they turn this weapon into an oft-unappreciated powerhouse. First, it's the only exclusively ranged weapon the Farseer gets, and it's a damned good one, offering a more-than-4-fold damage increase over the Shuriken Pistols. Second, it has knockback, which means it's actually very good for keeping the Farseer out of trouble - both in close-combat, and from afar. But it's the last advantage it has that's the most glaring: a 25% reduction in energy costs means that literally ''everything'' you cast is orders of magnitude easier to use - even the likes of Eldritch Storm will only cost 37 energy under this upgrade, allowing your average energy-focused Farseer to cast it twice with a full energy bar. It bolsters all your other abilities, too, making it a solid choice that should used for a great many builds. Like all Staves, it's also a melee weapon; this one packs a reasonable punch (roughly the same as the Witchblade of the Crone, but without special attacks and a slower swing speed but meatier damage output), but its major advantage is its ranged punch, knockdown, and cost reductions. It does, however, also give you Unshakable, which is brings this weapon from "great" to "fucking amazing."

*'''Debilitating Witchblade''' - ''DLC''
**One-handed Melee Weapon
**7.1 DPS
**Traits: Sap (Reduces the target's melee damage by 50% for 5 seconds; note that Sap only applies to the individual model hit by the Farseer's attack), Energy Leech (Restores 10 Energy when this weapon kills an enemy)
*** The Debilitating Witchblade is a mixed blessing. Sap can allow the Farseer to stand toe-to-toe against foes with powerful melee attacks, and Energy Leech occasionally supplements the Farseer's energy regeneration. Unfortunately, Sap only affects the specific model the Farseer attacks (rather than affecting a whole squad a-la the Captain's Lightning Claws), and Energy Leech ''requires that the enemy be killed by the Debilitating Witchblade itself'' rather than any of the Farseer's abilities. That's right: this means that if you're using Runes of Wrath and the second strike kills an enemy, it won't trigger Energy Leech. The Debilitating Witchblade ''can'' be useful in a purely supporting role, but rarely can it be considered a good general-purpose weapon.

==Accessories==
*'''Runes of Warding''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Ward (25 Energy, grants ally temporary invulnerability)
***This is a lifesaver for the Farseer, as this can be the difference between saving your ally or dying and failing a run. Just beware when fighting your Wave 16 doppelganger as the enemy will use this with impunity against you. Especially if they're going for that Tau Efficiency achievement.

*'''Runes of Harlequin''' - ''Level 1''
**Ability: Confuse (15 Energy, confuses the target, forcing it to attack anything nearby for a while.)
***This is more situational than it looks, as if you use it at the wrong time, this will sic the squad right back at you, which may or [[Not as Planned|may not be what you intended]]. On the other hand, the doppelganger can't use it and it can interrupt their resurrection attempts, making it particularly powerful on the Bloodied Colosseum map. And, unlike Veil of Tears, with Confuse you can choose your target, making it extremely good against big bosses (do you remember Araghast??) or when you want to target a specific unit instead of going all random.
***Confuse is generally best used on fast-moving melee units (which can lock ranged units in melee) or on units with a whole lot of [[Dakka|dakka]]
***Confuse is the only way to prevent Unshakeable dopplegangers from resurrecting each other

*'''Runes of Fleetness''' - ''Level 2''
**Ability: Fleet of Foot (5 Energy, grants the Farseer a speed boost at the cost of her damage output)
***If you really want to work support as a Farseer, then this will be your go-to tool for making those quick saves. Take care though, as this is not a triggered ability, but a temporary one.

*'''Runes of War''' - ''Level 3''
**Traits: Combat Master (+40% Melee and Ranged Damage)
***If you play a combat Farseer, then this will be an auto-include, as it will make you much more of a threat than everyone would expect.

*'''Runes of Deception''' - ''Level 7''
**Ability: Conceal (20 Energy, grants invisibility to allies within the field)
***This is a bit more situational than other abilities, as this won't make much difference when you're being chased by swarms or Banshees, but it can let you make a [[Cyrus]]-style stealth save. Become almost broken in conjunction with runes of the warp.

*'''Runes of Fortune''' - ''Level 8''
**Ability: Fortune (10 Energy, reduces all incoming damage by 50%)
*** Fortune complements almost any team composition by providing significant damage mitigation. With the proper application of Fortune, a properly built melee Captain or Hive Tyrant will be able to weather entire waves, and ranged characters like the Lord General or Tau Commander will find their longevity under fire significantly extended, allowing them to spend more time doing what they do best. Fortune stacks multiplicatively with other damage reduction methods and even with itself (a character with two instances of Fortune cast on them will take 75% reduced damage). Fortune's low energy cost and long duration allow it to compare favorably with Ward (which is costlier, has a longer cooldown, and does not last as long). Fortune also complements health regeneration: high levels of damage mitigation mean that a little health regen goes a long way.

*'''Runes of Wrath''' - ''Level 10''
**Trait: Second Strike (Delayed psychic strikes follow each time the Farseer attacks in melee)
***Stack with the Runes of War to make your Farseer a bunch more deadly as and assault character. This rune benefits weaker melee weapons like the Witchblade of Isha or the Debilitating Witchblade that don't do a lot of damage on their own: the second strike ignores armor and adds a considerable amount of raw damage per hit.

*'''Runes of the Warp''' - ''Level 11''
**Ability: Group Teleport (15 Energy, teleport all nearby allies to a targeted location)
***Where a Sorcerer would teleport to get into combat, you have a teleport to get away from the ruckus. This can definitely help make shenanigans happen, especially against slower enemies or shooty prey. It can also be useful in getting near a fallen ally and rescuing them. Or you could more simply teleport the fallen body away from danger and then safely revive him, since this ability can teleport fallen team mates.
****A word of caution on Bloodied Coliseum: The enemy Farseer goes absolutely apeshit with this ability and WILL abuse it at the worst possible moments. Players on wave 16 and 20 may find themselves receiving a surprise gang-bang when the Farseer dumps Araghast and half a dozen Bloodletters your head while trying to kite enemies or revive team mates.

*'''Runes of Vigour''' - ''Level 12''
**+0.3 Energy Regeneration
***This is not a useful thing, as it takes up a slot better used for neater powers.

*'''Runes of Evasion''' - ''Level 16''
**Traits: Evasive (All attacks made at the Farseer have a 30% chance of missing)
***Whatever your role, you can never go wrong with some extra evasion to go along with it. Unless you're at Bloodied Coliseum, where your doppelganger will be just as annoying to kill.

*'''Runes of the Spider''' - ''Level 17''
**Ability: Entangle (15 Energy, ensnares an enemy, making them unable to move, but able to attack)
***This is a lifesaver when dealing with Banshees or other agile targets, as they will hound your ass at every opportunity. This can give your team the time it needs to wipe them out.

==Commander Items==
*'''Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might''' - ''Level 5''
**Ability: Eldritch Storm (50 Energy, Unleash a large psychic storm, disrupting and damaging enemies in a large radius. While channeling this powerful spell, the caster will be immune to damage but not regenerate energy)
***Curiously, whilst most classes get their big ol' nuke spell at the end of their careers, the Farseer and Mekboy get theirs early. The Farseer's is one of the weaker nukes; it immobilizes her during it, has a strange hitbox, and its damage buildup can be finicky. On the other hand, it's still a nuke spell and absolutely awesome at killing mooks in a substantial radius... Or at softening up harder enemies for further assaults. Bear in mind its high energy costs and weaknesses, and it's absolutely devastating. By rapidly right clicking as you cast the storm you should be able to move and attack regain energy and keep the invulnerability while the storm kills stuff. So with some decent energy regain or reduction you could nearly get the cost back by the time it's off cooldown and spam it. Or hitting stop right after cast is more effective.

*'''Spirit Stone of Illusion''' - ''Level 15''
**Ability: Veil of Tears (50 Energy, Confuses half the enemies on screen and makes them attack the nearest target regardless of alliance)
***This mass confuse spell is no less finicky than the damage on Eldritch Storm, and it's just as expensive, to boot, but it's potentially even more game-changing. The pandemonium it can cause can completely turn the tide of a fight, provided the thing the enemies target isn't you - just bear in mind that the enemies WILL if you're the closest thing in range. Used properly, it can quickly deal with swarms of foes.

*'''Spirit Stone of Vigour''' - ''Level 20''
**Traits: Invigorating Leadership (+0.3 Energy Regeneration for all nearby allies)
***Bizarrely, this is one of the weakest commander items, giving a tiny energy regeneration boost. It's of barely any use to the Farseer on her own, precludes the use of both Eldritch Storm and Veil of Tears, and boasting the same energy regen boost as another piece of wargear that's often best not taken. Unlike that one though, there are some benefits to the Stone of Vigour that make it worth using. For one, it removes the ability of the Wave 16/20 doppelganger to use your abilities against you. For another, it gives the energy boost to nearby teammates as well, which means this can actually be fairly useful to back up the likes of the Lord General or Chaos Sorcerer.

==Progression==

==Tactics and Strategy==
*'''On Achievements:'''
**''Grab Me the Paddles'' (Which unlocks the Mantle of Malan'Tai) is accomplished by reviving allies. If you use the Pistol of the Warseer and/or Runes of Swiftness or Runes of the Warp, this is a rather easy task as you'll be able to extricate yourself from the situation if it gets too hectic.
**''Advanced Multiplication'' (Which unlocks the Laughing Stave) requires both control over the Power Nodes and the ability to manage your allies. Since you need a multiplier of 275, you'll need to kill enemies quickly, protect your allies, and control the nodes just long enough to get that high.

== Builds ==
'''BUILD 1 - DECEIVER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' The most Eldar build ever, the idea of this build is to keep yourself out of the fight while you make the enemy do all the dirty work (sounds familiar to you? Yeah, you get the idea), keep casting Confuse on your enemies so they kill each other and Fleet of Foot whenever you see they are closing on to you (you are unshakable by the way, and the witchblade of Isha gives you a lot of energy), prioritize larger targets whenever you can as they can one-hit other units, watch how wraithlords, carnifexes, Juggernauts, dreads and dreffs decimate their own armies. Oh, and remember wave 16 at Bloodied Colosseum? If you see a clone trying to resurrect another clone cast confuse, this will disrupt him, and don't worry about your clone SHE CANT CAST CONFUSE.

'''BUILD 2 - RESURRECTER-RUNNER'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Warding, Runes of Fleetness, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne

'''Explanation:''' A variant of the DECEIVER-RUNNER, the RESURRECTER is built to keep your allies alive, you just stay out of the fight as much as possible as you need yourself alive, then, everytime you see an allied die run to him with Fleet of Foot, cast yourself Ward and resurrect him, tell your allies to fight, no matter if they are going to die again, as long as you stay alive you can resurrect them, while a bit tedious this strategy is great whenever you end in a team of newcomers or low hp nukers, as in the long run they will decimate the wave.
Leads to annoyed obsolesce when wit self reviving Terran tanks.

'''BUILD 3 - ...AND LET THE MON-KEIGH TAKE CARE OF LARGE GROUPS'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Pistol of the Warseer, Witchblade of Isha, Armor of Idranel, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Fortune, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Explanation:''' At first glance, this build seems little different than the others, but it provides a number of advantages. Fortune reduces all damage taken by the target by 50%; when you cast Fortune on yourself, your damage reduction approaches 90% (88.5%, to be exact). Fortune is also much cheaper and easier to spam than Ward, and you can maintain it on multiple targets at once, allowing you to keep your team in the fight rather than simply resurrecting them when they fall. Runes of Wrath gives you excellent single-target damage (against large groups of weak models, try attacking one model, moving away, and letting the second strike do its work before moving in again), and the combination of the Witchblade of Isha and the Spirit Stone of Vigor means that you generally have enough energy to cast Confuse when necessary and Fortune at all times. This build has two weaknesses: it cannot deal with large groups of mobs on its own; and it has no real way to recover lost health without support.

'''BUILD 4 - SHADOWSEER'''

'''Min Level:''' 15

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of the Harlequin, Runes of Deception, Runes of the Warp, Spirit Stone of Illusion.

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build really shines on Bloodied Colosseum, since the enemies will need more time to reach you after you teleport away, giving you and your allies a lot of times to get some breath, and especially against your clone, that can't use Veil of Tears nor Confuse against you or your allies, but can also be devastating on anvil of khorne with the right teammates. The build itself is all about supporting your allies and heavily debuffing your enemies: if using it correctly, you should never die AND you should be the one reviving your fallen comrades every time without problems, turning your enemies against each other and keeping yourself and your allies safe through invisibility and teleportation. the Laughing Stave also let you knock back enemies coming at you, while letting you spam a lot more spells than you could without it, while the mantle of Malan'tai keep you reasonably safe while significantly boosting your energy regen. You prefer this to the Ghosthelm for a simple reason: you can already buy enough time with the Teleport/Invisibility combo to regen more than enough energy, and in the later waves the Ghosthelm means almost certain death from a single mistake. You can't die, ever, because you are the one keeping your team alive! On the offense, you should obviously use Veil of Tears against bigger waves and confusion against powerful, single opponents. This, combined with teleport, effectively let your team pick his fight, instead of trying to confront an entire wave on their own, and can result extremely powerful with strong ranged heroes, like the tau commander or the Lord General (especially with rocket run!). This build will not gives you lot of kills, but it will let you influence the battle more than any other hero could ever hope to, effectively turning you into the key-man to achieve the win, especially in bloodied colosseum.
*Fun fact: never forget that your teleportation can also teleport fallen comrades, making it extremely powerfull as an escaping tool: teleport near the fallen ally, immediately teleport away, then cast invisibility and revive your mate. This will not only gives yourself some time to regenerate the energy consumed, but also him the time to regenerate health and be ready when the fight will resume.

'''BUILD 5 - AUTARCH'''

'''Min Level:''' 20 (19 with Stone of Eldritch Might)

'''Gear you need:''' Warp Spear, Armor of Idranel, Runes of War, Runes of Evasion, Runes of Fortune, Spirit Stone of Vigor

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This build is pretty straight-forward, making you what essentialy you shouldn't be: a melee monster! Ok, not really a monster, but significantly better than you could normally hope for. Warp Spear has some good damage (not optimal), good special attack rating, an area of effect special attack and the 1 in a 10 chance to really put the hurt on your enemies. But you don't take it for this, not only, at least: you take it for warp pull. This ability let you control your enemies with ease, making you able to better choose your fights while keeping yourself safe. Runes of Evasion, coupled with the Armour of Idranel, makes you almost invulnerable in close combat, and fortune boosts your survivability further, making you, paradoxically, one of the better tanks in the game, expecially in melee! Spirit Stone of Vigor and Runes of War are almost necessary to conclude the build: the first will give you the ability to spam fortune (you should never have it down) and warp pull, significantly increasing your ability to stay in the fight, while the second makes your weak melee attacks a lot more powerfull.
*You could also substitute the Stone of Vigor with the Stone of Eldritch Might, but while this would gives you some really powerfull AoE damage, it would also significantly decrease your capability to stay alive between Eldritch Storm.

'''BUILD 6 - Make Love not War-Hammer'''

'''Min Level:''' 20

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Armor of Idranel, Runes of Fortune, Runes of the Warp, Runes of Vigor, Spirit Stone of Illusion

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:''' This is a 100 percent support build where you complete focus is on your teammates and keeping them protected so they can do the most damage possible and as such it is recommended against using this with low level teammates because, typically their damage just isn't quite high enough to get the job done. Since you are rocking Idranels' robes you can actually take a bit of a beating without having to worry about being squished which allows you to spend even more time focusing on your bros. In fact if you are teammates with a couple squishies you can do a fair amount of tanking for them. So the basis of this build is you spam fortune on EVERYTHING. Because of it's long duration and short cool down Fortune can be applied on up to 4 things at a time or double stacked for additional protection and you just continue the cycle as it wears off your allies. That a Tau shield drone hanging out over there? FORTUNE. Captain brought his Dreadnaught? FORTUNE. Oh no that Lord General is getting swarmed by melee! DOUBLE FORTUNE. With the cost reduction from the Laughing Stave and Runes of Vigor you should always have enough to cast it at least a couple times even after using the Spirit Stone of Illusion. Of course everyone knows Runes of the warp are great for defense and reviving downed teammates but since you are rocking some decent armor you can actually use it offensively as well. How does that work you ask? Its great for moving the less mobile damage dealers to where they need to be, your enemies faces. It does take a bit of teamwork but its especially good with those slow ass Hive Tyrants rocking poison cysts. With the Laughing Stave you are much more free when using Spirit stone of Illusion and it is super great at taking pressure off your team if you are getting overwhelmed and for taking one of your clones out of the situation on rounds 16 and 20 of BC but remember your main focus is Fortune. A note on doing damage. You're not. Really. Aside from intercepting an occasional melee unit for a ranged buddy any stuff you kill is incidental and that's ok because you dont get anything for getting a high kill count except for a big e-peen and a Tau complex. With that said the first thing you should do at the beginning of the match is switch to a melee stance. That's right your silly Laughing Stave IS BETTER IN MELEE! Just check for yourself. 26 damage per melee hit vs 20 for the ranged so you swing faster, have a 100 percent hit ration and a small chance to do a special attack in melee that you don't get in from ranged attacks. So aside from using the ranged knock back ability to prevent a clone from reviving you're going to want to be up close and personal and just be happy you can do some ranged damage if that one last guy is half way across the map.

'''BUILD 7 - offense'''

'''Min Level:''' 10

'''Gear you need:''' Laughing Stave, Mantle of Malan'tai, Runes of Warding, Runes of the War, Runes of Wrath, Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might

'''Maps:''' Anvil of Khorne, Bloodied Colosseum

'''Explanation:'''

Aoe and high single target damage. Wait til ranged blob sits still and then storm. Can one shot zoanthrope if time right. Ward and melee when necessary. Can tank or support. Usually take a second of damage in between shields so better to support late if can get behind teammate and not aggro. Ward great for tanking clones and landraider. Run up and melee ranged clones or predators 16/20 is legit strategy. Easy if teammates can deal followup damage.

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[[Category:Eldar]]