Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Dark Elves (section)

===Magic===
Dark Elf Sorceress have access to all 8 lores and their specific Lore, Dark Magic.  While every lore has its use, some are particularly good.  These are; 

* Life: Cheesy as it is in a Dark Elf army, this Lore could only be more awesome if it shat rainbows and was on fire. Throne of Vines lets you ignore all miscasts from Life wizards on a 2+ (this includes a miscast from casting ToV itself, so go for broke) and beefs up the rest of your spells, Regrowth brings back dead models, Flesh to Stone will make your T3 Elves less fragile (especially good for Witch Elves), Shield of Thorns is a welcome buff, and The Dwellers Below makes all models in a targeted unit make a Strength test or die with no saves allowed (perfect to get the drop on the [[High Elves|Dark Elves wussy cousins]]). And every time you successfully cast, you heal a wound, which can be on any model within 12". Seriously, take this Lore, and take it for the highest-level wizard you have.  
 
* Metal: A good choice, it really comes into its own against enemies with high armor values (Warriors of Chaos, Bretonnians and so on). Glittering Scales gives one unit a +2 scaly skin armour save buff, making most Dark Infantry (except corsairs who already have scaly skin saves) have a 3+ or 4+ armour save (or 5+ for Witch Elves), while Chariots become 1+. The souped up version gives all friendly units within a 12" bubble the same effect, so if cast by a sorceress in the middle of your army it can be fantastic - High Elf archers cry when confronted by 3+ armour saving Dark Elf infantry hordes. Final Transmutation is great for thinning hordes and dealing with foes that have silly ward saves, and its stupidity rule can stop entire low leadership armies in their tracks. Enchanted Blades of Aiban - which gives +1 to hit rolls, AP and magic weapons - will now be very handy for Executioners, now that they have lost their first round to hit re-rolls. Plague of Rust is as useful against foes with a 5+ or 6+ save as it is against those with lower saves, and Transmutation of Lead is an all round debuffer. The two anti-armour spells - Searing Doom and Golden Hounds of Ghenna - can be used against the one or two high armour saving throw enemies that most armies have, including monsters with scaly skin saves (also meaning Lizardmen, or somehow treemen..., aren't safe from this lore). 

* Light: Not a priority choice but it gives you some of very nice buffs (Speed of Light) and debuffs (particularly Net of Amyntok).  Due to the nearly army-wide Always Strike First, Speed of Light is preferred to Bjona's Timewarp.  Yet Bjona's Timewarp can be useful for those few units that don't have ASF (Such as the Kharibdyss; You get an extra attack, but when you get re-rolls to hit, it increases your chances of all attacks hitting, making a Feast of Bones more likely against enemy monsters.  Combine with Speed of Light for extra cheese), and don't forget it doubles your base movement, so your charge range just got even better.  A very good lore, especially considering the fact that it's statistically the easiest lore to cast and Dark Elves can gain extra power dice. Very good against Undead and Daemons, not only because of the Lore attribute but due to all of them having nasty combat units you want to Net and Light of Battle helping you deal with Fear. 
 
* Death: A good choice, with buffs and debuffs, though you've got to be pretty close to an enemy for the latter.  Doom and Darkness synergizes well with your Fear and Terror causing units, especially the Kharibdyss, while Aspect of the Dreadknight is good for Cold One Knights/Chariots.  Purple Sun of Xereus is great due to the Dark Elves high initiatives meaning your elves have only a 1 in 6 chance of dying from this if it goes astray, except your monsters so be careful with them.  In addition, the lore attribute synergizes well with the Dark Elves ability to gain extra power dice. 

* Shadow: Has a lot of very good debuffs and can make one guy a flier, the latter being great for Sorceresses on foot and assassins.  It also comes with a semi-cannon ball initiative test spell sand a blast initiative test spell which can destroy your enemy's tougher units.  The best spell in this Lore is Okkam's Mindrazor, which replaces a unit's Strength score with its Leadership when rolling to wound, which means that the unit you cast it on will essentially have at least 8 Strength (except for Harpies and some monsters) in close combat.  The best choice for this spell is Black Guard; Black Guard with Okkam's Mindrazor EAT UNITS!  They become STRENGTH 9, with ALWAYS STRIKES FIRST, RE-ROLL ALL FAILED ROLLS TO HIT (ETERNAL HATRED/WARRIOR ELITE), WOUNDING MOST THINGS ON TWOS AND RE-ROLLING ONES WITH MURDEROUS PROWESS!  As of the most recent BRB errata, this applies to armor saves as well.

* Heavens: Mixed, I wouldn't blind pick it. Lore attribute is mostly useless, but the signature spell is a great debuff against anything you don't want hitting you (read: Cannons). Also, it stops anything that doesn't roll to hit on a 4, meaning you can walk into flame cannons and have half a chance of waltzing right up to it (don't rely on this though, because half the time you will get cooked). Harmonic Convergence is bad, you usually reroll anyway due to ASF, you rerolls wound on more or less everything, rerolling saves is good but a lot of things can take them off. Good on a Hydra though, as it throws out lots of attacks, and will likely take a lot of saves due to how much people will try and kill it, and it also gets the rerolls it doesn't get as it lacking MP. Wind Blast is situational, but might save you from a charge, but don't rely on it. Curse of the Midnight Wind is fun, a good 'fuck you' button to an elite unit, but I recommend using it on something you're charging Witch Elves into, as it help your elves get through it's armour save, and Witch Elves getting hit and wounded less is fantastic. Urannon's Thunderbolt is great for killing war machines and chipping down monsters. Comet is unreliable, but holy hell if you get an overcast comet between multiple enemy units, they're in fucking trouble. Do not rely on this though, as enemies can move out of it. Also, it hits your own units. If a bunch of people charge a tarpit, feel free though. As for Chain Lightening, it's good against multiple units of elite units, but does too little hits to kill hordes. Basically, take this lore if you want fun hexes or a small number of high strength hits.

* Beasts: It's good, but overshadowed by some other choices. Wildheart is situational and not great even then, but a decent boost. Wyssan's is always useful, Flock of Doom can chip artillery nicely and for nothing, Pann's is great if you're running a combat lord, same with Savage Beast. Curse of Anraheir will fuck up anything with low initiative and is also nice for the -1 to hit. Transformation of Kadon will get you a free hydra, or a manticore (use against cavalry, it has killing blow) or a Horned Dragon, which is a discount Black Dragon, but still a dragon. If you overcast it, you can get a Mountain Chimera or a Great Fire Dragon, both of which are amazing. Don't ever use the base version of the spell, overcast it, especially as wounds are carried over, the two overcast monsters have 8 and 10 wounds respectively, meaning even if you're on your last life, you'll probably have 6 and 8 wounds on a giant fucking monster. Both of which will shred more or less anything. However, don't ever cast this early, get some spells out and cast if your wizard is injured. It's a waste to take a wizard and cast 0 spells. Just to bring it back up, +1S +1T is a great signature spell!

* Fire: Fireball is always useful, Fire Cloak is meh but cheap, Flaming Sword is pretty good, especially against anything with Flammable or Regen, Burning Head is good if you can flank an enemy line, but its best in high point games and against massive hordes. Piercing Bolts is usually a worse fireball, unless against large hordes. Flame Cage is also good against hordes, auto strength 4 hits or you don't move is great against anyone trying to tarpit your Kharibdyss. As with every vortex, Flame Storm has the potential to do massive damage, it's a good alternative against hordes, its better than Dwellers Below against low strength units but Fire doesn't have the flexibility of Life, and its better than Purple Sun against Elves or Humans or Goblin or Skinks or Skaven, but not against Dwarves, Chaos, Orcs, Undead or Saurus, or anything with multiple wounds

Dark Magic remains a popular choice, due to its technique of blasting the crap out of things. Fire is less popular, but its low casting values means that it works well on a Level 1-2 Sorceress (don't bother putting it on a Level 4 though). Death is a solid lore, with a lot of damaging spells and ways of slicing heroes of out units. Shadow is a powerhouse lore under a lot of circumstances, but it has very little synergy with the other Lores and unlike Death, Fire or Dark Magic requires you to devote a Level 4 to it to operate at peak efficiency (as most of it's powerful spells would require silly numbers of dice for a Level 2 to cast reliably). But if you've only got 1 Level 4 Wizard, it can work well on it's own. Metal is only useful against a handful of enemies and is not even exceptionally useful against them. 
*A pair of Sorceresses with Dark Magic and Fire/Death can knock out small enemy units that would normally get in the way of things, allowing you to focus your shooting on more important targets, and a single Supreme Sorceress with Shadow can boost your center quite a lot, which are the two primary setups for a tournament level list.  If for whatever reason you want to play a defensive list, Lore of Life will save the day, and Lore of Light will wipe the smiles off the faces of undead or daemon armies. 

====Dark Magic====
It's your Lore and by no means a bad one. It's the dark cousin of the High Elf pussy Lore, but meaner and more direct in blasting the crap out of anything.
It's sometimes difficult to cast but some really good spells are affordable with a 12 or less, so even a lvl 2 sorceress can get a lot out of it.  Still though the Lore is not easy to use, since many spells have a small range or rely on buffing the unit the sorceress is in, so it would e best if the sorceress would be near the frontlines, even if that is not generally advised. But give The Black Amulet to a lvl 4 and take a few challenges with a bit of luck it can be great, and remember if you did right you will only have one round of combat anyway.

'''Attribute'''
Your attribute makes more damage every time you target an enemy unit and roll doubles or triples, you hit them with 2d6/3d6 S1 armor piercing hits. Read carefully the damage of the Lore Attribute is taken after the actual spell, this don't seem important but it is. Imagine Teclis running with a unit of 15 archers. Imagine further you cast the great version of your second signature Spell on this unit. Now imagine all high elves dead (anyone get a warm feeling by this words?) but of course Teclis is still standing because he can't be hit by your spell.  But now the archers are dead the Lore Attribute kicks and kicks Teclis right out of game with a bit of Luck, so never forget the Lore attribute.

'''Spells'''

*'''Spell 0 - Power of Darkness'''
Your first Signature Spell and an old friend to any Dark Elf player. It was awesome before and now it remains awesome, but in another way. First the whole unit the Sorceress is in gets +1 strength. For Elves this is a very very good thing. And like last edition you get extra power dice (d3, but you take a wound on 3). As such, always equip your sorceress with a ward save. For a single lvl 2 it's probably not worth it, but if you have 2 Sorceresses with this spell you will be dominating the magic phase no matter the winds.

*'''Spell 0.2 - DOOMBOLT'''
DOOMFUCKINGBOLT is your second Signature Spell is the big brother of the High Elf Soul Quench (with 2 exceptions). With S5 and a higher casting value, this spell can wreck whole units by itself. It's a giant dark lightning bolt of FUCKING DOOM, always take it when you can.

*'''Spell 1 - Chillwind'''
Your old signature Spell nerfed pretty bad, making 2d6 S2 hits with -1BS when you kill something. Still against enemies with high toughness, in combo with the Lore Attribute, probably still worth it.  Fortunately an easy spell to cast, good against low toughness units and will help you against shooting armies (especially Wood Elves, who don't like winter). 

*'''Spell 2 - Word of Pain'''
Now this Spell's gone from good to great. At first it doesn't look so, but look at the greater version of it (never ever cast the lesser one) it lowers the WS,BS,I AND S of an unit per D3. So in this single spell you get the Miasma and the Enfeeble in one spell (and perhaps a bit of damage) for a laughable 12, and it can lower the WS/BS to 0 meaning the unit cannot shoot, cannot fight in combat and gets automatically hit as well. Always take this.

*'''Spell 3 - Bladewind'''
Going from anti Warmachine to anti Horde, a good spell especially when used in conjunction with Word of Pain.  Watch your opponent cry as his WS4 T3 infantry gets dropped to WS1 and then slapped in the face.

*'''Spell 4 - Shroud of Despair'''
The new spell in this edition and boy it's a good one. A Hexspell targeting every enemy in 12 inches making them unable to use Inspiring Presence or Hold Your Ground!, and even lowering their leadership if one of the units miss a morale check. Great combos are possible with the warcry of Khaine, the Kharibdyss and even the Bloodwrack Shrine.  Unless you're playing against Undead or Daemons this spell is always worth considering, as it can break a few units at once.

*'''Spell 5 - Soul Stealer'''
Getting weaker but therefore getting a higher range this spell is still good against anything with high armor, especially if you remember that your Sorceress will be on the frontline and can make a use of a few wounds she gets with this spell.  On a lvl 4 this is always a good idea, it combines well with Power of Darkness, getting extra dice and restoring wounds.

*'''Spell 6 - Arnizipal's Black Horror'''
Your magic Black hole, identical to the purple Sun, but with strength tests instead of Initiative. So its best used against hordes of weak opponents but also good in combination with your second spell. Be wary of the 1 in 6 chance of rolling a misfire, because this drops the template on top of your sorceress's  head, after which it scatters randomly. Given that Strength tests are the worst nightmare for most Dark Elf units, it can be worth making sure your sorceress is casting from a little way away from the rest of your army and cast power of darkness first if you are going to give this spell a go.  Good fun and a nightmare for hordes and low strength armies.