Editing Dark Eldar (section)

==Codex Update==
[[File:Dark_Eldar_Safe.jpg|thumb|right|1998-2010 - twelve years of codex blue balls]]
The Dark Eldar, historically, have long been considered the faction for professionals because the army was perceived as being very difficult to use correctly. Their units, while generally quite fast, were almost uniformly fragile; this meant that the army was very intolerant of mistakes on the tabletop. Consequently they were easily the ''least'' played faction in 40k. Nearly 12 years passed before a codex update - but finally, in 2010, [[Games Workshop|GW]] decided to throw Dark Eldar players a much-needed bone.

Sweet [[Emperor|Jesus]], talk about buffs. The new 5th edition Codex changed very little fluff-wise, but the Dark Eldar gained substantial staying power and could actually field a reasonably <s>tough</s> hard-hitting army. The Power from Pain rule made them tougher as they scored kills, and the army also had a lot of potential for being much more forgiving of mistakes (previously it was a case of either steamrolling foes or getting curb-stomped). Lots of new options and extensive access to poisoned range weapons made them extremely versatile - as well as the bane of Tyranid players everywhere.

The 7th edition Codex was a mixed bag, with some serious nerfs. On the downside: Vect, Sliscus, Malys, Decapitator and Baron are no longer playable, though most of them are still mentioned in the fluff. Flickerfields have disappeared from all vehicles except Venoms, and Wyches somehow got ''even'' worse by losing haywire grenades and their gladiator weapons just becoming variants on re-rolling. On the upside, Power From Pain became something that happened to the whole army with the bonuses stacking each turn, rather than having to make mediocre units kill things in order to become useful. Mandrakes actually became half-decent (though still vastly inferior to Incubi & Trueborn), Grotesques no longer exploded when left alone, Talos & Chronos engines came in squads, and Scourges became able to spam more toys.

As of 8th Edition the Dark Eldar have been renamed the 'Drukhari' for trademark reasons. Like most armies in this edition they have their own equivalent of Chapter Tactics, Toughness on vehicles, and varying movement rates. All of these elements are considerable improvements compared to the previous editions. Dark Eldar armies can also gain extra CP for bringing multiple smaller detachments; combine this with the considerable buffs on wyches and Mandrakes, and you've got an army that has the potential to become more popular than ever before! They are still a "glass cannon" army, but are way more forgiving and benefit from both aggressive and conservative playstyles.

9th Edition is contentious for its degree of codex power creep, and the Drukhari are perhaps the biggest winners of all the armies so far, besides the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some changes have made the army somewhat more fragile than 8th - for example, Power from Pain has been reworked to give a 6+ invul instead of 6+ FNP; while arguably better against multi-damage weapons, ultimately this is a nerf given the prevalence of invul-ignoring weapons in other armies. Their damage output however is off the charts, which places them in a perfect position to counter a high-toughness, multi-wound meta dominated by armies like Death Guard. Blade Artists is a fun new army-wide rule that allows melee attacks with 6 to-wound an extra AP+1 improvement, a very welcome change for Wyches who previously struggled against armoured targets but now stand as surprisingly punchy and cost-effective troops. Incubi are monsters now with WS2+ and Blade Artists giving potential AP-4, and Hellions have seen a massive upgrade to their attacking strength for a low-cost flying infantry unit and cheap source of MWs with Eviscerating Fly-by. However the biggest winner of all is perhaps the humble Raider; a flying 11-elf (yes, they finally did it, thank God; Venoms now hold 6 too) troop transport that mounts an improved D3+3 damage Dark Lance with T6 and that 5+ invul for a bargain price of 95pts. 9th Edition also changed how much of the army is organized: the Lords of Commoragh rule allows you to upgrade your HQ choices into Master variants for +15pts, to give them a new keyword, a new default ability and access to a new relic and warlord trait, many of which are quite good, plus a Favored Retinue (you point at a core troops unit and for a cost of +2pts per model upgrade it into Kabalite Trueborn, Hekatrix Bloodbrides or Haemoxytes with their own stat bonuses and special rules). Drukhari are now a highly flexible and top-tier army, and you really have to go out of your way to build a bad army list with them.