u/Laredian

I've done everything correctly for the mythic bosses, suffered through grinding my raid team to A2, got mythic biovore, watched replays to not waste tokens because there is still no practice mode and one wrong move can ruin your run and put your guild behind.

And still Laviscus dies a turn too early just standing next to Mortarion. I don't know how all the guys in the replays do it to keep him alive. I am using the exact same positioning. Do they all have their characters at mythic wings because they chucked thousands of dollars at the game until they got lucky getting all the mythic shards they needed?

I know you are not supposed to survive Mortarion until the very last turn of the attempt and thats fine I guess, your run is planned around that fact anyway (using Waagh a turn earlier than you normally would etc.). But if I have a full A2 team (and even got Atlacoya to D3 as a flex slot) I'd expect my core pieces to at least survive to the second to last turn. If the requirement additionally becomes that your characters have to be mythic wings or one step before that so you can execute a run properly (against the first mythic boss no less, primarch or not), then screw this.

Mythic bosses health and damage is overtuned and it is neither fun nor engaging. Also putting Lion, Mortarion and Magnus back to back to back is just asinine. Do better Snowprint.

And for all the Snowprint bootlickers in this sub: no, I am not saying mythic bosses should be a cakewalk, but there is some bandwidth between overtuned and too easy.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I even got Kariyan at three blue stars (I'm still 50 shards away from wings) and in my last attempt he only barely survived to the second to last turn because of his resilient trait, just because he stood next to Mortarion. Either reduce the health pool of the mythic bosses or tweak the damage, because this is just stupid.

Since Snowprint is really rather slow at releasing new relics I sat down with some friends who I have played the tabletop game with for a long time and we brainstormed some relics for Tacticus. We focused on iconic wargear since that is a rather low hanging fruit, but I think we came up with some fun stuff. I added our broad reasoning for each entry.

Nobody from Snowprint is probably ever going to look at this, but at the off chance they do...maybe there is something useful here:

Brother Jaeger

The Black Sword: Brother Jeager's attacks score 1 (increases to 2 at lvl 6 and 3 at level 10) hits when making an attack against a Big Target or Vehicle. As long as Brother Jaeger is taunted he cannot be suppressed or stunned and he gains +5% pierce ratio (increasing to 8% at level 6 and 10% at level 10).

Reasoning: The Emperor's Champion is given special wargear like the Amour of Faith and a Black Sword to single out and engage the most powerful foes on the battlefield. Therefore it would be fitting I think when he does extra hits against big targets and gains a benefit when taunted and locked into single combat with an enemy.

Ragnar Blackmane

Frostfang: after Ragnar has scored 20 hits in a battle (going down to 17 at lvl 6), he can use his active ability again. In addition Ragnar gains +X damage (scaling with level) in a turn in which he charges.

Resoning: Ragnar as a character is defined for brutal rapid assaults that strike at the heart of the enemy. Also since he is kinda defined in tacticus by War Howl I think it would be interesting to give him an opportunity to spike his damage again by reusing his active, it might even improve multi hit in raids a bit again. Also if he gets a relic it kinda HAS to be Frostfang, even if the effect is completeley different. Scoring 20 hits to get the benefit means he has to charge twice basically, or charge once and then hit normally when upgraded, which seemed somewhat reasonable, but this can be easily tweaked.

Trajann Valoris

The Watcher's Axe: after performing his first attack each turn Trajann makes an additional attack firing the Eagle's Scream bolter from the Watcher's Axe against the target of his first attack dealing 1x X Heavy Round Damage (scaling with level). If the target of the first attack dies, Trajann fires the Eagle's Scream bolter from the Watcher's Axe at a random enemy target in range 2 instead (reduced to range 1 if there are enemies adjacent to Trajann).

Reasoning: Trajann does not need extra buffing power from his relic, he is already one of the best raid buffing characters in the game. But in lore Trajann is actually also one of the best warriors of the Imperium and I think the ability of that relic can somewhat represent that. Why Heavy Round damage instead of Bolter Damage? Because even on the tabletop the Bolter on Trajann's Watcher's Axe is a lot more powerful than standard Bolters. And why a ranged attack for this ability? Because Trajann only has the firing his Bolter animation aside from his normal attack and he only uses it with his active. Also Custodes are kinda famous for using the Bolters mounted on the polearms even in close combat.

Khârn the Betrayer

Gorechild: after Khârn has attacked 8 times (Khorne's sacred number, therefore can't really reduce that number by leveling the relic otherwise Khorne would be really miffed) in a battle, he heals himself for X (scaling with level) an can use his active ability again.

Reasoning: Khârn like Ragnar kinda has to get Gorechild, it is too iconic not to include. Khârn does not lack damage, so giving him some staying power is a valuable thing everywhere you can use him because he is quite sqiushy.

Aesoth

Praesidius: The first time Aesoth is hit with an attack each turn, reduce the damage of that attack by X (scaling with level). In addition Aesoth gains the Parry trait.

Reasoning: Praesidius is a shield that has been a relic equipment option for Custodes on the tabletop since their inception as a faction. The effect I think fits for the character since Aesoth really wants to be a tank, and the relic improves exactly that role.

Marneus Calgar:

Gauntlets of Ultramar: if Marneus Calgar hits an enemy with his melee attack he has a 40% chance (scaling each level up to a 60% chance at lvl 10) to stun his target for one round. In addition his normal attack do +X (scaling with level) damage against Big Targets and Vehicles.

Reasoning: his active is already named after his famous Gauntles, but since they are so iconic and have been the hallmark trait of that character for literal decades, it would be a crime if his relic was anything else but the Gauntlets of Ultramar.

Azrael:

Sword of Secrets: when Azrael defeats an enemy in Overwatch, he stays in Overwatch retaining 1 fewer hits than the previous attack. In addition Azrael gains +X damage (scaling with level) when Overwatching.

Reasoning: the Sword of Secrets is similarly iconic as the Gauntlets of Ultramar and improving Azrael's Overwatch actually really makes him interesting for certain modes and fits into the theme of his passive. He obviously can gain the effect every turn if he doesn't attack, but since he only has 3 hits, I do not think it would be overpowered. If the effect proved to be to weak, you could rework Azrael to have 1-2 more hits on his normal attack, since he is a rather weak character anyway, which would improve his overwatch and the relic ability.

Jain Zar:

Blade of Destruction: Jain Zar gains +1 hit (improving to +2 at level 6 and +3 at level 10) on her normal attack when charging. In addition Jain Zar gains the Unstoppable trait.

Reasoning: the extra hits and her good pierce ratio could make her interesting for multi hit. In certain artworks she uses her Blade of Destruction polearm like a pole vaulter, so the unstoppable trait is flavourful here I think and fits the Howling Banshee Phoenix Lord.

Tan'Gida:

Exemplars Eternity: friendly Skitarii units within 2 hexes of Tan'Gida gain +X health and armour (scaling with level). In addition after Tan'Gida attacks 1 (improving to 2 at level 6 and 3 at level 10) random Skitarii within 2 hexes of Tan'Gida attack the target if it is within range (note that these happen before Conqueror Imperative triggers).

Resoning: Exemplars Eternity was a control rod relic that was very popular on the tabletop for Skitarii Marshals because it greatly improved the output of friendly Skitarii. Therefore quite fitting I believe, would also help keeping Skitarii alive for mythic bosses if the health and armour scaling of the relic is done correctly. I think this would really help the Admech team.

It was fun sitting down with some buddies and brewing up these and coming up with ways to include tabletop effects background knowledge of the characters into something that can work for Tacticus.

This is subjective obviously, but at least try to read my reasoning before you flame me in the comments. All the different entries within a tier are in no particular order since they might not be entirely comparable. Two relics might be S-Tier with one defining a raid team and the other making a character a complete powerhouse in LRE, survival and pvp....then it becomes part of the players preferences which one of those they prioritize.

S-Tier: (To me has to be amazing in multiple game modes or be raid team defining.)

• DW-02 Advanced Burst Cannon: Completely character defining and still among the most sought after relics, even when being among the first ones released. Turns Re'Vas from an already powerhouse LRE character to completely insane. The additional pierce is also good in raids. No notes, this is the gold standard of an S-Tier relic.
• Norn Crown: a Relic for the centerpiece of the Neuro team that makes the whole team stronger? Yes, please!
• Book of Fate: The most recent versions of the Neuro team rely on these a lot. Part of the reason why Neuro is still a very competitive raid team (Yes, yes I know....Labubu is better, but still)
• Supa Cybork Body: Completely alters the possibility of play for Snotflogga. Making him repairable is great for LRE, especially with Actus making him attack again and summon more grots. Also makes him a lot better in raids if you were to use him in a multi-hit variant with Actus (not a meta team by any stretch, but a powerful combination nonetheless)

A-Tier: (Very good relics, that make a character noticeably better, but not as powerful as S-Tier)

• Talon of Horus: Abaddon is already a very good character, the Talon just straight up improves him. You do not need it though for raids or anything. Is it totally awesome to have though, especially for LRE? Absolutely!
• The Ardent Blade: Makes Celestine even more annoying in arena and is also decent in LREs. If you specifically love Celestine, go for it as it straight up improves her. Has no raid application though.
• Paragon Spear: Maybe a controversial pick, but Tyrith is in my opinion still a bit underrated LRE character and this relic makes her even better in that mode. Has no raid application, but if you stick the big angry golden gal into an LRE track (preferably with Isabella behind her) she clears whole waves on her own and the Paragon Spear makes her even better at doing it.
• Chalice of Baal: This thing has the potential to turn Nicodemus into one of, if not the best healer in the game for LREs. Yes, Isabella is better on paper, but she is also squishy and can be more easily sniped. In addition the Chalice allows Nico to attack and still heal adjacent allies, which can be super valuable. Super strong relic in my opinion.
• Wyrdmaker's Helm: Similar situation to the Chalice of Baal, it makes an already good healer even better and gives great action economy. Baldr can focus entirely on healing and still automatically attack each turn. Very, very good for LREs.
• Kardiocore Galvanus: Great for the Admech team obviously, but that team has fallen off a little bit as well as the relic not really being on the same level as say, the Norn Crown.
• Demonflesh Plate: Great relic for all the Terminators that can take it, but particularly shines on Maladus and Wrask.
• Lakrimae: Turns Typhus into a bona fide LRE powerhouse that can constantly summon zombies, great stuff and very flavourful.
• Dawn Blade: Good damage buff and gives Farsight some actual passive staying power in LREs. Farsight is a bit squishier than Re'vas when you compare their stats, but I guess we'll have to see how much staying power he can have in LREs with the Dawn Blade once his last event is over and more people have access to him at mythic.

B-Tier: (Decent, and if you really like the character...sure why not)

• Orbs of Decay: Can turn Rotbone into an AoE machine if the does not have to heal each turn. The only reason this is not in A-Tier for me personally is that you usually want to use Rotbone to heal in LREs. It's better on Corrodius or Pestillian in my opinion.
• Monster Slayer of Caliban: I would immediately push this into A-Tier if multi-hit would get a bit of love from Snowprint. On paper Forcas is a great multi-hit character and this relic just straight up makes him better for raids....but multi-hit is just outclassed to a frankly ridiculous degree by the other teams (I hope Snowprint throws that archetype a bone).
• Vitarus: I love Mephiston just like the next guy, but I don't see how this is necessary. Has some synergy with Ahriman I guess, but I'm not blown away by it honestly. Can even have some detrimental effects if you don't pay attention where you put fire hexes down with Mephiston and block your own movement.
• Headwoppa's Killchoppa: It's cool and flavourful and makes Boss G stronger, but where would that actually come into play if you really think about it? In raids it can be a nice bit of extra damage depending on many summons you can kill before losing efficiency in dealing damage against the raid boss. In LREs it's nice to have, but in that mode you ususally lack staying power and not killing power. In Arena it just comes online way too late to matter much. Again, it's nice, but not that impactful in practice in my opinion.
• Relic Bolt Pistol: Just overall a decent relic for those marines that can take it. Nothing more nothing less.
• Nether-Realm Casket: Really nice to have for Aleph0 in LREs, but it is not necessary for her to perform her duty of standing behind Re'vas and keeping her alive.
• Sabre of Sacrifice: Also very flavourful effect for Drier, but since the extra armour is temporary, I don't see the LRE use. The suppression effect is nice for arena I guess? EDIT: as has been pointed out very graciously, calmly and in a stupendously friendly, non-condescending way in the comments, I genuinely misread the Sabre. The extra armour is temporary, yes, but you get it every time you charge. Which of course could be every turn. So I bumped it a tier since the extra armour is actually very nice at keeping the summons alive longer.

C-Tier: (Only if you really like that specific character. In another case....meh)

• Maugetar: Flavourful, but meh.
• Relic Power Fist: I guess it's a nice thing to have on Mataneo for arena? Giving it to Burchard doesn't make him that much better in LREs.
• Intoxicating Elixir: "but, but Laviscus can take this and he is the bestest raid character evar!" I hear you say. Well sure, if you got it for free in some homescreen event, give it to him, but it won't be a noticeable jump in damage at all.

D-Tier: (Not worth it to spend any resources. If you get it for free in a homescreen event AND have the character at mythic for some reason then sure, use it. )

• The Phoenix Gem: Basically only means that you have to hit a very squishy character a second time. If it worked like the Genestealer decoys, but couldn't be denied (like if someone steps into the hex she died, she resurrects at an adjacent hex or something), then it would be interesting.
• Blade of the Ancestors: Trash, just straight up. I am sorry, I like the Leagues of Votann, but how or where would you use this? Uthar gets one big hit when all the enemies in arena are dead? Or he gets one big his when all his allies are dead? Has zero LRE potential, no raid potential and isn't even good in arena. Just horrible.
• Vôlumm's Master Artifice: Repairing 7 times is a lot (8 if you do not level it) for that kind of a weak benefit, even when you take his summons into consideration.
• Relic of Lost Cadia: Poor, poor Imperial Guard. It's very flavourful, but the effect is just weak, even when leveled.
• Amulet of the Voidwyrm: That effect is just super weak when your characters die to a stiff breeze anyway. You don't need to crit to take down Genestealer characters. The fact that the reduced crit damage is also conditional on positioning makes this laughable. Compare this to the Supa Cybork Body, it's ridiculous honestly.
• Talisman of Rage: Why would I give a crap whether Azkor, Macer or Tarvakh take less damage when hit by a crit? Also I get the "Berserker ignoring pain" flavour they are going for here, but these are World Eaters...make them hit harder dammit.
• Maw-Claws of Thyrax: I mean I can see the idea behind this, but it doesn't even have great synergy with the Tyranid lineup. Also the benefit is mediocore even when you discount the lack of faction synergy.

Now you can go ahead and flame me in the comments for my horrible opinions.

Since I often see mid level players asking what characters they should use for a kind of stopgap raid team as long as they are missing some key pieces for one of the main teams, here is my pick:

Snotflogga, Actus and Eldryon are the core of that team and let my explain for a sec why these characters work and why it is in my opinion not wasted energy to invest in these characters, even if you want to pivot to another raid team at a later point when you have unlocked all the characters that are necessarily required for that specific team.

First of all this stopgap raid team requires Snotflogga to have the Supa Cybork Body relic. This might sound daunting, but since Snotflogga is usually the very first character you can blue star due to Salvage Run, his mythic missions not being particularly difficult and the Supa Cybork Body just having been on offer during the Armageddon event (as well as having been heavily advertised in the community to being a worthwile purchase in the Armageddon shop)...I do not think this requirement is a long shot at all. Especially when you consider that the relic is also absolutely amazing to have for LREs, but more on that later.

Once Snotflogga has his relic equipped the strategy is very streight forward: put Eldryon two hexes away from the boss, hit the boss with Snotflogga, repair Snotflogga with Actus so he smacks the boss again due to Actus's passive. Get Snotflogga on high ground if possible. Simple.

The good thing here is that the core team is so solid that you can throw other characters in there without any detriment even when the synergy is not that great. Want to level Kariyan or Kharn for their raid potential? Throw them in there. Do they have great synergy with Eldryon? Meh. But remember, this is supposed to be a stopgap team, you'll still do decent damage with your core and Kariyan and Kharn for example are solid damage dealers even without support. Want to throw Ragnar in there for additional Multi-Hit goodness? Sure.

The good thing in this stopgap team is that none of the resources spent on the core members is wasted. Snotflogga is one of the best characters in the game, and if you ultimately pivot to a stronger, more specific raid team, the resources spent on Snotflogga until then won't be wasted because he is still one of the best survival and LRE characters.

Same thing with Actus. Want to pivot towards Lavistodes? Great, Actus is still going to be an LRE powerhouse for you, even if you do not continue using him in raids. Want to pivot towards Battlesuit or Admech? Even better, since Actus is one of the core pieces for these teams as well. Eldryon is the weakest link there, but since he is a campaign character and can help a lot with certain mythic quests, getting him to D1-D2 is not wasted in my opinion until you can pivot towards something more specific.

Again, the point here is to promote a strong core for a stopgap team until you have all the characters you personally want to have to pivot to something more specific. As well as those stopgap characters not being wasted resources once you pivot to another team because they also perform extremely well in other modes (Survival, LRE).

Hope that helps some mid level players.

40k lore is pretty vast with lots and lots of interesting factions so it is natural that people initially interested in the lore ask for where they should start their journey. Mostly I see people recommend novels like the original Horus Heresy trilogy, which is fine in principle, but in my opinion not the best option if you want to get a general grasp about the setting initially.

The 40k core rulebook and the faction codices are in my opinion the foundations of the entire setting. Some of the most foundational lore regarding the setting in general or even specific factions was published in these rulebooks and faction codices decades ago and has remained remarkably consistent overall.

If someone were to ask me today how they would get into the lore, I would lend them my 3rd or 4th edition core rulebook and tell them to read the lore bits in the book (of which there are quite some nuggets in these older books) and ignore the rule sections completely. And if they were to ask me where to start when they wanted to learn about a particular faction I would lend them one of my codices for that faction, which prior to 9th and 10th edition also contained a lot of very cool lore segments (9th and 10th edition codices unfortunately really dialed down the amount of lore you can find in a faction codex compared to previous editions).

The good part here in my opinion is that if you are mostly interested in the lore, old core rulebooks and faction codices can be found rather easily and for the most part quite cheap on ebay or equivalent sites. There are a lot of meta gamers who basically throw away old codices when a new 40k edition rolls around the corner.

Another argument for core rulebooks and faction codices being a great starting point is that they are supposed to give a general overview for the reader. And while faction codices obviously highlight the strong lore appearances of that faction, it is still not written as a POV of a specific character in a novel, but as a general overview for the reader.

So in short: if you are new to the 40k lore and don't know where to start, get an old core rulebook (3rd to 5th edition are the best in my opinion, but 8th also had very good lore sections). Ignore the rules entirely and read the lore parts to get a general overview of the setting and the factions within it. If you are interested about a specific faction, do the same with one of their faction codices (8th edition is relatively recent and had good lore sections in the codices for example. Older codices also had amazing lore sections, but some factions like Adeptus Mechanicus were not released yet in 5th edition for example)

Once you have done that I think it is much easier searching for and targeting specific Black Library novels that interest you.

Relics were the most interesting addition to the mythic release for most people. Something that can be both flavourful and powerful for a given character, or even change the playstile a bit like the Cybork Body letting Snotflogga be repaired for example. That way mythic was not just another moving goalpost as was apparently planned originally.

Now, the main problems with relics in the long run are twofold in my opinion: release frequency and availability.

Regarding the frequency of relics released, it has to be said that it is a good trend that Snowprint is apparently shifting focus to releasing more relics for older characters than newly released ones. But the pace is still way off. We have had a couple of patches with not a single new relic being released and if they do release new ones, it's usually one or two at a time. At the same time the number of new characters keeps increasing constantly, which means at this pace it is going to take years and years before we are even remotely close to having relics accessable for all the 100+ characters in the game, let alone character specific relics.

Availability is another problem in the long run, because doing cycles in the Rogue Trader shop where certain relics are always featured on certain days is nice, but this is going to be increasingly difficult the more relics are released. At the same time if you are hoping for a specific relic to randomly show up in the Rogue Trader shop, your chance for that happening gets smaller the bigger the pool of relics becomes.

You also can not combat this entirely with campagin events because there are just too many factions and characters to cram each relic into a campaign event, which usually features one relic to unlock. Unless they change campaign events entirely.

Homescreen events are another not quite satisfactory option for relic acquisition. Especially since the current trend for Snowprint seems to be that it is impossible to reach the last rewards of an HSE (and at least character specific relics are usually at the very end of the reward track) unless you spend money. This is also going to leave a bad taste in the mouth of most players.

In short: relics were a very cool addition to the game but Snowprint needs to step up their game regarding the release frequency and availability for them. Especially because relics offer another very good opportunity for them to throw weaker characters a bone for which they do not want to do a complete rework. Relics when done properly could help form new possible raid teams to create more diversity there so there is a lot of positives for the game to be had if done right.

I need some specific advice on how to allocate the remainder of my Armageddon supplies. I have three viable options, but I can only effectively choose one:

• Get more XP books to get Kharn to A2
• Get more XP books and give them to Dante instead to bring him to A1
• Get legendary Xenos orbs to get Biovore to Blue Star (I have the shards for Blue Star already farmed up)

Which one should I go for in your opinion?

https://preview.redd.it/cogvks9wk3ch1.png?width=801&format=png&auto=webp&s=dd43edfce6cdd77fe92d1c7f1353cedeb091c80c

Before I get downvoted into oblivion let me explain: yes, the Biovore is the best machine of war in the game, no doubt about that. It is so dominant that at high levels of raiding you basically need it to be almost maxed out to compete, at the absolute bare minimum it has to be mythic.

Aside from the fact that the Biovore is singular in nature in that it can manipulate the enemy NPC movement, it can also perform the intended function of other MoWs just as well or better.

You do not need the Forgefiend to clear the summons on the Belisarius Cawl fight for example even though the Forgefiend active is singularly geard towards killing summons. The Spore Mines from the Biovore can perfrom that function almost as well, all the while additionally providiong a significant damage bonus against the boss and being able to block Cawls movement.

All this to say, the internal balance (meaning when you compare MoWs against other MoWs) here is severely lacking. I am not really advocating to nerf the Biovore here, but I think it is very long overdue that most of the other machines of war get reworked.

Tson'ji and the Malleus are practically useless. The Storm Speeder is cute for arena but the Biovore is leagues better there still. The Plagueburst Crawler only ever gets used for it's mythic ability and only ever when you cannot use the Biovore. The Forgefiend would be great against summons, but the Biovore is still better when leveled properly. The Rukkatrukk is super awesome and flavourful, but aside from Ork enthusiasts I see no reason to use it ever.

The only other machine of war that even remotely comes close to the Biovore in effectiveness is Z'kar and that is because he practically defines an entire raid team. But talking about Z'kar in detail would open up another can of worms regarding the munition economy, which is completely screwed and only propped up by codes dropping 10 munitions at a time.

So yeah, machines of war really need some work. It's great that they are not just a gimmick but actually offering a lot in terms of gameplay for most game modes, especially raids. But it's a problem when one of them basically does everything, making all the others more or less obsolete (again, Z'kar is an exception here as mentioned before).

Not only did they put two of the very best factions in TA (Blood Angels and Orks) against an objectively weaker pool of other factions (no Tau, no GSC, no Black Legion), they also gave Blood Angels Mephiston back AND they gave both Orks and Blood Angels additional NPC support units?!

What are they smoking over there and can I have some? This TA is going to be absolute hell of only Blood Angels and Orks, which is going to make it an even more asinine game of chicken of who can get the alpha strike.

And sure....you can skip Tournament Arena, but this time the chests contain valuable Armageddon supplies. So this especially asinine version of TA just had to be the one you want to participate in for once....

Edit: my word, the bootlicking in this sub is actually astonishing. People voice legitimate concerns about normal TA all the time, which is part of the reason they took out Mephiston. Now it's objectively much, much worse and people just shrug and say "but 11th ed release". Well so freaking what, both Orks and BA would have been by far the best factions in that limited pool, there was zero need giving them additional units.

Aside from the usual LRE all-stars like Mal/Rot and Re'vas/Aleph we all know and love, how good is Farsight going to be with his relic in LREs?

He doesn't clear multiple enemies per turn, but the healing provided by the Dawnblade is really what makes this interesting to me. Some super high level people surely already got him to mythic, what are your experiences?

I know Tarvakh is being used as a flex slot against some bosses by some high level guilds. I am therefore not asking whether he is used at all, I specifically want to know why he makes the cut against some bosses.

I get that Tarvakh has a single hit, high damage normal attack which is great with Laviscus, even better when used against bosses with sub 50% health. His active is also one big hit, great looks decent on paper.

What I don't understand is why he apparently makes the cut over other possible team members. Tarvakh has no great synergy with Trajann and he does not apply any buff to the other members of the team (other than increasing Laviscus's outrage). What about him makes him apparently win out against specific bosses over other members like Vitruvius or Aesoth who both also have a good attack profile to synergize with Laviscus, as well as providing buffs to other members of the team?

Before I get burned for herey by the Blood Angels, Orks or GSC enjoyers in the comments, let me explain:

What I mean by "best" in this case, is that if you were to open, say 10 blessed requisitions, you should in my opinion really wait until there is an offer that features all five Custodes characters. Why? Most factions have at least one but often multiple characters you do not want to open shards from in a requisition, unless you really like or enjoy that character....and nothing wrong with that at all. But if you look at the Custodes lineup:

-Kariyan: best character in the entire game, straight up. Amazing in every single mode you can play him.

-Trajann: Best raid character in the game in the sense that he is currently the best buffing character in the game and the lynchpin for the strongest raid team. He is also used in other teams because he is that good.

-Aesoth: Very often used in the currently most powerful raid team, Lavistodes. He is also rather good in LRE and survival by providing armour to other characters, being tanky and having a reuseable active.

-Atlacoya: Flex slot for the Lavistodes team that often gets underestimated in my opinion. Her active can hit like a tactical nuke if leveled and thus provides a massive damage buff to Laviscus if properly used on turn 6.

-Tyrith: LRE and Survival goddess. Park her and Isabella on a bolter track and she clears the map on her own basically. Aleph/Re'vas and Mal/Rot are the obvious LRE all stars, but Tyrith gets a bit underestimated there in my opinion, she can dominate those game modes and her relic makes her even better for LRE.

Point being, if you had to declare one entire faction in tacticus as the best investment, I think you'd have to choose Custodes. The only other option that comes even close would be Blood Angels in my opinion since they also have not a single bad character in their lineup basically, even the new addition Cezare looks amazing. But Custodes have more impacful characters for the most lucrative game mode: guild raids. Each other faction has at least one stinker in their lineup.

I am one of the people who for a long time had a superficial and frankly rather bad understanding of Albert Camus's quote:

"The struggle towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy"

I am definitely one of those people who has heard that quote and thought: "Right, maybe Sisyphus found a hidden meaning there in his struggle?" or "Ok, so Sisyphus learned to enjoy pushing the stone?"

Now that I learned a littke bit more about the myth and Albert Camus's absurdism, my conrete question is this:

Is the general consensus on this quote and on the myth of Sisyphus itself that the message Camus wants to convey is about taking a dignified and defiant action in the face of certain futility?

Sisyphus pushes the stone up the mountain and it inevitably rolls down, but is the action of willingly walking down the slope and doing it again what creates dignity and defiance by Sisyphus? The gods may control the outcome, but they can not control how he acts in response to certain futility. Is that where meaning is created by Sisyphus according to Camus?

I have stated multiple times across many posts that the view about Custodes being something like emotionelss automatons is not supported by the lore. In the following excerpt from "Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion" by Chris Wraight, Shield Captain Valerian muses about the role of the Custodes and the Grey Knights and how some Custodes view them with suspicion not because they are Astartes, but because they might be the Emperor's last and most important gift in fighting the archenemy.

Now, I have to emphazise at this point as I always do that the Custodes in particular are not a monolith and there are multiple views about this in their order as Valerien himself points out, but I think it is still noteworthy to point out that at least some Custodes are having doubts about this and experience something akin to insecurity in regards to the Grey Knights.

>They came. The Grey Knights, whom we had always had uneasy relations with, answered our summons. I do not know if it was my request that promoted the order, or if Valoris had been petitioned by others. In any case, we were not so proud that we could not ask for help when it was needed.

>There is a profound distinction to be made here. We could both - Custodian and Grey Knight - slay daemons. We were both to all intents and purposes immune to their temptations, we were both effective against their many stratagems. There are two great repositories of lore against the daemonic in the Sol System, our own archives in the Tower of Hegemon and the far greater librarium lodged on Titan itself. We are, as orders, steeped to our very cores in the fight against the Great Enemy. Perhaps, you might say, Chaos is the reason for both of our existences.

>And yet we are different. Remember I told you that we were never warriors, not exclusively. We are certainly not an army, and we were intended, in the original scheme, for service in an empire that never came to be. Our cousins in the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus, by contrast, were formed exclusively for this singular war against our most powerful and enduring foe. They have no other purpose. Just like the Space Marines from whose template they were drawn, they are an army, complete and self-sufficient.

>We always knew of their existence. There are records held privately in the depths of our archives, which chronicle their creation. We watched, ten thousand years ago, as He embarked on His last gambit. As the Great Enemy drew close to Terra, we observed the darkening of Saturn's moon, and knew that one day it would return, its purpose fulfilled.

>Consider what this history means. We know that they came after us, the more junior creation, and yet they were as closely associated with Him as we were. Both of us look to Him, and Him alone as our progenitor, and share the same sense, cultivated over wearing aeons, that we enact His designs when all others falter.

>There are some among my brothers who do not see the sons of Titan as much more than specialized Space Marines, to be regarded with suspicion as part of that schismatic breed that caused us so much anguish in the past. A Space Marine may always fail, they believe, given enough time and enough reason, and thus they are all part of the same potentially aberrant strain.

>Some think that. Others, and I myself have often speculated in such a vein, cultivate a different misgiving. We know well enough that they were designed as His last Great weapon, fitted to an age He foresaw near the end of His early embodiment. What if it were they, not us, who most embodied His final legacy? You will never hear one of us say as much out loud, but that does not mean the suspicion does not exist. It sulks around the corridors of Hegemon like a foul odor, faint but hard to eradicate.

>From the speculum certus we know we were the finest and the most faithful. In the speculum obscures there is, as always, more doubt.

>Such, then, is the cause of the uneasiness between us. In practice this rarely proved an issue, since they were not generally on Terra and we were never on Titan. Now, of course, that had changed. They sent fewer warriors than we asked for – less than half of one of their brotherhoods. Many of the Grey Knights were stationed far from the Sol System, it is true, but still the response felt some what paltry. They must have known what it would have cost our Captain-General to make the request, and it was hard to feel that the slight was not an intentional one.

>(The Emperor's Legion: Watchers of the Throne, Chris Wraight)

I am biased here because I love this book and am a fan of Chris Wraight, but I think we get some great insights here. Fist we get confirmation that the Custodes always knew about Malcadors scheme, the Grey Knights and their secret base on Titan. Makes sense, but now we know for certain.

We also get some more insight into the character of Valerian who is described by Wraight as a more philosophically inclined Custodes compared to others of his order, which I think is displayed quite well in this excerpt alone. I personally do not think that other Custodes characters like Tribune Colquan would ever waste a second of thought on this topic the way he is written...I mean the man is way to busy being pissed off by Guilliman.

I also do not want to let this devolve into a discussion on how either the Custodes or the Grey Knights are better at killing demons or how the Custodes feel threatened militarily by the Grey Knights. I think the excerpt makes it clear that Valerian muses about philosophical points like legacy and purpose and not whether the Grey Knight pose a military threat. Also the point on who is better at killing demons is adressed somewhat in the book as well. The main characters Valerian and Aleya fight through a horde of demons alongside a small squad of Grey Knights and Valerian internally commends them on their ability. He even makes a comment along the lines of how they are still very effective even if their ability should be a bit hampered due to the proximity of Aleya, a Sister of Silence and certified badass. In that section of the book the squad of Grey Knights can very handily keep up with Valerian and Aleya.

I have been looking at this in preparation for the upcoming Armageddon event where all of us will have to choose what we buy from the shop and what we want to prioritize.

I want to get the two remaining core members of my raid team to A2 and I've also looked at some flex slots for that team and their abilities past lvl 50:

Take Aesoth for example, his passive gives extra armour (which is the only scaling part of that ability after lvl 36) and extra percent damage on non-normal attacks. Great, I have both his active and passive at lvl 50 because the extra armour can be really nice to have, especially since Laviscus is really squishy.

Now if you look what his active and passive actually gain from lvl 50-60, the issue becomes more apparent in my opinion. His active gains and average of about 1000 damage from lvl 50 to lvl60, which seems about to fall into the ballpark of scaling for these abilities Snowprint was going for at these levels. A more linear increase that is nice to have, but not 100% necessary unless you are at the very top levels of play where every bit of damage matters, great. But his passive increases the armour bonus by a whopping 78 from lvl 50-60 and remember that doing that costs about 1,3 million gold and a lot of badges that could be used elsewhere.

In my opinion Aesoth's passive is an example of "why would I care about this, ever?" as compared to the "this is nice to have, but not necessary unless you are in a top guild" sentiment Snowprint was seemingly aiming for. Same issue with Trajanns active, why would anyone ever level that beyond lvl 50?

As far as I am concerned the only abilities I am going to bother upgrading for my raid team are Trajanns passive and Kharns abilities (I already have Kariyan at 60/60). I am sure having Boss G at 60/60 is nice and all, but since you want to use his active at the last turn anyway, I am not sure the stat increase on the boys is that impactful for raids, it would surely be great for LRE and survival though.

In the fandom and also in this sub Custodes in general are often dismissively depicted as these essentially emotionless automatons. Or they are referred to via the Jojo pillar men theme because of the popular "Text to Speech Device" Youtube series. As fun as the Jojo reference is because of the old, half-naked Rogue Trader artworks, the first sentiment about them being something akin to emotionless automatons is just straight up false and not supported by the lore.

Since they are often directly compared to them, it is correct to say that Custodes are usually more reserved than many Astartes. But it also needs to be said that the Custodes in particular are not a monolith. Basically every source book or codex about them makes a point to illustrate that every single one of them is hand crafted and unique and that they have varying personalities, which can also be directly seen when comparing how different Custodes characters are written in Black Library novels.

People often cite Diocletian from "Master of Mankind" by ADB because of his brash reaction with a refugee child and because of how his Blood Angel companion in that scene reacts in a very contrasting way. Fair enough, but one could also cite characters like Valerian, Achallor, Vychellan or Tribune Colquan who act in a completely different matter when dealing with others.

Vychellan for example even breaks out into deafening laughter in an exchange with a historitor in the book "Wolftime" by Gav Thorpe in a conversation about Tribune Colquan being a massive douche. (That exchange in particular is very easy to find on this sub if you are interested)

The Custodes also very much can and do in fact disagree with the Emperor. They were supposed to tell him their mind. Of course that does not mean that the Emperor listened to them, which in turn is actually really on brand for him:

>+I have conquered humanity’s cradle-world. I have conquered the galaxy, in order to shape mankind’s development as it at last evolves into a psychic race. No isolated pockets of our species may remain free, lest in their ignorance they invite destruction upon us all. I have shattered the hold of faith and fear over the human mind. Superstition and religion must continue to be outlawed, for they are easy doors for the warp’s denizens to enter the human heart. This is what we have already done. And soon I will offer humanity a way of interstellar travel without reliance upon Geller fields and Navigators. I will offer them means of communicating between worlds without reliance on the warp-dreams of astropaths. And when the Imperium shields the entire species within the laws of my Pax Imperialis, when humanity is freed from the warp and united beneath my vision, I can at last shepherd mankind’s growth into a psychic race.+

>The primarchs, thought Ra. The Thunder Legion. The Unification Wars. The Great Crusade. The Space Marine Legions. The Imperial Truth. The Webway Project. The Black Ships, with psykers huddled in the holds, watched over by the Silent Sisterhood. It is all about—

>+Control. Tyranny is not the end, Ra. Absolute control is but the means to the end.+

>The hubris… Ra couldn’t fight the insidiously treacherous thought, to see the hidden depths of his master’s ambitions. The sheer, unrivalled hubris.

>+The necessity.+ The Emperor’s voice was iced iron. +Not arrogance. Not vainglory. Necessity. I have already told you, Ra. Humans need rulers. Now you see why. A single murder is on one end of the spectrum, for rulers bring law. The hope of the entire race is at the far end of the continuum, for I—as ruler—bring salvation.+

(Master of Mankind, Aaron Dembski-Bowden)

In this example Ra Endymion calls out the Emperors colossal hubris in him claiming his is the not only the right way, but also the necessary way.

The following excerpt directly shows the Custodes disagreeing with the Emperor and telling him straight to his face, to very little effect. (thanks to u/Arzachmage for providing that excerpt, I couldn't find it initially):

>So, there we gathered. Not all of us. Not even most of us. Just some of us, those that happened to be present by luck, destiny, or design. The others – those of the Ten Thousand whom our king trusted above all others – had voiced their hearts and thoughts before. But this was it. We gathered there, in the stark-lit dark, where it always felt no torch’s light ever did more than stab at the gloom.

>And, one by one, we told Him: No.

[...]

>Everyone is watching him. Waiting for him to speak. Waiting for him to join the chorus of oaths that their blades will be enough, that the Custodians will lead the armies of the Imperium into battle, and that those armies will be human. Not Legions of transhumans. Not led by godling generals. That all this work, all these machines, are unnecessary. You don’t need to do this, he could say. You don’t need to steal the warp’s essence. You don’t need to create these things, these... primarchs.

>Diocletian tells the truth, as he always does to the Emperor, as they all always do. It’s just that, tonight, his truth is different to theirs. ‘I don’t think it matters what I say.’ Dio leans on his spear and inclines his head to the Emperor.

>‘I don’t think it matters what any of us say. With respect, my king, I think you’re going to do it anyway.’

>(Era of Ruin - The Carrion Lord of the Imperium, Aaron Dembski-Bowden)

So the lore clearly establishes that the Custodes can and do disagree with the Emperor, they could just never move against him. They could not turn traitor like the Astartes could, they fundamentally lack that freedom. (And no, that scene at the end of "The End and the Death" does not count. Being puppeteered and actively disintegrating in the process because you try to resist it, is not remotely the same as falling to Chaos or turning traitor for other reasons).

To properly explain my main point I need to post another excerpt from the Book "Valdor: Birth of the Imperium" by Chris Wraight. In this excerpt Valdor kills the last leader of the Thunder Warriors personally (small note to clarify: the Thunder Warrior Ushotan is referred to as a Primarch. This was a title or rank within the Thunder Warrior legion and is not a reference to this particular Thunder Warrior being a Primarch like for example Sanguinius or Corax.):

>Valdor extinguished his spear's disruptor, and knelt beside his victim. As he did so, he withdrew a long knife from his belt. When Ushotan saw that, he coughed out a final dry laugh.

>"The mercy stroke, eh?" he rasped, his face transfixed with agony. Up close, the black veins of fermenting poisons were visible on his exposed skin. "The last indignity, you always were a miserable bastard."

>Valdor placed the tip of the knife over Ushotan's heart. Fresh snow was falling around them, turned brown and flaky by burning promethium. "I meant what I said, Lord Primarch" he said "I take no pleasure in this. You were one of our finest commanders."

>"And these new toys of yours - who will lead them now? Will they have their own commanders?"

>"No. Those ones are lost"

>"Ha. All the better for you then. The High Lord was right - You can't bear rivals."

>"It was not my doing"

>"Sure it wasn't." Ushotan spasmed, hacking up oily blood. "You know, when we were at Maulland Sen, and I said I pitied you? I meant it. I'm not trying to goad you. I really do pity you."

>Valdor remained motionless for a moment, his hand on the grip of the knife.

>"I lived, captain-general," Ushotan rasped, "It was short, and it was painful, but by the nine hells, I lived. I'd rather have it this way than yours - no joy, no hate, no fear. Unbreakable without growth, immortal without passion."

>As Valdor readied himself to apply downward pressure, he had a sudden vision of a far-off future-state, spun out of reality and into the cold halls of an undiscovered time, where the galaxy itself was darkened by strife and whole worlds were cast into flame, where wonders and madness had been unlocked and now screamed their way through the arch of reality, where the foundations of physics creaked beneath the ravening scuttle of nightmarish unreason, and he was still there, still unchanged, still cold and pure and steadfast and unable to feel anything but the ubiquitous press of unending responsibility.

>"What is left for you, Constantin?" Ushotan breathed, blood bubbling up between his burned lips. "What more can He take from you that He hasn't already?"

>Valdor drew in a long breath, then plunged the knife in, ending the primarch's agony. For a moment he did nothing else, his head bowed, the storm exhausting itself around him and coating the land in a film of pale, drifting grey.

>Then, slowly, he withdrew the blade.

>"Nothing" he said, very softly. "Nothing at all"

>(Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, Chris Wraight)

It has to be said at this point that Valdor is a special case among the Custodes. For all we know he was the very first one, or the very first successful one and the Emperor went to great lengths to get Constantin as an infant. This excerpt shows that even Constantin Valdor, in a moment of introspection, agrees with the accusation leveled at him that he has basically nothing left other than loyalty and duty towards the Emperor. It was literally stripped off his being, maybe even to a greater extent than any other Custodes after him since again, he seems to be special in some way we still do not fully understand yet (even all the King in Yellow theories aside).

I picked these excerpts as examples to show how relationship between the Custodes and the Emperor is in my opinion a rather sinister form of slavery. They are bound to him at a metaphysical level, more than the Astartes or Primarchs or any other imperial faction could ever be. They have the mental faculties and introspection to disagree with their "King of Ages", but they could never ever move against him. He basically owns them at a metaphysical level. If that is not slavery then I don't know what is.

This is, in part, what makes this faction so interesting to me personally. They represent the pinnacle of imperial gene-alchemy. They are the most individually powerful warriors the imperium can muster aside from the Primarchs, who are essentially small warp gods in a flesh suit. The Custodes are these philosopher kings who sit at the highest echelons of imperial hierarchy, but at the end of the day they are quite literally slaves to a man who was convinced he knew best and that the means always justify the ends. At least the Astartes had the freedom to rebell, even though they doomed humanity even more by doing so.

(I reuploaded this post because I cleaned some stuff up and added some things, and because the initial post was immediately taken down by the mods and then after inquiring about it was reopened by the mods five days later without any explanation. I still don't know what the initial issue even was.)

Disclaimer: this is aimed towards tacticus players who either do not give a rats ass about the meta and want to play with characters they like (while still reasonably contributing) and players who are maybe working towards a meta team, but are missing some important and maybe hard to get characters.

Also let's get this out of the way so that the meta slaves in this sub don't get pissy in the comments: if you care about the best damage numbers in raids to contribute to your guilds raid effort, you are essentially required to use one of the meta raid teams, no question about that. They are the meta teams for a reason. Here is a short overview of the current best teams in case you missed the dozens of infographics being posted:

-Lavistodes: current top team, end of story

-Neuro: psyker themed team centered around the Neurothrope that can do extremely well but is very, very expensive in terms of relics needed and ammunition used per attempt in order to be its best self.

-Admech: former top meta team that was eclipsed by the release of Laviscus essentially. Still very powerful and absolutely still useful contrary to some sentiments in this sub. (Yes, if you want to play in a top 50 guild or something, you need to pivot to the bestest new flavour of the month team immediately, we get it).

-Rapid Assault: the OG Custodes team that does not go the Laviscus route (because he was not yet released when this team first got popular) but features Ragnar, Kharn and Dante. Still very powerful but not as powerful as Lavistodes. Also easier to play well than Lavistodes.

-Battlesuit very cool team centered around Farsight, Re'Vas and Actus. Only does top damage agaist Ghazgkull currently, but is still a very decent team.

-Multi-Hit: the most well known is the double War Howl variant with Ragnar and Aun'shi that can front load most of it's damage early, making it rather consitent. Multi-hit variants are not bad, but are eclipsed quite heavily by all the aforementioned teams.

If you want to learn more about these teams in detail there are a ton of videos, youtube shorts, infographics and reddit posts that you can search for that go into detail about these teams.

Now if you do not care about any of that you can obviously play guild raids with any characters you like, but I would argue that you should still look for at least some kind of synergy to make your team work. This also means that if you are a superfan of one particular faction and only want to play that faction, more power to you, go for it. But it is also unfortunately the case that most factions do not have the greatest internal synergy for guild raids with two notable exceptions: Custodes and Admech. You could do reasonably well when only playing those factions if they are your absolute favourite thing because both of them have very good internal synergy, though again it is important to note that you won't even remotely come close to the damage of the top teams. But if you read this far you probably don't prioritize that.

With all that foreplay out of the way here are some off-meta raid teams that in my opinion can work quite well:

-Snotflogga/Actus tag-team: This team requires Snotflogga to have his relic Supa Cybork Body, but since Snotflogga is usually the very first character people can bring to mythic due to salvage run and the relic being desireable for other modes like LREs and survival I don't consider it a disqualifying factor. The team is essentially a multi-hit team that wants to buff Snotfloggas hits via characters like Eldryon or Clagar, then repair Snotflogga with Actus and make him attack again via Actus' passive. Ragnar and Aun-Shi obviously also fit well into such a team since they were Multi-hit staples. Using War Howl twice with Aun-Shi and then attacking twice with Snotflogga and Actus is obviously great value, but this team also works well mechanically without Ragnar or Aun-Shi. The engine of the team is Actus/Snotflogga and at least one character that can buff Snotfloggas hits.

This team is in my opinion also a good example of a stopgap if you are building an Admech team because since that team is very imperial resource hungry, you can prioritize Actus first and still to reasonably well in raids. And considering the fact that most players want to level up Snotflogga anyway because he is essentially great in every game mode, it works quite well I think.

-Laviscus without Trajann: many people got the Laviscus battlepass because of the hype around that character, not everyone unlocked Trajann in his last event since it was one of the most difficult LREs so far. If you want to play with Laviscus in raids, but don't have the engine that makes that top team work (Laviscus, Kariyan, Trajann), you can play towards a simpler variant that just looks to increase Laviscus' outrage via characters that have few hits and high damage stats. Such characters include the likes of Godswyl, Tarvakh, Aesoth and Vitruvius. Again, a team like this won't even be remotely close to the damage of the Lavistodes team, but if you like these characters and don't care about top damage, it can work reasonably well and works mechanically well with Laviscus' outrage. Also it goes without saying, but if you do have Kariyan, he obviously always works amazingly with Laviscus.

-Ranged heavy weapon team: people have wanted a team like this for a long time, but there has never materialized something among the meta teams for various reasons. Again if you don't care about top damage and like playing these characters, it can work reasonably well. The core of that team would revolve around Abaddon, Shiron, Volk and Thaddeus. Abaddon buffs Shiron and Volk while being your frontline tank, which I think every ranged team would require. Thaddeus further buffs Shiron and Volk. For the last member you could either pick Eldryon or Admatar to even further buff Shiron and Volk or include Maugan Ra who is buffed only by Thaddeus.

-Temu Custodes Team: if you have the base engine of the OG Rapid Assault Custodes Team (Trajann, Kariyan) but you don't have Ragnar, Kharn and Dante or you don't want to play them, you can make that team work reasonably well by substituting any or all of those characters with Godswyl, Mephiston, Abaddon or Havyr (Havyr only against bosses with sub 50% health). Essentially characters that have passive attacks that trigger after moving or after a normal attack and get the two extra hits from Trajanns passive. Aesoth also works here since he gives those kind of attacks 25% extra damage. Again, this team won't ever be as good as the OG Rapid Assault Team, but it can work reasonably well.

-Classic Multi-Hit without any legendaries: the very first, most basic guild raids strategy was taking good characters with attacks that have lots of hits and buffing those hits with characters like Eldryon. Since that strategy is very simple it can work with a lot of characters. Using Eldryon, Bellator and Snotflogga is probably the first core team you can reasonably build as a new player (without relying on requisition drops) since you get Bellator from the beginning, you get Snotflogga through salvage run and you need Eldryon for the Saim-Hann campaign anyway. Non-legendary characters that work here just based on number of hits are Forcas, Re'vas and Imospekh.

I'll close by saying that again, this is for people who do not care about the meta that much, don't want to be in a top guild, but want to at least reasonably contribute with a team that has some mechanical synergy instead of throwing anything at the boss.

I've seen a lot of replays regarding the Rogal Dorn. In some cases a character is placed before one of the tracks and when the Rogal Dorn moves forward that character takes damage, but is pushed aside.

Ok, so when is a character pushed aside by the Rogal Dorn and when is a character run over and killed instantly? I have had both cases happen (both times there were free hexes the character could have been pushed to).