Retribution caster ranking – 21/12/17
As we reach the end of the year I
have finally completed both of my targets for Ret for the year. I have played
over 100 games, and I have played at least one game with every caster. So why
not put them in order with a bit of commentary on them. Yes, it is nearly
Christmas and it is quiet at work. This list is based on a number of factors;
how strong the caster is, how much I like them, my results over the year. I’m
sure there will be plenty of disagreement with this, feel free to get in touch
and tell me why I’m wrong.
12 – Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven
Games played 2, Games won 0 (0%)
I don’t really know where to start
with Goreshade4. I’ve come to him quite late in the year and only played 2
games with him, but he just feels so underwhelming. His feat is a collection of
minor benefits that don’t really sit well together and whilst his spell list
and Field Marshall are both solid, he
just doesn’t have the ability to do anything with it. He feels to me like he
was designed with a soul mechanic in mind that was dropped late in the
development cycle. The bottom line with him is that he doesn’t do anything
better than other Ret casters do, nor does he do anything particularly fun. I
hope that a theme list comes out for him at some point that he can work in, but
for now he’s going to be a pretty model on a shelf.
11 – Dawnlord Vyros
Games played 7, Games won 2 (29%)
If themes weren’t the main way the
game was being played currently I can see Vyros1 being much further up the
list. As it is no theme really gives him what he wants. In Shadows he has the
fast Flank providers in Infiltrators
and Narn, but whilst he can take whatever jacks he wants he is limited to just
3 Arcanists for extra focus which doesn’t feel enough when you are relying on
one explosive turn to win the game. In Forges he doesn’t get to take the new
shiny jacks and doesn’t have a great Flank
provider. This has got better with the inclusion of Nyss but when I tested
this I found myself over-reliant on Imperatus to win the game. If I thought I couldn’t
keep him safe for a turn I ended up being forced into 30-40% assassination
runs, and that is no way to play the game. I haven’t tried him out with the new
jacks yet and think this might make a difference, so I could well be wrong
having him this low.
10 – Ravyn, the Eternal Night
Games played 5, Games won 2 (40%)
The best way I can describe Ravyn
is that she is a completely one dimensional caster in what has developed into a
multi-faceted game. Her range game is incredible, I’ve run games with double
Helios and an AFG with her and the threat angles the list has is very
impressive. The issue is that in SR2017 you can’t really win games with
shooting any more, Sacrificial Pawn and
Shield Guards are everywhere with
themes now, as well as far more Ambushing
units to engage your shooting base. Her personal threat is cute, and Veil of Mists is a good spell on any
card, but in all she just crumbles if you don’t get the game won from distance.
This is probably another caster that doesn’t really fit into any of our themes,
which is a real issue at this point.
9 – Garryth, The Blade of Retribution
Games played 7, Games won 5 (71%)
I haven’t played Garryth for a long
time, so my view on him is difficult to be clear on. I won 5 of my 7 games with
him so there’s something there, but this was back when themes were only just
starting to come into the game and he is another caster that wants to play with
bits from the whole faction rather than a more restricted collection. He has a
cool spell list, if not a spectacular one, and his Feat assassination run will
definitely catch people out at times, but everything about him just feels a
little lacklustre. He runs some very cute things like Sentry on an AFG or Eiryss 1/3, and Miraged Sentinels have incredible freedom of movement if Vengeance is triggered but to take these
things together you are playing 10-15 points down, and he is simply not strong
enough to overcome that.
8 – Lord Arcanist Ossyan
Games played 2, Games won 1 (50%)
The last caster to see the table
for me, and I think that says a lot about him. I didn’t play Ret in the heady
days of him having Deadeye but I
played against it with my Cygnar early in Mark3 and so got a vision of how
devastating it could be. So what has changed? Sure losing Deadeye is a big deal for any caster, but Fortune is a perfectly good spell so shouldn’t have caused him to
fall away in the way he has. I tried a combined arms Dawnguard list with him,
running double Destors and max Nyss, which worked reasonably well, but you
don’t feel like you are properly using anything on his card. Run heavier
shooting and you get a huge benefit from the feat, but anything that lives
through that gets into your lines and, as Ossyan has to be within 14” of the
enemy, probably into the caster as well. He has many of the same problems as
Ravyn, but at least has something to offer non-shooting units, and Quicken is one of the best units in the
game. I will probably look at him again, possibly in Defenders, to see if a
different type of mixed force can unlock him a bit better.
7 – Thyron, Sword of Truth
Games played 1, Games won 1 (100%)
Thyron was by far the hardest
caster to place in this list for me, so I decided to put him in 7th,
right between the “Good” casters in the top 6 and the “Bad” ones in the bottom
5. I have only played one game with Thyron, against a pretty inexperienced
opponent where both of us had pretty bad lists. I have also only played a
handful of games with Defenders of Ios (I’ve only just got my second unit of
Halbs painted) and that seems to be the theme in which, with double AFGs, he is
having some decent success. I want to like him a lot, if nothing else because
he is a cool model, and it is a shame that he doesn’t synergise at all with his
Ellowuyr brethren. Spell Piercer is
another of those spells that can make a caster all by itself, and as an off
list for problem factions like Cygnar I can absolutely see the appeal. More
testing needed here and I’ll try to find a proper position for him at a later
date.
6 – Magister Helynna
Games played 31, Games won 15 (48%)
I’m probably being a bit harsh on
Helynna here. I have played her more than any other caster and she was always
my go to list when trying out a new theme, but my word is she boring. It
doesn’t even matter the build; Helynna with heavies is boring, Helynna with
Sentinels is boring, Helynna with triple colossal is… well not exactly boring
as such, but it’s not exactly interactive and SR2017 is not a friendly place
for it. She offers something unique in Ret with a crazy armour skew, but aside
from her push mechanics on her weapons there really is nothing particularly fun
about her. She has some good spells in Hand
of Destruction and Deceleration
but it all comes together in a way that is, whilst effective, extremely dull.
On a side note, Helynna feels like a really odd battlebox caster choice for
Ret. For most factions the caster does a little bit of everything the faction
is about, whereas ours is a skew caster who does something very different to
the rest of the faction.
5 – Elara, Death’s Shadow
Games played 3, Games won 2 (67%)
Elara and I are at a very early
point in our relationship, but I’m already certain that she’s the one! As
mentioned above I don’t have enough reps of Defenders of Ios under my belt yet,
but I’m really excited to give Elara a run in it. Like many of these top
casters Elara feels like she can run in a number of different themes, but
Defenders seems the best fit for her. Her Halberdiers threaten 15” on the
charge, getting in at an effective Mat10 Pow16 when taking into account Marked for Death and Scything Touch. She does feel like a
Cryx caster in disguise, carrying with her many of the typical Cryx spells, but
this gives her a really nice edge in the Ret line up whilst still having the
feel of the faction. She is another caster who seems like she’s going to love
the new lights, with Sirens under her benefitting from a lot of the things on
her card. If this were a list of casters I’m most excited about, she would
probably be at the top, but lack of games with her so far puts her down at 5th
for the time being.
4 – Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn
Games played 14, Games won 8 (57%)
The Ghostbuster of Retribution,
Issyria in Shadows made a lot of people’s pairs when Cryx Ghost Fleet was the
flavour of the month. She was a strong Cryx answer for a long time, but the new
themes for Cryx alongside the rise of Gaspy1 means that she no longer fills
that role as well as she did. It is still a solid list for sure, I prefer it
without Hyperion but realise I’m in the minority on that point and recognise
that both options work. Issyria was my 3rd list in the recent
Blood& Oil event, but I ended up not dropping her into a single game. The
key for Issyria in 2018 is going to be how she fits into different themes. She
has so many strong points; True Sight on
a feat is so strong in the cloud wall heavy meta, and Blinding Light is such a tilting spell for many factions. Add to
that a threat extender and an armour buff and it is clear that she can offer a
lot of solutions. There is no reason that she can’t play well in Legions or
Defenders and these are all things to try in the new year. That is not to say
that Issyria Shadows is dead, just that is isn’t the vital list that it was 6
months ago. Also my word is that model a pain to put together.
3 – Adeptus Rahn
Games played 6, Games won 6 (100%)
So where on a list like this should
you put a caster with whom you have ended 5 out of 6 games with a top of 2
assassination, but has some counters so hard that it is barely worth playing
the game. Rahn is an assassination caster of the highest order. Even if you’re
trying to fool yourself into thinking you have an attrition list, the first
thing you will do every turn is to look for an assassination angle, and there
will usually be one there. Unlike most of the top casters here, Rahn feels very
trapped into one theme, Forges of War, but as it does everything he wants that
hardly feels like an issue. Yes he has some hard counted in Stealthed or Spell Warded casters, yes he is no fun at all for your opponent
(and when you mainly play at one club that does matter) and yes he makes really
terrible battle reports (sorry) but I love the guy. My one issue with him is
that I just don’t know what you pair with him to cover his weaknesses. With
some casters it is easy “Vyros2 can’t play into Cryx, so I need a Cryx drop”
but Rahn’s issues are far more complex than this. Writing a list designed to
play into Elish Garrity and Orin Midwinter is much harder, but I’m going to
give it a good go next year.
2 – Vyros, Incessar of the Dawnguard
Games played 19, Games won 16 (84%)
A lot of people, my club mates in
particular, are going to be surprised not to see Vyros at the top of this list.
He has been my go to pick for serious tournaments since the summer, and the
results have borne out for him. What makes Vyros so strong, in my opinion, is
that even into the worst matchups (that aren’t Deneghra1 in Scourge. Eww) he
still has about a 40% chance of winning any game assuming an equal opponent.
The terrain setup in SR2017 have really helped him, with most tables now having
a cloud or forest in the centre for him to abuse Birds Eye. So far I have only played him in Forges, with 2 of the
Arcanist units to increase volume of attacks (he was originally built as a
Makeda2 counter), but he wants to use the new lights, especially the Harpy, so
much that I’m tempted to try him in the Legions theme instead. He likes to play
a long way up the table, which has always been my preferred style, and with a
15/18 stat line with plenty of other defensive tricks he can do it relatively
safely. That being said, he is usually the weak link to his list, but there is
usually enough metal in between the enemy and him to grind out games.
Drumroll for people not paying
attention…
1 – Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper
Games played 27, Games won 19 (70%)
I think everybody has the caster in
their faction that they just keep coming back to. Kaelyssa is that caster for
me. She was the first caster I played, with me using a balanced list with her,
and as time has gone on I’ve just added more and more Dawnguard to the list. My
list that carried me through Blood and Oil now has double max Sentinels and double
min Destors and I absolutely love it. Her feat is incredible at delivering
melee units, her spell list protects the units that need it, and can crank
Helios up for Def17 against shooting. Then she has one of the most
multi-purpose guns in the game. She delivers her army, fights a strong
attrition game, but in the back pocket she still has a strong assassination
game with Phantom Hunter being one of
the most underrated spells in the game. Like all top casters though Kaelyssa
doesn’t feel tied to a particular theme. With Backlash she can run a strong Shadows assassination gunline, and a
podcast I was listening to piqued my interest in a Defenders list with her with
double AFG and double Halberdiers, which is something I want to try. She makes
everything better whilst having genuine personal impact and making sure your
opponent stays on its toes. The only issue is that at the moment, a
Vyros2/Kaelyssa pair has too many holes in it, but I am working on something
for that.
