Blowing the Dust Off: Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

[PG_BloodRath]

Greetings Legionnaires! Welcome back to another session of Blowing the Dust Off. This is a special Dust off because it will be my first BDO with a Warlock. Looking into my bag the warlock I play the least is our battle box warlock Lylyth, Herald of Everblight.


“I can hear you breaking your keyboards now. Because legion has so many powerhouse warlocks I often overlook her and have played no more than 20 games with her. I'm not counting demo games and battle box games because as a PG I often strive to teach and not win when doing these. This model is literally dusty as I’m looking at it.”

Because I know very little about her I'm going to review her card and some basic obvious synergy that I have used and then I’m going to leave it to you the reader to contribute the rest. Dust off is intended to help new players look at some of the less played pieces but I feel she get more play by new players than any other warlock. Together let’s Blow some Dust and see what’s underneath.

“Let your plans be dark and Impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” - Sun Tzu-

The Break Down: each issue I like to break down the subject‘s play style or synergy into categories. This issue I'm going to break down Lylyth into three categories.

• Feat
• Abilities
• Spells

You can break any warlock into these categories when evaluating other warcaster and I encourage you to do so. Lylyth is a simple warlock so this will be an easy breakdown.

FIELDS OF SLAUGHTER: I'm not sure if there is a simpler feat in all of Legion. “While in Lylyth’s control area, friendly faction models roll an additional die on attack rolls this turn.” The first thing to note is that the models must be within her control area. At 10” this isn’t very large. This means one of three things. 1: Lylyth will have to be dangerously close to the fight to allow anything getting into melee if they want to benefit from the feat. 2: range elements are going to have a much easier time benefiting from her feat. 3: if you are going for the assassination run it better be a good probability that you’re going to pull it off or you’re going to be within assassination range yourself. I can see this feat being good for attrition as well as assassination. The second thing I notice about the feat is that it affects all friendly faction models. While this does not help Minions it is a blanket effect for your army. Lastly it only aids attack rolls and does nothing for damage rolls. The things that will most benefit from this feat are the low accuracy high pow beast we have like Typhon. All in all it’s a solid feat and when used properly it can devastate the enemy force.

THE PACKAGE: Lylyth has a tool box of abilities you would hope to find on a skirmish style warlock. Her. Eyeless sight, pathfinder, Bushwhack, Witch mark and Blood Lure all aid in her abilities to use the board to the best of her advantage. I am a fan of the fade into darkness tactic which embodies every one of these abilities. It’s a simple tactic you can use in a verity of ways. On turn 1 she runs into a good board position, ideally finding terrain she can snuggle up in. the next turn she can shoot the enemy 12” away. Stick witch mark on them. Back 7” away using bushwhack after her combat activation then cast spells onto her target. This is a great way to get an eruption of spines or parasite onto the enemy and then retreat to safety. Since you shot your target now your battle group can benefit from blood lure and charge the target for free. I often find this is a great way to isolate a heavy and then have your army pounce. The free charges also help with fury management because of her abysmal 5 fury stat.

THE FINAL PUZZLE PIECE: Lylyth only has 3 spells and 1 of them “bad blood” only works against hoards. However that spell is a fantastic spell to use against that half of the game. A well timed Bad Blood can set up the assassination run by preventing transfers to their last warbeast. An early bad blood can really punish warlocks like Baldur2 whose abilities require them to damage them self. I also see this being particularly effective against a Gargantuan that wants to be healed and would severely punish a warlock for leaching 3-5 fury every turn. Next up is Parasite, it is a fantastic debuff with a plethora of applications because it affects model/ unit. Getting this on a heavy can make even something as pillow fisted as a Ravagor hit like a ton of bricks. Finally we get to Eruption of Spines, a great crowd control spell that on feat turn can decimate infantry and can be a neat way to clear off the support hiding behind Heavies or Colossal.

Well that’s my break down. I wanted to get this article out there and get everyone to contribute. I want to repeat that I have less experience with Lylyth1 than any other warlock and I need your help to make this article valuable. I want to thank everyone who has been participating in these discussions. This place would be dull if it weren’t for our rich community. So please take a minute and tell us are you a fan of Lylyth, the herald of Everblight or are you looking to blow some dust too?

THE MENU
• What’s your favorite warbeast to bring with Lylyth1
• How do you build her list? Ranged focused? Attrition focused?
• What’s your favorite combo to pull off with her
• How do you abuse her spells and abilities?
• Do you feel she is tournament worthy?

MAY THE BLIGHT BE WITH YOU…..ALWAYS!

[rexim]

pLylyth wants alot of attacks some ranged and some hard hitting melee. I would bring a ravegore, Seraph, 4 shredders and try out Proteus(if i don't feel he is good enough bring a carnivean) add fury management and that's it more or less. But i don't see what that list would do better then an other list i run at 35 pts?

My favorite combo is a simple one shoot heavy put up parasite watch 4 shredders rip it to pieces and it has to be a good heavy for it to not be enough with 3 shredders :P

I feel that pLylyths problem is that she can do a little of everything, but with 5 fury she cant excel anywhere.

No she is not tournament worthy, nowhere close to as good as eLylyth, eThag, Saeryn and both Vayls. I would warn my opponent before taking her to a friendly match even. That is how bad i think she is.

[MeniteTom]

Proteus breathes new life into her by allowing her to play a bit further back and still control her beasts due to Herding. 8 attacks under the feat helps as well.

[Finnith]

Ive taken pLylyth to a tournament where she netted me my only 2 wins of the day. pLylyth was key to assassinating pButcher and Venethrax which would have been very difficult without the extra to hit die, free charges and parasite. She is excellent at applying power to a point and getting certain key models killed but its blindingly obvious what she is going to do and not terribly fun to play. Shoot, cast parasite, walk away, camp 2 or shoot again or cast tenacity.

For beasts I liked running her with a carni, seraph and a shredder, possibly adding in a bolt thrower at 50 points but this might change to a naga when it comes out. With only fury 5 I struggled with multiple melee beasts so the carni deals the most damage and with the free charge and parasite you'll often have enough spare fury to cast your animus to protect against reprisals. Seraph is good for clearing infantry and can put the hurt on a heavy at range with parasite. Normally take a forsaken and probably a shepherd for fury.

Rest of the points are taken up by striders, deathstalkers, raptors and hex hunters. Anything that is self sufficient and can benefit from the feat and/or parasite. Hex hunters are excellent for stopping tramples with their bolts. Striders, raptors and death stalkers can clear infantry like nobodies business.

She really doesnt have any tricky combos that Ive found out. If your lucky you can upkeep parasite and get the benefit from it spread out on 2 units/models. Shoot something > parasite > charge with carni > dead thing. Add in slip steam, feat or supporting fire depending on how tough the target is.

As for her being tournament worthy, she really isnt. She isnt bad but every other caster is better and more interesting (probably better than Rhyas but not as much fun).

[Northern Ronin]

I actually rank her as the worst caster in Legion. She wants to be fairly close in order to do anything to help out her army, any aid she gives is in the form of offensive spells, one being near useless against Warmachine, one being highly random, and one being solid (parasite). She lacks the fury to reasonably cast more then a single spell, and literally impossible many times (only Bad Blood and something). Her only support is free charges to a heavy target. In addition, lacking stealth and a small control, she's prone to instant death as well. I've found a single list so far that I enjoy enough to really run, and honestly think Rhyas is better.

[Belthazar1113]

parasite is great with many attacks. I think striders +ua is a really solid chocie with her because you can pair teams up and as long as the member leading the attack is in her control they get the extra die on feat turn. this also puts them at highly accurate pow 15s vs parasite target. which is fairly respectable. deathstalkers also help to get striders out of the way after they kill things. raptors and anyssa work well because they can use her feat to get long range poision bows and then next turn charge into combat to kill things. For beasts i think the characters are very very solid with her. proteous especially as he can move to the edge of her control, fire a tentacle shot and drag something in to be pounded to death in melle letting her stay back from teh counter charge. typhon is also a solid choice as buffing a rat 5 tripple spray is qquite effective.

i would like to see a list of striders +ua, double deathstalker, full raptors, annysa, ravgor, proteaous, double shepard, shredder, spawning vessle. or something similar. it woul dhave quite a pit of punch feat turn and after as well.

[Tyrfigr]

I find that I use her as a one trick pony. Shoot, apply parasite, charge with battlegroup. In fact I do it so often, my game with her today could have gone completly different. My opponent left Kromac out in the open with no fury. So I do what I always do; shoot, parasite, charge. Kromac was just outside of carniveans range so all I could do was assualt. I left him with two boxes left. Next turn he ran both of his beasts hot to clear most of my side. I totally forgot about bad blood. It might or might not have been a game changer.

[Darwin_Green5]

so, she suffers the same fate as all of the battlebox casters. has a simple and reliable trick that people know how to react to, right?

[Custardboy]

pLylyth is a pretty effective caster, just dull as people have said. Shoot, cast parasite, feat when most of your stuff can attack. Before eVayl she would be pretty common in a multi-list tourney as a method of dealing with high defence.
She's somewhat versatile too. Hit buff, damage buff, free charges, infantry clearance. Fury 5 with 1 initial ranged attack makes it pretty much always 'parasite, tenacity, stay back' though. Yeah, boring.

[Finnith]

so, she suffers the same fate as all of the battlebox casters. has a simple and reliable trick that people know how to react to, right?

The same as the hordes battlebox casters yes. pLylyth is boring and is only made tolerable in battlebox games by the bundle of joy, that is a rabid shredder. Ive seen all the other hordes battlebox casters at tournaments, mostly new players but sometimes older players wanting a challenge but never a pLylyth.

The warmachine ones get a couple more tricks. With pKreoss and pDenny considered top tier/tournament worthy within their own factions.

[Custardboy]

I've used her at 3 tournies that I remember.

[Kalaris]

I agree to the sentament, Plyl isn't BAD but we have much better casters, I still say rhyas is our worst , but thats my opinion.

My notes on Plyl

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Carnivean is a FANTASTIC beast to bring with her, if only for feat turn, if you shoot something with Plyl (even if you fail to exceed armor) you then get a free charge with Carnivean with a boosted spray, then bite, claw, claw, and you've realistically spent no fury yet, start buying bites, and you're dealing tons and tons of damage. If you can put a parasite on a target, say a colossal, that's pretty much death.

Field of slaughter is +1D6, not boosted I have used carnivean with feat to launch an assault on denegra, with a 10" long range spray, then boost again, allowing me to roll 4d6 to peg denegra boost damage (got a lucky roll on damage) and one hit her, from about 18" away from lylyth.

---------

She's one of our (2) Casters with Eyeless sight, and an untyped magical range attack, meaning she doesn't NEED to take a bolt thrower, or Naga nightlurker, to deal with things like Gorman. (although I would take a nightlurker with her)

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She prettymuch needs fury management help. out, I'm eyeing that succubus with her, free ravagore anamus a turn, might not be bad.

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As already mentioned, Striders are a great fit with her because she doesn't have to support them, and they bennefit from feat.

[allenamenvergeben]

I feel Plylyth is a bit underrated here in this thread. IMHO she is a very nice warlock and not as strictly one dimensional as most people think. She is certainly not as good as Pvayl but pretty solid.

Things she really likes:

- Shepards: She has small control, low fury -> perfect fit

- Seraphs: Good amount of shoots are nice with her feat

- 1 Spellmartyr: First seems to be really counterintuitive due to witch mark, but I have often found her sitting on 5 fury in turn 2 with nothing to due with it. Moving in range so early in game can really be dangerous, therefore run martyr up and cast spell of your choice at enemy (preferably bad blood).

- Succubus: She really needs EVERY fury. Will add after release.

- Carni: Also a huge fan. See post above. 19 inch threat with a boosted POW 14 spray attack, hitting DEF 18 on average (make it POW 17 under parasite).

My typical 25 Point list is:

Lylyth
- Carni
- Seraph
- Shredder
Anyssya
Spellmartyr
2 Shepards

fill up as you like.

Thats a nice assasination potential:
Lylyth feats, walks 7, shoots 12, hitting DEF 17 on average. Boost to hit if you really need. Apply parasite. Buy second shot, or boost damage of first. Carni assaults, Seraph walks and shoots, Anyssya walks and shoots.
Thats a lot of 3D6/4D6 to hit and a boosted POW 12 -17 rolls from over 15 inch away.

Please keep in mind that she is best against hordes. She can apply bad blood to stop transfer and her assasination is not drastically lowered by camping warmachine casters.

[SteakAndSpirits]

I feel Plylyth is a bit underrated here in this thread.

I agree with the above. And definitely disagree that she is the worst that Legion has to Offer, if for no other reason than Parasite -- It's just that good.

Also, while the synergy may seem obvious, it's worth repeating: Her feat is best used with volume of fire, and parasite is best used with volume of fire. The Seraph is the most obvious candidate. With an effective range of 16" prior to slipstream, RAT: 5 + 3d6(4d6 w/ a boost) will consistently hit WC/WL Defensive stats, and boosted POW: 15s will really ruin their day. Additionally, "softening" up a target with Black Frost Shard is an excellent choice and very likely to succeed based on the additional die from her feat. Multiple POW: 17s in melee are deadly as anyone whose run a Scythean can attest to, certainly, but when they're coming from a Seraph at range, they're worse -- it is /very/ difficult to protect against.

If the first ice cage hits, the second will almost certianly hit, followed up by Kiss for +2 damage. That -4 DEF debuff makes a Seraph function at effective RAT: 9, with a guarentee of at least 2 fully boosted shots. I don't anticipate too many targets can survive a run under those circumstances from a pair of Seraphs and some may even struggle against a Seraph.

-s&s

[SteakAndSpirits]

(Originally double posted. Decided to continue to add content, rather than add dead space.)

Rather than describing her playstyle as one dimensional, I'd say that she really emphasizes a strength in Legion -- Concentration of firepower and flexibility of activation. That's a single dimension I love emphasizing, but more importantly, her turn-by-turn over the board play is dynamic, frequently with numerous ways to directly influence the battle. Consider a target struck by Lylyth's bow, immediately several things have now occured:

First, that target is now subject to both Blood Lure and Witchmark. These are staple mechanics of an effective Lylyth turn, and one of the sneakiest applications is when a flanking Warbeast has been left outside of Lylyth's CTRL range after she's moved, and it's charged back into it due to the free Blood Lure charge. Bring another Shpherd or two, and your CTRL range will rival Vayl's. Plus, tying the accuracy of her spells to her very respectable RAT: 8 (on an Eyeless Sight Platform) means that there aren't any models currently in game that she doesn't threaten.

Secondly, Lylyth may or may not have attacked prior to movement. When targets of opportunity are in range, she can fire and then relocate, allowing flexible activations.

Third, it suffers a boostable POW: 12 -- Note: POW: 12 may be insufficient to kill a multi-wound, which can play to your advantage when it goes intentionally unboosted, allowing a unit to suffer parasite.

Further, what's so incredible about Lylyth's feat is that it exists inside of a Faction who excells at ending the match by directly killing the opposing WL/WC at range, and that their primary defensive mechanism is almost always their DEF stat. In the case of Legion WBs, their RAT: 5 stat helps balance their native access to Eyeless Sight -- For a single turn, that limitation is lifted. It's a big deal, not something to be trivialized.

As far as list construction, a core of Seraphs (At least two) is highly recommend. Consider adding in anything that has a potent critical effect as 4d6 will frequently crit: Naga, Bolt Throwers, Typhon, etc. For instance, a Naga is capable of two fully boosted melee attacks at 4d6 -- The liklihood of missing the critical shadowbind is minimal. Swing your Seraph in to slipstream it 2" out of melee range on it's way to decimate something, and watch your opponent's heavy sit helplessly out of commission for a turn with nothing to beat on.

Likewise, the Seraph on it's own turns into a terror against other Hordes factions with their living warnouns -- A P+S of 14 morphs up to 19 while operating on a target that the BFS chewed on, with Parasite. It won't be uncommon for a critical poison to sneak in there once or twice during it's activation, giving it more than enough firepower to drop even the heartiest of targets.

Also, as devestating as the Carnivean is on feat turn, consider a Scythean. It synergizes well with the Seraph for a deadly 13" threat range, potentially charges for free, generates up to 7 attacks (At up to P+S: 20), but also brings insurance against tough models who are almost certainly a bad-matchup for Lylyth's stick-and-move style of ranged gameplay.

-s&s

[Vishnu DoW]

Being the battlebox caster, i played plyl quite a bit right when i got started with the game
the most significant synergies i noticed were with the carnivean (who can destroy entire swathes with an extra die on his spray) and hex hunters, who can whip out 2 attacks each on feat turn and quite reliably take out 2 infantry per hunter. I also like running her with models that have crit abilities, since the feat makes them trigger that much more often (i.e. Bolt thrower, Blackfrost shard)

[PG_BloodRath]

(Originally double posted. Decided to continue to add content, rather than add dead space.)
-s&s

Im glad you did double post. the information you added is very insightful and will be helpful to future players. some times fate comes in the form of a computer glitch. please contune to contribute you Knowladge to all the killing time and dust off threads.

i want to thank every one again for all the awesome participation you have added to every thread. togather we are working as a team to build a new sticky. be part of history and leave your mark.

[Jake the Dog]

One of the best pieces I've found with her is the Throne of Everblight. It does various things for Lylyth:
1. Huge Base to hide behind.
2. With Parasite on a target, you get effective P+S 18 Tentacles.
3. It isn't a Warbeast, it can leave your control area if needed.
4. You can do Eruption of Spines to it to have it arc to enemies.
5. It love the feat.
6. You probably have a Seraph and/or Carnivean with Lylyth1. Both of their Animus are lovely to use with it.

P.S. Sorry if this pretty common knowledge. I just used Legion twice, and both times where with Lylyth1.
P.P.S. Sorry for the necro, but it is in a sticky...