Primaris Psykers-How best to use them?

[commisarblur]

With the new edition our pskers are getting the chance to throw down with some of the best of other races. Therefore we, as a community, need to brainstorm ideas and strageties to best handle our mental link to the unstable realm of chaos.

Post your ideas in the following formate

Chosen psyker doctrines (please explain each.)

Unit that your grouping with (or not its your choice.)

Choosen to be warlord or not(If so which traits.)

Finally explain your battle plan invovling your psker.

[Deleted]

I was thinking of pyro spec. grouped in with a mechanised cara. vet squad w/ two flamers and a heavy flamer. He wouldn't be my warlord but I'd use him and his unit as a one hit wonder against a closely knit squad of Stormtroopers ( my bro plays LATD )

[WestRider]

Disciplines:
Unfortunately, can't take Divination, which is the best one for Guard.
- Pyromancy: No. Lightning Arc is a better gun than anything you could roll up here, and the utility powers aren't strong enough to justify the gamble.
- Biomancy: Possibly. Enfeeble and Endurance are great (Relentless Guardsmen!), but the other four are pretty lame (Either specifically for him, or in general), and the Primaris is weak. Possibly worth gambling for one of the two, tho, there's about a 60% chance of getting at least one of them.
- Telekinesis: Probably the best choice. Decent Primaris, only one garbage power (Shockwave), and a WC2 Power that means you've got better odds of rolling up the ones you want, since it's only chosen from among 5 instead of 6. Objuration Mechanicum is awesome, well worth trying for.
- Telepathy: Not outright bad, but too unreliable for me. Two WC2 Powers means good odds of getting what you want from the Table and the second best Primaris Power around give a good start. Mental Fortitude is possibly less useful to Guard than other Armies, since we can do more or less the same thing with an Order, but it's still solid. The other three are Gambler's Powers: Not reliable, but they can do useful things.

Location: Probably in a Vet Squad, to avoid getting shot by the Commissar if he's in a Platoon. The only power you'd really want that affects "own Unit" is Gate, and that's probably better with a smaller Unit anyhow. Keep them near the main lines for the most part, tho it depends on what powers he rolls up. Get a bit more aggressive if he gets OM or Enfeeble, keep him solidly in support if he's just tossing around Endurance or TK Dome.

Not using him as a Warlord. The Strategic or Command Traits are better with a CCS than most of what he can do with Personal Traits.

Can't really give you a Battle Plan, given how random the Powers are. Like I said above, I'm going to be using him very differently if he gets Offensive or Support Powers.

In the final analysis, tho, I still feel that Allying in a Rune Priest is a much better option. He gets Divination Powers, adds some great buffs to the Unit he Joins, and brings along the second-best Psychic Defense in the Game. And since he can functionally replace a Commissar, and the Troops Choice you have to bring along with him is worthwhile in and of itself, he ends up being effectively 5-15 Points cheaper than the Sanctioned Psyker.

[krasimirova]

Consider Psychic Shriek from Telepathy and weaken resolve from PBS..

Roll 3d6 - Ld value of 2.. = amount of wounds without cover or armor saves allowed..

But as westrider said we don't really have that good access to psychic powers, divination really would be nice to have.. We can have allies (Battle brothers) that do thou, so all isn't lost..

[mrmoomoo]

Psychic shriek is a malediction, which means it's used at the beginning of the movement phase. While weaken resolve is used in the shooting phase.
I already checked that, it seemed to good to be true. ;D

[dangerrod]

Aug 10, 2012 6:21:00 GMT -5 mrmoomoo said:

Psychic shriek is a malediction, which means it's used at the beginning of the movement phase. While weaken resolve is used in the shooting phase.
I already checked that, it seemed to good to be true. ;D

Correction - Psychic Shriek is a witchfire, which means its used in the shooting phase

Danger Rod

[krasimirova]

Ahh mrmoomoo, my trusty companion Mr. Dangerrod has the answer you where looking for..

Thank you Danger..

[commissarrob]

What I plan on testing out this weekend is using Telepathy with a PBS. Since you have the two powers you get two rolls to get what you want and there are two powers with warp charge 2 so you reroll. What I will be hoping to get is terrify, which causes an immediate moral check and they treat everything as if it has fear even if they are fearless. That combined with the PBS should be pretty good I think.

[WestRider]

Good points. I've never run a PBS, so I hadn't noticed how well they combo with the Telepathy powers. Definitely kicks that one up a couple of notches.

[mrmoomoo]

Correction - Psychic Shriek is a witchfire, which means its used in the shooting phase

My bad, I guess that what I get for trying to be slick and not check my rule book early in the morning.
For some reason I was thinking it was a malediction. ;D

Personally just take an ally psyker with divination, or if you do go with a primaris pysker, pop him in a veteran flamer squad, drop him off near the enemy and use Psychic Shriek.

[dangerrod]

A PBS using WR and the PS using Psychic Shriek is potentially devastating!

I've used it in a few games, the hard part is getting something "big" within 12" of the PS

Danger Rod

[silversurfer]

I guess in that use, it could be nice to put it in a 4 flamers or meltagun PCS unit in a chimera.

I tried this combo in 5th ed : electrical arc and a 4 flamers PCS in chimera for a highly mobile saturation unit. It worked well even against marines and higlhy destructive against everything else.

[majorspeirs]

This review contains a very interesting run down of the Psychic Disciplines available to the Primaris:
www.3plusplus.net/2012/08/30-things-you-should-know-about.html