Blighted Nyss Shepherd

For Everblight’s warlocks, shepherds represent a powerful asset. Under the command of a shepherd, dragonspawn are driven to perform in ways typically only achieved under the direct control of a warlock. Though pushing them this way often results in eventual loss of control of the spawn, the bond between shepherd and spawn is so strong that the mere presence of its shepherd can bring a crazed beast back from the brink. Template:TOCbox

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Beast Master
• Template:Condition
• Template:Cower
• Template:Medicate

Weapons

Crooked Staff
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				4				9

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation. In this theme, enemy models that end their activation within 2" of this model suffer continuous corrosion.

Thoughts on Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd in a nutshell

The Shepherd is a 1pt Fury management solo. Her actual utility belies her "point filler" status, and should be among the first purchase for anyone who dabbles into the faction beside the Forsaken and .the Strider Deathstalker. All her special rules work well in nearly every army lists:

• Condition - The Shepherd' first and foremost function. A spared Fury can mean the difference between your battlegroup acting normally and your key warbeast frenzying out of your control, completely messing with your order of activation. You may also add a Fury to your beast if you accidentally overtaxed your warlock's resources during her activation. That function alone makes the Shepherd an important target for the enemy if you run a beast-heavy list.
• Beast Master - Legion is famed for the long ranges on its beasts. The Shepherd ensures that you will never lose the ability to force, even if said beast is out of its controller's control range Note that you still cannot leech Fury from a beast outside its controller's area, so always consider having an opportunity to move back into the warlock's aura, like Sprint, Overtake or Reposition.
• Medicate - An on-demand repair that will heal at least one crippled aspect, further easing the Fury burden on your warlock. It is somewhat difficult to utilize as a.) Legion warbeasts are not famed of their resilience and b.) you must be in B2B with the target but you may also want to keep the Shepherd out of sight if possible.
• Cower - A nice addition to boost her chances against the most common tool the enemy uses to dispatch them, i.e. drifted AoEs. With it an average unboosted AoE has less than 30% of killing a Shepherd, while she still has 40% chance to survive a High-Explosive AoE. Since it has the same range as your Condition ability, it allows you to be a bit more flexible with your order of activation.

As 1-point filler solos go, you often get way more out of her than you have paid for.

Combos & Synergies

• Each and every warlock or lesser warlock - the less FURY they have the better. You will have extended area where your beast can operate on, more freedom in Fury-management, and a cheap solo to score/contest, or just block charge lanes if things go south. If you have a spare point left in your list, you can't go wrong with a Shepherd.
• Ravagore or Nephilim Bolt Thrower - Two Fury-intensive ranged warbeasts who can operate near-autonomously with a couple of Shepherds around.
• Forsaken - You may eat one more Fury with her than normally, since the Shepherd can also put a Fury back onto the warbeast, so your warlock won't starve.
• Kryssa's Tough bubble can help her keeping alive more than any other spell - save perhaps for Bethayne1's Deceleration which might give a surprising ARM 18 against Blast if you are in Cower range.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Fragile and vulnerable to direct fire and indirect, non-blast damage, like electro leaps
  • Cower also won't protect you from other effects of an AoE, e.g. continuous fire or corrosion, etc.
• Often a high priority target in beast-heavy lists.
• The Forsaken can remove up to 5 points of Fury at once. If you are not planning to use her other support features, the Forsaken is often better choice for Fury management.

Tricks & Tips

• Cower triggers on every friendly faction warbeast, living or construct, even stationary or knocked-down ones.
• Beast Master works on every friendly faction battlegroup, not only on your warlock. Use it in conjunction with the Blight Archon, the Beast Mistress or Thagrosh0.
• Her combat abilities are basically non-existing, apart of engaging enemy models with her 2" staff to cancel Dig-In, trigger target-in-melee penalties or pin down a countercharge-capable model. If you really need to send her in, she still benefits from the Archon's Veteran Leader aura though.

Other

Trivia

File:MiniCrate8 2 LittleBlightedPeep.jpg

Little Blighted Peep; Minicrate Exclusive.

• Released in Forces of Hordes: Legion of Everblight (2010)
• Template:LES