She is ok now, expensive, but more survivable, the update looks more impressive on paper especially to people that do not play Shasvastii than it really is, but in my opinion now its on a position that is worth fielding.
Worth fielding is really all I wanted when it came to playing Shasvastii. Especially as it's your only source of smoke. It was also your main early attack piece to immediately pick apart your opponent's backline but Dukash does that job better now in most circumstances. And you are at no risk of losing that threat if you go second. And considering how much Shasvastii still lives within Vanilla, any perk to play the sectorial is welcome in my mind. :)
Why do you say about N4 standards the profile sucked? Are we talking right now or before the changes? Don't know, cheaper, more burst in CC, which means more % to win the F2F plus more % to have a critical hit with monofilament... Plus having back the template, which right now, to kill FT for MI and LI is more than OK. Plus right now we have more HI or TAGs in play, I believe, so more opportunities to bring down some expensive models (points and swc). Plus regeneration, which makes speculo not as vulnerable to a template if the target has some direct template weapon and chooses not to F2F... I think now is more than Ok. I would say is again the best impersonator in game since it has value to kill cheaper profiles by shooting at them (template, F2F or even outside LoF) plus CC, only one failed saving roll is needed to put a model out of the table, without to forget that even in unconscious state rival will need at least one order to make it permanent. I'm curious, what would have needed the speculo to be more than Ok for you? (I'm not being sarcastic)
Pre changes. It didn't change much but the landscape changed around it. Most HI got cheaper so how much you got for killing any HI is overall less valuable as your opponent is more likely to just have more of them. Additionally if you are talking about LT sniping, the shotguns losing templates hurts everyone but it really hurt the Speculo because the monofilament is no more valuable against LI then it is against TAGs. Which is great if you can attack a TAG but if you have to kill some LI LT model then your melee is riskier then it needs to be. Speaking of said LT sniping, CoC has become more widespread overall. So it's even riskier to go for that LT attack run. Taking the risk to kill your opponent's LT can be worth it, but having to go against 2 or more models now to get LoL makes your likelihood of success to be disadvantageous. While I am also sensitive to not be overly comparative with another faction, to my recollection there are only a handful of Impersonators and 1 other Impersonator with IMP1 (Al-Jabel is a Fiday, just a special one). And when you look into scenarios of which the models are used, MA 3 with DA CC is much better at killing LI and MI which are pretty common LTs, worse at killing an ARM4 HI in a single order but not by a huge margin and with a lower margin of failure, and a second order likely ensures the kill with the Fiday. In fact 2 orders has a lower rate of failure with the Fiday then that single order with the Speculo had, and that only gets worse if the Speculo needs a second order also (5.6% lose the F2F vs 14.8% against a CC 16 model). It only really struggles against TAGs and TAG equivalents. All for both a cheaper points cost and no SWC in a sectorial that is well known for playing a better camo game. The Speculo got shafted from both only being a single die to roll on top of losing its best tool for clearing out lighter models (template). The Speculo should feel like the most deadly Impersonator. Because you are paying for it to be so. So the fact it looked hilariously bad compared to something that was functionally a fraction of its cost was laughable. The biggest reason to take the Speculo pre-changes in Shasvastii is you had no option for smoke to smoke shoot. Even just as LoS blocking, the Jayth has Disco Ballers and duos with the Gwailo for duo bonus. As well as the Tensho who has them too. So it's not even exclusive in the role of blocking LoF anymore, it's only MSV2 smoke shooting. But then you play Vanilla where you have plenty of AVA for Shasvastii models and can take Daturazi. *shrugs*
I agree that Lt. hunting is only important in certain matchups. My calculations have the Speculo performing better that the Fiday against targets with ARM 3 or greater (as long as they don't have Immunity(Enhanced)). That still gives it a lot of good targets that it is great at killing. For me, the major issue with the Speculo is the legacy SWC cost.
100%. I think more my issue with the Speculo pre changes is it's marginally better at killing HI, but ARM 3 single wound the Fiday is still better due to DA (since you only need a single wound to take the target down). And the Fiday still does that job at a lower risk and also still drops the target pretty quickly. TAGs/3W models end up being the massive exception and I won't completely undersell that but with how good HI are now with duo bonuses and points drops I've even been seeing fewer TAGs overall. And this is all being compared against something that is cheaper overall in points while also costing 0 SWC. So the HB player still can take a full compliment of heavy weapons. If I'm paying SWC for something then it almost automatically holds an important place in my list of some kind. Something you are paying 1 SWC for per Speculo and more points shouldn't be outclassed by the Fiday in almost every category save for low-CC TAGs. Which your Caliban will still rightfully wreck :P And let's not start on the slow creep of TAGs that have ever higher CC stats and many with MA and/or NBW skills. Lol! I am happy and welcome the changes. We'll ultimately have to see the fallout but Shas need reasons to exist as a sectorial. And I really want them to, as I so love putting my Shasvastii on the table.
A proper CC weapon like EM (PS 6 or lower) and adjusted SWC, Monofilament sounds great on paper, but its not the terror of first edition to N3, a Fiday or Jabel are better at taking down most targets up to ARM 3, we will see if MA3 changes the situation, and I am eager to test it.
