The new 40K FAQs are up and Rune Priests took a hit in the new Space Wolves FAQ. But it's not actually that bad...But as always, there is confusion, chaos, panic and crying!
Even a couple of guys on the Space Wolves Facebook Group announced that they were quitting the hobby altogether.
Meanwhile, other members of our community showed that they were proper Space Wolves and not a bunch of whiny emo Blood Angels by embracing the changes and 'Biomancing' up their Rune Priests into close combat killing machines.
After all, I think we can all agree that Rune Priests used to get a hell of a lot of awesome stuff for just 100pts.
Anyway, here are the changes, followed by a conclusion to make it all clear.
Page 36, 37 84, 96 - Rune Priests
Rune Priests have the Psyker (Mastery Level 1) rule
"May be updated to a Psyker (Mastery Level 2)...25pts"
Please ignore these psychic powers. Space Wolves Psykers generate psychic powers from the Biomancy, Daemonology, Divination and Telekinesis disciplines instead.
Page 36 - Runic Weapons
The FOURTH sentence of the Runic Weapons rules should be replaced with the following:
"Furthermore, a model with a runic weapon adds 1 to Deny The Witch Rolls"
Page 53, 82 - Njal Stormcaller
Replace "Master Psyker" special rule with "Pyker (Mastery Level 2)"
"The Staff Of The Stormcaller is a Runic Weapon (Stave) that grants Njal and additional +1 bonus to Deny The Witch (for a total bonus of +2)"
We lose all the Space Wolves Powers from the Codex.
We get access to Biomancy, Daemonology, Divination and Telekinesis
Runic Weapons give you +1 to Deny The Witch rolls. That's in addition to the +1 for being a Psyker, giving us a 4+ Deny.
We lose our 24" 4+ nulify bubble.
Runic Weapons are STILL Force Weapons. This is made very clear on page 36 of the Codex. And this has not changed.
Runic Weapons still wound Daemons on a 2+.
In terms of strategy, our Rune Priests have changed from 'zapping' things to 'augmenting' themselves and the units they're with.
Considering Space Wolves are good at shooting, fighting and getting into the thick of it, this is still pretty good!
But I will admit that Njal Stormcaller isn't worth taking if he's only Mastery Level 2 due to his high points cost.
Thankfully a new Codex isn't far off...