HQ - Chaplain - don't do it, take the Interrogator
HQ - Interrogator Chaplain: formerly the best HQ we had, now definitely a solid top 5 along with azrael, belial, and sammy. Put him in terminator armour if you are running deathwing, otherwise would always slap him on bike for mobility, the extra bolter shots, the toughness and extra wound. I would say power fist is a must, the crozius is pretty poor. Since marines are leadership 8, using his leadership of 9 is nice, but with They Shall Know No Fear, it's not super useful. The -1 to opponents leadership can be clutch though. His rerolls in fight phase now works every time you fight, not just first round, so that already is way better. Priced competitively, he is definitely a good HQ.
HQ - Belial: Very awesome now. Blends in super nice with deathwing, gives the all important rerolls, and his sword received a very nice buff. He is an auto-take if you are playing death wing.
HQ - Sammael - way better, and cheaper than in 7th. Would skip out on sable claw, not worth the points for a little extra survivability and some assault cannons. His jet bike auto runs 2d6 and most importantly, is FLY, which means he can fall back and still shoot. Always try and get the charge on sammy, it makes his melee at x2 strength and 2 damage a piece really really good (sure beats his old crappy sword). Whereas he was an expensive HQ for ravenwing in last edition, he is auto-take now
HQ - librarian - I think librarian is a luxury unless playing 2000 points. But at 2000 points, its almost mandatory to have at least one psyker. The ability to deny a key power is clutch. Smite is good but situational and you have to have good awareness of movement to use it effectively. And Aversion is by far our best power. -1 to hit is super awesome. Don't understand how key that is, especially if combo'd with dark shroud to make one key unit literally unable to hit you. Like the chaplain, would put in terminator armour or on bike, depending on rest of your army.
HQ - Asmodai - finally a reason to use this cool model. He basically is an auto include into a death wing army. With the usual chaplain buffs, but also giving +1 attack it makes death wing and death wing knights that much better. Only issue is lack of mobility, as he can't take terminator armour. But you can't put your whole death wing army in deep strike anyway, so put a bunch in a land raider with him in it.
HQ - Ezekiel - He is a beast in combat now, and our only 2-power 2-deny psyker, but I don't think that makes him worth it in my opinion. Especially with lack of mobility. I would just go for a stock librarian and use points elsewhere. Too bad, always wanted to play ezekiel.
ELITE - Apothecary - I'm not convinced about apothecaries yet. Maybe just cause i can't roll 4+ that well! Ability to heal D3 is nice, but not that useful except on characters, and 50% chance of failing to resurrect and then not being able to act is a bit crappy. They are also more expensive than their non-apothecary brethren. My jury is still out on usefulness of apothecaries.
ELITE - Ancients - +1 attack is very nice. I think death wing and ravenwing ancients are more worth it than apothecaries just for this reason. Expensive though, more than twice cost, but probably worth it, and as character level stats can hold their own.
ELITE - Champions - Not worth the points to be honest, would just buy more other stuff, or go for an apothecary or ancient. Was never impressed with champs in last edition, and still are not.
ELITE - Death Wing Terminators - probably as expensive as they used to be, but terminators are that much more scary now. And no-scatter deep strike wherever and whenever you want it is so good. Still, at base cost without upgrades, these guys are like 5-10 points below death wing knights, and way less killy, so unless you are gonna tool them up to be shooters, would just go for knights.
ELITE - Death Wing Knights - The bomb. If you are running death wing, just run these guys, with Belial, Interrogator, and maybe asmodai. Throw in a banner and thats +2 attacks! An that flail with the rollover damage is just MEAN. Watch your opponents cry. These guys dropping down where you want them is a definite threat your opponent will need to deal with, and thats if you don't make 9" charge!
FA - Ravenwing bike squad: these guys got a nice boost. Yea, theres no more reroll link and skilled rider (that was ridiculous anyway), and new JINK is not that good (5+ invulnerable is no different for most weapons that will be -1 or -2 shooting at you), but these guys can now shoot special weapons AND twin boltguns, making them quite versatile. In my opinion, melta is the way to go, plasma you can't risk overcharging and just isn't that good except for added range. Strength 7 to 8 jump means you wound transports on 3 instead of 4, big deal. Would take these guys as your basic troops for ravenwing lists, and flush out for ablative wounds.
FA - Land Speeders - At first I thought man these are way too expensive. For heavy bolter/TML speeders, 3 of them to get the upwash movement, thats 450 points. Thats a lot. But man, that combination does work, parked at the back with a company master for rerolls. And double heavy flamer speeders will make chaff cry as a suicide squad, but its expensive unit to suicide. And with fly, they can shoot advance and flame, then charge, tie up a unit from shooting back, then fall back and flame again. 6d6 heavy flamer is hardcore. I personally have found the flamers too suicide-y and prefer to have TML speeders sitting at back with 48" range, just creaming chaff with 6d6 frag missiles, or removing vehicles or monsters with heavy 6 krak. Then using them in last 2-3 turns to shoot out and grab objectives.
FA - Black Knights: as a proud owner of about 25 black knights, i REALLY REALLY wanted them to work in 8th, but alas, they are just too expensive for slightly glorified bikers. Yes plasma talons are good, but you aren't gonna overcharge, so they are just extra strong bolters really. And they aren't that strong in combat now without rending. And they die like normal marines and don't have 2+ jink. so for 50 points a piece, it just isn't worth it. Have tried many iterations and with many support elements, but your army is just too small if you spam even more than 5 black knights. 250 points for 5 is same as a unit of death wing knights, which are way more survivable and can deep strike wherever and can HURT. So alas, black knights are no longer a thing.
FA - Dark Shroud: auto-take, in almost any dark angels list, no matter if you are playing ravenwing, death wing, or greenwing. -1 to hit in this game (as it is in sigmar) is VVERRRY strong. if you don't think so, you haven't played enough. 6" bubble of it is just filthy. Then you add in aversion, and one unit is doing nothing to you. Would keep it cheap with heavy bolter, but to be honest, without link, there's almost no downside to taking an assault cannon, especially if azrael is nearby. Shroud is also hard to kill! With 4+ invuln from azrael, the shroud becomes extremely hard to kill and takes considerable firepower from your opponent to kill. Excellent unit
FA_ Vengeance: not good i'm afraid. it suffers from same fate as the plasma leman russ. kills itself or makes its gun unusable. Again, as before, no reason to take this at all over dark shroud, and a unit of bikers would be way better.
FA: Nephilim Jetfighter: too many points for mediocre flyer. Definitely would not take this over the Dark Talon for killing chaff, and speeders are way better than it for killing heavy stuff. Alas, jet fighter still sucks.
FA: Dark Talon: another all-star, probably vote from me as most improved unit in Dark Angels. Flyers are strong in this edition, with super fast moves, on from turn 1, and no more shooting arcs, also harder to hit and can only be charged by flyers. Hurricane bolter melts chaff like something ridiculous, 24 shots is sick. And the stasis bomb is awesome if you can roll lots of 4+. The rift cannon is strong for anti-vehicle/characger, and its the only source of mortals we have outside smite and that other psychic power. It's maybe SLIGHTLY expensive when compared to other flyers in the game, but your opponent will cry the first time you melt his screen units with hurricane bolters, or the first time you stick 6-7 mortals on a unit with stasis bomb.
