Hello! Welcome to another article. Today I will be ranking one of the biggest problems in Warhammer Underworlds right now, pings. Pings may be an issue, but how big of an issue are they right now?
For the purposes of this article the definition of ping will be:
Ping
/pɪŋ/
noun
A power card that does damage to an opponent, typically not during an activation, usually during a power step.
“Pings are overused.”
verb
The action of playing a power card that does damage to an enemy, typically during a power step or as a reaction.
“I will ping your entire board with Abasoth’s Avalanche.”
For the purposes of this article I will stick with the noun definition, namely a gambit card that does damage to an opponent. I will also try to do this in the perspective of championship format, but I am pretty sure most of these rankings apply to Nemesis as well.
Anyways, enjoy!
Disclaimer: this tier list may be influenced by my personal opinion. I tried my best to explain why I ranked each card in each tier, and my intention is not to start any arguments, just to show people how many pings there are in the game and whether or not one should be concerned about them.
S Tier:
Launch an Attack – A fantastic ping. Range 4, no plot restriction, no fighter restriction, doesn’t require any dice to be rolled. All you need to do is to break an upgrade. While this may deter some, if a friendly fighter is about to die anyway, it may be worth to break their upgrade. Or if an upgrade does not provide any more use in a certain matchup, like Gloryseeker with no 4 wound enemies left or Refashioned Reactions in Round 3 after it’s been used, it can be considered a free ping. Finally, with the new experimentation from Games Workshop’s side in giving upgrades to enemies (False Gifts and Singular Reshaping), this ping may just sometimes save your life. Overall, one of the best pings in the game. Can be used by anyone and can provide benefits.
Quickroots – Despite being restricted AND plot-locked, this is definitely one of the best pings right now. Unlimited range, doesn’t need any play on your side, difficult to predict. Even just the threat of Quickroots forces an opponent to play super carefully with their vulnerable fighters. If I charge your guy with my 1-wound Domitan, I risk getting Quickroot’ed. This card is fantastic despite the amount of hoops you need to jump through to use it. There aren’t much games where an enemy won’t have a move or charge token to use this on.
Abasoth’s Avalanche – The final boss of S Tier. Abasoth’s Avalanche has been a major topic on Underworlds discord servers when it got revealed. The potential to put a wound on an entire board for only 1 swirly-wirly (Focus) is insane. I believe the percent for this in Round 1 going off on an opponent’s board is around 17.5% (correct me if I’m wrong). This is around 17.5% of the time more than I want it to. Even at the downside of damaging your own fighters, this is a bonkers card. It only makes the current most powerful warbands even stronger, such as Domitan. Swarm warbands are almost invalidated by this one. Simply too much power at such a little downside (for warbands who want it) should not go unrestricted, un-plot locked, or even unforsaken.
Freeze-Thaw Finish – (Edited, thanks to Kyros: A Tier to S Tier) This is a really nice ping with no range restriction revolving around tokens. Its unlimited range makes it really hard to counter, only via line of sight from the caster. You have to be positioned extremely carefully to not get randomly sniped from the other side of the board. Your only hope is that your opponent miscasts it, in most cases. Since you are not required to place the token when casting this, it’s really difficult to even deny the cast unless you kill the wizard.
A Tier:
Dark Command – It’s a really nice ping, doesn’t need dice, technically unlimited range. On the other hand, not all enemy warbands have a beast or savage fighter to choose so most of the time it’s Range 1, due to you having to get adjacent to an enemy. The reason this brilliant ping isn’t S Tier is due to the sheer amount of hoops you have to go through to use it. It’s plot locked behind a good, but not the best plot (for most warbands) and it’s restricted.
Abasoth’s Screaming Idols – Super easy to cast, super reliable, decent range. Abasoth’s Idols is a technically 4-range ping with the ‘downside’ of moving a feature token under an enemy to deal damage. Or it can be used to ‘sidestep’ onto a token yourself. Point is, it’s versatile, enables other feature token based pings (Lethal Ward, Freeze Thaw Finish), and deals damage by itself. The only reason it’s in A Tier in place of S Tier is that it’s restricted (not plot-locked though) and that it does sometimes give your opponent glory via objective holding or something else if they survive the ping and now stand on a token, and finally it can miscast since it is a gambit spell.
Frozen to the Spot – Another fantastic ping. This one can be very easily counter played, just by not moving, but it is still devastating. Playing this unlimited range, no line of sight necessary gambit with no dice involved on a vulnerable fighter prevents them from moving for the rest of the round. While today there are lots of out-of-activation moves (Voidcursed cards, Hexbane’s dogs, Exiled Dead), there are still loads of fighters who do need to use activations to get around. While sometimes it’s just better to take the 1 damage than to stand still, I guarantee this card will definitely force you to rethink some of your plans in your games.
B Tier:
Unbearable Energies – Dark Command’s cousin. Why is Dark Command in A Tier, but this in B? First of all, becoming Savage is much easier for most warbands than to be Voidcursed. Second, the Voidcursed plot card is not exactly the best choice for a lot of warbands. Most of the time, once you voidcurse a fighter, you aren’t going to be wanting them sent up front to die (in most cases). This card does put your Voidcursed guy at risk, since you need to get close to enemies, and it’s harder to get a Voidcursed fighter than a savage fighter.
Stir the Nest – Not a bad ping by any standards, it’s Range 4 and the fact that there are lots of hazard/feature hexes on the board right now makes it pretty usable. However, it’s extremely easy to counterplay. Aggro warbands will typically just avoid feature/hazard hexes if they know you have this one. Additionally, it is restricted, meaning there are just some better cards competing for the restricted slot. For example, Abasoth’s Idols does basically the same thing with a slightly better effect. Once again, not a bad ping, just let down by the instability (it’s a spell), easiness to counterplay, and being restricted.
Lethal Ward – Basically Stir the Nest? While it has no range restriction or spell dice involved, it’s pretty easy to counterplay, keeping it away from A Tier. It’s unrestricted but it affects less hexes than Stir the Nest, due to delving existing as well as simply not standing on objectives. While this is still a powerful ping by many standards, it’s simply too easy not to get hit by it to give it a higher spot on this list.
C Tier:
Bursting Power – Pick an objective token, and it EXPLODES. This ping is just a little outside of B-Tier. First of all, it can damage your own fighters, and unless you draw it Round 1 and use it first power step while only enemies are grouped together, it probably will. The moment your enemy gets too close it becomes risky. Second, it is only a 50-50 chance to succeed, which is not a lot at all. The only time this ping outclasses Lethal Ward and Stir the Nest is very early game against swarm warbands, or Hold Objective swarms. Its only redeeming quality is that it can damage multiple fighters at once. This alone makes it very powerful, sadly not as powerful as the ones listed above. It’s simply too situational.
Grasping Rootgrave – A telegraphed, large area of effect (AOE) ping. This is not a bad ping by most standards. It damages a lot of hexes, it deals damage to multiple targets, and it’s more-or-less difficult to dodge. However, there are 2 main caveats to it. First of all, it damages your own guys, whose only advantage is that they know you have it in hand meaning you can position them safely beforehand. Second, it’s a Domain and can’t be played in the final power step. This means that it can be blocked by other Domain gambits (though they are rare) and key fighters from your opponent can be rescued before they take damage from it, since you can’t play it last-last power step. Overall, a decent ping, maybe a little too good at pinging things.
Barging Forward – A nice push as well as a ping in a Brawler’s hands. Even for Brawlers, this is a situational ping. Scatter tokens have been know to be extremely finicky in hitting where they need to. Due to the FAQ’s, you cannot start the push from this card while adjacent to a target and still pinging them, making it much worse than thought earlier. Right now, you need to roll 2 symbols that go into the same direction in a best-case scenario for this card. Additionally, the amount of warbands that actually have Brawlers typically only have one, once that Brawler dies, you lose the ping. Push wise, it’s an ok card. It gets you closer (most of the time). Ping wise, it’s inaccurate, scatter based, and needs certain fighters alive. The fact that it’s also a push is keeping it from dropping down into D-Tier.
The Walls Are Closing In – This is actually a nice ping for one reason – it can be played right before your activation, forcing your opponent to burn a push or take 1 or more damage. Additionally, since this card gives your opponent only 1 activation and power step to react, it can force some bad positioning. It is also less of a threat to your own fighters than Grasping Rootgrave as if you have this card, you are probably not keen on edge hexes. This card helps score stuff like Shifting Walls as well. The one downside of it is also an upside – it does not cover a lot of hexes, as edge hexes aren’t prevalent in non-longboard situations. Edge hexes are not extremely good places to be anyways, so there won’t be lots of opponents willingly walking there.
Spiteful Channeling – While it is a spell for Chaos only, this is a super easy to cast, and can be a little prank to your attacker. It’s kind of like a hidden Reflecting Mask. However, it does require you to take damage, something Chaos wizards typically don’t enjoy. While you don’t need to survive the attack, it’s still a risky ask. Luckily, with Salvage if your wizard dies beforehand you should be fine. Still, for wizards like Ephilim and Fecula (Wurmspat) who are almost certainly going to be primary targets, this card can be nice surprise to your opponent and is almost always going to be played or salvaged. It’s just wizards already have access to better pings than this.
D Tier:
Insect Swarm – In the unlikely event that you are running lots of Poison gambits, this is a fine ping. Without any Poisons, it is simply too unreliable to make it worth a slot in your gambits. With a 33% chance to roll a hammer per dice, even Bursting Power is stronger than this. In most cases, Bursting Power would be a better choice, since it does damage to more enemies and has a higher chance of going off. The only reason this single-target, dice-dependent ping isn’t in F Tier is the fact that it can potentially do 2 damage with enough luck and Poisons in deck.
Bound Spirit – Not necessarily a bad card, however it’s just super easy to deny. For starters, if you have a friendly fighter standing on a feature token, there is a high chance that, if there is an enemy fighter adjacent to that fighter, the enemy just charged the friendly on the token. After the charge, assuming it hit, it is likely that the enemy would drive you off the token, as most of the time you need tokens for objective cards. This makes this card really luck based in either your opponent missing their attack or them forgetting to drive you back. Additionally, in the current meta, there aren’t a lot of warbands who actually need to stand adjacent to you to attack you. This makes this card really easy to deny. Simply too many things have to go right for you to score it.
Grievous Riposte – This can very well be a good card if the meta today wasn’t entirely made up of Range 2+ warbands. Unfortunately, that is what it is. While it does do a whole 2 damage, it’s pretty luck based in that you need to first roll a crit and then the attacker has to be Range 1. It would be a great ping if there wasn’t this range restriction, however, there is one. Overall, it’s a little too luck based and it pretty useless in a far-range meta.
Creaking Ceiling – This card rose in power with the new Plunder rules allowing you place extra blocked hex tokens. Especially for Fearsome Fortress users, there won’t be lots of places you can be safely driven back. The key issue with it is that it affects both warbands, which can prove to be an issue for you. Other than that, it’s a really powerful card, usually making everyone +1 damage, especially in longboard scenarios.
Hold Them Under – This can potentially be a 3 damage ping. However, similar to Insect Swarm, it’s really luck based with only a 33% chance per dice to deal damage. Warbands like Exiled Dead who already have to swarm you enjoy this, but even so, it’s really, really chance based. In my opinion, it’s not a good enough effect to accommodate for the low chance going off. Additionally, there aren’t that many warbands who can gather a crowd around one fighter.
Final Curse – While this is a really good 2 damage ping, it requires your wizard to die. Warbands like Domitan who are either all wizards or have a lot of them can definitely abuse this card. However, those are the only threats. Most of the time, it’s not worth running this card due to you needing to have it in hand when your wizard dies.
F Tier:
Blind Gamble – This is one of the worst pings in the game. First of all, you need to pick a token that is a) not an objective and b) used to be an objective. Second, the enemy you want to ping has to have no Move or Charge tokens. While the guess the number part isn’t really difficult due to process of elimination, the part that states that you have to have no Move or Charge tokens is very difficult. If a fighter is on a delved token, it is likely that they moved onto it (unless it’s the start of the round) and therefore have a move/charge token. The one time I see this card being more or less consistent is when a fighter from a warband that doesn’t need objective tokens happened to end up on an objective at the end of the round delves to get a cover hex, then you win the roll off for the next round, and get to ping them first power step. It’s simply too situational to be worth bringing for the ping factor.
Spiritsnare Cavern – The unusable ping. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Charge action anymore, only Charge superactions, meaning there is no way for this card to ever deal damage. If I’m wrong, this card can be D-Tier. In that case, in today’s 3-4 fighters per warband meta, this card won’t be too good. However, it does stop one very crucial part of the game: charging. Well, not stop, but it definitely forces your opponent (and you!) to think more: Do I really need to take the risk and charge that fighter? While the damage is applied only after the charge super action finishes, it is still a useful deterrent. Unfortunately, a crit is pretty difficult to roll even when rolling 2-4 dice, and this affects you as well, meaning it won’t always be damaging an opponent.
Flying Bludgeon – The Destruction version of Launch an Attack. There is literally no reason to take this over Launch. First of all, this one requires an Attack Action upgrade (which aren’t too common). Second, this one has Range 3. The only upside I see is that Launch only Staggers with Denizen upgrades unlike this, which staggers always. However, most warbands typically take only 1-2 attack action upgrades per deck. This makes it difficult to even acquire the attack action upgrade (in a 20 card deck, it’s a 5% chance to have one attack upgrade) and then to break it. Unless you are explicitly running attack action upgrades for this card, it’s a pass in most cases.
Tainted Waters – If you are running Domains, take this. Otherwise, please don’t. In 90% of all cases a warband won’t run more than 2 Domains. They simply aren’t too good to be worth running. While it is an unlimited range ping, the requirement to play it is simply too high. The only Domains I see being played today are Grasping Rootgrave and Drifting Tides.
And that’s it! After reading this article, did your perception of pings change? Mine definitely did, I honestly thought that there are less ways than this to deal damage in the game. Even some of the D-Tier pings can be easily used, especially comparing to some pings in Harrowdeep or Direchasm. Pings are definitely a problem. However, if it won’t screw your gameplan over, some of these definitely are less scary once you know how to avoid them. As a swarm warband enjoyer, I hope that ping damage is just a seasonal thing, just like Holding Objectives was back in Beastgrave.
Once again, thank you for reading! I am hoping to get a Part 2 of this out with faction pings. If you have any feedback, please message me on Discord (VintroV2). Thank you, and I hope to see you again soon!
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