Written under my interpretation of balance changes as released for Kill Team Q3 2025 at Warhammer community.
I include a brief introduction describing what this tier shenanigan is about.
The 2025 Q3 tier list
| Category | Teams |
|---|---|
| S | Phobos, Felgor, Void-Dancers, Sanctifiers, Battleclade |
| A | Warpcoven, Goremongers, Elucidian Starstriders, Wyrmblade, Legionaries, Death Korps, Blooded, Voidscarred, Blades of Khaine |
| B | Nemesis Claw, Angels of Death (*), Raveners, Breachers, Novitiates, Exaction Squad, Wreka Krew, Mandrakes, Farstalkers, Inquisition, Chaos cults, Ratlings, Plague Marines, Vespid, Hierotek, Kommandos, Aquilons, Salvagers, Hand of the Archon (*), Yaegirs (*), Hunter Clade |
| C | Pathfinders, Scout Squad, Kasrkin, Gellerpox, Brood Brothers |
Outliers:
- Angels of Death: mostly a B-tier team now, but through careful operative selection and CP budgeting can contend in the top tables.
- Hand of the Archon: Might be on the A tier, but I think it will be an extenuating exercise to pilot through Grand Tournaments with 6+ rounds.
- Yaegirs: an extremely unique team harmed by their archetype.
What changed?
A lot!
Let’s summarise some of the intent at the Warhammer Community Article and my forecast on the changes:
- Changed “Guard” so that using it no longer allows operatives to counteract too.
- Accurate and rending was clarified, and Severe no longer interacts with Punishing and Rending.
- Remove alpha strikes: mission accomplished for the designers. Alpha strikes are by and large gone.
- Relatedly, “out of activation” movement was tuned down. This can make the game more predictable for newer players, and make Mandrakes feel more unique. But I don´t like the general increase in honesty.
- Tune Astartes down: large progress made, the battle is won, but the war is yet undecided.
- Phobos: pretty much unscathed. “Deadly shots” now has a range restriction after charge, fall back and reposition actions to apply only outside of 6’’ - if you’re playing Phobos right, this will hardly ever matter. Remains a serious contender at the top tables.
- Angels of Death: Hit hard. Duellist got tuned down, with a little bit of something in return. Now normal dice can block crits, but can no longer block two attacks. I think this will reshape the meta - melee teams with 4 attacks now have a chance to do butt heads with intercessors - I expect more internal balance and different chapter tactics to grow in popularity. The heavy intercessor gunner now moves 5’’ which is actually decent, specially considering volkus climbing. The sergeant’s doctrine shenanigans got nerfed to once per battle - I think this seriously hurts the AoD CP economy.
- Nemesis Claw: Hit hard. Losing prescience points at every TP is huge. “In midnight clad” no kicks in out of 8’’ - so most pistols now can shoot them. e.g. A Phobos Reiver shooting, then charging to finish off.
- Plague marines: A light touch. “Contagion” no longer applies to any enemy in control range. I think it’s a very healthy change, rules-wise, but the most unthematic I can imagine. This hurts me hard in the lore.
- Legionary: Moderate hit. Got a general reduction to damage output: Khorne-y melee damage is capped at 7; “Fickle fates” no longer gives relentless. Sidegrade to Implacable - now the “ignore injury” part is only for nurgle operatives - this severely hampers the Legionary capacity to do damage on the way out.
- Warpcoven: Large hit - mostly via damage output reduction. Khopeshes changed to be “4 attacks with balanced” which means it can be boosted va “Fate itself is my weapon” and “Alight” much less. “Broterhood of Sorcerers” only gives balanced now. My personal style is thus gone. This team can remain successfull at the top tables only via hyper-cagey playstyles.
Some other highlights I think will emerge from this:
- Aeldar teams are significantly more viable. Particularly, Blades of Khaine and Voidscarred corsairs can use their mobility and melee skills against most marines
- AoD are no longer a deathly trap. The Goremonger matchup is approachable.
- Pathfinders, sadly, go back into the C-tier. The mobility tricks was a huge part of their viability because it used to offset its difficult action economy.
- Brood brothers got hit hard. It somehow improves their options’ internal balance, but lost a lot of their unique early game positioning. The Magus’ “Spiritual Leader”’s rule got nerfed to apply only one of the options. I foresee this team to be at a disadvantage in most matchups.
- Hierotek lost their unique trickery. Fair - I would resent them if they were more of a trickster than Warpcoven. I also like that the Crypteks have better internal balance.
My biggest question are about how the changes to Pathfinders will play out. I think that they have some extremely good matchups but also some extremely bad matchups, besides being too predictable.
Aquilons and vespids can now be very oppressive to marines, but I wonder if this alone gives them the legs to go the distance at top tables.
For the curious, here follows a -
Tier breakdown !
S tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phobos Strike Team | Fair durability with high mobility. Flexible toolbox with unique crowd control tools, reliable damage output, and good crit op play. | Easy to choose the wrong tools. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Felgor Ravagers | Excellent Crit Op play and durability, consistent damage output in melee. | Too linear and predictable. | Most opponents hate facing them. |
| Void-Dancers | Extremely mobile, extremely deadly, fun Aeldar shenanigans | Fragile. | Most opponents hate facing them. Going out of classification soon. |
| Sanctifiers | Extremely mobile, extremely deadly, durable. | Too linear - few viable playstyles other than hyper aggression. | They significantly reduce the viability of Aeldar teams. Extremely abusive towards inexperienced players. |
| Battleclade | Extremely unpredictable, unique action economy, good damage output. | Limited base mobility. | Extremely abusive towards inexperienced players. Hard to play optimally. |
A tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warpcoven | Flexible operative selection, variable number of activations mixing Astartes with 2APL melee operatives (TL;DR - great Crit Op play). Access to both Recon and Security Archetypes. | The least killy among Astartes teams. Extremely hard to play optimally. | Extremely hard to understand as an opponent. Going out of classification soon. Only viable if playing hyper-cagey. |
| Goremongers | Mobile with high close range damage output. Dangerous to Aeldar. | Savvy opponents can dodge Goremongers’ strengths. | |
| Elucidian Starstriders | Access to Recon and Security with high damage output, access to unique game sequence alteration mechanics. | Fragile. Hard to play optimally. | Hard to understand as an opponent. Going out of classification soon. |
| Wyrmblade | Excellent Crit Op play with high and consistent damage output. | Hard to play optimally. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Legionary | Flexible operative selection to tune to ranged or melee combat, good crit op play. | Most viable compositions are not durable; durable compositions are too linear. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Blooded | Flexible compositions to mix melee and ranged damage output. High potential for consistent damage output. | Limited strategies to score on their archetype. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Death Korps | High volume of consistent shooting with high activation count and good crit op play. | Fragile. Hard to score on their archetype. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Blades of Khaine | Extremely mobile with flexible operative selection. Access to Recon and Security (and Infiltration although hard to make a case for it) | Fragile. Hard to play optimally. | Hard to understand as an opponent. |
| Corsair Voidscarred | Good Crit Op play, mobility and damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | A great team that has extremely frustrating matchups into goremongers, felgor and sanctifiers. Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
B tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angels of Death | Durable, Deadly. | Too linear and popular, so that most opponents know how to face it. | |
| Nemesis Claw | Melee boogeymen with unique crowd control options. | Hard to score on their archetypes - savvy opponents can abuse this in terrain-sparse layouts. | |
| Raveners | Unique tunelling and durability mechanics. | Hard to play optimally. | Time will tell whatś this teamś place in the meta. |
| Novitiates | Consistent close range damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Exaction Squad | Durable and good melee. | Too linear and predictable. | |
| Wreka Krew | High durability and damage potential. | Poor action economy - specially on most Gallowdark match ups. | Extremely swingy - occasionally fun but frequently frustrating as pilot or opponent. |
| Mandrakes | Excellent mobility and damage output with good crowd control options. | Fragile and unforgiving, hard to score on their archetypes. | Hard to read the models as an opponent, even with careful color coding. |
| Farstalker Kinband | Good mobility and crit op play with high activation count. | Fragile and unforgiving. | |
| Inquisitorial Agents | Flexible toolbox with unique crowd control mechanics. | Unforgiving, absurdly hard to play optimally. | The hardest team to understand as a pilot and/or opponent. |
| Chaos cults | High melee damage output, potential for durability. | Hard to play optimally. Too linear. | Currently paying for past sins. |
| Ratlings | Good shooting and mobility with decent melee options. Good Crit Op play. | Hard to play optimally. Deceptively hard operative selection. | |
| Plague marines | Extremely durable with high damage output. Stomps on Sanctifiers. | The least mobile of Astartes teams. Savvy opponents can dodge Plague Marines’ strengths. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Vespid Stingwings | High mobility and access to fly, consistent shooting damage output. | Unforgiving, hard to score on their archetypes. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Hierotek (*) | Flexible toolbox with high durability and shooting output. Access to Recon and Security. | Limited mobility and unforgiving. | Hard to understand as an opponent. |
| Kommandos | Durable with good Crit Op play. The one team that makes the Infiltration archetype fun. | Inconsistent damage output. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Acquilons | Good mobility and damage output, excellent Tac Op strategies. | Unforgiving. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Salvagers | Durable with good Crit Op play and reliable shooting. High potential for consistent damage output. | Limited mobility. | |
| Hand of the Archon | Extremely mobile, high potential for consistent damage output. | Fragile and unforgiving. | Abusive to inexperienced opponents. |
| Yaegirs | Reliable, durable, high damage output. | Limited mobility, hard to score on their archetypes. | Would be an easy S if they had one different archetype. |
| Breachers | Durable, reliable damage spikes during a TP, good action economy. | Too predictable. Insufficient base damage output. | Paying for past sins. |
C tier
| Team | The good | The bad | The ugly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gellerpox Infected | Extreme durability as a hyper horde. | Hard to play optimally, restrictive action economy, too linear. | Going out of classification soon. |
| Pathfinders | High volume of shooting that can ramp up in reliability, fun drone operatives. | Fragile and too linear. Bad action econonmy. | Paying for past sins. |
| Brood Brothers | Decent shooting. Fun operative selection. | Fragile and unforgiving, hard to score on their archetypes. | |
| Scout Squad | Unique pre-game mechanics. Durable. | Too linear. Poor action economy. | |
| Kasrkin | Reliable shooting. | Too linear. Fragile and unforgiving. Hard to score on their archetypes. |
Tier list explanation
This tier is framed from a competitive mindset, such as playing in a tournament or league. I’ll resort to sorting teams into different categories that loosely represent a team’s competitive power. I assume that the proverbial pilot has a perfect knowledge of the team and has played the necessary amount of games under their belt to identify optimal choices quickly:
- S tier: these teams have even matchups at worst and advantageous matchups at best.
- A tier: teams in this category have a fighting chance, and can win a tournament through superior knowledge of the game. Might have a weakness that savvy opponents can exploit as well as give the S-tier teams a run for their money. Or they may have a few disadvantageous matchups within the S-tier but otherwise be solid against everything else.
- B tier: teams that have an even distribution of favorable and unfavorable matchups. You’ll need a deep understanding of your team, the maps and missions, and every opponent to win a tournament. We can call them the “Fair” category.
- C tier: teams that, for the most, have unfavorable matchups.
I don’t have an internal ranking within each category - otherwise I would merely sort all the teams linearly.
I shouldn’t fail to mention that this is a hot take. At the time of this writing, I haven’t played a single game in the current balance yet. not even against myself. So this is all hot air.
I, personally, don’t believe in tier lists, but they are such a widespread convention that I eventually became able to use them as a framing device. TL;DR: my spiritual connection to every team’s soul will manifest in -
Closing thoughts
I’m happy with the overall direction of these changes. The good thing is that it evens out the field even more, reducing the differences between the tiers.
The one negative aspect is that now Sanctifiers have very few natural enemies with a solid gameplan into them. I can merely hope their movement nerf to be enough to keep them in check.
Given that we approach to the end of the Season, we should not discount the underlying currents flowing through this meta - as the World Tournament gets closer, there will be plenty of chance for creative plays to find new ways to compete for the golden ticket now that Astartes are less viable.