"Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II" - Drukhari Raider Battleships (Dark Eldar) [Advanced Ship Guide]

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Drukhari Raider Battleships

The Battleships of the Drukhari Raiders follow the theme set up by the rest of their categories of line ships, essentially having a single template hull upon which one of four different sets of options are strapped on as a sort of "weapons package". You'll find one option catering to each of the following preferences, extra Lance weaponry and armor piercing power, Torpedoes, Impaler specialist boarding craft and launch bays for carrier operations.

For their faction's delicate nature and lack of damage avoidance/absorption beyond "don't get hit" the Drukhari's Battleships put out some of the highest raw dps and crit numbers in the game, being fearsome opponents when left unchecked.

Patch Status: Updated for Current Patch (v.11218) - July 13th, 2020

Drukhari Raiders Guide Navigation

• Escorts
• Light Cruiser
• Cruiser
• Battleship <- You Are Here
  
  • Obsidian Rose
  • Iron Thorn
  • Dying Sun
  • Falling Moon

- Main Guide Index -
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Terms Used

This section briefly covers the advanced weapon data you will find for each ship. These values are calculated based off the base weapons stats and are explained as follows:

DPS - Damage Per Second - The total damage output per weapon type (all guns combined) per second, assuming 100% of shots land, before considering armor penalties.

Crits Pm - Critical Hits Per Minute - Assuming all shots land, this will be the average number of critical hit's the guns will cause every minute before modifiers. (all guns combined)

Salvos PM - Salvos Per Minute - The total number of combined waves of fire, not including multiple rounds fired from the same weapon.

Rounds PM - The actual number of shots or individual projectiles fired each minute from all guns combined.

Drukhari Battleships Stats

Beyond having some of the highest raw dps and crit numbers, which we will get to below, thanks to the large bonuses Drukhari get to defending troops, they manage to take the leading spot in that department as well, adding to their #1 listing for their assault critical chance.

Shield: 80
Armor: 50 (All Sides)
Identification Range: 9,000
Speed: 240
Rotation Speed: 24
Hull: 2,000
Defense Turrets: 18
Bravery: -25
Boarding Damage: 12
^{+ Causes 6 Assault Actions}
Lightning Strike Damage: 6
^{+ Causes 3 Assault Actions}
Critical Assault Chance: 70%
Defending Troops per Stage: 21

Drukhari Battleships Attributes & Skills

Not much new to add here, slavetaking still sucks and the Drukhari still have insane boarding capabilities thanks to their high crit chance and frenzy. Thanks to innate Battleship class boarding bonuses, their assault troop damage is quite high now too.

• Aeldari Propulsion: Gives access to Wraithbone Shift, Vauls Manoeuvre and Burn Retros.
  
• Independent: -25 bonus to bravery.
  
• Shadowfield: Replaces regular shield with the Drukhari's special shield type. Provides stealth at full ship speed.
  
• Void Species: Immune to Plasma Storms and Solar Eruptions.
  
• Frenzy: While in no casualties troop state, receives +10% critical chance to assault actions.
  
• Mimic Engine: Extended deployment zone for this ship.
  
• Slavetaking: Replaces 1 lost troop each time the ship turns an enemy vessel into a drifting hulk. (Cannot go past casualty step)
  
• Good Troop Efficiency: Deals 2 troop damage per assault action.
  
• Surgical Strike: 60% chance to deal +1 troop damage per assault action.

Obsidian Rose

Drukhari Raider Battleship - Obsidian Rose - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 332
Raw Total Crit Output: 8.7 critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 50*
*58 with Lock On/Tracking Sense
Armament:

• 3 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 6 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 4 x Phantom Lance Artillery
  ^{100% Accuracy, Pierces Armor, +100% Dmg from Tracking Sense
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
  

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Being the "all standard weapons" option, the Obsidian Rose takes the cake for raw damage and crit potential, just belching out insane damage and ripping apart the subsystems of whatever ships are unfortunate enough to be the target of the Obisidian Rose's wrath.

While I still have 4 more factions to finish covering at the time of writing this, as far as I can tell the Obsidian Rose has the highest dps and crit of any ship in the game, especially counting single target damage. The only contender I can think of for that spot is the Cairn when you add in the split-lighting strike ability of it's stance, when facing several targets at once, but that is a special case scenario.

Iron Thorn

Drukhari Raider Battleship - Iron Thorn - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 404
Raw Total Crit Output: 6.9 critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 44*
*46 with Lock On/Tracking Sense
Armament:

• 1 x Super Heavy Launch Bay*
  ^{Raptor Interceptor (4 charges)
  Razorwing Bomber (4 charges)
  Slavebringer Assault (4 charges)
  *Counts as 3 regular bays.}
• 3 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 6 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 1 x Phantom Lance Artillery
  ^{100% Accuracy, Pierces Armor, +100% Dmg from Tracking Sense
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
  

As has been mentioned prior in the ship guides, the Iron Thorn is the second most cost efficient carrier of launch bays at 134 points per bay, with the Fiend Ascendant coming in at 129 points and the Burning Scale at 180 points for its single bay.

Thanks to the considerable firepower of the underlying weaponry that comes constant across the 3 specialist Battleship hulls, the Iron Thorn is also a potent warship beyond just being a large carrier vessel, giving extra cause for choosing one to lead a carrier fleet, despite it's second place efficiency.

Dying Sun

Drukhari Raider Battleship - Dying Sun - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 333
Raw Total Crit Output: 6.9 critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 44*
*46 DPS with Lock On/Tracking Sense
Armament:

• 1 x Super Heavy Impaler Bay*
  ^{Impaler Assault Craft (4 Charges)
  *Counts as 3 regular bays.}
  
• 3 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 6 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 1 x Phantom Lance Artillery
  ^{100% Accuracy, Pierces Armor, +100% Dmg from Tracking Sense
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
  

Thanks to being the only vessel of the Drukhari fleet to field more than a single Impaler bay, the Dying Sun just so happens to be the most economical way to field them at roughly 11 points per Impaler.

Theoretically you could field as many as 10 Impaler Bays in a standard point (1,200) fleet by bringing 3 Dying Sun Battleships and a single Baleful Gaze, leaving 49 points of free unused space left over. Stacking Impalers isn't a great all around strategy, but definitely has some meme usage going for it. Advanced tactics covering the use of Impalers and other scenarios of weapon types will be covered in another guide section, focusing on overall fleet strategies, hopefully due not too long from now.

Falling Moon

Drukhari Raider Battleship - Falling Moon - [Ynnari Sub-Faction]

1 / 8

Point Cost: 333
Raw Total Crit Output: 6.9 critical hits per minute
Raw Total DPS: 44*
*46 DPS with Lock On/Tracking Sense
Armament:

• Torpedoes (8 Tubes)
  ^{Basic Torpedoes (4 Charges)}
• 3 x Heavy Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 6 x Scythe Missile Artillery
  ^{Exceptional Accuracy (85/70/55/40/25)
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
• 1 x Phantom Lance Artillery
  ^{100% Accuracy, Pierces Armor, +100% Dmg from Tracking Sense
  90° Front
  Range: 9,000}
  

The Falling Moon might not be the best points use for stacking torpedoes ,if that happens to be the direction you are going with your Drukhari fleet, but the fact it comes bristling with all of it's Battleship standard weaponry makes up for it's slight increase over the other options in terms of cost per tube.

Changelog

7/13/2020 - Updated for patch 11218.

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