All about Dark Elves

[tool]

question:

In a league that is 50/50 bash/AGI, how many 'safeties' are desirable? My initial plan is to skill up 2 safeties but thought i'd kill some time on the site asking the question.

[Khail]

Over their 51 game career, my DE team only had 2 "safeties" - my Witches. Both followed the Block/Sidestep/Tackle/Diving Tackle route (one ended up with Dauntless, the other with Mighty Blow). Other than that, I had a S4 Wrestle Line Elf that performed in that capacity once in a while.

[Smeborg]

If by "safety" you mean a ball-hunting Blitzer (Wrestle/Tackle/Dodge etc.) then DEs should IMO have a minimum of 2 (the WEs). It is possible to create more such "safeties", for example by giving Wrestle etc. to a Lino Kicker, or (as has been suggested above) by giving Dodge/Wrestle to a Runner. Such players are unlikely to come close to matching the WEs in this role, however, due to their lack of starting skills.

Hope that helps.

[Anglakhel]

My Lineelf Kickers and my Runners tend to get built as Safeties. I prefer Wrodge over Blodge to give them a good shot at taking down breakaway scorers.

My Runners seem to seldom get Blodge now. Wrestle protects them, helps them take down Block players, and can even help take down a Blitzing player after the Dump Off is made.

[tool]

let me rephrase 'safety' to 'pass defender'.

something like a diving tackler (and perhaps tackle as well) for marking receivers or a pass block guy (perhaps also with catch) for ball-hawking. Maybe one of each. depends on how development shakes out.

[Smeborg]

tool - I don't normally develop any such players on a DE team (I prefer to attack the ball directly).

A possibility is to give the Blitzers Shadowing or D-Tackle as 5th normal skill (Dodge, Tackle, S-Step, Fend, Shadowing/D-Tackle), but this will rarely happen in practice. If you give it as 4th skill (i.e. before Fend), then you might eventually get 1 or 2 such players. Another possibility is to give the Witches D-Tackle at some point (it combines well with J-Up). But I find the Witches are normally in the thick of it, they do not readily assume quiet marking roles. I have never developed a pass-blocker on this team (but I guess you could).

I find the Linos are badly needed on the Line. One may take Kick, one or two others may get lucky and take Guard - that does not really leave room for other specialist development.

All the best.

[Smeborg]

tool - a point to ponder: Dark Elves are a good team for spreading the SPPs around. You will end up with many players with 2 or 3 skills. This is part of the appeal of the team. Thus the team is good at developing generalist players, rather than specialists. The only potential specialists, IMO, are the pairs of starting players: Witches, Runners and Assassins (if you take them).

Hope that helps.

[dines]

Don't think pass block is worth its price unless you have a VERY developed team in a VERY agile league.

[Athanatos]

Thank you for this. Such an excellent read I thought it worth the resurrection bump!