My two favorite legions did not get helped. Tsons got shafted AGAIN. They still die to dakka like normal marines and no overwatch. They are very expensive now for what they do.
In that respect nothing has changed between Codices. They're still better than they were, though, on the basis that the Sorcerer's actually useful now.
I am actually livid about their idea of a dark apostle. Has anyone read the books on the Word Bearers? The Dark Apostles are supposed to be the bad asses who lead the Word Bearer legion.
Then turn your Lord into a heavier version. You could have an interesting contrast between the one who spends all his time as a hate preacher, and the one who actually gets out there and leads by example.
ALSO, neither the cultists nor the dark apostle entries include any kind of daemon summoning like the fluff.
Seeing as daemons can be taken as allies, I don't see why this is a problem.
Do not even get me started on possessed. Even more expensive and can only ever be ap3 in cc where as before we had a chance for rending.
Possessed were crap before anyway...
Why do people think the dragon is anti-flyer? vector strikes at st7 on side armor will not dent stormravens and vendettas in most cases. If you equip it with the hades autocannon, it cannot vector strike said flyer and only has 4 shots. I do not see what other people are seeing.
The fact that flyers don't have the Hard To Hit penalty against other flyers might help a bit, and you've got Daemonforge for when you want that Vendetta out of the sky.
Why do people say there are so many awesome combos in this codex?
Units in the current Codex are generally much cheaper than in the old Codex (Defiler notwithstanding, though Daemon, It Will Not Die and Daemonforge do make up for that despite your apparent protestations) so you've got a bit more freedom to mix and match what you want, whether that's with allies or just within the Codex.
The daemon engines will die without regenerating hull points because of low armor. Unless you make all your 5+ saves. I don't see these as that durable.
HUGE point increase on the defilers which I actually used in 5th edition. Same problem with durability stated above.
Go and ask the Dark Eldar players what they thought of Flickerfields under 5th Edition, and what they think of jink saves under 6th. Being able to negate (on average) a third of incoming firepower, and being able to repair (on average) a third of whatever gets through, is better than you make it out to be.