AoS 2 - Sylvaneth Discussion

[Ruhraffe]

Maybe you can sell the left-over arch rev to someone who has not recieved a looncurse. 

[IndigoGirls]

Thought I’d post a fun list I’d like to try out when the new book drops. I call the list Battalion Behemoths.

Gnarlroot

 

LEADERS

TLA - Ethereal Amulet, Regrowth

TLA - Spell TBD

Branchwych - Warlord, Auto-Cast Deepwood Artifact, Verdurous Harmony

Branchwraith - Gnarlroot Artifact, Spell TBD

 

TROOPS

5 x Tree -Revs

5 x Tree-Revs

30 x Dryads

3 x Kurnoth Hunters (Greatsword)

 

BEHEMOTHS

Treelord

Treelord

 

ENDLESS SPELLS

50pts of TBD (maybe soulsnare and gladewyrm)

 

BATTALIONS

Lords of the Clan

Household

2000pts on the dot

 

Whats the game plan? This list is meant to grind, take maximum advantage of the Gnarlroot passive, and take advantage of the very powerful Sylvaneth casting artifacts. In order to grab all the artifacts we want we’re going double battalion. The new auto cast deepwood lore artifact looks rather strong especially when combined with Gnarlroots warlord trait of healing something D3. Verdurous Harmony is bonkers if you can bring back a kurnoth (keeping the 30 dryad anvil healthy isn’t a bad backup). Gnarlroots specific artifact is very powerful on our branchwraith to help guarantee 10 dryads a turn. Our 4 wizards should keep everyone in re-roll 1s to hit radius. We have a plethora of CPs in the list and sadly not too much to spend it on. However, that means we’re getting re-roll 1s to save every turn and likely the Gnarlroot Ability or battleshock immune. This list is going to pump out a lot of woods, it’s got enough big bodies and heals that if a tree lord isn’t killed outright and it’s our turn it’s likely back to full, it’s got lots of free teleports, and four chances to make an enemy unit swing last. You may be asking yourself, where is the hammer? Sadly I don’t think this list is optimal because it’s basically 5 anvils. Tree lords and TLA have too few attacks to be consistent and are closer to anvils than hammers. That said, we have an ok mid range shooting phase with the Clans ability and our Treelords combined shooting. The game plan is to grind. My goal is to get on objectives early and plant roots. Force the enemy to engage on my terms and break them on anvils. Also with tagging objectives tree revs can force the opponent to keep some units back so their objectives are swept up under their feet. This will only help reduce the pressure on my many anvils and hopefully Im adding 30 dryads over the course of a game. I think there is an iteration of this list that includes more small casters, kurnoths, and a durthu but I thought this was a fun take. As a note, I thought this would be a good list for those people consumed by spite revs, bravery debuffs, durthu, and great swords. While I think those are all good options, the leaked info this book has a lot of nooks and crannies to explore. I think Treelords are priced appropriately now and wanted to build a list that pushes them hard. Cheers all and keep your heads up, this book is very fun and has gas albeit not straightforward. Then again, Sylvaneth was never a straightforward army to pilot.

[Frowny]

4 hours ago, Ruhraffe said:

Maybe you can sell the left-over arch rev to someone who has not recieved a looncurse. 

That's what I was thinking, but I wanted to make sure I wouldn't need it first...

[a74xhx]

I know we don't know the full sizes of the new wyldwoods yet, but.....

Does anyone else think it'll be possible to make a set of new wyldwoods from an old wyldwood? Each piece in the new wood is "just" a tree connected to a bit of curved base. Ok, it's going to be a pain sawing through all that plastic, and there will be plastic shavings everywhere, but I think it might just work.

Alternatively,  the bits of curved base might be possible to make from scratch, and stuck to the old trees. Wonder if "official" tournaments would allow that. 

I suspect I'll buy a single new wood and then start trying to convert one of my old woods. If successful, then move onto the others.

[IndigoGirls]

30 minutes ago, a74xhx said:

I know we don't know the full sizes of the new wyldwoods yet, but.....

Does anyone else think it'll be possible to make a set of new wyldwoods from an old wyldwood? Each piece in the new wood is "just" a tree connected to a bit of curved base. Ok, it's going to be a pain sawing through all that plastic, and there will be plastic shavings everywhere, but I think it might just work.

Alternatively,  the bits of curved base might be possible to make from scratch, and stuck to the old trees. Wonder if "official" tournaments would allow that. 

I suspect I'll buy a single new wood and then start trying to convert one of my old woods. If successful, then move onto the others.

To the best of my knowledge the new tree sets are meant to be another option for Wyldwoods. Not 100% on this but I believe 3 new trees = 1 old tree base. This is what I see floating around and if it’s true no need to convert. I’d just hold tight! Or if a conversion is easy for you I’m sure no one would mind.

[Zanzou]

35 minutes ago, IndigoGirls said:

To the best of my knowledge the new tree sets are meant to be another option for Wyldwoods. Not 100% on this but I believe 3 new trees = 1 old tree base. This is what I see floating around and if it’s true no need to convert. I’d just hold tight! Or if a conversion is easy for you I’m sure no one would mind.

This appears true from what GW has confirmed so far.  The only downside is that using 4-6 of the new trees is more flexible in shape than the equivalent of using 2 to 3 of the old citadel woods.

That being said, 1 old tree base seems to be an exact match for 3 new trees.

[a74xhx]

6 hours ago, Zanzou said:

This appears true from what GW has confirmed so far.  The only downside is that using 4-6 of the new trees is more flexible in shape than the equivalent of using 2 to 3 of the old citadel woods.

That being said, 1 old tree base seems to be an exact match for 3 new trees.

Yeah, it's for the flexibility that I'd like to do the conversion. 4 or 5 new pieces might end up being as easy to place as a single old wood.

Edited June 5, 2019 by a74xhx

[tman3257]

So I ran a Kurnoth heavy Winterleaf list a couple of times this week to good success.

Arch-Revenant
Spirit of Durthu (General) (Frozen Kernel)
Branchwraith (Throne of Vines) (Spellsong Staff)
Branchwraith (Verdurous Harmony) (The autocast Gem)

Spite Revenant x20
Spite Revenant x5
Spite Revenant x5

Scythe Kurnoth Hunters x6
Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3
Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3

Free Spirits
Outcasts

Vengeful Skullroots (had 40 leftover points)

5 drops
2 CP

 

My gameplan was typically to set up my initial forest as far up the board as possible.  I'd attempt to summon a woods in so I could teleport my 20x Spites around but otherwise I'd run all my Kurnoth + Durthu into position inside of my wyldwoods.  Free spirits has been very useful for this as getting all of my hunters inside of woods has been huge.  The cover combined with rerolling save rolls has allowed them to tank a charge from Durthu + Drycha + TLA and against 20 boingrot bounders with +1 attack while only losing 2-3 hunters total and retaliating by doing WAY more damage in return.  Winterleaf is fantastic with Kurnoths, hitting those 6s for extra attacks gives them huge spike potential on their weighty attack profile.  The extra attacks and reroll of 1s to hit via the Arch-Revenant has been great too.  I've yet to effectively use the Frozen Kernel as so far it's usually not been worth attacking twice combined with the timing of having to use it at the start of the combat phase makes me not want to use it on my opponents turn for fear of them focusing that unit too hard.

There's been a couple flaws in the list though.  It struggles to maintain both speed and offence in any single turn since kurnoth are slow when not running and I don't have any charge bonuses in the list.  I'd REALLY benefit from being able to summon a woods near an objective and charge a target mid game. The 20x spites is cool, but they've not done much to earn their weight without being able to reliably alpha strike as a rerollable 9" charge is not reliable at all.  So far they tend to just either come in too late or absorb a charge and all die.  I could redo the list and focus more on spites but I wanted to do more with Kurnoth, plus I think winterleaf benefits them greatly.  A boatload of spites is GREAT on paper, but in actual use it's really not easy fitting more than a handful into combat.  

Here's what I'm going to try next:

Arch-Revenant
Spirit of Durthu (General) (Frozen Kernel)
Tree Lord Ancient (Throne of Vines) (Spellsong Staff)

Tree-Revenants x5
Dryads x10
Spite Revenants x5

Scythe Kurnoth Hunters x6
Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3
Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3

Free Spirits

Spiteswarm Hive
Gladewyrm (30 extra points)

6 Drops
1 CP

More drops is a bit worse but not too bad yet, you're still going first vs a lot of stuff (and you weren't going to decide vs FEC anyway before).  The Ancient gives a 100% chance at trees once during the game, not sure I'd even use it first turn though but depends on how far up I can get my initial woods or how much I want to alpha someone.  I really don't like the iffy nature of having to summon all your trees via the spell, there's been way too many times I've been shut down that way and it can blow a whole game.  
Ideally the Ancient will Throne + Spiteswarm Hive to ensure it goes off easier.  Kurnoth run into position into the trees to take cover.  Dryads either stay behind to hold something or teleport/run up in front of the hunters to screen.   T-Revs hold off or threaten to take an objective via their own teleport and Spites hold something in the back line or zone off some deep strike shenanigans.  

The main things are the addition of the Hive and the Ancient for the once a game woods placement.  This allows me a very good chance at woods + teleport + charge to a key location that I need to hit hard or capture.

 

I'll give it a few runs and see how I feel, but feel free to provide any feedback.

[Tali182]

A lot of what i am reading since the leaks seem to suggest that everyone thinks 20 spites is way better then 20 Dryads for 200 points.  Can someone smarter then me explain that?

I get that in from an offense perspective 20 spites would do a lot better if they all get to attack but you would need up to 640mm (20 bases) of frontage to get them all into combat.I can not see good opponents offering up that much.  Dryads with their 2" reach means at most they need 320mm (10 bases) to get everyone in range.  Spites attack more and hit better (only in opponents turn) and wound better so i understand they do more dmg per model, but i am just skeptical that they will be getting enough bodies into combat often enough to take advantage of that.  Plus their lower defense (worse save until dryads lose 10 models) and dryads -1 to hit (with proper placement) means they are not sticking around as well and in a situation of the opponent attacking first they could lose enough models to negate the offensive edge they have.

It just seems to me they are only better in certain situations and in any case we can get damage from better sources.  What am i missing?

In any case have an upcoming event and i am hoping the tome is out before hand so i can use it, I am currently planning on the following list not because i think it is the best more so it is what i have and i want to use the characters.  will have 20 dryads, a treelord and hunters to choose from to summon from Alarielle depending on opponent makeup and extra dryads for BW summons.  Will be Winterleaf most likely.

Leaders
Alarielle the Everqueen (660)
Drycha Hamadreth (320)
Branchwraith (80)

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
5 x Spite-Revenants (60)
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)

Units
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Swords
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Scythes

Behemoths
Treelord (200)

Total: 2000 / 2000
 

[tman3257]

55 minutes ago, Tali182 said:

I get that in from an offense perspective 20 spites would do a lot better if they all get to attack but you would need up to 640mm (20 bases) of frontage to get them all into combat.

Not quite,  You can squeeze some in between the gaps to swing as long as you get as close as possible with the front line.  All 20 is a pipe dream but it's not too hard to get a decent number in if you have a good charge.  

That being said, I think people are overvaluing them a bit.  I think they're good yes, but not sure yet if they're worth taking in 20 strong.  Need to experiment more.

[Tali182]

Just now, tman3257 said:

Not quite,  You can squeeze some in between the gaps to swing as long as you get as close as possible with the front line.  All 20 is a pipe dream but it's not too hard to get a decent number in if you have a good charge.  

 

Haha yeah i realize that couldn't be bothered figuring it out so just said 'up to 640mm'  maybe you could squeeze it down to 550mm range  

[vesco]

hi guys, do we have an ETA on the release of battletome ?

[Walkirriox]

GNARLROOT

Leaders
TLA (300)
-General
-Commant trait: Nurtured by magic
-Artefact: Chalice of nectar
-Deepwood: Regrowth

Drycha Hamadreth (320)
-Deepwood: Verdurous harmony/Treesong 

Branchwraith (80)
-Deepwood: Throne of vines

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
5 x Spite-Revenants (60)

Endless spells
Gladewyrm (30)

Total: 990 / 1000
 

The idea is to hold points while spamming mw, summoning dryads and healing as much as I can. Would you change something? Which deepwood spell lore would you choose for drycha? I don't know if treesong is worth it because you already rr1 for hits with gnarlroot...

[Mirage8112]

On 6/6/2019 at 9:53 AM, tman3257 said:

The 20x spites is cool, but they've not done much to earn their weight without being able to reliably alpha strike as a rerollable 9" charge is not reliable at all.  So far they tend to just either come in too late or absorb a charge and all die.  I could redo the list and focus more on spites but I wanted to do more with Kurnoth, plus I think winterleaf benefits them greatly.  A boatload of spites is GREAT on paper, but in actual use it's really not easy fitting more than a handful into combat.  

I’m not sure spites in that large of a group are worth it in that particular battalion. Extra hits are nice no doubt, but my guess you’d be better served fishing for extra hits on something like sword/scythe hunters, since every extra hit that goes through does more than 1 damage and has the benefit of rend. 

20 spites (all in combat) put out about 27 wounds without buffs, and with Winterleaf generating extra hit’s on 6’s, that only goes up to 34 wounds. On a 5+ save however, that drops down to ~22 wounds. Which is still great, but only if you swing first. 

Winterleaf Kurnoth hunters with swords on the other hand, put out ~15 wounds after the same amount of saves. Yes, that’s 7 wounds less. but consider the fact that to get the max out of the Winterleaf spite unit, you’d absolutely need to land the charge and get everyone in combat. Hunters stand a much better chance of taking a charge and still having sufficient firepower to swing back and cause a considerable amount of damage.

I think new spites are awesome, but (just like a lot of the new book) require foresight and more set-up to be the most effective. 

 

17 hours ago, Tali182 said:

A lot of what i am reading since the leaks seem to suggest that everyone thinks 20 spites is way better then 20 Dryads for 200 points.  Can someone smarter then me explain that?

I get that in from an offense perspective 20 spites would do a lot better if they all get to attack but you would need up to 640mm (20 bases) of frontage to get them all into combat.I can not see good opponents offering up that much.  Dryads with their 2" reach means at most they need 320mm (10 bases) to get everyone in range.  Spites attack more and hit better (only in opponents turn) and wound better so i understand they do more dmg per model, but i am just skeptical that they will be getting enough bodies into combat often enough to take advantage of that.  Plus their lower defense (worse save until dryads lose 10 models) and dryads -1 to hit (with proper placement) means they are not sticking around as well and in a situation of the opponent attacking first they could lose enough models to negate the offensive edge they have.

 It just seems to me they are only better in certain situations and in any case we can get damage from better sources.  What am i missing?

It depends what you wanna them to do. 

Dryads need woods to be effective. And you can’t always guarantee that your going to be able to fight in the woods. 

Dryads benefit a lot from defensive use, they have a higher save, -1 hit and can be replaced with the branchwytch spell. They also benefit a lot form verdurous harmony because they will likely survive the first round of combat (provide your enemy isn’t charging them with 4-5 units and shooting mortal wounds at them as well), while spites will just evaporate if something big hits them.

So why spites? 

In tournaments, I have seen opponents use 30-40 man blocks of clanrats, skeletons, and other horde units as a front-line screen. 20 models across and 2 models deep, to screen the rest of their line. They do this because the units are cheap (200-280pts) and they can screen the entire front line with a single unit.

Breaking through that line can be a problem for 20 dryads, because they don’t have a significant damage output. Yes, they are alright, but not “take 25-30” models off the board alright. Spites on the other hand are capable of doing this, and will be really quite good at this sort of thing. The unit is relatively cheap (200 pts) and (depending on the battalion they are in) can take out a screen of 30 models in 1 round of combat, letting whatever else you combo-charge with to hit what’s behind it. 

This isn’t a first turn problem either. I have seen players do with in tournaments after the first round, juts running the big screen up the board, ahead of the main army, knowing that the opponent can’t clear it in 1 round of combat. So they put it in your face, and dare you to charge it knowing you can’t get past it, and wait to combo charge you next round.

This will be a dangerous tactic to use now, since a unit of spites in our turn can effectively clear a wide screen pretty easily.  
 

16 hours ago, tman3257 said:

All 20 is a pipe dream but it's not too hard to get a decent number in if you have a good charge.  

That being said, I think people are overvaluing them a bit.  I think they're good yes, but not sure yet if they're worth taking in 20 strong.  Need to experiment more.

With a 9” charge against a unit with a frontage of 6-7? Yes. It’s unlikely you’ll get everything in combat at that range without some sort of bonus to charge. But against a big unit 10-12 wide 7” away with a. +3 to charge from Spiteswarm hive? That’s totally doable considering you’ll likely have an extra 5” to maneuver (assuming you roll an average charge of 7”) and a 3’ pile-in. With wraparound on an equal-sized unit, getting 18-20 spites in combat is pretty reasonable. 

A enemy unit will have a lot of difficulty shifting a bunch of drayds + a treelord off an objective. And it’s not unreasonable to assume they will need 2-3 turns to do it. Bringing a bunch of spites in through the realmroots 9“ away from the flank of an opponent trying to do that makes for a tough choice on your opponents side. Does he continue trying to push the dryads off the objective and risk a flank charge? Or does he try and retreat possibly getting charged by the spites in the next turn? 



 

[Zanzou]

7 hours ago, Mirage8112 said:

Dryads need woods to be effective. And you can’t always guarantee that your going to be able to fight in the woods. 

[RiderSirius]

Hi there, a lot of good read and inspiration here so first, thanks to all of you.

Here is some lists i toyed with (some are similar to ones posted previously). I am going to play against Khorne soon (2000 pts), wich list do you think i should play ?

Any advices in improving them ?

As a note i built the lists with the inention to play with as few proxys as i can, so globally i have a pretty large list of units (falling short of some dryads and maybe 10 spites)

1- Winterleaf

100 Arch-Revenant
340 Spirit of Durthu (General) (Frozen Kernel)
80 Branchwraith (Throne of Vines) (Spellsong Staff)
80 Branchwraith (Verdurous Harmony) (The autocast Gem)

200 Spite Revenant x20
60 Spite Revenant x5
60 Spite Revenant x5

400 Scythe Kurnoth Hunters x6
200 Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3
200 Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3

140 Free Spirits
100 Outcasts

40 Vengeful Skullroots

----- 2000 -----
5 drops
2 CP

2-Harvestboon

100 Arch-Revenant
340 Spirit of Durthu (General) (Silent Sickle)
80 Branchwraith (Throne of Vines) (Spellsong Staff)
80 Branchwraith (Verdurous Harmony) (The autocast Gem)

120 Spite Revenant x10
60 Spite Revenant x5
60 Spite Revenant x5
100 Dryads x10

400 Scythes Kurnoth Hunters x6
200 Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3
200 Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3

140 Free Spirits
100 Outcasts

20 Soulsnare shackles

----- 2000 -----
6 drops
2 CP

3-Dreadgrove

280 Drycha 
300 Treelord Ancient (Verdurous Harmony) (Paragon of terror) (Jewel of Withering) 
80 Branchwraith (Throne of Vines) (Spellsong Staff)

120 Spite Revenant x10
120 Spite Revenant x10
120 Spite Revenant x10
200 Dryads x20

600 Bow Kurnoth Hunters x9

100 Outcasts

40 Skullroots
40 Geminids of HulGysh

----- 2000 -----
6 drops
1 CP

4-Heartwood

340 Spirit of Durthu (General) (Horn of the consort)
280 Drycha (Verdurous Harmony)

60 Spite Revenant x5
60 Spite Revenant x5
60 Spite Revenant x5

600 Bow Kurnoth Hunters x9
600 Bow Kurnoth Hunters x9

----- 2000 -----
7 drops
0 CP

5-Gnarlroot

300 Treelord Ancient (Acorn of ages) (Tree Song)
300 Treelord Ancient (Nurtured by magic) (Chalice of Nectar) (Regrowth)
80 Branchwraith (Verdurous Harmony) (Vesperal Gem)

200 Treelord
200 Dryads x20
200 Dryads x10
100 Dryads x10

400 Bow Kurnoth Hunters x6

60 Lord of the clan
100 Forest Folk

60 Chronomantic Cogs
40 Geminids of Hulgysh

----- 2000 -----
3 drops
2 CP

6-Joker (speedswords)

100 Arch-Revenant
340 Spirit of Durthu (General) (Warsinger)+2’ charge wholly within12
80 Branchwraith (Verdurous Harmony) (Spiritsong stave)
80 Branchwraith (Acorn of Age)

120 Spite Revenant x10
120 Spite Revenant x10
120 Spite Revenant x10

400 Scythes Kurnoth Hunters x6
200 Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3
200 Sword Kurnoth Hunters x3

140 Free Spirits

60 Cogs +2’ move and charge
40 Spitewarm hive +3 normal move and charge

----- 2000 -----
7 drops
1 CP

Edited June 9, 2019 by RiderSirius

[ppetford]

Hello all,

I'm attending a weekend event in a few weeks and since the new Tome is unlikely to appear before then I'm looking at playing a different kind of army with the current Tome.

My army is painted in the Harvestboon colours and I'm interested in trying out something different to the normal Gnarlroot / Dreadwood lists.

Any suggestions?

[Lanoss]

@RiderSirius I think Winterleaf will work best against Khorne and I really like that build you’ve made!

[Walkirriox]

Last weekend I played the Gnarlroot list 1000p I posted here before and it was amazing. I played against 2 players 500p Dok + 500p Seraphon (not the most competitive combo to play against, but still). I'm not gonna explain the whole game, but I would like to mention the most important things.

-TLA: He is much better now, you have a free Acorn, much more reliable setting up woods. Also the stomp is nuts, it made me not only resist a dok charge, but to destroy them before they could even attack. That makes me think that it's no joke to take treelords instead of kurnoth just for the stomp...

-Branchwraith: I had bad luck, and couldn't set up throne of vines neither turn 1 or 2. At turn 3 I could summon a unit of dryads and that was all his contribution for the whole game.

-Drycha: As someone mentioned before, she is indeed a beast. She was the MVP of the game, destroyed dok's unit of witch aelves shooting them with 20 attacks, then waiting for their charge+TLA stomp, and attacking them with 20 squirmlings. She also decimated a unit of 40 skinks.

-Spites: I had them in front of drycha to hold the charge from witch aelves, but it was not necessary thanks to the stomp. They did 4 wounds to the witch aelves and they were destroyed next turn. That 5+ to save makes them paper, but still not bad for those 60p. If you have stomp support they are fantastic.

-Teleport: is safer now, I used it for drycha to tp and use flitterfuries without any risk. Also to contest enemy objectives turn 4-5.

-Wyldwoods: Much worse than before, the enemy can charge freely.

-Gladewyrm: Better than expected. For 30p it is really worth it, healing TLA and dealing 1d3mw. 

-Overall conclusion on new tome: Galdes help a lot on 1000p games, as you couldn't get any wargrove with the old tome. Now you can have advantages of wargroves without expending any point on them and have different playstyles. Gnarlroot seems solid for a defensive playstyle, waiting for them to come, mitigate damage with CA+stomp and spam mw with spells+endless. I think now we have more tools than before and more reliable, without the new tome I don't think I would have won the game, as all the important facts that made me win came from it.

 

[Warbossironteef]

As someone who just bought a Sylvaneth army on eBay, I was hoping to get some insight from you all.

Other than points have there been big changes to Alarielle? Was her melee dmg nerfed?

Also, did Gnarlroot exist before? It seems to fit Alarielle lists well with a TLA and Branchwych for support. The endless spells seem good with Alarielle as well. 

[Aezeal]

Alarielle got a pretty big nerf on her command ability and lost d3 wounds healing on self. Also talon works differently 

Melee same beside mentioned effect of talon.

Gnarlroot did exist. 

 

[ppetford]

It's worth remembering that for most of us, there is no change to Sylvaneth as the new battletome is still held up!

[Warbossironteef]

56 minutes ago, Aezeal said:

Alarielle got a pretty big nerf on her command ability and lost d3 wounds healing on self. Also talon works differently 

Melee same beside mentioned effect of talon.

Gnarlroot did exist. 

 

Was Gnarlroot changed in anyway or is it the same (based off what we know now without the tome)?

The endless spells seem like a boost to Alarielle/TLA, but it seems like she was nerfed pretty hard. 

[Ruhraffe]

The whole Wargroves sytem changed from superbatallions you had to buy to a system, where you get the boni for free, but the groves were all reworked.

 

[Emissary]

2 hours ago, Warbossironteef said:

Was Gnarlroot changed in anyway or is it the same (based off what we know now without the tome)?

The endless spells seem like a boost to Alarielle/TLA, but it seems like she was nerfed pretty hard. 

Personally, I don't think she was really nerfed. 

Yes, the nerfs were
1) She lost the extra d3 heal (not a giant deal as it usually seemed she got burst down before my next hero phase)
2) Her command ability got nerfed (the big deal IMO).
3) Metamorphosis went from a casting value of 5 to 7 (also not a giant deal)
4) Went up in points by 10%

However,
1) The aura heal works on the turn you summon now (also not a big deal if you went first and summoned first turn)
2) She does d3 mortal wounds on the charge on a 4+ but it no longer affects friendly models and doesn't require them being in terrain
3) her talon now has the potential to do mortal wounds instead of the auto kill (which never worked for me, I'd rather have the mortal wound potential)
4) Her summon happens at the end of the movement phase instead of the hero phase.  This is huge as it happens after she uses that massive 16" move of her, especially with the charge range buffs we can get now
5) It is much easier to put into play a wyldwood created by Metamorphosis then before

Overall, I'm happy with her and think the buffs outweigh the nerfs.  But that's just me.