It’s that most wonderful time of the quarter again, Kill Team fans. The Q3 2025 Balance Dataslate is here. We’ve got quite a lot to go over this time around, as quite a few teams got hit with at least some changes.
State of the Meta
In short, if you’re a fan of punching, power armor, space skeleton robots, or the holy word of the God Emperor, it’s a great time to be playing Kill Team. Elite teams like all flavors of space marines have had excellent showings at events, leveraging their action economy and durability to bully out other teams. The Blood and Zeal teams have also been dominating, with Sanctifiers in particular putting up great results week after week. Finally, despite heavy nerfs in the last dataslate, Hierotek has been a major metagame player, since it’s able to reliably deal with elites and cripple the opponent with powerful alpha strikes.
Core Rules Changes
- Operatives that go on Guard cannot Counteract.
- Crits retained from Severe do not proc Rending or Punishing.
- Dice can not be retained twice, so for instance you can not retain a normal hit via accurate and then upgrade it to a critical hit using rending.
Swiftblade: I don’t love the change to the way Severe works. It felt like Severe was a good combo skill with Punishing and Rending, and I liked that interaction between those rules to really boost the killing power and reliability of a weapon. I guess that the balance team thought this rule was too strong and needed to break that particular combo.
I’m a fan of the Guard change though. Guard has always been way too good on elite teams this edition, and this change helps continue to rein that in. Now going on Guard is a big commitment, just like it is for most non-elite teams.
HappyRaccoon: Overall a good set of changes, really trimming down some of the free decision making space on both Guard, and Severe+Crit rules. Whether or not elites broadly need another nerf when all the teams got trimmed this data slate is another thing.
CYRAC: The Guard change is good, the whole Accurate/Severe thing is actually terrible though. This wasn’t an issue in the general scene and this change actually negatively impacts a ton of teams (RIP Hearthkyn) while also making Accurate somehow worse than it already was.
Buffs
Imperial Navy Breachers – Medium
- All human specialists received an additional wound.
- Gheistskull explosion moved up to Lethal 4+.
Swiftblade: I don’t know if extra wounds on Breachers is going to be the thing that boosts them up to crazy power levels, but the Gheistskull explosion now happening on a 4+ is very funny so I like these changes.
HappyRaccoon: I am of the opinion that this isn’t a minor buff. Breachers at the height of their power were a team that shrugged off any single proactive action, to return with a pair of brutal activations. While the elites of this edition are stronger, this wound count change gives the team a new lease on life against elves, and I could see the return of the team. Especially in the context of Inquisitorial Agents.
CYRAC: This is a good change for Breachers but done very lazily, the extra wounds should have been given by Stimms. GW has basically made this team better in Inquisitorial Agents, a mistake they learned with the first balance dataslate of the edition. Unfortunately it sets the trend of poorly thought out decisions which permeate the whole July balance dataslate.
Hunterclade – Medium
- Omnissiah’s Imperative no longer deals damage to the friendly operative.
- You now can take more operatives in addition to five Sicarians.
Swiftblade: My first thought here was that you can take seven Sicarians, and I was admittedly very excited at the thought of raising hell with seven Ruststalkers, three Gunners, and a dream. But a dream it must remain, since even though Hunter Clade can take seven asterisk operatives now, they are still held to the same restrictions on five Sicarians as before.
Ah, well. The Omissiah’s imperative change is great, at least.
HappyRaccoon: As a player who has used five Sicarians and three weapon choices I have to say it’s a pretty huge change to the overall skew of the team. Leader chonky boy, with four Sicarians and three guns can be a brutal amount of good weapon stats to put down range. With the buff to Omissiah’s Imperative is excellent and really gives your offensive push some longevity. Having a Sicarian barrel down range and double fight without incurring D3+1 damage is actually huge for the team.
CYRAC: A good set of changes that once again still don’t address the core issues of the team, with your main faction rule actively hurting you with Imperatives except for one not doing so once per game. Clade still just sit in a weird spot.
Scout Squad – Minor
- Emboldened Aspirants’ Firefight ploy can be used after re-rolls.
Swiftblade: The most interesting thing about this change is the five minutes of scratching our heads and searching it took to figure out what was even different now, and if this was a nerf or buff. Scout Squad’s days of struggling are really coming to a middle.
Nerfs
Angels of Death – Major
- Dueller now only allows a single Critical Hit to be blocked by a normal unless that enemy weapon has the Brutal Trait. Dueller no longer allows operatives to block twice with critical success. Though all normal hits can be used to block critical hits which is a buff on how many times that half can trigger.
- The Assault and Intercessor Sergeant can now only do Devastator and Tactical Doctrine for free once per battle.
- Heavy Intercessor can now move 5 inches. This is a buff. (Editors note: don’t ever let someone tell you an inch doesn’t matter.)
Swiftblade: Ouch, this is painful for AoD players.
Dueller’s ability to block twice with one critical success made them a truly nasty melee team. It would just parry out other melee operatives and wash over opponents with an avalanche of power armor bozos. Now, with their combat prowess brought down to earth and very little to make up for it, I think Angels of Death will struggle.
HappyRaccoon: Angels of Death have already been struggling at upper echelons of play, mostly buoyed by their ability to wall off some melee horde match ups, and especially strong on ITD. This change brings their match up spread crashing down, but considering how popular the team is perhaps it’ll work out broadly. Notably the choice between captain/sergeant is now more of a choice since a sergeant doesn’t grant 4 CP for free.
CYRAC: I get the Dueller nerf but I guess GW really hated that two people were running Sergeants. Sure, the Heavy Intercessor is now move 5 but that doesn’t address the core issues of the team. Captain is now always the auto-pick but this was a 39% winrate team with the most games of any faction. I can easily see them tanking down more. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to agree with the people saying this was all done to encourage people to switch to Deathwatch instead.
Brood Brothers – Major
- The Magos now must choose one of its three team-wide buffs as a Strategic Gambit during each Turning Point.
- Insidious can no longer be used during TP1.
- The Iconward’s Broodmind Devotion ability now requires visibility.
- Each Primus ability to effect initiative may now only be used once per battle.
TheArmorOfContempt: As a current Brood Bros player I am not surprised or that upset by most of these. Alpha Strike capacity seems to be getting reduced game-wide, and with Covert Guise and Comms Specialist you still have a pretty decent threat range on TP1. The Banner changes also seem to be game-wide and more than fair. The Magos has been the reigning queen of leader selection for some time, and even with these changes it’s unclear that will change, but it makes their team buffing abilities less oppressive.
CYRAC: Er, yes, this is totally fine. I say this as a very impartial Brood Brother player. Seriously though, the Insidious nerf was good and needed. Not nerfing the -1APL of the Magus is bizarre though, but I’ll take the addition of another strategic gambit. The Primus, a leader choice rarely taken, was also made slightly worse which is just confusing. But yeah, we made out like bandits ayyyyy!
Chaos Cults – Medium
- Exaltation In Pain now only affects the Hit stat of friendly operatives.
- The Barbed Accursed Gift inflicts 1 damage the first time you strike.
Swiftblade: The changes here sting, but overall I think it doesn’t really change the game plan of Chaos Cults enough to really hurt. You’re still going to want to hang back and position some Torments for a big TP3 push, and those Torments will still hit like a runaway freight train with accurate two. Just don’t get injured on the way in.
CYRAC: Accurate 2 Torments survived so all is good for Cult.
Goremongers – Minor
- You can only heal D3+1 with Rejuvenate.
- Impending Apotheosis only lets you ignore normal damage.
- Severe change makes the Unbridled Aggression ploy worse.
Swiftblade: I’m of the opinion that Goremongers made it out of this dataslate like bandits. The changes here are impactful and necessary, don’t get me wrong. But they don’t do much to weaken the strength of Goremongers core game plan. The healing reduction hurts, but you were often better off using that to buff your output and its best uses, healing back off of being injured, is still doable. The biggest nerf is honestly the severe change, as getting two guaranteed crits with Unbridled Aggression is very nasty.
The reason I think Goremongers walk away from this in such a good spot is that their worst matchups got way better for them. Two of its biggest gatekeeper teams, AoD and Plague Marines, both lost tools that made them nightmares for Goremongers to deal with in combat. I would bet it’s going to be a good three months for Khorne’s favorite dorks.
CYRAC: Goremongers aren’t a gatekeeping team in Ba Sing Se. The healing and leader JAS nerf was expected and good. Not touching their melee damage reduction, however, is very weird. Goremongers will still dominate, mincing hordes and Aeldari teams while also loving that elites are now basically gone. I love how well thought out this slate was.
Hierotek Circle – Major
- Interstitial Command may no longer be used when Counteracting.
- Timesplinter range is reduced to 5 inches in both instances (Comms device only buffs target operative range, not how far the operative may be placed), not during the first Turning Point, and only once per Turning Point. God Damn!
TheArmorOfContempt: This is a significant blow to this team’s ability to control the early game. On the plus side your opponent will spend 30 minutes less during the first Turning Point trying to figure out where to safely place their operatives.
CYRAC: This is actually just a minor nerf. Hierotek, tied for best team in the game, got a gentle slap. Sure they can’t teleport TP1 but that was only useful vs elites they out activated. Not only that but they still abuse the kill op, an ability no other Kill Team can. Just feels like someone ignored all the data and player feedback when it came to adjusting Hierotek. Enjoy another 3 months of Hierotek dominating the meta.
Legionaries – Apocalyptic
- Implacable’s bullet points are switched, giving out universal pierce reduction to the whole team and ignoring injury to Nurgle operatives only.
- Blood for the Blood God damage is capped at seven, so no more one-shotting elves.
- Fickle Fates changed to only hand out Balanced, and weapons with Ceaseless do not get Relentless.
Swiftblade: I think a Legionaries player stole James Workshop’s lunch money and now they must all pay for his sins.
CYRAC: The year of Chaos is now over.
Nemesis Claw – Minor
- In Midnight Clad’s range increased to 8”.
- The Reposition or Fall Back from Return to Darkness is reduced to 4”.
- Prescience points must be discarded at the end of the Turning Point.
Swiftblade: My knee jerk reaction at these changes was that this was a huge nerf for the team, but frankly I think I just let myself get overwhelmed by the number of changes rather than the contents of them.
Overall, this doesn’t do much to change the powerful tools Nemesis Claw has at its disposal, it just requires you to be a bit more thoughtful when using them. Namely, Return to Darkness is no longer a get out of jail free card anytime you lose initiative, it does require some thought on positioning now. Plus, I’ve found that most opponents found a way to shut down In Midnight Clad very quickly, so it’s probably just there now to discourage cheeky alpha strikes and protect your gunner.
When the dust is settled, Nemesis Claw comes out from this slate much better than most of the other elite teams.
CYRAC: This is a pretty major nerf. IMC is now kind of too easy to negate and your entire faction ability depends on how high you roll a D3. They did need a tone down but this was excessively severe.
Novitiates – Very Minor
- Burning Advance must INFLICT damage for a blaze token to be placed.
CYRAC: We really could have seen 8 wound Novi but this is just for parity with Sanctifiers.
Pathfinders – Medium
- Recon Sweep no longer works on the first Turning Point.
- Grav Drone’s movement reduction no longer works on Dash, and ignores the additional distances from Obstructing and Accessible Terrain.
TheArmorOfContempt: A blow to the team’s ability to launch into you on TP1, however the Recon Drone still has significant reach thanks to the Drone-Controller.
HappyRaccoon: Minor nerf of one 3” shoves that the team could use, but ultimately that alphastrike was fully reactable if you were also doing the reposition. It does trim the overall long bomb gun drone move to 15” instead of 18”, but that still puts most early staging points in risk. (For those of you wondering, 9” reposition, 3” dash from +1apl, and 3” from reposition scouting option.)
CYRAC: TP1 alpha is basically gone but odd the Fusion grenade didn’t get Heavy (Reposition) like all other special grenades. Regardless, good changes here.
Phobos Strike Team – Minor
- The second point to Deadly Shots is changed so that the ploy now only works on operatives not in cover if they are more than 6” away.
TheArmorOfContempt: The least affected of all the elite teams. Don’t expect these guys to go anywhere anytime soon.
Swiftblade: I guess gone are the days of sprinting up to someone and shooting them point blank with Deadly Shots, but the first rider of just standing still is easy enough to do with good positioning. It hurts the Phobos alpha strike potential, but that’s about it.
CYRAC: Huge nerf to Phobos, this actually hugely affects their ability to aggressively move up and shoot you in your face. Opponents can no rush you down to negate your re-rolls and force you to gamble with dice. This basically means Phobos are way more defensive now, which is good overall. Also Track Target got an indirect nerf with Guard change.
Plague Marines – Major
- Contagion no longer works on operatives in control range of a Plague Marine; they must be either poisoned within 3” or within 3” of the Icon.
TheArmorOfContempt: While this is the only change it’s a damn big one.
Swiftblade: RIP Plague Marine’s “impossible to deal with in combat” button. It’s still very good on poisoned operatives and for the Icon, but the fact that now most melee centric teams can even hit Plague Marines is a solid gut punch to their survivability.
CYRAC: Gellerpox are once again the anti-melee team. You just got to ensure you get those poison tokens out now but this is a good change.
Sanctifiers – Medium
- Lead the Procession now only allows a 3” move.
- Free action from Imperial Cult Devotion now requires visibility.
- Blaze now only works if you take any damage from a crit.
TheArmorOfContempt: I am unsure how badly this has hurt the team as its damage reduction capacity is its main strength.
Swiftblade: I find the change to lead the procession really weird. It’s a big deal for the operatives who have to stay close to the Confessor, where it wasn’t as much of a problem, but still allows for tons of flexibility for Missionaries and Preachers, where it was absolutely a problem. I think it’s probably a big enough change to take the team down a peg in overall power, but only from like S tier to A+ tier. It may give better player for Horde teams into Sanctifiers, since they might not get overwhelmed as quickly.
HappyRaccoon: Damage mitigation is still the big oof when fighting against sanctifiers for those teams that rely on smaller damage numbers, looking at your farstalkers. So that’s been untouched, but the ability to really rush opponents down has been trimmed. It’ll hurt the team but they’ll remain a strong choice.
CYRAC: I would genuinely love to know what Sanctifiers and Hierotek have on the design team. Arguably the best team in the game who saw a minor nerf to LTP, while not addressing the core issues of it, and then nerfed their biggest problem people had with Sanctifiers *checks notes* ah yes blaze tokens. Why not just make hand flamers 2/2? No addressing of their damage negation or 6 inch ability to shutdown APL. Great to see GW want another 3 months of Sanctifier dominance.
Warpcoven – Medium
- Prosperine Khopesh attack stat changed to 4, added Balanced.
- Brotherhood of Sorcerers no longer hands out Ceaseless.
Swiftblade: Good, Warpcoven’s psychic attacks are already deadly enough, they did not need to be ceaseless.
CYRAC: Warpcoven are still great but basically aren’t re-rolling everything anymore and have to respect the melee of other Kill Teams. Still the best elite team.
No Changes
Battleclade, Blades of Khaine, Blooded, Corsairs, Death Korps, Elucidian Starstriders, Exaction Squad, Farstalker Kinband, Felgor Ravagers, Gellerpox Infected, Hand of the Archon, Hearthkyn Salvagers, Hernkyn Yaegirs, Inquisitorial Agents, Kasrkin, Kommandos, Mandrakes, Ratlings, Ravenors, Tempestus Aquilons, Vespid, Void-Dancers, Wrecka Krew, and Wyrmblade.
Swiftblade: I would’ve liked to see a few more buffs handed out to the teams on this list, but the thing is that most of these teams are already in a pretty solid balance state, it’s just that the larger metagame is hostile to them in some way, shape, or form. It would be very easy to hand out some buffs to one of these teams and find them suddenly transformed into metagame boogeymen.
As for what unchanged teams make it out of this best, I think the Votann teams, Battleclade, Aquilons, Wreckas, and Ravenors benefit most from the changes to other teams.
CYRAC: It’s great how so many under-performing teams got no buffs. I’m sure all these teams will be able to happily deal with Goremongers, Sanctifiers, etc, and we shall see no more continuations of consistently wonky stats. Now I’m just going to ride my T-Rex home.
Seriously, the fallout from the retain dice changes affects so many fine to under-performing teams that it’s just so puzzling. These teams will continue to do badly as elites weren’t their only problems.
Final Thoughts
TheArmorOfContempt: It seems Alpha strike may be dead folks! We have mostly nerfs across the board here, and overall I am actually pretty happy with these changes. Elites especially seem to have fallen under the gun, but as a horde player my low-key favorite change is that Guard and Counteract both can’t be performed in the same Turning Point. There also seems to be a focus on reducing abilities that ignore injury penalties, which I appreciate.
It’s also worth noting that a large number of the affected teams will no longer be viable in GW tournament play after Worlds, we can basically see this as the form the game designers want going into that event. Perhaps under performing teams could’ve received more buffs, but with so many teams cycling out soon it might be best to wait until after Atlanta.
I am not as down as CRYAC on hating this data-slate, but I will echo his worries on some level in that there are a few key changes I would’ve liked to see to Goremongers and Sanctifiers that were not done. With that in mind we may have traded one oppressor for another.
Swiftblade: I think this is kind of a weird slate at first glance, especially since there are so many unchanged teams and so few buffs, but it’s growing on me as I sit with it. I’m a big fan of the reduction in overall power level of most elite teams, especially the ones that could shut down melee teams hard like Angels of Death and Plague Marines, as well as nixing Heirotek’s alpha strike potential.
I think they could’ve gone after Sanctifiers and Goremongers harder this pass. Sanctifiers probably come out of this a little worse of the two, since Lead the Procession now makes it harder to just get your team wherever it needs to be all the time, but it’s still really good and the team is still annoyingly tough. Goremongers I think might be the winners of this slate, their worst matchups are more in their favor and even with the changes they’re still oppressive into so many teams.
As for the meta for the next few months, I suspect we will see a few less elite teams, but they’re still going to be very popular in the meta, and any team that wants to make it to the top table is going to need to have an answer for Goremongers. If the next slate can finally truly bring the Blood and Zeal teams to heel, then the external balance of Kill Team will be excellent.
CYRAC: This is one of the worst Balance Dataslates we’ve had for the game, and general consensus seems to agree. The only one worse was the 2023 post World Championships of Warhammer slate where all data from events was basically ignored, and if you read the accompanying Warcom article, it seems GW did it again.
It’s quite worrying that the design team thinks the meta is fine and only elites were the problem. If you talk to competitive players and look at the stats, they both paint a very different picture. It reads and looks like the devs are currently very detached from the game.
While elites are worse, gatekeeper teams like Goremongers and Sanctifiers got minor nerfs that won’t really stop them, and even Brood Brothers and Hierotek will continue to do very well as their core problems weren’t addressed as well. The fact that both Hierotek and Sanctifiers who are overall 60%+ on their win rates with lots of games and event wins, who got nerfed less than under-performing teams like AoD who were on 39% with hundreds of games, is a bad look.
Then we have the dice retain change which, while hurting some of the top teams, also hits more of the okay to under-performing teams, with the latter getting no buffs at all. How are teams like Ratlings and Kasrkin supposed to deal with this non-elite meta now? Aeldari teams still can’t get past Sanctifiers and so on.
I was very optimistic about this slate based on the last two prior ones, but the fact we got such a bad dataslate has me worried for the direction of the game, especially if it continues again with the next dataslate.
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