Just like with Daala, I don't think anything definite can be determined until some play reports are available, either from tournaments or playtesting.

Yeh, but one was a bye, and I could've played (in hindsight) better for both losses.

That tournament used the newest set, so the Priest was available.

I only really see it as useful for augmenting Evade saves and maybe other ranged stuff like Gungans - I don't think I'd run it just to make Crab Armour saves better, so I see it only as a reinforcement piece with Quorreal or de'Gara.

It is quite a powerful mechanism to hand out as a Special Ability, but I think even with access to it, the combat based Vong squads are still the weakest of the three competitive squad types that Vong have access to. Blast Bugs and Nom Bombs are still stronger IMO.

I just played against Mando. I had Republic Commandos and he had a Vong tank squad. He was needing 7s on most of his saves (evade, avoid defeat, devotion, missiles, etc), and 2s on his VCA saves. It took me forever to get any damage through on him, and meanwhile he was killing my pieces easily. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that giving +4 to ALL saves is a bad idea.

Maybe just give the +4 to Evade saves, or maybe just once per round as a reroll (ie, if you fail a save, you can reroll at +4, once per round). All I know is that it's too much right now. Of course, some people will say, "That doesn't matter until it wins a big event." Don't worry, it will.

The Vong have had really good squads that could win tournaments ever since Quorreal was released. The thing is, people never played the faction that much in tournaments and hence it is understandable people may not think its that big of a deal. The Vong had some really strong squads prior to the Ne'Shel priest they didn't need it to be competitive. Non-vong players may or may not see the implications, but I can garuentee that Vong players will abuse the heck out of the Ne'Shel Priest. Think of the design implications for future peices having to know that every new SA that requires a save now has to be looked at as needing to be rolled at a save of 2,7, or 12. acheiving balanced well costed pieces has become just that much harder. For 13pts, the Yun Ne'shel priest is just too good to not have in a Vong squad. It is on a power level comparable to the Yammosk and Quorreal.

Every vong squad build starts at 45pts, and usually every vong squad will want to bring in a Yun Ne'Shel priest with Qurroeals reinforcements for 12pts. That is of course assuming they haven't decided to put on in the squad build prior to the reinforcements. I want the vong to be competitive, but I don't want that competitiveness to come at the cost of a whole faction. Daala was needed because she broke the dependance on Imperial squads needing Thrawn. The Yun- Ne'Shel priest isn't in the same catargory because it will be a peice that will push good top tier Vong squads over the top and into major NPE experiences. The Vong had addressed the need for help against ranged shooters prior to the Ne'Shel priest. That peice was Zenoc Quah. Evade is a pretty nice boost already for a melee faction, and needing 11's is a 50/50 shot of avoiding damage. Needing 7's pushes it over the top. Vong were never meant to not take any damage before getting into melee. That is why they have Scarification and VCA. That is why they got peices like Jakan who gives the vong a movement breaker when your pieces die. The vong are a Special Ability faction, and with +4 to saves, it is an issue. disruptive helps a little, but the vong aren't dependant on CE's to be good, and they have Shakel whose CE is un-disruptable and provides a movement breaker and a free attack.

I've been a long time vong player, and this peice to me is just something that has to have something done about it or at least discussed openly about. I personally didn't have issues with Daala when she came out, becuase there were some valid counters to her (Lancer, Yobuck, and a few other creative options). A lot of the competittive options that have Disruptive have low HP. Talons 80 HP is not a lot for a vong to have to eat through. The hardest person for the vong to face right now would be Mandalore the Vindicated, because he has 130hp with Beskragame. Even then tho, it is very possible to eat through that and to position your peices to do so since the Mando's don't have activation control and the Vong do. I love the new Tsavong Lah from Vset 9 because his Yun-Yammka Devotion is so powerful! It gets right past things like Beskgame, Djem So, SSM, Parry etc. The vong would love to have another CE like Vindicated's to Steal also with their Yammosk to add yet another movement breaker. same with Talon Karrdes CE.

Good. The problem will be it dominating multiple times. Isn't that what regionals show? Another question: did General Obi-Wan Kenobi get banned right from the start or were there regionals that made people sit up and go "whaaat???" ?

Right on. Vong winning an event isn't bad! If it can't be played around, if the meta can't adjust to it, if it dominates consistently, those are all problems. Vong winning GenCon (or a few regionals or whatever) isn't some inherently bad thing we want to avoid. It's an awesome thing that I'd like to see happen. Everybody was just whining about the Republic Commandos being too good, maybe we already have the answer to that here.

I will also say that I share Mando's concerns. I think this piece kind of slipped through the cracks. It was originally a +2 to saves, which I think was ok. I'm not much of a Vong player anymore, but I wish I had taken a closer look at this piece. Making it +2 to saves, making it a CE (so it's disruptable), or requiring the Priest to be closer to the battle would all make it a more balanced ability I think. Maybe make it require an ally within 3 or 4 squares instead of 6. As is, I think it's very strong, and will probably be stronger than we intended. I don't think it deserves errata or anything, and certainly doesn't require it right now.

Like jak said, lets wait and see.

+1

I dont think its too much just the piece that gives it out needs to be in the battle field like a czerka etc. I know it might not be vong but for game play there needs to be a drawback.

First of all just because a piece doesnt win a big tournament doesnt matter. There needs to be balance through out.
I dont think the piece is good for the game and that alone should be enough for questions.