I dont recall any thread related to this topic (at least within Eldar section of the forum) so I suggest to make some speculations about what eldar heroes and elite warriors might be, probably devs can have some feedback from our opinions, at least for now they are not officially announced so we have some space for imagination, though there were some rumours scattered among different current threads. Heroes: These are the strongest warriors. Because of their status unlocking them should cost very significant resources - whether in terms of real money or some currency gained through battle experience. Presumably the only eldar suitable for this role according to lore are Phoenix Lords and sequently only one of each of them can be in battle at the same time - e.g. no 2 Jain Zars on the same battlefield simultaneously - so maximum 6 heroes per battle (Karandras, Maugan Ra, Asurmen, Jain Zar, Fuegan, Baharroth). Heroes are extremely tough and even a skilled single warrior cant hope to withstand 1vs1 battle so killing them would require real teamwork even for advanced players. Special abilities of heroes is a huge field for fantasy, but primarily they are based on Aspect Warrior shrines each Phoenix Lord belongs to. To balance immense strength of heroes they can be spawned during single match just once and experience gained from their killing is distributed in different proportions among all members of faction whose warriors killed them. This would make those players who play for heroes use them carefully. To make the game more "atmospherically close" to original lore probably heroes can be playable only in epic battles, like minimum number of players required to justify heroes' presence - for now, say, 20vs20 - but considering a perspective to make a game truly epic with several hundred players on the same battlefield this limit can be changed. Since a complex system of territories controlled by each faction will be deployed in time it would be right that heroes dont participate in small skirmishes - only in great battles which can significantly shift balance of powers between factions. How players can unlock heroes - there can be 2 options: either anyone can play for them without spending real money, but has to accumulate very huge amount of experience or they can be bought for additional money as DLC. Probably more complex mechanisms involving players' opinions can be used - say, some vote before battle when players from both opposing factions can choose their heroes. Elites: For eldar these are obviously exarchs, representing each shrine, several exarchs from a similar shrine can also be deployed in battle, maximum 7 types of them according to announced classes. They are significantly tougher than ordinary warriors and serve as battle leaders, to prevent spawning too many elites they can be assigned automatically to each squad - alpha, bravo etc. - from the most experienced players in each squad, when an elite player dies his role of exarch can be assigned to another player - this will make elites more affordable to all players than heroes and everyone sooner or later during battle will have an opportunity to play as an exarch.
I'd hope Iyanden gets some wraithguard. Especially after the past few weeks, what happened there rivals what happened on their craftworld, just free Iyanden wraithguards for all because of that.
Considering we had/have those 2 guys in store (that should be up again soon afaik), I don't think we're getting Phoenix Lords. Farseer seems like an obvious choice, but PLs might be too powerful.
Interesting, they might also be included as elite classes, not heroes. Probably there can be some division even inside each class - say, "ordinary" elites - exarchs and "super" elites - autarchs and farseers. Yes, heroes would be extremely strong, but it would be very cool to feel inside of body of Asurmen or some Imperial primarch or an ork Warboss.
In store, the Ranger was described as an elite and Autarch as a hero. Also, Jain Zar is supposed to lead Eldar forces on Arkhona, but I doubt they'll let us play as her
Oh, just imagine.... Eldar, as always , being suppressed by brutal mon-keighs, retreat to the last point they have, pitiless space marines advance...suddenly, from the eldar crowd, a slender figure with long black hairs moves forward, pure hatred emanating from her every graceful step, even space marines seem confused....Storm of Silence has arrived...she rushes at brutes with breath-taking speed, they shoot in panic but cant hit her with a single bullet, Zhai Morenn and Jainas Mor taking one life at each strike... From space marines backs a towering primarch appears, he cries "For the EMPRAH!!!" and rushes towards remaining eldar.... Somewhere from atop the roof a hulking green monster jumps, earth trembles under his landing "WAAAAAAAGH!!!, DA WARBOZ ZCARBLIDZ IZ 'ERE, GED 'EM BOYZ!!!!!!" and smashes with his huge body into near space marines, green tide following him.... And a thunderous terrible laugh from somewhere - towering nightmarish Alpharius stands surrounded by his Alpha-legionnaires "WE STRIKE LIKE THE SERPENT!!!!" and all of them rush into the green tide.... If devs wont let us feel that, that would be very cruel from them
Jain Zar is confirmed as "Faction Leader" for the Eldar. As in, an NPC. So I doubt that the other Lords are going to be playable
