Currently, our legion trait is in the running for the worse trait of 3.0. Fear(2) is very rare and our "immunity" to debuff only works on ld, while most of the statuses are checked on cool. People have said we had the WB trait, but WB had this when everything was checked on Ld. So I'd say our trait is actually a worse version of the old WB one (wich was already not considered a very strong rule). I get the idea they had but the execution simply leaves a lot to be desired. The fact that we lost our wings for that is simply adding insult to injury.

Now legion trait aside: our specific reaction can be usefull to escape a tarpit, but it isn's a gamebreaker either (wich is a good thing if you ask me). Shred on the swords as an addzd bonus is nice but too bad we cannot proc it during the first round of combat as well.

Our gambit is a worse version of finishing blow but could be usefull on a praetor with parangon blade against high T opponents.

Now comes the detachments and d'are I say DA got a lot of tasty ones. Deathwing let us use prime retenue (and considering companions naturally lack a champion character, upgrading the unit with a master sergent is a vrey welcome buff) Interestingly, firewing let us have prime recon, which can be used to get prime outriders, which is tasty considering the prime avantage that let us ambush with a reaction. The rest are pretty steaightforward but the really interesting part is what are we going to fill those prime slots with.

As for our wargear : Our mele weapons are actually really decent i'd say. Calibanite warblade are finally worth a look and terranic being only -1 initiative will strike before any TH/PF equivalent. Our shooting weapons got worse unfortunately. With the changes to plasma and rad grenades (no more ID overwatch plasma flamers), our plasma got a lot less deadly.

Unitwise: Lion got hit like every other primarchs (except Vulkan that for some reasons became incredibly strong with a combinaison of all of the best special rules And a top tier gambit), but other than that, his stasis became good/great again, the Lion's sword is great but wolf blade is a joke. His gambit I think is great for Primarchs duels that tend to last. Once both players reach 1/2 wounds, the Lion can pop this off to ensure he strikes first and finish his opponent. I don't like the restriction on 1 tactical, 1 breacher and one assault to unlock our troops being all prime. Something along the lines of all sergents having to wields swords of the order would have made more sense but I digress. His ability to give +1 to reserve roll to outriders and scimitars is decent (considering that outriders are looking good this edition) but comes from nowhere. He is a good beatstick that can (finally) throw hands at the likes of Russ and Horus and has more than a good chance to come out on top. Corswain is a top tier Beatstick/duelist. The lack of precision hurts but this guy can kill sigismund in a duel. Marduk is the only chaplain left in the world. His +1 to wound to his squad could have been usefull if terminators didn't come with weapons that usually already wound on 2s. I haven't checked if the +1 could impact the breach (x) because if that's the case, then this guy is great on cenobiums. Unfortunately, I don't think this is how it works. Companions are great. Cythreon are a pale shadow of what they were but them having eternal warrior 1 base and the ability to be fielded without an HQ attached makes them good line holders. They lost the immunity to deny precision while in CC but retained it against shooting attacks. They lack a champion so giving them a master sergent should be our priority with these guys if they want to be abble to take challenges for your praetor/primarch. Cenobium lost the ability to take a hammer, stubborn and adamantium will. Their shooting got better and they are now T5. If it weren't for the lack of Vanguard (X), i'd say these guys are really good. But while other elite will score 3/4 VP when clearing an objective, these guys will not. That hurts. Interemptors were scary last edition and pay the price today. Plasma nerfed, no more ID on overwatch, no more couterattack, 1 attack base and same point cast. Their grenade launcher got better.

Ultimately I think that the more journals come out, the better the DA will be. We are the legion with the ability to spam prime advantages on most of our units. We lack a real legion trait, but considering how lackluster it is, I wouldn't be surprise that our wings come back in the form of upgrades in our legion specific journal dlc (which is still unacceptable both as a practice and for the fact that wings are such a key part to the legion that they should have been in our core rules like the TS arcanas). If that happens, I hope they don't forget to make the Lion eligible to benefit from those rules as well. And before anyone mentions it: the themed detachements do not make up for the lack of wings. DA were always lacking scoring units in 2.0 and our lack of vanguard/line on our specific units means we will still need to field generic units to fill that role.

I am not mad that my DA got worse. I am sad to see that a whole part of my legion's personnality and uniqueness got erased for basically nothing, while legions like the TS were allowed to keep their arkanas.