Career - Disciple of Khaine

"Few are the select chosen that survive the reveries of the Death Night. Fewer still are those who leave the Cauldron with eyes of molten brass, burning with the hatred of our Dark god. These true chosen are taken into the cult and trained in the most secret of rites, emerging as masters of death second only to Khaine himself."
- Haridar of Har Ganeth

The following post is based upon personal theories and the small information that exists about the Disciple of Khaine, prior to NDA drop and release of the game. All things are subject to change, and theories could be just dead wrong. Once the NDA for Beta drop I will look over this text and make corrections. The same thing when the game is released.
I am not in the Beta, and have never played the game, but I have a lot experience with healers and how they function in PvP, no matter what game.

What is the Disciple of Khaine, and why would you play one? Anyone who wants to feel useful, a pure asset to any group, should play the Disciple. He heals his teammates by attacking his enemies with blades, so healing will never be boring. He will also be fighting at the front lines, where people will gather around him to benefit from his short range buffs and heals, so he will never lose out on any action.

Lore
The Disciple of Khaine is one of the few careers that had no previous lore in the Warhammer Universe. The Dark Elves just didn’t have anything that would fit well as a healer/support career; they are more into torture and that kind of stuff. Instead, Mythic consulted Games Workshop and created the Disciple’s background from scratch.

The Dark Elves have something of a holiday called the Death Night. During this night, Witch Elves are prowling the streets and taking any infants they see and toss them into a cauldron of boiling blood. You know, to see if they have been naughty or nice, just like Santa Claus – except this time Santa is Khaine, the elven god of murder.

Now this is where the lore is getting a little uncertain, because the origins of Witch Elves are also said to be linked to the cauldron (different editions of Warhammer varies). If you survive the cauldron (by the grace of Khaine) then you will get eyes of brass, and become the Disciples of Khaine. Since WAR support both male and female Disciples, it’s safe to say that males and females alike are thrown into the cauldron. This probably means that either Witch Elves survive without getting eyes of brass, or they are not tossed in at all.

Look

A Blood Chalice

Disciples armor consist of metal and leather (exactly what that represent in the game I don’t know) for maximum sex appeal and as the official site says “high collared gorgets with partial facial masks”. See Disciple’s concept art for what it looks like.
In their hands they wield two slim blades for maximum damage or one blade and a Blood Chalice (yea that’s exactly what it sounds like) for increased healing power.

Abilities
The Disciple is all about slicing and cutting with its blades. Some abilities also cause party members that are nearby to be healed by half or more of the damage caused. All healing is powered by Soul Essence, which are gathered from using damaging abilities. The more you hit stuff, the more Soul Essence you have to heal. This makes being in melee range to hit stuff a requirement for the Disciple – a solution to solve the problem with boring healbotting.

But healing is not the only support the Disciple brings to a party. They have Covenants that imbue their party with a powerful buff, but only one Covenant can be active at a time. They also have single and multi target resurrections, to turn the tide of a battle.

The three Mastery paths help you specialize on what you like to do with your Disciple. Path of Ritual will make your healing more powerful; Path of Torture will make you more proficient in killing stuff with your blades; and Path of Sacrifice is a mix of the two, increasing both your healing and attacks.

For a quick glimpse of what specific abilities the Disciple will be using in the game, see my post Some Disciple abilities.

Advantages and weaknesses
Like with all careers that has the ability to heal themselves, opposing players must do more damage – over time or in quick bursts – than the healer can heal themselves. Playing defensive with a healing class means that he will slowly kill you – your life will go down while his are going up. As a melee class the Disciple will probably have an advantage when they fight ranged careers in close combat, and especially lightly armored casters. Disciples will have a constant stream of healing into themselves, so damage over time spells will not be very effective against them.

When playing with a group, the Disciple loses the advantage the ranged healing careers have: to stay behind his teammates and heal. Instead, the Disciple must be at the front lines, swinging his blades to enable him to heal.

How to fight him then? As a melee class without any ranged attacks to speak of, the Disciple is in a natural disadvantage at range. Once he get into close combat it might be hard to shake him off to get range again, so constant movement and abilities to slow him should be useful. If you happen to be a melee career, you must make sure to keep the fight short - time is on his side. Silencing or knockdown effect combined with burst damage should be a winner. In a group situation, the Disciple could either be taken out first, before he gains momentum, or you could take out his teammates, as he require time before he can begin to heal.