Skarre1 + Dark Guidance + Ripjaw

I inherently dislike Ripjaws except with casters that add additional dice, so Skarre and Venethrax. Even then, I don't like having to fish for crits, especially since Powerful Attack actually doesn't work as well as it should on a melee attack.

Ripjaws have a 7.5" walking threat range, or 10.5 charging. So, if you're going to attack something, you'll probably have to charge, this costs you 1 focus and automatically boosts the damage roll. If you also boost the hit roll, you have a higher chance to crit, but you basically waste half a focus (you don't get the boost on damage anymore, because it's already boosted), so you will probably just buy and boost again instead. So basically a fully loaded Ripjaw has one boosted damage roll at 2(3) dice to hit and then another fully boosted attack. This leaves it with a good chance of not critting at all and just being POW 10 (whooptiedoo)

They are my premier choice of arc nodes with the 2 casters mentioned above (and Venethrax gives free charge, so even more synergy), but for everything else it's meh.

More on topic: it's nice when it happens, but it still doesn't happen quite often and 16 damage on a jack cripples 0-1 systems.

For skarre, you are probably better off with the flying bone jacks as free jacks. The scavenger can hit really hard on feat turn especially against an already damaged target and the little trample bone jack can operate very independently, and if it happens to be in the feat area while it tramples, it can get that bonus to trample damage, potentially killing alot more than infantry very accurately for no focus investment. The ripjaw is a good arc node, but really Skarre doesnt need one, but if you are going for crit fishing, there are probably more reliable ways to get the damage on more mobile bases.

All great points. I had been assuming stalkers but I ended up getting too great a deal on a bunch of other components (3 slayers and 2 reapers for $37, 2 units of bloodgorgers for $40) that my lists kind of ended up making themselves. Sure, I could use the money I saved to go back and pick up the stalkers, but I think my first foray into cryx will be with what I picked up and I might proxy them after I get a better feel.

That being said, having been on the other side of the stalker + Skarre combo, I'm well aware of how devastating it can be.

Ah, Scavenger, you're totally right. I don't know why but I also read that as stalker and end up getting them confused. Appreciate the call out thought! I had definitely overlooked the Shrike, which you also mentioned. Trying to keep the shopping list small is clearly going to be a problem.