So Flying Monstrous Creautures have skyfire now

[Tepogue]

Reading the FAQ and seeing how FMC have skyfire. Does this still make the Harpy worthless other than Vector Striking other Flying objects? well I guess the stinger salvo can be used, but still none of the blast weapons

And flying hive tyrants can't use the heavy venom cannon against flyers.

[Tynskel]

not worthless...

however, yes, blasts cannot be used against flyers. For the Harpy, use the Vector Strike, then fire the Stinger Salvo at a flyer. As for the Hive Tyrant- venom cannons don't work. Remember, though, hive tyrants can now use psychic powers reliably against flyers, and there are some good ones out there.

[Anakzar]

Harpy not worthless but nearly so str5 vector even hitting on sides means fairly high roll to get glancing. Stinger is also only str5 but four shots not great for the points cost and if sky firing you basically give up shooting its main guns because its a blast weapon. Too bad they can't take the devourer with brainleech instead of the blast weapons. str 6 with 6 twinlinked shots might help some ;)

Hive tyrant can take the devourer with brainleech and he can take two sets but thats a lot of points tied up in a HQ unit that has other things he should be doing instead of hunting flyers... granted the 12 shots can be used against ground troops too and he can still fight CC. Likely best to use just one devourer and bonesword/lash whip for CC.

Wish list for 6th ed tyranid codex is having non MC flyers. Gargoyles and Shrikes who can then skyfire and with slightly different rules do a "vector strike" In their case call it a suicide mission or some such. You have likely all read about geese taking out the engines on airplanes by getting sucked up into the intakes. Well gargoyles are alot bigger than geese, granted they are hitting a tougher combat ready vehicle but they would be doing so deliberately with some intelligence aiming for a vulnerable spot.
I propose having it a BS attack but double the Toughness to get the strength one hit... drawback is they take the hit as well even if they miss(they just didn’t hit a good spot) so for gargoyles it would be str6 vs 3 toughness but are very likely to end up dead in the process with no guarantee that they even did damage but then there are usually lots in a brood so maybe one will get through. Likely not something one would normally do with a Shrike (unless desperate) shrikes can carry deathspitters three shots at str 5 not bad cheaper than a harpy...

Now I suppose everyone will then want to have their Jump troops be fliers too but Gargoles where once flyers with a move of 20, granted without the rules we have now. Take a look at the model, it looks like it is more at home in the air and would be rather ungainly on the ground. I see jump troops as moving in bounds but having rather than true flight. The Hive tyrant and other non aerodynamic models should have remained jump troops... but then we would have nothing useful in the air.

[Anggul]

Yes, Harpies are for anti-infantry, not anti-flyer.

Flying Hive Tyrants with two sets of TL Brainleech Devourers are excellent anti-flyer though, well worth the points paid for them, as they also put the hurt on pretty much anything else (12 twin-linked S6 shots are scary to most things) and can still wreck most units in close combat. Add on top of that their psychic powers (usually Biomancy to make them more resilient) and you have an excellent FMC.