Thinking of starting a Dark Angels army; how bad are they, really?

Hey guys. I'm a newish player and I"m in the middle of painting my nids. Since there are quite a lot of models, I thought I'd buy a few other models to paint to shake things up a little bit and keep painting my nids from getting old. I'm pretty set on space marines, and I think dark angels look pretty cool (Plus Dark Vengeance is a steal, at least for GW). However, after browsing forums, you see a lot of complaining about DA. I'm here to ask veteran players if DA really are as bad as some people put out there, or if it's just people complaining. Is an army like space wolves, Imperial Fists, or Salamanders (all other armies I'm looking at) really that much better than DA, or is it a marginal advantage?

Thanks for answering my question!

If you like the look of them go for it :)
There seems to be those who think that DA (& BA, SW) should have access to all the normal spacemarine stuff + their own special stuff.

Pure space marines ARE that much better. Alone the fact that your ravenwing bikes are fast attack (unless you get a SC) while a marine commander with bike makes them Standard in a SM army AND the White Scars Chapter trait makes them as good as your Elite Bikes without adding more points is a bummer.
There is not much difference between a DA force and a pure SM force... the SM force is just cheaper pointswise and gets better rules.

If you like the look of DA you can still run a SM list with your DA minis while the allies matrix/unbound allows you to get the DA stuff too if you really want it.

OK.
So you've decided to play chaos traitors...... sorry couldn't resist.
Seriously though, your elite stuff is pretty good but pricey.
Basic troops with stubborn's ok too!
They have pros and cons VS generic marines, but they iron out if you're good with the list plus you get a lot of cool exclusive stuff/units.
Generally I say buy the models you want and worry about everything else later.

from guys i know who are pretty serious about 40k (and what ive seen at tournys) da are bad because as was said nothing seems to be as good as space marines. for example librarians cant take a storm shield. just DA ones lol. that being said im starting a new DW army because they are cool as **** and frankly whatever people enjoy should be what they play

also the DW set gives you models you wont use. "wont use" the bikes without a few gun ups so it isnt like if you wanted to proxy bikes you could do it in mass. you would need to buy the more expensive set to add meltas and plasma etc. that being said if you field a lot of bikes it will save SOME money and the DV hq choice can EAAAAAAASILY represent azrael since he has a combi plasma too

Also, wtf isn't Sammael on Sableclaw a Chariot? I mean, it would make the alt mode of him that much more useful, as without the jetbike, you're getting a down-gunned Land Raider with marginally better durability.

Also, Character-Taxing an army in order to make it play the way you want is a little scummy. Being able to easily spam Assault Cannon, and getting ObSec Land Speeders is awesome, but spending 200 points on an HQ to do so is aggravating.

If you like Dark Angels, then play them. You will have number crunchers telling you all day long that certain armies just cant win because of some equation that has been swirrling the internet. Eventually you can find your groove and a pattern that can win enough to make it fun. If people just picked armies based off data crunching, then we would all be playing a 'Fateweaver Tzeentch daemon army' as that seems to be the one that makes all the waves

You can still eek out decent lists with them

The standout unit for me are the Ravenwing Black Knights in command form with a Librarian with PFG they have a 4+ invun with FNP

The problem with any terminator unit though is mobility and with Land Raiders costing an arm and a Leg there generally not worth it thought the Deathwing Knights will put the fear in any opponent delivery is going to be an issue though

Some things do come to mind with the Stormwing formation giving you access to a Storm Raven.

An ally will sweeten your force with an Imperial Knight being an obvious choice for a ravenwing army

I run Legion of the Damned in mixed lists basically grounding any of my opponents transports to give me an edge

There's a transport available as a forgeworld option (Storm Eagle, base 220 points) and Mortis Dreadnoughts are a popular choice for anti air and we've just got the librarian conclave.

It depends on what you want out of the army. If you're looking for an army with broken exploits to try and build a high-level tournament list, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a decent army with neat options to use in a relaxed friendly gaming environment, then by all means give Dark Angels a try!

One thing to be aware of is that a Dark Angels army gets a lot of its power from built-in synergies. If you try to make a straight duplicate of a SM Bike army with Dark Angels, it's not going to work as well as the SM Bile army. However, if you build a Ravenwing force with a Banner of Devastation and a Dark Shroud, it becomes quite a different beast entirely.

Be advised the DA named characters largely have kind of sucky pre-generated Warlord Traits. Azrael is the exception - he gets to choose whatever he wants from the DA table, and getting to pick from it is pretty good. The others I'm not impressed with. If you use them, I recommend taking a 2nd HQ choice (points allowing) and making that your Warlord. My go-to choice lately has been a Telepathy Librarian.