Alright, so we've gotten a few weeks in with the Codex and some people have more playtesting than others.. but let's help some of the newbies out there to help finesse some lists and weed out the bad upgrades out there that can confound people. I'm going to throw out my opinions on a few things I've found, feel free to put in yours!

Let's start with two of the most common upgrades we're going to see: Flickerfields and Night Shields. Both of these can be taken on all of the DE vehicles (the Venom comes stock with Flickerfields) and have interesting effects. Flickerfields gives a 5+ invuln save to the vehicle, and Night Shields reduces range of weapons firing on the vehicle by 6" (which also, by the way, turns Rapid Fire range from 12" to 6", and really damages Melta range).

Night Shields: Awesome, especially on Ravagers, Razorwings, Voidravens, and Raiders that intend to sit back on objectives. This simple upgrade allows you to out-range Chimeras, and forces your enemy to get closer to you in order to get shots off, which means you'll have an easier time getting into close combat range. However, I would not recommend this upgrade for Raiders that you intend to charge forward into the fray, as the effect effectively becomes pointless, wasted points as you're already up in your opponent's face anyway.

Flickerfields: Not as awesome as a 4+ cover save. Let's be honest, this isn't the Smoke Launchers we may wish it was, but, granted, ignoring 1/3rd of the shots may be the difference between life and death. When a squad of 3 Obliterators fires on your Raider, 2 of those shots will hit and both will probably pen. Being able to ignore one of those Pen results will help keep your Raider alive that much longer, but it's not going to save you for very long. Remember, that one other pen result can still trash your transport; we're talking about AV 10, open-topped here after all. I would not recommend putting this on Ravagers, Razorwings, or Raiders that intend to sit back, but on Voidravens that want to use that Void Mine, or Raiders that intend to charge into the fray where cover is going to be sparse, why not? It's better than nothing, but if you're pinched for points elsewhere in your army, drop this upgrade.

That's the dirty of both those upgrades. Here's a few more.

Enhanced Aethersails: Why? Why would you take this? You don't get to shoot if you use them, and while, yes, they can get you across the table, moving Flat Out with your vehicles should get you far enough as is. Wasted points, but situational at best.

Retrofire Jets: Best on Ravagers or Raiders full of Warriors, but if you're going to spend the points, why not just get Duke Sliscus and upgrade a squad of anti-infantry Trueborn while you're at it, and be able to deepstrike everything?

Shock Prow: I haven't seen too many tank shocks in my time, I really haven't. If you're that kind of player, why not? Go for it, you can get a lot of speed out of a Raider and a Shock Prow will do some damage with that in mind, but I'd rather put the points elsewhere.

Torment Grenade Launchers: Don't use these against anything that's going to pass it's leadership anyway, ie Space Marines or Chaos Marines or Fearless things. Against Orks and Guard you could get some use out of this as you shoot them to death and force those morale checks, but your Raider has to be right in their face to make use of it, so plan accordingly. Not worth the points in an all-comers list.

Splinter Racks: This upgrade is nice actually. Re-rolling to-hits on poisoned weapons is beautiful, especially with a squad of Warriors inside. You'll pump out a lot of nice damage with those splinter rifles, but don't go putting splinter racks on just anything and everything.

Grisly Trophies: This upgrade might do well if you like Wyches and Wracks as troops. Being able to re-roll failed leadership tests after losing a combat may be the difference between getting the squad wiped by a sweeping advance and staying in the fight for one more round. Your Raider still has to be really close to the unit, which typically isn't the best idea depending on where you're fighting, so I wouldn't bother with this too much either.

Envenomed Blades: If your opponent is assaulting your transports, you're either doing something very right or he's doing something very silly. Raiders are so squishy that they can be shot to death by Bolters and so there should rarely be a point where a Raider is assaulted. If you intend to use your Raiders to stave off assaults from other units, then this might help a little, but that's situational at best. Put the points elsewhere.

Chain Snares: This is essentially a slightly better version of the Reaver Bladevanes for two reasons. 1. it's d3+1 hits (so you'll always get at least 2) and 2. You don't have to turbo-boost to use it. It's still a weak attack, as cover and armor saves can be taken against it, and you're only getting a max of 4 hits for this upgrade, and it doesn't effect vehicles at all. Unless you like Raider Suicide, I wouldn't bother with this upgrade.

That covers the vehicle upgrades for the Dark Eldar Codex. Thoughts? I'll be extending this next with the Arcane wargear, the most confusing of the sections!