Hello, I’ve got a query about the asymmetrical timing of shaking effects between warlocks and warbeasts. For warbeasts it reads “after resolving threshold checks and frenzies” which indicates at the end of step 6/beginning of step 7 of control phase.
However Warlocks have two rules that read like they occur simultaneously “after leeching” which is only the removal of fury points within control range.
The two rules in question are ‘spirit bond’ and Fury: Shake effect.
Step 2 of control phase reads “after leeching, a model with the fury manipulation rule can immediately gain up to one fury point for each medium or large based warbeast in its battle group that has been destroyed or removed from play…A model cannot exceed its ARC as a result of spirit bond.”
Fury: Shake on warlocks reads “During your control phase after leeching fury, a model with the fury manipulation special rule can spend points for:”
To lend an example of what I’m talking about:
A knocked down Abby 2 leeches fury from her battlegroup up to 6 in step 1 of control phase with one dead carnivean but has not gotten to spirit bond yet, “after leeching” she spends one fury down to 5 in order to stand up and then gains the fury back from spirit bond since they occur at the same step and they are active player.
I’m not sure I understand which question you are asking.
The question is “do warlocks shake during Step 2 or Step 3 of the control phase?”, correct? And the ultimate question being asked is “Can a warlock shake first, then get fury from Spirit Bond?”
Essentially yes, I am asking the actual timing of when warlocks shake and whether that occurs before or after spirit bond, I just wanted to make sure I got all the literature in there.
Gotcha!
Warlocks leech in step 1 of the control phase. My understanding is that they can shake effects immediately after leeching while still in step 1, which would allow them to gain an additional fury due to Spirit Bond in step 2.
If the intent was that it happened after Spirit Bond, one would expect the Shake rule to specify “after Spirit Bond” instead. Spirit Bond is definitely not leeching; the warlock only “gains” fury from Spirit Bond.
We can get clarification from @elswickchuck , though! 
Understandable, my point of confusion is that spirit bond occurs in step 2 but also says “after leeching” which feels redundant if its already a separate step from leeching. Another point is that Warcasters and Warjacks can only shake after allocating, which could make this a huge win for fury casters being able to shake effects and still potentially operate at full ARC for a turn.
I would have to speculate as to why Step 2 says “After leeching”, but I suspect it’s just written in a somewhat conversational way to make it really clear that leeching happens before Spirit Bond.
The balance discussion is really worth a separate thread, but in the MK IV factions, warjack support is ubiquitous – everybody has access to cheap sources of Empower – while warbeast fury support is almost nonexistent. It’s probably not a big deal if a warlock has one extra fury compared to a warcaster having one extra focus in a particular situation.
(This is in stark contrast to previous editions where – and granted, to various degrees depending on the edition-- realistically, warlocks/warbeasts and fury were strictly mechanically superior to warcasters/warjacks and focus.)
You leech before doing the threshold check
It looks like they happen at the same time, which means the controlling player resolves which one occurs first.
I’ll ask here and post when we have an answer
So leech then spirit bond then shake for the warlock
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Thanks for the clarification.