if you're waiting for the new dark elf armybook you'll probably looking at mid-late 08 at earliest (my own speculation), so it's up to you if you want to wait.
I play a shootly and magic heavy army and works fine for me. If you're after nice looking models then corsairs, executioners, witch elves, black guard and boltthrowers are the best looking models in DE range IMO. All above models except black guard and witch elves are widely used, the other more used units are warriors, dark riders, shades and cold one knights.
Warriors are easy to convert because they're all plastic, requires lots of time and greenstuff though.
Dark Riders are harder as the models are from 5th ed and all metal (except horses). My recommendation is to use WE Glade riders model and file down any leafs and such, then mailorder crossbows and attach them, then greenstuff mantles and other cloth to make them look more dark elfish.
Shades looks OK and wouldn't require a lot of work if you want to make them look better.
Hard to make good looking Knights though... if you really don't like the model then bummer.
The first 1000pts will mostly consist of core units and characters... and maybe one special/rare unit. It's when you come towards 2000pts that you'll have more special/rare units. It's because DE core units is so darn good and cheap for what they do so you don't really need anything else. As far as character goes I've to say that the sorceress and high sorceresses are great characters, before one had little reason to choose high sorceress but now with the 7th ed rules you'll need a high sorc to ensure the success of those spells that require high cast rolls. But I'd advice to give the combat chars a try too as they're fun to play with, the assassin models looks good and the noble/highborn models are as good as you make them to
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At last here's some general tips when playing DE:
- sorc on cold one is a big no no
- boltthrowers are great so abuse them!
- abuse DE core as they're very good.
- dark riders should always have crossbows and musician. Standard and herald are no no's.
- Most DE units can be used as flankers, if that's the case then have them in smal units.
- the Highborn have the highest Ld in the game... so it's one good reason to have one as army general.
- there are two typical warrior setups: 1. spears + shields + full command with a unit size of 20+, 2. crossbows + shields + musician with a unit size of 12+ (my advice 12-15, and I have my sorceresses on foot join them for protection).
- you'll probably will sooner or later require to use the uglier models as all DE hard hitters are ugly models (Cold one knights, chariots, hydra, manticore, dragon), otherwise witch elves are very good but because they are SO fragile plus frenzy that they arn't used as much as the other hard hitters.
hope all this rant help you...