[Baalz]

Oh no, the steel warriors don't come close to justifying the E9 blessing. What justifies it is the shamans who are not only your thugs but also the teeth in your armies. If you're already going to E8 it's not *that* much more to go to E9, which makes those thugs much tougher and makes your combat mages more likely than not to ignore a stray arrow even without ironskin. Since I suggest using your mages pretty aggressively (spamming charm from the front line, etc.) it seems a prudent investment. Stacking on the steel warriors is a very tasty bonus which has great synergy.

If I was taking a bless primarily for the steel warriors I'd probably look more at a water/blood blessing to maximize damage output since that's the niche you're using them for.