The best 2 point you can spend in the whole game is buying Maarek up to Vader.

Maarek should have been a TIE Defender pilot. He was one of the first TIE/D pilots :/

I wasn't trying to say the Rebels got no love, just that the Imperials got more, this time around.

When in three rounds of combat, 1 pilot can't take out a single y-wing with two hull left, i kiss their loser's arse goodbye forever.

That's just stupid. Rolling badly has nothing to do with which pilot you're using, any ship is going to fail to do anything if you roll nothing but blanks. Swapping one pilot for another in that situation does absolutely nothing to change the result.

Makes me feel better. Also strangely it seems to work...

I think Fel's Wrath still has that spot.

That said, Maarek Stele's ability is much more useful against the huge ships. A lot of Hull with small damage decks, he is a key ship in Epic play.

The problem is that Maarek Stele has a good ability on a terrible ship, whereas Fel's Wrath has the reverse.

Also strangely it seems to work...

It doesn't work. If you think it does you're simply wrong.

With epic games coming out, I just assumed having Steele in the as a filler ship to flank may come in handy.

Obviously there would be other ships your opponent must worry about that would pose a greater threat, and leave Steele to come from behind and get in at range one

Having him focus fire on a Y wing or something with low Shield, like the hwk would be best.

Or if you did focus fire on the transport. 2 shuttles with heavy laser canon followed by Marek could have some devastating effects. Those crits could really slow down the transport

I thought the same thing. Thats why it hurt extra that in a single game, i got three range 1 shots in on the same frikkin' Y-wing and rolled all blanks all three times. When in three rounds of combat, 1 pilot can't take out a single y-wing with two hull left, i kiss their loser's arse goodbye forever.

If I'm going on the offensive, I'll target lock.

If I think I may need to go on the defensive, focus or evade (focus usually for rebels, and evade for Imps)

You said you were using marksmen?

I think straight up target lock is better. Doesn't cost 3 points. You don't have to depend on the dice as much. Re roll I find is better than hoping for focus, just for that reason. Rolling blanks

As a rule, we pay 1 point per PS. Maarek is PS 7, and costs 6 points more than a PS 1 Tie Advanced should be. So in effect, you're getting a bonus for taking Maarek- his skill is basically a mini Cardaan refit.

The problem here is that you overpay for PS, plain and simple.

The original set of pilots were entirely based on PS. You paid nothing for their abilities. The fact that Biggs, easily one of the top 3 pilots in the game still, costs a point less than Garven is a travestyof such epic proportions it makes me thing the original X-wing designers were more lucky than good.

So you're not getting a cost break for Maarek because of his ability. You're getting an ability tacked onto a ship that you're overpaying for. Is Maareks ability worth half a TIE Fighter? You can't separate the iffy ability from the overpaying you do for PS.

Oh, absolutely agree! It doesn't really matter _what_ Maarek's ability is, the first question is why are you spending points on a Tie Advanced instead of... anything, really. For the cost of Maarek, you could have 2 Academy Pilots- which would have double the attack and 1 more HP. And you'd eliminate the risk of being 1 shot. All that, and you have 3 points left over!

So again: Maarek's ability isn't the issue. It's the lack of punch in the Advanced. It would need a Chardaan Refit style upgrade to make it worth taking at all. Once that happens, Maarek might actually be an amazing pilot.

I wasn't trying to say the Rebels got no love, just that the Imperials got more, this time around.

Are you referring to Wave 4 specifically, or this last group of releases? Because stacking up Imp Aces/Imp Wave 4 and Transport/Tantive/Reb Aces/Reb Wave 4, even leaving out the epic only cards from those packs I kinda felt like Imps got kicked square in the teeth.

I loved that the Interceptor got some boosts in Imp Aces, but before it was even on shelves, Reb Aces got spoiled with that ridiculous B-Wing pilot, and all the A-Wing cards. And don't forget that the transport comes with Rogue Squadron in the X-Wing cards, and those droids and pilots that dish out stress coincidentally act as great answers to PtL Interceptors, that just got a boost and were immediately put back in their place by the new Reb releases.

Now, Imp Wave 4 vs Reb Wave 4 in a vacuum is hard to say, the new stress inducers will be very effective at curtailing the Phantom, but it is harder to get a grip on then an Interceptor. And the Rebel pilots aren't particularly crazy, although the auto hit combo for Ion missiles on the Z-95 guy (Blount?) is pretty powerful...

Honestly, Maarek's ability has always been mediocre. Seeing 3 out of 33 cards in the standard damage deck doesn't have great odds for searching for a specific crit. Add in, a lot of crits do not have game changing abilities. Sure, Direct Hit is good. There are a few others that are okay. But with how spread out that deck gets, And now with all the 2 hull ships and Chewbacca still flying around, it only gets rougher. Maarek's ability rarely gets to shine. Now, against the Huge ships, there are some very nasty crits that will be fun to hunt for. I mean, the corvette has one that is a super Direct Hit, pretty much counting as 3 hits to the hull. Crits seem to be a bit more dangerous on the huge ships than the smaller ships.

Honestly, Maarek's ability has always been mediocre. Seeing 3 out of 33 cards in the standard damage deck doesn't have great odds for searching for a specific crit. Add in, a lot of crits do not have game changing abilities. Sure, Direct Hit is good. There are a few others that are okay. But with how spread out that deck gets, And now with all the 2 hull ships and Chewbacca still flying around, it only gets rougher. Maarek's ability rarely gets to shine. Now, against the Huge ships, there are some very nasty crits that will be fun to hunt for. I mean, the corvette has one that is a super Direct Hit, pretty much counting as 3 hits to the hull. Crits seem to be a bit more dangerous on the huge ships than the smaller ships.

On the other hand if you do get a crit though the shields and you can select that direct hit to 1shot that E-wing or Z-95 or Phantom you will be laughing your but off and it will be one of those epic stories you never forget

Re roll I find is better than hoping for focus, just for that reason. Rolling blanks

Sigh. No. Focus has a 25% chance (per die) to get an eye but a 100% chance to succeed when you use it, a TL has a 50% chance per die to get a non-hit result but only a 50% chance to succeed when you use it. Both have the exact same average result* when used on the same number of dice, the only difference is that TLs stay around for future turns while focus tokens can be used defensively.

*At least in terms of how many successes you get. TL does have a somewhat higher chance of getting crits since you can re-roll a die into a crit but can't focus it into one. But that's a pretty minor difference.

Honestly, Maarek's ability has always been mediocre. Seeing 3 out of 33 cards in the standard damage deck doesn't have great odds for searching for a specific crit. Add in, a lot of crits do not have game changing abilities. Sure, Direct Hit is good. There are a few others that are okay. But with how spread out that deck gets, And now with all the 2 hull ships and Chewbacca still flying around, it only gets rougher. Maarek's ability rarely gets to shine. Now, against the Huge ships, there are some very nasty crits that will be fun to hunt for. I mean, the corvette has one that is a super Direct Hit, pretty much counting as 3 hits to the hull. Crits seem to be a bit more dangerous on the huge ships than the smaller ships.

You might not find a specific crit but it greatly increases the chance of getting one that does something. After all losing a generic's pilot ability or Backstabber's secondary weapon is completely pointless, at least this way you can hit them with something. The increase in hull two ships isn't good for him, or the general increase in agility scores this wave, but large ships give him some hope, as do some of the other little upgrades.

As for the topic, I think blaming Mareek for what seems to be bad luck and an opponent that doesn't announce his actions isn't exactly fair. I mean, Mareek isn't top tier but he's not awful and even Wedge and Fel wiff sometimes.

Honestly, Maarek's ability has always been mediocre. Seeing 3 out of 33 cards in the standard damage deck doesn't have great odds for searching for a specific crit. Add in, a lot of crits do not have game changing abilities. Sure, Direct Hit is good. There are a few others that are okay. But with how spread out that deck gets, And now with all the 2 hull ships and Chewbacca still flying around, it only gets rougher. Maarek's ability rarely gets to shine. Now, against the Huge ships, there are some very nasty crits that will be fun to hunt for. I mean, the corvette has one that is a super Direct Hit, pretty much counting as 3 hits to the hull. Crits seem to be a bit more dangerous on the huge ships than the smaller ships.

On the other hand if you do get a crit though the shields and you can select that direct hit to 1shot that E-wing or Z-95 or Phantom you will be laughing your but off and it will be one of those epic stories you never forget

^^^ mostly laughing / remembering because you did it with a TIE Advanced.

I was speaking about wave 4 specifically, it was a reference to an earlier post I made discussing that. I do agree that over all, Rebels have gotten more, but as I said previously, I think part of that is what I see as a possible snafu in the production chain, again as I discussed earlier.

Maarek's and Keyan's abilities were switched at birth.

Heh.

Personally I think him and Brath are the ones who should swap. I imagine I'll be making a nice print out proxy to that effects, just swapping their names.

How about we take Fel's Wrath, and put him on a TIEadv

well my Maarek list goes like this

Marek steele + swarm tactics and cluster missiles = 33 points

2 x ( dont know the ps 4 advance pilot name ) + cluster missiles = 54

Obsidian Squadron Pilot = 13

a total of 100 points and i never lsot with this list ;P. well maybe my enemies werent that good or i had to much luck with my clusters.

I had another win with a Maarek list last night;

Maarek (CM, Marksmanship)

Jonus (Determination)

Krassis (HLC)

Maarek gets a lock - does not fire the missiles yet unless under threat. Jonus prods at something. Krassis softens up Maarek's target if it's high hull or shields.

Then, Maarek takes marksmanship to fire the missiles. With two re-rolls per missile (courtesy Jonus) there's a very good chance of inflicting 2 crits.

It's only a 3 ship list and it's quite vulnerable to interceptors (quite often ending up with just Krassis trying to hold his own), but I've not lost with it yet.

Also strangely it seems to work...

It doesn't work. If you think it does you're simply wrong.

Pff. So? Pro athletes believe they have magical luck underwear. Who cares? It doesn't affect you at all. And can you empirically prove there is no basis for luck? My personal bad luck aside, the ship is still garbage and the pilot ability practically begs to go on a ship with three attack dice. I can either spend 2 more points (before upgrades) and get a ship that is totally worth it, or get several ships that are. Because putting the very specific instances I've mentioned here aside, the games that I played with him were chock full of demonstrations that he's just not worth it.

Then don't fly him. Simple.

Then don't fly him. Simple.

I believe that's the exact point of this thread

Arvel is still worse. You have to contrive scenarios to make him work. Maybe if he could perform an action while colliding along with attacking he would be cool.

Maarek requires a two round setup to TL and then Marks a missile.

Also strangely it seems to work...

It doesn't work. If you think it does you're simply wrong.

Pff. So? Pro athletes believe they have magical luck underwear. Who cares? It doesn't affect you at all. And can you empirically prove there is no basis for luck? My personal bad luck aside, the ship is still garbage and the pilot ability practically begs to go on a ship with three attack dice. I can either spend 2 more points (before upgrades) and get a ship that is totally worth it, or get several ships that are. Because putting the very specific instances I've mentioned here aside, the games that I played with him were chock full of demonstrations that he's just not worth it.

never give up on maarek just try out the list ive posted for u and the other ones aswell just sayin Rome wasnt build in just one day so dont give up hope yet son