Why is this about vader now? If you can't see why vader is amazing then you shouldn't be playing the game.

Are you for real ?

Except all vadar is in the new advanced is a 3 atk ship w a advanced dial that costs 30 points. He trades his superior action economy for a target lock and focus each turn just so he can have the equivalent of 3 atk.

He only has to lock once y'know. Provided he stays on the leader he can barrel and focus on successive rounds and still get his autocrit.

As others have explained, the meta is at least as much about the newest ships/upgrades and those that can counter them as it is about optimization. Besides, most of us aren't playing at the world's-best level where minute efficiency differences matter. Players who think The Most Optimal Build (if there is one) will help them win their FLGS weekend tournament are deluding themselves.

If by "explained" you mean posted about it, then sure, but I don't see the data that supports that.

I get and agree that we are seeing a lot of YT 2400s and Decimators because they are new, but they are also good ships.

However, Rebel Aces, E-Wings, and Defenders were all new, too, but didn't show up at World's (or regionals for the Ewing and Defender which were released) as much as Falcons, which is a wave 2 ship. You can argue that 3PO and R2D2 crew were "new" but those other ships should have had a bigger "new factor" both at late regionals and World's. And Falcons still abound though there are a lot fewer phantoms.

Some of what people are playing is certainly because it's new, but competitively, people are going to go with the best ships regardless of "new," so I don't think that's really enough to explain the amount of turrets we see.

My post recognized optimization being a factor, along with newness, in creating meta. The top tier itself does not represent the entire meta. It is only the easiest, widest picture the entire player populace can see.

It would bother me less if it were more varied, but there are a lot of data points that say the similar things (regional, nationals, worlds) and, since it's also what I see in my meta and on vassal and even the designers say it. I can respect that local metas may be different, but I just can't legitimately consider the argument that everywhere else the game is balanced. It just doesn't make sense to me.