My question is two-fold, actually.

1. When would a different System upgrade be superior?
2. When should you spend your Target Lock instead of gaining a free Crit?

Concerning no. 1, I think we have a difficult time answering as a community.

Concerning no. 2, the question becomes "How many dice should I re-roll to get a greater expected value than 1 damage?" And that's a question I can answer.

The TIE Advanced is capable of rolling 2, 3, or 4 dice (if you take Expose or Opportunist).

Each attack die has a 50% chance of coming up damage, unless you have further modifiers.

A re-roll on 3-4 misses is better than using the free crit.

If you have a Focus Token, each die has a 75% chance of coming up damage.

A re-roll on 2-4 misses is better than using the free crit.

I would say that the answer to question 2 is that you use the TL when your current result is absolutely unacceptable, such as when the shis will die next turn and your current roll will do no damage, or if you need to kill a ship, and your current role won't cut it. In lots of other cases it's probably worth hanging onto the Target Lock to preserve an action for the next turn, even if you roll garbage.

1) you don't have 1 point open. Your PS is so low you have a hard time getting a TL and surviving to fire. Your opponent has a habit of flying Wes.

2) having 3 dice is great, but I would rather keep my TL unless either ship is near death and not likely to survive the turn

-Expose is bad and the advanced has few green maneuvers; so having more attack dice is not very likely.

- If you have focus then (eye) results won't have to be re-rolled.

-Howlrunner or predator looks interesting.

I think the generics will do better with Accuracy Corrector. They won't always have someone in their arc or know who might be in their arc due to their low PS. They just move and take a Focus or even an Evade. They will consistently be able to dish out 2 hits a round...if they got a chance to shoot. You can always turn the question around and ask when is it better to take Adv. Targeting Computer instead of Accuracy Corrector?

Vader gets two actions and can make better use of Focus and TL to make his die rolls better. He also goes late in the turn and might be able to get to Range one more often. So, his one Crit combined with two open dice have a greater chance of being modified.

Mareek Steele has a special ability that maximizes criticals. So, anything that gives him crits is good.

Alenzo gets a free TL, so using something that maximizes that is the Adv. Targeting Comp.

Two answer the second question, when do you want to use your TL? Well, if you only get through with the critical hit and you have the potential to do more....like at Range 1. If Vader is in Range 1 with a Focus and rolls all blanks, I'd think it worth while to use that TL and roll again.

When you're flying a B-Wing.

My question is two-fold, actually.

• When would a different System upgrade be superior?
• When should you spend your Target Lock instead of gaining a free Crit?

(1) Nothing except Accuracy Corrector competes meaningfully, but Accuracy Corrector provides very serious competition--especially when it's a point cheaper. As heychadwick says, there are good reasons to specifically use ATC on Vader: his high PS makes target locks easy, and extra actions make ATC even better. Maarek wants ATC for the crits, and Alozen's free target locks make the ATC an easy choice as well.

But of course the other new pilots are wild cards, and Storm and Tempest Squadron will probably prefer not to have to fiddle with timing out their target locks on higher-PS ships, nor with the setup round where you acquire a target lock but can't actually use it to modify your dice or defend yourself. Accuracy Corrector offers not only the opportunity to keep those cheap guys cheap, but to let them play defensively (which is, after all the changes, still what TIE advanced typically do best).

(2) You should use your target lock to reroll your dice if it's likely to produce a better result than the crit. (I choose "greater than" rather than "greater than or equal to" because spending a resource should have a return; if rerolling gets you the same result as activating ATC, you got no advantage and now you have to go get a new TL before you can turn on ATC.)

So if we look just at average results, if you have just a target lock available, you should reroll only if you have at least three blank and focus results. (This happens only at Range 1, and then only 12.5% of the time.) If you have a target lock and a focus token, you should reroll if you have at least two blanks. (This happens 6.25% of the time at Range 2-3, and 15.6% of the time at Range 1.)

One thing you're not calculating into your "when to reroll" is the denial of the action the next turn. And by that I mean the next turn you have to spend your action taking a TL to make ATC work again, where as you could have otherwise focused or something, and since you're not planning on spending said TL on the attack (so ATC can work), you might as well consider it as no action.

So, with that in mind, I would think it would be best to use it in instances where you absolutely need to do more damage... A decimator has 2 hull left, and you rolled blank blank... Sure, you can draw a direct hit, but that's a 7/33 chance, or 21% (23% if you include minor explosion). Even if you don't have a focus token, you have a 25% of rerolling 2 hits, which is actually slightly higher chance of killing the guy because you could reroll a crit, and then have the same 23% of dealing double damage to it. Or even better, when Chewy has 2 hull left, as the crit has a 0% of doing double damage, so he would have to be killed via 2 hits. As to why I think it'd be the most useful in these scenarios is because you'd have to spend your action the next turn TL your next target anyways.

As for the first question, I think as the meta goes back to more ships, you'll find yourself looking at AC on the non-Vader pilots, as your target will vary more from turn to turn. Vader, being PS9, can line up shots more readily, and he can also TL as a second action on his new target, and still have the F to hopefully get 2 hits + ATC crit.

(1) Nothing except Accuracy Corrector competes meaningfully, but Accuracy Corrector provides very serious competition--especially when it's a point cheaper

Advanced Sensors don't compete meaningfully? It's an Apples to Cheesewheel comparison, to be fair, but it's still an amazing ability.

Part of the problem with generic Tie Advanced is the low damage output for the points. It's one of the biggest complaints. It sure can survive, but it doesn't do much while it does. Two red dice just aren't a lot. Combine the problems of low PS pilots to get a TL and it's hard to modify the lowly two dice you get.

Accuracy Corrector means you always hit. You always get max hits (but not crits). The chances of rolling that without modification is low. AC also means that you can do another action that might be more beneficial. You can Barrel Roll to either block, arc dodge, or get within Range 1 (you still get to roll first). You can also Focus to be used defensively....or possibly offensively if you still have it and happen to roll a crit and an eyeball. Evade is also a viable option. Just make them not want to fire at you. All this with still getting at least 2 hits? I'm sold.

What does Advanced Sensors let you do? It lets you do your actions first. That means you can barrel roll before you move or get your Focus/TL before you bump. That doesn't equate to something better than better damage output for a ship that historically has issues with damage output. I just don't see it as worthwhile.

(1) Nothing except Accuracy Corrector competes meaningfully, but Accuracy Corrector provides very serious competition--especially when it's a point cheaper

Advanced Sensors don't compete meaningfully? It's an Apples to Cheesewheel comparison, to be fair, but it's still an amazing ability.

I don't think it does, actually. Advanced Sensors provides an advantage if you're planning on performing a red maneuver, but there's not a lot of that on the TIE advanced dial. It's also an advantage on ships that are planning on running traffic (both because you can barrel roll before revealing your dial, and because you can take an action prior to an anticipated collision), but the vanilla TIE advanced is fairly action-hungry on both attack and defense.

Someone might discover the new equivalent of Biggs Walks the Dogs and prove me wrong, but I'm not sure the benefits of Advanced Sensors are a good fit for the TIE advanced even if you set aside how incredibly good Accuracy Corrector and Advanced Targeting Computer are.

Here's my take:

Sensor Jammer- Could be useful if you want a tanky small base ship to harass or be hard to kill in the end game. Vader with Sensor Jammer, Lone Wolf, and maybe an EU will be hard as hell to kill in a 1 on 1 scenario. Still will be limited in use, unless there is a pilot that can take full advantage of it.

Enhanced Scopes- No... There are better blockers out there.

FCS- Sort of useful here but TL isn't all that great on a 2 attack ship. Only use I can see is to deploy ordnance. First ship that can fire Cluster missiles with FCS. If you can fire at range 3 and gain a TL, you can move into range 1. Focus, then have focus for the first volley and a TL for the 2nd. Then gain another TL! Makes them a lot more accurate, but kind of a one trick pony.

Advanced Sensors- Don't see a use here. It nullifies Vader's ability. You can make your advanced a bit more maneuverable, but there are just better options.

ATC- Great on all named pilots so far. Mareek gets his crit, Alozen (or whatever) gets a free TL, and Vader can TL + Focus making him a deadly Sith Lord.

Accuracy Corrector- Love it on the Tempest as you can do other things besides focus or TL. It allows them to put out consistent damage which will hard to be ignored and makes them even more durable. Its ok on the named pilots, but ATC seems like the better option.

It's probably already been said before but accuracy corrector on tempest squadron. Take an evade action every turn to turtle and always roll two hits.

Concerning no. 1, I think we have a difficult time answering as a community.

Accuracy Corrector's more powerful when you're unable to effectively maintain the target lock.

Concerning no. 1, I think we have a difficult time answering as a community.

Accuracy Corrector's more powerful when you're unable to effectively maintain the target lock.

Even worse, actually: you have to acquire a target lock on your target, then maintain the lock. It's very powerful if you can activate it, but I think a lot of people are overestimating how often that's going to be.

I mean, Vader + Engine Upgrade isn't going to have a lot of trouble with it, but an otherwise naked Tempest? He might get ATC on one attack in three.

Depends on what the other pilots will be.

The title making FCS the same cost as Accuracy Corrector pretty much eliminates Fire Control System from the debate. I think Advanced Sensors is a choice, but it is for more maneuver options (boost/barrel roll before movement).

I think I'd rather have an Advanced bump for a turn than neuter it's damage output every turn. Even when bumped, you still get to fire at something in your firing arc that isn't bumped for 2 auto hits.

I suspect the 4 T/A build will be the next Imperial meta. God knows as soon as I heard of the Raider that was my initial thought (maarek 3 storm or maarek 3 tempest). 4 storm is not unlikely too.

Or, to answer the question in the title: whenever you feel like it. To my opinion, there's too much talk of how you should only run a ship in a single configuration. Interceptors MUST have PTL or are useless, if you don't put VI on Whisper you are making a mistake. Han without 3P0? Inconceivable!

On the hand people are complaining about the monotonous state of the game, on the other hand people are themselves unwilling to take a list in a different direction, to try something new. Too scared to run something that might be called suboptimal. Where's the innovation?

Or, to answer the question in the title: whenever you feel like it. To my opinion, there's too much talk of how you should only run a ship in a single configuration. Interceptors MUST have PTL or are useless, if you don't put VI on Whisper you are making a mistake. Han without 3P0? Inconceivable!

On the hand people are complaining about the monotonous state of the game, on the other hand people are themselves unwilling to take a list in a different direction, to try something new. Too scared to run something that might be called suboptimal. Where's the innovation?

I'll tell you that 4 naked bombers with 2 alpha interceptors doesn't work as a list...

1.) AC is most likely superior on generics, due to issues associated with target-locking higher PS ships while still having a shot.

Also, lower PS means they are far less likely to dodge arcs so imo it's a much better bet to get them evading (with no offensive penalty if using AC) than spending a turn to TL.

In other cases, it's going to vary on the remaining 3 named pilots that have yet to be spoiled.

Or, to answer the question in the title: whenever you feel like it. To my opinion, there's too much talk of how you should only run a ship in a single configuration. Interceptors MUST have PTL or are useless, if you don't put VI on Whisper you are making a mistake. Han without 3P0? Inconceivable!

On the hand people are complaining about the monotonous state of the game, on the other hand people are themselves unwilling to take a list in a different direction, to try something new. Too scared to run something that might be called suboptimal. Where's the innovation?

Unfortunately, it's just not possible with the current range of upgrades

For example: Accuracy Corrector and Fire Control all do essentially the same thing (modify damage) with accuracy equaling the max damage output of the advance (minus crits) at ranges 2-3 and having none of the restrictions FCS does. Due to the title, both upgrades cost the same.

ATC operates on completely different mechanics (sustaining a target lock) so it's worth consideration.

This leaves us with

the PS 0 thing (given the state of affairs with everyone and their mom at PS 9/10, this seems largely superfluous),

Sensor Jammer (tanky advances, assuming we're not running head over heels into target lock + focus ships...which we are with all the FCS and PTLs running around),

and Advanced Sensors (Guaranteed actions).

If you think the extra (unreliable) defense or flexibility of the later two upgrades are worth it, go for it. For me, the advance just doesn't do enough native damage to be worth it.

It's not a matter of innovation, it's just that in the current scene the other upgrades (Apart from sensors) just don't do anything

Or, to answer the question in the title: whenever you feel like it. To my opinion, there's too much talk of how you should only run a ship in a single configuration. Interceptors MUST have PTL or are useless, if you don't put VI on Whisper you are making a mistake. Han without 3P0? Inconceivable!

On the hand people are complaining about the monotonous state of the game, on the other hand people are themselves unwilling to take a list in a different direction, to try something new. Too scared to run something that might be called suboptimal. Where's the innovation?

I'll tell you that 4 naked bombers with 2 alpha interceptors doesn't work as a list...

It does if it fits your purposes.

4 bombers and two Interceptors? Sounds to me like a frigate is about to receive a new batch of ships. Time for a small hit and fade squad to hyper in and prevent the Nebulon B from receiving reinforcements.

Two rookies, two prototype pilots, should be tough enough.

Not everything needs to be hypercompetitive, able to win Worlds.

Unfortunately, it's just not possible with the current range of upgrades

Sure it is, if you want to. Not everything needs to be min/maxed.

Or, to answer the question in the title: whenever you feel like it. To my opinion, there's too much talk of how you should only run a ship in a single configuration. Interceptors MUST have PTL or are useless, if you don't put VI on Whisper you are making a mistake. Han without 3P0? Inconceivable!

On the hand people are complaining about the monotonous state of the game, on the other hand people are themselves unwilling to take a list in a different direction, to try something new. Too scared to run something that might be called suboptimal. Where's the innovation?

I'll tell you that 4 naked bombers with 2 alpha interceptors doesn't work as a list...

4 naked bombers with 3 Academies worked quite well for me

Or, to answer the question in the title: whenever you feel like it. To my opinion, there's too much talk of how you should only run a ship in a single configuration. Interceptors MUST have PTL or are useless, if you don't put VI on Whisper you are making a mistake. Han without 3P0? Inconceivable!

On the hand people are complaining about the monotonous state of the game, on the other hand people are themselves unwilling to take a list in a different direction, to try something new. Too scared to run something that might be called suboptimal. Where's the innovation?

I'll tell you that 4 naked bombers with 2 alpha interceptors doesn't work as a list...

It does if it fits your purposes.

4 bombers and two Interceptors? Sounds to me like a frigate is about to receive a new batch of ships. Time for a small hit and fade squad to hyper in and prevent the Nebulon B from receiving reinforcements.

Two rookies, two prototype pilots, should be tough enough.

Not everything needs to be hypercompetitive, able to win Worlds.

Aha! This is very true, but what if I told you I was experimenting with the above list as a - how will this do - specifically for tourny.

I make non tourny lists for missions and campaigns literally all the time, but right now i am trying the tourny scene out some more, so of course there goes mission lists, here comes tourny lists. My only thing is that I have to be imperial, that's my only limit. I'm English - with a proper English accent - living in North America, the jokes make themselves.

I really want to make a cool list that isn't with a phantom, because basically i played Phantoms when IV came out, obliterated my friends rebels and never used them again. I want nice, fluffy lists that involve interceptors and fighters a lot, but ceptors are too fragile without AT to be really appropriate in tourny.