I know it has been discussed previous but with new cards and changes I would like to get your opinion.

In general when choosing a cannon, do you prefer the Mangler for the change a hit to a crit or the HLC for the extra die attack?

also for an elite talent - what do you like to go with the cannon.

I am thinking mangler + predator for the reroll and chance to crit since I suspect the ships will have low agility due to turrets.

I am empire side so will probably be facing turrets a lot.

thanks

It depends on the ship and list, but overall the HLC is a great cannon, the mangler is just ok. Predator or lone wolf pairs well with them. PTL for focus and target lock are also good.

For empire I cannot think of a list for cannons, maybe a firepray. There is that one pilot that gets a rerolls. The shuttle is probably better not adding that many more points to. Maybe someone has a good rexlar list for the defender.

Edit: had a scum suggestion so I removed it.

Vessery pairs nicely with the HLC.

Fly a pair of Advanced alongside him, and he even becomes pretty decent.

there's almost no reason to mangler unless the ship in question synergizes specifically off of the criticals it deals

HLC's four dice are simply far too devastating to ignore, if you have the points for it

HLC works more because more dice means a better chance to overwhelm 3 defense dice or 2 hard damage mitigation. Which has a better chance of rolling more than 2 hits, 3 red dice or 4? Also if you get 4 hits it makes it impossible to cancel with green dice. a 3 hit from a mangler which will become 2 hits and a crit can still be shut down by 3 green dice and a lucky roll while 4 hits would guarantee at least 1 or more damage.

Not to mention that shields treat crits the same way as hits and with a rather shield heavy meta with most ships having 3+ shields you would want more hits than having more critical hits. Not to mention that the new damage deck is leaving critical effects more temporary than before so yeah HLC > Mangler.

The only time mangler might be against HLC is when you need to keep the ship point cost down and that only applies to the MA-3 Scyks. The Mangler Scyk is probably the best point per power build for the Scyk however that is not saying much as it is still a Scyk and still you can get way better deals by not using a Scyk.