Glitterstim/Cluster Missile/Lone Wolf N'dru?

25 points.

For one-time PEW PEW?

That one time pew-pew is often enough to one (cluster)-shot an oppossing ace, well invested points.

an opponent ace has the tools to get out of R1-2 or just boost-roll out of arc.

N'dru doesn't have the epic PS to go last and avoid that.

It will work against bro-bot, but all "aces" somehow have the PS8+

What do you expect to get out of a 25 point ship? Toss Crackshot, Homing Missile, and Glitterstim on N'Dru and you've got a nice big area that an ace like Soontir wants to stay the hell out of. Maybe that makes N'Dru the top priority to get off the board. Great, that means they aren't shooting at your other 75 points. If he gets off his big hit he's still tossing enough dice that he can't just be ignored.

Most likely you'll get 3 results against focussed Soontir. maybe even R3 autothrusting Soontir.

It's a Z.

It dies horrible horrible death the moment the enemy wants it dead.

I can't help but read posts like this and think back to a year and half or so ago when one of the more popular posts were "When is FFG going to make named pilots worth taking?"

The days when a named YT, Biggs, Howlrunner and sometimes Wedge was the only named pilots anyone would take.

The argument was that a named pilot should most times be better than a generic, and I tend to agree with that argument. A named pilot should be better, and the only real use for generics is filler.

But the meta has become such that filler is generally limited to a ship or two, rather than a whole swarm.

That said, there's some really great named pilots coming out with the assault carrier and they actually have me interested in once again playing some sort of tie swarm.

Calling N'Dru an "Ace Killer" is probably misleading. He can be scary but the best use is to dump crazy damage into a low agility target. He will either maul or potentially remove a TLT Y-wing before it can shoot for the same price.

With interceptors, RGP are still good mini aces, Sabres are still functional in a pinch and alpha swarms still good in epic. I'm not convinced there is a massive generic gap there, likewise with defenders, the ability to run three of them for generic is an advantage in itself. Not saying it's great but...

On ships where you are getting it for the dice, the cheaper and more you can skim it the better, generally shuttles and Bs the cheap generic gets it... Y-wings too. (though largely for the EPT reasons as discussed previously). Advanced... Both are good now, great even. Vipers... dat unique title hurts it. HWKS are good for both now, previously it was only named, a 22 point TLT platform is real nice.

Firesprays......... Hard to say which is worth off. 3 imperial firesprays used to be a thing.

Firesprays......... Hard to say which is worth off. 3 imperial firesprays used to be a thing.

Indeed. FFG admitted when Most Wanted was released that the PS increase of the Mandalorian Mercenary wasn't out of any desire to improve the ship per se, but to prevent you fielding 3. Pushing a ship over or under the 'magic points scores' that limit the number you can take at once (20 points, 25 points, 33 points) is a much bigger deal than one point here or there would otherwise be.

Hence the comparison between (for example) Rookie X-wings and Tempest Squadron Pilots and the Cartel Marauder.

Which is also why the Syck... (see other thread) Also Defenders and E-wings.

Ships that have both:
A-wings (Prototypes, Jake)

TIE Advanced (Tempests w/ ATC, Vader/Stele/etc)

TIE Fighters (APs all the way up to Howlrunner; honestly probably the most well-rounded set of ships to date)

Ships that have good generics, but problematic aces: Note that these ships are often straight jousters and/or stiff to fly & defend, and their aces lack enough tricks to help their survivability... so their value proposition sits at "As cheap as possible", and the tech you buy is almost always to increase their firepower.

B-wings

Rebel Z-95s (The occasional Cracken notwithstanding)

Y-wings

Ships that have good aces, but problematic generics: Note that these basic ships tend to simply being overcosted - but having enough mobility a high-PS ship can exploit for mobility, and frequently sufficiently powerful abilities to actively help their firepower and/or survivability... meaning that they work out cost effective after all.

TIE Interceptors (Fel, Jax)

E-wings (Corran)

Phantoms (Though I'm sure some disagree, especially since the nerf helped the generics and hurt the elites, it's more level than it was before)

Ships that have overcosted generics and underwhelming aces, either due to insufficiently impressive abilities to justify the cost, or insufficient PS/mobility to exploit late-turn repositioning:

Scyks

StarVipers

This list isn't exhaustive, of course. Where X-wings sit after IA drops will be especially interesting.

This list isn't exhaustive, of course. Where X-wings sit after IA drops will be especially interesting.

Quite curious about this myself. The X-Wing is certainly an interesting case study, as its a ship that has occupied and been driven out of every category.

As for generics, the general issue is that they're so.... generic they tend to lack differentiating factors that encourage diversity. You're basically looking at maxing health and damage and just hoping to come out on top in the slugfest, so whatever is the most efficient is just the best. In some ways, the BTL is a real bummer for this, as it puts the Y and B more directly against one another than before.

As for named pilots, a lot of it just has to do with the rather standard pricing for them the game has, and how the variance in that tends to play out. For a cheap ship like the Z95, a more than 50% cost increase just for PS and an ability is pretty hard to swallow unless it comes with a completely absurd, Howlrunner level ability. On the flip side, when you're already paying for a ship the cost of the Outrider, Dash's discount +6 cost is almost a no brainer.

FFG seems to be better about that these days, as the worst in overcharging for pilots is definitely in the first 3 waves. The B-Wing takes a ridiculous swerve up in its cost, only outpaced by the completely insane rate at which the Bomber's pilots scale. Pretty much every elite prior to Wave 4 has only seen the table after extensive repair work.

My favorite outlier in the data remains Corran though. Here's a ship that at its base is quite overcosted sporting a pilot with above average cost, yet packing an ability strong enough to still be worth it. Ultimately that's probably what it comes down to. Too many of the named pilots have abilities that are situational or don't strongly affect important factors in the game. You are, for the most part, paying for an upgrade worth half a TIE fighter, but not getting the extra attacking or hull that comes along with it.

So.... TLDR? Generics suffer from the fact each faction only really needs 1 or 2 of them, period. Name pilots suffer from the fact that there are so many of them to pick from and few sport cost efficient abilities to be worthwhile. That said, ship variety in the game right now is extraordinary and in the end, that's probably as best as you can hope for.

I can't help but read posts like this and think back to a year and half or so ago when one of the more popular posts were "When is FFG going to make named pilots worth taking?"

The days when a named YT, Biggs, Howlrunner and sometimes Wedge was the only named pilots anyone would take.

The argument was that a named pilot should most times be better than a generic, and I tend to agree with that argument. A named pilot should be better, and the only real use for generics is filler.

But the meta has become such that filler is generally limited to a ship or two, rather than a whole swarm.

That said, there's some really great named pilots coming out with the assault carrier and they actually have me interested in once again playing some sort of tie swarm.

Yet, you never know when a surprise will turn up. A freaking Red Squadron pilot made the cut at the Nova Open.

My favorite outlier in the data remains Corran though. Here's a ship that at its base is quite overcosted sporting a pilot with above average cost, yet packing an ability strong enough to still be worth it. Ultimately that's probably what it comes down to. Too many of the named pilots have abilities that are situational or don't strongly affect important factors in the game. You are, for the most part, paying for an upgrade worth half a TIE fighter, but not getting the extra attacking or hull that comes along with it.

Indeed. Some pilots are just that good. Darth Vader's ability is so impressive that the endless pre-raider threads about "The TIE Advanced is a piece of [insert swearword of choice]" invariably included the qualifier "except for Vader".

Isn't this issue also partly to do with the amount of content released for each ship? (Remember, I said partly, it's not applicable to all ships)

Some ships have quite a bit more content than others