Ok, I'll be up front. I dont "get" probe droids. I'm reading strategy blogs, listening to people talk, and I hear a lot of good buzz from people talking about how awesome they are.

I dont get it.

My experience with using probe droids goes along the lines of "Oh, I have a probe Droid (sound of probe droid being wrecked) Nevermind then...".

I dont understand then I read people mentioning its damage output (yellow dice?) or its mobility (3 speed?) or its durability (meh?).

Educate me. Elucidate me. Enlighten me.

Probe Droids have great utility and are good for the following reasons, first of all they are very cheap (3 and 5 threat), they have 3 different surge abilities all of which are useful in any situation (add damage, recover damage or pierce damage) and on top of all that they are mobile. This might not seem huge all the time, but on some maps it is a big advantage.

I tend to bring the elites on maps where my open group is already deployed (say Trandoshans or Royal Guards are already included) as they just add a nice cheap option with high utility.

On top of that they roll 2 yellows (the most surgey of all die) and a blue for range. So if you really want you can just duck and cover with them. I use them to poke in over difficult or impassable terrain and blow up, or attack and then move behind that terrain to break LOS.

They definitely are not strong as front line troops, you want to form a shield with some Storm Troopers and then use them to pick off as they go. Your Rebels will forget that a Probe Droid can't be re enforced like your ST can and so it will help them live longer by not being the focus.

They can do more damage than a stormtrooper, usually take two hits to die, and can heal themselves (if I remember right). Nothing I've ever been excited about, but they are annoying to the Rebels and that's always a good thing.

They're great if you use Technical Support. Other than that....

Not sure if you're discussing skirmish or campaign, so I'm going to respond from a campaign standpoint.

Provided I have the open groups to spare for them, I really like bringing probe droids because they can easily increase my deployed group count -- they are a cheap, relevant card.

Having more deployed groups than the Rebels have activation tokens is a big advantage. The other cheap alternative is a regular Imperial Officer, which I think isn't as threat-worthwhile as a probe droid in most missions.

Not sure if you're discussing skirmish or campaign, so I'm going to respond from a campaign standpoint.

Provided I have the open groups to spare for them, I really like bringing probe droids because they can easily increase my deployed group count -- they are a cheap, relevant card.

Having more deployed groups than the Rebels have activation tokens is a big advantage. The other cheap alternative is a regular Imperial Officer, which I think isn't as threat-worthwhile as a probe droid in most missions.

He has a point, more cheap activations that can hurt is always a big help - especially when the Rebels go first every round.

I really like them for a cheap gun.

(1) They have potential to hit decently hard. (2) They are cheap (3) They waste a Rebel action, should they be attacked (4) Self Destruct keeps Rebels moving or forces them to kill it.

My favorite thing is that they are cheap. So the Rebels waste 1 or 2 activations to kill it, then you bring it right back. Nothing (other than being stunned) frustrates a Rebel more than seeing what they just killed back on the board again.

For Campaign I love them for the command decks that I use which make Droids better (Tech Superiority and Armored Onslaught). When using decks that are meant for others I still love to bring them cause they have the health and activation count to help even the odds just a titch.

Thank you all for the answers. I should have been specific. I meant in campaign, but the skirmish stuff is welcome too

Is it better to run them away and try to use recover, or run them in and pop them with self destruct?

I just feel like they are very efficient for skirmish. 10 health (for 6 points!), recover, a good dice pool, and 2 activations for 2 droids compares pretty favorably 1 stormtrooper squad of 3 guys.

Is it better to run them away and try to use recover, or run them in and pop them with self destruct?

I think most of the time it's better to keep them alive but close to the heroes. I again refer to the extra deployment card being important

Heroes start getting really nervous at the threat of a double-move into explode-range at the end of a round. I usually save self-destruct for when heroes are 1-2 away from being wounded, as it's a guaranteed 1 damage, and likely at least 2 damage.

One tactic I really like to utilize is abusing "Mobile" -- I'll stick them behind some blocking terrain and then pop out, shoot, and pop back in. Heroes understandably don't want to spend the extra movement to seeking-and-destroying the droids, and thus they stay healthy.

In skirmish, probes are an interesting piece of the meta since they're the cheapest way to get a three dice attack stock (ie. without focusing, special abilities, command cards etc), with decent range to boot. Going from two to three dice (even if they're blues and yellows, provided you have decent surges - and the elite probe has a spectacular surge ability combo of +2DMG and Pierce 2) means you can reliably threaten the beefier characters (Vader, Chewie etc) and vehicles (AT-STs, buffed tanks). This is a bit less relevant now, since the last errata nerfed the Officer move ability, which made the big beefy guys like Vader less playable, but even against weaker stuff the third attack die gives you a much better chance to punch through the black defence die, resulting in a higher chance of one-shot-kills, which helps your activation economy. There's nothing worse than attacking a generic figure and leaving it with 1HP, since that means you have to double your activation expenditure to actually eliminate it. It's similar to the campaign in a way - the basic resource the Rebels are managing are their actions, so less shots needed to kill off the opposition means less actions used, and so gives you more resources (or time) to go for the mission objectives - a beefier weapon therefore has the added value of making you faster in pursuing even non-combat objectives.

This is of course countered on the other side of the spectrum by low-health white defence figures, which are the best counter to strong attackers, making them wase their resources (actions/activations) on doing non-optimal things. And that's also a very cool aspect of the metagame dynamics IMO.