Assuming you don´t have the 5 points (2 for Chardaan, 3 for Prockets) to kit Jake Farrell with Proton Rockets I wonder if Crack Shot might be worth it instead of VI. Sure, it´s great to move from PS7 to PS9, but you still face a lot of aces at PS9 with an initiative bid or even at 10 or 11 (Vader). Most people wait for the chance to get to range-1 (have to for PRs) with both focus and target lock to make sure you get a good roll on the PRs. In the same situation with Crack Shot you get 3 dice with target lock and focus and take away one of the defender´s evades, so it kind of acts like mini proton rockets without the huge cost.

The way I have been flying Jake he does most of his damage against low agility targets that tend to be low PS anyway (TLT Ys, Palp shuttle). Brobots seem to be mostly on crack these days so they tend to be at PS6 instead of 8 like they sometimes were. When facing higher PS A-wings tend to be great blockers so Jake might have a better chance of assisting in a kill on Soontir that way rather than trying to get behind him and get through 3 tokens.

So what do you think, is it time to consider Crack Shot on Jake rather than VI?

Don't you have the AWing Title? So you can put Chack shot and VI.

I'm assuming this is in addition to PTL.

My favourite Jake build atm is VI/Adaptability, when that eventually flipping comes out.

25 points with Refit for PS10 is incredibly good value. it does have the a-wing problem, but moving at PS10 with boost or barrel roll and focus should usually get range 1.

Yes, I did mean in addition to Push the Limit. That upgrade is an auto-include in my mind because Jake becomes a poor man´s Soontir at that point.

Those 2 red dice (sure, 3 at range 1) do really suck the fun factor out of Jake at times though.

I have been flying Jake with 3 TLT Ys a bit and very rarely is he the last pilot to move on the board since I´m sitting at even 100 points. At that point he becomes a nice arc dodger against low PS ships but a pretty good turtling ace blocker too that gives the TLTs a good chance against actionless aces.

So, now I´m wondering how important that move from PS7 to PS9 (without initiative bid) is in today´s meta...

Have you looked at Juke?

Juke would be my suggestion as well. Reusable crack for one point more more often than not on a ship like Jake.

Ive been flying a list with Jake, Kyle and Po and its worked out well. Kyle gives focus to Jake and Po while dishing out some TLT beatings.

Why not Predator?

There is a squad that me and a buddy have tested... Jake with homing missile crackshot Ptl Kraken and Wedge. It's a hard Soontir/Whisper counter. It works well, but my buddy had to catastrophic failures at his store champ with it. Left Soontir and Oicunn on 1 hull each. Then the second one his Kraken was blinded by a PS 11 Vader. Other than really wonky 20/80 crap it works well. Heck it might have been more like 15/85 stuff or worse. His dice LOL.

Ive been flying a list with Jake, Kyle and Po and its worked out well. Kyle gives focus to Jake and Po while dishing out some TLT beatings.

Love Jake with PtL+Juke (27pts) and Kyle with Jan Ors+TLT+Predator (32pts). Then Jake can move, focus (Jan Ors turns it into evade setting up Juke), get his free BR or Boost, then PTL for either a BOOST,TL or even another evade token if you are in someones arc. Or Jake can just move, TL/boost/evade, then at start of combat (after everyone has moved), kyle can toss him a focus letting him br or boost and then use PTL. Jake and Kyle are really fun together. Jake could essentially have two evades and a focus with 3 green dice. Really hard to kill.

Ive been flying a list with Jake, Kyle and Po and its worked out well. Kyle gives focus to Jake and Po while dishing out some TLT beatings.

I like Kyle and Jake as well. You can bump with Jake then give him a focus from Kyle and barrel roll off and out of arc. But I use outmaneuver with Jake. So it really helps with him. Gaining a 3 to 2 advantage with dice, usually anyways.