K4 vs. Dengar

By Admiral Deathrain, in X-Wing

K4 and Dengar crew are both very similar: They provide attack rerolls, cost 3 points and take a crew slot. K4 locks you on to one target. If you don't have that in arc he doesn't help at all. He also needs a green manouver to work, although the TL can carry over to the next turn. Dengar is a lot weaker against generics, but comparable against unique pilots. He would have been really bad in wave 3, but now he is great. Dengar leaves you entirely free to chose your target.

Which one would you prefer where and why?

If I'm not taking ordnance or dengar pilot and I'm not abusing some special interaction than dengar hands down.

The clincher is not restricting yourself to greens. Dengar for me unless the meta shifts towards generics.

K4 and Dengar crew are both very similar: They provide attack rerolls, cost 3 points and take a crew slot. K4 locks you on to one target. If you don't have that in arc he doesn't help at all. He also needs a green manouver to work, although the TL can carry over to the next turn. Dengar is a lot weaker against generics, but comparable against unique pilots. He would have been really bad in wave 3, but now he is great. Dengar leaves you entirely free to chose your target.

Which one would you prefer where and why?

K4 is the king for HLK owners and missile lovers.

K4 is extra beef with PTL.

Dengar works better when you have 3 dice.

Dengar doesn't lock you with greens, so you will consider non-PTL for him

Dengar is a better Predator, and K4 is a situational free Target Lock.

Let's look at the tradeoff, shall we?

Target Lock

You may re-roll up to your maximum attack dice, not just 1 or 2.

You may use the Target Lock to fire Ordnance

You may use the Target Lock even after Boba Fett takes away your upgrade

You may use the Target Lock to activate special abilities, if you have any

Dengar

You may use it on any attack

You may use it on every attack

You may use it even when Target Locks get broken or become otherwise unusable

You may use it regardless of maneuver performed this round

You do not telegraph intended target

I'm thinking Dengar's better for a single ship, but K4 is not bad if you need more than one crew in your fleet.

The ost important differences:

Dengar works while stressed (thus also works with red manouvres, where you normally get no action. In this regard dengar is more comparable to outlaw tech on steroids, although outlaw tech focus can be used on defense)

K4: can reroll more dice if needed, works with ordance (not a biggie currently)

They are very close, but Dengar wins in most non-ordnance matchups.

K4 and Dengar crew are both very similar: They provide attack rerolls, cost 3 points and take a crew slot. K4 locks you on to one target. If you don't have that in arc he doesn't help at all. He also needs a green manouver to work, although the TL can carry over to the next turn. Dengar is a lot weaker against generics, but comparable against unique pilots. He would have been really bad in wave 3, but now he is great. Dengar leaves you entirely free to chose your target.

Which one would you prefer where and why?

K4 is the king for HLK owners and missile lovers.

K4 is extra beef with PTL.

Dengar works better when you have 3 dice.

Dengar doesn't lock you with greens, so you will consider non-PTL for him

Basically this.

PTL = use K4

Ordnance/Abilities that use TL = use K4

Otherwise use Dengar.

Or when you're throwing HLC/Zuckuss shots around. 1 or 2 dice is valuable, but when he number of dice you hurl increases, so does the value of a TL in comparison. And remember that Stresshogs tend to be generic...

It's an interesting companion to Predator, for sure. Now the only ships immune to one or the other effect are mid-PS generics. And you get the bonus die against ships that are often the hardest to hit. I like it.

Unless I need target locks for a special interaction of some sort, I'll go with Dengar.

I'd prefer Dengar because he doesn't limit your dial. He scales very well -- unique pilots are generally more difficult to hit, and getting an extra reroll against them specifically is really nice.

I'll be running K4 with Unhinged on Dengar pilot, but basically any other scum ship I play will carry Dengar Crew

PTL - K4 anyday.

Anything else - Dengar i presume.

K4 still got its niche with PtL as you gonna pull mostly greens anyway.

I like k4 it's simple to use and a TL is never bad but you do kind of feel obligated to do greens.

I can see dengar eclipsing it though given aces are so popular.

Dengar is a better Predator...

Why is it a better version of Predator? Is it because it leaves your EPT slot free for something else or is it because you get extra dice when shooting unique pilots instead of generics? If it's the later, I think that is a highly meta and match-up dependent call.

Dengar is a better Predator...

Why is it a better version of Predator? Is it because it leaves your EPT slot free for something else or is it because you get extra dice when shooting unique pilots instead of generics? If it's the later, I think that is a highly meta and match-up dependent call.

A combination of the two.

Scum are generally starved for crew slots, and almost no fleet runs without a single Unique (where as there are very few ships in the metagame of PS 2 or lower, though that's likely to change with the readvent of Swarm and Alpha tactics).

Moreover, the Unique ships are usually the ships you want to kill first and hardest.

Edited by DraconPyrothayan

DEGNAR

I think Dengar would go well on Kath Scarlet. The K4 was previously a common crew choice for her. But based on the arguments above, I think Dengar is the better option. The Firespray doesn't have a great spread of green maneuvers. Perhaps something like this...

Kath Scarlet (Scum) (38)
Veteran Instincts (1)
Dengar (3)
Glitterstim (2)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Total: 48

Predator + Dengar master race

I think Dengar would go well on Kath Scarlet. The K4 was previously a common crew choice for her. But based on the arguments above, I think Dengar is the better option. The Firespray doesn't have a great spread of green maneuvers. Perhaps something like this...

Kath Scarlet (Scum) (38)

Veteran Instincts (1)

Dengar (3)

Glitterstim (2)

Engine Upgrade (4)

Total: 48

Dengar, EU, Outmaneuver would be pretty sexy too.

I was actually discussing this with someone on FB. I feel that they both have their place, depending on what ship/build you're using. The PS 2 YV666 definately benefits more from K4 as that ship tends to do a lot of crashing into formations. On the YV666; Bossk and Moralo are probably gonna benefit more from Dengar, as they tend to do more hard turns (and boosts) which Dengar is better for. Latts Razzi is the funniest, as she benefits from having both Dengar and K4, so that she can lower agility with her TL and still have a focus plus rerolls from Dengar for the attack.

As people have mentioned, other than the YV666 Kath is the obvious choice to get predator without having to use the EPT slot (Yay, PS9 Kath!). A Connor/Prox Emon could also use Dengar. Do the hard 3 to fling a bomb then shoot out your butt with a reroll. Not sure if I like Dengar on any of the hawks, as it's hard not to put RecSpec on them.

K4 and Dengar crew are both very similar: They provide attack rerolls, cost 3 points and take a crew slot. K4 locks you on to one target. If you don't have that in arc he doesn't help at all. He also needs a green manouver to work, although the TL can carry over to the next turn. Dengar is a lot weaker against generics, but comparable against unique pilots. He would have been really bad in wave 3, but now he is great. Dengar leaves you entirely free to chose your target.

Which one would you prefer where and why?

Let's see how the wave 8 meta pans out first.

Stuff like 6x Bandit Squadron, 4x Homing Missile, 2x Concussion Missile, 6x Guidance Chips seems like it would just autowin against most Acewing BS, at least on paper. 6 health Poe can only take so many 4/4 hit attacks that cap him at 2 agility dice because they're secondary weapons. Neo-Genericwing may be a thing in the wave 8 meta outside of just TLT's and 6x Crackshot.

I can't imagine a Ghost or Decimator living through many homing missiles either.

Edited by ParaGoomba Slayer