I'm a big fan of a few of these guys. Notably, Jek Porkins and Lt. Lorrir.

Porkins once was critical to getting me to the top table of a tournament (where poor flying and even poorer dice ended my run). Ran him with just PTL, R5-D8, and IA. What he lacked in maneuverability he made up for in punch and durability... and white, PTL K-Turns! If I lose with Porkins, he's usually the last ship on the table and still a threat to win it all. If I win, he's almost always still kickin'. PTL Porkins, folks, maybe the single most underrated pilot in the game. Heck, I usually fly him with large debris clouds which he can poor-man's Dash Rendar right through without a concern to lay out some murder shots.

Lorrir is a different story... he's not super amazing compared to the true aces of the game, but for his price I find little I enjoy more putting on a table. 25pts and he's rolling with just autothrusters and it's all he needs. With his middling PS, he can be used effectively with his ability to either get oodles of uncontested (if unmodified) shots at lower PS pilots, while at the same time you can pull some insane blocks against higher PS aces. I remember a game back when Warthog Ys first came out and I derped hard early on and the rest of my squad died painfully and ineffectively. Then Lorrir went on to solo four Y-Wings. He's no substitute for Soontir Fel, but for his price a well-flown Lorrir can be legit.

I love this post! Personally, I love Porkins. I haven't flown him extensively, but I flew him a lot for a while there. I'm really out of practice with X-wings, too. I do know that if you use his astromech and his ability, there is only an 11% chance that you will take damage and not remove it. Even then, you can just remove it later.

What do you usually do with the PTL? Is it to do an action and then use the droid? Or do both TL and Focus? I'm just curious. I don't think I use his ability as much as I could. I have thought about Expert Handling with him, but not really tried it. If he could get two EPTs, he would be a menace!

I'm surprised to hear about Lorrir, though. I've not heard of anyone using him. That's hysterical that you were able to then take on 4 TLT Y-wings. I love it! If only he didn't take a stress. Maybe it's OK, though, as your one action is to Barrel Roll and most moves are then green. Just embrace not modifying your dice? I've used Kir Kanos a few times, especially in Epic games.

With Porkins, it depends. If I'm damaged, have to use the droid first and PTL an action afterwards. If I'm not damaged, I'll TL+Focus. It's even more amusing with a Hull Upgrade, but that starts getting cost prohibitive.

Lorrir, yeah, the stress is crap and using his ability usually means unmodified shots, but unmodified shots without return fire is always worth it. And, if you want, it can be mitigated by squad mates with Squad Leader or Fleet Officer, and maybe even throwing a TC on Lorrir could help (this I haven't tried yet). But again, for 25pts with thrusters and you get a pretty hard counter to generics that can also work as a blocker against aces. It's not a bad bargain.