Wave 8 is the first really obvious power creep IMO. Other waves have added a few powerful cards, sometimes a little over the edge, but never such a plethora of improvement.

În what way is wave 8 power creep?

Well compare the 25 point Contracted Scout to the 27 point ORS or the 30 point Fringer. Comparable ships but a ton of advantages for the Scout in equipment and price. I think we can call this power creep...

How often did you see one of the other ships in a competitive list? It's not really power creep if the older options were not viable to begin with...

- The VCX itself. It is a big clumsy freighter, but can still take evade actions. And has a 1-turn. And a K-turn. And it can fire twice. And has a systems upgrade slot. And a primary attack of 4.

- Hera. Amazing ability. Many times better than Countess Ryad's.

- Kanan. Another strong ability, and its most obvious abuse has already made its way into the top of tournaments.

- Kanan (crew). For obvious reasons.

I'm sure I forgot something.

Please note that I am not calling any of the above OP. I am just pointing out the great number of strong pilots and upgrades that Wave 8 brought.

Edit:

I bolded a sentence that was obviously hard to find (or conveniently ignored).

I'd of included Sabine Wren to your list of wave 8 good cards, the ability to make any rebel ship with crew to carry a bomb and then to make it cause an additional damage to any one ship within range band 1. a Favourite of a local player, to drop conner nets from a b wing.

Wave 8 is the first really obvious power creep IMO. Other waves have added a few powerful cards, sometimes a little over the edge, but never such a plethora of improvement.

În what way is wave 8 power creep?

Well compare the 25 point Contracted Scout to the 27 point ORS or the 30 point Fringer. Comparable ships but a ton of advantages for the Scout in equipment and price. I think we can call this power creep...

Guess what happens if FFG bases the pricing for new ships off the worst ships from previous waves? Nobody has a reason to play anything new and the meta stagnates. If you would imagine a world without people shrieking "power creep" every time a new card gets revealed, imagine a TIE swarm smashing into Biggs Walks The Dogs. Forever.

TIE Defender was the worst TIE. Its almost unplayable currently because it costs ~10pts more than it should compared to other ships of similar stats.

Now, I'm all for the ImpVet buffs to it, but 20pt Delta Squadron Pilot? Tell me you're kidding.

Wave 8 is the first really obvious power creep IMO. Other waves have added a few powerful cards, sometimes a little over the edge, but never such a plethora of improvement.

În what way is wave 8 power creep?

Ghost expansion

- The VCX itself. It is a big clumsy freighter, but can still take evade actions. And has a 1-turn. And a K-turn. And it can fire twice. And has a systems upgrade slot. And a primary attack of 4.

- Hera. Amazing ability. Many times better than Countess Ryad's.

- Kanan. Another strong ability, and its most obvious abuse has already made its way into the top of tournaments.

- Kanan (crew). For obvious reasons.

Inquisitor's TIE

- TIE Advanced prototype. It's a prototype for the TIE Advanced, yet it is better in almost every way. Green 1-turns, awesome. The boost is just icing on the cake.

- The Inquisitor. Another amazing pilot ability.

- The title. Free evade with every target lock? For 1 point? Yes, please.

- Guidance chips. Ok, this is a boost to something that was previously underpowered, so maybe not so much power creep as it is a fix.

Mist Hunter

- Adaptability. Amazing upgrade that makes sure every EPT slot is used for all eternity. And it gives you great flexibility.

- Zuckuss (crew). Cheap and almost auto include on a YV-666.

- 4-LOM (crew). Perfect for ace hunting with big ships.

Punishing One

- Jumpmaster. The perfect ordnance carrier. I don't think anyone has missed what impact its introduction had on the meta.

- Dengar (crew). Like predator, only better. And it doesn't take up an EPT slot.

- Contracted scout. Compare it to a Wild space fringer and tell me there is no power creep going on.

- Guidance chips. Already covered.

I'm sure I forgot something.

Please note that I am not calling any of the above OP. I am just pointing out the great number of strong pilots and upgrades that Wave 8 brought.

Edit:

I bolded a sentence that was obviously hard to find (or conveniently ignored).

You really could list all the good cards with every wave...

Let's do that.

WAVE 7

Hound's Tooth

- Crack shot. Revitalized the TIE swarm and added new power to brobots. And useful in other lists too.

- Glitterstim. Gave brobots a new face.

- Trandoshan Slaver. Possibly, although we haven't seen too much of him so far.

Kihraxz

Nothing except Crack shot and Glitterstim, which have already been mentioned.

TIE Punisher

- Extra munitions. Another buff to ordnance that also turned out to be inadequate. Made playable by Wave 8.

K-Wing

- Miranda. Stayed competitive until the release of wave 8.

- Twin laser turret. Stayed competitive until the release of wave 8.

WAVE 6

Most Wanted

- BTL-A4 Y-Wing. Opened up a new door for the Y-Wing and set the stage for the stresshog.

- R4 Agromech. First saw use with Y-Wings but is now primarily a U-boats thing.

- Unhinged astromech. Had a brief moment in the sun with Scum TLT lists.

- K4 Security droid. Borderline case. Could be useful on some big Scum ships.

- Boba Fett. Saw competitive play for a time.

M3-A Scyk

Nothing.

Starviper

- Autothrusters. Huge boost for Interceptors, A-Wings and Aggressors.

IG-2000

- The Aggressor itself. A great ship that gave Scum its first top tier list concept.

Feel free to continue with more waves if you feel motivated.

One should also look at how many new cards a wave introduced before comparing them on straight number of 'good' cards.

TIE Defender was the worst TIE. Its almost unplayable currently because it costs ~10pts more than it should compared to other ships of similar stats.

Now, I'm all for the ImpVet buffs to it, but 20pt Delta Squadron Pilot? Tell me you're kidding.

Yeah put five deltas down and we really will have power creep.

Also I'm pretty sure pre wave 8 the bomber was worse off than the defender.

For me the power creep is about ships going uphill with the damage output. For example, TLT, doulbe tap, 4 primary, Inquisitor. In a way, I agree, it forces people to fly more carefully and think more about maneuvers, but if you get into the arc, the damage become more and more devastating.

Wave 8 is the first really obvious power creep IMO. Other waves have added a few powerful cards, sometimes a little over the edge, but never such a plethora of improvement.

În what way is wave 8 power creep?

Well compare the 25 point Contracted Scout to the 27 point ORS or the 30 point Fringer. Comparable ships but a ton of advantages for the Scout in equipment and price. I think we can call this power creep...

How often did you see one of the other ships in a competitive list? It's not really power creep if the older options were not viable to begin with...

24 points for a Novice, 25 for a naked Starviper, 27 for a plain E-Wing or ORS. In that price range there is no real competition for the scout.

If you want, say all these ships are overcosted or bad or whatever. With what else CAN we compare it then in that is in that price range. Trandoshan Slaver maybe? Well even then it's still incredibly cheap!

It shows in the huge impact that the ship has had.

The other ships of the wave are by no means bad either, but not exactly power creep. The Ghost has had the second largest impact, but for the main reason that the rest of the powerful Rebel aces and ships with exception of Crackwings are largely eliminated from the meta. The Ghost has filled this hole pretty well as it is a good ship!

The Inquisitor and Misthunter both are pretty solid as well and will be seen a lot in the future. But i think neither the Ghost nor the two other ships can be seen as power creep.

The Jumpmaster Scouts **** sure are however.

I think it is pretty clear from my posts above that I think there is power creep going on, and it's going to take a lot to convince me otherwise.

But, I will also say this. I don't think power creep is necessarily a bad thing. If it goes overboard, it sure becomes a problem, but so far that has not been the case. The power creep in X-Wing is kept at a low level, and as long as that remains the case I think it is a good thing.

Power level is needed for two things - to keep the game interesting and to sell products. While you might say that the latter is not in the players' interests, I say it is. If FFG don't make any money out of the game they will discontinue it. Sure, they appear to be making such huge amounts that the danger of that happening seems remote, but still.

As long as part of the power creep is used to revitalize old ships to keep them competitive (and FFG have so far been excellent at that), I see no problem with (a small) power creep. Wave 8 was a bit too much, but I would rather have that than a wave that is completely useless.

tl;dr

There is power creep in X-Wing, but as long as it is kept at a low level it is a good thing.

I think it is pretty clear from my posts above that I think there is power creep going on, and it's going to take a lot to convince me otherwise.

But, I will also say this. I don't think power creep is necessarily a bad thing. If it goes overboard, it sure becomes a problem, but so far that has not been the case. The power creep in X-Wing is kept at a low level, and as long as that remains the case I think it is a good thing.

Power level is needed for two things - to keep the game interesting and to sell products. While you might say that the latter is not in the players' interests, I say it is. If FFG don't make any money out of the game they will discontinue it. Sure, they appear to be making such huge amounts that the danger of that happening seems remote, but still.

As long as part of the power creep is used to revitalize old ships to keep them competitive (and FFG have so far been excellent at that), I see no problem with (a small) power creep. Wave 8 was a bit too much, but I would rather have that than a wave that is completely useless.

tl;dr

There is power creep in X-Wing, but as long as it is kept at a low level it is a good thing.

The defender still suffers from the dial, A-wings have insanely good dials, Y-wing have decent dials especially with R2 astro. Defender was not workable and now it is powerful but still locked into being a high speed jouster.

I have to say, I do feel like the Ghost is just plain bad. There are many reasons why, but they have all been gone over pretty well, but the most important is this. The TV show as a selling point. Any time you have something kids are going to watch and toys to go with it, and rules for those toys, it's inevitable that it's gonna be a little OP. We can't have Billy and Sally quit watching Rebels and stop buying merch because their Ghost doesn't make TIEs go boom just like in the show! And thus the rules get fudged a little so that it's a bit easier to win with and Billy and Sally can crush Dads TIEs all month long. There is also the marketability of the product itself. The Ghost simply cannot end up like the poor M3-A or the X-Wing! It's fresh new Star Wars, Disney has a reputation to uphold with their new baby. You think FFG signed off on the current Ghost without a little hard elbowing from the Mouse?

Is it? I don't see any ham... Or Canadian bacon for that matter...

Canadian Bacon is 50% Canadian and 50% Lies.

And really why is there ham there at all? It is taking up perfectly good bacon space.

Verity is the spice in life... unless you are in Can-na-dah.

The defender still suffers from the dial, A-wings have insanely good dials, Y-wing have decent dials especially with R2 astro. Defender was not workable and now it is powerful but still locked into being a high speed jouster.

And it IS all good too.

Stop trying to do EVERYTHING with EVERY ship... and you will be a better player.

I have to say, I do feel like the Ghost is just plain bad. There are many reasons why, but they have all been gone over pretty well, but the most important is this. The TV show as a selling point. Any time you have something kids are going to watch and toys to go with it, and rules for those toys, it's inevitable that it's gonna be a little OP. We can't have Billy and Sally quit watching Rebels and stop buying merch because their Ghost doesn't make TIEs go boom just like in the show! And thus the rules get fudged a little so that it's a bit easier to win with and Billy and Sally can crush Dads TIEs all month long. There is also the marketability of the product itself. The Ghost simply cannot end up like the poor M3-A or the X-Wing! It's fresh new Star Wars, Disney has a reputation to uphold with their new baby. You think FFG signed off on the current Ghost without a little hard elbowing from the Mouse?

From 0 to ~15-20% of lists making the cut last i checked. This is something not every ship did when it first came out. I.e. Only the Plantom made that happen as far as i know.

The defender still suffers from the dial, A-wings have insanely good dials, Y-wing have decent dials especially with R2 astro. Defender was not workable and now it is powerful but still locked into being a high speed jouster.

Y-Wings are however dead in the current meta. No TLTs, no Stressbots to be seen anywhere anymore. And saying they have a more decent Dial than a Defender is outright not true. That they don't need it that much as a TLT ship is another story!

The A-Wings are also merely a side notice as one of the best cheap blockers in the game. And Crack-As just came out as the pretty much only good counter to Jumpys that Rebels have.

Wave 8 is the first really obvious power creep IMO. Other waves have added a few powerful cards, sometimes a little over the edge, but never such a plethora of improvement.

În what way is wave 8 power creep?

Well compare the 25 point Contracted Scout to the 27 point ORS or the 30 point Fringer. Comparable ships but a ton of advantages for the Scout in equipment and price. I think we can call this power creep...

It's not bloody power creep if the thing it's creeping up from didn't have any power. That's like claiming the Kihraxz is power creep because it's better than a Scyk.Guess what happens if FFG bases the pricing for new ships off the worst ships from previous waves? Nobody has a reason to play anything new and the meta stagnates. If you would imagine a world without people shrieking "power creep" every time a new card gets revealed, imagine a TIE swarm smashing into Biggs Walks The Dogs. Forever.

Ill give you yhe ORS but for a very long time my favorite ship was the yt-2400 with a hlc and crew of choice (usually chewvbacca) sans title. I won a corvette with it and placed 3rd in a cac tournament as well (losing to the winner by 1 health). Now there are not 1 but 2 new ships that perform the same roll/mechanic cheaper and better. The 2400 probably has a better dial but it is difficult to leverage it at low PS.

There is power creep. Phantom, Turretwing, cards like Autothrusters and Palpatine.

Acewings are more efficient than generics now. 35 point Soontir > 36 points of TIEs, same with Poe. 58 point Super Dash beats 5 TIEs automatically.

You can thank the current design team for turning the game into winning in the list building phase, Turretwing, and whoever boosts last wins wing.

Uhm... Defender... Bad dial. Oh yes, because hard turns are the only thing that matters. If only they had something good that counter those red turns. LIKE A WHITE K-TURN. I love the Defender's dial. I love how it plays so differently from other ships. Is it's K-turn predicable, sort of. You don't have to take it. Having a White K-turn doesn't only mean that you don't get stressed when you k-turn it also means you can k-turn stressed. So those red had turns don't hurt that bad.

What doesn't the Defender do - it isn't a PtL Arc-dodging defender. It also might be a tad expensive due to the fact that jousters face a high risk of getting shot up. But I played the Defender a ton even before the fix.

My biggest complaint about the defender was that its pilots pilot abilities weren't that good. Of course one of them got a lot better with TIE /fo's and their free TL ability.

Wave 8 is the first really obvious power creep IMO. Other waves have added a few powerful cards, sometimes a little over the edge, but never such a plethora of improvement.

În what way is wave 8 power creep?

Standard sky is falling nonsense.

You might have thought folks would have got bored of claiming doom and gloom after all these waves.

But this is the Internet...

I don't think there is a power creep problem. FFG is constantly trying to make older ships and upgrade cards fresh and relevant. I can imagine that this is hard.

also not really seeing an issue with power creep. Even the runaway train of steadily increasing offense isn't really that far off from what it was with super dash around, crackshot excluded

and if crackshot is powercreep, then I'm glad it's here to stay. Waves 7 and 8 introduced some really good, varied means of obtaining some goddamn consistency outside fat turrets and 2-ship builds, and this is something we should all be thanking them for

it does sadly make non-crack jousting generics (even) crappier than they were before, but honestly after MJ calculated that they're already less efficient than most aces it isn't much of a surprise.

what needs to happen is FFG needs to continue bringing stuff that was poorly designed from the onset (X-wing, scyk, e-wing generics etcetcetc) up to par, kinda like what they're doing with Imp Vets

I understand the issue that they want to sell Ships and therefore don't sell all the cards separately, but FFG could easily print booster packs of cards like upgrades cards, titles and so on that are not available in the ships packs, just like they pump out cards for all their other games. That would allow them to be even more agile in re-balancing the game, and keep the game fresh in general. As it is we have to wait about half a year or more before balance issues are corrected.