Arc-170: Astromech and crew means strong possibilities

By nigeltastic, in X-Wing

there's one very powerful astromech we're overlooking due to having no particular crew synergy and no synergy at all with the two named pilots

keep your eyes on R7, everyone. He's very hard to find a spot for (tarn?) but his ability can be game winning

he's also once per round so no piggy engineer!

Put the R7 on Biggs, and a Weapons Engineer on Shara Bey.

And if we're in Escalation, throw Kanan Jarrus in as a VCX-100 pilot.

Unfortunately, Shara Bey's ability is only for offense, so it wouldn't allow Biggs to treat her TLs as his own on defense with R7. :/

Loved the idea though.

there's one very powerful astromech we're overlooking due to having no particular crew synergy and no synergy at all with the two named pilots

keep your eyes on R7, everyone. He's very hard to find a spot for (tarn?) but his ability can be game winning

he's also once per round so no piggy engineer!

Put the R7 on Biggs, and a Weapons Engineer on Shara Bey.

And if we're in Escalation, throw Kanan Jarrus in as a VCX-100 pilot.

Unfortunately, Shara Bey's ability is only for offense, so it wouldn't allow Biggs to treat her TLs as his own on defense with R7. :/

Loved the idea though.

I went the same way until I remembered shara's sad limitation :(

she'll be around to give biggs full mods, though, provided she doesn't need re-rolls herself (really don't like that ability <_< but at least it works alright if you're dedicating her to bombing rather than shooting)

we still got two arcs to go, though, so hopefully they open up more potential living space for astromechs such as r7

Edited by ficklegreendice

I was thinking about the Hera/R3A2/Wired combo and was figuring out if either of the released pilot abilities had any synergy, found they didnt, and shrugged, figuring the pilot abilities sort of suck anyway.

What about a Weapons Engineer and an R7 astromech? You can defend against one ship while modifying your attack dice against another.

I was thinking about the Hera/R3A2/Wired combo and was figuring out if either of the released pilot abilities had any synergy, found they didnt, and shrugged, figuring the pilot abilities sort of suck anyway.

they doooooo :(

doesn't really make hera/r3a2/wired any good, though, esp considering 1 agi on wired. Personally find gunner far more exciting, then throw on a-rush or something since you don't get hera

still, two more unique pilots in the tank. Hopefully they're more flexible.

TBF I'm assuming they're fairly limited in scope exactly because of the horrific combination of crew and astromech opening SO many powerful combos.

I don't think any of these combos, apart from gunner r3-a2 on a cheaper platform, warrants the abilities we've gotten so far

especially on a profile as fragile as a K's

arcs are, if I had to guess, the least viable most fun ship of the wave so far

shadowcaster t-beam tech in particular will butcher them, to the point where you might not see them without biggs (or r5-x3)

Edited by ficklegreendice

Lol... BB8 + Intel Agent. Slap Intimidation on there and this guy just became a beautiful blocker, with two firing arcs to most likely get a shot off somebody anyway.

Ive done the BB8 thing with Blue Ace alot, though its without intel agent so its purely guesswork. Barrelroll into a 1bank and boost into final position: perfectly in the way! lol

What about R2-D2 and Nein Numb. (all you straight maneuvers are green and all greens give you a shield back.) Been wanting to do that since I started playing.

What about R2-D2 and Nein Numb. (all you straight maneuvers are green and all greens give you a shield back.) Been wanting to do that since I started playing.

hey, it works (probably much better if the arc has a 4-straighT)

can even slap it on PTL norra and hope for the best

not as annoying as c3po r2-d2, but it's something

especially on a profile as fragile as a K's

Some of the things might be decent in terms of beefing them up, especially r2d2 and 3p0 or rec spec and r5p9. If 3p0 gives r5d8 100% success rate it might also not be awful.

Then again it might also be a tragic waste of a ship and never see play, who knows!

especially on a profile as fragile as a K's

Some of the things might be decent in terms of beefing them up, especially r2d2 and 3p0 or rec spec and r5p9. If 3p0 gives r5d8 100% success rate it might also not be awful.

Then again it might also be a tragic waste of a ship and never see play, who knows!

r5d8 100% is pretty awful when you could just get r2-d2/r5p9 to do basically the same for less :P (and then use c3po to get another damage cancel instead of making a crappy droid actually work)

I'd be the saddest ever if it ended up sucking, but so far the only thing pointing in that direction (apart from the base profile, but when has that ever stopped fel, right?) is the stupidly underwhelming pilot abilities, so there's still two chances to get it right!

and it's not like Norra's is god awful, it's just infuriating from a design perspective because now you basically gotta PTL bb-8 or run some awful synergy jank

Edited by ficklegreendice

r5d8 100% is pretty awful when you could just get r2-d2/r5p9 to do basically the same for less :P (and then use c3po to get another damage cancel instead of making a crappy droid actually work)

I'd be the saddest ever if it ended up sucking, but so far the only thing pointing in that direction (apart from the base profile, but when has that ever stopped fel, right?) is the stupidly underwhelming pilot abilities, so there's still two chances to get it right!

and it's not like Norra's is god awful, it's just infuriating from a design perspective because now you basically gotta PTL bb-8 or run some awful synergy jank

You get a ship in your back arc at range 1/2, lock it and weapons engineer the ship you actually want to shoot, then get a free boost to gain front arc on the real target. Get your locks for 'free' from r7t1/weapons engineer and suddenly she's a lot better. She becomes ghetto atc Vader kind of.

Edit: r7t1 appears to be an action, proving how often I play rebel ships. Still good but not as amazing as I wanted.

Edited by nigeltastic

Norra's ability is pretty **** good. I'm looking forward to running her with PtL/R2D2/Ezra crew and maybe that barrel roll mod if it's two points or less.

She's one of the few ships that can fairly reliably put five hits on a target, and her tail shot is going to crit constantly between title and Ezra.

She can also be really tanky against a higher PS ship. Assuming she doesn't blank her one evade roll, she'll get two evades a turn, for three damage mitigation with R2D2. Then still have Ezra and potentially the tail shot to modify her attack. This is not a ship you want to get into a 1v1 with.

r5d8 100% is pretty awful when you could just get r2-d2/r5p9 to do basically the same for less :P (and then use c3po to get another damage cancel instead of making a crappy droid actually work)

I'd be the saddest ever if it ended up sucking, but so far the only thing pointing in that direction (apart from the base profile, but when has that ever stopped fel, right?) is the stupidly underwhelming pilot abilities, so there's still two chances to get it right!

and it's not like Norra's is god awful, it's just infuriating from a design perspective because now you basically gotta PTL bb-8 or run some awful synergy jank

I think actually for her running r7t1 with weapons engineer is the dirty dozen.

You get a ship in your back arc at range 1/2, lock it and weapons engineer the ship you actually want to shoot, then get a free boost to gain front arc on the real target. Get your locks for free from r7t1/weapons engineer and suddenly she's a lot better and can take predator for rerolls without eating her lock. She becomes ghetto atc Vader kind of.

that's some incredibly situational stuff and she won't have the focus on the turn she locks without PTL

Norra's ability is pretty **** good. I'm looking forward to running her with PtL/R2D2/Ezra crew and maybe that barrel roll mod if it's two points or less.

She's one of the few ships that can fairly reliably put five hits on a target, and her tail shot is going to crit constantly between title and Ezra.

She can also be really tanky against a higher PS ship. Assuming she doesn't blank her one evade roll, she'll get two evades a turn, for three damage mitigation with R2D2. Then still have Ezra and potentially the tail shot to modify her attack. This is not a ship you want to get into a 1v1 with.

I don't know how reliable those five hits are. You can't spend your lock for re-rolls so you're relying on just focus pulling out four hits, which happens a lot less often than I'd like

what's good about her ability, apart from when the extra happens, is that you get some guarantees out of it (albeit at the cost of full mods). roll 1 less hit than max? well, you got max guaranteed with her ability. Firing out the butt (and not rolling any focus on those dice)? Ability lops on a crit

which is good, but there's no reason for it to be so strict. After all, we're talking about a ship with (probably) no green turns without r2-astro and PS 7 basically capped due to the need for PTL to make the ability self-sufficiently viable. Even with an aux arc, that's pretty **** predictable (without bb-8)

don't think she would've broken the game if the ability just added the relevant result instead of a focus

Edited by ficklegreendice

swx53-shara-bey.png

Ok, does this do what I think it does?

Shara Bey (28)

Predator (3)

C-3PO (3)

R5-K6 (2)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Esege Tuketu (28)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Extra Munitions (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Recon Specialist (3)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 78

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

R5K6 says SHARA cannot use the target lock again on the same attack... but can another pilot use both TLs on a torpedo or missile?

I don't know how reliable those five hits are.

I like testing my dice for long periods of time randomly to see what kinds of results I get (wouldn't be an x-wing player if I didn't like rolling dice). I get 4/5 hits with her pretty **** reliably. Sometimes I don't even have to spend the focus because of Ezra.

She offers some fantastic averaging of your overall chances. hit/hit/focus/blank? Make that three hits/crit. All hits and focuses? You're taking five now. If you completely blank you still have your target lock. I think most people would gladly pay two modifiers to almost always get 4/5 hits.

The tail shot at range 1 is actually the worst one to take I've found. It's pretty easy to make that attack 3/4 mostly crits. She's going to absolutely shred hull ships.

Even with an aux arc, that's pretty **** predictable

There's a reason this thing comes with the barrel roll mod. Also I think worrying about predictability isn't warranted if you have fantastic modifiers and jousting power. I have a Ghost build that's pretty much locked to its greens and yet I've managed to win tournaments with it. I think the ARC will be fine on that front.

You can also dump regen and take BB-8. I'll probably try both when this comes out.

Edited by DarkArk

swx53-shara-bey.png

Ok, does this do what I think it does?

Shara Bey (28)

Predator (3)

C-3PO (3)

R5-K6 (2)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Esege Tuketu (28)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Extra Munitions (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Recon Specialist (3)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 78

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

R5K6 says SHARA cannot use the target lock again on the same attack... but can another pilot use both TLs on a torpedo or missile?

I don't see why not.

swx53-shara-bey.png

Ok, does this do what I think it does?

Shara Bey (28)

Predator (3)

C-3PO (3)

R5-K6 (2)

Alliance Overhaul (0)

Esege Tuketu (28)

Autoblaster Turret (2)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Extra Munitions (2)

Cluster Missiles (4)

Recon Specialist (3)

Guidance Chips (0)

Total: 78

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

R5K6 says SHARA cannot use the target lock again on the same attack... but can another pilot use both TLs on a torpedo or missile?

R5K6 says "After spending your Target Lock..."

Hmmm, after reading R5K6 again, technically, you didnt spend it. Another friendly used it as its own. I think if the friendly ship had R5K6, they could roll to get a target lock. Would that be right?

EDIT: Just like Garven using Esege focus as his own then being able to pass it back.

Edited by wurms

Correct, someone else equipped with anything that depends on their target locks could trigger that off Shara's in whatever capacity, and they could use her target lock to fire OR to reroll their missiles/torpedoes, as written. It's identical to how Esege's ability works.

Artoo (Crew) and R5-P9 is going to be plenty obnoxious, I hope!

This one one of the first ones that hit me, too. I blame your Miranda build for that.