Unlike some other pilots, Rexler cannot be judged in a vacuum. He is one of the worst pilots when big ships are scarce and one of the best pilots when big ships are popular. He will ruin a meta full of low agility high hull ships but be basically without text (and thus without reason to use him) against a meta full of 2-4 hull high agility small ships.
That's not entirely true.
You ALSO take Rexler because of his Pilot Skill 8. He's the only defender that natively moves after and shoots before Dash. He is also pretty desireable in a PS8 heavy meta (if you see tons of omega leader, inquisitor, etc, etc). He's also the only Defender that can hit PS 10 (if you feel you really really need to).
So I agree he's meta dependent, but more for his Pilot Skill than his ability.
Another reason to take Rexler though is when you do not want to take support ships and just want a single highly independent 'ace' ship.
For example:
4 black squad TIES w/ crack shot = 60
You can run some nice Rex builds in that 40 point slot, and frankly, none of the other Defender pilots are as desireable as Rexler with a mini-swarm incapable of being TL caddies for Vessery:
Rex w/ lone wolf, TIE/D + tractor beam = 40
Rex w/ X-7 + predator (TIE mk 2 optional) = 38 (39)
Rex w/ X-7 + juke/lone wolf + hull/stealth = 40
Not as hard-hitting as Whisper in the same point range, but definitely much harder to kill.
Edited by blade_mercurial