I'm a longtime Maarek fan and I've been playing around with some defender builds for him, but I've been a little hard-pressed to find one that can't be done more cheaply with his TIE Advanced (despite the Defender's unique jousting affinities). The Mangler Cannon makes him miss out on the sweet new titles, and Calculation just isn't as efficient as the good old ATC. I've even been considering missiles with guidance chips. Then again, perhaps I'm going about this all wrong- at one more point than a Glaive Squadron Pilot, Maarek has +1 pilot skill and a fun little incidental ability- on that metric, maybe he doesn't need a set of upgrades tailored to it.

What have y'all been doing with him?

its more about giving him a better dial than it is better offense.

TAdv w/ the ATC technically does about as much damage as the Defender, but it is 1 shield weaker and has a terrible dial. Biggest complaint i have about Tadv is they have such a difficult to maneuver in close proximity dial, usually making me do flyby strats rather than chasing strats. Also with the x7 title he gets his evade every turn, while in the Tadv he has to reTL if he lost sights on his original target. Being free of a TL-dependancy he can focus now too.

Calculation is probably your best bet if you want to abuse his ability more often. I'd say just give him x7, calculation (or even PTL + Mk2 engines) and leave it at that. He's an oddly durable ship now and has a high value on his head because that crit shenanigans can be game breaking (lost count how many Zs or other 2hull ships ive killed because i caused 1 crit with him and drew 2damage out of the 3 cards i had to choose from lol)

The way to do Maarek is to not force it. Calculation is fine if you can get another mod in there, which you'll notice that there are now lots of synergy options available to empire. Systems officer and Col. Jendon come to mind.

Yeah, much like Rexlar, don't chase the ability, but abuse the crap out of it when it procs.

Drop Crack shot on him or VI and add two x/7 glaives for 100 points