My reasoning if that cancelling 1 damage with your token is about as good as re-genning a shield. It's exactly the same until you lose your shields but it's a point cheaper and doesn't hog a useful upgrade slot.

If you ditch R5-P9 on poe in favour of Sensor Cluster what astro would you take? I think I'd go with BB-8 to keep it cheap and useful, let's you do the PTL green trick and still get your focus.

Is my reasoning flawed, is R5-P9 so much better than SC than it's ever going to be worth the extra point and the Astro slot?

Sensor Cluster/BB8/PTL/AT/Black One on PS9 Poe is going to be a beast.

Whether the R5P9 version is still decent depends largely on what the tech in HotR does I think.

Whether the R5P9 version is still decent depends largely on what the tech in HotR does I think.

Oh of course! I hadn't thought about possible new tech to give us an interesting choice.

My reasoning if that cancelling 1 damage with your token is about as good as re-genning a shield.

The regen astro works even if there's no damage to cancel and it's an end of round trigger so you can mini-focus all round no trouble.

However, the Cluster is cheaper and frees the astromech slot.

I suppose if you are in a situation where Poe is getting shot many times if you get 2 hits, eye + blank against you you are going to want to keep the focus token for next shot, and if that shot doesn't actually hurt you you've not used the focus and you can't re-gen your hp.

R5-P9 has a slight edge in the long game in that he can bring Poe's shields back up to full strength. If Poe is out of range/arc for any reason, he can still regen but sensor clusters will do nothing.

EDIT: Pesky Ninjas!

To be fair that is a fairly marginal case but may come into play occasionally. Of course you can always have your cake and eat it with Sensor Clusters and R2-D2.

It's less valuable because:

1) With R5-P9 you can lose all the shields but if you escape, you can build them up again - has saved me more than once.

2) If you spend it in your first defence, you can't modify against a second.

They'll be best together.

They'll be best together.

Oops

R2D2 > R5P9 purely on when the regen happens in my opinion.

R2D2 > R5P9 purely on when the regen happens in my opinion.

If Poe with R5-P9 focuses during a turn (which he is quite likely to do) and takes damage, he can spend the token at the end of the turn to regen. This means he is free to act as he wishes in the next turn. With R2-D2, he has to pull a green to achieve the same effect.

R5-P9 is vulnerable to blocking and pilots/effects that strip tokens. However it is a point cheaper, does not restrict Poe's dial and synergises well with his pilot ability. R2-D2 cannot be blocked but costs and extra point and limits his pilot to greens to work.

On most pilots R2-D2 is definitely better than R5-P9. But Poe and R5-P9 work so well together it is worth taking them, especially as it leaves R2-D2 free to regen another pilot.

r5-p9 on poe is generally far more flexible than r2-d2

esp when the heroes tech comes out that puts "perform action" before "check pilot stress" and you can start regenerating after every maneuver

Whether the R5P9 version is still decent depends largely on what the tech in HotR does I think.

Oh of course! I hadn't thought about possible new tech to give us an interesting choice.

I think this is the most reasonable prediction so far. If this is the case PTL Poe could be great fun.

Pattern Analysis (tech) (x2): When executing (...a maneuver?...) you may resolve the Check Pilot Stress after the "Perform Action" instead of before.

(Source: https://m.reddit.com/r/XWingTMG/comments/4hvn8j/heroes_of_the_resistance_expansion/)

The problem is the PS9 Poe is getting really expensive once you add a regen droid and thrusters (Somewhere between Whisper and Corran numbers.) I hope he'll perform well.

It'll be on a red manoeuvre, that's the only time it's actually beneficial.

And I'd hope for 1 point, expect 2, be disappointed if it's 3. It's more useful than Weapons Guidance (which is overcosted) and probably more useful than Sensor Cluster when it triggers, but is a lot more situational. It's less useful than Comm Relay for those who can actually TAKE Comm Relay, so 2 points seems most likely for me.

At that cost you're making the /fo into a scary-good interceptor potentially, one that never loses its action except by bumping.

Still not better than Comm, but cheaper.

TBH I'm a bit skeptical about using PTL on a small fighter without either green hard turns, green k-turns or green s-loops. Even with BB-8 to boost his maneuverability and clear stress immediately, I found PTL Poe to be gimmicky and less powerful than the regen version. If you build him with PTL, Sensor Cluster and R2-D2 you're essentially tying almost half of your list budget to a ship that is ridiculously predictable in his maneuvers. Sure, his firepower would be pretty good (though not Whisper good or Agressor good and quite often not even Inquisitor good) and killing him would either take a massive alpha or a lot of sustained firepower. That said, alpha strike lists probably do have sufficient number of red dice to kill him (3-4 torpedoes over no more than 2-3 turns would do the trick) and arc-dodgers would have a field day running rings around him unless he decided to stop PTLing and regenerating, which kinda defeats the purpose. For that matter I'd be pretty happy facing him with either Dash+Ghost or double Agressors. And don't even get me started about Conner Net minelayers lists (ouch!). That pretty much covers the majority of competitive lists out there.

Dunno, maybe you can fill the remaining 54 (or so) points with something that would make such Poe viable but right this moment I can't think of anything that would make sense.

TBH I'm a bit skeptical about using PTL on a small fighter without either green hard turns, green k-turns or green s-loops. Even with BB-8 to boost his maneuverability and clear stress immediately, I found PTL Poe to be gimmicky and less powerful than the regen version. If you build him with PTL, Sensor Cluster and R2-D2 you're essentially tying almost half of your list budget to a ship that is ridiculously predictable in his maneuvers. Sure, his firepower would be pretty good (though not Whisper good or Agressor good and quite often not even Inquisitor good) and killing him would either take a massive alpha or a lot of sustained firepower. That said, alpha strike lists probably do have sufficient number of red dice to kill him (3-4 torpedoes over no more than 2-3 turns would do the trick) and arc-dodgers would have a field day running rings around him unless he decided to stop PTLing and regenerating, which kinda defeats the purpose. For that matter I'd be pretty happy facing him with either Dash+Ghost or double Agressors. And don't even get me started about Conner Net minelayers lists (ouch!). That pretty much covers the majority of competitive lists out there.

Dunno, maybe you can fill the remaining 54 (or so) points with something that would make such Poe viable but right this moment I can't think of anything that would make sense.

Dash would be the obvious choice. Dash/X is still among the Rebels' strongest builds right now, it's just that the /X is not loaded wth satisfactory options. Poe was always solid but tended to leave points unspent, but that's less of a problem with a decent Tech option, PS9 Poe, and Black One.

with bb8 he might be able to dodge enough stuff to justify it but my main fear is what Penguin said: you only get this once. Once you spend it to change a blank you cant use poe's ability anymore, which could easily cost more than it did to change the blank.

this might be a pure YMMV topic though.I do like the idea of freeing up his astro for the BB8 + PTL combo because that makes xwings surprisingly strong.

You only get it once, so you wait until the right time. The same is always true of Poe, even with R5P9, if spending the focus would save you a crit you might well spend it even if it stops you regenning.

They'll be best together.

Only if you have someone like Kyle or Garvin to feed Poe extra Focus tokens during the turn.

Not necessarily. If you have both, you can use your focus to convert 1 result every time you get shot at, spend it to convert multiple focuses on one roll, spend it to convert a blank, or save it to regen.

You don't have to have multiple focuses, just use the extreme flexibility to use it the best way you can.

You don't have to have multiple focuses, just use the extreme flexibility to use it the best way you can.

True but without multiple Focuses, there is not really any point in having both R5-P9 and Sensor Clusters since they both consume a Focus token for pretty much the same net result. The advantage of R5-P9 is he can heal damage sustained earlier in the game, not just cancel a damage result from that turn. And he does it at the end of the turn which means Poe gets maximum bang for his Focus during the turn.

Sensor Cluster only works better in a few cases such as vs crits when your shields are down.