OK, so I have been thinking about this a lot and I don't understand why IA is so popular. I understand it is basically a "free" hull upgrade but it means the loss of your astromech to use it. So unless you are equipping a super cheap astromech just to have it for AI I would think it's not worth using. Or am I missing something big here and it doesn't work how I am thinking?

If you have R2-D2, he can regenerate a shield every turn. That's fantastic. But if you get focused down and are about to blow up, he can't regen anymore shields for you. At that point, you might as well ditch R2-D2 so you can survive another round.

1: Because it's a free hull upgrade on ships that often don't want their mod slot anyway.

2: Because it's not just a free hull upgrade, it's much more like a free SHIELD upgrade since you can choose to trigger it when you get that crit that would otherwise kill you or stop you shooting or whatever.

3: Because ejecting your astromech is better than dying, and can keep you in the fight long enough to win.

I think you've got the gist. It keeps each X-Wing equipped with it alive for one more round, or requires focus-fire.

With this extra round, think of what a regen Poe or Red Ace could accomplish.. It's not ground-shaking but it is effective.

What good is an Astromech if you are dead?

Shield Upgrade is 4 points.

R2 Astromech and Integrated Astromech is one point, does the same thing and turns all your 1 and 2 speed maneuvers green for as long as you have it.

OK, I think I see the key part now. It's the "you can choose when to use it part" I was missing that makes it better. Thanks. Of course it doesn't really matter much to me since I hate rebel scum but I just couldn't stop wondering.

It's a free Shield Upgrade, as you can cancel crits by ditching the droid.

The droid you have is super useful, until you're dead. It helps with the not death.

Not to mention it's actually better than a shield upgrade since you can potentially wait until after you've taken a point of damage and you flip the Direct Hit that would kill you to trigger it, whereas a shield upgrade wouldn't have stopped the direct hit in that same situation. You can wait til your last hull point to trigger IA.

You let your astromech meatshield a kill shot.

Something that happened the other day using R5 Astromech:

A Red Squadron pilot took shots from two different ships, the first two hits were answered by two blank green dice so he lost his shields. The second shot was hit, hit, crit which I responded with two evades. The crit was a direct hit, but as it was the last shot of the round I kept it and then flipped it over thanks to R5's ability. The next round the Red took another crit (direct hit) which the R5 so graciously got rid of, keeping him alive for the game winning kill shot. The difference between a 100-0 victory and a 76-0 victory was all based on using both the Astromech and Integrated Astromech in a way that wasn't just absorbing the first damage he takes.

Biggest draw isnt that its a free hp, its a free CRIT dodger (when you are dealt a card...) and nobody puts a mod on an Xwing anyway due to their insane overpricing. I'd love EU on Wedge but WOW that makes him too much...

So the slot goes unused 90% of the time. We might see a lot of ships without it come Vector Thrustors but that'd be it.

More often than not i use it on the first crit i didnt evade hitting my hull. Unless im doing the BB8PTL strat, which is one of the few xwing builds i use that simply falls apart without the mech as a whole, then i'll hold off until im about to die. Even if you are dealt facedown cards first you can dodge the faceup because "dealt a facedown...elect not to eject mech... dealt a faceup...elect to eject mech"

The biggest draw actually is it's 0 points

This drastically improves the efficiency of very inefficient ships which can't even properly abuse other mods anyway

Doesn't improve it as much as we'd like, granted, but it's SOMETHING

I can tell you playing against the T-65's now is different. That small change automatically gives more surviveability and forces the user to upgrade the ship with an astro! Cheap out and go one that gives green 2's or spend more and get one that regens (or some other crazy rebel antic). Your choice, but it was meant to be that way anyway! X-wings should have astros!