My top 5 pointless 2nd weapon

By JimbonX, in X-Wing

5. Blaster turret. It's useless. Since Dorsal Turret is out, Blaster Turret is useless. Need to spend a focus token to attack. Only problem is that you ship can't bump into other ships or lose 1 focus from Pablo....

4. Ion cannon. All it does is 1 damage and 1 ion... that you must have in arc. Only problem is that ships that can use cannon cost too much. There will never or rarely be any place for this cannon.

3. Ion Torpedoes. No damage. Gives out 1 Ion to ships in range 1. Cost 5 points...

2 Flechette cannon. Gives 1 damage and 1 stress.. only on ships that is not stressed. So if a ship is stressed, flechette can't dtressed it...

1.Tractor beam... No damage. You can boost or barrel roll opponents small ships... not large ships. Would have been a great weapon if it worked on all ships. Jumpmasters wouldn't stand a chance.

Edited by JimbonX

This forum doesn't have a :popcorn: smiley, right?

Ion Torpedoes cause damage, just not to the others hit by the ion blast effect.

And they also can mess up TIE swarms, though less than Assault Missiles.

Oh and Tractor beams on high PS tie defenders can be pretty good!

Edited by knavelead

Tractor beams are rather amusing. Just used one last night, put Poe on a rock, he took a damage, ran over the rock next turn and exploded.

Tractor beam is situationally handy at high PS for the agility reduction.

And reread Ion Torpedoes. They do full damage to the target in addition to the ion splash.

3. Ion Torpedoes. No damage. Gives out 1 Ion to ships in range 1. Cost 5 points...

The new Defender title Tie-D says you're wrong about all 3 cannons that you mentioned.

I run a Tractor Beam on Vessery in an all PS8 list and it's frankly brilliant.

Ion cannons are a good choice for a cheaper option on Dash, especially in a Corran/Dash list.

Ion or Flechette are good on Palp shuttles if you have the points as you rarely want it closer to people than range 3 at the most, which means ignoring their additional green dice.

Oh and Ion Torpedoes do their standard damage rolled PLUS the Ion effect on everything at range 1,so they're pretty good too.

Nice try though :)

Rikk

Edited by Rikk1980

Ion torps are my favorite on Nera or on the Ghost ...

5. Blaster Turret- Yeah, blaster turret has kinda sucked ever since it came out. It was decent on Kyle or Palob, but Dorsal turret is better in most circumstances.

4. Ion Cannon- A cheap control cannon. 3 points is not a lot of points for possibly messing up your opponent's movement, and with the cancelling out of Range 3 bonus agility, it is a decent option for ships that don't have a lot of offensive modifiers.

3. Ion Torpedoes- As mentioned before, you're completely wrong in how they work. Ion torps deal their normal damage to the target AND 1 Ion token to the target/every ship in Range 1 of target. Not used terribly often in normal X-wing, but devastating in Epic.

2. Flechette Cannon- True, without the ability to double-stress opponents, flechette cannons aren't great against ships that are equipped to deal with stress, but you can use them to make life a little more difficult for ships like bombers and Large slow-movers (YV-666, Lambda, Decimator). Probably the worst weapon on this list if it wasn't so cheap.

1. Tractor Beam- A decent weapon that messes up the opponents position and lowers their Agility for 1 point isn't a pointless weapon. High PS cannon users can use a TB to set up a deadly blow from their lower PS squadmates or use the positioning to evade the targets return fire. For just 1 point, very much a useful little gun, if a little situational.

YEAH. DISMISS ALL DA NON META WEPINZ. GET REKT, SECONDARIEZ.

Seriously though, you're doing it wrong. Ion cannon are great. They've gotten a bump from TIE/D, too, along with Tractor Beam which is just glorious with that title.

Ion torps in epic are god-tier. Do realise how much damage you can do with those and a well placed bomber with Proton Bombs?!

Blaster turret isn't great, but again, in Epic it's not awful. Ditto Flechette Cannon, which definitely finds a role in epic now that TIE/D is out, as another control method; find an ace and stress it and ion it, chase it that way until it's dead - Profit!

You what is this I don't even....

...seriously OP, you really don't get this game at all, do you?

You what is this I don't even....

...seriously OP, you really don't get this game at all, do you?

He certainly doesnt get at least a few (most) of these weapons. I cant blame him for his ire towards the blaster turret.

5. Blaster turret. It's useless. Since Dorsal Turret is out, Blaster Turret is useless. Need to spend a focus token to attack. Only problem is that you ship can't bump into other ships or lose 1 focus from Pablo....

4. Ion cannon. All it does is 1 damage and 1 ion... that you must have in arc. Only problem is that ships that can use cannon cost too much. There will never or rarely be any place for this cannon.

3. Ion Torpedoes. No damage. Gives out 1 Ion to ships in range 1. Cost 5 points...

2 Flechette cannon. Gives 1 damage and 1 stress.. only on ships that is not stressed. So if a ship is stressed, flechette can't dtressed it...

1.Tractor beam... No damage. You can boost or barrel roll opponents small ships... not large ships. Would have been a great weapon if it worked on all ships. Jumpmasters wouldn't stand a chance.

Blaster Turret : Agreed

Ion Cannon : Has it's place on some ships. Ion Defenders can be nasty.

Ion Torpedoes : Get your facts straight. It does deal damage. With an added Ion AOE. Incredibly useful if you have the points to spare.

Flechette Cannon : Situational use, but pretty terrible.

Tractor Beam : You're WAY off base. I've used them to great effect. Especially on High PS Defenders. Dropping agility (twice in my list). Being able to bring them in for a range-1 shot...or put them on a rock...Tractor Beams are second only to the HLC in terms of cannons.

I think OP confused "less effective v palp aces and torpscouts" for "pointless"

Except flechette is pretty **** irritating for none dengaroo large ships. Hard to get those arcs when stressed, or torps when white segnors but stressed

Top 5 errors. :P

5. Blaster turret. It's useless. Since Dorsal Turret is out, Blaster Turret is useless. Need to spend a focus token to attack. Only problem is that you ship can't bump into other ships or lose 1 focus from Pablo....

4. Ion cannon. All it does is 1 damage and 1 ion... that you must have in arc. Only problem is that ships that can use cannon cost too much. There will never or rarely be any place for this cannon.

3. Ion Torpedoes. No damage. Gives out 1 Ion to ships in range 1. Cost 5 points...

2 Flechette cannon. Gives 1 damage and 1 stress.. only on ships that is not stressed. So if a ship is stressed, flechette can't dtressed it...

1.Tractor beam... No damage. You can boost or barrel roll opponents small ships... not large ships. Would have been a great weapon if it worked on all ships. Jumpmasters wouldn't stand a chance.

#5 Should have been #1 other than that no errors

#4 cheaper that Ion Cannon Turret can be taken with TIE-D title and can hit at range 3 where Ion Cannons excel. Is that talonbane at range 3? Roll 2 green.

#3 Ion torpedoes do full damage. They do not cancel die results when hit.

#2 The 2nd cheapest cannon of the game. Pair with ion tokens and you got a good list.

#1 Tractor Beam works on TIE-D and on higher pilot skill ships where you can pull a ship out of formation and into the arcs of the rest of your ships.

Okay for my 5 (not including bombs or mines but is including hotshot blaster and any other card with ATTACK header)

  1. Blaster Turret
  2. Autoblaster
  3. Adv Proton Torpedo
  4. Homing Missile
  5. Cluster missiles
  6. XX23 S-thread Tracer
Edited by Marinealver

And OP proves once again that he doesn't understand how this game works.

JimbonX strikes again! MWAHAHAHAHAHA

The xD title alone makes 4, 2, and 1 awesome. If you don't get how much a Tractor Beam rules, please eBay your collection.

Tractor beams are rather amusing. Just used one last night, put Poe on a rock, he took a damage, ran over the rock next turn and exploded.

Best time i had with it though was when i hit Poe with it. He was directly behind 2 of my headhunters and i was able to boost him in front of one of them annd within feedback rang of the other. He went from a r1 shot at my boys to no shot at all. As a bonus my Z had a r1 shot (with a focus or TL can't remember) at an agility 1 Poe. Twas glorious.

im beginning to think jimbonx doesnt actually play this game he just knows the bare minimum to sound like hes played it before.

Blaster Turret is worthless because its the first turret design and they didnt want to do what they ended up doing anyway. Fortunately its the only card to suffer such a stupid restriction before they realized they goofed.

Ion Cannon is definitely not useless. Its cheap, long range and can EASILY set up for an alpha strike. Since it can reach range3 unlike the turret, it also can be used to deny range bonus. Fletchette Cannons are in the same exact boat, though for some reason nobody remembers they exist even though stressing a fair number of ships out can be massive.

Ion Torpedo DOES do damage, and the mass ion can be crippling. The only reason its never used is because its too expensive to randomly equip and anybody dedicating to ordnance has EM + Proton Torps. By that logic, all torps are bad except Proton Torps.

LOL at tractor being bad. I have both won and lost games purely because of that stupid 1pt cannon landing a hit. No damage? So what, it can nullify an attack if you shot first or enable other ships to hit you MUCH harder than before...or both!

I think someone doesn't understand the idea of control. Tractor Beams and Ion Cannons are great. Your list is a team, if you aren't using them together to destroy your opponent you are doing it wrong. I bet you load up on HLC's and wonder where all the points go.

I do like a blaster turret on Palob with title and predator especially when Mux is nearby ..

Top 5 errors. :P

5. Blaster turret. It's useless. Since Dorsal Turret is out, Blaster Turret is useless. Need to spend a focus token to attack. Only problem is that you ship can't bump into other ships or lose 1 focus from Pablo....

4. Ion cannon. All it does is 1 damage and 1 ion... that you must have in arc. Only problem is that ships that can use cannon cost too much. There will never or rarely be any place for this cannon.

3. Ion Torpedoes. No damage. Gives out 1 Ion to ships in range 1. Cost 5 points...

2 Flechette cannon. Gives 1 damage and 1 stress.. only on ships that is not stressed. So if a ship is stressed, flechette can't dtressed it...

1.Tractor beam... No damage. You can boost or barrel roll opponents small ships... not large ships. Would have been a great weapon if it worked on all ships. Jumpmasters wouldn't stand a chance.

#5 Should have been #1 other than that no errors

#4 cheaper that Ion Cannon Turret can be taken with TIE-D title and can hit at range 3 where Ion Cannons excel. Is that talonbane at range 3? Roll 2 green.

#3 Ion torpedoes do full damage. They do not cancel die results when hit.

#2 The 2nd cheapest cannon of the game. Pair with ion tokens and you got a good list.

#1 Tractor Beam works on TIE-D and on higher pilot skill ships where you can pull a ship out of formation and into the arcs of the rest of your ships.

Okay for my 5 (not including bombs or mines but is including hotshot blaster and any other card with ATTACK header)

  • Blaster Turret
  • Autoblaster
  • Adv Proton Torpedo
  • Homing Missile
  • Cluster missiles
  • XX23 S-thread Tracer

Ave thread tracers can be excellent; we just blew up all the jousters that would have loved them in the same wave with their botched jumpmasters.

C'iest la vie; their time will come. ;)

Top 5 errors. :P

5. Blaster turret. It's useless. Since Dorsal Turret is out, Blaster Turret is useless. Need to spend a focus token to attack. Only problem is that you ship can't bump into other ships or lose 1 focus from Pablo....

4. Ion cannon. All it does is 1 damage and 1 ion... that you must have in arc. Only problem is that ships that can use cannon cost too much. There will never or rarely be any place for this cannon.

3. Ion Torpedoes. No damage. Gives out 1 Ion to ships in range 1. Cost 5 points...

2 Flechette cannon. Gives 1 damage and 1 stress.. only on ships that is not stressed. So if a ship is stressed, flechette can't dtressed it...

1.Tractor beam... No damage. You can boost or barrel roll opponents small ships... not large ships. Would have been a great weapon if it worked on all ships. Jumpmasters wouldn't stand a chance.

#5 Should have been #1 other than that no errors

#4 cheaper that Ion Cannon Turret can be taken with TIE-D title and can hit at range 3 where Ion Cannons excel. Is that talonbane at range 3? Roll 2 green.

#3 Ion torpedoes do full damage. They do not cancel die results when hit.

#2 The 2nd cheapest cannon of the game. Pair with ion tokens and you got a good list.

#1 Tractor Beam works on TIE-D and on higher pilot skill ships where you can pull a ship out of formation and into the arcs of the rest of your ships.

Okay for my 5 (not including bombs or mines but is including hotshot blaster and any other card with ATTACK header)

  1. Blaster Turret
  2. Autoblaster
  3. Adv Proton Torpedo
  4. Homing Missile
  5. Cluster missiles
  6. XX23 S-thread Tracer

Are you serious? Homing Missile is why Jonus is pointless, it is what makes Bombers viable in their nieche. They wreck aces who need their guaranteed evades. Homing Missiles are love, Homing Missiles are life!

Edited by Admiral Deathrain

The point cost of homing missiles and of course as with all torpedo and most missile secondary weapon the dependency on target lock. Sure EM did help them out a lot by reducing the point cost from 10 to 7 for a full bomber load but that still is the same cost as an HLC and with HLC you don't need to telegraph your attack with a TL (and watch the arc dodger boost and barrelroll out of arc).

They've gotten better with EM and guidance chimps, sure much better than they were on launch when all they did was prevent evade tokens from being spent and not discard a target lock, but 5 points is too high for a secondary weapon with only 1 attack.

As for tracers they are very niche. I could see them in a say tag and swarm with a TAP and a half dozen of TIE Fighters giving them T/L. But again the missile attack needs to hit so either the mod slot gets taken up by a 1 time use mod or a not cost effective insurance policy. Hopefully missiles will have their time and hopefully the forum won't whine and scream and call for a nerf like when torpedoes finally had a decent build.