I'm torn on deciding if I should go with HLC or Mangler, cost is not an issue on the build but I am concerned about damage getting through VS high offence (X7) ships.

Is the crit getting through unshielded worth it vs that extra dice at R2/3?

Consider this ship is the punching power of the list.

I guess it comes down to Mangler for lower agility ships vs HLC for higher agility ships right?

I think that's a pretty fair distinction. One other thing to consider is how often you expect to find your opponent at Range 1: HLC cannot double tap at R1, Mangler can.

Yeah, with my bad flying that's a distinct possibility. I could squeeze in a tractor probably just in case of things like that if need be but it feels that 3 dice attack are just not damaging enough or have a high enough chance of pushing through :/

As I suspect Rebel regen will be coming back in a pretty big way that makes it even more necessary to get that extra dice in. idk though I'm a nub

Depends of how much puch your list have. Into a 2 ships build, I will run HLC for sniping. But if you are run, like, 2TPV mindilinked with Mangler, you can put a mangler on it.

So depends how much your list will hit, in my opinion.

Yah, I agree. It depends on what the rest of your list does, and what role you want the -B to do. You need a game-plan, then you will know.