If you have an extra 3 points to spend in a Defender build, which do you prefer, Stealth Device or Hull Upgrade?

I lean towards Stealth because it has the chance to help on multiple attacks as opposed to Hull which helps you once.

Of the options provided, I'd say Hull upgrade. It's assured to work while a bit of bad luck could make the investment into Stealth Device fall through.

If we are talking x7 defenders, I would suggest looking into putting the three points into something that boosts offense first. The x7 title does enough to make a defender tougher, now it needs help punching harder.

Hull. On an x7 you've already got enough defence so you should hide more health behind it, and on a TIE/D you don't have the dice mods to take advantage of Stealth so you should go for the extra health.

TIE mk II and an initiative bid.

Im definitely referring to x7 Defenders.

Of the options provided, I'd say Hull upgrade. It's assured to work while a bit of bad luck could make the investment into Stealth Device fall through.

If we are talking x7 defenders, I would suggest looking into putting the three points into something that boosts offense first. The x7 title does enough to make a defender tougher, now it needs help punching harder.

Yeah but what would that be? I mean if he already has an EPT, which i assume...

Neither

There has to be a better 3 points

TIE MK II engines and initiative bid. That upgrade was built for the Defender. Reducing predictably is not to be underestimated.

Of the options provided, I'd say Hull upgrade. It's assured to work while a bit of bad luck could make the investment into Stealth Device fall through.

If we are talking x7 defenders, I would suggest looking into putting the three points into something that boosts offense first. The x7 title does enough to make a defender tougher, now it needs help punching harder.

Yeah but what would that be? I mean if he already has an EPT, which i assume...

Hmm. With only a mod slot available, the remaining options wouldn't mod your shots, so my suggestion would be moot.

With x7 SD works fine because you have than token stack, /D hull all the way.

But really there are better ways to spend those points.

With x7 SD works fine because you have than token stack, /D hull all the way.

But really there are better ways to spend those points.

Having said that... I would go Stealth device! A hull is definite but only once & possibly a crit. SD is likely once possibly thrice you won't take damage. Don't let the fact Stealth Device is still subject to randomness diminish the fact it is more likely to pay off better.

I'm torn between the two. The hull is a guaranteed one time save but the SD could be useful multiple times as mentioned above. But, and it's a big one, if SD lets you down you lose the Stealth Device and a Hull effectively costing you six points for the one hit. If these were my only two options, 75% of the time I'd take the hull. A lot depends on what you're facing. A bunch of light weights with only two attack? Go with the SD.

Also mentioned above there are better ways to spend those three points.

TIE mk II and an initiative bid.

This.

TIE mk II and an initiative bid.

This.

Stealth is only worth it if you've got LOTS of defence mods (say, Lone Wolf and /x7, which can hold onto it pretty well), and Hull just isn't worth it at all IMO.

TIE Mk2 on the other hand really helps defenders, especially because Assaj and other stress controllers are coming back into the meta again.

Neither, upgrade your pilots to Rexlar and Maarek instead.

Played one game with three onyx x7's with SD against rebel aces I didn't take a single hit as I tore him apart, he was spitting blood by the end out of sheer frustration.

I think it depends on the list you field. If you field palp-defenders, I would go with SD, just because your defense is so much harder to chew through then.
Mk II as mentioned is pretty good for the defender in general, and it might give you either initiative or buff up your build on another ship. Hard to tell without knowing what you have.

I'll echo all the others that have said "put the points elsewhere", but if I had to pick one, I'd go for Hull Upgrade. Stealth encourages you to conserve tokens for defense, but the x7 already has high defense, so you want your tokens for attack. Hull Upgrade lets you spend tokens on attack more freely, so I prefer it over Stealth.

I did an analysis of SD awhile back, and it's really no where near as good (by itself) as people give it credit for. To illustrate it, I recommend rolling a different die to represent the specific additional die of the SD. Often people roll 3 evades out of 4 dice (to block 3 hits) and say "phew, that SD saved me!" But in reality, the SD may have been the blank, and you would have rolled 3 evades anyways.

So in order to see how much the SD actually helps, you have to first say that you're rolling 2 evades out of your 3 dice (with a F), which happens 59% of the time, then you roll an additional evade via the SD, which is 62.5% of the time, for a total of 36.7% of the time it helps you block a full 3 hit attack. But it can also help you even if you don't block all of it, which means that you rolled 0 or 1 evade, coupled with an evade from the SD. 5% of roll 0 evades, and 26% of rolling 1, for a total of 31% of not evading the attack at all, times by 62.5% of the SD activating = 19.6% of SD saving you a damage (but deactivating).

So you have a 36.7% of denying damage and keeping SD, and a 19.6% of denying damage but losing SD, the first one is iterative for the next attack as well. But in this specific example of blocking 3 damage, you're basically left with about a 55% of it being useful.