I don't go to tournaments and I really don't get to play this game too much, but as I peruse the forums, I see a lot of people (quite frequently, actually) talk about putting a cap on stress and making something really bad happen if you exceed that. But for the life of me, I can't figure out just where all the hate is coming from. Can you give me the top 5 (or more) examples of lists that abuse stress to the point that the mechanic needs to be nerfed?

I'll start with Dengaroo/Managar. I suppose it's a problem? To me, this list is a thing of beauty. I've never played it but I have the utmost respect for its creator(s). Maybe I just love the card interactions because of my years playing SW:LCG where card combos were my favorite part of the game. I've never felt like Dengaroo was an unbeatable list, even though I haven't beat it yet (only faced it once). But I can accept that people don't like it and want its stress mountain capped.

The next one is the Party Bus. But that thing can't turn around and is easy to get behind. Plus, it's only one ship. Do people really have that hard of a time taking out a YV-666?

What others are so egregious that people want to see a nerf?

Give me examples of stress-abuse

A worker goes into work. He has a deadline that afternoon and needs a sugar rush. The worker's last piece of birthday cake labelled clearly with their name in the fridge has been taken. As he works, the culprit stands over his cubicle eating said cake.

The worker has been abused whilst stressed.

The commonality of both of those lists are Zuckuss and a red-dice-heavy ship that does not need actions.

The hate comes from those that think that the developers created stress as a mechanic to balance benefits (extreme maneuvers, card effects) and these combinations reduce that mechanic to an annoying chore of keeping a small pile of stress tokens on the board next to your ship.

Interestingly enough, the current meta is being dominated by Attani Mindlink (Paratanni) - a card that forces your squad to share stress mechanics - BUT THE LIST IS STILL DOMINANT. Stress has essentially become a detriment to both Imperial and Rebel factions, but not Scum.
Nothing new here: Since Wave 8 FFG has undeniably been giving Scum overpowered and undercosted ships and upgrades.

Zuckuss can feel real bad to play against sometimes and if the forums aren't bitching about something then it's a miracle.

5 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

I'll start with Dengaroo/Managar. I suppose it's a problem? To me, this list is a thing of beauty. I've never played it but I have the utmost respect for its creator(s). Maybe I just love the card interactions because of my years playing SW:LCG where card combos were my favorite part of the game.

I think this is really the big one that triggers rage and frustration. I think the the thing you love about about the card combo due to your background as a dirty card-flipper is what turns off people who are coming to X-Wing from a miniatures background or just because they love Star Wars. Strong card combos and interactions are what LCG/CCGs are all about, they aren't what a lot of people want in their tactical miniatures game.

A VCX with Hera stacks a lot of stress. I'm not sure it's a problem though.

1 minute ago, WWHSD said:

Strong card combos and interactions are what LCG/CCGs are all about, they aren't what a lot of people want in their tactical miniatures game.

Probably my background in magic showing but that's what I love about x-wing is your combos work automatically without having to worry about rng assembling the pieces. Also that every power combo in x-wing can be beaten or outplayed by a list of remotely similar power and some clever flying.

7 minutes ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:

The commonality of both of those lists are Zuckuss and a red-dice-heavy ship that does not need actions.

The hate comes from those that think that the developers created stress as a mechanic to balance benefits (extreme maneuvers, card effects) and these combinations reduce that mechanic to an annoying chore of keeping a small pile of stress tokens on the board next to your ship.

Interestingly enough, the current meta is being dominated by Attani Mindlink (Paratanni) - a card that forces your squad to share stress mechanics - BUT THE LIST IS STILL DOMINANT. Stress has essentially become a detriment to both Imperial and Rebel factions, but not Scum.
Nothing new here: Since Wave 8 FFG has undeniably been giving Scum overpowered and undercosted ships and upgrades.

I think stress bothering Scum less is thematic... I mean they are lunatics afterall.

4 minutes ago, nigeltastic said:

Probably my background in magic showing but that's what I love about x-wing is your combos work automatically without having to worry about rng assembling the pieces. Also that every power combo in x-wing can be beaten or outplayed by a list of remotely similar power and some clever flying.

Yeah, to me if you nerfed upgrades you just end up picking the most points-efficient ships and spam them.

6 minutes ago, Jetfire said:

I think stress bothering Scum less is thematic... I mean they are lunatics afterall.

"Gameplay > Fluff" - FGD

I recommend you use this stress token

Nuff said

8 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

I recommend you use this stress token

Nuff said

I want a 2 seat title... that way I can:

Tycho, PTL, Daredevil, Hera, Experimental Interface.

All the actions, all the dial...all the stress! ALL OF IT!

Just now, Wiredin said:

I want a 2 seat title... that way I can:

Tycho, PTL, Daredevil, Hera, Experimental Interface.

All the actions, all the dial...all the stress! ALL OF IT!

The most panicked pilot in the history of x-wing

6 minutes ago, DeathstarII said:

The most panicked pilot in the history of x-wing

Nah, Tycho can keep his cool, he is just an adrenaline junkie.

1 minute ago, Marinealver said:

Nah, Tycho can keep his cool, he is just an adrenaline junkie.

But there's probably a fair amount of shouting going on in that ship at the least

I know this isn't really a popular opinion, but I think the issue is more debris. The negative effect of landing on a debris isn't comparable to landing on an asteroid, so lists can be built to take advantage of that.

Dash plays with at most 3 obstacles on the field because of debris.

Hera crew VCX's k-turn on top of at least 3 obstacles on the field with near impunity.

Dengar does the same in a Dengaroo set up

Kanan crew and Pattern Analyzer allows a player to fly on a debris without suffering the majority of the effect.

Have debris disallow attacking when landing on them, and things would change for the better imho.

Currently there's no ship that can take Kanan crew and Pattern Analyzer.

Stress abusers? Clearly Tycho with PtL is the oldest and biggest abuser. After all he and his MASSIVE stress stack has been a problem since way back in Wave 2. It's just taken this long for people to WAKE UP to this huge problem and become very vocal about it. To make things worse you could now add Rage and an Experimental Interface into the mix easy allowing Tycho to pick up FOUR stress tokens each round. Clearly this is broken and needs to have an end put to it.

I sure hope that trips your sarcasm detector because if the pile of stress is the real problem then you must also think the above is true.

5 minutes ago, StevenO said:

Stress abusers? Clearly Tycho with PtL is the oldest and biggest abuser. After all he and his MASSIVE stress stack has been a problem since way back in Wave 2. It's just taken this long for people to WAKE UP to this huge problem and become very vocal about it. To make things worse you could now add Rage and an Experimental Interface into the mix easy allowing Tycho to pick up FOUR stress tokens each round. Clearly this is broken and needs to have an end put to it.

I sure hope that trips your sarcasm detector because if the pile of stress is the real problem then you must also think the above is true.

I love flying Tycho if for no other reason than to break out a 20 sided die as a stress token. The first time I did it with a new player, the look on his face was PRICELESS!

3 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

I don't go to tournaments and I really don't get to play this game too much, but as I peruse the forums, I see a lot of people (quite frequently, actually) talk about putting a cap on stress and making something really bad happen if you exceed that. But for the life of me, I can't figure out just where all the hate is coming from. Can you give me the top 5 (or more) examples of lists that abuse stress to the point that the mechanic needs to be nerfed?

I'll start with Dengaroo/Managar. I suppose it's a problem? To me, this list is a thing of beauty. I've never played it but I have the utmost respect for its creator(s). Maybe I just love the card interactions because of my years playing SW:LCG where card combos were my favorite part of the game. I've never felt like Dengaroo was an unbeatable list, even though I haven't beat it yet (only faced it once). But I can accept that people don't like it and want its stress mountain capped.

The next one is the Party Bus. But that thing can't turn around and is easy to get behind. Plus, it's only one ship. Do people really have that hard of a time taking out a YV-666?

What others are so egregious that people want to see a nerf?

Zuckuss is essentially the main culprit about Stress complaints, though that complaint gets conflated with general token assignment abilities like Attani and Manaroo.

24 minutes ago, StevenO said:

Stress abusers? Clearly Tycho with PtL is the oldest and biggest abuser. After all he and his MASSIVE stress stack has been a problem since way back in Wave 2. It's just taken this long for people to WAKE UP to this huge problem and become very vocal about it. To make things worse you could now add Rage and an Experimental Interface into the mix easy allowing Tycho to pick up FOUR stress tokens each round. Clearly this is broken and needs to have an end put to it.

I sure hope that trips your sarcasm detector because if the pile of stress is the real problem then you must also think the above is true.

Thank you for the disclaimer. I was getting ready to give you a piece of my mind (in a mild-mannered way) until I read the last line. Evidently my sarcasm-detector is faulty. :fail:

31 minutes ago, numb3rc said:

Currently there's no ship that can take Kanan crew and Pattern Analyzer.

Kanan crew doesn't need to ride on the ship with PA.

Pattern Analyzer and Collision Detector also makes Debris kind of irrelevant to a ship. There's two Imperial ships that can take that combo.

33 minutes ago, StevenO said:

Stress abusers? Clearly Tycho with PtL is the oldest and biggest abuser. After all he and his MASSIVE stress stack has been a problem since way back in Wave 2. It's just taken this long for people to WAKE UP to this huge problem and become very vocal about it. To make things worse you could now add Rage and an Experimental Interface into the mix easy allowing Tycho to pick up FOUR stress tokens each round. Clearly this is broken and needs to have an end put to it.

I sure hope that trips your sarcasm detector because if the pile of stress is the real problem then you must also think the above is true.

7 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

Thank you for the disclaimer. I was getting ready to give you a piece of my mind (in a mild-mannered way) until I read the last line. Evidently my sarcasm-detector is faulty. :fail:

Which is why I always use my not so subtle sarcasm indicator. <-- You see this, it means don't take this seriously.

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

I recommend you use this stress token

Nuff said

OMG ! He will destroy all your list all by himself with his 2 red dice ! Nerf now !!!

It isn't specific lists that are the problem. The problem is that Stress is intended to be a drawback used to balance a card, and some combos are able to get all of the very, very powerful upside without suffering the downside.

Dengaroo uses three cards balanced by Stress: Zuckuss (powerful even if Stress is applied; broken as frak when it's not), Overclocked R4, and Glitterstim (powerful even if Stress is applied, but one-use, so not a huge problem). Because of the combo with Manaroo, the Stress drawback isn't actually a drawback.

Same for the Mindlink lists. Mindlink is a tricky bugger ... it looks like an upgrade that punishes you for Stress, but it's actually a Stress mitigator.

Party Bus likewise abuses Zuckuss, but it has bigger weaknesses than Dengaroo, so it's not as big an issue.

"Drawback that's not a drawback" simply wasn't seen until the cards were out in the wild.

IMO, the only one that really needs to be nerfed is Zuckuss, and there are many ways to do it. My preference would be "Can't use if stressed," but there are other options.