Just played a Bossk + Asajj list with the new FAQ in mind. Zuckess, Dengar, and Inspiring Recruit were the bus crew.

Was able to frequently still force rerolls on 1-2 defense dice a turn, still push damage through, and be able to clear it out next turn with a green.

Barely noticed I was missing his pre FAQ limitless power, between Dengar and getting to take a focus action most turns. I was stressed maybe once so I could Zuckess one shot but that was all.

Fly him well and give up the 4LOM party member, and you've got almost no difference in potential.

Yeah I think stapling Zuckuss to your inspiring recruit card is probably a good idea.

Think of Zuckuss as reverse Rage. Instead of buffing your attack, you're de-buffing their defense. Both cards are 1 point and incur a heavy stress penalty that must be built around. Moving him from ubiquitous to situationally useful is right where a 1 point card with that kind of power should reside.

I've had the opposite experience. Part of that is I wasn't using recruit, and part of it was I kept getting extra stress from debris and kylo ren's shuttle title. So I only forced 2 rerolls the whole game (both in my first attack). Would have helped to have more, though probably still would have lost since my opponent's dice compared to mine were night and day in the first few rounds of combat which matter most.

I think the zuckuss change is going to take my non-meta list from tier 2 status down to 3 possibly. It definitely hurts party buses.

1 hour ago, markcsoul said:

Part of that is I wasn't using recruit, and part of it was I kept getting extra stress from debris and kylo ren's shuttle title.

*emphasis mine*

I obviously didn't see the battle but my initial reaction is the problem was less the Zuckuss nerf and more that you took more stress than you had to. Kylo's shuttle is a pain to be sure, but easily mitigated by having a second ship nearby. Just pass the stress to the other.

Otherwise, stop hitting debris . No judgement, my eye calipers were way off this weekend at Endor. I went 1-4 before I dropped and easily could've been 3-2 if not for poor spacial awareness. Perhaps 4-1 if I hadn't accidentally selected a 4 straight instead of 4K with Dutch in round 1 (I was a mess). But I digress...

Did you bring the debris, or your opponent? Who placed them? Could you have flown differently to avoid the debris (the answer is "yes")? Etc.

Zuckuss is nerfed. That's a fact. But does that make him a bad 1 point crew? No, not at all. Will you take greedo over Zuckuss? Nope. Boba? Maybe in some cases. Still better than (though comparable to) his buddy 4-LOM. It's not that bad.

Zuckuss if anything was a nerf to line up with designer intent: a very cheap crew with a huge setback to using his ability to great effect.

Had Dengaroo's use been intended it wouldn't have been a 1 pt card.

So I ran Zuckuss with IR today and my experience was actually a better one than when I've run the old Party Bus with Pre-nerf Zuckuss and 4-Lom. I used more discretion with Zuckuss and made an effort to clear stress with IR. I still pushed a lot of damage and almost always had a action available. In the end those Focus actions were more beneficial than 4-Lom or the 1-2 when I wanted to force 3 re-rolls or not do a green maneuver.

I might use Zuckuss as a tool when I want the opponent to reroll one of his evades when he doesnt have a focus (so, basically a 5/8 chance to lose the evade). You could then go full stress if you really need that critical defense roll to go wrong. I think 4-Lom might be slightly better for 1 point, but you could still use them together.

As people have pointed out, Zuckuss will still see much more action than most crew in the game.

I think IR instead of 4LOM might actually be a better build pre- or post-nerf. Not only will you almost always get your action; but if your opponent has stress control, like the stressmule or Assaj, you can just.... not zuckuss, because both of those ships have lower agility, and then drop both stress next turn anyways. Against every other list, you get 1-2 defense dice rerolls a turn+focus+dengar reroll+extra damage from bossk with NO STRESS. I think IR provides a more positive global effect than 4LOM does, because it not only synergizes inside the list but it also protects from popular list archetypes.

Post-FAQ Zuckuss doesn't like stressbot, while pre-FAQ didn't care.

Is Ispiring Recruit faqqed? Because doesn't seems limited, so... what if a little Quadjumper (or a bigger G1-A) will bring a second IR for the YV?

Is that nice, or 1 is enough?

It's not, but if you're relying on it to use Zuckuss, especially on another ship, you're relying on shaky ground.

24 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

It's not, but if you're relying on it to use Zuckuss, especially on another ship, you're relying on shaky ground.

You're also investing a lot into a ship that, against most competitive lists, is lucky to get a 3rd shot off.

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

It's not, but if you're relying on it to use Zuckuss, especially on another ship, you're relying on shaky ground.

They still doing their job, I'm not wasting points just for IS

5 hours ago, Sekac said:

*emphasis mine*

I obviously didn't see the battle but my initial reaction is the problem was less the Zuckuss nerf and more that you took more stress than you had to. Kylo's shuttle is a pain to be sure, but easily mitigated by having a second ship nearby. Just pass the stress to the other.

Otherwise, stop hitting debris . No judgement, my eye calipers were way off this weekend at Endor. I went 1-4 before I dropped and easily could've been 3-2 if not for poor spacial awareness. Perhaps 4-1 if I hadn't accidentally selected a 4 straight instead of 4K with Dutch in round 1 (I was a mess). But I digress...

Did you bring the debris, or your opponent? Who placed them? Could you have flown differently to avoid the debris (the answer is "yes")? Etc.

Zuckuss is nerfed. That's a fact. But does that make him a bad 1 point crew? No, not at all. Will you take greedo over Zuckuss? Nope. Boba? Maybe in some cases. Still better than (though comparable to) his buddy 4-LOM. It's not that bad.

You brought Dutch Vander to a System Open? What was your list? I love it already!

5 hours ago, Blue Five said:

Zuckuss if anything was a nerf to line up with designer intent: a very cheap crew with a huge setback to using his ability to great effect.

I think FFG really underestimated how willing players would be to pile stress on Zuckuss and essentially make his ship actionless for the entire game.

I think Zuckuss with IR is a pretty useful combo. For the last couple of weeks prior to the FAQ i was running a bossk with zuckuss, IR, Dengar and mindlink and I quite liked how it played.

The idea was to limit myself to 2 stress a turn, but trying to keep Bossk stress free in his activation and being able to take a focus is really good. (How many times have you Dengar rerolled into a focus?). The nerf only slighly affects my build in that any stress effects that happen before Bossk gets to shoot (ie, any red move, inertial dampners or stress coming through the mindlink) stops me using zuckuss at all where previously I would have used him once max (to get to my limit of 2 stress).

I think it will still be decent though.

17 minutes ago, asters89 said:

I think Zuckuss with IR is a pretty useful combo. For the last couple of weeks prior to the FAQ i was running a bossk with zuckuss, IR, Dengar and mindlink and I quite liked how it played.

The idea was to limit myself to 2 stress a turn, but trying to keep Bossk stress free in his activation and being able to take a focus is really good. (How many times have you Dengar rerolled into a focus?). The nerf only slighly affects my build in that any stress effects that happen before Bossk gets to shoot (ie, any red move, inertial dampners or stress coming through the mindlink) stops me using zuckuss at all where previously I would have used him once max (to get to my limit of 2 stress).

I think it will still be decent though.

The trouble is you're limiting Bossk to doing greens, and Bossk doesn't have good greens. Once people get behind him he dies.

You're not limiting bossk to doing greens, your just limiting zuckuss use when you know you won't be able to do a green maneuver the next turn, or really need an action (eg, 3 hard + slam)

I should also probably clarify that I have mostly been using Bossk with Ketsu so my use of Zuckuss tends to be limited due to Ketsus agility debuffs anyway...

Bossk getting killed by ships getting in behind him is a problem as old as the ship itself, nothing in the faq has really changed that.

5 hours ago, Sixter said:

I might use Zuckuss as a tool when I want the opponent to reroll one of his evades when he doesnt have a focus (so, basically a 5/8 chance to lose the evade). You could then go full stress if you really need that critical defense roll to go wrong. I think 4-Lom might be slightly better for 1 point, but you could still use them together.

As people have pointed out, Zuckuss will still see much more action than most crew in the game.

Yup, i would say it is palp who is used more..

I don't think you're limiting Bossk to only greens. You have Dengar aboard for dice mod without taking an action, so it's not essential that you have to clear that stress asap. It's just needed if you plan to Zuckess.

Save Zuckess for your best attack dice rolls, or for when you're already planning a move that would clear out stress.

For the record, Inspiring Recruit is an AoE. You could have something like a HWK or Manaroo flying behind whoever has Zuckuss with the Recruit. Timing isnt perfect but you could put Wingman on there too so you can destress w/o a green, though you lose your action in between destressing since youre still stressed at that point.

3 hours ago, DailyRich said:

I think FFG really underestimated how willing players would be to pile stress on Zuckuss and essentially make his ship actionless for the entire game.

Yes, I agree DailyRich, it was the lack of play-testing or the fact that they didn't have any super-crafty play-testers for that card pre-print and sale. Who thought someone would pile up stress? It was previously unheard of. However, I'm glad players can still use his buggier-ness post FAQ. It's a cool ability now that it doesn't get used over and over. I really hated those stacks of stress with practically no real crippling effect.

Like I've said before, all these changes seem designed to remove the automatic nature of some of these abilities. They'd rather you have to think about when to use Zuckuss than have him be an automatic part of every defense roll.

1 hour ago, Vineheart01 said:

For the record, Inspiring Recruit is an AoE. You could have something like a HWK or Manaroo flying behind whoever has Zuckuss with the Recruit. Timing isnt perfect but you could put Wingman on there too so you can destress w/o a green, though you lose your action in between destressing since youre still stressed at that point.

I understand this, but for the purposes of the list I was flying it made more sense to stick IR on the bus directly. The Lancer class really flies differently than a bus does, and I didn't want them tethered together. That, and Latts is still a good crew for Asajj even without the rest of Paratanni

Post nerf zuckuss is still really good. It's like crack shot but crew and reusable.