I haven't looked at the forums since October 2015 (Wave 8!), because my playgroup had completely collapsed several months prior.

Now, however, my FLGS is taking the place of the re-seller who was my previous source and host of the game, and I am excited to get back into it!

So: What'd I miss?

Big nerfs so the competitive scene is really still settling.

Wave 11 is announced.

Scum epic has been announced and is going to make epic fun again.

Jabba the Hutt

Well, a lot of people who posted about as often as you did also disappeared around the same time you did (some banned apparently lol).

Most recent big news is Wave XI and a FAQ that nerfed 4 of the most competitive cards in the game. But you may be up to date on all this.

Welcome back! Missed your wit and insight!

Give us some new lists with crazy interactions that only you could come up with. It's been too long.

4 minutes ago, Scopes said:

Welcome back! Missed your wit and insight!

Give us some new lists with crazy interactions that only you could come up with. It's been too long.

Well, first is a re-mentioning of the "Nope" button (wherein you use Advanced Sensors to activate Daredevil or Push the Limit before you execute a red maneuver, to purposefully alter your move) has apparently received a major buff (circa December 2016). Old news to y'all, but I'm gonna reiterate how crazy good this is, before diving into the multiple sets of new pilots/ships/upgrades.

But More Madness is definitely on the agenda .

17 minutes ago, Kdubb said:

Well, a lot of people who posted about as often as you did also disappeared around the same time you did (some banned apparently lol).

Most recent big news is Wave XI and a FAQ that nerfed 4 of the most competitive cards in the game. But you may be up to date on all this.

Who else left?

3 minutes ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Who else left?

Ficklegreendice has been AWOL for a few months now.

Paragoomba slayer got banned which may not be surprising. The 'nope button' has indeed been buffed and I've used it several times including on an advanced sensors ptl brobot.

With the 'great nerfing' only manaroo got crushed and the power level of the game is quite good now, back to a level place.

People still complain incessantly and hyperbollically about fixes and the game needing nerfs.

What year is it!?!?!

Oh they have also set a new precedent with pen and ink changes VASTLY altering the wording on a card (i.e. Palpatine), so we may see some funky stuff going forward.

15 minutes ago, HammerGibbens said:

Ficklegreendice has been AWOL for a few months now.

FGD posted in his own AWOL thread to note he's been busy and hasn't been frequenting the forums much. I'd consider it a net vacation. He'll be back when the wingspan eclipses the sun.

44 minutes ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

So: What'd I miss?

Not much. Everyone still complains about the T-65.

Welcome back.

Everyone's still complaining. Same old FFG forums.

Oh, and they updated the look of the forums. Obviously .

29 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

FGD posted in his own AWOL thread to note he's been busy and hasn't been frequenting the forums much. I'd consider it a net vacation. He'll be back when the wingspan eclipses the sun.

Just wait for the Scurrg. The wingspan will not escape his notice.

Thoughts as I'm going through Waves 9, 10, and the Epics that have cropped up.

...Oh dear, they've changed the tools I used to format these things.

ACR-170

• Stats and Dial are reminiscent of a Y-Wing.
• Torpedo-Crew-Astromech is interesting combination.
• Small ship with an Firespray Aux arc? That's interesting.
• Vectored Thrusters: Expert Handling was one of my favorite upgrades. Have it in another slot!
• Alliance Overhaul: Uhh... are you ever going to not run this? It's a free non-unique title with no downsides I can see...
• R3-Astromech: Nerf your attack modification potential to definitely buff your defense. Clearly designed to pair with Gunnerish effects. Surely saw play on Y-Wings with TLT, but was probably too fragile.
• Seismic Torpedo: "...Then Remove the Obstacle". . WAT.
• Tail Gunner: "Because the YV-666 didn't need the buff". I will still point out that the rear-arc is almost always more powerful than the fore-arc, because with the natural drift of the game, it's easier to aim, and to correct the aim thereof with actions. Like barrel-roll on small ships. Also hurts C3P0 and Baron Fel in one swipe, so maybe helped shift the metagame to a less tanky sort.
• Pilots

1. No generic? Sad.
2. 50% chance to destress on move? Nice. Doubledips on Greens, and allows chance for actions after a Red.
3. Using your precombat action to arc-dodge works a lot better if you're the underdog in the fight. I'd recommend an Inteligence Agent on this one (though Lando's real interesting).
4. Oh hey, they still really like trying to synergize with "Dutch" Vander.
5. Wexley = Ehh. On a ship with better guns, I'm invested.

• Ultimately, the ship is interesting, but I don't think it's format shaping.

Special Forces Tie Expansion

• Tie Fighter, Tie Fighter /fo, Tie Fighter /sf.... How many times can they say it's a Tie?
• Looking at dial and stats, I think I'll stick with my original recipe. If it weren't for the Aux Arc, I'd straight prefer the Bomber.
• Collision Detector is nice if you're not using your System slot for anything else. It's not just training wheels; it lets you fly more unpredictably.
• Spec Ops Training is now a title. Y'know, not a thing that makes pilots more elite. Just paint on the wings.
• Sensor Cluster is really nice in conjunction with Absurdofocus builds. Sadly, the Moldy Crow cannot use.
• Ooh, Quickdraw and Backdraft are lovely little minxes.

Protectorate Starfighter

• Ooh, a 6 pilot negligable upgrade ship. This ought to be interesting.
• ...I see they fixed the problems with the Kiraxhz. This thing is PUSHED.
• Oh, and the two upgrades help it with jousting.
• Fenn Rau naturally rolls 5 when at R1, and I still prefer Old Teroch's ability. But then, I'm a bastard.

Shadowcaster

• A rotating aux arc? ...Not gonna lie, I actually remember thinking this would be really cool to build around back in the day.
• Black Market Slicer Tools : Much better than Saboteur. But then, so are moldy cheese sandwiches. Works rather hilariously with the stress-cannons, but I doubt that managed to be an actual build.
• IG-88Dcrew. WHAT. You can't just... and in the same wave as the Starfighter? Was this the Spring of Scum, or something?
• Okay, 88Dcrew isnt the only game changer in this box, is he? Imma need to digest some...

41 minutes ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Was this the Spring of Scum, or something?

Yes.

Also the TIE Striker is really cool, looking forward to your thoughts on it.

im still alive do i count?

3 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

I haven't looked at the forums since October 2015 (Wave 8!), because my playgroup had completely collapsed several months prior.

Now, however, my FLGS is taking the place of the re-seller who was my previous source and host of the game, and I am excited to get back into it!

So: What'd I miss?

WELCOME BACK! You've been missed!

1 hour ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Alliance Overhaul: Uhh... are you ever going to not run this? It's a free non-unique title with no downsides I can see...

Ya, so this is a thing now. Auto-include titles. Not my favorite thing, considering if a ship with an auto include title ends up sucking, they have no way to "fix" it. But, with the heavy scyk errata a thing now, seems they are willing to errata existing titles if this ever ends up being the case.

1 hour ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

R3-Astromech: Nerf your attack modification potential to definitely buff your defense. Clearly designed to pair with Gunnerish effects. Surely saw play on Y-Wings with TLT, but was probably too fragile.

Quickly deemed (and found out) as one of the worst upgrades ever released. It doesn't pair with TLT because it only works with a primary attack. It will only see play if a ship similar to the Ghost, which can swallow stress after stress with Hera crew and flip with long k-turns while maintaining actions with FCS... gets an astromech slot. So yes, very niche even in a hypothetical scenario.

2 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Tail Gunner: "Because the YV-666 didn't need the buff".

It really didn't. Search "Party Bus" in case you missed that before the Zuckuss errata. Bossk + Dengar and Bossk + Fenn Rau + junk that fits are both still top tier options today.

2 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

50% chance to destress on move? Nice. Doubledips on Greens, and allows chance for actions after a Red.

Stresshog 2.0 is what Braylen is. Even some wild flechette torp + gunner + r3-a2 + munition failsafe (yes, THAT munition failsafe) shenanigans were had. Still sees some use in competitive builds, almost always as the cheap r3-a2 + gunner option though (pssst! it's easy to get gunner to trigger for the double stress by declining to use the title on the first shot!).

2 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Wexley = Ehh. On a ship with better guns, I'm invested.

Actually the only other ARC really seen after Braylen. She may be even more popular by some accounts. With PTL and R2D2 droid and C3P0 crew, she is a pain in the you know what to take down. The greens really aren't that bad, especially when you consider she often equips vectored thrusters with PTL for positioning.

2 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Fenn Rau naturally rolls 5 when at R1, and I still prefer Old Teroch's ability. But then, I'm a bastard.

Fenn Rau is arguably the best pilot in the game currently.

4 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

I haven't looked at the forums since October 2015 (Wave 8!), because my playgroup had completely collapsed several months prior.

Now, however, my FLGS is taking the place of the re-seller who was my previous source and host of the game, and I am excited to get back into it!

So: What'd I miss?

Welcome back!

an HUGE update was the attack time changing. It change that any double tap (TLT, Cluster Missiles etc) now are considered both as a single attack. So R3 and similiar abilities will be triggered after both the "attacks" (which are considered as 1 single attack now).

Look even the timing of that: now Blaster turret and R4 Agromech are't working together no more.

PS: take a look about the Jumpmaster. Is THE ship, who still in top after THREE different faq nerfs.

Interesting for you: someone won a regional by fortressing in one or two matches and the forums were in outrage. No specific fortress list, just a setup to avoid a bad matchup (bombing K-Wings, those are a thing now)

4 hours ago, Shenannigan said:

Big nerfs so the competitive scene is really still settling.

Wave 11 is announced.

Scum epic has been announced and is going to make epic fun again.

Jabba the Hutt

Only Jabba won't affect the meta the same way C-3PO and Emperor Palpatine did. Actually I am not too impressed with Jabba, but I am still going to get the C-ROC anyways.

3 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Thoughts as I'm going through Waves 9, 10, and the Epics that have cropped up.

...Oh dear, they've changed the tools I used to format these things.

ACR-170

• Stats and Dial are reminiscent of a Y-Wing.
• Torpedo-Crew-Astromech is interesting combination.
• Small ship with an Firespray Aux arc? That's interesting.
• Vectored Thrusters: Expert Handling was one of my favorite upgrades. Have it in another slot!
• Alliance Overhaul: Uhh... are you ever going to not run this? It's a free non-unique title with no downsides I can see...
• R3-Astromech: Nerf your attack modification potential to definitely buff your defense. Clearly designed to pair with Gunnerish effects. Surely saw play on Y-Wings with TLT, but was probably too fragile.
• Seismic Torpedo: "...Then Remove the Obstacle". . WAT.
• Tail Gunner: "Because the YV-666 didn't need the buff". I will still point out that the rear-arc is almost always more powerful than the fore-arc, because with the natural drift of the game, it's easier to aim, and to correct the aim thereof with actions. Like barrel-roll on small ships. Also hurts C3P0 and Baron Fel in one swipe, so maybe helped shift the metagame to a less tanky sort.
• Pilots

1. No generic? Sad.
2. 50% chance to destress on move? Nice. Doubledips on Greens, and allows chance for actions after a Red.
3. Using your precombat action to arc-dodge works a lot better if you're the underdog in the fight. I'd recommend an Inteligence Agent on this one (though Lando's real interesting).
4. Oh hey, they still really like trying to synergize with "Dutch" Vander.
5. Wexley = Ehh. On a ship with better guns, I'm invested.

• Ultimately, the ship is interesting, but I don't think it's format shaping.

Special Forces Tie Expansion

• Tie Fighter, Tie Fighter /fo, Tie Fighter /sf.... How many times can they say it's a Tie?
• Looking at dial and stats, I think I'll stick with my original recipe. If it weren't for the Aux Arc, I'd straight prefer the Bomber.
• Collision Detector is nice if you're not using your System slot for anything else. It's not just training wheels; it lets you fly more unpredictably.
• Spec Ops Training is now a title. Y'know, not a thing that makes pilots more elite. Just paint on the wings.
• Sensor Cluster is really nice in conjunction with Absurdofocus builds. Sadly, the Moldy Crow cannot use.
• Ooh, Quickdraw and Backdraft are lovely little minxes.

Protectorate Starfighter

• Ooh, a 6 pilot negligable upgrade ship. This ought to be interesting.
• ...I see they fixed the problems with the Kiraxhz. This thing is PUSHED.
• Oh, and the two upgrades help it with jousting.
• Fenn Rau naturally rolls 5 when at R1, and I still prefer Old Teroch's ability. But then, I'm a bastard.

Shadowcaster

• A rotating aux arc? ...Not gonna lie, I actually remember thinking this would be really cool to build around back in the day.
• Black Market Slicer Tools : Much better than Saboteur. But then, so are moldy cheese sandwiches. Works rather hilariously with the stress-cannons, but I doubt that managed to be an actual build.
• IG-88Dcrew. WHAT. You can't just... and in the same wave as the Starfighter? Was this the Spring of Scum, or something?
• Okay, 88Dcrew isnt the only game changer in this box, is he? Imma need to digest some...

That post analysis is so funny to read considering meta since they landed

Long story short:

Arc is new stressbot Or Norra is flewn as ace.

SF - Not even close to bomber - check out Lightweight Frame.

Protectorate - oh you will learn young Jedi...

Lancer:

3 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

Okay, 88Dcrew isnt the only game changer in this box, is he?

Haha no whole expansion is one big game changer.

Good for you - you sleeped Parattani reign.