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...

Hi Dracon, welcome back! Quick update on how these ships actually fare in real meta:

ARC-170
1. Its dial is better than Y-wing/B-wing.
2. Norra hits like a truck, but haven't seen a list that reaches top table consistently yet
3. The PS3 pilot, Braylen Stramm is the real star of this expansion. He is also known as the StressBaron
(i.e R3-A2 + Gunner + Title, double stress from both arcs at all ranges + chance to end activation phase unstressed)

TIE/sf
1. The stats and dial of this ship is actually better than a T-70 Xwing. It's pretty decent and with Lightweight Frame from TIE Striker expansion, It's a very reliable jouster with rear arc.
2. The title's second ability means you can align your ships next to a big ship and do range 1, 3-attack dice twice. With FCS or Accuracy corrector it's even better.
3. Quickdraw and Backdraft have really good abilities. I personally prefer backdraft as it doesn't restrict your maneuvering to be effective, unlike Quickdraw.

Protectorate Starfighter
1. Fenn Rau once flew into range 1 of a full health Ghost fearlessly with his equally fearless friends, Zuckuss and Cobra. Have you ever witnessed a VCX-100 going down in a single round of firing? They did.

Shadowcaster
1. Asajj hands out free stress every round to your opponent's ships. if Latts Razzi is on board, she helps remove the stress from that opponent ship in exchange for 1 free evade. isn't that annoying? It is.
2. Title is mostly unused. The gyroscopic targeting is seen frequently and a good pair with PTL. just do 3 hard every round and you're set for life.

MINDLINK!

Yeah, Mindlink is the new scum PTL. It's very good.

Ah welcome back, i can still remember you well Dracon.

Love your analysis of Waves 9-10, well done and refreshing, wish it were the facts. Fenn is the beast of that release by far.

Mindlink is the s*** (with Finn noted above) and Jumpmasters are by far the best ship ever released by FFG to use to in subjugation of those who dare not fly Scum in tournaments. The K-Wing is fantastic and Stress is back as Palp, Zuckuss and Defender X7 pilots have been jettisoned out the airlock.

It's great to read your thoughts again, very nice sir, very nice.

Generally and surprisingly all the ships in wave 9 have at least 1 competitive pilot.

Nora joins the ranks of other regen closers and is surprisingly punchy for a primary value of 2. Suggested build: r2d2, ptl, title, vectored thrusters, c3p0/tail gunner/Kyle

Quickdraw presents a serious enigma for ordering attacks and is vicious in palp aces paired with predator Vader or something else hard hitting. Suggested build: expertise, title, baffle

Backdraft is not as flashy as Quickdraw but hits hard and is just a solid all around ship. Suggested build: expertise, fcs, lightweight frame, title, pattern analyzer

Fenn Rau is like a prince Rupert drop. From the ranges and angles he likes he's a monster. Caught the wrong way and you've never lost 34 points faster. Suggested build: title, autothrusters, ptl/mindlink

Asajj ventress is my favorite ship currently and is one of the strongest in the game. Most people like running latts crew as a value add on (see parattanni lists from before nerf) but I disagree that it's good value against anything but mindlink lists. My suggested build: engine, Dengar, ptl, slicer tools if you have an extra point.

Speaking of slicer tools, it's a powerful upgrade that hasn't gotten much traction but really allows someone like ventress to stick it to regen aces. She just stresses and slices them every turn and grinds them out late game 1v1.

13 hours ago, nigeltastic said:

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

Yet Manaroo is still played and doing good while both Palpatine and X7 are almost out of the game (especially Palp). Logic...

9 hours ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

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)

Called it!

13 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

• 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.

Tail gunner sees occasional use on the ARC, but isn't a really common upgrade.

13 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

• 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.

As other people have said, Norra's great. Braylen is great. I even have a lot of fun with Thane. I've done quite well with a triple arc list, with R7-T1 on thane so if and when the opponent shoots someone besides him (because they always kill Norra or Braylen first) he gets a free TL and boost to get closer range shots with full modifiers. Even more fun, if he blocks someone in his rear arc, then they shoot someone else, he can then boost away and shoot at them at range 1.

13 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

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.

The SF has been something of a sleeper hit. Didn't make much of a splash when it first released, but it's picked up a lot lately. Partly due to the Lightweight Frame upgrade that came in the tie striker. I've been running Quickdraw and Backdraft with identical builds (expertise, fas, title, sensor cluster, lightweight frame).

The reason for the auto include titles on both of these ships is they didn't want to just give them 3 dice out both arcs, but wanted 3 dice primary arcs. The titles give them a way to include extra "rules" with the ships without requiring a rules card you have to remember o anything else like that. There's no room to fit it on the card, so the title is a perfect way to do it.

13 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

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.

Such a good ship. Fenn and Teroch are frequently used together.

13 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

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...

As others have said, the Shadowcaster has been a staple of the scum meta since it released. Mostly asajj, but there's been a fair bit of Ketsu as well. I've never actually seen sabine flown...

IGD hasn't been used much, but is a key part of the "triple tap" YV666 build (YV666 with gunner and IGD and a cannon alongside IGB pilot, IG-B's ability doesn't specify you can't attack again that round like other gunner effects, so you can fire and miss, trigger IGD for a cannon shot, t hen gunner for a primary shot). I think "triple tap" is a bit of a misnomer since the first has to miss, so you;'re really only taking 2 actual shots for damage, but that's the name that's stuck.

11 hours ago, Kdubb said:

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.

They can always "fix" in other ways. One of the a-wing fixes was a missile. The scyk (once the c-roc releases) and defender each have 2 titles to choose from. X-wing has a modification (still needs more, but it helped). No reason they couldn't "fix" a ship with an auto-include title using a different title or a different slot. Or like you said, add on to the existing title. As it stands though, neither ship seems o be in any need of a fix, both are doing quite well.

11 hours ago, Kdubb said:

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.

Norra also pairs pretty well with expertise if you're only worried about using her ability for offense. PTL is better if you want to be able to use it defensively.

Welcome back Dracon!

15 hours ago, DraconPyrothayan said:

So: What'd I miss?

...well, we still haven't got the Gunboat

11 hours ago, Marinealver said:

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.

I do remember reading the exact same thing about Palpatine...

1 minute ago, haslo said:

I do remember reading the exact same thing about Palpatine...

While this is a valid statement the issue is jabba only 1 carrying option and none of the discard illicits are particularly amazing currently. Sure glitterstim is good but is getting a second copy worth taking a yv666 that only has 1 free crew slot? Jabba could surprise us but with the current options I just don't see him being impactful.

Yeah, chances are Jabba has one eye on future expansions. Not sure how I'd feel about five or so PacMan TIEs with Glitterstim & Jabba in a Slaver...

12 minutes ago, haslo said:

I do remember reading the exact same thing about Palpatine...

I can assure you I was on the other side of that camp

Now I am not going to fall into the whole fallacy of confirmation biased, but you could tell that Palp was going to be useful because of his flexibility. Any dice roll could be changed to what ever you need. Hit a mine make that crit a blank, getting shot at, blank to evade. Shooting at someone, have a crit in addition to the one I just rolled. The only negative which put in some questions on Palp's effectiveness was the cost and at the tight 100 point restriction of competitive play it was a valid point. 2 crew slots which limited it to 2 ships and 8 points was a hefty price but as we all seen the applications for Palp was all he needed. He had a cheap transport option (lambda shuttle) which mitigated that issue completely.

Now on to Jabba, not as universally applicable, there are many Scum ships which have No illicit Slots, some in the top of the meta (Protectorate, Y-wing). But the biggest thing is that there is only one transport option and it is expensive too, the YV-666. If all palp had was the VT-49 decimator, I'm sure he wouldn't have been in the errata of the last FAQ. Now if say the Shadow Caster was able to add in another Crew Slot, then I could see Jabba being in competitive because that ship while not much cheaper has 2 illicit slots that jabba can effect thus making a more self-contained build for a ship.

Long Story Short, Jabba will not be seeing the competitive scene until Scum gets another ship with 2+ <crew> slots. Now when that ship comes along, there might be calls for Jabba Nerfs (but I think they would be more directed at the new ship), but the meta as now up to Wave 11, answer is simply no, Jabba won't be affecting the meta.

22 hours ago, Grivoire said:

Protectorate Starfighter
1. Fenn Rau once flew into range 1 of a full health Ghost fearlessly with his equally fearless friends, Zuckuss and Cobra. Have you ever witnessed a VCX-100 going down in a single round of firing? They did.

No but yesterday i saw Fenn Rau flying into R1 of my finned Ghost rear arc. Have you ever witnessed full health Fenn Rau with focus, ability and CDP going down to a single shot ?

29 minutes ago, Vitalis said:

No but yesterday i saw Fenn Rau flying into R1 of my finned Ghost rear arc. Have you ever witnessed full health Fenn Rau with focus, ability and CDP going down to a single shot ?

Was it autoblasters? I've had a Soontir cease to exist for that very reason.

3 minutes ago, HammerGibbens said:

Was it autoblasters? I've had a Soontir cease to exist for that very reason.

Thats the whole point : it was primary 6 dice with TL and Focus. He rolled 4 blanks

45 minutes ago, Vitalis said:

No but yesterday i saw Fenn Rau flying into R1 of my finned Ghost rear arc. Have you ever witnessed full health Fenn Rau with focus, ability and CDP going down to a single shot ?

Ssh! you know Ghost is not scared of Fenn when the two fearless friends are not around

THIS guy again? Sheesh!

welcome back! Lots of merch to stock up on now.

On 4/5/2017 at 8:58 PM, DraconPyrothayan said:

So: What'd I miss?

I know I missed long, well-reasoned, elaborately formatted posts.

I've found a few uses for the R3 astromech - it allows for some neat tech plays, but nothing super amazing.... It can power swarm leader and Juke, It has synergy with accuracy corrector, comm relay, operations specialist, captain rex, luke crew and nora wexley. It has limited (soft) synergy with Biggs, baze, calculation, trick shot, lone wolf and Ezra crew (as R3 uses a single eye, so when you roll more than one, ezra can pick up slack. while lonewolf gives you blank rerolls, increasing the chance of a positive result, or a focus for r3) It works better with higher pilot skill (assuming no com relay or juke). (it functions on Arcs, X-wings, Y-wings and E-wings.)

It's got really nice synergy with limited action ships - and functions as a soft ptl, especially when you consider higher pilot skill or Juke/Swarm leader - because it increase your action efficiency when you didn't take a focus action. So it works pretty well with the target lock - since you can take a TL for offense, and get a defensive bonus if you end up with eyeballs - given no TL + focus stack. It grants a focus conversion after any action, or even without an action while you are stressed. It can be a surprisingly good R5-P9 / R2-D2 light replacement, especially on Poe Dameron - (again soft synergy for attacks with a double focus, where you'd rather not spend your focus but keep the ability for defense.)

It's best obvious use is probably Juke and comm relay on a red squadron veteran. Though two blue squadron novices with r3 and comm relay can power double taps of fcs corran horn swarm leader - though that's more a great epic element than 100 point squad. But - I really like it on a vectored thrusters Juking (or lone wolf) Luke Skywalker - Target lock when you can, Barrel roll when you need - have a 25% chance of adding further to your defense AND offense, while attacking early enough to make use of it.

I'm not going to get all sentimental here, but when I first started playing, your posts really helped me to understand the niceties of the game, and always added something unique to the conversation... Great to see you back Dracon!

*sniff* I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

Anyways, the game went through a period of extreme hegemony this past season, with one list absolutely dominating competitive play: 'Parattani' (named after its inventor, OldPara) ...

Fenn Rau (AT, title, Attani)

Manaroo (Attani)

Ventress (Attani, Latts crew)

It's a list drowning in action efficiency, with great spike damage, great redundancy (even now debate rages on over who to target first), and combined three ships that are frankly on the other side of points efficiency... E.g. Yavin in London this year saw 5 of the top 8 running this list. This exact list. The remainders were a Hera/Ahsoka and two Fenn/Teroch/Manaroo lists I believe, though I could be wrong. That's right - 7 out of the 8 lists had Manaroo in it.

This kind of result prompted FFG to round up a posse and break out the nerfhammers. X7 defender title got it (just too joust-mastery. An 'overcooked' fix), Palpatine got it (though his influence was on the wane already), Zuckuss crew got it (due to the hideous beast-list known as 'Dengaroo'), and finally Manaroo got it right between the eyes. Pretty great nerfs, I'd say, but with an unfortunate side effect that the forum's usual genre of 'plz ffg nerf X' posts have blossomed like never before.

Since then people are playing a lot of different lists, there's plenty of toys to play with, but the spectre of a new hegemony hangs over us still (doesn't it always?)... top contenders are probably triple jump attani list, K-wing bomber lists, Miranda lists, TLT-leveraging lists, or post-nerf defender lists.

So... Scum are still in ascendency, Rebels are right back in it after a period out of favour, Imperials left scratching their heads (or whining, depending on your POV) as they adjust to the damage done to their two central list archetypes. All in all, it's a great time to dip your toe back in the weird and wonderful world of leftfield listbuilding!

I don't know who you are or where you're from, but I feel like I've missed you.

Good to see another oldy-but-goody return.

Imperials are still the best (just not the best at everything), wave 1 and 2 ships are vastly underpowered, all the emperors toys and the Emperor himself are needed whenever they get too good, there are no more tie fighters or x-wings, in the game of xwing...

So much has has changed,yet remains the same.

15 minutes ago, Rakky Wistol said:

Good to see another oldy-but-goody return.

Imperials are still the best (just not the best at everything), wave 1 and 2 ships are vastly underpowered, all the emperors toys and the Emperor himself are needed whenever they get too good, there are no more tie fighters or x-wings, in the game of xwing...

So much has has changed,yet remains the same.

TIE swarm I feel got significantly more viable again with the x7 and palp nerfs

On 4/7/2017 at 1:45 AM, Vitalis said:

No but yesterday i saw Fenn Rau flying into R1 of my finned Ghost rear arc. Have you ever witnessed full health Fenn Rau with focus, ability and CDP going down to a single shot ?

Unfortunately, yes. Not once but twice in consecutive games.