right now i am planing a new campaign, is this pulse cannon plus telescoping sights is better than valken 38 combine is better?

I don't see the point of Telescoping Sights with Pulse Cannon. You probably have some other ranged weapon attachment (Plasma Cell?) by the time you get to buy the Pulse Cannon.

Telescoping Sight is bad. There is practically no reason to use it. Both guns are pretty similar but the Pulse Cannon generating surges will tend to be more useful for getting rid of strain or triggering a modification like Plasma Cell or Under Barrel.

I thought of one use, against darth vader, 2 black is nice, while you can get other focus if you don't it would help maybe?

On 5/25/2017 at 3:44 PM, ATM2100 said:

right now i am planing a new campaign, is this pulse cannon plus telescoping sights is better than valken 38 combine is better?

Throwing in my $0.02, I don't think so. If your goal is to spend 2 actions to self-focus, I would think the Valken's self-focus would end up doing more damage than what you'd get out of the Pulse Cannon with Telescoping Sights.

vs.

[ Photo Credit : FFG and cards.boardwars.eu]

The reason is that the Valken can both Focus and add a damage-dealing mod. A1bert suggested the Plasma Cell which is a beast. Alternatively, the Tier III Sniper Scope could also be strong given the Valken's sniper-friendly dice and ability to surge for +2D (or to Recover ). Having either of those mods equipped, plus the Focus , is likely to produce much more damage than just the Pulse cannon with Targeting Sights.

[ Photo Credit : FFG and cards.boardwars.eu]

Additionally, we do get a secondary bonus--the ability to ignore figures when tracing line-of-sight--out of the Vaulken. While this doesn't directly impact damage dealt, it can either (a) open up targeting possibilities we didn't have before, if our hero doesn't have an ability that can ignore figures when drawing LOS, or (b) save heroes that can ignore figures when drawing LOS the strain cost that is required to trigger (Mak's " Target Acquired " (2xp)) or set-up (Loku's Combat Spotter (1xp), which requires that the target have a Recon Token on it) that ability. Either is a huge advantage in combat.

[ Photo Credit : FFG and cards.boardwars.eu]

To test this theory, I ran the Pulse Cannon and Valken through some math sims against 2 black dice, similar to what I've done with melee weapons (so far) for the campaign. Since I assume the goal of your weapon would be to deal as much damage as possible to elite villains like Darth Vader, Weiss, the AT-ST, etc., I looked primarily at the odds of dealing at least "X" damage to the target past its defense dice:

On 5/29/2017 at 2:34 PM, ATM2100 said:

I thought of one use, against darth vader, 2 black is nice, while you can get other focus if you don't it would help maybe?

I also considered the odds of triggering a Recover to help manage strain (and heal), because that's never a bad thing to have in a campaign. All these sims were done assuming our target was 5 spaces away (which is a semi-safe distance from campaign Vader).

First, I started by comparing the damage dealt by the normal Pulse Cannon, the normal Valken, and the self- Focused Pulse Cannon:

My simulation (rolling dice for each weapon variant 2000 times) suggests that the self- Focused Pulse Cannon is a good bit better than the normal, unmodified Pulse Cannon (it forced 4 or more damage past our 2 black defense dice in 84.9% of our trials, twice as frequently as the 42.1% of the time for our normal Pulse Cannon). The normal, unmodified Valken also forced more damage through than the normal, unmodified Pulse Cannon, but less damage through than the self- Focused Pulse Cannon (4D+ in 59.5% of our 2000 trials).

In a single attack, the self- Focused Pulse Cannon also pushes more damage past 2 black dice than a non-focused Pulse Cannon with either the Plasma Cell or Sniper Scope mod, although the difference is much less pronounced:

Note that while the Self- Focused Pulse Cannon pushes 4D or more past these defense dice better than 80% of the time (a good indicator of reliability), this is limited to just one attack per round (unless the hero using it is someone like Mak or Biv who have XP cards that can allow them to perform an additional attack without spending an Action, or an ally like Leia is involved). The two modified Pulse Cannons have an 80% chance or better at pushing just 3 damage past these dice while attacking, but they can do it twice per activation (giving them an 80%+ chance at pushing 3+3 damage through, instead of an 80%+ chance at 4 damage).

Assuming our hero can target Vader without spending an Action to move, this is a slight damage bump overall, and if paired with the Sniper Scope , our hero also has not only a better chance to recover (23.1% vs. 14.1%) but can also do it up to twice per activation, instead of just once (since we can only spend 1 surge per attack to remove strain). Again, this isn't a major upgrade on its own, but over the course of multiple activations and missions in a campaign, it adds up.

Finally, I've been operating under the assumption that your hero can't self-focus using a class skill (Mak's "Jeswandi Training " (2xp) and/or " No Escape " (4xp), Fenn's " Superior Positioning " (4xp), etc.) and that you don't have another hero in your group who can focus you before you unload on a baddie like Vader (Diala's " Battle Meditation " (2xp), Gideon's " For the Cause! " (3xp)). If either is true, then relying on that instead of the self- Focus from Telescoping Sight would allow your hero to not only perform 2 attacks per activation (one Focused , one not), but would also allow him to be Focused and take advantage of one of these mods, either of which improve damage over just a Focused Pulse Cannon. If your teammate balks about focusing you, you could show them this chart:

With the Sniper Scope equipped, you have an outside shot at dealing 9 damage past 2 black dice (1.2%), and roughly 1-in-2 odds of dealing 6 or more damage (49.2%), plus nearly a 50% chance to recover a strain (44.7%). if you opt for the Plasma Cell instead, you have better than 90% odds at dealing 4 damage past defense dice (93.5%). Both are worlds ahead of what you'd get with just the Telescoping Sight equipped.

In the alternative, if you can't self-focus and/or don't have other heroes who can focus you and/or your friends could focus you but won't because they're mean/ignorant/gloryhounds/youngersiblings/etc., the Valken's self- Focus ability offers superior damage to what you'd get with the Pulse Cannon and Telescoping Sight , and basically the same chance at Recover , too:

Alternatively, opting to equip the Plasma Cell on the Valken instead of taking the self- Focus results in damage that's just about as good as the self- Focused Pulse Cannon, and putting the Sniper Scope on the Valken actually results in better damage than the self- Focused Pulse Cannon:

As with the modified Pulse Cannons, these modified Valkens have the advantage of being able to attack twice per activation (or three times, if we have those out-of-action abilities). A self- Focused Pulse Cannon has an 80% chance or better at dealing 4 damage past 2 black dice, at the cost of 2 actions. The Valken with the Plasma Cell has an 80% chance or better at dealing 3+3 damage past 2 black dice in a single activation, and the Valken with the Sniper Scope has a 90% chance or better at dealing 4+4 damage in a single activation. In other words, it's better than twice as good as the Pulse Cannon with Telescoping Sight .

Lastly, if we opt for one of these modified Valkens, we may have the choice of stacking these benefits on top of a Focus , either by using the self-focus from the Valken (with the added plus of ignoring figures for LOS) or getting a Focus out of one of our XP abilities (or if can persuade those "friends" of ours to give us a Focus ). If we do that, the damage between them and the Telescoping Sights Pulse Cannon isn't close at all:

Both Valkens actually have a 100% chance to deal damage past 2 black dice (the Plasma Cell Valken is actually guaranteed to deal at least 3 damage , thanks to its free Pierce 1 and its ability to surge for +1D), and an outside chance to deal 10 damage past these defense dice.

So all things being equal, I think I'd prefer to pay the extra 50 credits for the Valken, take a damage mod, and worry about Focus on a case-by-case basis. That's my $0.02, anyway.

methinks you put in a tad over 2 cents worth, I'd guess that was at least $6.72 worth. The graphs are about a buck a piece, and cards, maybe 10 cents per, then, your original 2 cents.

you said so much and gave so many reasons i am going to attempt to summarize what i wanted to know, according to your simulation, the best one is the focused pulse cannon. but it is a lot cheaper to buy the Valken, and if the choice arose, do the valken. is that right?(I don't have many expantions just hoth in terms of big boxes as of 6/4/17)

5 hours ago, ATM2100 said:

you said so much and gave so many reasons i am going to attempt to summarize what i wanted to know, according to your simulation, the best one is the focused pulse cannon. but it is a lot cheaper to buy the Valken, and if the choice arose, do the valken. is that right?(I don't have many expantions just hoth in terms of big boxes as of 6/4/17)

If you want the highest damage output, I'd take the self-focused Valken over the Pulse Cannon with Telescoping Sight. It's cheaper and its damage is better, even if you don't add a mod to the Valken. And the Valken's damage is much better when you add a mod. Plus you can ignore figures while tracing LOS.

If you just have the Core and Hoth boxes, the Tier I Tactical Display gets you a free surge like the Sniper Scope. It has to be exhausted to use, but there's no 5+ space requirement. If another hero had that upgrade already, you could consider the Tier 2 Spread Barrel to add some damage on demand. Or, if you have the credits to spend, the Tier 3 Disruption Cell which gives +2 Accuracy and lets you roll a Red-Red-Green-Blue while focused, which is monstrous.

22 hours ago, Rythbryt said:

If you just have the Core and Hoth boxes, the Tier I Tactical Display gets you a free surge like the Sniper Scope. It has to be exhausted to use, but there's no 5+ space requirement. If another hero had that upgrade already, you could consider the Tier 2 Spread Barrel to add some damage on demand. Or, if you have the credits to spend, the Tier 3 Disruption Cell which gives +2 Accuracy and lets you roll a Red-Red-Green-Blue while focused, which is monstrous.

My last campaign had a focused Onar with Hand Cannon (+ Marksman Barrel) with "Don't Make Me Hurt You": Red-Red-Red-Green. WHAAAT?

21 hours ago, caseycheesecake said:

My last campaign had a focused Onar with Hand Cannon (+ Marksman Barrel) with "Don't Make Me Hurt You": Red-Red-Red-Green. WHAAAT?

Nice. 'Dem reds, man...

On 05/06/2017 at 10:06 PM, caseycheesecake said:

My last campaign had a focused Onar with Hand Cannon (+ Marksman Barrel) with "Don't Make Me Hurt You": Red-Red-Red-Green. WHAAAT?

No open coffins at those stormtrooper funerals. Ouch.