So, it would seem at this point that Biggs needs a nerf - or does he? To further examine this, I've decided to lay out what I can see as the problem, and how it can be fixed.
Why Biggs should be nerfed:
1. If anything makes X-wings more survivable, it also buffs biggs.
2. Biggs means that all rebels are made more survivable, so a survivable rebel ship is buffed by biggs even more.
3. Biggs is annoying
All of these are valid reasons to want it nerfed, but I will now present why I think it shouldn't be.
1. Rebel ships have comparatively less survivability for points due to biggs (But this is minor in comparison)
2. The biggest reason for not nerfing biggs is also the simplest: It leaves new players in a predicament. A new player, upon buying the core set, will see four rebel pilots: Rookie, red, luke, and Biggs. right now, three of them are not competitavly viable. When you play your first game against other people, its typically not fun to lose because of a list. Thus, by nerfing biggs you give a new player a situation in which they are told that the first thing they need to do is buy a better ship. not a fun spot to be in. Additionally, unless they reprint the core sets, a new player might find out that their card has for all intensive purposes, a misprint.
Thus, what I found (In my opinion) is that I don't want to nerf Biggs, but I do want to stop some of the crazy ways that makes lists un-fun. Additionally, biggs needs changed, but in such a way that a new player doesn;t have to entirly rethink how they play beofre they play. Thus, I wanted to make biggs new player friendly while preventing him from making a ship un-fun to play against.
Additionally,
I think that biggs in the game should follow biggs in the movie: protect those around him. so, in the movie, biggs protects his allies by placing himself in between the enemies and Luke. Thus, I wanted to make his ability like that, so, I came up with:
When another friendly ship is defending, if the range ruler passes within range on of you, reduce the attack dice rolled by half, rounded down (to a minimum of one).
Yes, it is severely different from his current ability, but in some ways iot is stronger, it just forces different flying. Put biggs in front, he protects everything, but if you try and hide him behind a large ship, without bumping, biggs will do nothing. In effect, it will keep him viable while breaking current large ship + biggs lists.

One errata I rarely seen mentioned is: "Once Per Round"

Surely this would keep his ability relevant while preventing him shielding too many ships. You'd have to choose which shot he's going to take. A bit of prediction, similar to the Palpatine errata.

Any potential downsides to this change I'm not seeing?

Or fix the reason Biggs is seeing so much play, high alpha lists.

Yeah, we really need less XWings in the XWing game, so lets nerf the only XWing which is still viable in a competitive environment.

This is a wave 1 ship.... I think power creep has created some muuuuuch more threatening monsters than good old Biggs.

But it seems like, people often cry for a nerf, if they dont like a certain ship. They dont want to be challenged.

Biggs has been nerfed already.

You dont want to fire at Biggs?

How about using a Torpedo or a Missile?

Not firing at Biggs will become even easier with Synched Turrets.

Just put your TL on any other ship.

Is Biggs really that good that it should be nerfed? After you do this, you would have people saying that Rebels can't survive alpha strikers anymore. Biggs still costs 1/4th to 1/3rd of the squad points and will die in few turns. It doesn't seem that strong to me, more annoying than anything else but not strong.

You see Biggs wasn't played that much before because all the ordanances sucked, no torps, no missiles nor bombs, now because we got what we wanted, good ordanance, it made Biggs important because people couldn't handle alpha strikers. I feel that if he is nerfed, ordanances will be even better and that will start conversation of them being too strong, just like triple U-boats did last year. I'm pretty happy with ordanance at the moment, they are scary, I get nervous when I am facing list that is filled with them and I love it, just like you should feel.

I'm pretty sure Biggs is in good place right now!

There is three ways to "fix" Biggs, if he really needs one from what I think will work...

Make his ability once per round.

or

Make his ability a condition at the start of the game. (choose one friendly ship OR one enemy ship that his ability applies to).

or

Make his ability an action . (this one is the best option I think because it will limit his affect on defense because he won't be able to focus giving his abilty a better cost vs reward decision).

Alpha lists already side-step Biggs. I played at a store championship last weekend and lost my Y-Wing in 2 plasma torpedoes to the Dengar/Tel Worlds list.

The simple reason Biggs sees so much play is because there are a lot of < 2 agility Rebel ships that he can protect: Arc, B, K, VCX, Y, YT-1300. As much as I understand Biggs is annoying, whatever you propose to do needs to somehow balance out these other ships.

Biggs Darklighter
"When a friendly ship within range 1 of you is declared the target of an attack, you may spend a focus token to force that ship to attack you instead."

What this does:
Makes it a tactical decision as opposed to a must.
Can be denied via stress, bumping, token stealing.
Can be used multiple times via syngeristic list building ala Kyle/Garven/Esege/Jyn Orsa
Lowers his defense if he does choose to do it.
Lowers his attack capabilities unless he doesn't want to use his ability.

However, such a change is unlikely to ever occur.

*facepalm*

Whats wrong with you people? Biggs is 5 HP only. He has to be in range 1. And its already possible to override the Biggs effect with secondary weapons which need a target lock.

Alpha Strike lists dont care about Biggs.

Why do you want to get rid of a ship that makes this game far more tactical?

And obviously you are are not able to estimate the effect this would have. You will see faaaaar less rebel lists in tournaments anymore. Thats because they cant survive long enough without protection in the first 2 rounds of combat.

Lets all play triple jumps from now on. For the love of Star Wars.

The idea of a "tank" is complete nonsense anyway. Which smart, tactical game would have anything like that?

This is a tough one, really is. I don't fly him because I don't enjoy his mechanic but I understand the rational in tournaments, he's a must have. He's what Palp use to be, kinda, and is more of a force user than Palp, Vader or Luke in the game, IMO. I do think it requires talent to fly him where he's needed, kind, but I cannot get beyond the logical need (in my mind) that he should be piloted between your protected ship and the enemy vessel. Perhaps not directly in line, but his ability should only proc if he's the closer to the enemy ship than the one that your protecting. I mean, he's still the shield, but he can't force range 2 or 3 shots from you when you physically have to shoot through the vessel you'd actually like to shoot; that's where the pilot ability falls apart for me and is frustratingly unfun. That's why he's never seen in the crew I play with, we all kinda hate that ability. I guess we think too much; not think smartly too much, just think too much.....yeah, that's probably it.

10 minutes ago, Schu81 said:

*facepalm*

Why do you want to get rid of a ship that makes this game far more tactical?

I certainly don't, I want it to be more tactical.....see comment above.

47 minutes ago, Jedi1993 said:

One errata I rarely seen mentioned is: "Once Per Round"

Surely this would keep his ability relevant while preventing him shielding too many ships. You'd have to choose which shot he's going to take. A bit of prediction, similar to the Palpatine errata.

Any potential downsides to this change I'm not seeing?

Mostly one: it would change next to nothing for most lists while making Biggs hilariously bad in certain (rare) match ups. Put it simply, you do NOT want to split your fire. It's a rookie mistake that can backfire horribly. A ship with 1 HP shoots just as good as a ship with full HP (shut up Sabacc). So if you have a ship that typically intercepts a third of your firepower and you don't even know which of your shots he will take, the most sound course of action is to focus him down fast.

As a result, your "nerf" simply won't do anything... in most cases. Because in some rare cases you'll face a swarm list and intercepting one shot won't really make much of a difference. In such match ups Biggs will become nearly useless and the list containing him will suffer. In other words, you'll just make Biggs unreliable - his effect will remain unchanged in the vast majority of match ups while near-useless in a few rare ones. For the life of me I can't see how this would make the game better.

This might sound crazy. But in almost four years of playing this game I think I've only flown Biggs a couple times at most, and that was in my early days.

I've never felt the need to run him, although part of that is i don't run super expensive rebel ships usually.

I do think something should be changed on him. He's seen way too often in rebel lists.

I think his ability should just cover one ship, but it's for the entire round. In the movies he was covering for luke, but not for wedge. Just bad luck they shot him first.

I would guess that most Rebel players feel close to the way I do about Biggs: they would prefer not to fly Biggs in their lists, but feel as though most of the time they are putting themselves at a disadvantage if they don't do so. As has been pointed out, the high frequency of his appearance in competitive Rebel lists is the result of Rebel ships' relative weakness against reliable red dice. In other words, his popularity is a reaction to the current balance of power, not a driving force of it.

I got this, leave his ability alone. Un-nerf it even. However make it only work for other x wings. Bam, Biggs is still good but not helping bombers, double tappers and general cheese with the added benefit of putting more x wings on the table if you want to use Biggs. *drops the mic*

I only like nerfing Biggs IF the classic rebel ships get a buff . (If you do nerf him, I like the idea of "once per round," or maybe something like the ability only triggers if the firing line to the target passes through Biggs or something - which means he could block farther than range one, but would be a lot more tricky to use).

The buff would have to be some blanket thing, like a "Rouge Squadron" title for any small base rebel ship (X-Wing, Y-Wing, B-Wing, K-Wing, etc.) that just copies and pastes the text from"adaptive ailerons" (basically if you're attacked by more dice than you defend with, after rolling your defense, roll one additional green die). If you want to go Epi 7+8, have the title be Poe Dameron's "Black Squadron" instead.

The buff would be simple, but not overpowering. Bringing a B-Wing up to 2 green dice probably wouldn't do much with the red dice power creep, but getting an X-Wing up to 3 would be sweet - and seem a lot more like the movies. TIEs are more maneuverable, but watching the movies, X-Wings aren't slouches, either. Besides, TIEs have an evade and X-Wings don't - that by itself simulates the increased agility.

What do you think? Would that buff be enough to replace Biggs, or would it need to be something greater? Would the title be free, or cost 1 point?

So I posted a "I think Biggs needs a nerf" thread awhile back. I have since changed my viewpoint. Not because I've started playing Biggs, but I think I finally nailed down why I had (why I think other people have) a problem with him. The main complaint seems to be "we want to see X Wings flown in the game of X Wing, and right now, Biggs is the only pilot that is competitive yet I want to be able to fly other pilots competitively". Here's my perceived flaw in that thinking. We are seeing an X Wing at competitive events. People just want it to be a different pilot (or 3). I understand wanting to see a variance of X Wings at the competitive level, but think about how many other ships have multiple pilots that are seen competitively (Jumpmaster excluded). I'm not going to make a full list, but I'd point out that no one is complaining that there aren't more E Wing pilots other than Corran. K Wings are usually just Miranda, the 2400 is Super Dash, Whisper for the Phantom, Inquisitor, etc. While there are some ships that have multiple options, it's not unheard of to simply have 1 pilot that eclipses others. And I've even seen Biggs with Wedge and some A Wings (yet another original X Wing pilot). I even have a trip X Wing list that I find fairly competitive that is a blast to fly (Luke, Nien, Snap). My point is, I've changed camps and think that Biggs is a tool in the Rebel arsenal that isn't an auto include, but a strong option. People just want to fly the X Wing like they see it in the moives, not have it blow up first thing protecting everything else. I get that, but hey, again, we are seeing a classic X Wing at competitive events (final table at Worlds for example). IMO, I think Biggs is fine. I took awhile and a lot of thought to get to that point.

Never thought about it that way! That's a good point

I guess for the competitive level, you're right - almost all competitive scum lists fly mindlink (obviously except the world champion!:D), but we're not like "Man! I wish I could fly a scum list without mindlink! It limits my creativity!" (I personally do not fly scum). Or before my time in the game, when Palp Aces were the thing, people probably weren't like, "Darn! I hate flying Palp - but I have to!" (Maybe they were, feel free to correct me haha).

However, I think a Biggs nerf would open some lanes for other Rebel ships to see some buffs and get play time.

4 hours ago, Do I need a Username said:

A discussion on Nerfing Biggs and how it should be done

It shouldn't.

Biggs is popular right now because he works well in the current meta. He also allows ships that would otherwise see pretty much no play, such as Jess, Rex or Thane, to function- without Biggs they would be literally useless (Jess might see some play, but I wouldn't bet on it).

There IS counterplay to Biggs. He is pretty much a flying brick that costs 25 points plus upgrades- that's 1/4th of a list. And yet against this very immobile, arc-bound ship so many people just joust. Biggs enables some of the best jouster lists in the current meta. Just flank the guy.

That, and pretty much every good Biggs-centric list gets countered by DengarTel.

2 hours ago, Elavion said:

It shouldn't.

Biggs is popular right now because he works well in the current meta. He also allows ships that would otherwise see pretty much no play, such as Jess, Rex or Thane, to function- without Biggs they would be literally useless (Jess might see some play, but I wouldn't bet on it).

I could say with a few word alterations, your argument would be just as valid a few months ago:

"It shouldn't.

Palpatine is popular right now because he works well in the current meta. He also allows ships that would otherwise see pretty much no play, such as Soontir, Vader or the Inquisitor, to function- without Palp they would be literally useless (Vader might see some play, but I wouldn't bet on it)."

.....just sayin'

I think biggs is annoying but somewhat tolerable when flown in front or side by side the ships he's protecting with minimal upgrades.

It gets bad when he's flown behind everyone and then gets extra agility, extra focus or evade tokens, etc, and you're forced to fire at him.

Biggs is fine, his ability is about to get "curbed": Ruthlessness+TLT (=BAM!!)

20 minutes ago, clanofwolves said:

I could say with a few word alterations, your argument would be just as valid a few months ago:

"It shouldn't.

Palpatine is popular right now because he works well in the current meta. He also allows ships that would otherwise see pretty much no play, such as Soontir, Vader or the Inquisitor, to function- without Palp they would be literally useless (Vader might see some play, but I wouldn't bet on it)."

.....just sayin'

And I'd be right. Have you seen the Empire's performance at worlds?

Jokes aside though, the Inquisitor, Soontir and Vader can work well without Palpatine. If you try playing Thane without Biggs he'll just get prioritized and his ability will never trigger- he was clearly designed to synergise with Biggs (same with the others, though to a lesser extent).

Also, Palpatine was bordering on obligatory in imperial lists basically since it's release until the Imperial Veterans (and he was still heavily used after that). 9 months ago Biggs was appearing in maybe 15% of rebel lists. And he's been around for 6 over years

3 minutes ago, Elavion said:

And I'd be right. Have you seen the Empire's performance at worlds?

Jokes aside though, the Inquisitor, Soontir and Vader can work well without Palpatine. If you try playing Thane without Biggs he'll just get prioritized and his ability will never trigger- he was clearly designed to synergise with Biggs (same with the others, though to a lesser extent).

Also, Palpatine was bordering on obligatory in imperial lists basically since it's release until the Imperial Veterans (and he was still heavily used after that). 9 months ago Biggs was appearing in maybe 15% of rebel lists.

Yep, this .

...and it's no joke, the Empire, in comparison to Scum especially, has been neutered.