OK, I realize he's in a T-65 X-wing, but consider:

With Targeting Astromech and Integrated Astromech, he's basically a Rebel Defender minus one agility die, only cheaper, and with a free Target Lock to go with his white K-turn. Same 3-attack, same six health. Middling pilot skill, admittedly, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if you're doing a lot of K-turns.

The naked T-65 dial is arguably better than a Defender's, once you have Hobbie + TA's ability to grant a white K-turn.

He's hanging out with Tarn and Garvin at the Cantina crying into their drinks.

I don't even play X-Wing...

And even with that background, just occasionally viewing the topics here, I can confidently reply this:

"You've compared him to a Defender. And what do you know, he's exactly where all the post-Nerf Defenders are now, too... Somewhere Else ..."

Hobbie is fine. Good even. I played him a bit when Targetting Astromech first came out with moderate success in fairly casual games. But the problem I found is that he's a tiny bit pricey to be a disposable jouster in a 4 ship list, and a little too easy to kill to be as powerful a late game piece as an x7 defender.

The reason defenders were so good was basically the combo of the white K, three agility and free evade. Hobbie's free target lock and two agility means that he hits just as hard, maybe even harder than the x7, but lacks the defensive staying power. He's better backed by Biggs, but at that price point there are almost always better options.

The other big factor is that all of his slots are filled bar the torpedo, limiting your opportunities to further improve him.up to viability.

He's definitely worth a try in casual thematic or epic matches: With Targetting Astromech he's found a near perfect astromech match, and getting multiple effectively green k turns off is fun as hell. But he's not going to be a meta power house without some fairly significant help from an x wing fix.

12 minutes ago, BlodVargarna said:

He's hanging out with Tarn and Garvin at the Cantina crying into their drinks.

I'd say Tarn is one of the X Wings closest to viability TBH. I rate him roughly even with Wedge: Slightly better than Hobbie and Luke, slightly worse than Wes and obviously well below Biggs. But with M9-G8 he's even more annoying than he was with R7 Astromech.

As for Garven... Yeah. He's at the back of the pack with Porkins unfortunately.

Hobbie is actually quite amazing. Not only does he get the free target lock, buy his stress is gone too, so he can focus for his action. He just needs to survive long enough to get into the K-turn dance. That means he needs Biggs by his side.

I fly Hobbie frequently these days. He finds a home in my four fighter lists, alongside Tarn. He's fun, and when you pull off that k-turn and get that target lock, stress remove, focus action combo... yeah, the reactions are fun.

He's alright, but doesn't even come close to a Defender, sadly. Any named Defender pilot has an EPT, barrel roll, free evade action OR can shoot twice, and an additional pilot ability compared to him.

Hobbie is fun to fly, but nowhere near as efficient as an x7 Defender.

48 minutes ago, BlodVargarna said:

He's hanging out with Tarn and Garvin at the Cantina crying into their drinks.

Heh, that's actually a list I've had fun with; Tarn, garven, and Hobbie, with Airen Cracken barking orders at them.

Hobbie with TA and a Proton Torpedo has done good work for me in Epic games ... I'll have to give him a try in standard.

He has a bad case of "the other ships in my point bracket are so much better than me". He competes with Biggs himself, the Stresshog, Jess Pava, even Tarn Mison I'd rate before him. That is already more ships than you can put in one list! So any list that runs him needs a very good reason to put him over these options, and so far I can't imagine one (else I'd run him all day, every day).

58 minutes ago, MacchuWA said:

But he's not going to be a meta power house without some fairly significant help from an x wing fix.

Just release him as a JMK-5000 pilot, then he'll be a meta powerhouse

Another thing to note is that to get Hobbie going, you need to do the 4k. An x7 gets the evade on 8 different maneuvers.

Besides Biggs, what unique pilot of skill between 4 and 6 is doing very good right now?

13 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Besides Biggs, what unique pilot of skill between 4 and 6 is doing very good right now?

Going by List Juggler since the Palp/Manaroo/x7 nerf, in the top 25:

Manaroo (PS4) at #3

Asajj (PS6) at #4

Vessery (PS 6) at #10

Kanan (PS 5) at #12

Cpt Rex (PS 4) at #14

Palob (PS 5) at #15

Thane Kyrell (PS 4) at #22

Countess Ryad (PS 5) at #24

Edit: For reference, Biggs is #5 on that list.

I was just writing that exact reply Hawkstrike