Feck you. I sprayed water all over my screen laughing

A little premature and short sighted.

Can you remake that image with R3 Astromech?

4 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

A little premature and short sighted.

Perhaps, but I would love to hear a valuable use of a card that a) will often damage yourself, b) only fires at range 1, and c) needs to recharge for whatever reason.

The ONLY ok use I have seen for it has been as the second cannon on a HLC Brobot, and even that is a stretch for the points.

26 minutes ago, Kdubb said:

Perhaps, but I would love to hear a valuable use of a card that a) will often damage yourself, b) only fires at range 1, and c) needs to recharge for whatever reason.

The ONLY ok use I have seen for it has been as the second cannon on a HLC Brobot, and even that is a stretch for the points.

a) don't use it in that moment if you're worried about self-damage?

b) that's what it does, yes.

c) because if it didn't need to recharge it'd be the bastard child of Proton Rockets and Assault Missiles for 2 points without the discard.

You can see the board state before recharging it, so wait for a turn where you don't get a shot anyways (or a useless one) to do that.

Now I'm not saying it's actually good, but I'm going to at least put it on the table before I declare it useless and only good for tinder.

1 hour ago, RejjeN said:

a) don't use it in that moment if you're worried about self-damage?

b) that's what it does, yes.

c) because if it didn't need to recharge it'd be the bastard child of Proton Rockets and Assault Missiles for 2 points without the discard.

You can see the board state before recharging it, so wait for a turn where you don't get a shot anyways (or a useless one) to do that.

Now I'm not saying it's actually good, but I'm going to at least put it on the table before I declare it useless and only good for tinder.

I hope you have success with it, and I'd love to hear about what works for you. But I'm not seeing it myself. There are far too many strong lists that don't care to be in range 1 of their fellow ships for it to consistently be worth the 2 points in a competitive setting.

And Proton Rockets fire 5 dice (when equipped properly), not 4. As Fenn Rau will let you know, that's a BIG difference. If this fired 5 dice, I would be ALL over it.

I think without the recharge, 2 points could be right. But with it? That's one of the harder sells I have seen in the game as of late.

It is a fail because of a) the recharge and 2) the range. Without one of those it becomes very interesting. As is, there are so many ships with a 4 red dice range 1 attack it simply is not interesting.

Wait for 2 waves. I guarantee you we'll see something that's actually good with the arc caster in that time.

If it was range 1-2 (or even just range 2) it could have found some use. Heck range 2 would be awesome, can't hit an opponent at range 1, find someone at range 2 and hit them. That way you can't hurt yourself.

Sure it is another Nerf You to the Imperials but this is one upgrade that imperial players wouldn't take even if they could.

I reckon it's going to be murder on a stick for HotAC. Can't wait to get my build leveled up to slot the 'Caster in.

5 hours ago, Stoneface said:

A little premature and short sighted.

You mean the "Rebel only. Scum only" header, right?

Paired with a Scyk with pulsed ray shield doesn't seem like a bad way to go ...

Could be situationally useful on a brobot to trigger a range 1 gunner.

8 hours ago, Jehan Menasis said:

You mean the "Rebel only. Scum only" header, right?

No, actually. Using them for kindling is premature. Unless the OP is a savant squad builder with the gift of foresight he's not thinking outside of the mental box.

As for using them for Imperial builds. Considering how squishy some are and lacking shields and the requirement to do an additional damage to a ship at R1 of the defender AND the attack range is also R1 it might not be a good idea. The phrase "Hoist with his own petard" comes to mind

Biggs and Lowhhrick w/Selflessness aren't really fond of anyone bringing the Arc Caster.

27 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

Biggs and Lowhhrick w/Selflessness aren't really fond of anyone bringing the Arc Caster.

"Oh yeah, you want to slowly fly in formation at R1, huh? Well, let's see how you feel about that with a card full o' LOITNING"

13 hours ago, Marinealver said:

If it was range 1-2 (or even just range 2) it could have found some use. Heck range 2 would be awesome, can't hit an opponent at range 1, find someone at range 2 and hit them. That way you can't hurt yourself.

Sure it is another Nerf You to the Imperials but this is one upgrade that imperial players wouldn't take even if they could.

TIE/D Would love it with ruthlessness

The recharge is no problem because you can wait for a situation where you won't shoot anyway. If that doesn't arrive? Welp, you just paid 2pt for a 4dice attack. You pay 3pt for a 5dice procket where you discard it AND need a focus.
The additional damage is also no problem because you can wait to use it until it helps you, or doesn't hurt you that much.
Together you pay 2pt for a procket-like secondary weapon attack that can also deal 5 damage, 1 of them being unblockably dealt to someone at range 1, and instead of discarding it you can use it again if you "pay" by one round of not attacking.

But I think another point is missed here: there are just 9 ships (I think?) that can equip cannons, 3 are imperial. Of the remaining 6, only the Scyk does not have a 4dice range1 attack.
This means, unless you are a Scyk, you effectively pay 2pts and a round without shooting for that 1 unblockable damage. I think it heavily depends on the list if that's worth it. To compare, crackshot costs 1pt for 1 guaranteed damage, but the arc caster could be used more than once - and range 1 only!

To summarize, you can equip it as crackshot-like cannon. If the situation arises that you can't shoot then recharge. If that were to happen more than once then you can get a crackshot equivalent (which is probably undercostet, so that would make the cannon ok due to the range1 limit). If it were to happen more than twice then you can get amazing value out of it. But 3 times requires a minimum of 5 rounds in which you didn't shoot twice.

Edit: the ships are:

Rebel: B-Wing, YT-2400

Scum: YV-666, Firespray-31, M3-A, Aggressor

Imperial: Lambda Shuttle, Firespray-31, TIE Defender

14 hours ago, Stoneface said:

No, actually. Using them for kindling is premature. Unless the OP is a savant squad builder with the gift of foresight he's not thinking outside of the mental box.

Actually, I was thinking about making a funny joke, but hey, it is the internet so there is always going to be "that" guy.

Currently they only good thing about it is the cost. Certainly in the future there may come a ship that makes this thing good but for now, no. That is reason why the joke is funny, because for now, it is fire kindling. Its only upside requires your opponent to do something, having two ships at range one, which you simply cannot control. That is never a good thing. It's a hate card for ships that need to be at range one or swarms until something which may or may not come out which will make it less situational.

On 9/6/2017 at 5:01 PM, Kdubb said:

Perhaps, but I would love to hear a valuable use of a card that a) will often damage yourself, b) only fires at range 1, and c) needs to recharge for whatever reason.

The ONLY ok use I have seen for it has been as the second cannon on a HLC Brobot, and even that is a stretch for the points.

Wait the new Wookie Gunship, and that cannon will be one of the few valuable tools against Lowhrick+Biggs

Just want to say, a list with ARC Caster made 2nd place at my local 33 person store champ. In a Brobots list. This card isn't as DOA as you might think.

4 hours ago, defkhan1 said:

Just want to say, a list with ARC Caster made 2nd place at my local 33 person store champ. In a Brobots list. This card isn't as DOA as you might think.

Brobots are a special case because they can equip 2 cannons. I'd expect them to be played on a scyk, too, but not much else.

On June 9, 2017 at 2:15 AM, Mep said:

Now I understand how the bonfires in dark souls work....

On 6/10/2017 at 6:34 AM, GreenDragoon said:

Edit: the ships are:

Imperial: Lambda Shuttle, Firespray-31, TIE Defender

HAHAHAHA