The only "bad" imperial ship right now is the firespray.

The punisher could use some help but it has gotten a lot of new toys the past few waves like LWF, rockets, and bomblets. So it's more viable now at least just not great.

Shuttle is fine. It's super cheap for what it does. New pilots would make sense at some point for more variety.

Phantom could use more pilot choices someday too.

All the other imp ships are good to great. Some OP stuff in the meta might make them seem bad but it just means that stuff needs a nerf, not buffs for most imp ships.

2 minutes ago, TasteTheRainbow said:

Convenient cut you made there. Pretending like they weren't a large, dominant piece of the meta there is disingenuous.

"Lol. Yea the 18 months of palp lists at the top of every tournament was what exactly?"

So I posted the top of the top tourney, which had 1/4 palp aces in the top 4, and no palp aces in the finals. I made no claim it wasn't a part of the meta, but you're flat-out wrong to say it was the top of every tourney.

Honestly, thinking cynically and about Disney's business model of milking the ever loving Crap out of the OT, is expect wave 1-3 fixes eventually. HAn Solo/boba fett movies would be great excuses

Stuff like thepunisherr is ****** till it's canon like the defender and stuff like the U which is recent but its movie is so incredibly forgetable, is straight ****** unless it features in another movie/show

But I doubt it will because new movies will have new or rehashed ships instead

10 minutes ago, markcsoul said:

The only "bad" imperial ship right now is the firespray.

The punisher could use some help but it has gotten a lot of new toys the past few waves like LWF, rockets, and bomblets. So it's more viable now at least just not great.

Shuttle is fine. It's super cheap for what it does. New pilots would make sense at some point for more variety.

Phantom could use more pilot choices someday too.

All the other imp ships are good to great. Some OP stuff in the meta might make them seem bad but it just means that stuff needs a nerf, not buffs for most imp ships.

The Punisher is nowhere near good. It desperately needs an EPT to have the necessary action economy to compete as an ordnance carrier (something it wastes almost all of its upgrade bar on, so don't tell me it shouldn't be a good ordnance carrier), or a crew slot and an imperial bombing crew to compete as a bomber. It can throw quasi 3 dice attacks, but the scurrg can do that without requiring a focus, and the K-wing can do 360 shots, both with primary weapon and TLT (negating its weakness). It also has the worst dial of the 3 heavy ordnance carriers. Infinite bombs are nice, but again, without a crew slot and a dedicated bomber crew, its screwed.

The Shuttle is terrible. Worst dial in the game, with a fixed arc, and no auxiliary cannon (which it should have). The ship is so reliant on red moves that if it gets an unexpected stress, it often can't recover at all, and flies off the board. The only reason it saw play, was palpatine. At LEAST it needs a rear arc.

TIE Bomber is basically a cheap shuttle, never used as an ordnance carrier. It needs a niche or a gimmick as an ordnance carrier. Give it an ability or sth.

The other ships aren't bad, per se, there the problem seems to be with faction identity, and designer inconsistency over what Imperials are supposed to be good at.

There aren't really any "faction mechanics" that Imperials rely on, and they lack in solutions to things readily available to other factions. Most ships also lack upgrade slots when compared to other ships. While I understand this is to represent lore, this also creates a situation where even in a perfect balance, every meta defining upgrade available to all factions enhances Scum and Rebels more.
Just imagine playing a MOBA game with certain characters that have less slots for items.

Furthermore Imperials lack upgrade slots that are exclusive, or near exclusive to their faction (Illicit, and the astromechs), and have the least faction specific crew upgrades (despite being in the game longer than scum, and having more crew carriers).

Now, I don't even mention the current problem with green dice defense being circumvented, because I realize (hope) its temporary, however these other things aren't. These are very big problems with the faction that need answers, (and could be solved easily).

Imperial has never really been a bad faction in the past. Palp Aces, Palp Defenders, Swarms, Phantoms, etc. A lot of the ships had their time in the sun! Even Vader before Inq was pretty solid.

Only the Punisher has been totally useless Imp ship since release. Bomber has never been "good" but it can do some stuff and they got some love last year at least... Not enough, but it'll do for a while.

The Aggressor, however, I think will be the second most under-performing Imp ship, just behind the Punisher.

9 hours ago, Stilgod said:

"Lol. Yea the 18 months of palp lists at the top of every tournament was what exactly?"

So I posted the top of the top tourney, which had 1/4 palp aces in the top 4, and no palp aces in the finals. I made no claim it wasn't a part of the meta, but you're flat-out wrong to say it was the top of every tourney.

Not sure how you figure being in the top 4 isn't at the top of the tournament... yes it didn't win, but top 4 is certainly extremely competitive.

RoV

10 hours ago, Chibi-Nya said:

Imperial has never really been a bad faction in the past. Palp Aces, Palp Defenders, Swarms, Phantoms, etc. A lot of the ships had their time in the sun! Even Vader before Inq was pretty solid.

Only the Punisher has been totally useless Imp ship since release. Bomber has never been "good" but it can do some stuff and they got some love last year at least... Not enough, but it'll do for a while.

The Aggressor, however, I think will be the second most under-performing Imp ship, just behind the Punisher.

Even though I read my EPT incorrectly, I love my TIE Bomber.

Tomax w/ Lightning Reflexes + boom boom stuff = fun

I ran the Punisher again over the weekend, Deathrain with Bomblet Generator and Unguided Rockets, it was still massively underwhemling, got taken out in turn 3 by long range shots from an IG-88 Aggressor with HLC. It still sucks, I can't see myself running it again.

That said I think the thing people often miss when it comes to Imperials is that they have some of the best support crew available to us, General Hux on a Decimator or Upsilon with a bunch of support (TIE Strikers, Soontir, etc) is a massive threat.

44 minutes ago, UberMunchkin said:

I ran the Punisher again over the weekend, Deathrain with Bomblet Generator and Unguided Rockets, it was still massively underwhemling

So heres a question: how did you use his ability?
A common misconception is you must drop it out the front to get the barrelroll. This is incorrect, as it does not say "If you do" it just says "When you drop a bomb" - i dropped random bombletts out the back purely for the roll SEVERAL times and it let him become immensely agile. Plus you can 4k if you barrelroll forward after a frontbomb too so you can really shut down the R1 area.
I was outmaneuvering a Fenn and Vader with Deathrain. The only game i had where he didnt do much he still soaked 2 rounds of attacks that would have normally butchered vader/sabaac in 1 shot. Currently i am 9-2 with him in that build.

Like i said before hes not autoinclude amazing OP insanity, but he isnt trash by any means.

Try not reading the forums or looking up results and actually try flying different things....

Things are in actuality way more balanced then these forms or results would indicate. Popularity of new stuff often shows as success but that's often just a combination of 1. Lots of people are trying the new shinny thing (more people playing it the more it wins). 2. Highly competitive players are testing out and practicing the new competitive lists. 3. When a list wins half you idiots run out and fly it without thinking up your own lists, this turns into more winning and more netlist warriors in a big feedback loop. 4. People have little to no practice against it.

For me the biggest hit in the new packs is intensity on proton rocket valen ruder. Ship is an absolute beast. Played him against new bomb lists twice now (won 1) and both times he was mvp... I dare you to shoot at him so he can boost into range one grab a focus of intensity and nail you with target lock focus proton rockets. Ptl was similar but upped his point cost and limited his dial.

Empire has lots of options right now just nothing new and shinny since the aggressor I was boaring straight out of the box. So with no new toys people are just not empiring as much. And the top players are trying the new stuff.

I expect to see more deathrain as well, have not tried him yet but what I have seen in play is very promising. Advanced sensor deathrain leaves bomblets everywhere and lightweight frames adds a ton to his durability.

16 hours ago, Vineheart01 said:

So heres a question: how did you use his ability?
A common misconception is you must drop it out the front to get the barrelroll. This is incorrect, as it does not say "If you do" it just says "When you drop a bomb" - i dropped random bombletts out the back purely for the roll SEVERAL times and it let him become immensely agile. Plus you can 4k if you barrelroll forward after a frontbomb too so you can really shut down the R1 area.
I was outmaneuvering a Fenn and Vader with Deathrain. The only game i had where he didnt do much he still soaked 2 rounds of attacks that would have normally butchered vader/sabaac in 1 shot. Currently i am 9-2 with him in that build.

Like i said before hes not autoinclude amazing OP insanity, but he isnt trash by any means.

That's how I read it as well, doesn't matter where you drop the bomb you get a Barrel Roll after.

My issue with it is that the underwhelming dial combined with the total lack of an ept slot and low agility make it both predictable and easy to hit, that makes it dead easy to kill.

I just wasn't impressed with it at all, every time I've run the Punisher it's been a waste of points. I think I'll just put it back in storage again, which is a pity because it looks really cool.