I know there are differences between Target lock and Focusing, but why substitute one instead the other is so good? There are certain builds which can make it shine: Kyle Katarn, General Hux, Dengar, Synced Turret... But it really worth the point and the EPT instead Veteran Instincts, Crack Shot or PTL?

For low PS ships, it can be hard to get the target lock on the intended targets, and with ordnance where you need Target Lock to fire, you can only fire on the guy you have locked. With the dead eye focus you can shoot at anyone in your arc.

Because it means you don't have to get in range to get a target lock, to shoot.

Particularly with range 2-3 ordnance, you either won't be able to get in range to TL for the closing engagement, or if you do, your opponent will be able to get close enough that you can't fire.

Deadeye means that you just take a focus token and wait for them to get in your arc...

For the longest time Deadeye was the EPT that you were more likely to use to prop up a wobbly table leg than in an actual game of X-Wing.

It's primary use is to allow you to fire missiles & torpedoes at whatever happens to be in front of you when you've got a low Pilot Skill, rather than having to worry about moving close enough to target lock something and hope they don't move out to where you can't shoot at them once they know you're trying to line up the missile shot.

The big thing that always stopped Deadeye working was the lack of a good platform for it - something that was cheap, had an EPT slot, multiple ordnance slots, and was tough enough to stand a good chance of getting mulitple ordnances fired.

Then they published the Scout, which had all those things, and realised that Deadeye was probably better brokenly bad than brokenly good, and that there probably isn't a line down which to follow where it's just right. I doubt we'll ever see a good deadeye ship again.

I'm not sure you have the right ability in mind for Deadeye, it just allows you to fire secondary weapons that otherwise require a target lock. It does not allow you to use a focus to reroll your dice.

This means it is great on low PS ordnance carriers that otherwise have little to no chance to get a TL and then still be at range or in position to fire. It also means that it has little use on anyone else.

It also means they arent tied to their target. If multiple ships use tl to fire ordance at the same they are commited to it, if the target dies early, stiff.

Deadeye allows you to fire at anything in arc

Echo what others have said..
But with the arrival of more missile upgrades that do not require you spend your target lock, I'm finding Deadeye less appealing. I would rather have a target lock on 4+ dice than a focus token.

2 minutes ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:

Echo what others have said..
But with the arrival of more missile upgrades that do not require you spend your target lock, I'm finding Deadeye less appealing. I would rather have a target lock on 4+ dice than a focus token.

True. But I'd rather be able to shoot those dice, than not.

6 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

True. But I'd rather be able to shoot those dice, than not.

Agreed. Luckily, the current PS war makes this decision easier.

32 minutes ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:

Echo what others have said..
But with the arrival of more missile upgrades that do not require you spend your target lock, I'm finding Deadeye less appealing. I would rather have a target lock on 4+ dice than a focus token.

For something like Harpoon missiles if you are rolling 4 dice with guidance chips and a focus from deadeye it's the same average expected damage as firing them with a TL and guidance chips, and for a low PS ship it's the difference between firing at all and not firing. Either way, you have a roughly 74% chance of 4 hits according to that X-Wing probability calculator. In that case, if you're low PS, better to take the option that gives you a much higher chance of being able to use the missile at all. If you're high enough PS to nearly always get a target lock on the target you want to shoot, the EPT slot can be used to do something else. Such as having crack shot to really make the missile stick, or VI to ensure you move last as in imperial alpha strikes.

It was good in ONE ship - the Jumpbaster.
In the infamous 3 Torpedo Scouts.

Nowdays, again, its borderline useless. The plataforms that it was supposed to shine (Low PS Ordnance Jousters) don´´'t have the luxury.
Can´t compare with the staples VI, PtL, Crackshot, etc.

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

The big thing that always stopped Deadeye working was the lack of a good platform for it - something that was cheap, had an EPT slot, multiple ordnance slots, and was tough enough to stand a good chance of getting mulitple ordnances fired.

Then they published the Scout, which had all those things, and realised that Deadeye was probably better brokenly bad than brokenly good, and that there probably isn't a line down which to follow where it's just right. I doubt we'll ever see a good deadeye ship again.

That's part of the story - the rest is that deadeye wasn't enough on its own to make ordnance shots worth it. Early torps and missiles (remember deadeye has been around since wave 1) were very inefficient for their cost. Part of what made deadeye ordnance carriers viable was also extra munitions and guidance chips, which greatly improved the cost efficiency of munitions. Throw those in with a powerful platform like the jumpmaster, (which also threw in additional dice mods from astromechs) and you had a powerful ship.

Question: At what PS do you go for VI instead of DeadEye?

Specifically I'm wondering for Sol Sixxa with Harpoons and Extra Munitions/Guidance Chips.

(Sorry for the rez, but I thought that better than starting a new thread.)

Gunboats... they kill too fast and need to be able to switch targets... and up yours Expert Handling

What makes it exceptional good in this meta is the use against black one and counter measures.

While even your high ps pilots missiles get countered by counter measures, not to talk of long range scanners, deadeye is unimpressed and still can fire.

1 hour ago, Boba Rick said:

Question: At what PS do you go for VI instead of DeadEye?

Specifically I'm wondering for Sol Sixxa with Harpoons and Extra Munitions/Guidance Chips.

(Sorry for the rez, but I thought that better than starting a new thread.)

Depends on the meta / your meta, but probably when VI gets you to PS9 or higher when VI gets you other things at that point too, like the ability to dodge Miranda bombs at PS9 or Nym bombs at PS10 (if initiative bid, or 11 if not). If the ship you put VI on doesn't have a reposition maneuver than its usefulness is more inherent in shooting first.

6 (and maybe 7) are kinda the tough ones. At 5, I think it's generally a clear Deadeye. At 8, it's a clear VI. I feel like 7 is VI like 66% of the time, while 6 might be VI like 33% of the time.

Sol Sixxa is a hard one. Do you also have bombs? Have an Autoblaster Turret? That is, other things which get better with higher PS? If so, I think it's VI. If not, maybe just Deadeye.

On 10/25/2017 at 4:14 PM, Rinzler in a Tie said:

Echo what others have said..
But with the arrival of more missile upgrades that do not require you spend your target lock, I'm finding Deadeye less appealing. I would rather have a target lock on 4+ dice than a focus token.

It is not so much about the question if you could ceep your TL or use it for rerolls. Its about the question of being allowed toactually use that missile at all.

From a large tournament point of view, it's an excellent card for three reasons, I believe:

1. It's a tie-breaker. Munitions lists don't like going up against each other, unless you're running deadeye, which makes set-up and focus fire much more reliable.
2. It's a highly effective use of the elite slot, especially on ships with numerous other ways to modify their dice on the cheap (guidance chips being chief among them), and also don't care about the PS bit.
3. It's drastically less exhausting to play a deadeye munitions list than one without it. In smaller (3-4 round) tournaments you've got stamina, but any more than that and your play will deteriorate after second-guessing yourself for 6+ hours. At that point, you're wide awake after playing a fairly straightforward game all day, facing off against exhausted opponents.

These aspects become more and more pronounced as you go up in tournament size, as any small edge can be the difference in later games.

On 10/25/2017 at 6:25 AM, Stay On The Leader said:

For the longest time Deadeye was the EPT that you were more likely to use to prop up a wobbly table leg than in an actual game of X-Wing.

It's primary use is to allow you to fire missiles & torpedoes at whatever happens to be in front of you when you've got a low Pilot Skill, rather than having to worry about moving close enough to target lock something and hope they don't move out to where you can't shoot at them once they know you're trying to line up the missile shot.

I remember those days.....

8 hours ago, Boba Rick said:

Question: At what PS do you go for VI instead of DeadEye?

Specifically I'm wondering for Sol Sixxa with Harpoons and Extra Munitions/Guidance Chips.

(Sorry for the rez, but I thought that better than starting a new thread.)

In that instance I would probably LRS. Sol is doing a lot more than just flinging missiles and VI helps him do that while Deadeye does not.

On ‎25‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 2:17 PM, thespaceinvader said:

Because it means you don't have to get in range to get a target lock, to shoot.

Particularly with range 2-3 ordnance, you either won't be able to get in range to TL for the closing engagement, or if you do, your opponent will be able to get close enough that you can't fire.

This.

Imagine an example:

• You have a Gamma Squadron Veteran (PS5) with missiles, I have Poe Dameron (PS9).
• You want to shoot me with said missiles. I don't want you to.
• Assume we start out out of range of one another and you move first....
  • If you are still out of range, you can't lock on to me. I then move into range, lock onto you, and shoot you.
  • If you are in range, you lock onto me. I then move (and maybe boost). This puts me at range 1, where you can't use your missiles, and shoot you.
• Either way, sucks to be you.

Deadeye is one way of getting around this. The other two major ones are Long Range Scanners (you can lock on at long range at a cost of not being able to lock on at short range) and XX-23 S-Thread Tracers (which gives up one ship's attack to provide target locks for everyone else),

• Because you can 'just take a focus token' rather than focusing 'at someone in particular', it doesn't matter if I'm in range or not in your action step.
• If you have 3 mates, all with missiles, it also means that if the first 3 missile shots destroy your original target, you can change targets (which you couldn't with a target lock).
• If you have a focus token, you can always chose to spend it defensively and forgo firing your missiles. If you roll 2-3 focus results on green dice, and are going to take multiple criticals or die, you might as well spend the focus and still be alive to threaten your opponent next turn
• Countermeasures and Black One (especially!) are good at destroying your target locks. But a focus token is unaffected (admittedly instead things like hotshot co-pilot become a problem).

Deadeye is better than the alternatives because

• The advantage of generic ordnance carriers is numbers. Using thread tracers means someone isn't firing an 'attack missile', and therefore whilst you still have the same number of warm bodies, you don't have any advantage in firepower.
• Long Range Scanners gives you problems re-acquiring the lock in case of a second shot, and give your target an extra turn or more to shed the target lock with Black One, and unlike Deadeye it prevents you equipping Guidance Chips.

11 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

6 (and maybe 7) are kinda the tough ones. At 5, I think it's generally a clear Deadeye. At 8, it's a clear VI. I feel like 7 is VI like 66% of the time, while 6 might be VI like 33% of the time.

Sol Sixxa is a hard one. Do you also have bombs? Have an Autoblaster Turret? That is, other things which get better with higher PS? If so, I think it's VI. If not, maybe just Deadeye.

Bomblet Generator, no turret.

***IF*** Miranda had an EPT, would she take Deadeye?