1 hour ago, E Chu Ta said:

Best =/= favorite. These are favorites.

That said, Attanni Mindlink, because Dengar and Manaroo are in loo0oove.

PTL, Expertise, and VI are all incredible.

Shout out to A Score to Settle, because it can make my opponent shoot who I want them to shoot.

I have had some nice success running Inaldra with Light Title scyk and Score to Settle. A potentially painful 13% of your scum squad that is shooting late at hopefully stripped token 2 agility or less targeted Score ace, it's just BEAUTIFUL. Light Scyk don't care 'bout no Debt to Pay.

Snap Shot, combined with Juke or Crack Shot.

2 hours ago, Boom Owl said:

That,

There is one thing about straight up attribute increased. Take something like Shield Upgrade. A total of 4 points. Now taking the TIE F/O or T-70 they get a shield upgrade (and some more) for less than 4 points. So Shield Upgrade doesn't have much surplus value.

Now take a look at VI with the pilot skill upgrade. From Rookie to Red Squadron which is a VI is 2 points so twice as much as VI (granted pilot skill 4 is not that good) However VI Is priced more along the lines of Academy to Obsidian pilot which is only 1 point for 2 plus pilot skill. So VI has a lot of surplus value to it.

I think it's somewhere between VI and Expertise.

VI clearly needs some limitation to it (PS cap and/or Unique).

Expertise is just crazy good on fat PTW (should be restricted to in arc shots).

PtL and Advanced Sensors are just a little bit under those two, but close contenders imo.

34 minutes ago, Giledhil said:

I think it's somewhere between VI and Expertise.

VI clearly needs some limitation to it (PS cap and/or Unique).

Expertise is just crazy good on fat PTW (should be restricted to in arc shots).

PtL and Advanced Sensors are just a little bit under those two, but close contenders imo.

PTW?

7 minutes ago, Pooleman said:

PTW?

Primary Turret Weapon.
Maybe I spelled it in the wrong order? PWT? TPW? All the same ^^

Just now, Giledhil said:

Primary Turret Weapon.
Maybe I spelled it the wrong way? PWT? TPW? All the same ^^

Lol. There are too many acronyms in my life.

10 minutes ago, Giledhil said:

Primary Turret Weapon.
Maybe I spelled it in the wrong order? PWT? TPW? All the same ^^

Most commonly PWT.

I think the best designed EPT is Intensity. The trade of is good, but takes some skills to use. It reminds me of Rey crew, in that it’s good, but doesn’t actually increase the amount of actions.

I think the most universally competitive EPT is Crack shot. It’s seen play on everything from TIE fighters to Bossk.

Depends on the ship, but Lone Wolf, it is one of the few cards that helps both offensively and defensively.

VI is also right up there.

Snap Shot is effective for low PS pilots with EPT. (+Juke for A-Wings!)

Push the Limit
Expertise

Veteran Instincts, Crackshot, Push the Limit, and Juke. In terms of how often I end up taking them, roughly in that order, too.

On 6.11.2017 at 11:29 PM, thespaceinvader said:

Depends on the ship. There is no one best EPT.

Agreed, but there are some EPTs that just work extremely well with a variety of ships, regardless of faction, pilot ability, other upgrade slots or in some cases even combat role.

That is why so many threads, including this one, have a focus on EPTs such as VI or PtL. From this point of view, these are the "best" EPTs.

That so many favourites do not necessarily align with these picks and can be made to work even in competitive environments truly speaks to the quality of the design space we're in.

Lone Wolf all the way

Snap shot and Snap shot.

I've got a lot of love for Wired, but it's a tricky one to use. Every time you attack, it's half a focus token, every time you defend it's about a third of a focus token.

For it to really shine, I think it needs at least two out of three things [1] a source of stress other than red moves. If you're just giving up your action to take a red move, that's not super strong. [2] something to do with your actions other than take a focus or target lock (with Wired, your focus tokens and TL rerolls are all at half-value). I suppose it's worth clarifying that if you're using a focus token or target lock for something other than their standard method of modifying dice (R5-P9, R4-B11, ordnance, Norra or Shara, Weapons Guidance, etc), that probably counts. [3] making multiple attacks.

PTL/Wired A-Wings are up there. They've got Boosts and Evades and stress from something other than red moves. I saw a really cool R3-A2/Wired/Primed Thrusters T-70 build the other day from @JudgeDeath . I've toyed around with Dengar with Wired, Gonk, and Experimental Interface (rerolls on multiple attacks, plus regen), but it just wasn't that strong. Even when you had Unhinged, the efficiency wasn't high enough to really matter, the cost wasn't that cheap, and you were locked into Greens, not just expressing a mild preference for them like with K4/Expertise.

//

I think there are two categories for the best Elite upgrade. Those which are pure efficiency, and those which... I can't come up with a good term for it, but they "just make lists better."

The best efficiency Elite upgrade used to be pre-nerf Attanni Mindlink , but 4.4.0 changed that. The sheer value of it was so high. In common lists, you'd have 2 or 3 (Hi Manaroo!) focus tokens for 3 points, and while you had to coordinate your red moves carefully, with planning you could have focus after red moves. It was hard to beat that. Post-nerf, it's OK in niche builds, probably with Guri or Palob. Now, I'd say the generally "best" is Predator . It's not quite as strong as a TL, but it always works. I think that counts for a lot. Expertise, Push the Limit, Intensity, Lone Wolf, and more are great, but they also all have potentially large drawbacks. Predator is the basic hot fudge sundae on single-flavor ice cream without bits in it. It's the plain cheese pizza. Predator is a man for all seasons. Others? Well, there are always ships which can leverage specific ones very well, and combo-wing is an important part of the game, but there are also ships where the wrong upgrade is utter trash.

I'll give the #2 slot in efficiency to Crack Shot , which has an immediacy and a cheapness which puts it in a class of it's own, both in game-terms and in thematic feel. I love that the Elite you discard is one of the best for easily discarded TIE fighters.

For the less straightforward Elites, it's 100% Veteran Instincts . It's right to say that there are ships which can't use it, but it has the potential to be such a skewing factor in a game, while never making any dice roll at all better, or giving extra movement actions, or anything like that. Deadeye kind of falls into this camp, where it makes things in the game "work better" without giving you "more." There are clearly some ships where Deadeye is better than VI. It was so strong Contracted Scouts that they had to nerf it (part of that was Overclocked R4, which is one of the most busted powerful cards in the game, or it would be if there were more ships which could get full use out of it). Decoy isn't top tier, but it's one of the coolest.

I'll say that again. Overclocked R4 is bonkers and in need of a preemptive nerf. It was busted in pre-nerf Deadeye U-Boats. It was busted in pre-nerf Dengaroo. It was busted in pre-nerf Inaldra-ttanni. It can easily become busted again with a remotely reasonable platform. Put some sort of a stress cap on it, like with Zuckuss, Primed Thrusters, or Yorr. There gotta be a limit to how strong a 1 point upgrade can to be.

My favorite 5 :

Predator : Reroll even if you bump/stress/miss action is a good thing.

Crackshot : Deal the extra damage you need, crackswarm is dangerous for this

Wired : When stesshog was a thing on my area, this card help me a lot, reroll is always a good thing and work both for attack and defense !

Push the limits : For fast chassis only, double (or triple) actions can save your ace or give a better position.

Veteran Instincts : Mostly for PS7 pilots to fight against native PS9.

Honorable mention :

Adaptability : For 0 pt you increase your PS, if you have no pts left and a empty Ept, this is the card you need.

Deadeye : Now middle PS ordonnace carrier can shoot without trouble. My favorite pilot for this is the Gamma Squadron Veteran.

Snapshot : Good with crackshort or Juke, A-Wing love this.

On 7.11.2017 at 1:12 AM, Punning Pundit said:

As far as my _favorite_ EPTs?

Push the Limit . I like the feeling of flying a super fragile ship that's dependent on repositioning to stay alive.

Rage . I love this card. I love that someone is getting so worked up over the fact that their enemies are alive that it lends them focus and lets them shot better. The only downside is that it doesn't work _at all_ with Darth Vader.

Intimidation . This is the card Arvel was born to equip.

Wingman . It's designed for Rebel synergy lists. I know it doesn't actually do any good. But this is still a favorite.

Outmaneuver . Honestly? I wish the A-Wing were built around this concept. It's such a great idea.

You may notice that none of these are the best EPTs. Many of them aren't actually very good. And yet...

The EPTs are good, they are just priced badly. Rage for Zero points for example would see more play. Arvel with an native EPT would see Intimidation more often in play and Arvel would see more play too. Outmaneuver would be indeed a great game mechanic for all those 2 dice primary ships. It just stupidly expensive and would be great as basic game mechanic like range 3 or obstructed extra dice are.

On 11/6/2017 at 5:28 PM, Marinealver said:

Now take a look at VI with the pilot skill upgrade. From Rookie to Red Squadron which is a VI is 2 points so twice as much as VI (granted pilot skill 4 is not that good) However VI Is priced more along the lines of Academy to Obsidian pilot which is only 1 point for 2 plus pilot skill. So VI has a lot of surplus value to it.

You also have to factor in the opportunity cost of the EPT slot. I’d say that limits the value pretty noticeably.

I think VI WAS good for the game...for a while. Like in RAC/Fel lists, at least you had to pick between that and Predator, it was a balancing act...now, though, it’s just a bunch of bull. The aforementioned opportunity cost is a big deal; Nym doesn’t mind dedicating his EPT to increasing PS, but a lot of the best pilots in the galaxy do.

Personally, I’d call Crackshot the best EPT. If you told me I had one ship with an empty slot, and I didn’t know what the ship was or what the squad was, or even what the meta was, I would choose Crackshot. +1 Damage is never bad.

Best:

Veteran Instincts, Pre-Nerf Mindlink and Expertise. They don't depend of the dial (PTL), equipment (Deadeye) or pilot ability (Also PTL or Outmaneuver) to shine. (But VI depends of the Pilot Skill to TRULLY shine). Also, some people say that expertise is only for ships with 2 attacks in a round, but I still think that for its 4 points, it really worth the cost in ships like Firespray.

My Favs:

Expertise, Bodyguard, Post-Nerf Mindlink, Fearlesness (Can turn a Scyk with a "mangler" cannon into a beast in Distance 1).

According to meta-wing, it is actually Draw their Fire right before Selflessness and Attanni Mindlink , if you go by average percentile.

VI is the most frequently used which pulls down the percentile, but it has the highest "magic" score, followed by Selflessness and Attanni Mindlink.

So it looks like those belong to the best

Adrenaline Rush. Because that thing on a TIE striker allows some seriously silly moves.

The 'best' EPT really depends on which ship and pilot it's attached to. PTL is great, unless you don't have many green manoeuvres. VI is excellent, unless it's bumping you up to PS7 and all your opponents ships PS8+ (or PS4 or less). Expertise is obviously good, but also has it's obvious downsides. Those 3 seem to be the ones I see the most in other people's lists right now (along with Mindlink, but that's now bound to change).

Therefore, I think the best EPT has to be Predator . There isn't a ship in the game that won't be improved by having it equipped, and it is never shut down by any special conditions. Just as long as you have something to shoot at, there will always be the potential chance you will need it. However, it won't always be the most optimal choice for every ship and pilot, as some just work better with Expertise or PTL and use target locks for the re-roll. Crack Shot has a similar utility to Predator, but is obviously limited by it's one use only clause (unless your name is Tomax Bren).

One other EPT I think is worthy of mention is Adaptability . Whilst the bonus is not as much as VI, it offers more in the way of fine tuning your pilot skill values so you can coordinate your whole fleet better, e.g. by having multiple pilots operating at the same pilot skill. This is important when things get messy and you need to start thinking carefully what order your ships should move in, or when ships rely on other ships to give them bonus actions and tokens.

Swarm Leader!!! Because a good offense is the best defense and its epic on Vader, Xizor, Omega Ace and anyone who is already throwing four dice like Pure Sabaac, Kylo Shuttle, Norra or a really ballsy Whisper or Wedge.

13 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

I've got a lot of love for Wired, but it's a tricky one to use. Every time you attack, it's half a focus token, every time you defend it's about a third of a focus token.

This.

Kylo with Hux, Wired, Recon, Weapons Guidance is crazy if you hold on to that stress. But with such a red dial, the Upsilon doesn't need the stress from Hux all that much...

Oportunist