I want to preface this by saying that A-wings don't cut it at the moment.
There has been a short window that I personally missed, between Wave 11 and G4H/FAQ, where many 1-agility ships were being flown. But that window was not as good after all because of all the bombs. An even shorter window might be open right now, before we collectively rediscover thanks to Duncan Howard that Palpaces and high-agility ships are working again, but where bombs are already less prevalent.

The point I want to make here: A-wings are not competitively viable at the moment. Thus, whenever you actually take an A-wing, you are already making a non-optimal decision and the build does not matter as much as the fact that you just chose an A-wing.

However, if you do love them as much as many of us do, and if Jake Farrell is the pilot of your dreams, then there is one clear choice for his two EPT slots:
Veteran Instincts and Push the Limit.

Why not Intensity? It has such a nice synergy with his pilot ability, right? No. Let's look at this for all the possible cases and all the reasons why one or the other is better.

1) Push the Limit

• Maximal amount of actions over two turns: 3+3
  • Focus + pilot ability (boost/roll) + evade/TL/boost
    • Obligatory: 1 focus, 1 reposition
    • free choice: 1 action
• Cost: 3 points
• Drawback: locks you into green maneuvers

2) Intensity

• Maximal amount of actions over two turns: 3+3 or 4+2
  • Focus + pilot ability (boost/roll) + focus (intensity) + pilot ability (roll/boost)
    • Obligatory: 2 focus, 2 reposition
    • free choice: 0 actions
• Cost: 2 points
• Drawback: requires you to reposition or to lose actions

Intensity wins on cost, as it is a point cheaper. It also wins by keeping your dial open. But it clearly loses in action economy.

Jake is an arc-dodger. That means he tries to dodge arces by choosing the correct maneuver, repositioning and then surviving on his token stack. There are two points to be made here:

1. Ideally he gets focus+evade+boost+barrel roll. Almost what Intensity delivers, for one turn, as you can get focus+focus+boost+roll. After that one turn you are action starved because you're limited to focus+boost/roll, hence the notation of "4+2".
2. You don't want to be forced to take repositions. Sometimes your maneuver is already perfect. Sometimes you can't roll or boost because of obstacles or other ships, or because doing so would bring you into range 2 or into another arc. That means choice is more important than being forced into those 2 repositioning actions per turn!

Action Economy: let's look at all possibilities

Jake with PTL:

• 1. Focus, 2. roll, 3. evade/TL/boost + stress
  • allows a preference for defense, offense, or arc dodging however you need it. Locks you into a green maneuver
  • 1 reposition obligatory
• 1. Focus, 2. boost/roll
  • keeps your dial open
• 1. Focus, 2. evade/TL + stress
  • allows a preference for defense or offense
  • keeps you in place if you want to stay there

Jake with Intensity:

• 1. Focus, 2. roll/boost, 3. Focus, 4. roll/boost, 5. -1 Focus to recharge intensity
  • gives you 2 repositions (1 obligatory), and 1 focus to use
• 1. Focus, 2. roll/boost, 3. Focus, 4. roll/boost
  • gives you 2 repositions (1 obligatory) and 2 focus to use
  • locks you into focus+boost/roll in the following turns
• 1. Focus, 2. roll/boost, 3. Evade, 4. -1 Focus/Evade to recharge intensity
  • 1 reposition (1 obligatory), 1 focus
• 1. Focus, 2. roll/boost, 3. Evade
  • gives you two tokens to use, but that will lock you into 2 actions
  • forces you to reposition (1 obligatory)
• 1. Focus, 2. boost/roll
  • locks you into two actions for much of the game because you will very likely spend your focus

To summarize:

Intensity can give you a very short boost in one turn which jeopardizes the rest of his game - it forces Jake to disengage and run away to recharge Intensity when he wants to stick close and hammer those range 1 shots in.

Push the Limit can not give you this burst of actions, but provides actions more reliably over the whole game - while locking you into your dial. But that was not a problem for Soontir, so why should it be one for Jake? PTL Jake also lets you put a focus on offense, defense or arc dodging however you need it. Most importantly, it allows you the choice of one or the other!

I've long since felt that of the three best EPTs for Jake (VI, PTL, Intensity), you lose out too much by taking Intensity over one of the other two. You either lose out on PS9, or being able to get focus/TL in the same round, and the latter is just so vital.

Not to mention the possibility of losing one of your EPTs when focus fired.

Yeah agreed. IMO Intensity is pretty much binder fodder, unless you're Poe.

3 minutes ago, CRCL said:

Yeah agreed. IMO Intensity is pretty much binder fodder, unless you're Poe.

Guri and Vader can both make use of it, but the sad fact is that Vader's pretty much glued to VI at this point.

Agreed. If you fly both it can be pretty cool, but PS7 is garbage right now. VI PTL is the best Jake.

To me, Jake's pilot ability and Intensity are basically the same thing. (Not LITERALLY). it's action economy, and Intensity makes Jakes natural talent too complicated. You have to be thinking ahead to ensure Intensity is back in play on the next or next again turn.

Anyway, well analyzed.

I think you're underestimating the value of an arc dodger having it's dial open. Double reposition with two focus stacked is pretty good. I think ptl can certainly be better depending on your strategy but intensity has its uses.

28 minutes ago, Ohnoeszz said:

I think you're underestimating the value of an arc dodger having it's dial open. Double reposition with two focus stacked is pretty good. I think ptl can certainly be better depending on your strategy but intensity has its uses.

That's where I disagree. Not because that wouldn't be good, but because that's not what you get.

You get mandatory repositioning with one focus to use. Of course you will be able to use the second one in a following attack, but then you are down to 1 focus + 1 reposition.
That's exactly the same as a PTL Jake when he does not use PTL to keep the dial open if really necessary. The huge difference however is that PTL Jake can easily switch between these two. Intensity does not allow you to switch as easily.

PTL intensity would be by far the most interesting combo, if it wasn't for PS7 being basically garbage for a 4 hit 2 attack arc locked ship that needs to either use missiles or get range 1 or both to do meaningful damage.

3 hours ago, CRCL said:

Yeah agreed. IMO Intensity is pretty much binder fodder, unless you're Poe.

X/7 defenders kind of like it.

Intensity is not very good unless your name is Poe Dameron.

1 hour ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Intensity is not very good unless your name is Poe Dameron.

Pretty much, yes.

There are several builds that are incredibly fun, eg Snap or Vader. But that‘s not the same as good.

I disagree. I’ve been playing around with Intensity Jake a lot lately and he is a beast for 32 points (with Prockets). Primarily because of something you yourself said:

5 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

Jake is an arc-dodger. That means he tries to dodge arces by choosing the correct maneuver, repositioning and then surviving on his token stack

Have that dial open is HUGE. You claim at another point that being locked into green maneuvers never hurt Soontir, but that’s false- it was one of his greatest weaknesses. 90% of the time you could count on Soontir doing a 2 hard turn, and then block him. But with an open dial there are far more options available. Have an open dial > not being locked into repositioning.

Speaking of which, you claim that intesity Jake is basically forced to do double-repositioning in order to get his token stack, but that’s not true. You’re only ever forced to reposition once: Focus action / Jake BR or boost / Intensity evade (or focus- you don’t HAVE to use Jake’s ability when you get a focus token). Unless you are in a really tight furball or asteroid cluster, you can almost always do a barrel roll without it really hurting anything, especially if you planned ahead for the reposition by dialing in a maneuver that will leave you a little short of where you think you’ll want to be.

You also mentioned this:

5 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

Intensity can give you a very short boost in one turn which jeopardizes the rest of his game - it forces Jake to disengage and run away to recharge Intensity when he wants to stick close and hammer those range 1 shots in.

This is true IF you are required to spend both your tokens. In my experience so far (around a half-dozen games) that doesn’t actually happen very often. Part of that is the meta. 2/3 ship lists are still the vast majority of lists out there, and turrets are very prevalent. Your opponent can’t do much focus firing with only 2 ships, and auto-thrusters helps a ton in avoiding those out of arc Turret shots.

Even with only 1 token Jake is a tough nut to crack, and if your opponent is dedicating his whole list to take Jake out then that means he is ignoring the other ~70 points of your list, which you can be using to focus fire HIS ships. If I can trade Jake for say Miranda or Nym that’s a deal I’ll gladly take. No, usually your opponent doesn’t want to waste that much effort on a 2-attack die ship, so they leave Jake alone and go after something else. By the time they get back around to dealing with Jake it’s often 1v1, and Intensity Jake is not bad in that arena.

I admit that occasionally there are times where Jake has to spend both tokens and then disengage the next round to recharge inentsity, but in practice it doesn’t happen as often as you imply. Maybe around once per game in my experience.

Anyway, back to the PTL vs Intensity debate, there’s one other downside that PTL has in the current meta that you neglected to mention: it’s vulnerable to being stressed. And stress-dealers are common enough that you have to plan for them (asajj, for example, appeared in half of the top 8 lists in the recent Italian regionals- more than any other pilot). Against double stress tokens there sadly isn’t anything that any version of Jake can do, but with a single stress token (as, say, from Asajj), Intensity Jake can dial in a green maneuver and still get his normal suite of actions (usually 2 tokens and 1-2 repositions).

Lastly, I will say this- a point in your favor: Not having a target lock does suck sometimes, and Intensity Jake almost never wants to target lock.

But overall I still feel like Intensity Jake has a lot of merit. And there is one thing more than anything else that makes it so that I will keep flying Intensity Jake, at least for the time being: it’s as fun as h*** to fly!

9 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

I disagree. I’ve been playing around with Intensity Jake a lot lately and he is a beast for 32 points (with Prockets). Primarily because of something you yourself said:

Have that dial open is HUGE. You claim at another point that being locked into green maneuvers never hurt Soontir, but that’s false- it was one of his greatest weaknesses. 90% of the time you could count on Soontir doing a 2 hard turn, and then block him. But with an open dial there are far more options available. Have an open dial > not being locked into repositioning.

Speaking of which, you claim that intesity Jake is basically forced to do double-repositioning in order to get his token stack, but that’s not true. You’re only ever forced to reposition once: Focus action / Jake BR or boost / Intensity evade (or focus- you don’t HAVE to use Jake’s ability when you get a focus token). Unless you are in a really tight furball or asteroid cluster, you can almost always do a barrel roll without it really hurting anything, especially if you planned ahead for the reposition by dialing in a maneuver that will leave you a little short of where you think you’ll want to be.

You also mentioned this:

This is true IF you are required to spend both your tokens. In my experience so far (around a half-dozen games) that doesn’t actually happen very often. Part of that is the meta. 2/3 ship lists are still the vast majority of lists out there, and turrets are very prevalent. Your opponent can’t do much focus firing with only 2 ships, and auto-thrusters helps a ton in avoiding those out of arc Turret shots.

Even with only 1 token Jake is a tough nut to crack, and if your opponent is dedicating his whole list to take Jake out then that means he is ignoring the other ~70 points of your list, which you can be using to focus fire HIS ships. If I can trade Jake for say Miranda or Nym that’s a deal I’ll gladly take. No, usually your opponent doesn’t want to waste that much effort on a 2-attack die ship, so they leave Jake alone and go after something else. By the time they get back around to dealing with Jake it’s often 1v1, and Intensity Jake is not bad in that arena.

I admit that occasionally there are times where Jake has to spend both tokens and then disengage the next round to recharge inentsity, but in practice it doesn’t happen as often as you imply. Maybe around once per game in my experience.

Anyway, back to the PTL vs Intensity debate, there’s one other downside that PTL has in the current meta that you neglected to mention: it’s vulnerable to being stressed. And stress-dealers are common enough that you have to plan for them (asajj, for example, appeared in half of the top 8 lists in the recent Italian regionals- more than any other pilot). Against double stress tokens there sadly isn’t anything that any version of Jake can do, but with a single stress token (as, say, from Asajj), Intensity Jake can dial in a green maneuver and still get his normal suite of actions (usually 2 tokens and 1-2 repositions).

Lastly, I will say this- a point in your favor: Not having a target lock does suck sometimes, and Intensity Jake almost never wants to target lock.

But overall I still feel like Intensity Jake has a lot of merit. And there is one thing more than anything else that makes it so that I will keep flying Intensity Jake, at least for the time being: it’s as fun as h*** to fly!

Also, imo one other great reason which was kinda neglected by OP, for the price of PTL on Jake you can get VI and Intensity....seems pretty good to me.

Ofc you could always come back and say PTL+Vi 4 points vs. Intensity+VI 3 points? Does 1 point make much of a difference? Maybe. I guess the question you have to ask (and probably is a personal answer anyway), how many points are you willing to waste on your A-wing ace that we've all admitted doesn't really cut-it at the moment anyway?

My threshold is about 3 extra points.

Thanks for the thought out reply, I appreciate it.

It comes down to measuring that open dial versus one more or equal actions per turn. PTL Jake will give you more actions over the whole game, Intensity Jake will give you an open dial. And finally stress.

So let's look a bit more indepth at these three points, actions first. You write:

43 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

Speaking of which, you claim that intesity Jake is basically forced to do double-repositioning in order to get his token stack, but that’s not true. You’re only ever forced to reposition once: Focus action / Jake BR or boost / Intensity evade (or focus- you don’t HAVE to use Jake’s ability when you get a focus token). Unless you are in a really tight furball or asteroid cluster, you can almost always do a barrel roll without it really hurting anything, especially if you planned ahead for the reposition by dialing in a maneuver that will leave you a little short of where you think you’ll want to be.

But if you really only reposition once, then you paid 2 points and an EPT slot for nothing. You get exactly the same thing as basic Jake: a focus and one reposition. The second reposition is the only thing in favor of Intensity. So not using it means PTL is strictly better!
Because that second token you get is not really usable. But if you do then you are forced to disengage, as you write yourself, or again end up not using your 2pt EPT.

43 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

This is true IF you are required to spend both your tokens. In my experience so far (around a half-dozen games) that doesn’t actually happen very often. Part of that is the meta. 2/3 ship lists are still the vast majority of lists out there, and turrets are very prevalent. Your opponent can’t do much focus firing with only 2 ships, and auto-thrusters helps a ton in avoiding those out of arc Turret shots.

Yes there is not much focus firing, but pretty surely 2 shots. Which is enough to strip Jake of his tokens. So when this happens (when, not if, as you said every game once), then you threw away a 2pt EPT. Or you don't spend the token to keep the possibility of a second reposition for next turn.

Which you said you don't really use - but then I'm not sure why you want Intensity in the first place? This second reposition is the only thing Intensity has going for it as you can't really use the second token.

On the dial and keeping it open: This comes down to two more maneuvers: 1 turn and 3 turn. A good player can block them with the same maneuver - the 2 turn overlaps both. So taking the position of the 2turn means you block all three turns. Sure, sometimes the 2turn block is hit and one of the other two missed.
But that benefit is really much, much smaller compared to an additional action on many turns.

And lastly stress: The PTL can't use it unless he's sure he won't be stressed the following turn (e.g. to dodge an arc of assajj). Intensity can still use its benefit and is then locked into the green maneuvers as a PTL always is.
So in a way stress reverses exactly our points: now PTL is down to two actions per turn (as intensity is so often) while Intensity can potentially do 2 repositions. That means that stress turns PTL into Intensity, while Intensity is turned into a worse PTL.
You do have a point that now Intensity is clearly better. But to me it is also as clear that PTL is just better without stress.

Essentially it is a meta call: a meta with extreme stress capabilities favors Intensity, everything else favors PTL. And Assajj is getting more frequent. I completely* support these arguments for Intensity:
1. It's cheaper
2. It's less affected by stress meta

This gives you clear qualifiers as to when to use which card. Most of the time they just don't apply, which makes Intensity the worse choice for most metas and lists.

edit: *with the caveat that cheaper is a strange metric when flying Jake, as I said in the first post. If you really care about efficiency: don't fly Jake. If you care so much and want to fly Jake, then maybe Intensity is a reasonable choice

2 hours ago, Stay On The Leader said:

Intensity is not very good unless your name is Poe Dameron.

I like Intensity on x7 TIE Defenders since it lets you essentially convert the free evade from x7 (which often goes unused) into a barrel roll, which gives you a much more mobile and less predictable ship (albeit at mid-PS). You don't need the barrel roll every turn so you're generally able to avoid getting stuck in a situation where Intensity is exhausted and you really need the barrel roll.

45 minutes ago, Transmogrifier said:

I like Intensity on x7 TIE Defenders since it lets you essentially convert the free evade from x7 (which often goes unused) into a barrel roll, which gives you a much more mobile and less predictable ship (albeit at mid-PS). You don't need the barrel roll every turn so you're generally able to avoid getting stuck in a situation where Intensity is exhausted and you really need the barrel roll.

In a game of infinite points I'd agree. In a game with a points limit that's an incredibly limited way of investing 2% of your squad's value.

Intensity is pretty nice on Valen Rudor. Definitely a decent call on Vader as well, provided you aren't experiencing PS wars. It's only really functional on ships that have ways of reliably hanging onto a token, which is where it breaks down with Jake.

isnt there some really cheesy rule shenanigans involving the double-intensity?

You just resolved the card twice, technically, but with two separate triggers and a valid interrupt before completing the first trigger.

Meaning you "flip this card over" twice. Its already readied.

Or was that debunked in a non-"Thats totally not intended and you know it" kind of rebuttal?

2 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

Thanks for the thought out reply, I appreciate it.

You’re welcome! And right back at you!

2 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

But if you really only reposition once, then you paid 2 points and an EPT slot for nothing. You get exactly the same thing as basic Jake: a focus and one reposition. The second reposition is the only thing in favor of Intensity. So not using it means PTL is strictly better!
Because that second token you get is not really usable. But if you do then you are forced to disengage, as you write yourself, or again end up not using your 2pt EPT.

Oh the second token is definitely usable just have to make up for it next turn. Again, in my experience that doesn’t happen too often. It does happen occasionally, but with an open A-wing dial plus focus/boost Jake can usually get out of the mix pretty easily.

It probably makes a difference that I’ve been flying Jake with a TLT ghost that likes to kite, so Jake usually isn’t “abandoning” the rest of the squad when he has to disengage. I can usually disengage with my whole list for a turn or two and reset Intentsity and line up for another pass.

Your main point with Intensity seems to be that either you double reposition and waste a token or it’s a wasted points, but again I beg to differ. Intensity’s value doesn’t come (primarily) from the double reposition. It comes from the flexibility it offers. With Intensity + Jake you can get:

1. Focus + focus/evade + boost/barrel roll

or

2. Focus + focus + boost + barrel roll

And you can use those tokens/repositions however you want, typically at PS 9 (assuming you run him with VI, as I always do). You can use the repositions to get to where you want to be- hopefully dodging an arc or two in the process (no need to spend tokens if they can shoot at you) or positioning yourself so that turrets have to trigger your autothrusters to shoot at you. Usually that’s enough to avoid taking damage or losing tokens.

BUT when it’s not, you still have two tokens you can use if you need to (by the way, I pretty much always spend the tokens if I need to for defense. It’s worth being forced to disengage and recharge Intensity if it means you can avoid losing even 1 of your 4 hitpoints). That’s something PtL can’t do for you. If you double reposition and still end up needing more than 1 token for defense then you’re out of luck.

2 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

<everything else>

The rest of it seems to come down to play style and personal preference, with a bit of meta call mixed in.

I suppose I should also clarify that I don’t think that PTL Jake is bad (for an A-wing) or even that it’s worse than Intensity Jake, I’m just saying that Intensity Jake is just as viable as PtL. Honestly I’d put them at about the same level of effectiveness, so again at that point it comes down to play style and preference.

1 hour ago, Transmogrifier said:

I like Intensity on x7 TIE Defenders since it lets you essentially convert the free evade from x7 (which often goes unused) into a barrel roll, which gives you a much more mobile and less predictable ship (albeit at mid-PS). You don't need the barrel roll every turn so you're generally able to avoid getting stuck in a situation where Intensity is exhausted and you really need the barrel roll.

I’m trying to follow your logic here but I’m just not seeing it. Intensity doesn’t let you convert your evade token into a barrel roll- just the opposite. When you perform a barrel roll it gives you a free evade/focus token. Intensity doesn’t “combo” with x7 in any way, they operate completely independent of each other

So really the only benefit I see of Intensity x7 defenders is that it is one of the only ways in the game you can get double evade tokens. But on defenders you’re probably going to be better off with focus/evade than evade x2.

EDIT: as a complete aside, it would be fun to fly Turr Phennir with Intensity sometime.

Regular action: perform an evade.

First time you’re attacked: boost/BR and get an evade

Second time you’re attacked: boost/BR and get an evade.

I don’t think it would be good, but it would be amusing.

Think he meant the Intensity just gets recharged by the x7 title.

Move3+, get evade. Barrelroll, get evade or focus.
End of turn: if you still have either tokens, recharge intensity.

Personally, not sure where he gets the "evade is usually unused" from. Defenders are tanky mofos, i deliberately use them...well..to defend my other ships by driving right down your throat going "Hi im a juicier target hit me first!"

Which comes down to the main issue of intensity: its not a main strategy, its a failsafe you can fall back on if in a bind. Almost every ship ends up using it as a means to get a token after a reposition rather than "i really, REALLY need to reposition but i cant risk being tokenless right now" mentality.

Vader is the only ship i use it on and i refuse to take it off him. The sheer amount of times that reposition-still-get-an-evade has saved his can (or gotten a fully modded 5die cruise off) is ridiculous, and the innate doubleaction usually lets him recharge it easily.

2 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

Your main point with Intensity seems to be that either you double reposition and waste a token or it’s a wasted points, but again I beg to differ. Intensity’s value doesn’t come (primarily) from the double reposition. It comes from the flexibility it offers. With Intensity + Jake you can get:

1. Focus + focus/evade + boost/barrel roll

or

2. Focus + focus + boost + barrel roll

Pretty much, yes: either you double reposition (which you then have to) to get two tokens of which you can't always spend one, or you refrain from the second reposition and wasted the point.
The first one can also be gotten by PTL, only with even more flexibility and where you can actually spend both tokens.
The second one is the main benefit, the truly outstanding piece of Jake+Intensity.

Both have the drawback of an exhausted Intensity, which then looks like this:

1. Focus + focus/evade + boost/barrel roll

or

2. Focus + focus + boost + barrel roll

You say it is not much of a problem as Jake can get away relatively easily and is fast back in (which I agree with), and that you rather lose a turn of shots than a hitpoint/ship (which I also agree with).

7 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

Oh the second token is definitely usable just have to make up for it next turn. Again, in my experience that doesn’t happen too often. It does happen occasionally, but with an open A-wing dial plus focus/boost Jake can usually get out of the mix pretty easily.

7 minutes ago, Herowannabe said:

BUT when it’s not, you still have two tokens you can use if you need to (by the way, I pretty much always spend the tokens if I need to for defense. It’s worth being forced to disengage and recharge Intensity if it means you can avoid losing even 1 of your 4 hitpoints). That’s something PtL can’t do for you. If you double reposition and still end up needing more than 1 token for defense then you’re out of luck.

but here we can agree to disagree.

My reply/point is as I mentioned before that I value the constant 3 actions of PTL way more than the occasional 4 actions with following limit of 2 actions. The overall is the same if you can immediately recharge Intensity the next turn. Otherwise Intensity will be strictly behind in actions - but with the benefit of a short boost in a situation where it might be necessary. The downsides of stress, closed dial and 1pt higher cost are lower to me than paying in actions, because I can better control stress, dial and list building. I can't just get an additional action, but I can control the other three to some degree. And I can have a build with PTL where I don't have to get away and back in, and where I don't have to lose a turn of shots.

I'm just here to say I agree - never understood why people thought intensity was good on Jake if you could afford PTL.

44 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

Think he meant the Intensity just gets recharged by the x7 title.

Move3+, get evade. Barrelroll, get evade or focus.
End of turn: if you still have either tokens, recharge intensity.

Personally, not sure where he gets the "evade is usually unused" from. Defenders are tanky mofos, i deliberately use them...well..to defend my other ships by driving right down your throat going "Hi im a juicier target hit me first!"

Yeah, let me explain better. Let's assume we're talking about Col Vessery with x7 and Intensity

x7 allows you to generate an evade token each time you perform a 3+ speed maneuver. You then have an option on how to spend your action: focus, target lock or barrel roll. Target Lock is generally redundant for Vessery so you're usually deciding between focus and barrel roll and are going to chose focus most of the time unless your barrel roll is especially good. If you didn't have Intensity, you'd lose out on your focus when you barrel roll, and lose offense and defensive in the process, so you only would want to barrel roll in a fairly narrow set of circumstances. This makes you more predictable and less flexible.

With Intensity, you get your x7 evade, barrel roll, trigger Intensity to get a focus. So you have the ability to reposition while maintaining full offensive and defensive mods. Unless you are still being focus fired, you're generally going to have either an evade or focus token left unspent at the end of the round (barrel rolling out of arc generally reduces your need to spend the evade). If you do need all of your tokens, fine, you'll have extras eventually and usually before you need to barrel roll again.

Long story short: Intensity lets you essentially exchange evade + barrel roll (a bad action combination) for barrel roll + focus (a good action combination), with little risk (you still have the free evade just in case you need it).

3 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

My reply/point is as I mentioned before that I value the constant 3 actions of PTL way more than the occasional 4 actions with following limit of 2 actions. The overall is the same if you can immediately recharge Intensity the next turn. Otherwise Intensity will be strictly behind in actions - but with the benefit of a short boost in a situation where it might be necessary. The downsides of stress, closed dial and 1pt higher cost are lower to me than paying in actions, because I can better control stress, dial and list building. I can't just get an additional action, but I can control the other three to some degree. And I can have a build with PTL where I don't have to get away and back in, and where I don't have to lose a turn of shots.

Yep, basically agree to disagree. Like I said it comes down to play style and preference. You say that Intensity Jake gives you the occasional 4-action turn with 2-action turns the rest of the time, and that’s probably true with your particular play style. My experience has been that Intensity Jake gets 4-action turns with the occasional 2-action turn.

So for you, yeah, PtL is a much better choice. For me, I’ll keep using Intensity (NOTE: I am absolutely NOT implying that my playstyle is better than yours or anyone else’s, just different. I tend to be pretty cautious with my A-Wings, using them as a more general nuisance than heavy hitters and keeping them alive as long as possible. I get the impression that you like to get in close with Jake and press the attack, dishing out fully-modded Range 1 attacks turn after turn- a perfectly legitimate strategy).

Also... did we just have a disagreement on the internet while remaining perfectly civil? That can’t be right... something is wrong here. Quick! Someone call someone else a dum-dum head for having a different viewpoint!