the fact that the Sheathe is a small base ship with a rear-facing auxilary arc, has across the board useful pilot abilities, and has dirt cheap pricing, all conspire to make the ARC obsolete apart from Norra (Miranda makes Norra obsolete). This is a pity because the Auzzie and the Sheathe are hideously malformed compared to the glorious beauty that is the ARC-170

honestly, the ARC could have been released as a 3-dice primary and it wouldn't even approach OP status, which is apparently something FFG learned for when designing the Auzzie (and giving it reinforce atop of it )

but since statline changes are going to be next to impossible, I feel it'd be more reasonable to ask that the ARC's incredibly situational and not terrible useful pilot abilities be buffed into relevance.

In all honesty, I don't think even the buffed abilities will have anyone picking an ARC over Low or Fenn Rau but at least it'll give them something over these otherwise far superior and insta-pick ships.

Note, I wouldn't advocate changing Norra as much as I would changing Miranda.

Actually, I really like Shara's current ability - if you remove the range restriction.

Put Bohdi Rook and her and it would be fantastic.

I've had decent runs with both Braylen and Thane, and took Norra in the UK System Open Hyperspace Qualifier to win more games than I lost. (Although admittedly I did pair her with Miranda and AP-5...) Agreed that Shara could use a bit of a buff though - as she currently stands you have to list build around her quite hard to get much use from her.

the ARC isn't a craptastic ship (poor punisher...and B-wing), but being able to win with them doesn't mean that the Auzzie and Sheathe aren't strictly better options

and honestly I have no idea why FFG felt the need to RNG poor braylen specifically. He's a ps 3 + 1 agility ship, who cares if he could be a guaranteed Defender?

If the ARCs were a bit more self sufficient, it'd at least give them something over Lowhrick (though I'd argue his reinforce still puts him above ARCs even as the last man standing)

I think Norra's fine where she is, though

I hate facing Nora. She’s much better than people realize.

Braylen was very good before Ezra came out. Thane has always been below average. Shara has some decent fun builds with her. I think they’re in a much better place than some other ships.

The Sheath is a blatantly under-costed platform... which makes it stupidly easy to slot it's incredible power into almost any rebel list.

For 25 points you can get a Fenn Rau with hot cop and VI

or you can get:

- A naked Jan Ors

- a snap juke autothruster A-Wing generic

- a naked Braylen

- an advanced sensors generic B-Wing

- a flight assist blue squadron T-70

- naked Biggs

all of which are worse choices than a VI Fenn/Hot Cop.

Yet I still take Jan...

Norra is stupid good tho, and has a variety of builds that can fit a few different play styles. I think she is a pretty underrated ship right now.

ALWAYS focus fire Norra down right away.

I think if she's built right she can beat any ship one-on-one.

Rage norra with finn crew is fun! They see a red 2 and joust it. Then you roll 6 red die and watch them get sad. And the inspiring recruit on the support ship lets your do it again soon! I took this to omaha regionals and had a blast.

17 minutes ago, Tbetts94 said:

I hate facing Nora. She’s much better than people realize.

Braylen was very good before Ezra came out. Thane has always been below average. Shara has some decent fun builds with her. I think they’re in a much better place than some other ships.

I miss my r3-a2 gunner Braylen (even though that ability was stupidly frustrating at times and REALLY doesn't need to be tethered to a die roll)

Thane I actually enjoyed as an m9-g8 caddie, and the only time I'd ever use Weapon's Engineer. It's fun to go bouncing locks around giving yourself fully modified attacks while supporting a friendly and debuffing enemies (TL opponent and a friendly ship, get focus via ability, spend TL on attack; repeat). He'd be a lot easier to include, however, if his ability were more self-sufficient.

Now Shara I don't understand as "fun. Her ability is super gimmicky, and for the cost I'm sure you'd just be better off with Targeting Synchronizer on a T-70. FFG really dropped the ball on her ability, imo, and she really needs to be able to support herself by buffing her own attacks in the same way that Rau can neuter attacks targeting him.

Idk, much as I love the non-Norra ARCs they could really stand to be more competitive and, more importantly, enjoyable just by changing their pilot abilities.

22 minutes ago, sirjorj said:

Rage norra with finn crew is fun! They see a red 2 and joust it. Then you roll 6 red die and watch them get sad. And the inspiring recruit on the support ship lets your do it again soon! I took this to omaha regionals and had a blast.

At a regional, people saw Norra, and was like "2 dice primary, time to kill!"? A raging Norra with Finn? God I want to go to this regional next year.

Would've been nice to have a generic PS1-2 ARC at 23 points.

It would've made the U-Wing obsolete though.

7 minutes ago, SpikeSpiegel said:

Would've been nice to have a generic PS1-2 ARC at 23 points.

It would've made the U-Wing obsolete though.

I mean...


would make them both obsolete

49 minutes ago, Wiredin said:

Norra is stupid good tho, and has a variety of builds that can fit a few different play styles. I think she is a pretty underrated ship right now.

Norra's my favorite pilot. In a recent game, she took out Palp's Lambda-Class in two rounds.

11 minutes ago, rhs2042 said:

Norra's my favorite pilot. In a recent game, she took out Palp's Lambda-Class in two rounds.

Norra has become one of my favorite pilots too. I never liked Tanky slow Norra, doesn't fit my playstYle. But, VI, Rey, Flight Assist, title Norra is a stupid fun time, even tho she dies faster than normal. I faced down someones imperial list and one shot a tie a round with Norra. Meanwhile Wedge hung out laughing behind Norra not even able to clean up the scraps.

Buff the B-wing and the A-wing, ban all non-OT ships. Job done.







(not seriously, though I hope to see another B-wing buff before the ARC gets something; several pilots are still quite good for now)

honestly, I can't even fathom what they'd have to do with the B to make it remotely playable. It'd need like a combined permanent fore reinforce and a free Linked Batteries.

ARCs I can at least see just getting an easy errata, ala the inverse of manaroo, no need to release another pack

Id rather just nerf the pede.

More chance of a free nerf than a free buff... FFG doesn't like free buffs that much. The Scyk is the exception...

Have they ever buffed a pilot card post release?

I'm no ARC enthusiast, I have one and Nora or Braylen are fun occasionally, but I'm a novice in that ship. There seems to be som many other core Star Wars ships that need love more than the ARC, they're still solid, balanced, just not OP.

21 minutes ago, phild0 said:

Id rather just nerf the pede.

This.

Let's take the tops off the power curve rather than buff a solid and balanced ship. The only buffs should be done when a ship is competitively completely unusable like the Starviper and Kiraxeraxeraxes. The Punisher is still in that unused box, hopefully the T-65 is getting of that box come the new "zebra stripey repaint to make money" expansion.

46 minutes ago, clanofwolves said:

The Punisher is still in that unused box, hopefully the T-65 is getting of that box come the new "zebra stripey repaint to make money" expansion.

I don’t know what people expect of the X-Wing fix but history shows that “fixes” very rarely do anything. Part of the reason is the extreme power creep of newly released ships (I say extreme because of Lowrick, Nym,and Fenn).

There have been several ship fixes before. Only one of them had a huge impact and that is the X7 title. Every other fix fails to make ships equal to the power of the current meta. Valsai and Starviper are fun but they aren’t equal. Tie Shuttle and Tie D are super niche. Test Pilot, Chardin refit, E2 Mod and Royal Guard are all for ships out of the meta. The Tie Advanced fix is massively underwhelming on anything but Vader and even Vader is still behind the Meta.

Maybe the second Falcon Title (with Kanan) counts as a reasonable fix but it also came with a pilot that is probably the real reason the Falcon was fixed.

Mom all for the X-Wing getting better. I just have no expectation that it makes them auto awesome.

My experiences with ARCs has led me to several conclusions.

1) They are formidable when flown in pairs together at range 2 of each other

2)Wired / Hera / Targeting Astromech Norra is a great use of 33 points

3) ARCs with flight assist astromech are wildly fun to fly

4) They need fearsome or annoying wingmates to draw aggro

All of that said, this list below will lose you friends

Anxiety Flight

2 minutes ago, Cloaker said:

My experiences with ARCs has led me to several conclusions.

1) They are formidable when flown in pairs together at range 2 of each other

2)Wired / Hera / Targeting Astromech Norra is a great use of 33 points

3) ARCs with flight assist astromech are wildly fun to fly

4) They need fearsome or annoying wingmates to draw aggro

All of that said, this list below will lose you friends

Anxiety Flight

Thane Kyrell — ARC-170	26
Tactician	2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Alliance Overhaul	0
Ship Total: 29
Braylen Stramm — ARC-170	25
Tactician	2
Flight-Assist Astromech	1
Alliance Overhaul	0
Ship Total: 28
Ezra Bridger (Sheathipede) — Sheathipede-class Shuttle	17
Snap Shot	2
Gunner	5
R3-A2	2
Ship Total: 26
Captain Rex — TIE Fighter	14
Tactician	2
Sabine's Masterpiece	1
Ship Total: 17

Wired Norra sounds really cool!

21 minutes ago, DodgingArcs said:

I don’t know what people expect of the X-Wing fix but history shows that “fixes” very rarely do anything. Part of the reason is the extreme power creep of newly released ships (I say extreme because of Lowrick, Nym,and Fenn).

There have been several ship fixes before. Only one of them had a huge impact and that is the X7 title. Every other fix fails to make ships equal to the power of the current meta. Valsai and Starviper are fun but they aren’t equal. Tie Shuttle and Tie D are super niche. Test Pilot, Chardin refit, E2 Mod and Royal Guard are all for ships out of the meta. The Tie Advanced fix is massively underwhelming on anything but Vader and even Vader is still behind the Meta.

Maybe the second Falcon Title (with Kanan) counts as a reasonable fix but it also came with a pilot that is probably the real reason the Falcon was fixed.

Mom all for the X-Wing getting better. I just have no expectation that it makes them auto awesome.

you never know when FFG will get it right for once, but I agree that fixes in general and Saw's are probably not going to skyrocket Xs and Us to competitive status while turrets continue to reign supreme (though the Viper mk3 is really close, if only they didn't curbstomp Xizor with the same box that tried to fix him)

speaking of, I don't know how everyone is having so much success with non-r2d2 Norras. I mean, good on you and all, but mine would just get obliterated by the presence of a turret in every game I have to suffer through

If I'm putting double ARCs back on the table, it'd probably be to try

Unnamed Squadron (100)
Thane Kyrell — ARC-170 26, Weapons Engineer 3, M9-G8 3, Title [Ship Total: 32]
Norra Wexley — ARC-170 29, Push the Limit 3, C-3PO 3, R2-D2 4, Vectored Thrusters 2, Title [Ship Total: 41]
Fenn Rau (Sheathipede) — Sheathipede-class Shuttle 20, Veteran Instincts 1, Hotshot Co-pilot 4, R3-A2 2 [Ship Total: 27]

and then lament how Thane can't use his ability when he's the target of attack...and to lament that he's not Lowhrick

3 minutes ago, Wiredin said:

Wired Norra sounds really cool!

And at 33 points she can be your 3rd best ship in many cases, taking heat off for other late game aces. She has every move available on her dial every round with decent rerolls.

3 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

honestly, I can't even fathom what they'd have to do with the B to make it remotely playable. It'd need like a combined permanent fore reinforce and a free Linked Batteries.

ARCs I can at least see just getting an easy errata, ala the inverse of manaroo, no need to release another pack

Some form of upgrade that requires both a cannon and system slot, so it can also help IG-88?