I'd have to go with the T-70. It's pretty balanced. Has okay offensive output and defensive abilities, pretty decent self sufficiency for a small based ship. One top tier pilot, and a few casual pilots that are more than viable. Generics are fun as well. A good Poe player is frustrating to fly against, a bad Poe player can still do some damage and be annoying enough. Jess Pava is always a strong ship, Nein Numb is fun for control, Ello Atsy is hilarious with flight assist, Snap can be super slippery.

Tie S/F is a strong contender too. It's very effective if flown properly, it's not invulnerable. Both pilots can cause some damage. Overall pretty fun ship to fly. I need a second one...

Tie Defenders should be in this too.

5 minutes ago, gamblertuba said:

Gunboats would be my choice in a world that does not include Harpoon missiles.

T-70's are probably the closest thing that Rebels have.

Starvipers need just a little bit of action efficiency, ditto the Protectorate.

I'm really bummed that tLJ was so divisive because I think new trilogy era ships actually make for a super-fun version of X-wing. I'd be interested to see how the lists shake out for a resistance and 1st order only tourney.

Intensity Guri is a ton of fun. Has a TL/Barrel roll/evade/focus every turn when knife fighting and has the maneuverability to stay @ R1. I like to pair it with a bump master and one of Fenn or Talonbane.

Once we can get the Resistance A-Wing I will have two lists in my bag... a Rebel Alliance list and a New Republic list. I just need that RZ2... hopefully announced May 1.

I'd probably go with the TIE/sf as my submission. Lots of options with its slots and some neat pilot abilities that can really change up how it flies.

i also find the Lancer a pretty good fit as well.

It's funny that the SF and lancer are pretty stuck in a rut when it comes to their most competitive pilot, but their runner ups slot right in with their more popular buddy

A local guy is doing really well with Palp SFs (qd + be) and another stole my double casters (EU fearless ketsu, let asajj, stims up the nose distributed via firecracker)

They'll be dismissed by the larger competitive community, but I believe they hold their own just fine against even the best of the best

I can't say the same for like of Ello or Nien compared to Poe, or any ARC compared to Norra

Which is sad because I adore ello's ability

By faction:
Rebels: T-70
Empire: TIE ADV. Prototype & TIE Striker
Scum: Protectorate, Starviper & Khiraxz

I happen to think that the overall best is the Striker, followed closely by a Starviper with the MKII title. The TAP is a great ship, that I think edges out all those below, and then the T-70, Protectorate, and Khiraxz (with title) are all on the same playing tier of utility/skill.

1 minute ago, ficklegreendice said:

It's funny that the SF and lancer are pretty stuck in a rut when it comes to their most competitive pilot, but their runner ups slot right in with their more popular buddy

A local guy is doing really well with Palp SFs (qd + be) and another stole my double casters (EU fearless ketsu, let asajj, stims up the nose distributed via firecracker)

They'll be dismissed by the larger competitive community, but I believe they hold their own just fine against even the best of the best

I can't say the same for like of Ello or Nien compared to Poe, or any ARC compared to Norra

Which is sad because I adore ello's ability

Snap and Jess both pair up nicely with Poe though.

I think T-70s are probably the "best" ships, without being OP or an NPE. and they're still a lot of fun to fly.

They look awesome, too!

I strongly disagree with some people saying the falcon would be a just perfect. I usually play rebels myself and a lot of my imperial friends just hate the falcon, because it is no fun to fly against it.

Amen

We had an OT only tournie (only ships from movies, no special ed dash, unique crew can only be from movies, no TLTs or poons) and i immidiately told the TO that fat Han would dominate

Sure enough...

He was just as lame and boring as I remember from wave 5. Can move wherever he pleases, has guaranteed defenses that basically make your offense irrelevant without two+ ships (even then you're ****** if you get unlucky), and will always hit you between gunner and his ability

Even Palp Vader fel couldn't reliably do well against him, because they simply aren't as easy to fly (shuttle also had to take title for then...should've made falcon take Leia crew)

The falcon is the furthest from perfect possible, as ffg ****** up such an iconic ship and wasted an amazing model

There are many ships that currently fit this sweet spot. And several of my picks have been mentioned, such as the T-70 or Tie Striker.

But I’m going to go with the Starviper. The Mk2 barrel rolls, availability of actions, and knife-fighting dial, make it a really weird and thematic ship to fly. It doesn’t feel broken or too powerful, but in the right hands it can be a crazy force to be reckoned with. And even when you play against them you’re left with the puzzle of trying to predict where the most bizarre ship in the game is going to end up. The low-ish pilot skills, and lack of EPT on Thweek, also keep the ship from being a negative play experience. And it adds challenge to the ship by forcing predictive play against aces, as opposed to reactive.

I love the starviper, and I feel that the “fix” did everything it needed to without making it too good.

As a Rebel player, I can't think of a "perfect" ship for the faction. Like many have said the T-70 is the closest. However, the I prefer the ARC-170, the only thing holding it back is the lack of generics and/or elite slots. The crew plus astromech is so much fun, plus the rear arc, makes the ARC-170 just a fun ship to play that is well balanced in the game.

On that note, per pilot, I would say Corran Horn is the perfect individual pilot for the Rebels. The E-Wing is over priced, except for Corran. He has definite weaknesses, and strengths. He is overall a fun pilot.

I find most ships fun to fly, but some just can't keep up with their hull and shield scores. I'd say that a potent ship that's not OP would be Starviper for Scum, YT-2400 for Rebel (definitely not OP in Epic, since keeping at range 3 is harder), and of the Imperial ships I've flown I would choose Decimator.

2 hours ago, Superstrength79 said:

I find most ships fun to fly, but some just can't keep up with their hull and shield scores. I'd say that a potent ship that's not OP would be Starviper for Scum, YT-2400 for Rebel (definitely not OP in Epic, since keeping at range 3 is harder), and of the Imperial ships I've flown I would choose Decimator.

The YT-2400 is definitely my favorite ship in the game. But I know others don't like flying against it.

3 hours ago, ImperialOfficer said:

I think the protectorate is a good spot, similar to the Striker arguments.

Without AML on 3 ships, and with the nerf to Dengar, you can't make Fenn too OP anymore.

The regular pilots are fun, and the title encourages an aggressive play style, creating a themed game.

With no shields they are high risk, high reward, lots of fun.

My thoughts exactly.

Running the 3 protectorate aces is one of favourite lists currently. Always enjoy the game win or lose. The risk/reward is fab as you said.

For me perfect ships are fun to fly, rewarding when you win, and aren't point-and-click. And not overpowered....

Rebels - X-wing T70, A-wing

Empire - TIE Striker, TIE Advanced

Scum - post-Guns Kihraxz, Protectorate starfighter

Echo is really nice. Surprised no one has mentioned phantoms yet.

On 4/22/2018 at 5:38 PM, Deimos said:

The perfect ship is Krennic+Vader, AKA Vennic or Krender.

Oh you meant for the game.

its pronounced Krae-der, cuz of the holes in your ship afterwords

As much as I hate to validate the StarWing fanatics (I won't even say the G-word ), it's probably a good thing that FFG waited so long to release that expansion - with the accumulated experience they designed a well balanced ship that has thematic and effective alternate builds straight out of the pack.

I have to say T-70 X-Wing. It's versatile with good actions, dial and base stats. Very sweet variety of pilots.

17 hours ago, Oprah Smash said:

Echo is really nice. Surprised no one has mentioned phantoms yet.

Because they're not in a good spot, both in regards to the game and themselves

Phantoms were built with a crippling dependency on PS due to how their defense was rolled entirely into their Cloaking. Advanced Cloaking device is the only way they get to attack and not be a z95 in the same round

This made whisper vastly superior and the phantom now dead because it's so easy to hit ps 9+

The Striker is the Phantom done better. Its manueverability is not rolled into its defense (as such it's a LOT cheaper) and you don't need high ps to effectively use ailerons to set up firing lanes or blocks

For the phantom to truly be "perfect" (ie well used across all its pilots) it'd need to not be so horribly dependent on shooting first

It's the same issue with Interceptors in which only soontir is any good because they need to move last and he also has the focus-generating ability

3 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

Because they're not in a good spot, both in regards to the game and themselves

Phantoms were built with a crippling dependency on PS due to how their defense was rolled entirely into their Cloaking. Advanced Cloaking device is the only way they get to attack and not be a z95 in the same round

This made whisper vastly superior and the phantom now dead because it's so easy to hit ps 9+

The Striker is the Phantom done better. Its manueverability is not rolled into its defense (as such it's a LOT cheaper) and you don't need high ps to effectively use ailerons to set up firing lanes or blocks

For the phantom to truly be "perfect" (ie well used across all its pilots) it'd need to not be so horribly dependent on shooting first

It's the same issue with Interceptors in which only soontir is any good because they need to move last and he also has the focus-generating ability

I've said it elsewhere, and I'd love to test this assertion: the Phantom, and the Scum Cloaking Device, and other future potential ships with Cloak, could be made much better with the following change to the Cloak rules:

You may discard your cloak token when you activate in combat. If you do, until the end of the round, after modifying your attack dice, you must cancel 1 attack die.

Means that they have two different strategies - cloak plus SPA (or LWF) to maximise defence and still shoot, or shoot plus ACD, to take advantage of your own PS. Which would be best would then be a player call.

And Cloak Zuckuss might actually be worth running.

A man can dream.

2 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

Because they're not in a good spot, both in regards to the game and themselves

Phantoms were built with a crippling dependency on PS due to how their defense was rolled entirely into their Cloaking. Advanced Cloaking device is the only way they get to attack and not be a z95 in the same round

This made whisper vastly superior and the phantom now dead because it's so easy to hit ps 9+

The Striker is the Phantom done better. Its manueverability is not rolled into its defense (as such it's a LOT cheaper) and you don't need high ps to effectively use ailerons to set up firing lanes or blocks

For the phantom to truly be "perfect" (ie well used across all its pilots) it'd need to not be so horribly dependent on shooting first

It's the same issue with Interceptors in which only soontir is any good because they need to move last and he also has the focus-generating ability

While I agree that the Tie Phantom practically has Veteran Instincts stapled to it, and their dependance on Pilot Skill is a detriment, I will say that I have had some luck with them using Stygian Particle Accelerator. Granted it’s still a Z-95 when shot at, but the free evade action when cloaking/decloaking can give it some survivability.

Unfortunately my preferred setup was something like Echo, Stygian, Sensor Jammer, and Push the Limit (off the Evade when Decloaking). Crew optional, usualy Intel. And this meant Echo would end up around 40 points. And with expertise becoming popular thanks to Fenn Rau and Hotshot Copilot, Sensor Jammer just doesn’t keep it alive anymore.

2 hours ago, ficklegreendice said:

Because they're not in a good spot, both in regards to the game and themselves

Phantoms were built with a crippling dependency on PS due to how their defense was rolled entirely into their Cloaking. Advanced Cloaking device is the only way they get to attack and not be a z95 in the same round

This made whisper vastly superior and the phantom now dead because it's so easy to hit ps 9+

The Striker is the Phantom done better. Its manueverability is not rolled into its defense (as such it's a LOT cheaper) and you don't need high ps to effectively use ailerons to set up firing lanes or blocks

For the phantom to truly be "perfect" (ie well used across all its pilots) it'd need to not be so horribly dependent on shooting first

It's the same issue with Interceptors in which only soontir is any good because they need to move last and he also has the focus-generating ability

Echo is the exception to the rule in my opinion. Or, would be, if not for turrets. Echo's decloak offers so many different places that it becomes a game of bluffing and trying to out-think your opponent; Choose well, and the best your opponent can do is dodge your arc or ram you, because it's simply impossible to get you in their sights. Choose poorly, and you're in a very dangerous situation with little defensive modification. It's very much flying by the seat of your pants, but it's a lot of fun. And then somebody brings a turret or bomblet generator, and they just run past you and force you to chase them while still getting to shoot.

As far as my thoughts on the best designed ships

-The T-70 X-wing is what the original x-wing should have been. Instead of a boring ship where your decision often comes down to k-turn vs. focus, you've got a variety of options, and this way you have two different actions from the Tie Fighter that emphasize the difference in approach. The generics do have some issues, but unfortunately most generics which do not have a strong alpha strike have a similar problem

-The ARC-170 is an interesting ship with a good toolbox to work with. The non-Norra pilots have kind of been left behind by power creep, though.

-The Gunboat has a variety of build options and has made a competitive splash. I do wish they had played around a bit more with the named pilots, though.

-The Tie Advanced is a weird, clunky little ship that's very alien to modern x-wing. And yet, the system slot combines to make my favorite Ace Pilot in the game (Vader, who is the seat of your pants, risk vs. reward calculation Arc dodgers should be ) as well as a cute little filler ship like the Accuracy Corrector Tempest. Call it perfectly flawed, perhaps?

-The Tie Striker has a unique mechanic and introduces players to the intricacies of the movement system, has a high skill ceiling, all while being relatively simple to explain.

-The Silencer is a very interesting take on a super ship. It doesn't have everything at once (I really don't think it should), but it can do pretty much anything if you want it to. Not my cup of tea, but it's a very interesting design that's fun to fly against

-The Tie/SF has gone on to prove its detractors wrong and is now the glue that holds competitive imperial lists together, but also has a fun second pilot in Backdraft.

-The Tie/FO has been left behind by power creep, but the named pilots still have some tricks up their sleeve.

-The Classic Tie/ln also suffers from power creep, but did a good job of making the cheapest ship in the game one useful and versatile for a long time.

-The IG-2000 is a cool ship with a neat gimick and a decent variety of tools to fall back on. Power creep is an issue, but I think good players can still succeed with them when people aren't being truly cutthroat.

-Post Atani-Mindlink, the protectorate starfighter does exactly what it was supposed to.

-The starviper is a fun, goofy ship, although I wish the title was baked into the ship because that system slot is badly needed on it.

So, yeah. I don't know if there's a perfect ship, but there's a lot of nice ships mixed in with the awkward ones and the broken ones.

In my personal opinion, the resistance bomber, it’s slow, somewhat resilient (but killable if people in my area would learn to shoot it rather than my T-70s), bombs that are dodgeable (except for crimson spec’s bombs anywhere on her base, but I’ve had those dodge before) has one role it can possibly do and does decent with it, throwing bombs then following behind is crazy person fun. And deflective plating making you less good scum nym until you roll a hit, the number of times I’ve had my bomber live to win the game because of that card lasting so. Long. Is amazing

Starviper, Khiraxz Fighter and Quadjumper, the three of them have a lot of different and interesting builds, Talonbane Cobra is still amazing but not OP in competitive terms, Almost any pilot of the Quadjumper is interesting to fly with, and it can be a cheap bomber or a permanent invisible ship with tricks thanks to Cikatro Vizako. Black Sun Ace, or Captain Jostero are also great options in lists, as alpha strike missile carriers with deadeye. Starviper has one of my favourite dials, Guri and THWEEK.