Just a quick question about Thane's ability.

When the focus, damage or crit damage die result is spent, does his ability trigger immediately?

As in even before the defense dice are rolled?

I believe it does, I'm just wanting to make sure it does.

Thanks in advance.

He does indeed trigger before any defense dice are rolled... which is why Thane's otherwise very powerful ability isn't quite as effective: He can choose and flip a damage card, but only if there's already one there to flip. Given his fairly high pilot initiative, it's unlikely he'll have a chance to trigger until after the first round of combat, at which point he's often already been focus-fired down.

Thanks EB, that's the way I was thinking it'd work. I've started running a Wedge, Thane and Dutch build, with all three having protorps.

So while Thane is an I5, with Wedge shooting a protorp first, it's possible Thane's ability could trigger during an early round of shooting

I downgraded from Luke to Thane, which still gives me an I5, and additional upgrades on all three.

Yup. It triggers when the result is spent, which is during the Attacker Modifies Attack Dice substep.

Interesting possible alternative... if you have room in your squad, consider slapping Swarm Tactics onto Wedge. That way, he can bring Dutch up to a 6 for pre-Thane firing, or Thane up to 6 for initiative kills.

Another variant I've seen is Wedge - Luke - Thane, giving him two potential shots before he has to fire. It also has the benefit of being one of the highest initiative squads you can get in Rebels so far.

Yep, so even if they don’t have a direct to flip, you can still hit them with something like a structural damage or hull breach and still benefit. You just want to make sure Thane is firing last in your squad, which is not that difficult.

also worth noting is that lock is generally better for thane than focus unless you know for sure he’s going to be attached, which is unlikely if you have Wedge or Biggs next to him.

35 minutes ago, Tvboy said:

Yep, so even if they don’t have a direct to flip, you can still hit them with something like a structural damage or hull breach and still benefit. You just want to make sure Thane is firing last in your squad, which is not that difficult.

also worth noting is that lock is generally better for thane than focus unless you know for sure he’s going to be attached, which is unlikely if you have Wedge or Biggs next to him.

Or at least, that the defender has some damage card, ANY damage card on them. There are no "not so bad" critical cards anymore, except maybe Stunned Pilot (most skilled players are pretty decent about staying away from obstacles).