So we have a few Talents we have had time to work through now. Crackshot, Predator, and Marksmanship all relatively cheap 1 or 2 points. All do some type of dice modding.

Crackshot: pushes damage through once.

Predator: allows a single dice reroll though the bullseye limit may mean it doesn’t come into play more than once or twice a game.

Marksmanship: allows you to hit just that much harder especially given the new damage deck.

question is which do you reach for and why?

Crackshot: a nice to have occasional damage pusher. either res A wings or TIE fighters. if only 50% of my crackshot goes off a game, I'm still happy with that.

Predator: High INI who are already trying to get bullseye, Soontir, HLC Poe, etc. people who will have bullseye more than once reliably

Marksmanship: I don't

Predator if there's some specific synergy with pilot ability, or if they're just a great arc dodger who can stay alive and get multiple triggers. Soontir Fel, certainly. I can see going for it on a Corran who runs a Sensor other than FCS. I'd also put Wedge down on Predator, too, since rolling fewer dice means a smaller chance for Crack Shot to have evades to cancel. Ten Numb is another example, since he needs focus results to use his ability, and rerolls help that.

Crack Shot for most of the rest of the time. For example, if the ship isn't likely to live long enough for multiple triggers (A-Wings, TIEs), isn't nimble enough to expect multiple triggers (Kimogilas), or if the ship already has reroll abilities (no sense in putting Predator on Braylen Stramm).

Marksmanship: far more rare. I have a desire to try it out on Corran Horn sometime, and I think it'd be a sleeper pick on Recoil when flown with Kylo Ren, as a tool to trigger ISYTDS. Maarek Stele is a tossup between this and Crack Shot; for me it'll depend on how much support he has in his squad. With a coordinating ship, I'm inclined to go with Marksmanship, but if he's on his own, with potentially fewer dice mods, I'd lean towards CS. There's a case for Marksmanship on a Kimogila--since your opponent won't be able to modify their dice, they'll be more likely to blank out and leave you with a useless Crack Shot.

3 minutes ago, Vipcard3 said:

Crackshot: a nice to have occasional damage pusher. either res A wings or TIE fighters. if only 50% of my crackshot goes off a game, I'm still happy with that.

Predator: High INI who are already trying to get bullseye, Soontir, HLC Poe , etc. people who will have bullseye more than once reliably

Marksmanship: I don't

Predator and Crack Shot don't work with anything other than primary weapons, so it's kind of wasted points on HLC Poe. Poe without HLC? Sounds good.

Marksmanship: stapled to Seyn, Maaaybe on Maarek, probably useless elsewhere

Marksmanship: If I've got a source of consistent re-rolls (Lock cycling on non-FCS x1s) or will be running secondaries that can trigger it for a useful effect (Prots, Adv. Prots, and most of the Missiles). Waste of time on cannons.

Predator: Primary focused Kimos to open up their attack (Locked target won't always be in arc for the lower inits, gives a secondary possibility for cheaper than R3) or ships that I'm wanting to focus on defensive movement over getting Locks with.

Crack Shot: Rubs me the wrong way. Single use pseudo ordinance that might get 1 damage through on occasion. I occasionally toss it in a list but rarely find myself using it.

HLC: why tho?

Marksmanship: wha is dat?

Predator: oh you mean the I6 skill?

Prockets: these aren't Cluster missiles!?

Crack Shot: The thing you take when you have nothing better to do, and maybe it matters.

1 hour ago, Vipcard3 said:

Crackshot: a nice to have occasional damage pusher. either res A wings or TIE fighters. if only 50% of my crackshot goes off a game, I'm still happy with that.

Predator: High INI who are already trying to get bullseye, Soontir, HLC Poe, etc. people who will have bullseye more than once reliably

1 hour ago, Nyxen said:

Marksmanship: stapled to Seyn, Maaaybe on Maarek, probably useless elsewhere

HLC Poe comment aside, this is the correct answer. I'd give it to Maarek 100% of the time if I have the points, though. That thing is brutal, especially when you get more than one crit and pull Hull Breach, followed by chained Direct Hits.

1 hour ago, ForceSensitive said:

Prockets: these aren't Cluster missiles!?

I feel like Proton Rockets aren't bad on ships with 2 red dice which can both focus and barrel roll at the same time, while at high initiative.

Mostly, Maarek Stele and Darth Vader.

It isn't going to be too hard for Vader to Lock/Focus/Roll into a 5-dice double-mods attack, and it can be handy on Maarek if you're worried about your green dice and would rather focus than lock.

At least, their effect isn't bad. The cost is still pretty scary.

I find Predator is nice on the named Strikers. It really helps them push through damage and they have no TL.

Marksmanship on Seyn of course.

1 hour ago, Nyxen said:

Marksmanship: stapled to Seyn, Maaaybe on Maarek, probably useless elsewhere

Yes, I’ve only used it on Seyn. Ever.

Beyond that, if it comes to bullseye talents I’ve always gone predator or crack shot.

I'm not considering any of the bulls-eye talents (yet).

Partly because I'm not conditioned for it.

I got into 1.0 late and was still in my learning curve when 2.0 hit. I'm still transitioning and getting used to the changes (sure call me a slow learner).

Of everything else that I'm trying to keep track of, I surely don't have the time to keep a bulls-eye ability in mind. I do recall arming a Bulls-eye talent a couple of months back, but completely forgot it the 2-3 times that I had the opportunity. (Realized it a couple of times during the end phase).

That may change in a year or so as I get more comfortable with the game but as it is, I have several other talents that are serving me much better, thank you.

And that brings me to the B-Wing and the Heavy Laser Cannon (HLC). I would never waste points on an HLC on a B-Wing. With a max initiative of 4, odds are my B-Wings are going to be up against much better initiative pilots who will simply barrel roll or boost out of the arc of my HLC and avoid that weapon system the whole game through.

For me the valuable ship points are just better spent on any talent or weapons not limited to the bulls-eye arc.

1 hour ago, Mark Caliber said:

That  may change in a year or so as I get more comfortable  with the game but as it is, I have several other talents that are serving me much better, thank you.

You should work on it Soontir rather than later, if you play hyperspace Captain Seevor is getting popular in my meta at least.

Heroic because if it's rarely procing anyways, it might as well proc when I'd be completely screwed.

Well I keep saying this but the thing is the template system makes the movement of ships more rigid, thus it is easier to pick out those gaps in bullseye arc coverage ship rotation is locked to increments of 45 degrees without overlapping another ship. I sort of wish there was a way to intentionally make a partial movement without bumping.

That being said I sort of think Bullseye arcs talents/weapons are almost like the target lock munitions of 1st edition. They were just bad in function as they could be predicted, costed points in an already tight list building environment, and proved more as a liability as they added to MOV when destroyed if they were fired or (as often the case) not. That being said I find more value in reverse bullseye upgrades and abilities. Mechanics that force your opponent to use the bullseye arc in order to keep them from triggering. Those seem to be more effective than abilities that require you to use your bullseye arc. You could say that relying on those abilities leave you open to double trouble as your defensive ability will be negated and any bullseye ability the ship attacking has will be added, but in either situation you would already be in trouble. However the likelihood of you attacking a ship in your bullseye arc is less then the likelihood of a ship attacking you outside of their bullseye arc.

They're very good for large ship hunters (because bulleye shots on a big base are easier), and the abilities are pretty cheap.

I agree Marksmanship is only really for Seyn or Maarek. I could imagine it being nice on Bossk, too - basically, it can only ever be justified on someone who can do something special with the critical.

Predator vs crack shot depends on how likely you are to live long enough to shoot multiple times.

A generic black squadron - take crack shot and as @Vipcard3 says, if it triggers you got an extra damage for a measly 1 point. Yay you. Something like Scourge? Predator.

Proton Rockets and Heavy Laser Cannon are interesting too on less heavily armed ships.

I like Crackshot on Fangs. They want to be at range 1, where you have the bullseye most of the time.

I'm still a little disappointed by bullseye arcs. I'd like it feel feel like a worthwhile acheivment (or stroke of luck) when you get someone in it, but right now it doesn't. It's no effect at all without the right talent, and only a minor effect with the right talent. I'd like them to add some sort of boost to any BE attack.

I think they have their place. I like Predator on decently mobile aces like Soontir Fel, Duchess, Guri and Thane, and Crack Shot on disposable knife fighters like Rebel A-Wings, TIE Fighters (all variants except FOs - Fanatical is better) and Barons of the Empire. Marksmanship is okay, but I'd prefer to stick it on my lowest initiative pilot, who either has some synergy with the card, or is tough enough to actually get to use it a few times, so, rarely? Seyn and Feroph, maybe. Possibly U-Wings and B-Wings.

Predictive Shot is completely useless at its current cost. At 2 points? It might be worth it, but honestly I'm leaning towards dropping it to 1.

I am sort of in love with Markswoman Seyn.

Crack Shot TIEs are a menace.

Predator Soontir and Duchess.

All of these have seemed well worth it.

HLC on Rexler maybe. I think I've actually dropped it from the list before it's ever hit the table though.

Prockets. Too many extra points on ships that will use them well. I'd be tempted to use them on The Grand Galactic Inquisitor but he's already too pricey.

Crackshot most of the time. On Quinn Jast it’s all of the time.

Predator is a good standby when I’ve got a few points to spend on an ace.

Marksmanship is a big nope, unless like others have said they put it on Seyn. Anyone with a crit-ability of some type is a good candidate, like say Bossk. But generally speaking I find Marksmanship to not be very useful.

Isn't Marksmanship 1 point? Surely if you're on 199 it's worth it isn't it?

29 minutes ago, mazz0 said:

Isn't Marksmanship 1 point? Surely if you're on 199 it's worth it isn't it?

That 1 game where you lost the roll off and got arc dodged to death....

That other game where the Marksmanship crit went through and Direct Hitted something before it fired....

Personally, I always bias offensively

Marksmanship works on secondary weapons, while Crackshot and Predator do not.

TIE bomber aces maybe - how about Rhymer with Adv. Proton Torpedoes?

Or Gamma Squadron Aces with Barrage Rockets, as they already get bullseye re-rolls.

I'd rather have Ruthless on TIE Bombers if we're talking 1 point Talents that work with ordnance.