Jamming Beam has been a free upgrade now for almost six months, so I think most of us have probably taken it on cannon-carriers that weren't already using the slot. Has anyone ever had a clutch moment where they actually fired it, and found it to be more beneficial than just shooting your primary cannon? If so, I want to hear it.

Um... nope, never used it. And that's from an IG-88 player who actually has the double firing ability of IG-88B!

#MakeJammingBeamGreatAgain 👺

In all seriousness, are there any viable jamming beam carriers who could actually make it worthwhile? I’m thinking maybe a dirt-cheap M3A (or even Sunny?) with someone like Swarm Tactics Fenn Rau boosting its Initiative sky-high...

Yeah, exactly this. This is why cannons need to be free on the B-Wing. Because this is the only cannon they every carry and it literally never ever does anything ever at all. For any reason. On a ship whose most unique feature is its cannons.

Up the cost of all pilots by 5, but give us 2 free cannons. I'm 100% down for this.

9 minutes ago, CoffeeMinion said:

#MakeJammingBeamGreatAgain 👺

In all seriousness, are there any viable jamming beam carriers who could actually make it worthwhile? I’m thinking maybe a dirt-cheap M3A (or even Sunny?) with someone like Swarm Tactics Fenn Rau boosting its Initiative sky-high...

The problem with jamming beam is threefold:

1 - You need to have it fired from a high PS ship for the others to take advantage of it

2 - The range of 1-2 is restrictive

3 - The jamming tokens to not carry over into the next round

Currently, the best high initiative carrier is Serissu, but I would rather spend 2 points to have a tractor beam and be an actual, real menace with it at any range.

Now if tomorrow they add more abilities that leave a long lasting token (like reinforce which is wroth stripping) or a crew with the ability to let's say transform jam tokens into stress tokens at the end of the round, then we'll see jamming beams used as part of a strategy. In the meantime, however, tractor beams are a much safer bet.

12 minutes ago, dotswarlock said:

Currently, the best high initiative carrier is Serissu, but I would rather spend 2 points to have a tractor beam and be an actual, real menace with it at any range.

Now if tomorrow they add more abilities that leave a long lasting token (like reinforce which is wroth stripping) or a crew with the ability to let's say transform jam tokens into stress tokens at the end of the round, then we'll see jamming beams used as part of a strategy. In the meantime, however, tractor beams are a much safer bet.

I would contend that the 3 points for ISB slicer makes JB very well worth it on a Lambda if you have the points. As-is, the crew slots on Sai and Jendon are usually empty.

The problem is that 3 points worth of bid is usually a little more worth it. At 1-2 points for ISB though, this could be a very strong combo. We'll have to wait and see.

At the CAC I had someone running a Sloane swarm strip the reinforce token off my RAC with the jamming beam from his Lambda-class before his swarm lit it up.

Was totally worth it.

Maybe we should lower the bar a little bit...

1 hour ago, PhantomFO said:

Jamming Beam has been a free upgrade now for almost six months, so I think most of us have probably taken it on cannon-carriers that weren't already using the slot. Has anyone ever had a clutch moment where they actually fired it, and found it to be more beneficial than just shooting your primary cannon? If so, I want to hear it.

Someone did! Sweet.

I fired one last week!

Ok, it was a casual night... but it was a league game, which we're taking a little more seriously.... my 3 Imps vs 5 As.

Full health L'ulo had a R1 shot on Echo, with focus. Rex, (with beam), had a R2 shot on L'ulo. L'ulo player likes him to die in glory, so I figured he'd take any damage in order to smash Echo and try to strip the evade, potentially swinging the balance of power. L'ulo is highly unlikely to die here.

Threw Jam at him. 1 hit goes through. Spend focus to dodge the shot, or eat Jam and lose it, the always hilarious Jamming Beam conundrum

Lulo's unmodded shot bounced off Echo's painted greens.

Next turn, Echo decloaks away, kills an A Wing and we reach his squads tipping point. Mop up from there.

I won 200-33. Not saying Jam was the key factor in that.... But.... maybe it really was

(but it probably wasn't)

Oh, and another stupendously casual game at home with my boy. Vader, Whisper, Echo vs 3 IGs with title and Beams....

It was horrendous for the Phantoms with the Beam being pumped at them on every second shot. 'You wanna spend that evade and dodge the shot?"

Until I finally managed to kill an IG and open some space not covered in Robot Jam.

Make firing the jamming beam an action?

10 minutes ago, PlayerB said:

Make firing the jamming beam an action?

Make it so that ships with a jamming beam equipped can jam at range 2 in arc, like it was in 1.0. I’d even pay a few points for that in some lists.

I was playing a league game in a Resistance vs resistance match. I had Poe/Nien/Ello and he had more ships, as he was using more generics, but hey were loaded with torps. One T70 locked my ello, and I saw no way of escaping the proton shot, except firing a R1 jamming beam with Poe, who had bumped and had no mods. One hit got through, and the TL was stripped. I was able to keep dancing around enemy generics and ended up winning 200-0.

Basically the only strong uses of it are a: blocking a torpedo shot by stripping the lock and b: removing a Reinforce. i've used it for the latter on Maul, which is useful because he still gets a primary shot,a nd everyone else gets shots too, but mostly it's still a completely useless upgrade.

It's so useless I don't take it at zero points.

I might and -1 points, though.

I fall for janky stuff and I haven't tried it even once. Should tell us all something....

1 hour ago, millertime059 said:

Make it so that ships with a jamming beam equipped can jam at range 2 in arc, like it was in 1.0. I’d even pay a few points for that in some lists.

This. Add jam action. When you perform a jam action, you may only jam ships in your (V) at a range of 1-2.

5 hours ago, dotswarlock said:

The problem with jamming beam is threefold:

1 - You need to have it fired from a high PS ship for the others to take advantage of it

2 - The range of 1-2 is restrictive

3 - The jamming tokens to not carry over into the next round

Currently, the best high initiative carrier is Serissu, but I would rather spend 2 points to have a tractor beam and be an actual, real menace with it at any range.

Now if tomorrow they add more abilities that leave a long lasting token (like reinforce which is wroth stripping) or a crew with the ability to let's say transform jam tokens into stress tokens at the end of the round, then we'll see jamming beams used as part of a strategy. In the meantime, however, tractor beams are a much safer bet.

Also no damage, so yeah there is no benefit to jamming beam. Loosing an attack makes the opportunity cost for the jamming beam to be way too much. There needs to be an ability or upgrade that allows you to do an additional attack with a <beam> weapon but discard all damage that isn't ion damage.

ah jamming beam

the one zero point upgrade that wouldn't be OP even if it threw 5 red-dice

13 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

ah jamming beam

the one zero point upgrade that wouldn't be OP even if it threw 5 red-dice

maybe if we made it autohit?

4 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

maybe if we made it autohit?

Thinking… thinking…

Maybe give the option for one hit automatically, or roll the dice for more. I’m not sure that would be broken, in fact it seems nearly usable even.

I don't even take it even if the slot is empty, I make a lot of reckless and brash decisions already.

When considering improvements to the Beam, bear in mind 1.0 Reaper Jam spam.....

I think it could be 4 dice and Range 1-3, give it a better chance of sticking, maybe. But anything that makes it autohit or not replace the primary attack, is gonna end up causing widespread misery.