Hello community!

Honestly, I am a rebel player and I care much more about XWings and Awings than any Imperial ships.

But I have noticed that the Tie Interceptor is not present in the XWing game anymore. I haven't seen any Interceptors for months in my local gaming community.

Even though I am 100% rebel, I think the Tie Interceptor is a very beautiful and iconic ship.

It should be a good option to put on the table.

So, what could be done, to bring back the Interceptor? What are it's main problems?

From what I have heard, it dies very quickly....

Only 6 other ships saw more play in the past ~3 months ( https://meta.listfortress.com/ships?ranking_start=2019-03-20&ranking_end=2019-07-08&large_tournament_multiplier=true&widespread_use_multiplier=true&use_ranking_data=all&tournament_type=&format_id=&)

So whatever you think you're seeing, it's either wrong or just around you.

Then you have a weird local scene. By all accounts Soontir is one of the best pilots in the game. Squishy and prone to unlucky dice yes, but great.

Other Interceptor Pilots see very limited play, almost entirely due to their variance prone popping. Turr is ok, and very fun, but isn’t usable in an I5-6 meta. Hopefully with points changes he starts to become more utilized as less I5 and more I3-4 ships show up.

Alpha’s are stuck on ice, purely because the Planetary Sentinel is a better buy at the same price point. They really could have used a drop to 33 and been fine.

2 minutes ago, GreenDragoon said:

Only 6 other ships saw more play in the past ~3 months ( https://meta.listfortress.com/ships?ranking_start=2019-03-20&ranking_end=2019-07-08&large_tournament_multiplier=true&widespread_use_multiplier=true&use_ranking_data=all&tournament_type=&format_id=&)

So whatever you think you're seeing, it's either wrong or just around you.

While true, literally 95% of that is just Soontir. 438 of 458 squads that had Interceptors had Soontir.

He’s great, the others are hard done by the top cheap I5/6 and especially Rebel beef.

1 minute ago, millertime059 said:

While true, literally 95% of that is just Soontir. 438 of 458 squads that had Interceptors had Soontir.

He’s great, the others are hard done by the top cheap I5/6 and especially Rebel beef.

absolutely, I was thinking whether or not to add that point. But in the end OP is asking about interceptors, and interceptors see a lot of play - even if it is mainly one.

13 minutes ago, millertime059 said:

While true, literally 95% of that is just Soontir.

This is a game-wide problem (and basically always has been, although the developers have more tools to someday fix it in 2.0 than they did in the past).

For wave 3 hyperspace:

• 83% of squads with a B-Wing had Braylen
• 84% of squads with an X-Wing had Wedge
• 86% of squads with a TIE Advanced had Vader
• 87% of squads with an RZ-2 had L'ulo
• 86% of squads with an Upsilon had Tavson
• 93% of squads with a Torrent had a Gold Squadron Trooper
• 90% of squads with a TIE /sf had Quickdraw
• 73% of squads with a Firespray had Boba Fett

Obviously this isn't every ship - there's a big number of ships with essentially exactly two common pilots, and a handful of ships with more than two. Also, Interceptors are on the highest end of this range. Incidentally I suspect one pilot syndrome would get worse if you looked at only big extended events instead of only big hyperspace events.

Generics definitely need justice. The hardest counter to ace-wing is spam-wing; I'd like to live in a world where both are viable and present unique challenges. Alpha Interceptors at 30 points (Sabers at 38 is fine, and so are Sentinels at 34). Cavern Angels Zealot at 40 points. Outer Rim Smuggler at 66. And so on it goes. When large numbers of I1-2 generics become viable, even I3 becomes meaningful, and I4 becomes genuinely strong.

If you really want to buff the mid-initiative aces, you have to start by buffing the low-I generics.

@svelok all true. There are many ships where one is strongly over represented/ the only viable option.

Now the Torrent I expect that we start seeing more variety. At least the Blue Protector on occasion as a Dedicated carrier, and maybe Oddball or Tucker in select lists. The Jedi have a pretty broad play. Yes Anakin is most common but others see healthy play.

Then we have Strikers. All three named pilots get decent play. The generics less so. Lambdas as well have a decent spread.

That said in the dozen or so ships I looked at none had a lead pilot below 50%. The closest was Dutch at 50.6%.

2 minutes ago, millertime059 said:

Yes Anakin is most common but others see healthy play.

It baffles me that we got so much backlash when he was nerfed. Isn't it enough that he was significantly overrepresented on the Delta-7 chassis? If we want all the pilots to be viable, it requires some nerfs and some buffs. He didn't even go up by that much for how strong he is.

Hopefully now we'll see nearer-to-equal representation (of course, more iconic pilots will always get a little more table time, but that should be for flavor reasons rather than just meta reasons)

It doesn’t bother me that the overwhelming number of interceptors were Soontir. This has always been the case in xwing where 1-2 pilots are the representation of the chassis.

Soontir is still pretty popular, so I’m not worried about the interceptors table time. I’m guessing their absence is a local phenomena to the OP.

9 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

It  baffles me that we  got so much backlash when he was nerfed. Isn't it enough that he was significantly overrepresented on the Delta-7 chassis? If we want all the pilots to be viable, it requires some nerfs and some buffs. He  didn't  even go up by that much for how strong he is.   

Hey man, don’t ask me! I was pleased with it as I’m on the ‘all I5’s and 6’s should cost meaningfully more’ train. And that regen got hit is fine with me. I don’t like the I6 poke somethhing then run and regen to time style, and basically never fly I5’s and 6’s for that reason. So anything to make mid I ships more common is ok in my book. High I should be a deliberate choice, not a default option.

But I’m also the weirdo who flies things like Echo over Whisper, and flies 5 Striker generics because I can.

38 minutes ago, svelok said:

• 86% of squads with a TIE Advanced had Vader

I'm surprised Vader isn't higher tbh. The Advanced without his ability either hits like a noodle or evaporates.

Just wait for Snap Shot; that talent on Turr will make him a fun filler.

7 minutes ago, impspy said:

I'm surprised Vader isn't higher tbh. The Advanced without his ability either hits like a noodle or evaporates.

Generics with Passive Sensors will be quite decent at 41 points ( almost makes it just a fragile-ish X-Wing with auto-crits).

Maarek Steele is also a very good deal (great synergy with the chassis and a fantastic ship-killer), but has been a bit overshadowed by Duchess. Speaking of, why is she still 4 points over the I3 generic and cheaper than the other two named? Striker costing is bonkers bizarre and I can't believe they didn't touch it.

@Schu81 is your scene more casual? Mine is and no-one flies Interceptors including me. They are probably fairly priced if you know what you’re doing with them but I much prefer Strikers and Advanced x1’s. I just find them easier to deal with/maximise their respective quirks.

7 minutes ago, impspy said:

Just wait for Snap   Shot; that talent on Turr will make him a fun filler. 

2 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Speaking  of, why is she still 4 points over the I3 generic and cheaper than the other two named?  

I think the names pilot pricing is fair. Both Sabaac and Countdown have extremely strong abilities. Adding dice should be very expensive, and saying to the god of death ‘not today’ as well. A shield upgrade at 50 on either is tremendous value.

Duchess is very good but requires skill to maximize (choosing maneuvers to allow you aileron flexibility is non trivial) and she still has only moderate offense/ defense.

Its the Black Squad that is inscrutable. 36 at most for that. It’ll never see play otherwise.

7 minutes ago, Sasajak said:

@Schu81 is your scene more casual? Mine is and no-one flies Interceptors including me. They are probably fairly priced if you know what you’re doing with them but I much prefer Strikers and Advanced x1’s. I just find them easier to deal with/maximise their respective quirks.

I want to say that TIE Interceptors are unforgiving, but it's pretty much untrue. A more accurate way to put it is that they're extremely random. They're every bit as easy to 1-shot initiative-kill as a TIE/ln, but at 50% more expensive, you'd better be doing your best to get mileage out of that third red die (the dial and action changes are mostly irrelevant at I1). Without Howlrunner, the TIE/in has even less punch than the TIE/ln, and with her there's not much room for more. Maybe a list of Howl/Iden/3x Saber could be good as you have some decent endgame pieces once the TIE/lns are gone. Still seems a huge investment for mediocre jousting power.

1 minute ago, millertime059 said:

I think the names pilot pricing is fair. Both Sabaac and Countdown have extremely strong abilities. Adding dice should be very expensive, and saying to the god of death ‘not today’ as well. A shield upgrade at 50 on either is tremendous value.

Duchess is very good but requires skill to maximize (choosing maneuvers to allow you aileron flexibility is non trivial) and she still has only moderate offense/ defense.

Its the Black Squad that is inscrutable. 36 at most for that. It’ll never see play otherwise.

Maybe it's personal preference, but if they were all the same initiative and price, I'd still prefer Duchess's ability. Regardless, she's an I5, which is just enormous on that chassis. She ought to cost at least as much as the others.

47 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

It doesn’t bother me that the overwhelming number of interceptors were Soontir. This has always been the case in xwing where 1-2 pilots are the representation of the chassis.

Soontir is still pretty popular, so I’m not worried about the interceptors table time. I’m guessing their absence is a local phenomena to the OP.

Yo!! Squintophile here.

While I can't argue with the above for Standard players, Soontir =/= TIE Interceptor. With Epic on the horizon, the fact that the TIE Interceptor sucks is very disappointing to me.

In fact, it was one of the reasons (yes, there were many) I didn't jump into 2.0 immediately.

The Squint got shafted by 2.0. It lost all of its aces, lost it's title, failed to pick up linked actions to give it some new 2.0 flavor , kept the same stat line, and functionally got pretty much the same dial.

IHMO it suffers the same problem as the old Biggs-Wing. Soontir is too good to allow anything other than Soontir to be good. Which means the chassis as a whole gets screwed thanks to an over-powered one-hit-wonder.

I would love to see this ship reissued as a Royal Guard resculpt, complete with red livery and fins, and new ideas and pilots that make the chassis viable in general.

The problem of "one pilot per chassis" should be largely abated with the point change fixing some rather stupidly obvious point descrepencies such as....the non -gold torrents

Except for the interceptor. You will NEVER see anything but highest I on a chassis so hard geared towards arc dodging

(Also except for the stupidly underpriced Ole! but neither here nor there)

For low I, the striker does a better job.

9 minutes ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Maybe it's personal preference, but if they were all the same initiative and price, I'd still prefer Duchess's ability. Regardless, she's an I5, which is just enormous on that chassis. She ought to cost at least as much as the others.

Not saying that I5 doesn’t have value, just that if Sabaac and Countdown were I5 their abilities may border on broken. The range 1 Sabaac shot can one shot many things. Throw in predator for a real bully.

I like Duchess better as well, personal style, but I’ve flown all of them extensively. Sabaac is absolutely a terror, and the best distraction for aces there is. They can’t ignore him, but if they chase him your end game piece gets free flanks. Countdown is the inverse. Likely to get ignored due to being hard to kill, allowing him to reliably work.

2 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

failed to pick up linked actions to give it some new 2.0 flavor

Every Action a TIE/In Interceptor performs is in effect "linked" through the ship ability to the player's choice of a boost or a barrel roll...

Exactly @Hiemfire . @Darth Meanie The issue isn’t that the Interceptor lacks identity, it’s just that the price point for them means that generic Strikers are a better buy due to being less variance prone. The one shot is real.

17 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

W ith Epic on the horizon, the fact that the TIE Interceptor sucks is very disappointing to me.

In fact, it was one of the reasons (yes, there were many) I didn't jump into 2.0 immediately.

I’m not sure how they suck. I just see other choices being taken over them because of points (like strikers).

In an epic world, I would think the I4 generics would be pretty good.

1 hour ago, ClassicalMoser said:

Generics  definitely need justice.

I mean, we totally can turn this into yet another thread of generics vs uniques. But I was under the impression that it wasn't OPs question or point, so I don't see why it turned there. As @svelok showed, this is by no means unique to interceptors and a general problem of the game.

I also want to point out that the first 6 months of 2.0 had an unprecendented high amount of generics. This changed back in the direction of 1.0, but it is still vastly better than 1.0 was. In other words, if wave 14 would have changed to wave 3 or 4 of 2.0, we'd all see that as massive improvement.