Over four games trying to leverage Crack Shot on about 3 ships on average, I've only had it push through extra damage once. Either my ships die before I can use it, enemies aren't in bullseye, or there are too many evades to matter. It doesn't even seem to scare people out of arc like the threat of HLC or Quadjumper tractors do. Is it just me or is this happening elsewhere too?

It's not just something you can slap everywhere and get value out of anymore. That said, on interceptors (class not ship) or swarms it is still very effective.

Now? Did something change?

It isn't meant to scare people like a HLC or Quadjumper tractor; it is a good, cheap reward for catching something in your bullseye. You can't expect it to work in every game, as it is strongly impacted by match up (you are less likely to trigger it if you are facing a pair of repositioning aces compared to a slow-rolling swarm).

It's .5% of your list and a slot invested for mind games or pushing the damage. It is still very useful. Heck, given proper game states, Predictive Shot (basically a reusable crack shot that removes dice that could have been evades in exchange for force) is pretty dandy. Cheap ways of pushing damage when no better investment could be budgeted are relevant.

Depends?

It's worth way, way more than a single point on 2attack dice ships and one of the two ways to push damage onto 3agility ships - the other is blocking. Both together work wonders.

But for 3attack ships... usually not worth it unless you have a specific reason. actually, scratch that. Crackshot is always valuable, but sometimes not the most valuable choice. A bid or different upgrade can be more important, but crackshot is always an option.

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it on an X-wing. I think it's pretty useful actually as people usually forget its there until I use it. Most lists have several ships in my local meta so finding a target to use it on is pretty easy, and pushing through that extra damage has won me points I wouldn't normally have and delivered a crit at the best time.

Still works for me often enough I consider it. Works best on I5 Resistance Awings or other aces. It’s my go to for Wedge.

I find it serving good use on anything that likes to get to Range 1. Or, yah, on X-Wings. The small damage spike it allows can make all the difference.

Plus, the threat of crack shot when they have tokens and just enough evades without spending is sometimes all you need. Can strip tokens, even without needing to use Crack Shot.

Crack shot goes on aces now, not filler.

It sounds like the same card but it's really a completely different card.

I suppose we could flip it around, especially now that Trick Shot has quadrupled in price, and ask when you would not take Crack Shot, but instead Marksmanship, or spend the extra point on Predator.

Crack Shot is generally my default non-faction talent. Composure, Elusive, Daredevil and Intimidation all require specific builds, and Predator is generally not likely to trigger often enough unless your pilot has very high initiative and/or is likely to stick around for a while. I would like to like Marksmanship, but it doesn't really fit anywhere. Maybe on Maarek Stele or Bossk? Barons with FCS and Concs?

I’ve been flying a bunch of Arc-170s lately (usually 3 + Jedi) and having a ton of medium sized bases leaves me more susceptible to bullseye attacks/abilities.

1 minute ago, kempokid said:

I’ve been flying a bunch of Arc-170s lately (usually 3 + Jedi) and having a ton of medium sized bases leaves me more susceptible to bullseye attacks/abilities.

^ This. The more common medium/large bases are, the easier Crack Shot is to use.

I've been using Crack Shot as the single upgrade I put on Wolffe - it makes him a little bit more of a threat, and helps to punish people who choose to ignore him to chase after the actually more dangerous ships in my list. 🙂

20 minutes ago, Jarval said:

^ This. The more common medium/large bases are, the easier Crack Shot is to use.

I've been using Crack Shot as the single upgrade I put on Wolffe - it makes him a little bit more of a threat, and helps to punish people who choose to ignore him to chase after the actually more dangerous ships in my list. 🙂

I like it on Wolffe too. He sort re-rolls forwards anyway, usually focuses, and often dies to focus fire before he can make proper use of a more expensive talent. Potentially a 4 dice attack, with a re-roll, a focus and the ability to cancel an evade makes him a pretty decent threat.

When I was doing my statistical model just before the last points update (using data from listfortress), there was only one upgrade that was as consistently reliable for it cost as Rebel Leia crew.

It was Crack Shot. Funny thing: My model said it would be fairer at 2 points. I personally disagree, but it's proof that Crack Shot is a very good use of 1 point, and usually considerably more effective than composure or Marksmanship. My model also put Daredevil down to 1 point, which I'd really like to see, but the devs disagree there.

TL;DR Crack Shot is incredibly efficient and an amazing bargain at 1 point, in spite of the bullseye requirement.

Crack shot is worth more than 1 point on every small base ship.

Any asset against the fickle green scourge is a worthy investment

Plus it's costed appropriately at one point

The real question is whether or not it's worth upgrading to a talented generic for

9 minutes ago, ficklegreendice said:

The real question is whether or not it's worth upgrading to a talented generic for

Agreed. Most generics cost a point or two too much to be worth upgrading.

Exception would be for Die-Wings like Vultures and Interceptors that REALLY want to shoot before getting initiative-killed.

If your spamming talent generics it can be really powerful. It lets out out DPS a lot of things in a joust, or force barrel rolls from an opponent (instead of mods)

In general, I think its way better than most of the community thinks it is. I'll take two ships with crackshot any day over one with predator.

Much of the time I’ll have multiple empty talent slots in my list. If I have extra points, and it makes sense on the chassis, then it’s definitely worth considering.

Of note, like Juke, it gets better the more shots you have on target first. It’s good on low priority targets, so sometimes I’ll grab it on a blocker in case I miss the block or have to BR to get to the right place.

Don't chase bullseye, but when you’re playing games stop and take occasional note of whether you’re getting them naturally due to flying style and game mechanics. These are the ships you should put crack shot on.

It's incredibly good on 3 dice ships that typically only get one (or no) mods for offense. You can punch some natural rolls through a lot harder.