Is the R5-D8 droid mathematically inefficient?

If you spend an action on him you get to roll a die and on a dodge or focus you get to repair 1 hull.
Well isn't that the same as choosing focus as an action?
(Preventing the hit instead of repairing it.)

In fact isn't focus better because you could choose to spent it in an attack?
In addition if the ship has more than 1 agility/defense die then focus is an even better decision.

Therefore, if flying an X-wing it would be better to select focus as an action
instead of activating the R5-D8.

But if you don't need that Focus, you don't get a hull point back. So, its not quite the same. Also, in a situation where you might be able to get a free action. It could definitely find a place on a Y-Wing, or any ship teamed up with Lando.

CliffordHolm said:

that is if you are in the heat of the battle. there are some occasional odd moments where you have nothing firing at you due to bad maneuvering or sheer luck, or they are "sure misses" (ie. TIE at range 3 behind a rock), and if you do not have any good targets (say, there's only 2 TIEs at range 3 from you, one with evade, other with focus, both hiding behind a rock), then you could give R5-D8 a try

I waffle between R5-D8 and a straight R5 on one of my Y-Wings. Normally D8 is fine, nothing too special but does repair a point or two per game. Last night he was freaking on fire and repaired six points of damage out of 8 attempts! Well worth having him that game!

Jim