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Ojetor posted:Wait for him to be flying his one true ship, the TIE Defender. This might sound insane - but Maarek Stele in a Defender is probably worse than Maarek Stele in an Advanced. There's little synergy on the pilot ability in a Defender since none of the <=3 cannons can deal crits (though they'll strip off shields), and he's either going to cost 34 or 35 points. There's almost no reason to take him over Vessery. If anything, he might be a good ship (in an advanced) to set up Vesserys TL. Shoots after PS8 Vessery, /D Vessery is going to take all the fire of your opponent anyways and Maarek's main problem is glass cannon territory. ghetto wormhole posted:I made this list awhile ago but haven't tried it yet: Here is a man that loves reading some faceup damage cards.
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Apr 3, 2016 00:01
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Nathan Eide is walloping Wolf Pack right now. Like, dodging all the arcs perfectly with trip aces. It's something to watch. E: wait what I was off screen for like a minute and the inquisitor exploded. Green Dice  E: and vader bumped in range of a u boat. Fuuuuuck this match is changing on a goddamn dime. thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Apr 3, 2016 |
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Apr 3, 2016 00:28
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If any of you are at Adepticon come say hello! I'm one of the grey shirted FFG guys. At the booth during hall hours but now I'm hanging out at the top 4.
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Apr 3, 2016 00:29
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thespaceinvader posted:Nathan Eide is walloping Wolf Pack right now. Like, dodging all the arcs perfectly with trip aces. Inquisitor took 2 range 1 (out of arc) primaries, took a -1 agi crit then died to the third shot. I now feel better about getting my vader's ATC boba fett'd off, apparently it happens to Natha Eide as well. Edit: Oh, completely off topic, but I keep seeing people with the translucent attack/defense dice on stream. Were they only from some old-as-balls tournament? I'm colorblind as gently caress, and they're the only ones I've been able to quickly glance at and tell apart. Tempted to get the white ones to just see how often I can roll the wrong dice.
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Apr 3, 2016 00:35
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Eide is like some kind of X-Wing prodigy and he's great to watch
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Apr 3, 2016 00:38
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Brunas posted:Inquisitor took 2 range 1 (out of arc) primaries, took a -1 agi crit then died to the third shot. They were either a regionals or a nationals top cut prize.
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Apr 3, 2016 00:39
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thespaceinvader posted:They were either a regionals or a nationals top cut prize. Ah, poo poo. Yep, 2014 regionals top 8. Maybe I'll just try painting my green dice blue or something. Marked dice are legal now right? Would still bring a backup set, could see someone thinking it was sketchy.
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Apr 3, 2016 00:43
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Brunas posted:Ah, poo poo. Yep, 2014 regionals top 8. Maybe I'll just try painting my green dice blue or something. Marked dice are legal now right? Would still bring a backup set, could see someone thinking it was sketchy. Yes, marked dice are legit now. You can probably ebay a set of clear ones, though they might set you back a bit. Or keep the different dice in separate cups or something maybe?
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Apr 3, 2016 00:49
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thespaceinvader posted:Yes, marked dice are legit now. I was just looking for some clear ones, but I don't know where I would buy them... None on Ebay, and I don't think anyone locally has some. Right now I just keep them in separate containers, but like 2/3rds of the way through a game they usually stay out and then I start mixing them up.
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Apr 3, 2016 01:04
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Daaaaamn Soontir survived extremely well but just couldn't pull through. Can't help but feeling that with the meta as it turned out taking the 3 point bid over the Stealth Device was an error on Eide's part. Some unlucky dice early on, a good bump on Vader, and it was just a matter of time from there. Skilled flying from Eide, but those scouts man... dang. They definitely feel a point or two undercosted to me.
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Apr 3, 2016 01:15
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Then again, the asteroid was imperial MVP.
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Apr 3, 2016 01:16
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thespaceinvader posted:Daaaaamn Soontir survived extremely well but just couldn't pull through. Can't help but feeling that with the meta as it turned out taking the 3 point bid over the Stealth Device was an error on Eide's part. For all they hype they had, only two Uboats in the top eight compared to four palp shuttles (and another imperial aces list) is kinda surprising, and makes the Contracted Scout seem fairly well balanced, at least at the top levels of play, to me. e: comparatively, anyways. It's still a worrying lack of Rebels, regardless. Only one tournament is not really indicative of a trend, but with the only new release on the horizon being Imperial Veterans, it's a tad worrying.
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Apr 3, 2016 01:16
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bunnyofdoom posted:Then again, the asteroid was imperial MVP. Heh, yeah. Devlan Mud posted:For all they hype they had, only two Uboats in the top eight compared to four palp shuttles (and another imperial aces list) is kinda surprising, and makes the Contracted Scout seem fairly well balanced, at least at the top levels of play, to me. I'm still a little nervy about the Scout. It's maybe not dominating top-level play, but it's the new Thug Life in terms of being relatively easy to play against and win against lower level players I think. (Vets is gonna be huge anyway, I'm so looking forward to it, but even with it being on the boat already I'm not expecting it before the Yavin Open  )
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Apr 3, 2016 01:23
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thespaceinvader posted:I'm still a little nervy about the Scout. It's maybe not dominating top-level play, but it's the new Thug Life in terms of being relatively easy to play against and win against lower level players I think. No disagreement here, and I'm not sure if the predominance of Imperials is as a counter to it or on their own strengths. The field of the two initial heats was fairly well balanced between the three factions, but without each list, it's hard to say, because for all I know every scum list (or a significant number) could have been uboats, compared to more diversified Rebels and Imperials (well maybe not Imperials). I mean, it's fairly common knowledge that Scum has a serious lack in diversity compared to Rebels and Imperials.
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Apr 3, 2016 01:27
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Devlan Mud posted:No disagreement here, and I'm not sure if the predominance of Imperials is as a counter to it or on their own strengths. The field of the two initial heats was fairly well balanced between the three factions, but without each list, it's hard to say, because for all I know every scum list (or a significant number) could have been uboats, compared to more diversified Rebels and Imperials (well maybe not Imperials). I mean, it's fairly common knowledge that Scum has a serious lack in diversity compared to Rebels and Imperials. Hard to say. I'd put my money on the imp aces/palp being moderately favored against Uboats, while being weak to rebel stress/control/regen lists. Uboats are moderately disadvantaged against aces and should have a near 100% win rate against rebel control/regen lists. Seems like strong alpha strikes threaten the current/old rebel meta's existence as a competitive faction. Maybe Z swarms + control will start to make an appearance?
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Apr 3, 2016 01:56
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I've been wondering whether the Blount/tracers/zs alpha works out to kill off Scouts. Seems plausible that it might do. But scouts really seems to be asking for arc dodging. And I'm not actually sure triple scouts is the optimal build. Two plus a support ship seems better to me, I like 4LOM for that. You play him with Crack Shot (or Juke, actually), title, Zuckuss crew, and you have a few spare points to put Boba on a loo seat, or add an Intel Agent somewhere, etc. Three of them is the new hotness, but I think as with TLT ys, it will settle out at high level to being a competitive rather than dominating build. It's low level I'm worried about. I'm going to really struggle against it. And I'm repeating myself now and it's 2am. I shoudl sleep...
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Apr 3, 2016 02:01
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Welp JM5K won. Expect even more people to fly it now. 
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Apr 3, 2016 02:38
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Ready for the "Fly Casual" shitstorm following that finals game, on the no focus/TL for the torpedo and the no stress moving out of phase. It's gonna be great.
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Apr 3, 2016 02:39
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Z-95 swarm will get eaten alive by Aces. Hopefully some rebel specific fixes in Rebel vets will help them compete, but having to build to beat both JM5K and Palp shuttle is probably not possible for Rebels as is
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Apr 3, 2016 02:56
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Brunas posted:Ready for the "Fly Casual" shitstorm following that finals game, on the no focus/TL for the torpedo and the no stress moving out of phase. It's gonna be great. He had the focus for the torpedo, Brad had just accidentally moved it. Unless I'm thinking of a different torp. What do you mean the "no stress moving out of phase"
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Apr 3, 2016 03:28
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pbpancho posted:He had the focus for the torpedo, Brad had just accidentally moved it. Unless I'm thinking of a different torp. What do you mean the "no stress moving out of phase" Oh I know, that's why it was funny. Neither player actually did anything wrong or even questionable, but I'm sure people are going to start complaining about the "accusatory tone" of Brad or trying to stop a shot that would have had a focus, etc. Brad asked to move a stress onto Yorr from the crit after the opportunity and his opponent declined, but I stepped out for a second and saw the stress on Yorr so I'm assuming he changed his mind or something. With "fly casual" on everyone's mind I think we'll see some disagreements on what was "acceptable"
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Apr 3, 2016 03:40
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Brunas posted:Oh I know, that's why it was funny. Neither player actually did anything wrong or even questionable, but I'm sure people are going to start complaining about the "accusatory tone" of Brad or trying to stop a shot that would have had a focus, etc. Brad asked to move a stress onto Yorr from the crit after the opportunity and his opponent declined, but I stepped out for a second and saw the stress on Yorr so I'm assuming he changed his mind or something. Ohhh, gotcha. He did not allow the stress move, and Brad was fine with it. Totally reasonable in an event like this! I thought all the top 8 games I watched were the perfect mix of professionalism and casual. I was just bummed we couldn't stream them so I could do the commentary again!
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Apr 3, 2016 03:48
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thespaceinvader posted:Heh, yeah. I have seen the scouts and there is a world of difference between people who know it and people who don't in terms of playing them. It's still very much a skill ship. BTW, FFG guy, i was there. Didn't know which one to say hi to but if you saw a guy in a black sweater and green hat with one hand that was me, that guy running two ghosts and a b-wing in hangar bay.
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Apr 3, 2016 03:52
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I admit I can't really be too upset at Scum having their day in the sun, and at least it's not Thug Lyfe.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:19
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If I wanted to get started in the game am I better off picking up the regular core set or the Force Awakened version? Is there much of a difference? And would I want to pick up the other eventually anyway?
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Apr 3, 2016 08:37
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Alris posted:If I wanted to get started in the game am I better off picking up the regular core set or the Force Awakened version? Is there much of a difference? And would I want to pick up the other eventually anyway? You'd probably want both eventually, but the Force Awakens version is a better bet for starting now.
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Apr 3, 2016 08:37
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Both sets essentially give you the same thing in terms of ships...one X-Wing and two TIE Fighters, three of each dice, a set of templates, and a damage deck. The Force Awakens set has an updated damage deck compared to the one in the original core set where they changed some of the results around/ditched some results and added new ones and I generally recommend that one over the old one (there are reasons why you might want to use the old deck competitively but if you're new then I wouldn't worry about that sort of thing).
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Apr 3, 2016 08:44
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Came second. Won a Ghost. Am now dead. RIP me.
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Apr 3, 2016 08:48
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HERE LIES ENDMAN A Ghost For A Ghost
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Apr 3, 2016 08:51
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Based on some nebulous and ill-defined combination of personal experience, extrapolation, and early wave 8 results, I'd like to talk strategy with Rebel players. (I am actually a primary Rebel player who switched to Empire because I feel like they're the most powerful, and have been for a minute.) I don't think it's valuable to put qualifiers on the term "Rebel players" either. If you play Rebels in X-Wing in any capacity, it'd be cool to hear the hottest of your takes on strategy and listbuilding in the new meta, and with the Hoth Open done, it feels like now is as good a time to start that machine up. Listbuilding Strategy When I approach a new idea for a build, it usually comes from an anchor point - what is the best ship I can buy for the points? Efficiency matters, but not as much as you might think, and "efficiency" is hard to objectively define. MathWing guy seems to be claiming he's solved X-Wing with regards to jousting efficiency on the FFG boards, but I'm not a full subscriber to that, although I do use math loosely to inform my decisions - how much bang am I getting for my buck? There are contrasting points to be made about what guy A thinks is efficient versus guy B, so I'm also not going to claim I have solved X-Wing, either, but this is the thread for wangs and by God it seems a more valuable use of time to be productive instead of derailing threads with disagreement posts. To start, identifying the strengths of the identity FFG seems to promote within faction is key and usually easy; even novice players can tell that each team has built-in strengths and weaknesses, and while there's some overlap (everybody's got a middling-or-better PWT now) there's also some fairly concrete striation between the three colors you can choose from. For Rebels, I think the elements they've got the market cornered on (more or less) are in stress control and consistent outcomes both offensively and defensively. Tokens are obviously not faction-unique, but Rebels excel at "normalizing" outcomes, able to split the difference between burst offense and tanky defense, with some notable exceptions. Poe Dameron and Luke Skywalker help to shore up bad rolls with free result changes, and so does Ezra Bridger in the Attack Shuttle, who is most commonly outfitted with a TLT (the undisputed king of normalizing damage output). Rebels typically feel a little less swingy to me than the other factions do (again, with some exceptions), because they'll reliably take damage but have some tools to mitigate it. They can shoot, but it's usually not for obscene amounts. They're the grinder faction, and reward consistent play which minimizes risk. This, more than anything else, is the reason why I think they've historically been the favorites of various top-level players, including Paul Heaver. Tools exist in the other factions to hack dice or get consistent output offensively, for sure, and common-to-all-teams upgrades tilt things in any which way, but the premiere Rebel pilots in terms of cost:benefit at present tend to share a common trait - long term efficacy at the expense of burst damage in either direction. Or, that has been the strength, but whatever. The point is, if you're looking to normalize outcomes over longer games, Rebels have typically been the de facto choice, and that has had some merit. With the release of wave 8, Rebels appear to be in a weird place. Palp Aces didn't go anywhere, because it turns out that not getting shot ever is still a really good strategy in X-Wing, but the emergence of efficient alpha-striking lists has made listbuilding for Rebels a nightmare. At PS2, your old standby auto-include (exaggeration, but bear with me) Gold Squadron Pilot is not going to fire, ever - he is going to instantly die at 1 agility to a munitions salvo, and your formerly-solid-gold 26 points will feel like a waste. Capitalizing on "well, at least they went after the stresshog first, I have superior positioning" has never been harder with the recent influx of good-to-great dial arc dodgers and high-EHP alpha-strikers; you can't one-turn an ace who chased your stresshog aggressively if that "ace" is a Contracted Scout. What's worse is that the highest end of the PS food chain for the Rebellion features Han Solo and Wedge Antilles, who both seem good while not actually being good at this moment, to me. Kanan Jarrus and PTL make Han a different animal, to be sure, but at 3/4 red dice per shot and usually a catastrophic amount of points, he just doesn't have the firepower to chew up 27EHP before inevitably folding. Wedge's dial is pretty bad, and straight up jousting in formation seems like suicide - he's powerful, but not kill-9EHP-ships-in-one-turn powerful, even with Predator. Wedge at the very least has points on his side, being relatively cheap to field for a Rebel ace at 34 points. What's more, if your goal is to joust with amazing alpha-striking potential, that list exists in a vastly better configuration than Rebels can conjure up, and it's called 3JM5K. If your goal is to joust at all, actually, your choices in Rebels seem marginal compared to other factions' options - BBBBZ seems still eminently playable with the blocking potential, and no-poo poo five A-Wing lists have cropped up, but at present it seems like Black Crack + ace (or just 6x Crack Shot swarms) would outperform most challengers to the throne, and that's only if you don't want to take the tack of "gently caress it, let's fire all the torpedoes and see what's left alive." In terms of reliable standbys, the news seems to be pretty poor, as well. Poe appeared in the top 16 just once at the Hoth Open, and I expect that number to dwindle down further as more and more people adjust to the new hotness. Poe's strength was always at dealing with massed TLTs, and now that that appears to be a less viable list, his usefulness has dropped considerably. Autothrusters won't stop you from getting one-turned by a pair of Plasma Torpedoes, and the dial won't stop you from getting wrecked by competently-flown Imperial aces, PS10 or not. Corran Horn was nowhere to be seen in the top 16; I don't think that's necessarily a referendum on his efficacy, but it's an indicator that he wasn't attractive enough for many Rebel players to slot him in. Ditto Dash Rendar. It's one event, and shouldn't be taken as gospel, but it serves as a bellwether for where the meta seems to be heading, and so far that direction is "away from Rebels." So, with all of that in mind, what appears to be important in wave 8's early meta, and how do the Rebels take advantage of that?
 Seriously, Though, We Were Going To Build Lists And You Wrote A Bunch Of poo poo Let's summarize. If you're playing Rebels right now, competitively, you'd do so only if you felt like the damage mitigation was still worth it - or you could make it worth it - and if you wanted to take advantage of stress control. The latter element is still relevant, because the most natural counter to a low-PS blob of "lol i roll missiles at u" is arc-dodging Imperial aces, and those dudes really don't like to be reminded of their student loan debts or neglect of their mothers (credit Otisburg). R3-A2 can still do work, but not in a Gold Squadron Pilot shell - not if you want him to actually shoot the shot, anyway, and remain at least marginally useful in non-Imp-Aces matchups. PS2 just doesn't cut it anymore. quote:Gray Squadron Pilot (28) So the natural thought is to just go up to PS4, with a Gray Squadron Pilot. It's 2 points more expensive, which seems like a small deal but is secretly kind of a big deal, but it seems worth it for what you're getting. At PS4 he can simultaneous fire with Tala Z-95s carrying munitions and Black Squadron dudes with Crack Shot, and he actually shoots over the head of the 3JM5K Scouts, which may not be great but it's better than getting instantly murdered. Any damage output helps against lists like that, so for 2 points it's worth the spend. The issue is that this now precludes the use of the modified Heaver builds from Worlds 2015, which still saw some use until very recently - either in the original configuration, or starring Ezra Bridger in a Shuttle in place of the one TLT Y-Wing and a Z-95 blocking chump. Gray Squadron stresshogs are too expensive to fit Poe Dameron and Ezra together, or even Poe/Y-Wing/Z together - you're at 101 points if you remove Poe's EPT entirely, and that seems pretty unacceptable really so that's out. So what do you change? I'm making a pretty bold assumption in saying that you'll automatically play from the new 28-point benchmark, I'm aware. That's why it's a discussion and not a dissertation. Still, it feels like stress control isn't the issue with Rebels. Do you take out Ezra? Math would suggest he's actually less than great at sustaining attacks from munitions - he's meant to avoid 2/3 dice attacks, not 4 that will virtually be guaranteed hits - and with no way to regenerate health besides taking fatal damage and reviving with Crewbacca, he's in a bad spot. Do you take out Poe? Math would suggest that his offense is lackluster in almost any configuration he's popularly played in, and the main thing he was good at dealing with has functionally ceased to exist in the current meta. Nobody brings Thug Lyfe anywhere, even locally, because it's just asking to get killed in 7 minutes by 3JM5K, and that was before taking the Palp Aces matchup into account. At 38ish points, Poe makes the most sense as a regen ace meant to win on time, but the threat of him just getting vaporized by ships with greater EHP and colossal damage output is so real that it's hard to justify. The problem, to me, is that a configuration of three small ships in Rebels is a loser's play. Your 38 point Poe can get BTFO by stuff worth half the cost, and having only three targets that can't get out of the way of the JumpMaster spam will result in some serious pain. I've been saying that the T-70 is a lackluster ship for a bit now, but the lack of action economy combined with the poor dial at that point buy is just not justifiable anymore. Ezra seems a little more reasonable - even "Red Ace" seems marginally more reasonable - but only slightly. It isn't just the susceptibility to being destroyed, it's that shooting back at "normalized" output is meaningless now. Poe usually getting his 2 hits does pretty much a whole boatload of nothing at present, especially since the primary concerns are 9EHP ships with decent green dice and Autothrusters aces that may have Palp backup. Or Omega Leader, who straight up beats the pilot ability, but that's neither here nor there. So I'm taking stress control in the form of the Gray Squadron Pilot, and that leaves me with 72 points to spend, and I want to have 3 ships fit in 72 points. So how do I get back to shooting the best shot I can take, even if it's a one-off? The choices seem to be fairly clear - you need to pack a 4-dice-or-better munitions shot (or primary?), and you need to be PS4+.  Holy poo poo Does This Post Have A loving Endgame PS4+ ships that offer really potent offense in Rebels are limited to munitions-carriers and the Ghost in any of its permutations. The Ghost is probably better talked about by someone who's had experience flying it in some better configuration than I've used, but a popular choice still seems to be Accuracy Corrector and Autoblaster Turret, although the Chopper build at the Hoth Open looked pretty dank as well fam. With that in mind, I'm primarily going to suggest everyone take a hard look at Tala Squadron Pilots and Jake Farrell. quote:Tala Squadron Pilot (17/18) quote:Jake Farrell (33) Either one of these dudes present problems for other lists in different ways - the Zs can be paired up for cheap to add a lot of oomph to a list you think needs the firepower, and Jake with VI, PTL, and PRockets (plus an aggressive bid) is usually enough to BTFO any troublesome arc dodger under the right circumstances. The Inquisitor can be in for a bad time against a ship that can stay in his grill and fire a ton of dice at him, even with his free Evade, and at PS9 Jake gets to control the range band for an engagement on Omega Leader. He beats both on time, as well, if something goes wrong. Not a bad place to start, but his 2-dice primary gun means that you have to make that PRockets count, or you're in for a really bad game. He's harder to kill, to be sure, but his expected damage output on his alpha strike is actually shockingly low considering he's rolling the extra red die over Concussion/Homing Missile Z-95s with their Guidance Chips. His dial is solid and his action economy is fantastic - it really makes me wonder why FFG made the Interceptor a 3-dice primary and the A-Wing only 2, shields be damned, but c'est la vie. In tandem with a stresshog to shut off annoying token stacking, Jake presents a clear and present danger to any Imperial ace asleep at the wheel, or even if they're not - land in the 'hog's arc, and Jake will hit the gas and murder you before doing donuts in the corner of the mat until they call time. The Zs present a more traditional approach - fire missiles, then become blockers. Their primary weapons are negligible, but that's life. They're effective little bastards in the right hands, and together present a puzzle for your opponent to solve ("how do I shoot the guys I want to shoot, because it isn't the Zs, without getting bumped by the Zs"), but they're bad companions for the 3JM5K list due to their bad primary. Two of them are only 34/36 points, though, generally speaking, and that's pretty drat good for their expected damage output. So, with the stress control as the anchor, let's look at this list: quote:2Fast 2Furious 2Dice This configuration gets you to four small ships, creates a clear threat from every single ship, and has a solid alpha-striking potential. It's enough to be scary to Imperial aces, as Jake's PRockets fired after a stresshog shot can spell doom for basically anyone, and it has some merit as a counterpunch to the 3JM5K list, except that once you've blown your load, you a) probably didn't kill a single JumpMaster and b) you're left with a bunch of 2-dice guns to kill them with, aka bad times. Going to more Zs would give you a better jab against the PS3 Scouts, but it would seriously impact your gameplan against aces, to the point of comedy; and, again, if you're just trying to run a jousting alpha-strike list, other factions do that better. Leaving the stress control in, keeping the powerful body blow of the missile Zs, and dropping Jake gives us between 36 and 38 points to slot into the list. The problem is, of course, that the ship needs to have a decent primary weapon or recurring munitions threat, or some other way of providing value to the core shell of stress control + munitions (Gray/Z/Z). Off the top of my head, that precludes the use of any PWT; no Corran; you can get Miranda at that price, but I don't think she solves your problems; Poe fits, but his efficacy has fallen off lately; Ezra doesn't pack enough punch; most of the other 3-dice primary gun options just don't have the right stuff.  Wow So This Was A Lone Wolf Luke Post All Along And It Only Took You Like Twenty Thousand Words Lone Wolf Luke Skywalker is an undervalued pilot with the potential to succeed in this meta, I think, and while I'm not sure it's good it's something I've been putting some thought into for a while. I've been playing Poe Dameron off and on since I started playing X-Wing, and while I've had some success with him in XXY and Heaverlist configurations, I've just never felt like I'm getting the most out of that role he fills. He's impossible for TLTs to kill, which is nice, but his offense is lame and action denial crushes him pretty badly. He can't take full advantage of his dial or Boost because of poor built-in action economy, and I've long been of the opinion that pilot skill above 8 on a jousting ace is essentially irrelevant. What's more, fitting him into the shell I'm starting from - Gray/Z/Z - leaves him with 1 point to spend on an EPT unless I switch from R2-D2 to R5-P9, which is less risky in this meta than it was previously (since stresshogs have dived so hard lately) but still only gets us to 2 points. Barring some cute nonsense, that means the most attractive EPT choices are Veteran Instincts and Lone Wolf, and my bid is functionally crippled. I'm starting from 99 points in this shell. Lone Wolf Luke, on the other hand, has some good maths to back him up. Against a JM5K torpedo shot where all four dice connect, Lone Wolf Luke can expect to see 2.5 damage from that attack, while Poe Dameron can expect to see 2.8. It's actually even worse than that, because even if only 2 damage goes through on each of them, Luke actually only sustains 2 damage - Poe takes 3. Granted, Poe has a built-in additional shield, but it doesn't help him, here, and Luke can always eject his droid to get to the same level of EHP as Poe without having the same drawbacks. I'm not saying it's good that Luke has fewer shields, but I'm not saying it's isn't good, either. In this specific case, having one less shield doesn't hurt Luke very much. What's more, Luke's expected damage sustained from a range 2 3-dice primary with a Focus token is actually less than Poe's, as well, unless it's from a PWT or at range 3 - 0.8 for LW Luke and 1.12 for Poe - and it costs Luke absolutely nothing in the way of actions to do, so action denial (being blocked, getting stressed) hurts him way, way less than it hurts Poe. Additionally, Luke is free to spend his Focus on offense at will if he has it - no reason not to - which also increases his damage over Poe over all range bands, particularly when you factor in the free re-roll. What I'm trying to say is this - I legitimately think that Lone Wolf Luke Skywalker is better than Poe Dameron, even at PS8. He takes less damage, he does more damage, and he can actually redmove almost with impunity because of how his ability and EPT function - rerolls and changes regardless of tokens or actions. He's definitely harder to fly in the sense that keeping the LW bonus is mission-critical to him, but there are a variety of strategies you can employ to realize your goal, and the reward is significant. The PS war has never been less relevant than it is right now, with generics packing a wallop and arc dodging Empire aces making your life a living hell even at PS10 on a jousting ship. At 34 points, Luke even beats problem children like OL and the Inquisitor on time. Keeping your LW bonus up while fielding four ships is definitely going to be a challenge, but it's what I'm practicing, and I'm pretty eager to hear thoughts from other Rebel players as to where their heads are at with the new toys at both their own and their opponents' disposal. I'm pretty sure Strobe is still running XXX no matter what, though. quote:Episode IV
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Apr 3, 2016 08:57
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guts and bolts posted:20398 characters of bullshit Other options for rebels: Good ol' advanced sensor Daggers (Probably bad) Naked 35 ghosts I poo poo you not - Wild space fringer with intel agent to block the poo poo out of some uboats and aces Waiting to see if the ordnance storm passes Wes Janson? I can't think of any other action denial for rebels Duct taping deadeye to talas and hoping no one notices Finding a new faction identity For serious though, regen and and stress control are both super hard countered by Uboats. I don't think the world is ending yet, but basically every meta rebel ship is in a rough spot Poe? RIP to plasma/proton torps in 2-3 shots at most. Tactician Ks/stressbot? Yeah, same story. Every single rebel ship that I know of that survives/thrives vs imp aces gets assblasted by uboats. The only ship that I can think of that even does alright vs both is Dash. Note: I'm not saying rebels are a dead faction. I just don't know what the answer to the current meta shift is.
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Apr 3, 2016 09:13
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Brunas posted:Note: I'm not saying rebels are a dead faction. I just don't know what the answer to the current meta shift is. Wes is in a bad spot. His ability is impactful over the long game, but stopping one torp from going off doesn't stop him from instantly getting blown up by the other two. You talked about Palob in our shop talk and I'm kinda in on that? But he's not a Rebel, so RIP. Stress control matters very little to 3JM5K, but it matters a lot to 3JM5K's counter - Empire aces. As more people play that list to beat 3JM5K, you need an answer for both, and I think a four-ship configuration coming out of the Gray/Z/Z shell is likely to be it, at least until we see more poo poo coming down the pike. I'm not saying it's definitely LW Luke, but he feels really good, and he punches above his weight in this meta. You should try it out.
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Apr 3, 2016 09:20
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I just bought the two starter packs and am hooked. I'll mostly play this with my gf or friends coming over to my place, so I'll be the only one buying into it. Which ships should I buy next to get a good pool to choose from?
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Apr 3, 2016 09:37
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Apr 3, 2016 09:40
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the panacea posted:I just bought the two starter packs and am hooked. I'll mostly play this with my gf or friends coming over to my place, so I'll be the only one buying into it. Depends on what you like to play, really. Tanky, regenerating ships: K-Wing, T-70, E-Wing Arc-Dodgy high PS Ships: TIE Interceptor, Imperial Aces, or TIE Advanced and a Raider Turrets: Y-Wings with Twin Laser Turrets(from K-Wing) Large base turrets: Any of Millennium Falcon, Outrider, Decimator, or Jumpmaster Oh, forgot swarms: More TIE fighers, or B-Wings Brunas fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Apr 3, 2016 |
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Apr 3, 2016 09:41
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the panacea posted:I just bought the two starter packs and am hooked. I'll mostly play this with my gf or friends coming over to my place, so I'll be the only one buying into it. The Rebel and Imperial Aces packs are good value, the Falcon, Slave 1, Lambda and Decimator are useful, but the ideal way to figure out the answer would be to go to your FLGS, borrow some ships and see which ones you enjoy.
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Apr 3, 2016 09:41
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thespaceinvader posted:The Rebel and Imperial Aces packs are good value, the Falcon, Slave 1, Lambda and Decimator are useful, but the ideal way to figure out the answer would be to go to your FLGS, borrow some ships and see which ones you enjoy. Pretty much this. I was more-or-less in the same situation as you panacea, and I think the Reb+Imp Ace packs and a standalone X-Wing + TIE Fighter (to get the extra pilots to use with your existing models, plus another model to use) is a solid starting point. However naturally it all depends on what you think would be fun to fly (as well as what your FLGS has/can get in-stock, I guess)
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Apr 3, 2016 10:22
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The Ghost is in a different scale from the Transport, but not by much. The Ghost is ludicrously huge and shouldn't have been a non-Epic ship, but if it had been an Epic ship no-one would play it. I can understand why they decided the way they did, but the Ghost is just too big, especially when you consider that there's no way to change its height on its base.
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Apr 3, 2016 10:25
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Brunas posted:The only ship that I can think of that even does alright vs both is Dash. And even then all his potential wingmen are currently garbage
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Apr 3, 2016 10:26
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 12:26 |
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thespaceinvader posted:The Ghost is in a different scale from the Transport, but not by much. I reckon they should have kept it as a large-base rather than Epic ship, but they should have modelled it in the Epic scale.
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Apr 3, 2016 10:33
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