Talk:Veteran Instincts/@comment-26068736-20150221231416/@comment-454133-20180613200413

Pushing Whisper to PS 9 means s/he shoots sooner in the round. Whisper's ability grants a focus token if your attack hits, and just as importantly, Advanced Cloaking Device lets you cloak (for +2 agility and next-round repositioning) after shooting whether you hit or miss. Adding Gunner and Fire Control System lets you hedge against misses too. It's a lot of points, but also a really solid chance of pushing damage through and getting a focus + cloak.

All this combines to making Whisper a tough target to hit (4 agility + focus token, possibly also an evade from your action). However if you're fighting foes that shoot before you, this strategy goes out the window. This is the value of pushing Whisper from PS 7 to 9: minimize the pilots that can shoot you first. Enemy PS 10 and 11 (and the ultra-rare 12) ships are threats, as are PS 9s with initiative (so whisper often will use an initiative bid to make sure she has initiative against fellow 9s). In such a delicate ship, she cares a lot about that extra defense.

What ultimately made it hard to fly Whisper (and the reason you don't see her much anymore) was the PS War, where players started flying PS 9, 10 and 11 ships regularly and Whisper simply couldn't compete (since she starts at PS 7, she can't push any higher than 9). If enemies can shoot first, she shatters quickly, and she's too many points of investment to make that gamble.

But in more casual games where you won't necessarily fight PS 10-11 aces? She's pretty effective.