Moving on from the HK silliness, since only a few of you seem to be able to recognize the inherent problem with fringe droids that WotC left us with here are my predictions.

RaR and BoT top tiers (sequential order):
Sith - Maul/Revan/Bandon/Exar FS, Sith Sorcery now with Kaan, and mixed shooter/beat squads with Atton and/or their new Admiral. Traya is a very very good figure and both her and Kaan provide the cost space to allow that critical extra attacker that Sith squads always seem to be lacking because of their cost. Zannah is simply a defensive minded piece, but she can be a centerpiece like Jaina has been for NR and Mando squads in tier 2 probably.

OR - Carth/Atton make the biggest splashes immediately as will Kavar. Thon will take more time to develop solid squads with, and may need a couple more sets to really see his potential.

Mandos - some new figures, but nothing much different for them. Death shots are still where they are at their best.

Republic - Mace despite the complaints of powercreep (which are wrong btw - powercreep can only occur in the whole game, not new Mace verses way overcosted and never played all of the former Maces) is tier 2 at best. He'll be fun locally and reasonably competitive in the right squads for fans. The big tricks Republic got are in the Wookiee and the Grey Jedi.

Seps - A-series, instant tier 1 as well as making droid squads more than simply, spin, spin, spin, ok you done? Now I attack rinse and repeat. Dooku will take some time for people to get used to, but he's surprisingly powerful and a ton of fun. He brings back little used pieces (Lando DS is his best friend, second best is Aurra Sing either version).

Rebels - No real changes to their top tier, just some other options given enough power to be played locally, mostly tier 2 type stuff for them.

Imperials - Some big changers here. Weir makes a couple of sets of competitive options playable, as does the new Dark Trooper stuff. Vader does what he can for bringing back stormtrooper swarms and not coincidentally gives Palleon a new toy as well.

NR - Basically some pilot stuff here, and things that add to existing squad designs to provide alternatives. No particularly new squads, but now more variety. For example, don't like running Dash in the NR? Fine, Winter and Tycho can make a nice replacement for Dash/JAgged.

Vong - I believe Graham from Atlanta said something like, "Nas Choka kills". It's true, he and Jakan are a great addition to the faction. The rest provide options and new followers to vary up the game. The fanatic is interesting and fun and a great droid counter if you need one.

Fringe - some of the biggest tier one changers this time were fringe. Celeste is a beast :). Klatoonian Captain has been mightly praised, as has the Chadra Fan Pilot. The best part of seeing these played in PT, was that they fit into so many different squad designs that I was loving the variety they were creating. For example, some took Celeste into a thrawn swap with Tarkin and relied on her to do it all. Others took her to Sith with the Wrangler and played other Savages. Celeste/Exar made a nice competitive pairing (tier 2). KC makes pilots good in any faction. The most overlooked fringe mini thus far has been the Wookiee thug. I'll leave it to some of the wookiee fans to start playing around with these guys, but they are pretty cool figures.

Huges - I pulled these two out separate because huges aren't really heavily competitive minis, and never will be. But the new direction we made for savage huges I think is key. It helps at least give them a fighting chance in competitive play, and makes them feel like a savage monster (which is the most important part). Nothing worse in this game in terms of abstractions imo than a massive savage creature biting a jedi, only to have it block him with his lightsaber. That makes no sense :).

I LOVE the wookiee thugs i used them recently and they were so much fun to use. They actually did a great job when paired with merumeru.