GOWK does have the potential to negate a lot of damage, but that's all left up to the die rolls. Yes, he does have MOTF and Mettle, but if you're having to reroll every save, you'll run out of FPs in no time. Once he's out then he becomes much more vulerable. Another disadvantage about GOWK is that he does not have a lot of damage output compared to other figures in the same point range. Then with squads using some good melee (like Yobuck with Gen. Skywalker/Saeseetin or Lancer with Pawn), then GOWK can become more of a liability. Don't get me wrong, I think GOWK is an amazing piece, but he's really not much more than a very survivable commander. Most people want to have more offensive capability, hence why you're seeing more Yobuck squads than GOWK.

Sincerely,
Jester007

Yeah, like i said a few months ago, the GOWK isn't as competitive as he used to be. He will be in trouble against swap squads (specially melee) and run out of FPs against shooters like Han, Dash, Cad, Rex, Mara. Even Ganner or a JWM can put him in an awkward situation. For some reasons, i'm tempted to say he's a little more competitive in 150 than in 200 though. Overall, he's more a defensive piece than an offensive piece, which isn't currently the best way to play the game. And now both Rebels and NR have movement breaker (levitation) + disruptive / tempo control. Times have changed

That is not exactly what I am seeing. What else is being played with Mara? Han? Yes, Rebels are still showing up with their traditional Cannon squads, but NR is extremely mixed in their squad types, which tends to hurt GOWK, even with Ferus. And really, "some" Yobuck squads is really doing it a discredit. I would say it is the most popular squad type I have seen, may NR coming in close behind it. Yes, GOWK isn't doing great, but I would say this is the best meta we've had in years.

While Barriss and Luminara are difficult to deal with, once GOWK's CE is gone (by either disruptive or his untimely death) they can be taken down. Barriss will eventually run out of FP and be unable to heal the damage dealt to your pieces.

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In regard to the OP:

GOWK squads are not a whole lot of fun to play against unless you're NR running disruptive. And as someone said, even Rebels with their two disruptive pieces are tough to deal with when they're played right.

I found this out when playing in the PA/MD regional with my GOWK squad. Pretty good when it came to shooter centric squads (and when I didn't do dumb things) but difficult when I had to deal with NR disruptive or melee centric squads. It didn't leave me with a lot of options and by the time I had killed the disruptive I ended up losing GOWK or most of the attack power of my squad. I was lucky in a few of my match-ups that GOWK was able to make saves and live, and that the attack portion of the squad wasn't killed too quickly.

I think some people will try to re-look at or rework GOWK squads as best as they can. The problem is I still see NR being the biggest threat and problem for him. With Kyle, Han, and Ganner (mainly for movement breaking) at their disposal they're quite tough to stop with GOWK. Don't count out the Rebels either they have Luke to help lob the disruptive (if they feel like it) where it needs to be, and the melee to kill him as well.

But...with that being said I wouldn't count him totally out.

Heh, funny you should post that squad. That is pretty much what I ran in PA for regionals. (here is what I ran)

You are right though, with Yobuck being a factor its one reason I decided to play GOWK and JWMs in the first place. Although I didn't see Yobuck up there it did give me a great view of what squads would be difficult for GOWK in the new meta.