Ships & Modules

There's nothing wrong with the Drake. It's functional with low SP count, which makes it popular among younger players.

It is a bit boring, that's why people give it a bad rap. This sums Caldari up nicely and to make matters worse the drake has even less buttons.

the negativity towards the drake mostly lies mostly in the area of PvP. Of course, before the tengu came out, there was also a good bit on the PvE side, but now that they can complain about the tengu you shouldn't have to worry too much about the drake. As long as you understand that you really should upgrade from it (eventually). Also, since everyone flies them, obviously they're OP ::sarcasm::

A drake is good for up to lvl 3 missions (though it is possible to slowly do 4's with them), and up to class 2 WH's. It can also work for ratting/anoms in lowsec/nullsec, and in groups in higher lvl WH's and missions, though it won't really work for incursions. For lvl 2's you might be better off in an assault missile caracel, because of the speed warping/getting to gates, but since one leads right into the other that isn't that big an issue.

Once you start looking at PvP, you start seeing why lots of people hate on it - its a brick that can do mediocre dps at mediocre ranges and can't really do too much utility. Also, the drake has a reputation as a giant brick because of PvEr's taking their PvE drake with full passive tank out and PvPing with it - they aren't very effective at actually killing things, like that, but are a real PITA to take out. Now, fit properly, a PvP drake is pretty decent, though it will never get the DPS of something like a gank brutix. But because they are rarely ever primaried, you can rely on that dps being there for most of the fight.

-Arazel

Spider tanking drakes for C3 Sites. Even tanked a cloaky Protus with it, he couldn`t break my tanking, I couldn`t break his, so we part as friends. lovely story, specially the protus part

I love the Drake. You have to realize that people in this game go by a very specific code of unwritten laws. One of them is:

"If it works, it's overpowered."

Ive got some drakes. I carebear in them. I hate them with every fiber of my being, but ill use them.

+ Theyre simple to fly, take tons of punishment, and have good damage projection.

- If you use it too much, your brain atrophies. I kid you not.

Sorry but you're just begging to get ganked if you're regularly using it for L4's. You could fit a Raven for probably the same cost and do L4's twice as fast.

Drake is an effective ship it can do ANY lv4 mission, I know because I have done it in the past. And not so distant past when I accidently popped my nighthawk and had to resort to my backup drake which was collecting dust for quite a few years. With the right skills (max missiles skills in my case) it can do lv4 missions with a pretty decent speed if you know what your doing, though with only ok skills it's severely lacking while doing lv4 missions.

For lv3 missions there is nothing better, that a newer character can relistically use.

Most of the hatred comes from cookie cutter ship designs newer players use and how it has a carebear association image since it's ease of use. But with the right skills it can be quite deadly, but it takes awhile for it to truely shine that way in my opinion.

This man speaks the truth. If those changes go live, it will then be 'nerfed' to have the same tank as all of the other BCs (boo hoo), and have way more DPS. It's going to be horridly overpowered.

People hate the Drake because it is too good at everything. Excellent at PvE, solo PVP, and Fleet PVP. It has roughly TWICE as many PvP kills as the next closest ship (the cane) every month. (And people can say what they want, but that is absolute proof that it is unbalanced - people don't over-use something because it is gimped). There will always be ships that are better at some things, and not others. The Drake is not one of those - it is good at everything. It needs a good old fashioned nerfing.

All that being said - as a new player you should absolutely fly it - especially for PvE.

Yep, which is why people LOVE it when they meet fleet after fleet of just drakes ! They're cheap and expendable too.

Add 30ish logistics ships to 200 drakes, command ships, random blackbirds and rifters or whatever and bang, it's a party

Its because:

1) almost all new players fly exclusively drake for one year, till they train up for something bigger
2) Passive no brain tank and little to no DPS in non kinetic type = dull and boring
3) missiles are annoying in PVP because you ALLWAYS have a feeling you aint shooting the primary due to missile flight time
4) Every proper FOTM cynabal and vagabond outrun your heavy missiles on semilong distance (40-50km) making gatefights dull and boring, you cant "surprise" anything

I jump into a drake only because its ubercheap PvP vessel and it has 101 way to fit it for various missions...

I.