These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Warfare & Tactics

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Kiting with drones
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Denuo Secus
#1 - 2012-07-31 20:38:47 UTC
Does anyone here have success with that tactic?

My own results are rather mixed. Maybe I just did it wrong. That's why I'm asking here.

- In small gang it worked quite good. Using the new drone damage mods leads to impressive DPS. More important is flexibility. With small and medium drones I'm able to deal with frigs and cruisers. My drones were safe almost all the time since our opponents had other things to do than shooting drones. Only issue I had sometimes was travel time. But with dedicated tacklers it's not really a problem.

- Solo it's very different. I was flying a shield Vexor - trying to stay at long point range. At least in the beginning of the fight. I had drone damage mods fitted since blasters were only meant as secondary weapon - to finish off the fight quickly or as defence in case I get hard tackled. Only and big issue I had: if my opponent cannot reach me he just attacks my drones. And at 17-20km it doesn't make sense to micromanage drones. So I lost my main weapon.

Should I just give up this idea or is there something I can do better? I like the flexibility of drones. And I like kiting - since blobbing is that common. I considered to try an Arbitrator instead. With bonus on TD I could protect my drones maybe a bit more. But maybe it's just wrong to use drones solo outside of brawling tactics?

Any hint?
Thanks!
Suddenly Forums ForumKings
Doomheim
#2 - 2012-07-31 20:40:27 UTC
Yes.

Setup a 100mn Ishtar and enjoy the gallente version of the overpowered 100mn tengu.

Just watch your drone health!
Denuo Secus
#3 - 2012-07-31 20:46:05 UTC
Suddenly Forums ForumKings wrote:
Just watch your drone health!


I watched my drones health. And I saw them dying.

Please elaborate. How do you keep your drones alive at kiting range? Trying to pull them does not really help at kiting range. This is my own expericene at least.

But yeah...on an Ishtar I have a lot of spare drones available. So loosing drones isn't such an issue here. On a Vexor I only have 5+ med drones if I want some light drones at the same time.
Suddenly Forums ForumKings
Doomheim
#4 - 2012-07-31 20:48:12 UTC
Denuo Secus wrote:
Suddenly Forums ForumKings wrote:
Just watch your drone health!


I watched my drones health. And I saw them dying.

Please elaborate. How do you keep your drones alive at kiting range? Trying to pull them does not really help at kiting range. This is my own expericene at least.

But yeah...on an Ishtar I have a lot of spare drones available. So loosing drones isn't such an issue here. On a Vexor I only have 5+ med drones if I want some light drones at the same time.


You nailed it.

Big drone bay means that you have more drones to pull.

Also, try only pulling back the drone taking damage.
Wenron
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#5 - 2012-07-31 20:55:40 UTC
Alternately, fly an arbitrator. Fit TD's. Be an *******.
X Gallentius
Black Eagle1
#6 - 2012-07-31 21:05:19 UTC  |  Edited by: X Gallentius
web/scram/drones, neut/scram/drones. No webs or neuts, don't count drones for significant dps.

If you are skilled in "drone-fu" you can recall them when they start getting targeted, but in the end a Vexor is usually too slow to keep up and hold most other ships long enough for drones to kill them (unless the other pilot is new or not very good). You gotta disable their mobility (either through neuting them or web/scram).
Suddenly Forums ForumKings
Doomheim
#7 - 2012-07-31 21:07:06 UTC
X Gallentius wrote:
web/scram/drones, neut/scram/drones. No webs or neuts, don't count drones for significant dps.

If you are skilled in "drone-fu" you can recall them when they start getting targeted, but in the end a Vexor is usually too slow to keep up and hold most other ships. You gotta disable their mobility (either through neuting them or web/scram).



100mn shield tanked ishtar can keep up however. More expensive though.
chatgris
Quantum Cats Syndicate
Of Essence
#8 - 2012-07-31 22:07:52 UTC
Suddenly Forums ForumKings wrote:
X Gallentius wrote:
web/scram/drones, neut/scram/drones. No webs or neuts, don't count drones for significant dps.

If you are skilled in "drone-fu" you can recall them when they start getting targeted, but in the end a Vexor is usually too slow to keep up and hold most other ships. You gotta disable their mobility (either through neuting them or web/scram).



100mn shield tanked ishtar can keep up however. More expensive though.


The ishtar might be able to keep up, but the drones often cannot.
Fade Azura
Weaponized Autists Cartel
#9 - 2012-08-01 07:36:00 UTC
chatgris wrote:
Suddenly Forums ForumKings wrote:
X Gallentius wrote:
web/scram/drones, neut/scram/drones. No webs or neuts, don't count drones for significant dps.

If you are skilled in "drone-fu" you can recall them when they start getting targeted, but in the end a Vexor is usually too slow to keep up and hold most other ships. You gotta disable their mobility (either through neuting them or web/scram).



100mn shield tanked ishtar can keep up however. More expensive though.


The ishtar might be able to keep up, but the drones often cannot.


yeh .. this is very true ...kiting with drones you will lose alot of drones. especially when u need to gtfo fast.

i did have some moderate success in july with a drone kiting railgun ishkur ... nothing fancy but its fun in fleet fights. and the warriors i use were fast enough to keep up most of the time with my AF.

http://eve-kill.net/?a=pilot_detail&plt_id=717662&view=ships_weapons&m=7&y=2012

i lost a crapload of warriors due to warpoffs to gtfo and sudden fleet warps that were not called ahead of time during battle and smartbombs and eh ... lots of stuff will annoy you doing this.. in fact most of my kills last month were from warriors by kiting around in my ishkur. including a nice podkill that my warriors did to a guy caught in a bubble during fleet fight.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=17034673

if you wanna do it because you think its fun do it. but its probably suited best for fleet or gang engagements as fights can be spread over a large distance and you will have alot of opportunities to use kiting and ranged dps.
Cpt Branko
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2012-08-01 12:12:42 UTC
It's more or less unavoidable. In gang, though, this isn't a big deal; people won't normally shoot drones in gangs.

Solo, you're just going to waste millions worth of drones trying to kite. The only way it could maybe work is with TDs, and even then heavy drones are so slow they will get popped, leaving you with mediums only.
Evolution1979
Hull Down Inc.
#11 - 2012-08-02 08:36:37 UTC
Or just use a basilisk or something like that.
Kite the opponent and prey to god your drones can put out enough damage.
You can surely rep them anyways Cool
Timural
#12 - 2012-08-03 17:24:14 UTC
Tracking disruptor is defiantly the best way to do this. As long as your kiting fit still allows you to keep range. The tracking disruptor will make it practically impossible to kill your drones..unless it happens to be a frigate armed with rockets or high tracking weapons along with a web. However if you are using a cruiser you probably have space for dual tracking disruptors with tracking disruption scripts.