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are you a drone specialist?
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Praxis Ginimic
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2012-08-14 22:58:13 UTC  |  Edited by: Praxis Ginimic
I'm very new...less than 2 months. I fly Gallente and like it so far (although I will be cross training lots) and before I embark on a 2 month long journey of drone skills I'd like the advice of some vets who have their drone skills maxed out. It seems to me that it could be a very versatile and deadly weapon platform if one really fits for it but then again what the hell do I know. So, what do the drone specialists think, in terms of both pve & pvp?
Cadfael Maelgwyn
Doomheim
#2 - 2012-08-14 23:00:07 UTC
Drones are great, except for the parts where they can get blown up and tend to do stupid things.
Josef Djugashvilis
#3 - 2012-08-14 23:00:31 UTC
Good for mission running, not so good for pvp.

This is not a signature.
Nikolai Dostoyevski
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2012-08-14 23:01:21 UTC
Great for solo farming PvE missions.

Suck for most else, including anything WH.
Whadafool
State War Academy
Caldari State
#5 - 2012-08-14 23:04:04 UTC
Josef Djugashvilis wrote:
Good for mission running, not so good for pvp.


this

stuff
Chatte Noire
PepperPark Deep Space Operations
#6 - 2012-08-14 23:07:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Chatte Noire
Drones rule. They will get shot at, blown up, will split up and decide to engage at least three different targets. People who have spent 500k SP in rails/missiles/not drones will laugh at your 6M SP in drones while they blast them out of the sky. But you tell yourself: "I can solo missions afk and need not care about optimals or falloff in PvP." Then you notice your dronebay is empty. But only after you found yourself in a situation where you have to abandon your drones in order to save your ship. Thing is, you just left your guns behind.

Opposite applies when flying stealth bombers.

/edit: I don't even know if that's english what i did there.
Gun Gal
Dark Club
#7 - 2012-08-14 23:12:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Gun Gal
As someone who has everything drones level 5 they rock in pve , and if you use the combat electronic warfare drones, web,act in pvp they can totally screw the enemy up while you chew them a new arse.
Barbara Nichole
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#8 - 2012-08-14 23:15:44 UTC
Drones are a great back up but in a fleet pvp they usually get smart bombed to death. This doesn't mean they don't get used. Just don't make it your only weapon.

  - remove the cloaked from local; free intel is the real problem, not  "afk" cloaking -

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/DawnFrostbringer/consultsig.jpg[/IMG]
Barkaial Starfinder
Eixo do Mal
#9 - 2012-08-14 23:21:11 UTC
Drones are not as bad as some people think in PVP.
It helps a lot with damage, but should not be your only damage dealing weapon IMO.

ECM drones are strong.
Small drones are a must to kill frigates when you are using a bigger ship.
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#10 - 2012-08-14 23:25:12 UTC
They're pretty much obligatory no matter what you do, but you'll end up using different drones and using them for different things.

If you dig around a bit, you'll have no problem fining a large pile of “nerf ECM drones”-threads. There's a reason for that: they're everywhere and they're both very very good and very very handy. Yes, damage drones are also handy but they have the downside of being delayed damage and of course, you lose damage if and when you have to leave them behind in a hurry.

Likewise, unless a PvE boat is completely without any drone space whatsoever, you will not find a fit that does not cram as many damage drones in there as possible. The exact type of drones will depend on what you fly yourself and what you fly against, and they all have their special use cases.
Jill Xelitras
Xeltec services
#11 - 2012-08-14 23:52:07 UTC  |  Edited by: Jill Xelitras
Disadvantage of drones:
- if it's not a sentry drone it has to fly up to the target before it can shoot it. Same is true for missiles, but missiles are a bit faster. Turrets on the other hand hit the target as soon as they fire.

- drones can be killed or you leave them behind when you have to warp out, reducing your firepower (to 0 if you only use drones as weapons)

- drones can be attacked by some NPCs in some missions. They will die against sleepers or when you try running incursions.

-if you want to squeeze out a lot of range of your drones you either have to sacrifice high-slots to put in drone-control modules or put up with a lot of skill-training time.

Advantages of drones:
- you can confuse less experienced players. They won't know if they better attack your ship to have the drones stop shooting them or if they should concentrate on killing the drones first to reduce your firepower. (Fly Ishkur, Dramiel ...)

- excellent secondary weapon which keeps on firing even if you are jammed by ecm.

- e-war drones, especially small ecm drones are popular in smaller engagements. At least non-Gallente use them. Gallente are often better off with combat drones when the ship gives bonuses to the damage output of said drones.

- if you don't lose your drones in PVE they will save you a lot of ammo cost.

- often small drones are used by Battleships and Battlecruisers to allow them to deal damage to frigates (both in PvE and in PvP), as large guns have trouble hitting smaller targets.


Other considerations:

As with any weapon in eve ...

1) It's a rock, paper, scissor mechanic. If you bring the wrong tool, it will be useless.

2) Every weapon is subject to changes by CCP. Don't let other people tell you which weapons are good and which are bad ... unless they have a very good idea what they are talking about. Whine posts with bogus statistics are not proof by the way.

3) In large fleet engagments, turrets are preferred, simply because they deal damage immediately. Drones are used less, because a fleet can't necessarily wait for the last pilot to retrieve their drones before the fleet moves on. That doesn't mean that drones aren't used at all. Carriers like the Thanatos use drones or fighters a lot.

4) Generally you will have to conform to what your fleet-commander wants you to fly. Either find people who use droneships aswell or use the ships that you are told to use.

I hope this helps.

Don't anger the forum gods.

ISD Buldath:

> I Saw, I came, I Frowned, I locked, I posted, and I left.
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#12 - 2012-08-14 23:59:25 UTC
…oh, and you'd be surprised how many people miss ewar drone interfacing skill and the bonus it provides. Don't make the same mistake of being fooled by the name — it works for all drones, and the extra 15 (or, more reasonably, 12) km of drone control range you can squeeze out can make all the difference.
gobbybobby
Negative-Impact
#13 - 2012-08-15 00:00:46 UTC
2 year player here. Majority skill points in Drones


I use me mainly for PVE, I fly a dommy or an Ishtar, The new Drone damage amp, with sentrys make quick work of most Sites and missions. I am a null sec dweller so run the easy/ moderate plexs with my dommy, just 1 gun for the aggro, rest is up to drones, I fit salvagers/ tractor beams and a drone link aug in the hi slots, and will run the harder sites in a small group, with me as tank, and still put out a fair amount DPS with my drones.

PVP
Ive not really tried much Drone based PVP, myrmidon is great as you can get 3 Ogres in there, T2 heavy drone skills is a must. I have T2 sentry drone skills which are great for pve, warp in, get aggro, kill rats, just watch for waves aggroing drones and its relatively easy. (but not too easy CCP, I still gotta be watching local/ D-Scan if there are hostiles around, watching my drones in case they get aggro, even if I don't click my mouse while I am doing it OK!)

personally I wish sentry's they had a bit more range so they could be effectively used in sniper gangs along side say, tornado's.
Spurty
#14 - 2012-08-15 00:18:31 UTC  |  Edited by: Commander Spurty
Drones badly need updating to consume *something*. Completely bonkers wespon system that can chose damage type and utility.


As they stand, they are infinite damage spew ing bots with a very low iq and easily distracted

Having said that, someone will say "but they can be blown up!!!" as if missiles can't by firewall smart bombing battleships

Highly recommend you go missiles skills first, them Drones if all you ever want to Do is solo content.

There are good ships,

And wood ships,

And ships that sail the sea

But the best ships are Spaceships

Built by CCP
Mistah Ewedynao
Ice Axe Psycho Killers
#15 - 2012-08-15 00:29:11 UTC
gobbybobby wrote:
2 year player here. Majority skill points in Drones


I use me mainly for PVE, I fly a dommy or an Ishtar, The new Drone damage amp, with sentrys make quick work of most forum posters.
PVP
My corp says my ineffective drones screw up the overview


Really dude if you took the time to read about the damage mod u might realize that it doesn't affect sentrys.

On a related note, ask the Goonie who lost his Stealth Bomber to a skiff if drones are effective.

Nerf Goons

Nuke em from orbit....it's the only way to be sure.
Akirei Scytale
Okami Syndicate
#16 - 2012-08-15 00:40:34 UTC
Mistah Ewedynao wrote:
gobbybobby wrote:
2 year player here. Majority skill points in Drones


I use me mainly for PVE, I fly a dommy or an Ishtar, The new Drone damage amp, with sentrys make quick work of most forum posters.
PVP
My corp says my ineffective drones screw up the overview


Really dude if you took the time to read about the damage mod u might realize that it doesn't affect sentrys.

On a related note, ask the Goonie who lost his Stealth Bomber to a skiff if drones are effective.


Drones won't kill most ships, especially frigates, but they can chase frigates off.
As for that bomber, anything with drones will ruin a torp bomber's day unless said torp bomber is flying a support DPS role in a small gang and firing from outside drone range. Bombers are fragile ships. Anything that has a chance of fighting back will probably kill one. Hence why they are optimally used in bomber wings.
Kate Stenton
Foundation Enterprises
#17 - 2012-08-15 00:41:20 UTC
Mistah Ewedynao wrote:
gobbybobby wrote:
2 year player here. Majority skill points in Drones


I use me mainly for PVE, I fly a dommy or an Ishtar, The new Drone damage amp, with sentrys make quick work of most forum posters.
PVP
My corp says my ineffective drones screw up the overview


Really dude if you took the time to read about the damage mod u might realize that it doesn't affect sentrys.

On a related note, ask the Goonie who lost his Stealth Bomber to a skiff if drones are effective.


Are you sure? I can't use sentries, but EFT shows they do. The description only excludes fighters and bombers, too. I'd like to know for sure though.
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#18 - 2012-08-15 00:51:49 UTC
Mistah Ewedynao wrote:
Really dude if you took the time to read about the damage mod u might realize that it doesn't affect sentrys.
…and you base that conclusion on…?
Jill Xelitras
Xeltec services
#19 - 2012-08-15 01:03:23 UTC
Mistah Ewedynao wrote:


Really dude if you took the time to read about the damage mod u might realize that it doesn't affect sentrys.



Is it foot in mouth time again ?

Don't anger the forum gods.

ISD Buldath:

> I Saw, I came, I Frowned, I locked, I posted, and I left.
Praxis Ginimic
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#20 - 2012-08-15 01:05:38 UTC
Thanx. There is a lot of good info in there. I certainly don't plan on keeping to "solo content" though. I'm in a small pvp corp and although I haven't had much luck in pvp yet I'm mainly focused on finding profitable pve that isn't terribly boring. I need to fund all that pew some how. Again, thanx for the tips
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