EVE General Discussion

Drones were the perfect counter measure for Serpentis parallel/sequential damping. You can't get a lock? That's okay, your drones can thin out the field.

If soloing, what is the counter measure for the Serpentis damping now? Because "disposable drones" is not really an option or a viable strategy in my opinion. I'm happy to admit my ignorance if anybody has a great counter measure. The inability to lock means guns or missiles are really ineffective. What? Smartbombs?

The new AI, with it's insane focus on drones, effectively eliminates the perfect counter measure to Serpentis damping. This makes no sense in a game that is supposedly akin to rock/paper/scissors with systems of checks and balances. It is beyond adaptation. It is now wildly imbalanced.

I always wonder why Null sec players encourage this when Complexes and the like have respawn timers that generally mean they are limited use for all players.

More players means less opportunity to do them. In highsec, even as worthless as these places are, they are often empty. In Lowsec, I'd guess they aren't particularly available either, though it's not like you have much opportunity to check them there. I never do, or almost never.

Null barely has enough interesting plexes to feed the interested players there; why would you invite more players unless you were just shamelessly plugging and didn't realize that they were being used up by the players you already have, or just didn't care.

Always loved the, "Let them fight about it when they get here," attitude to recruiting; it adds such long term stability to organizations that rely on it."

They still aren't getting that the sleepers are still harder than the lvl 4 missions, huh?

Maybe CCP oughtta put some real sleeper AI into mission rats just to show them how easy they really have it.

Try this, it works and not a glitch or anything.

If you're fighting the rats from a distance, wait till the frigs are on you (i know it feels so wrong) and then deploy the drones. Take out as many as you can while they approach, and continue removing all frigs if you can at close range. Once they are dead, the drones are pretty much safe to peck on BS', they don't get that aggro cause (assuming you're in a BS) you'll be more of a threat to them than the drones.

1. Or players will quit.
2. The easy money is on mining instead now that the Venture is here.
3. Or solo pilots will quit.
4. Or people will quit.

Just remember that quitting is actually an alternative for some people if they feel that PLAYING A GAME isn't FUN any more. Face it, that's why we play a game, to have fun and not everybody's idea of fun is trying to perform an impossible task, nor is it to be ganked every time they undock which is why they don't go down to lowsec/nullsec.

Personally, I don't find it that much different but I only use drones for additional DPS, it just takes me a tiny bit longer to pop a battleship than before without my drones but I can live with that. I managed to solo Angel Extravaganza which has always been a PITA and I've been soloing lvl4's a lot on my Amarr main since the patch, more often than not, with the Absolution rather than the Paladin.

I usually pop any frigates first or send the drones after them if they get in under my range and that sorts out the webbers and scramblers and leaves me free to warp out if things get too rough. Then work my way up in size rather than down, taking the cruisers out next which cuts down the DPS considerably and the remaining battleships, I can tank all day. Not had to warp out yet though. But that has always been my strategy ever since I started doing lvl4's before Blood Lines.

To save the drones on most occasions, I recall them between each wave, wait until I have aggro and then deploy them to take out frigates. What I actually dislike is how easy a NPC battleship can pop your drones from 60K away compared to how difficult it is for you to pop drones in a battleship due to tracking limitations and their tiny sig radius. Also not good how a NPC battleship or even a cruiser can lock your drones in a couple of seconds compared to your 30 seconds or more to lock a drone, even with sensor boosters.

EDITED: I don't know how this post ended up here, but I remember putting it on another thread entirely.

I just AFK ice mine to avoid the new drones and missions.

People in this forum just need to learn how to deal with problems.

Rightclick -> launch drones. Rightclick -> attack target. When they take a large amount of damage, Rightclick->return to drone bay.
Honestly, if I can do it without drone hp or damage bonuses on my ship, I'll bet you can do it too. It might require some extra clicking and, god forbid, paying attention.

Tried that, it didn't work. When you've got 30+ rats on your screen and all of them decide to alpha your drones at once, the drones die. First salvo. The end. And that's exactly what happens, by the way.

As people have pointed out, Sleeper AI works in sleeper sights because you're only facing 5 or 6 ships at once (or so I'm told). But when you plug that same AI into 30+ ships at once it turns into the dysfunctional mess we have now.

What's really pathetic is that it's obvious that CCP removed things like "lock on time" from NPC ships, at least in regard to drones. You can deploy a flight of light drones - the smallest sig - and enemy battleships will be shooting at them in under a second. Have you ever tried to target a drone in a player ship? It takes forever. The tiny sigs come into play when we try to target drones. The NPCs? Not even part of the equation.

And because sig is no longer part of the equation the drones are now getting hit far more often than before. See, rats have always been able to target drones. The question was "Could they hit them?" Little light drones had few HP but we good at dodging fire. Big drones had lots of HP but were easier for NPCs to hit. But now that mechanic has gone out the window and NPCs hitting drones has become automatic. If they're in range, they hit. Drone signature radius has obviously been removed from all NPC calculations.

You know, there IS a weapon system perfectly suited to killing tacklers, and ships like the rattlesnake and the marauders can fit them pretty easily - smartbombs. Sure, they're potentially lethal to use in highsec, but hey, no guts, no glory! A couple of those babies will fry up enemy tacklers good and fast. Just make sure you don't have a cloaked friend hovering nearby Problem solved.