Ships & Modules

Consequences for me in PvE (solo L4s in Myrm) because of the NPC drone aggro changes:

Never use Scout Drones for what they are actually for: Frigs (Instead kill all the frigs with guns first and lose dps)
Never use Medium Drones for what they are actually for: Cruisers and BCs (instead use scout drones and lose dps)
Only use Heavy Drones when there are around 3 BS left and be careful. (use mediums instead, lose dps)

Sudden Drone aggro switches from ranges 50km-20km result in a lost drone and there is nothing you can do about that.

The People you wanted to hurt (afk mission runners/bots) use Centries and those are completely unaffected by the changes because they effin pop stuff from 100km away...

I will be in a Centry/Gun boat the next days, i just thought ill be nice to the other newer players that have to rely on everything but Centries and tell you what i experience.

It adds 0 to the gameplay, its basically just a giant nerf for pre centry pve droneboats.
Wich wasnt nessesary since non droneboats in the same brackets dish out equal dps without drone transit times.

For null sec pvp gozus: Please i know you dont L4, you dont need it, dont comment on it.
For "make the game harder" people: there is no workaround that isnt cutting dps. its not a difficulty issue.


-------------Update: So far 4 people agreed to this---------------

Opening your drone window and watching what gets aggro and pulling it back into your drone bay solves the losing drones problem.

Collecting the aggro on your own boat first helps to a degree in mitigating drone aggro, all together the idea of drones getting aggro is to stop afk mission runners, I do not disagree with this.

yes, Sentry drones tend to be beefy enough to not need as much nursing, yes they tend to do a lot of dps. But they also pin you to a single point once that enemy deeps closes in you could be in trouble.

In my mission runner days i have always used drone boats, Heck i went fooling around in level 4 missions in a vexor for poops and giggles. I haven't lost a drone in god knows how long. So the current drone system isn't all that bad. drone upgrades make life better in many ways. I guess i don't agree with what you're saying. New players will just have to learn the tricks associated with using drones in missions and actually looking after them (or just replace them over and over)

Yeah maybe my mission running days were before the 'change's maybe i've just been lucky, but my fooling around with the Vexor was very recent and i had little problems with managing drone aggro.

However if we work off your idea of the drones permanently receiving aggro. how about we work around another option. I tend to see very few drone boats with turrets on them anymore. (mind you i haven't looked at many drone boats lately) Lets say your myrmidon has a couple of drone link augmenters in the high slot, Why not use another high slot to run a shield repper to toss onto your drones as they take damage, It might be enough to keep them alive as they continue to munch on the enemy or as they are returning to the bay.

I know a mate who was fooling around with an Ishtar fit that had a repper on it for this reason (I don't know if he ended up using it or not.)

I mission with drones regularly. You don't seem to know what you are doing.
The changes were because many were grabbing aggro and then going to eat lunch while the drones killed everything without getting aggro.
There are many ways to get aggro back. ECM among them. Figure it out.

L4s in a Myrm?

Actually, yes, an armor Myrm with T2 250's (x5), DLU, AB, TP, Cap Recharger (x3), T2 Med Rep, DC II, and 4 mission-specific hardeners w/2 Aux Nano Pumps & 1 Drone Durability rig, will tank over 500 DPS, and dish out over 500 DPS with 4 Guarde II's and CN AM.

Very nice mission boat.

This, if I spot that a drone has aggro, even a light drone, and choose to bring it, or all, back in then the drones sit orbiting the target for 3-4 seconds more. If I'm against an NPC firing missiles then this guarantees that the drones are going to die on their return to my drone bay.

I understand the reason for the changes but you've gone from one extreme to the other, no aggro to pretty much guaranteed agro from the NPC's.

Can we have a happy medium?

thx for the reasonable replys.
good to see honest people assessing the situation fair and correct.

for the others: i do it for the ISK and for fun. since your so amazed, my current fit:

[Myrmidon, New Setup 1]
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Federation Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
10MN Afterburner I
Drone Navigation Computer I (yes im trying to save them)
Cap Recharger II

250mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Lead Charge M
250mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Lead Charge M
250mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Lead Charge M
250mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Lead Charge M
250mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Lead Charge M

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Semiconductor Memory Cell I

Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Federation Navy Ogre x3

effective range 33km +/- 10km

as i said will switch to hyp soon

fly save :)

well this is not a fit discussion thread but:

ya know i cant use sentries (miles away from tech IIs), thats why i dont use them
the fit is actually maxed out for what i can use,what i want from it and what it does.
btw EFT says 250dps-527dps. with the dps range from 5 scout to 3 heavies/2 meds with antimatter for the BS cleanup
EVE says 526dps but thats eve BS lol

cheers :)

If you're going to use Ogres, then I'd advise you get a fourth; you've got the bandwidth, so it's self-defeating not to use it.

As for that deadspace-armor-rep Myrmidon fit, it's got one problem: it's a three-hundred-million-ISK fit. If you're going to drop that kind of money on a mission boat, you might as well get an Ishtar or a Gila, and make use of the full battleship-grade drone bandwidth.

The repper costs ~90 mill the FN omnis are 42 mill a pop you can substitute those for tech IIs

So its in the range from 100 mill to 250 mill for fitting costs, considering the huge amount of SP you need for an Ishtar and the fact that a Gila costs 160 mill itself plus the additional need for the Caldari cruiser skill its not overly expensive, plus as you move on you can use the rest anyways.

The deadspace repper is also not mandatory but it gives you a little more breathing room.