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How do you do drone hordes now
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Ulster Assasin
#1 - 2012-02-10 09:58:42 UTC
FOr about 6 months i ran drone hordes all the time with carrier and noctis.
Due to the changes to the bunkers etc it is not possible to bring noctis in after aggression.

has anyone any tips on how to run them efficiently.

thanks
Discova
Nexgen Industry
#2 - 2012-02-10 18:50:25 UTC
I use two accounts, Tengu and Noctis....Bring the Noctis after the Tengu is done.
Ulster Assasin
#3 - 2012-02-10 18:56:18 UTC
damn that must be slow isk per hour must be way down :(
Captain Avitus
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#4 - 2012-02-11 02:35:22 UTC
Drone horde aggro mechanics have indeed changed.

What I have been doing is slowly cataloging what the specific triggers are. Mind you this is really difficult since spawns have similar names, and the lack of bounties make it difficult to try and tell exactly who the trigger is.

What I have speculated so far is this:

Upon warp-in you have approximately 5-7 battleships as well as the towers/frigs/cruiser riffraff. At this point, only the battleships are triggers from what I can tell, and you can safely dispatch everything below battleship size.

Now the tricky part; who are the triggers?

What I have found to be the closest tactic to the "old way" is by damaging all the battleships into structure before moving onto the next one. Once I have most (if not all) into structure, I move onto the next phase:

My strategy at this point is to attempt to kill off the battleships as close to the same time as possible (I left them at structure, remember?). From what I can tell, this effectively spawns the 'whole room' and you can warp salvage/assist dps in while your tank/carrier/whatever clears this phase.

*BUT!*

That is not the end to the triggers. From what I can tell after you spawn the last *big* wave I described, you are safe from triggers until you pop the last battleship from the *big* wave. If you have gotten to this point, when you pop the last battleship from the big wave, you will start spawning single waves at a time, which spawn the next wave once the highest size ship from that wave is destroyed.

So what do I do with my salvage/dps alt when I get to this small-wave phase? If I am in a dps ship I just remote rep and burn the drones down because there is not enough to warrant warp-out. If I am in a salvage ship (which I should be this late in the wave-cycle) I leave room for 1 cloak so I can just cloak through the newly spawned waves.

I don't claim to be an expert on the matter, but that is the spawn behavior I have been observing since CCP made this change.

Yes, it is indeed slower isk/hour but hopefully the drone regions will switch to something better (bounties?) this year.
Wilddragon25
The Free Luna State
#5 - 2012-02-11 04:19:45 UTC
If using a carrier as dps/tank just buffer fit the noctis and keep capital sheild rep/lrg t2 rep on him at all times
Ulster Assasin
#6 - 2012-02-11 09:31:26 UTC
thanks for your replys guys, i will give it a try this evening
infra52x
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2012-02-11 18:52:06 UTC
I just use a carrier with t2 sentry drones so i can recall them quick during respawns. Also, a faction smartbomb for the strain frigs and the occasional use of fighters/other drones for the stuff my sentries cant kill. I usually just clear the site before bringing in the noctis. Slow, yes but I'm in no rush. I like the idea of keeping reps on the noctis with a carrier, might have to try that out.

A few of my corp mates have been doing them with a nightmare/logi combo..
Sconitta
#8 - 2012-02-12 11:10:11 UTC  |  Edited by: Sconitta
Just tried the carrier and armor tanked noctis this morning and it worked ok.
Full horde including salvage with 2 toons was 23 minutes.(killing everthing cus i assume it will then despawn)
Before the nerf/bug fix or what ever you want to call it i could do it in 16minutes start to finish.

so thats approx 28m isk or 73m per hour which is 36.5m per toon per hour approx
before the (nerf cough) was 105m per hour which is 52.5m approx per toon


I forgot, how much they making in incursion again? Lol

Remember We still have to sell it

I have a fully skilled carrier pilot which helps alot

CCP give us back the old horde until ya fix the drone regions Please
myFORUMalt alts
Doomheim
#9 - 2012-02-12 15:29:28 UTC
Ulster Assasin wrote:
thanks for your replys guys, i will give it a try this evening



I tripple client hordes. CNR/tengu, perfect thanny, and noctis. The key i find is the thanny highs are 4x drone control unit and one capital shield transporter. On the noctis, I Found that putting 2 large shield extender II's helps a lot. I lost a noctis in a panic when it got full aggro once, and the 2k shield wasnt enough. So putting the shield extenders got the shield up to 8.3k. tank holds up long enough to find an appropriate solution. Kill whats stopping it from warping to a safe spot. Or, stay within 1k of the carrier and store the noctis in the thanny hanger. I wasn't smart enough to do this the first time and it was a bad 70m noctis loss. Held my head low in shame for losing a ship to an npc.

Anyways, I hope this helps. The noctis is a paper tank, it will pop in 30 seconds or less if its aggro'd but. The 8k shield buys you the time needed to kill the warp scrambling or take a deep breath and store the noctis.

Also, if your alt is your salvager now, get him in something specialized. I started that way, one tank damage dealer and one salvage pilot. Then the salvage pilot became a damage dealer and I ran sites faster. Now i have a third account that salvages and two that run sites. Ironically the second toon, the original salvager, is now more fun to fly the the perfect thanny pilot.

Yes, I complain about things I don't like.
Zirm
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2012-02-17 04:54:45 UTC
Carriers have never been my choice in Hordes/ other anoms, I think they are way to slow and dealing with drone aggro is annoying. I use 2 x Nightmares with Pulses, X-Large Active Shield tank and Energy Transfers, and 1 Support arty Mach (optional) who sits out far enough to not get any aggro. I bookmark all the Hordes in my system, run them all as quickly as I can and then switch to Noctis and a indy (since there is way too much m3 for the noctis to carry) and loot/salvage all the sites. Btw doing the Drone Patrols is also very good isk compared to the time it takes to do them.
WIthout the Mach I am finishing a site in 10 - 13 minutes.
dischordia
wiggle Tech.
#11 - 2012-02-17 23:19:35 UTC
Captain Avitus wrote:
Drone horde aggro mechanics have indeed changed.

What I have been doing is slowly cataloging what the specific triggers are. Mind you this is really difficult since spawns have similar names, and the lack of bounties make it difficult to try and tell exactly who the trigger is.

What I have speculated so far is this:

Upon warp-in you have approximately 5-7 battleships as well as the towers/frigs/cruiser riffraff. At this point, only the battleships are triggers from what I can tell, and you can safely dispatch everything below battleship size.

Now the tricky part; who are the triggers?

What I have found to be the closest tactic to the "old way" is by damaging all the battleships into structure before moving onto the next one. Once I have most (if not all) into structure, I move onto the next phase:

My strategy at this point is to attempt to kill off the battleships as close to the same time as possible (I left them at structure, remember?). From what I can tell, this effectively spawns the 'whole room' and you can warp salvage/assist dps in while your tank/carrier/whatever clears this phase.

*BUT!*

That is not the end to the triggers. From what I can tell after you spawn the last *big* wave I described, you are safe from triggers until you pop the last battleship from the *big* wave. If you have gotten to this point, when you pop the last battleship from the big wave, you will start spawning single waves at a time, which spawn the next wave once the highest size ship from that wave is destroyed.

So what do I do with my salvage/dps alt when I get to this small-wave phase? If I am in a dps ship I just remote rep and burn the drones down because there is not enough to warrant warp-out. If I am in a salvage ship (which I should be this late in the wave-cycle) I leave room for 1 cloak so I can just cloak through the newly spawned waves.

I don't claim to be an expert on the matter, but that is the spawn behavior I have been observing since CCP made this change.

Yes, it is indeed slower isk/hour but hopefully the drone regions will switch to something better (bounties?) this year.




When you warp in there are 4 groups (one group at each tower) the last battleship to die from each group is the trigger for the wave from that tower (the old bunkers style) also there are 2 of the waves that will spawn a second wave after the last ship in that wave has been killed if, if you get an escalation it will be on the last spawn (afaik) and any commander spawn will be on the last spawn too

Hope this helps

What we're actually doing is removing both hisec and PvP from the game entirely. It seems like the fairest way to solve this problem. - CCP Grayscale  - CCP troll BEST troll <3