EVE New Citizens Q&A

I'm at 3.5 m SP and focusing on Gallente drones. I got it into my head that I needed sentry drones and trained accordingly, but now that I have Garde I drones I am thoroughly underwhelmed. I suspect that the drones really don't suck this much and I'm just not using them well.

(I'm running Lvl 2 and 3 missions.) With a pair of Garde Is deployed I still have enough bandwidth to send out some Hobgoblin IIs, and they are able to range out as far as I can target (60k-ish). With the help of my 250mm railguns the Hobgoblins are usually able to take out most of the hostiles before they are in range of the sentries, which have only a 10km range. The only ships that make it into the Garde's range are fast moving frigates, and they can't hit frigates because of that horrible tracking, so I just tank the damage until the Hobgoblins are free to come back and kill them.

What tactics should I employ to make better use of sentries?

I'd been using the Hobgoblin IIs and Hammerhead IIs as you recommend. I was eager to try the sentry drones, but I guess they won't be all that useful until I train some more.

Believe me, once you are fighting Battleships with T2 sentries you will be a believer! I put off training up to T2 and now wonder why.

The primary advantage of sentries is that there is more equipment that boosts them, you can up their tracking, range, and damage. So the difference between a blinged out ship and a ship that just happens to have some sentries is a lot bigger than the difference for small/medium/large drones.

But yeah, what other people said about using small/medium drones to kill small/medium rats. You technically _can_ hit them, but you have roughly the same set of issues as using oversized turrets.

I love Garde II on my alt's Rattlesnake. Sentries positively tear anything to shreds, even frigates until they settle into orbit (at which point light drones tear them to shreds).

I usually carry Garde (short range), and Bouncer or Warden or Curator (long range). Unlike other drones, all the racial sentries are useful.

• Sentry Damage Augmentor Rigs (more damage for sentry drones)
• Omnidirectional Tracking Link (more shooting range, better tracking)
• Drone Scope Rig (more shooting range)
• Drone Link Augmentor (more control range)

You'll find that T2 sentry drones are amazing compared to the limp-wristed performance of T1 sentry drones. Even with T2 drones though, you'll find that your DPS in a drone specialist battleship tops out at about 475 DPS.

From your opening post I get you're only using 2 Garde I's? Use 5 (of any drone type) at any one time.

Deploy at range (for Gardes somewhere between 20 and 50 km, I think) and shoot frigates/destroyers first, then cruisers/battlecruisers and finally battleships. If they start missing you'll have to retract them and use other, more appropriate drones (Hobgoblins, Hammerheads or Ogres, depending on target).

At 6.5 mil SP in Drones alone, I prefer Wardens myself (if I can get a warp-in at 70-80 km). If done right, nothing will get near enough to even put a dent in your tank.

But yeah, it needs some skilling to get there.

I'm flying a Myrmidon so I don't have the bandwidth for 5 Garde Is. I deployed a pair of the Garde's and then used the Hobgoblin IIs in an attempt to draw aggro and bait the targets into range of the Gardes. I was dismayed when I saw that the Gardes seemed to be useless in this strategy because I was eliminating the targets with the Hobgoblins and my ship's guns. (Garde Is only have a range of about 10km with my current skills.)

""Don't use it just because you meet the minimum prereqs" seems to hold true for ships and sentry drones.

First a bit of extra clarification, it has been mentioned before but still. Sentry drones are long range weapons, that means that they will have tracking issues with fast/small/upclose stuff. You can help that by fitting omnidirectionals from Mara's list, fitting one or 2 of those will make gardes do quite well against short orbit battlecruisers and bigger. Thing is that if you have targets that get too close and actually pose a problem you need to reel in your sentries and launch normal drones, you lose an awful lot of time and dps with that so generally your strategy will be to kill the smaller/faster stuff first while it's still at range (possibly switching to Wardens for extra range) and THEN start hurting the bigger targets as they slowly get into range.

Another thing of note is that in a few weeks there'll be drone damage mods, just like other damage mods for different weapon systems. These will be low slot items so the most ideal thing to do is to start shielding tanking your droneships. It already DID make sense to do so (generally shield tanked ships work better in PVE) but with the upcoming changes it's really worth it.

Here's an example of how that could look:

[Dominix Navy Issue, LVL 4 - Shield]
Damage Control II
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Drone damage mod II
Drone damage mod II
Drone damage mod II
Co-Processor II

Caldari Navy X-Large Shield Booster
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II

350mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge L
350mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge L
Drone Link Augmentor II

Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard II
Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard II
Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard II


Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Warden II x5
Garde II x5



Also note that we'll be getting a direct cap injected shield booster, meaning you don't lose an extra mid slot for that cap booster and can fit some more resists instead, making it even better.