EVE New Citizens Q&A

While it is BS, this sort of originated from some people wrongly aggressing can flippers (in belts) or ninja salvagers (in missions), "because they were red", and then blaming it on their drones. Having them on passive explicitly puts the responsibility for making poor choices on the pilot's shoulders.

That makes good strategic sense. However, I am 3 days out from using my drones again. So, how do you "split" them up?

I thought they all attacked the same target anyway. I mean, this is great news, but how does one do that exactly?

Thank you for a great post.

- JCC





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Two Bonus Tips:

Tip One:Use the right drone for the job. Lighter drones do less damage on paper, but in reality they can often be more useful than heavier drones. As with all things in EvE, bigger is not always better. Speed, maneuvering & accuracy all come into play and drones are no exception. So it's not just "moar dps!" because DPS is entirely dependent on the ability to actually hit the target.

This means that for enemy frigates, you'll want to use light drones. Why? Because enemy frigates are the fastest foes and lights are your fastest drones. If you send heavies against enemy frigates you'll just end up looking at a sad comedy that bears a strong resemblance to FW. Namely, a speedy little frigate laughing as everything you're throwing at him sucks his exhaust because they can't even catch up to him. The higher speed also means that they can switch targets quickly and zip across vast distances with ease. And although they have the fewest hit points, their sheer speed means that they're the least likely to actually get hit. This is important because frigates and destroyers are the enemies most likely to shoot back at your drones, which makes sense because they have the highest tracking. Also you will want to make destroyers a priority target over frigates for this same reason - they're the biggest threat to your drones in general, so always take them out first thing.

For cruisers and battle cruisers you will want to use your medium drones. You can get away with using mediums on enemy battleships if you have the skills and patience (I've taken down 1,000,000 ISK bounty ships with medium drones... but it takes a while). Their speed isn't as good, but that's okay because these larger targets generally have less tracking and will have trouble hitting your drones except during the flat vectors directly towards and away from them.

The only time you'll really need to bring heavy drones is when taking down battleships and large structures, and by that point many people will debate whether or not you should just be using sentries by that point. Personally, I'm going to dodge that debate and just say use whatever your personal taste likes more. Ships like these have crap for tracking, which is good because heavy drones are all DPS but slow as slugs - easy targets for anything smaller than a battleship.

Tip Two:T2 is not always better. First, consider the cost vs risk factor. Yes, T2 has the best DPS, but do you really need it? Yes, you want it, but do you need it? Considering the cost of T2 drones, especially for a new player who lacks deep pockets, the cost of replacing them is something that you'll want to consider - at least until you start getting a good steady income. Replacing even a single T2 drone can cost more than you'll make from most non-level 4 missions entirely, so losing one is a lot more tragic than the dollar-store T1 drones that cost practically nothing.

But if you've got the money, you'll always want T2 right? Not so! If you want to throw money around you may want to look into Navy drones. Now many people say that Navy drones are just for people who have money but don't have the skills for T2. I beg to differ. T2 drones have slightly higher DPS than their Navy counterparts, this much is true. They're also a tiny bit faster on average as well. However, if you compare them side by side you will notice that Navy drones have somewhat better tracking, which means that they hit more often, which in turn balances out against the on-paper higher DPS of T2 drones.

They also have (and this is important) twice the hit points of T2 drones. That's twice the shields, twice the armor, etc. That makes a heck of difference when the enemy decides to aggro your drones (and the new changes coming up will make that happen a lot more often, too). If you've ever recalled a damaged drone only to have it die two seconds before making it back to your docking bay, remember that a Navy drone would have made it and probably with half it's armor still left. Now factor in the cost of T2 drones and the Navy drones start to look like a good investment after all, because while they are very expensive to buy, in the long run you won't be wasting as much money buying replacements. The Navy drones are really, really hard for the bad guys to actually kill.

In practice, I generally keep a flight of light Navy drones and use T2 for medium on up. I find this to be a good combination, and here is why: It is usually the enemy frigates & destroyers that do most of the aggro against your drones, and lights have the least hit points. By using Navy drones I compensate for this weakness and thus get light drones that don't die in one shot. While the DPS is a little lower than T2, since I'm just fighting frigates & destroyers then DPS isn't really a major concern (since they don't many hit points themselves). So for light drones and their foes, I find Navy works best. It's when I move up to medium drones and beyond that I switch to T2, because those I use on enemies that don't have as much tracking but lots more hit points, so it is at this point that more DPS starts becoming worth the trade in durability.

Aside from buying them on the market (They are in the Faction sub category) you could use loyalty points to buy them from one of these four NPC corps

24th Imperial Crusade
Federal Defence Union
State Protectorate
Tribal Liberation Force

I believe these are the factional warfare corps

EDIT:
... so I just checked EVE Central and it looks like they are unavailable. This could be because no-one is selling them but that seems unlikely.

I know for sure that you can get them from LP stores.

Correct. FW drones won't show up on the market, only under contracts. They are only available as LP rewards from the FW LP stores, and those are only accessible to people who are enrolled in FW.

Luckily, there is no shortage of FW people who buy these drones and resell them via contracts at a profit. So to acquire navy drones one must either A) join a FW crop (player or NPC), do FW, earn LP and buy them from the FW LP store or B) pay someone else to do it for them via just buying them from contracts. Personally, I opt for the latter. Saves time and may actually save money since you're not risking any of your ships dying to FW.

Dropping in to point out that, while faction drones require lower skills, T2 drones do more damage, are faster, and much cheaper (< 1 mil isk each for Hammerhead IIs). Plus, T2 drone skills aren't hard to get, and improve all your drone operation. I highly recommend them, both for saving money and for having more drone ability.

keep in mind that training drone interfacing wtfbbqs all other drone skills.

Wtf = what the ****. Bbq - think char-grilled burgers.