EVE General Discussion

My $.02 for what it's worth, on the new usefulness of drones in PVE. As with everything else that changes in this game, some for the good, some for the bad "adapt or die" or so it has been said.

A tactical change is indeed now required since drones are now appearing to be nothing more then cannon fodder. They still have usefulness, just not in a "set and forget" mode as most are used to. Most people will look at this list and go "Well DUH" but hopefully someone MAY walk away having learned something.


My initial observations after patch:

Cannon Fodder:
I have found that carrying a bay full of small T1's, cheap, and liberally deploying them at opportune times during combat will now divert DPS (the NPCs appear to be webbing/neuting drones I believe I have now verified this) away from you and onto the drones allowing you precious seconds to rep/recharge/reload/warp and GTFO. Leave them behind, they are expendable.

EDIT:
After more testing it seems releasing 1 drone at a time is more effective then releasing 5 at a time. Just keep a steady stream of drones deploying and it will keep them from shooting/webbing/neuting and in some instances scramming you as long as they are popping the drones.

Emergency Target Disposal:
Shields failed, into armor in your shield tank? Need to warp but can't, scrammed? Deploy the T2 drones and attack the scrammer, allowing you to escape. Forget about the drones you can collect them later if they survive.

Structure Disposal:
After everything is dead it's still easier to send out some T2 ogres and say "Kill" while you forget about them and salvage/loot/get more snacks.

Battleships:
Still usable on Battleships and Cruisers it seems. Don't even think about deploying them with frigates on grid as they don't last long and they will be gone before you realize it.

Deploy, attack a target, recall:
Keep an eye on the damage the drone is taking and recall them back to drone bay often and allow them to recharge shields before deploying them again.

Small drones are faster:
Well, DUH. Faster drones should help in avoiding damage and will allow you to get them back to the safety of your bay, hopefully before they pop.

Sentry drones:
Good for BS and Cruisers and somewhat for Frigs at range. Keep them close by as they are turttle slow. It seems they draw as much aggro as small drones but some are saying they will last longer.

* Deploy drones, let them get aggro, recall them, wait till you get aggro, then deploy again:

EDIT:
I now have personally tested, this IS a verified workaround to the new AI that has to be repeated for every wave of enemy NPCs. It's not the most efficient way of working around the new game mechanic but it appears to work.

/sidenote: Some are deeming this trick to be an exploit however CCP has stated they are aware of it and at some point will be revisiting the issue when/if they deccide to tweak the broken drone aggro issue. I will leave it up to you to decide if this tactic is ethically acceptable to your character.


I'm sure there will be more insightful input and hints/tactics from the enlightened forum members here.

DISCUSS

/slips into flame resistant suit.

EDIT:
It does appear certain ships/playstyles are now at a SEVERE disadvantage dealing with frigate class NPCs. Those that used drones as a mainstay tactic will now need to find another way. Drones (as far as their usefulness in missions against frigates) have been pretty much been beaten into submission with the "Nerf Bat".

CCPs lack of commenting about this issue/change is only adding fuel to the fire. Wether this change is intentional or an unintended consequence of the AI update and when/if they will tweak it remains to be seen. A few words from them one way or the other would go a long way in helping ease the concerns of the community.

Now that I can't do L4 missions with my drones, can I have a skills remap?

No, this is not a joke or a troll. I really want a remap, this is fair.
In any other game when devs nerf something to hell they give you a respec so you have a choice.
Having mostly drone skills cuts your ability to do anything right now.

Or maybe CCP is trying to tell you something...

and by adapt you mean sit in station and train up for another 1-3 months for something else to do in eve as your chosen profession while you pay for your sub???

meanwhile back in reality.......

Oh, it was tested. And feedback was given. And they pushed it anyway.

EDIT: Posters above mean that maybe CCP doesn't want us to solo level 4 missions.

and CCP maintains the course....

Did this really need another thread?

No, it did not.

This is the only game I've ever played that relied so heavily on having multiple accounts. If high sec mission running to generate isk for my PVP fun now requires logistics, e-war or aggro alts then I'll pass and find another game.

and if you could actually do level 4's to make enough money to afford a PLEX to be able to do level 4's that would be a great idea.