EVE General Discussion

For most of my entire career as a PvE pilot I invested in drones. Since I started off as a miner, and mining barges only had drones, it was something that I already had a leg up and so when I decided to start doing missions it was an obvious choice. To make a long story short, as everyone knows the latest patch has made my good good choice become the wrong choice. One level 4 mission later and I put my Myrmidon, Gila and Rattlesnake into mothballs. Alas poor snake, I barely knew ye.

Well, one cannot stand around and pine for worthless obsolete technology, right? And to be fair, I had a good run. I enjoyed my time as a drone captain. But CCP has made it clear that now it's time to move on. So while my favorite ships were going into permanent retirement, I held my nose and took another one out of the dust covered crate it had been sitting in for months. Ah, yes, the good old Drake. Bought so long ago on a whim... curiosity more than anything else. I wanted to see what the hype was about. My initial impression had been "Not enough drones, not interested. Next?" and went right back to my trusty Myrmidon instead.

But alas, nothing good lasts forever (unless it's Caldari) and as of a couple days ago I found myself looking around my hanger and noticing that something was missing. I didn't have any ships left that could solo L4 missions. I dumped out my purse looking for extra ISK as I scanned through the marketplace, but alas, nothing really seemed to measure up to what I was leaving behind. And then I noticed that cobweb covered Drake sitting in the corner. I remembered reading on EvE Survival how ever mission's comments section always began with "Soloed in a Drake, no problem." Well missiles really weren't my thing... but maybe it was time to learn? So I did.

Where once I would find myself sitting violently alert in missions while my drones blow up the pirate trash around me, instead I know find myself sitting half-AFK in missions while my missile launchers do the same thing. In fact it's easier than ever! I no longer have to pay attention to things like drone health bars or their positions in the tactical display. No longer do I have to risk watching my weapon systems get blown up if I take my eyes off the screen. No longer do I have to carry around remote repair modules to keep my drones in good health. I can stuff my cargo bay with missiles, alt-tab the interface and go read FARK until I hear the "ding" telling me that my target has been dispatched & I need to click a new one, hit F1, and go back to reading funny headlines again. To think I spent all those months wracking my nerves for nothing when all that time I could have been doing things the easy way. The right way. The CCP approved way.

There were other benefits as well. I no longer feel like such an outcast. In my trusty Drake I am part of a much larger community. A community of winners. A community of high-rollers. A community called "Every other player in EvE Online." The comforting fit of the cookie cutter lets me know that now I am now a part of the great majority. It lets me know that I have finally found that linear, narrow path to success that was hidden within this giant sandbox. I had finally come of age in the great geritocracy. I was no longer part of the losing team - that pathetic old drone team. I was now part of the winning team - the incredibly awesome and totally not needing any nerfs Drake team.

No longer will I have to go into lengthy discussions on how to solo a L4 in a Myrmidon, the tips & tricks to proper drone management, picking the right drone for the job or joining in the great debate of Heavies versus Sentries. All meaningless now, swept under the rug of history by the relentless march of PROGRESS! Now I can just stand by the water cooler and give a knowing nod as my Drake comrades pass by. We're all part of the club. One ship to rule them all and one way to fly it. Lock target, spam missiles, repeat. There is nothing more that needs discussing. I love it! I am cool now. Yeah.

Most important of all, though, is that now I can do the same missions (and reap the rewards) with half the effort & half the coffee. I can yawn my way through them like a boss and just watch the rat bounties come rolling in. If I have any regrets it that I was too stubborn to start doing it sooner. That I foolishly got myself fixated on absurd ideas like playing how I wanted to and exploring sandboxes. That's not the path to winning. I'm just glad that CCP was kind enough to close off that dead end road that I was on before and shove me onto the one true path to being a successful mission runner.

Big bucks, here I come!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

And I wrote this whole thing while in the middle of doing "Worlds Collide L4" in a Drake. I love finally being able to do missions while AFK. Could never do that before when using drone boats, after all. Working as intended.

Training for a wingu as i type this :D

In most other mmo's you can max. level a character in a couple of weeks, unlike eve.

You are not winning until you begin to trust in rust. 1400mm Maelstrom blasts cruisers/battlecruisers with half a volley (4 guns), weaker battleships with a volley, strongest battleships with 3-4 volleys. Frigates with a single gun. And it does it at ranges over 100km.

But if you really want to go pro, go for Machariel. 800mm autocannon Mach, pure t2 fit (no shiny faction mods), glass tank (passive shield), 70km range with short range ammo, over 1000DPS, 3 seconds rate of fire, 5 medium drones and 5 small drones as a backup, 1400m/s base MWD speed. It obliterates everything in a 70km radius without even having to move and it does not need tank because of the sheer amount of DPS - everything will be reduced to wrecks before you get in any danger.

Drake? Drake's DPS is pathetic. It's only used because mission runners who are not that skilled can sit in a tanked brick and not worry about warpouts, which is useful when you are starting to play the game. That and the fact that you can train bigger missiles faster than bigger guns. It's the prime choice of those who don't really know how to play the game and there's no one who can teach them.

+1

I have flown every race of ship but Minmatar takes the cake for PVP and PVE in most cases. Even just a maelstrom or a tempest in many cases has enough falloff to get the job done.

I use drones all the time in level 4s, not a problem. You just have to know how dumb the new AI is and work around it.

fyi, my drake has been collecting dust for 5 years and prob for another 5.

You're complaining that drones get destroyed too easily now, but also say how much you enjoy discussing drone strategy. Maybe you should discuss drone strategy to combat the new AI? Easy mode isn't fun, at least for me. Difficult games are fun. Stick with your drone boats and learn new tactics. I know from personal experience that running missions in a missile boat can get pretty boring(especially a passive drake). You'll burn yourself out in no time.

No need to give up on the drones. Sentry drones for missions are significantly better now imho. Moving drones get picked on.

I run a sentry rattler on my mission char. With the DDA2 boosts it now has over 800dps just from from the Garde IIs.

Since the Retribution patch I have only run around a dozen lvl4 missions, but in those missions I have had my sentry drones targetted exactly three times total.

The mission NPC aggression towards sentry drones seems far far less than pre-patch, not more. Use them