Ships & Modules

Almost as Bad as watching a Vindicator sitting in a belt MINING.

I'm not the one who invented this analogy, but I've heard the Drake called the AK-47 of spaceships. I couldn't agree more. You can throw just about anything at it and it'll keep on shooting consistently, volley after volley after volley. It can tank level 4 missions, sleepers in wormholes (up to a certain class), it can run exploration sites (and has enough mids to fit a codebreaker/analyzer if your tank is overkill enough) and also be used just fine in PvP. You can throw it in mud, a sandstorm, just about anything and it'll still work.

It really is the best ship in terms of effectiveness and versatility for its price. It is a fantastic ship to have early on if you want to be able to try out the largest variety of PvE content in the game solo, without having to cross-train all kinds of stuff. It's a one-ship-fits-all in a lot of situations.

That being said, I hate drakes more than any other ship in EvE. They're almost cliche, they're ugly, and kinda boring to fly. Once your tank is set up, you really just press fire missile and babysit your drones. You hardly even pilot the drake, just drift slowly, soaking up damage, and pooping out missiles that always hit their target. I chose instead to run all my missions and PvE stuff with an artillery Hurricane, but believe me, its kinda doing it the hard way. Drakes can tank all kinds of situations a Hurricane can't. But as others have said, fly what you want in the end. You can make other ships work for the stuff Drake's excel at, its just more challenging early on.

It is overpowered for its class and its cost. What else did you want from people who generally tend to easily succumb to imbalanced ships?

I am certainly not an expert, and I dislike the Drake, but did train my alt to fly one, specifically for WH sites.

The big advantage IMO seems to be in missile projection.

I've been running C1 Sites a bit. I had done them in my Myrmidon. It works but was annoying (and not due to the drone aggro). I would always have to choose between 2 ranges of guns. AC would hit short range great, but the cruisers hanging out at 45km I'd have to burn out to kill. Or I could go arties and wouldnt hit the close stuff for snot.

But a drake hits from 0-max range equally well. Sure Scourge missiles don't damage the frigs as well, but it still goes faster than picking short or long range.

This BTW is the same for missions and pretty much all PVE. All the gun options I use I seem to have to pick between a close range weapon or long range. But missiles tend to work for all ranges better.

drake tanks *A LOT* better than the cane. i'm talking 60% to 100% better unless you want to invest ridiculous amounts of money. but like others already said, the only real followup would be the tengu, whereas gunnery skills are pretty much mandatoery unless you want to fly a mining barge.

i must be weird because i don't think the drake is ugly.

simplicity is an expression of elegant design.
- cheap,
- tough as a goddamn pack of rhinos,
- versatile to fit,
- can pack a decent punch with good skill development
- fantastic (!) pvp roam bait
- cheap, cheap, cheap

simply beautiful.

That's pretty fail...you forgot a tractor beam.

PvE is pretty boring, I don't see many reasons to make take any longer than it absolutely has to.

Hm yeah, I didn't have heavy missiles maxed.
I'd probably take a T2 fitted Drake if I get into an Incursion fleet someday..

As for L4s I prefer Rattlesnake or Golem.

The cane is perhaps not the ideal wormhole ship, but it can push out a ridiculous amount of dps for a battlecruiser. Try, for example, getting into and incursion fleet in a drake, then try getting into one in a hurricane....the cane will get picked hours before the drake.

And the eventual progression into a sleipnir just makes it even better with the falloff bonus.