Ships & Modules

After playing 2 days I'm having a blast doing the different racial tutorials and some of the Sisters of Eve arc. I went Minmatar because I read they were good for both missions and PVP.

I tried drones out and I really like them. My drone skills are weak (read: still only 2 days old). With Drones 2, due to be drone 3 and Scout Drone 2 in a couple hours, what's the best drone boat to fly for the next 2-3 days ?

I'm actually flying a Probe now, but it feels really flimsy. I worry if all my drones die I'll be killed in 1-2 shots. I'm carrying a full load of drones so I can send spares out as individual ones get picked off...but that will only go so far.

Is the Tristan better? By better, I mean sturdier and with more cap for the Frigate class? Is there another drone frigate better than either of those two? I have Minmatar Destroyers and Frigates for the other 3 races. I also have Gallente Frigates in the queue to unlock Gallente Destroyers.

Since our latest re-alignment of the races, Gallente and Amarr have drones as a secondary weapon system while Minmatar and Caldari have missiles as a secondary weapon system. Still, the only pure drone frigate is the Tristan, so if you're on the path for that, go for it.

As for destroyers, both the Algos (Gallente) and the Dragoon (Amarr) are solid drone ships. Moving up, both races have at least one drone boat in each T1 sub-capital category.

I just wanted to check back in and say the Breacher is *awesome*.

I was having trouble doing the heavier damage missions in the Tutorial missions and some of the earlier Sisters of Eve arc in my Probe. I had to warp and dock in the nearest station several times to patch up hull damage if there were any waves of enemies.

After equipping the Breacher with a couple rocket launchers, a salvager, shield tanking bits, and a couple cargo extenders, I headed out. It breezed through all the Gallente tutorial Military and Advanced Military missions, and a couple Sisters of Eve arc missions. It works well even though it only carries 2 scout drones.

I'm not sure if I'll stay with it or move on to my new Tristan. I just wanted to report back and say the Breacher is a tough little frigate. Thank you for the recommendation.

Drone boats are a mixed bag. For frigates you will want Gallente. The Tristan is a good little ship.

For destroyers you will want Gallente. The Algos is better than the Dragoon. Only 2 mid slots is a pita (one prop mod, but then what, scram, web, cap booster, only one will fit).

For cruisers probably Gallente as well. The Vexor is a great ship. However, this level is where things start evening out. The Arbitrator has some uses. And when CCP finally introduces some dedicated functioning anti-missile ewar through TDs (probably a sister module instead of scripts) the Arbitrator may edge ahead. It will still have mid slot allocation issues. But the ability to give the middle finger to missile boats finally will be very sought after.

At the BC level the Prophecy is used more often in pvp than the Myrm. Sure you can do interesting active tanked gimmicks with a Myrm. But most gangs/fleets are gonna be "prophecy please". Resist bonuses are great things to have, even if you have less dronage.

At the BS level things are fairly even between the Domi and the Geddon. The Geddon's neut bonus is very useful. But the Domi's drone bonuses are as well. So really they can compliment each other and unless you have a purist FC both will be accepted into an armor smash mouth fleet.

Then there is tech II. On the Gallente side there is the Ishtar and the Navy Vexor. These are both looking very good at this time already through a rebalancing. Not as much on Amarr side, but some folks love the Curse and Pilgrim. Anyway this level is something you won't be flying for a while so don't worry about it now.

Eventually the UI and AI with drones will get some attention. And, people (missile boat users) love to complain about missile flight time in this game, but you can be one of us cool drone boat users that don't sound as whiney even though we deal with slower to target drone damage application (with scout drones), while we patiently wait for that happy day of attention finally being paid.

Amarr drone ships are focused on electronic warfare that use drones to supplement their otherwise low damage. Gallente drone ships are usually focused on guns+drones or drones+tank, and in every case that comes readily to mind, have more raw damage potential than Amarr drone boats (while having less support capability). If you forsee yourself doing a lot of PVE, Gallente drone ships are definitely a better choice.

Here's the size progression of tech 1 Gallente drone ships:

[Frigate]->[Destroyer]->[Cruiser]->[Battlecruiser]->[Battleship]
Tristan->Algos->Vexor->Myrmidon->Dominix