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Need help with drones
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Jono Relaco
Doomheim
#1 - 2014-08-21 13:39:59 UTC
Hey all

Im fairly new to the game and have been looking into it and decided to go with mission running/combat sites in order to make my
ISK and enjoy the game. I have gone Gallente as i like the look of their ships and i have decided to go down the path of the drones ships as i think the Dominix looks badass.

Im just having a problem at the moment with deciding what drones i should be using for the missions. Currently im just grinding the level 1's for the standing and waiting for my skills to train.

Im using Hobgoblin 1's at the moment in my Algos but was just wondering as i slowly improve in the game what are the different types of drones and what ones are the most popular?

Also are there any hotkeys i could use in order to help control my drones and what order should i take out the enemy ships in?

Thanks all :)
IIshira
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#2 - 2014-08-21 14:21:37 UTC
Jono Relaco wrote:
Hey all

Im fairly new to the game and have been looking into it and decided to go with mission running/combat sites in order to make my
ISK and enjoy the game. I have gone Gallente as i like the look of their ships and i have decided to go down the path of the drones ships as i think the Dominix looks badass.

Im just having a problem at the moment with deciding what drones i should be using for the missions. Currently im just grinding the level 1's for the standing and waiting for my skills to train.

Im using Hobgoblin 1's at the moment in my Algos but was just wondering as i slowly improve in the game what are the different types of drones and what ones are the most popular?

Also are there any hotkeys i could use in order to help control my drones and what order should i take out the enemy ships in?

Thanks all :)


For your shortcuts just press ESC, Go to the "Shortcuts" tab, then "Drones" tab. There are a few preset ones but you can change them if you wish.

Most people use Sentry drones for level 4 missions. With the drone aggro Heavy drones will get chewed up fast if you don't stay close to them. For level 1 missions just light drones... I've never done level 2-3 in a drone ship.
Dawn en Welle
Manson Family
Advent of Fate
#3 - 2014-08-21 14:46:02 UTC
Jono Relaco wrote:

...
Im using Hobgoblin 1's at the moment in my Algos but was just wondering as i slowly improve in the game what are the different types of drones and what ones are the most popular?
...


Evelopedia has a very good description about all drone aspects. Normally, you would pick drone type for the target at hand. For example, when running Angel missions you need to do mainly explosive damage so pick Warrior and Valkyrie drones. Another excellent resource is the UniWiki's section on drones.
Antillie Sa'Kan
Imperial Shipment
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2014-08-21 14:53:04 UTC
Drone use for missions goes something like this:

L1: lights
L2: lights
L3: lights/mediums
L4: sentry/lights

Ideally in L4s you would only use sentry drones but sometimes lights may be needed to pop frigates that get too close. With drone aggo being what it is you will need to stay close to your drones to avoid loosing them. However some people are able to keep aggro on their ship through ewar, oversized prop mods, or raw DPS.

Which drones you use will depend on the rats you are shooting at. Here is what I generally use now that drones have been rebalanced:

Sansha/Blood Raiders: EM drones
Guristas/Serpentes: Kinetic drones
Angels: Explosive drones
Mercenaries: Kinetic drones
Rouge drones: EM drones
EoM: Kinetic drones

Oddly enough the old standby thermal drones aren't as useful as they once were. They do however perform fairly well against almost all targets and thermal sentry drones have the best tracking. So they are useful if you don't like swapping drones between missions and thermal sentries certainly have a role in closer range combat.

For PVP things are a bit different, but it looks like you are only planning on PVE for now.
Hasikan Miallok
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#5 - 2014-08-21 23:28:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Hasikan Miallok
Unlike other weapons where are a choice of ammo is based purely on target resistances, drones have quite a few differences.

Light Drones.

General people will fly Hobs or Warriors (Caldari and Amarr light drones tend to get ignored):

1. Hobgoblins. These do the best overall damage of all the drones. In some scenarios they can do more damage than the target specific damage type.
2. Warriors. These are substantially faster.

Hobgoblins are more popular in missions.
Warriors are more common in PvP where Hobs have trouble catching the target.

I personally prefer warriors in missions as being faster they get to target quicker and can be recalled faster if they are taking aggro.

Note : Many people treat t1 light drones as disposable ammo.



Medium Drones.

Same as for light except speed is less of a factor so Hammerheads tend to be the main choice.



Heavy Drones.

Used for stationary or very close large targets, never send them out past about 10-20km or they die.

Two real choices:
1) ogres - best T1 drone damage
2) gecko - amazing if you can afford them but not cheap



Sentry Drones.

The big difference between sentry drones is range.

The two most common sentry drones people use are:
1) Garde - because they do the most damage and track best at close range. They kind suck at very long ranges though. Gardes work best between 15km and about 80km depending on your skills. below 10km they can have trouble with small fast targets.
2) Bouncers - because the bouncer has a huge "falloff" which matches the range boost of the omni links very well, Before the recent omni and drone nerfs bouncers were good for shooting out to 160-180 km or more. You now are realistically limited to sniping at 120-150km with max skills which is still decent.

So garde for up close and bouncers for sniping is a common strategy.




T1 versus Faction versus T2

Until recently T2 drones were a "must have" as they had substantially better stats.

This has changed. Current situation is:
1) T1 drones have improved and are no longer at a huge disadvantage.
2) Faction drones are better than T2 in some stats but cannot achieve the max damage of t2 and are very expensive.
3) T2 can, if you train racial drone spec to V, get 10% more damage than faction but are not as good in other stats.

When starting out stick to T1.




Drone Ships

Low level missions:
1) Initially aim for a Vexor. I still fly a T1 vexor with 3 T2 Bouncers and a passive shield tank (repairs 120 HP sec) for blitzing low level missions and running the 3 monthly SOE Epic arc.

Medium level missions:
2) The best drone battle-cruiser is probably the Prophecy but that will require Amarr cross training. The Myrm is respectable or you can skip battle-cruisers altogether.

level IV:
3) The T1 standard Dominix with a MJD as a level IV sniping boat is one of the easiest level IV mission runners around. Later on, the Rattlesnake does crazy damage but is hard to skill into and needs good management to fly well or you waste its DPS. there is no drone marauder.

Incursions:
4) Drones (and missiles) are not overly popular with incursion fleets. The fleets themselves will tell if they accept drone boats and what type.
Mooh Bear
Strategic Exploration and Development Corp
Silent Company
#6 - 2014-08-22 17:20:12 UTC
The situation with the "best" drone is still murky. I actually ran some calculations (in an Excel spreadsheet!) based on rat weighted resist profiles to figure out if the split damage of 'augmented' drones was a problem. Based on those calculations, it's not.

And I also found the Hobgoblin II/Hammerhead II/Ogre II to be the highest or second best (by a short margin) damage dealers all around, regardless of the rat. It's because the different in resist isn't that great and also because a good chunk of the rat HPs are in hull (no resistance). One caveat: I don't have info on regen.

So, I only use Gallente drones in mission now.
Ssabat Thraxx
DUST Expeditionary Team
Good Sax
#7 - 2014-08-23 01:08:54 UTC
Jono Relaco wrote:
I have gone Gallente as i like the look of their ships...


Hmm, what would Dr. Freud say about that? Shocked

\m/ O.o \m/

"You're a freak ..." - Solecist Project
Ireland VonVicious
Vicious Trading Company
#8 - 2014-08-23 01:49:09 UTC
I like Caldari drones the best.
Best DPS to speed ratio.
Highest shield health.
The damage type works rather well for missions with Amarr and Gallente ships.

Get the light/med drones T2.

Then get Gardes/Wardens T2.

Wasp T2 will finish off a nice set of drones.

But don't stop there. Gallente/Minmitar are also nice.

Amarr drones still suck although not as bad as they once did.
They do the best damage type for PvP and I guess that's something.
Most still want raw dps, speed, health more.

I ran a Dominix on my way up to Rattlensnake.

I started with Gallente drones then Minmitar and then Caldari because everyone said Caldari were not as good.
They were wrong. Caldari prove to be the most useful again and again for me.
I still use them all at differnet points but Caldari seem to have the best line up.
Barton Breau
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2014-08-23 03:49:51 UTC  |  Edited by: Barton Breau
Also never underestimate drone shields and regeneration, depending on the use, you may have a much less stressful time with say CN vespas than hammers.

That is the biggest advantage of navy drones, 2x hp with a dash of tracking.

EDIT: also the garde+bouncer duo can significantly change depending on resist profiles, not everyone runs just angels.
Hasikan Miallok
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#10 - 2014-08-23 12:51:13 UTC
oh yeah ... other drone ships worth a looka re Gila, navy Vexor and Ishtar.
Mr Mac
Dark Goliath
#11 - 2014-08-24 07:37:42 UTC  |  Edited by: Mr Mac
I'm fully trained in amarr way. Month ago I started with Gallente. Doing missions in Vexor, Myrmidon and Dominix.
I find that any drones do best. Just check which faction has low resistance and use best drones against enemies. But don't be passive with drones. They get alot of aggro. Just control them and they will love you :)

Edit: added npc ship database
http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/default.php
Bibosikus
Air
#12 - 2014-08-26 09:38:38 UTC
Like you OP, I cut my teeth on Serpentis misions in Gallente space for many months. I ended up running L4 missions out of Aunia using nothing but a sentry Ishtar which, despite the upcoming nerf, is still about the best boat there is for Serpentis missions, and supreme for odd sniping missions like Buzz Kill.

But your choice of Dominix is sound; it's quicker to train than the Ishtar, and very new-User friendly in that you can start out with a hefty tank and gradually move to more drone damage mods etc. as you become familiar with missions and their triggers.

For Serp missions, the Gallente drones (Hobgoblins, Hammerheads, Ogres and Gardes) are unquestionably the best damage applicators - with a couple of exceptions such as The Blockade where rats can spawn up to 90km away and Warden sentries are a better choice. But the Domi has a big drone bay, allowing you to take two full sets of heavies or sentries, with some spares as well as as set of lights.

As a new player, I would suggest you focus on training and using combat drones, getting the Rank 1 drone support skills to level 5, with a long term goal of Heavy Drone Operation to 5 before you go anywhere near sentries. Around that time you'll probably be able to fork out for two or three Gecko heavy drones, which are jaw-droppingly good at applying fierce damage to even the smallest elite frigate of any race. You'll learn fast about aggro switching, micro management and drone module fits (particularly in the mid slots). Using combat drones also allows you to stay mobile, and again learn about transversal, "speed tanking" (although not so much in a Dominix..) and even kiting.

As to what to primary, rat-wise: Small to large is the general rule - particularly elite frigates, since they're the only rat type in missions that may have the ability to web and scram. This is a *general* rule though. There are exceptions, and not just a few of them. Your best friend is Eve Survival's mission reports.

As to hotkeys - I used to use CTRL-E as Attack Target, CRTL-D as Return to Drone Bay, and CTRL-W as Return and Orbit. I think a couple of those combo's are already assigned to other stuff which I wasn't using. I definitely advocate shortcuts though - once you're used to them they can shave a lot of time off switching your drones from target to target.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Barton Breau
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2014-08-26 14:30:46 UTC
Bibosikus wrote:
Like you OP, I cut my teeth on Serpentis misions in Gallente space for many months. I ended up running L4 missions out of Aunia using nothing but a sentry Ishtar which, despite the upcoming nerf, is still about the best boat there is for Serpentis missions, and supreme for odd sniping missions like Buzz Kill.

But your choice of Dominix is sound; it's quicker to train than the Ishtar, and very new-User friendly in that you can start out with a hefty tank and gradually move to more drone damage mods etc. as you become familiar with missions and their triggers.

For Serp missions, the Gallente drones (Hobgoblins, Hammerheads, Ogres and Gardes) are unquestionably the best damage applicators - with a couple of exceptions such as The Blockade where rats can spawn up to 90km away and Warden sentries are a better choice. But the Domi has a big drone bay, allowing you to take two full sets of heavies or sentries, with some spares as well as as set of lights.

As a new player, I would suggest you focus on training and using combat drones, getting the Rank 1 drone support skills to level 5, with a long term goal of Heavy Drone Operation to 5 before you go anywhere near sentries. Around that time you'll probably be able to fork out for two or three Gecko heavy drones, which are jaw-droppingly good at applying fierce damage to even the smallest elite frigate of any race. You'll learn fast about aggro switching, micro management and drone module fits (particularly in the mid slots). Using combat drones also allows you to stay mobile, and again learn about transversal, "speed tanking" (although not so much in a Dominix..) and even kiting.

As to what to primary, rat-wise: Small to large is the general rule - particularly elite frigates, since they're the only rat type in missions that may have the ability to web and scram. This is a *general* rule though. There are exceptions, and not just a few of them. Your best friend is Eve Survival's mission reports.

As to hotkeys - I used to use CTRL-E as Attack Target, CRTL-D as Return to Drone Bay, and CTRL-W as Return and Orbit. I think a couple of those combo's are already assigned to other stuff which I wasn't using. I definitely advocate shortcuts though - once you're used to them they can shave a lot of time off switching your drones from target to target.


I guess everyone plays differently, however i think a new player will have quite a depressing time with combat drones in l4s due to aggro (elite frigates and cruisers).

For me the mjd + sentry way was not a disappointment, you need no tank (ae bonus and blockade gurista half can be skipped), very little skills, many slots to make up for low skills on a domi, rats die before they get into range and also after recent changes the faction sentries are better.

Also who runs l4s out of a 0.8 system?