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Drone skills optimization
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Ezpzy
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2014-12-24 01:59:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Ezpzy
Sorry posted in the wrong section can a Mod delete this please?

After hearing so much praise from the community how good drones are on the current meta game, I decided to build my character around droneboats and hoping to fly Ishtars one day. Currently I'm flying a Vexor and it feels rather underwhelming compare to my old destroyer catalyst. I didnt see any huge increase on my dps, sure vexor is more tanky but thats to be expected since its a cruiser size ship. I was thinking maybeI dont have enough drone skills to fly vexor and take advantage of its drones. I would appreciate if I can get some guidance regarding my skill plan to optimize my drone damage since I dont really know how the drone damage bonus gets factored in. Would like to know which skills to take first that would give me higher boost of damage.

This are my current drone skills:

Amarr Drone Specialization Level 1
Caldari Drone Specialization Level 1
Drone Avionics Level 3
Drone Durability Level 1
Drone Interfacing Level 3
Drone Navigation Level 3
Drone Sharpshooting Level 3
Drones Level 5
Gallente Drone Specialization Level 2
Heavy Drone Operation Level 1
Light Drone Operation Level 3
Medium Drone Operation Level 3
Minmatar Drone Specialization Level 1
Gallente Cruiser level 2

Current Vexor drone dps 132, turret dps 109

My Vexor Fit
Dual 150mm Prototype Gauss Gun
Dual 150mm Prototype Gauss Gun
Dual 150mm Prototype Gauss Gun
Dual 150mm Prototype Gauss Gun

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array
Eutectic Capacitor Charge Array

Medium 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Prototype Armor Kinetic Hardener I
Prototype Armor Thermic Hardener I
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Drone Damage Amplifier I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Vespa x5 ( I'm mostly doing serpentis rats )
Hobgoblin I x5

Antimatter Charge M x1


I'm also not sure if its worth getting tech 2 drones right away since I believe the increase damage is very minimal? and its mostly for speed/hp/tracking upgrade than damage. I'm mostly ratting with my vexor so I'm using medium drones atm.
RavenPaine
RaVeN Alliance
#2 - 2014-12-24 02:23:18 UTC
If you look at your skilling like you would look at grades in a school class.
You have drones V so that's an 'A' and it lets you fly 5 drones. Good start
All other related skills are 'C' or below. So your over all skilling is below average, hence the performance shows that.
Slow, weak drones.

If your other skilling is along the same lines, Vexor hull, gun skills, etc, it all adds up to sub-par results.

Yes, you need T2 drones, and every skill that affects them at a higher level.
Drone Interfacing is a skill that needs to be at V
For your fit, Gallente and Caldari Drone Spec should be at IV.
Light Drone skill and Medium Drone skill should both go to IV first, but then later to V.
I like Drone Nav V.
Do Drone Durability to III for now.

Train Cruiser IV asap for almost instant improvement, then later to V.

I'm pretty sure there's a better fit for what you do, but for now I'm seeing skill issues front and center.


Your goal in drones (for now) is about 4 million SP. Drones are good for every race and many, many ships you'll fly. You won't be sorry. You gotta just commit to them for a couple months.
Cheese Crackers
Malfurion Mining
#3 - 2014-12-24 02:25:48 UTC
I would strongly suggest using t2 drones, get DDA t2 and get all the basic drone skills as well as the drone spec to IV.
Ezpzy
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2014-12-24 02:43:11 UTC
thanks for all the input, I'm fairly new to the game only less than 2 weeks old so bear with me if I ask seemingly stupid question I think all your post gave me some grasp on my current situation. Just to make sure I got the priorities right, my skill plan should look like.

In proper order where top priority gives more effectiveness in less time.

Cruiser to IV
Drone Interfacing to IV
Medium Drones to V ( for tech II )
Drone Interfacing to V
Light drones to V

and other supporting skills like sharpshooting, navigation to V? Kindly correct me if I'm wrong!

PS. I can already fit damage drone amp tech II :D
Andrew Indy
Cleaning Crew
#5 - 2014-12-24 02:47:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Andrew Indy
Most Likely this post should be in the Skills sub forum.

Any way. Catalysts are very high DPS for a destroyer however they have almost no range where as your Vexor can apply damage to 60k with good skills.

Edit, If you are only 2 weeks old i would skip the non required lvl 5 skills (like drone interfacing) , you could train a lot of other skills up in the time it would take to lvl5.

A few months back drone interfacing gave a 20% boost so it was well worth it however now its only 10% but its still stuck in peoples heads as a mandatory lvl5. Sure aim for it , but its not required right now.
Tsukino Stareine
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2014-12-24 14:53:20 UTC  |  Edited by: Tsukino Stareine
You will want light drone V as soon as possible for tech 2 light drones and then 3 in the racial drone specialisations.

Mediums you can skip as they are pretty bad unless flying a gila.

Then you want to work on the drone supports in this order:

drone interfacing III
drone avionics V (for t2 drone link augmentors)
sharpshooting V (for t2 omnidirectional tracking links)
durability III
advanced drone avionics III
sentry drone interfacing V
heavy drone V

while training for tech 2 sentries and heavies, navy drones are more than a viable substitute as long as you take care of them and don't let them die (as they are quite pricey).

Art of Explosions
RavenPaine
RaVeN Alliance
#7 - 2014-12-24 18:42:25 UTC
In my earlier post, I had mentioned/implied getting drones to 4 million SP fairly soon.
That was before I realized how new you are.
In fact there may be many other skills you need, to have a decent, balanced, new toon.
Skills for learning implants should be first, then an assortment of:
Navigation
Tank
Targeting
Ships
Guns

So what you've done so far is pretty much on pace. Skills to II's and III's is the right way at the start. Then up to IV's and so on

I still stand by the drone 'goal' but I wanted to clarify that you might need other stuff (more basic important stuff) than 2 months of drones.