EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi everyone!

Just a very quick question. My Drones V is almost complete, well, about 1d 9h left, so I just wanted to know where it would be better to go to next? Should I go for skills to unlock tier 2 Medium Drones or should I got for skills to unlock Sentry Drones?

I want to point out that I actually hate, a lot, the fact that drones are so freaking easy to kill, not by 1 or 2 ships ofcourse, but when targeted by 5 or 6, which happens a lot, so sentries do sound like a better option for me, if I can just deploy them from a safe distance and let them snipe enemies. Can I?

What do you think guys, what would be better?

Oh and, almost forgot, does that Drone Damage Modifier or whatever it is called, that you put into lower slot, affect Sentries or only Scouts?

First: I guess you have to imporve you aggro management. Warp in, get the rats aggro and while you orbit for minimum damage your drones kill everything. And attack small ships first as big ships won't attack smaller drones not at all (most of the time)

The Drone Damage Module works with all drones, you want to slot 2-3 or even 4 on a drone boat.
IF you want to use the Gila skill for medium drones first, if you want to use the rattlesnake sentries are great. If you don't know yet you could stop at IV and train support skills until you have an idea what suits you most?

You'll probably have to train both. Some situations require medium drones / shorter range damage. Sentries won't be able to track enemies that orbit you closely; they are like sniper guns in that respect. It really depends on the ship and the situation.

As far as your drones getting killed, that was changed, on purpose, by CCP, a couple years ago, because they didn't like how most drone ships could just deploy drones and go afk. So of course they over-compensated a bit, then didn't have time to look at it again.

As above, you have to learn to work the current aggression system:

1. Wait until the NPCs have targeted you and started shooting you (they go yellow when targeting, red when shooting). THEN deploy drones.

2. You absolutely need the keybinds to "drones engage enemy" and "drones return to bay", and you'll need to use these keybindings often.

3. Right-click the drones (in the drone window in-space) and assign them to groups of 5 so you can order the whole group with the keybinds.

4. NORMAL (non-elite) NPCs that are currently busy shooting you will:
4a. Frigates will ignore light scout drones and will shoot at mediums and heavy/sentry.
4b. Cruisers will ignore light and medium, and will shoot at large.
4c. Battleships will ignore all.

5. Elite and boss NPCs, and Sleepers/Drifters, will switch targets to destroy drones, unless they are more threatened by you or other players. They will feel more threatened if you use electronic jamming on them, or remote repairs on your fellow players, but only for the duration of said jamming/repairs.

6. Players will attack whatever threatens them the most. If they figure out that you're in a drone ship with no guns, and they have time to take out the drones to declaw you, they will. If they figure that it's simpler to just kill your ship (you're not tanked), they will. It depends on the situation. For example, interceptors can really only be caught by light scouts (warriors, notably) that are supported with medium-slot modules for drone speed. They're too fast for anything else, and they know this. They are actually so fast that the best course of action is to fly 100+ km away from your ship to drag your drones outside your drone control range. Which is why you'll need those keybinds.

Rats hate EW. Fit a target painter - it will help your drones kill small ships faster and it will draw agro to your ship.

I used to fly a Rattlesnake with Wardens and cruise missiles. Land on grid, use your Micro Jump Drive to get 100+ Km from the rats, launch sentries and start by killing the frigates - they burn straight toward you so the sentries can take them out with 1 shot. Just don't let them get too close.

I also flew a Gila with augmented Hammerheads and rapid light missiles. That ship cleared a room just as fast and was a lot more fun to fly. Gila has been nerfed since then - lost a low slot. It's still an awesome ship just not quite as overpowered as it used to be!

It's AI (coding), so if that's the way CCP coded it, that's the way the NPCs will behave.

But the ones that attack drones will attack T1 or T2 drones, it's not the type of drone that's important, it's their AI and how much of a "threat" your ship is calculated to have. You don't use T2 drones because they aren't attacked, you use T2 drones because they do more damage. What you need to do is fill your ship with a set of Light, a set of Medium, and (for battleships) a set or two of Heavy.

It's always a question of damage vs. tank. If your ship isn't heavily defended, you need to take out the big ships first, because they do a lot of damage to you. But then your large drones will be attacked by the small frigates that escort the big ships. So you need to launch the light drones to take out the small frigates first, but the big ships will shoot you with their guns and you need to survive that damage because you're not reducing it much while you're plinking all the little frigates.

Elite NPC's can be common in missions. For example, for Guristas you mostly see the common Pith(xx) ones, but you'll also have the Dread or Dire (Pithxx) bosses or lieutenants. They're usually the ones who jam or scramble or webify you, so it's doubly important to take them out fast, not just to protect your drones, but your ship also.

Just to be clear, it is TECH 2, not Tier 2. Eve has been undergoing Tiericide for a while now, basically eliminating module and ship progression and instead making everything a matter of situational advantages.

Battleships use drones for small ship defense. Sentries are terrible for this. Only use sentries on a BS if the BS has room for other drones too.

+1 Do Little

I do the same thing with a Rattlesnake. Just orbit the sentries close enough that they instantly recall and MJD when anything remotely dangerous gets close. If they do land a scram I just switch to light drones to clear them. I almost never use medium (or heavy) drones. Lights with decent skills still take down cruiser rats with ease.

You can aim for resist holes but I don't even bother. Just a set engagement range I use and MJD around to maintain it.

NPC's target switch from a small list of things

E-War
Remote-Reps
DPS
Size
#rng

Elite NPC's will ALWAYS target switch and yomp drones

Normal npc's can switch agro based on class (drone class v's npc ship size)
Small ships switch agro to Medium/Large drones
Medium ships switch agro to Large drones


You can apply DPS + ewar from your ship and the npc's can still switch to drones because #rng