Ships & Modules

1) They are immobile. You can recall them, but they'll only go back into the drone bay if they are in scoop range. If not you'll have to move to within 2500m before you can pick them up.

2) You can't order them to shoot something outside your drone control range. If the target moves out of range, they'll continue shooting it. Also they can auto-aggro on ships out of range. Dunno about 2.1, I never get that far my sentries.

3) At long range where transversal is low they're good against all ship types. Up close Gardes are still good against cruisers with an omnidirectional tracking link, else you may need to switch to regular drones if you're having a hard time hitting them.

In pvp I use a set of Gardes on my blaster Megathron; scooping them generally isn't an issue because we either win and I can scoop them, or we don't and I pop.

Also, one of the main advantages of sentries for pve is that you (should) always be close enough to RR / scoop them, which is important in content that uses the advanced AI which will shoot at your drones.

In some cases yes, PvE for the most part. You might do it on a PvP Ishtar if you want to snipe with it, but the Ishtar's CPU is so utterly dire that you'll have real difficulties what with the fitting req's of DLA's.

Besides, "sniper" usually implies much further than you can get even with max skills and a few T2 DLA's though.

I have one on my mission Domi (5x425mm rails and 1 T2 DLA).

This means that I can happily shoot rats with both sentries and turrets all the way out to 81km (I'm looking at you, stupid rats that get stuck bouncing around in structures and don't fly towards me like all the others).

-Ed

Not strictly true, they do move very slowly and will eventually return on their own when asked to. Last time I checked I think I clocked them at about 3 m/s or something equally useless.

But yeah for all intents and purposes they are pretty-much immobile.

Drone control range is how far your ship needs to be from the target, not how far you are from your drones nor how far your drones are from your target. I know it's confusing but.

Drones <----A----> Your ship <----B----> Your target


B needs to be smaller than your drone control range.

The drone's range and falloff with regards to their position relative to the target determine how effective their shots will be.


As for using them against small targets - they are as effective as you make them.

The following things help (in my personal order of preference):

1) Omnidirectional tracking links (increased tracking)
2) Target painters (increased sig on targets)
3) Web (slows down your targets)

My navy domi sniper can hit out and destroy NPC frigs in the 20 - 110 km range with little difficulty using sentries. (I use three omnis and a TP)

So they move 3,6km in an hour. Heh.

Yeah if you're shooting a POS this can actually be a real pain, they'll drift inside the force field and you can't retrieve them.

Also, Sentries plus extended control range = angry Falcon pilots.

If by burning you mean some sort of MWD, then maybe? Otherwise it's a long ride back to pick them up.

To illustrate that further….

There are three legs to the geometry that limit the applicability of your drones, two of which matter when you're trying to put damage on a target, and one of which matters when you try to affect your drones (by scooping/recovering them, repping them, or trying to blow them up for some unknown reason).

Drone control range — limits how close the target has to be to you in order for you to order the drones attack it.
Locking range — same (if you can't lock the target, you can't tell your drones to attack it).
Drone activation proximity — limits how close a target has to be to the drone in order for the drone to start attacking on its own accord.
Drone optimal/falloff — limits how close a target has to be to the drone in order for the drone to have a chance of hitting it.
Range to drone — limits how close the drone has to be to you in order for you to lock it, rep it, scoop it, or activate any other module on it.

I and several others got popped in Fountain a couple of years back by an incredibly annoying nano-Ishtar pilot who would leave sentries 50-100km off the gate and buzz you as you jumped in, with dual webs and a tp. He was extremely effective for a few days. Sentries can HURT. We eventually popped him and he moved on, presumably to take his winning formula to other victims..

all you have to know is that sentry drones are gods of PVE, and highly situational in pvp. i have sniped Vagas with Bouncers and three-shot Jags with Wardens from 120km off in my Snipetar, but in realistic pvp scenarios, sentries will get you killed more often than not. i have lost 1bill worth of Ishtars (so about 6) trying to make sentries work in pvp, but the truth is they're so very situational.

for fleets though theyre awesome. i use Bouncers on my rail Megas and Domis to do about 900dps damage past 50km.

sentry drones would be viable in pvp if drone ships got a role bonus of: your sentry drones follow at 20/40/60/80/100% of your ship's speed. or some sort of teleport mechanic. say, for the Ishtar, Gila, Domi, Eos.