Warfare & Tactics

Again, false. I am not scrammed / webbed. I am orbiting at about 1600 m/s with a sig radius of 33.

True... Heavy Drones have a weapon signature of 125m... about the same as most medium weapons... which cuts down the effectiveness of their high tracking (in addition to applied damage)... but in the OP's case, that didn't do him much good as interceptors don't have much HP to spare.

However, that's pretty much one of only two major limiting factors for Heavy Drones in brawler engagements (the other being speed to keep up with the frigate... which Berserkers can handily do with a base speed of 1200 m/sec).


I should note that Heavy Drones being used outside of the N-Vexor and Domi probably won't be much of a threat to frigates (because they lose those sexy bonuses).

I need to test this.. I don't buy this at all.

1700m/s is about perfect mwd speed for berserkers. They'll follow you since they have similar agility and since they are moving at almost the same speed will have very little angular velocity and hit you for full damage.

The way to avoid heavy drones is to use your MWD.

The drones following my orbit and cutting my angular makes a little sense. Not sure why heavies have such a high orbit velocity but I suppose that's a different discussion.

I attempted the same thing with an MWD, the heavy drones from the domi still hit for about the same as with the AB, though I was going about 3k m/s in my orbit of the Domi.

I still don't like it, but it is what it is.

The way drones attack is actually quite stupid. There's a sour spot with drones which are fast versus foes which are going between their orbit and MWD speeds.

What they do is get launched.

Then they sit there, often for a full second or two after you tell them to attack (I have a programmable nerd mouse so this is a thumb-click to circumvent the DUMBASS dating sim drone interface).

Then they run at full speed towards the target at 100% MWD speed. Wheeeee!

When they get to the target, they slow down to their orbit velocity. They then try to shoot the foe with their tracking vs the foe's sig, vs their angular velocity.

This works really well for drones attacking something big, slow and sig-bloated. Attacking something way faster than their orbit velocity throws up an anomaly.

In this case they scream in to the target at 100% MWD speed and enter orbit...which is often slower than their foe's speed...so they fall out of orbit with their enemy...at which point, when out of orbit, they begin following at 100% speed again. Wheeeee!

Etcetera etcetera ad infinitum.

If you don't believe me, try,
a) drone nav rigs on a Dragoon and get your Warrior II's to attack a Dramiel or something fast, but nowhere near as fast as the 8.75km/s drones you now have
b) entering a C4 Black Hole and try getting your drones to attack anything which is way too slow for them. Or try recalling them. They will orbit you in spastic rubber-band orbits until you tell them to return and orbit, and then return to drone bay (which causes them to slow down enough to dock with you).
c) doing same with Dragoon in Black Hole. 24km/s Warriors are...utterly munted.

The same will happen, incidentally, if you are going somewhere between the Berserker's max and orbit velocities.

This is also, I have pointed out incessantly to the devs, why web drones are absolutely useless. They are too slow to catch their foes and if they do, they get slower still and don't slow their foes enough to keep their foes with them. So they are forever hitting their sour spot and making themselves look idiotic.

dude. thanks for sharing that.

Lmao, I'm sorry?

What are your tactics for attempting a tackle on a BS with an interceptor? Please, enlighten me.

Me being in a heavy drone's optimal has jack **** to do with their tracking.

Man, it's like people don't even read before responding with idiocy.

I WAS USING AN AFTERBURNER WITH A SIG RADIUS OF 33, ORBITING AROUND 3-4KM, GOING ABOUT 1600 MS. Maybe since it's in all caps and in bold you might actually read it.

And no, optimal has nothing to do with tracking. I don't believe heavies should be able to track the way they do, even if it's specifically from a Dominix. Lights, of course, mediums....sure, heavies, wtf?

I don't care if they can hit me once because my angular lines up, I care that they can hit me with every single shot, popping me in about 3 - 4 volleys.

What You Should Be Worried About Is That Your Ceptor Only Goes 1600M/S.
BattleCruisers Can Outrun It !