Drake

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Drake
Drake
Caldari State
Caldari State
Standard Battlecruisers
Drake Class
Highlight
Can use Command Burst module
HIGHLIGHTS
Highlight
High Amount of High Slots
HIGHLIGHTS
RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES

Of the meticulous craftsmanship the Caldari are renowned for, the Drake was born. It was found beneath such a ship to rely on anything other than the time-honored combat tradition of missile fire, while the inclusion of sufficient CPU capabilities for decent electronic warfare goes without saying.

SHIP BONUSES

Caldari Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level):
4% bonus to all shield resistances
10% bonus to kinetic Heavy Missile and Heavy Assault Missile damage
Role Bonus:
• Can use one Command Burst module
25% bonus to Missile velocity
50% bonus to Command Burst area of effect range

Required Skills
Training Time what's this?
1d 21h 16m 40s
Estimated training time only for the listed skills based on zero implants and without neural remaps.
Grouping
▪ Variations
Nighthawk
Nighthawk.jpg
CornerT2s.png
Nighthawk
Command Ships Drake Class
Icon highlights.pngCan Use Command Burst modules
Icon highlights.pngHigh Amount of High Slots
Icon hi slot.png7 (5/2) Icon mid slot.png6 Icon low slot.png4
Icon powergrid.png1,000 MW Icon cpu.png560 tf
Icon velocity.png150 m/sec
Icon capacity.png700 m³
, Drake Navy Issue
Drake Navy Issue.jpg
CornerTFs.png
Drake Navy Issue
Faction Battlecruisers Drake Class
Icon highlights.pngCommand Bursts
Icon highlights.pngHigh Amount of High Slots
Icon hi slot.png8 (7/0) Icon mid slot.png6 Icon low slot.png4
Icon powergrid.png950 MW Icon cpu.png550 tf
Icon velocity.png180 m/s
Icon capacity.png450 m³
, Alligator
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Alligator
Pirate faction Battlecruisers Drake Class
Icon highlights.pngCommand Bursts
Icon highlights.pngHigh Amount of High Slots
Icon hi slot.png7 (6/0) Icon mid slot.png6 Icon low slot.png4
Icon powergrid.png830 MW Icon cpu.png500tf
Icon velocity.png160 m/s
Icon capacity.png450 m3

Ship Attributes

Fittings
Powergrid
powergrid
830 MW
CPU
cpu output
500 tf
Capacitor
capacitor
2,500 GJ
High
high slots
7
Launchers
launcher slots
6
Turrets
turret slots
0
Medium
medium slots
6
Low
low slots
4
Rig
rigs
3
 
medium
Calibration
calibration
400
Navigation
Max Velocity
max. velocity
150 m/sec
Inertia Modifier
inertia modifier (agility)
0.65
Warp Speed
inertia modifier (agility)
3.5 AU/s
Base Time to Warp
base time to warp
12.16 s
what's this?
Base Time to Warp is essentially the time needed for this ship to align and accelerate until it reaches 75% of its top speed and goes to warp. The time displayed here is the base calculated time with no account for any warp related skills, modules or any other effects.
Drones
Drone Capacity
drone capacity
25 m³
Drone Bandwidth
drone bandwidth
25 Mbit/sec
Targeting
Max Tgt. Range
max. targeting range
65.00 km
Max Locked Targets
max. locked targets
8
Gravimetric Sensor
Gravimetric sensor strength
19 points
Sig. Radius
signature radius
295 m
Scan Res.
scan resolution
195 mm
Structure
Structure Hitpoints
structure hitpoints
3,750 HP
Mass
ship mass
13,500,000 kg
Volume
ship volume
252,000 m³
Cargo Capacity
cargo capacity
450 m³
Armor
Armor Hitpoints
armor hitpoints
3,250 HP
Armor Resistances
EM
electromagnetic resistance
50
THR
thermal resistance
45
KIN
kinetic resistance
25
EXP
explosive resistance
10
Shields
Shield Capacity
shield hitpoints
5,500 HP
Shield Resistances
EM
electromagnetic resistance
0
THR
thermal resistance
20
KIN
kinetic resistance
40
EXP
explosive resistance
50


Summary

The Drake, well-known for its excellent tanking abilities, is a very popular PvE ship. In PvE, the Drake can be passively shield-tanked for a stronger tank than a battleship, making L3 missions easy and L4 missions a possibility. However, without very good missile skills L4's will take a long time.

While the Drake was long ago common in PvP fleets, a nerf by CCP has made the Drake unpopular in PvP. It can be fitted with a durable shield buffer tank, but it receives a damage bonus only for kinetic missiles, reducing its flexibility. With Heavy Missile Launchers the DPS of a Drake is not very impressive for a battlecruiser, but it has a long range for its class.

The Drake is quite easy to skill for and pilot competently. Its tank bonus makes it forgiving of mistakes, and missiles are an easy to use weapon system that doesn't require the pilot to worry much about angular velocity and range. While it's easy to make it a good L3 mission boat, it's hard to make it fantastic: it is quite slow, without T2 launchers and ammo it only does okay DPS, and clever piloting can't be used to increase missile damage like it can with turrets.

Skills

Skill & Level Effect Explanation

Base Skills

Icon skillbook2.png Caldari Battlecruiser IV
  • 4% bonus to all shield resistances
  • 10% bonus to Kinetic Heavy Missile Heavy Assault Missile damage
While you can start missioning with this skill at III, skilling to at least IV will provide a foundation of decent tank and decent DPS.
Icon skillbook2.png Heavy Missiles IV
  • 5% bonus to heavy missile damage per skill level.
Heavy Missiles, due to their long range, are often used in Level 3 mission fits. Train to IV to maximise your time/benefit ratio.
Icon skillbook2.png Heavy Assault Missiles IV
  • 5% bonus to heavy assault missile damage per skill level.
Drakes are used in Factional Warfare PvP, often fit with Heavy Assault Missiles. Heavy Assault Missiles have a shorter range than Heavy Missiles.

Missile Skills

Icon skillbook2.png Missile Launcher Operation IV
  • 2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level.
This skill is required to operate any rocket or missile launcher. Training it also increases your rate of fire, which means more damage dealt per second.
Icon skillbook2.png Rapid Launch IV
  • 3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level.
Rapid Launch increases your rate of fire, increasing damage dealt per second.
Icon skillbook2.png Warhead Upgrades IV
  • 2% bonus to all missile damage per skill level.
Simply deals a direct increase to damage dealt.
Icon skillbook2.png Missile Projection IV
  • 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level.
While this skill decreases the time it takes for missiles to actually deal their damage, it also increases their range. A missile that travels faster is a missile that travels further.
Icon skillbook2.png Target Navigation Prediction IV
  • 10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles.
Even though this skill doesn't increase on-paper DPS, it does increase your actual in-game damage application. As a target's speed becomes less of a factor, more damage is applied. This is especially helpful against smaller, faster ships. If you're more familiar with turrets, this is analogous to better tracking speed.
Icon skillbook2.png Missile Bombardment IV
  • 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum flight time per level.
Like Missile Projection, this skill increases range, just in a different way. Instead of making your missiles faster, it makes them fly longer.

Support Skills

Icon skillbook2.png Weapon Upgrades IV
  • 5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets, launchers, and smartbombs.
Helps with fitting a ship by decreasing the (often large) CPU requirements of weapons.
Skills:Engineering
  • Various effects.
Engineering skills as needed to fit your ship properly.

Shield Skills

Icon skillbook2.png Shield Operation IV
  • 5% reduction in shield recharge time per skill level.
This basic shield skill allows you to fit shields but also helps with passive buffer tanks that rely on shield regeneration to tank incoming DPS.
Icon skillbook2.png Shield Management IV
  • 5% bonus to shield capacity per skill level.
This skill gives a bonus to shield capacity. Larger shield capacity allows for more shield regeneration, again helping passive buffer tanks.
Icon skillbook2.png Tactical Shield Manipulation IV
  • Reduces the chance of damage penetrating the shield when it falls below 25% by 5% per skill level, with 0% chance at level 5.
  • IMPORTANT: This skill is part of the T2 Shield Tank skill set.
This skill reduces the change of damage "leakage" between shields and armor. Training it to IV allows for the use of T2 active shield hardeners, one of the building blocks of a good T2 shield tank.
Icon skillbook2.png Shield Upgrades IV
  • 5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
  • IMPORTANT: This skill is part of the T2 Shield Tank skill set.
This skill helps with fitting shields to your ship by reducing how much power they need. Training it to IV allows for the use of T2 shield extenders, T2 passive shield hardeners, T2 shield rechargers
Icon skillbook2.png EM Shield Compensation IV, Icon skillbook2.png Thermal Shield Compensation IV, Icon skillbook2.png Kinetic Shield Compensation IV, Icon skillbook2.png Explosive Shield Compensation IV
  • 5% bonus to resistance per level for Shield Amplifiers
Improves the effectiveness of passive shield hardeners.

Drone Skills

Icon skillbook2.png Drones V
  • Can operate 1 drone per skill level.
Train Drones to V to operate 5 drones. It's important to have a full set of Drones to maximize the effectiveness of your Drake, especially against smaller targets that your Heavy Missiles might have a harder time killing. The Drake only has enough drone bandwidth and dronebay to support 5 light drones, but skilling up those 5 drones can help increase your effectiveness greatly.
Icon skillbook2.png Light Drone Operation III
  • 5% Bonus to damage of light drones per level.
Increase the effectiveness of your drones by making their pew pew more powerful.
Icon skillbook2.png Drone Avionics III
  • Drone control range increased by 5,000 meters per skill level.
Useful if you want to attack things that are far away.
Icon skillbook2.png Drone Navigation III
  • 5% increase in drone MicroWarpdrive speed per level.
Helps your drones get to their targets faster.
Icon skillbook2.png Drone Durability III
  • 5% bonus to drone shield, armor and hull hit points per level.
Drones are pretty fragile. This skill will make them a little less fragile, but only a little less.
Icon skillbook2.png Drone Sharpshooting III
  • Increases drone optimal range.
This skill is important for sentry drones (due to their immobility) in particular, but can provide a little boost for combat drones as well, despite combat drones having MWDs.

Advanced Skills

Icon skillbook2.png Heavy Missiles V, Icon skillbook2.png Heavy Missile Specialization IV, Icon skillbook2.png Missile Launcher Operation V
  • Allows use of Heavy Missile Launcher II and T2 Heavy Missiles
This train may not be worth it if you're just leveling up to Level 4 missions. However, if you've got a Tengu in your future, or if you're grinding Level 3 missions for standings, you'll want to train this sooner rather than later.
Icon skillbook2.png Heavy Assault Missiles V, Icon skillbook2.png Heavy Assault Missile Specialization IV, Icon skillbook2.png Missile Launcher Operation V
  • Allows use of Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II and T2 Heavy Assault Missiles
Same as above.
Icon skillbook2.png Guided Missile Precision IV
  • 5% decrease per level in factor of signature radius for all missile explosions.
Like Target Navigation Prediction, this skill helps take the edge off smaller targets. This is in the advanced skill category as it requires Missile Launcher Operation V as a prerequisite.
Icon skillbook2.png Weapon Upgrades V, Icon skillbook2.png Advanced Weapon Upgrades IV
  • Reduces CPU and Powergrid requirements, respectively, for weapons.
If you're going to try to fit T2 launchers on a Drake, you're probably going to want this. These skills will also make fitting many other ships much easier.
Icon skillbook2.png Light Drone Operation V, Gallente Drone Specialization IV
  • Allows T2 Gallente light drones.
Substitute any other racial variant for the Drone Specialization skill. If you want to squeeze the most DPS out of the Drake's tiny drone bay, T2 drones are the way to go. They're expensive but worth it. They're superior to T1 drones in almost every way.
Icon skillbook2.png Hull Upgrades IV
  • Allows for the use of the Damage Control II module.
Although many Drake fits do not use a DCII module, it can be useful in some cases.

This list of skills may seem daunting at first, but you don't need all of them to start doing things! Make it up as you go -- start doing what you want to do and figure out where you need to go from there. You may start with a weak shield and weak missile DPS, but you can have fun right away.

Remember as well that all of these skills are useful for fitting other ships. You're not going to somehow outgrow these skills, even if you outgrow your Drake.

Tactics

If you are coming to the Drake from L2 missions, you are probably used to flying into the middle of the NPCs and killing everything. That's a good way to get yourself killed in an L3 mission; many feature enough NPC firepower to overwhelm even a Drake's tank. Here are a few pointers to start L3 missioning in a Drake:

  • If the mission is unfamiliar to you, read about it on EVE-Survival.
  • Because the Drake is almost always passively tanked, you have no tools apart from running to mitigate excessive damage. If your shield drops to 50%, align to a celestial and start your afterburner. If it drops to the 25% alarm, warp out, dock, and then come back for more later. When you do come back, warp in at a long range (like 50 or 100km).
    • Remember that the Drake is big and slow. You won't be able to sig tank or speed tank incoming damage. Range can be one the most effective ways of mitigating incoming DPS while piloting a Drake.
  • Shoot the biggest NPCs first (usually other Battlecruisers); they're the ones damaging you the most.
    • However if you're out of range of the Battlecruisers and you're being hit by something else, shoot that instead,
  • Against Sansha and Blood Raiders, use Mjolnir Heavy Missiles unless you have Caldari Battlecruiser V. In all other cases, use Scourge Heavy Missiles.
  • Orbiting the NPC blob at 30km works reasonably well.

Notes

The name of the Drake could have come from the legendary English explorer and pirate, but given the avian theme of the Caldari ships, it is more likely that the ship was named for the official name of a male duck.

Patch History