Drones: Difference between revisions

=== Basic ===

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Drones|Drones]]: Training this to V is mandatory for nearly everyone.  Each drone you add increases your damage output.  2 drones = 100% damage increase over 1 drone.  3 drones = 50% over 2.  4 drones = 33% over 3.  5 drones = 25% increase over 4.  Having less than 5 drones costs you DPS. Drones V is also a prerequisite for several other drone skills, including Drone Interfacing.

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Scout_Drone_Operation|Scout Drone Operation]]: Adds 5km to max drone range per level and is needed at 5 to gain access to T2 light and medium drones.  Range of control is crucial to all types of drones and T2 drones are roughly twice as powerful as T1 drones.

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Combat_Drone_Operation|Combat Drone Operation]]: +5% Damage per level for light/medium drones. A good candidate to train to at least IV, for obvious reasons.

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Drone_Interfacing|Drone Interfacing]]: +20% Damage/Mining Yield per level. This is the second biggest boost skill to the damage your drones can do, directly behind Drones. Most combat pilots will want to train this to IV; drone specialists will probably be able to stomach the training time necessary to get it to V.

 

=== Advanced ===

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Heavy_Drone_Operation|Heavy Drone Operation]]: Allows for the use of heavy attack drones and adds +5% damage per level. Level V opens up T2 heavy drones. If you never fly ships with a 125m³ or bigger dronebay, you may never want to use heavy drones. But pilots considering the Armageddon, Typhoon and Megathron should seriously consider heavies, and drone specialists moving into the Dominix or Rattlesnake should certainly train them.

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Sentry_Drone_Interfacing|Sentry Drone Interfacing]]: Allows for the use of sentry drones and adds +5% damage per level. T2 sentries can be a viable alternative to T2 heavies: they remove the problem of travel time, although they require the pilot to be close to them in order to recover them (whereas heavies can fly back to the pilot).

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Electronic_Warfare_Drone_Interfacing|Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing]]: 3,000m more drone control range per level for ''all'' drones (yes, all drones, not just EW drones). EW drones are sometimes useful, but the extra drone control range is a good reason to put at least a few levels in this, and more than a few if you're planning on sentry sniping.

 

=== Support ===

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Drone_Navigation|Drone Navigation]]: Increases drones' MWD speed by 5% but can cause your drones to overshoot. This cuts down travel time delays, and may help your light drones to catch up with fast targets in PvP.

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Drone_Durability|Drone Durability]]: +5% to drone shield, armour and hull hit points. Not the most useful drone skill but can give you more time to save your drones.

 

; [[Skills:Drones#Racial_Drone_Specialization|Racial Drone Specialization]]: There are four flavours of this skill, each of which lets you use one race's T2 light and medium drones. You also get +2% damage to that race's T2 light and medium drones. Gallente and Minmatar drones are generally the most useful, and most pilots will want to train for T2 Gal and Min scout drones. Racial drone specialization at IV is also a prerequisite for that race's T2 heavy drones.