Ignoring tracking, full damage between 0 and optimal.
same for tracking, though your “optimal” target angular is 0.
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Thanks for the (kind!) clarification guys! It was not a particular issue in the mission as I used smaller T2 combat drones if anything got close (which was maybe once) I just wanted to make sure I properly understood turret mechanics 
There would of been no trouble at all if we had been more sensible in the last pocket - we just had really bad target priority I think. Shoulda taken down those cruise towers straight away!
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yes.
Also consider that basically cruise missile = MAX*sig/speed. If you can keep speed and distance to smaller fries up, you should be able to tank most.
kill webs first though, cause following previous formula a single web increases damage taken by 150% vs cruise missiles.
Angels have painters, but that hurts less than the web.
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It does work with them, it just has a lesser effect as a larger portion of their damage is in missiles compared to other npcs. And vs Most guristas it means almost all damage received will be kinetic, so you can just stack kin resists and take very little damage.
gardes have pretty short range compared to the other sentries and pretty good tracking. They can hit pretty much everything but frigates in orbit. they are my 15-50km sentries. inside that you mostly just need a flight of lights for the frigs.
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Absolutely. Personally, I like to keep a flight of heavies in tow to compliment my Wardens for range, then have a mix of lights and mediums. This can be handy if you get a BS in close and want to be able to move around. However, Gardes are totally viable for shorter range sentries as an option.
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atm I just have garde II’s on board because I wasnt sure how effective wardens would be with only caldari drone specialization lvl 2 versus my gallente spec lvl 4 - but the range of those wardens is making me think maybe I should have five of those on board regardless!
That’s my suggestion, yes. Some of this has to do with how you manage the fighting strategy- if you want to snipe at range or get in close and brawl- and what to use as primary and secondary weapons.
My personal approach with that fit is to snipe at range with drones as primary weapons at all ranges, with the rails to act as a little extra DPS. Honestly, there are some pockets that I don’t fire the rails at all. But that’s just me- by all means, experiment with some different combos and ideas and go with what you enjoy and supports your skills.
Maybe, maybe not. The Wardens can shoot more than 120km with the right skills, but can you lock a target that far out? I have a Domi I use in L4’s and I prefer the Minmatar Bouncer sentries. I’ll concede that the Kin damage of the Wardens is a much more common resist hole on NPC ships compared to Expl, but the Bouncers have a little better tracking than Wardens and their range more closely matches the locking range of a Domi with a Sensor Booster and a sensor range script. For sniping smaller NPC ships at long range, especially NPC tackle ships that will be a problem if they get close, the Bouncer’s dps will still overwhelm the tank of the NPC tacklers, even if it isn’t an optimal damage type to use.
Then again, if you’re prepared to accept that Wardens will have some shooting range that you can’t make much use of, there’s no hard reason why you shouldn’t use them.
NPC aggro towards drones has also changed, they will target drones more often than they used to, so if you find you are losing drones to the new NPC drone aggro mechanics, possibly consider using faction Navy/Fleet drones rather than T2. The faction Navy/Fleet drones have a little less dps than the T2 versions but they do have more tank than the T2 drones. Since the only source for faction drones is from faction warfare NPC corp LP stores, the faction drones are the most expensive.
I’d also like to address a point from your original post, about running out of cap from shield repping. Chainsaw briefly commented on it, saying you don’t have to keep your shield at 100% all the time.
I agree. you DO NOT NEED to keep your shield at 100% all the time, you only need to keep it above 0%. My Domi is armour tanked. On that ship, the shield is just a buffer that I use to gauge the incoming dps before I turn on my armour hardeners. I don’t armour rep until my armour gets below a certain level, and I stop the repping once my armour is above a certain level. I do not use up cap for repping unless I NEED to, and I stop repping to conserve my cap when my armour is at a comfortable level. Once the mission is completed I’ll finish repping the armour.
Trying to keep your tank at 100% all the time just depletes your cap without a useful benefit in return. Learn to be miserly with your cap, use as little of it as possible for the given situation.
There’s another detail to be aware of that you might not know since you’ve been out of the game for a while. The old style player owned stations are scheduled to be phased out of the game (they’re still in the game but you can’t build or anchor a new now. You can buy and use one that is already anchored). They are being replaced with a new set of player owned stations. There are three types, and three different sizes for each type, so a total of 9 new player owned stations. The three types are Citadel (general purpose), Engineering Complex (specialised for manufacturing and research) and Refinery (specialised for mining/refining).
The reason why I’m mentioning them is because they have a feature the old player owned stations don’t have, “tethering”. If you fly to 0 at one of the new player stations (the station must be online), you become “tethered” to it without needing to dock inside it. While you are tethered, if your ship has any damage, it will be repaired for free, including overheat damage to modules and damaged drones in your drone bay, as well as recharging your shield and cap to full. This repair isn’t instant, it takes a little time to complete. The more damage you have, the more time it takes, but unlike at NPC stations where you have to pay isk to repair armour/hull/module/drone damage, you can completely repair your ship without paying a single isk by tethering at one of the new player owned stations. The vast majority of these new player stations will allow anyone to tether to them for free repairs.
Since these new stations are player owned, the owners decide where to set them up, so there might not be many of them in a particular region, but many can be found within 2 to 3 jumps from the major trade and mission hub systems.
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Sure wardens have a ton of range, but gardes have limited range so you still typically need the wardens for many missions. with drone boats you should be changing most of your drones to suit the mission. for angels I bring bouncers and berserkers, for pretty much everything else gardes and then whatever matches on the long range sentry, either wardens or curators. And typically a few different flight of lights to match whatever I get.
drone specs are only 2%/level, losing a few % off a bonus is still a lot more dps at ranges where gardes have trouble hitting.
Check your fitting tools for damage graphs to know when to use what drone.
[Dominix, 150 km sniper]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Federation Navy Drone Damage Amplifier
IFFA Compact Damage Control
Shadow Serpentis Large Armor Repairer
Large Micro Jump Drive
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster, Targeting Range Script
Tachyon Modulated Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Radio L
Drone Link Augmentor II
Tachyon Modulated Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Radio L
Tachyon Modulated Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Radio L
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Large Drone Scope Chip II
Large Drone Control Range Augmentor II
Large Ionic Field Projector II
Warden II x5
Curator II x5
Drone control range over 150 km, Wardens OPTIMAL over 160 km and targeting range is over 170 km. With implant or faction modules it is easy to get over 170 drone control range.
So - over 600 DPS of INSTANT damage from 150+ km range. Augmented with some anti frigate / dessy 100 + km range damage from large guns. Guns with instant range corrections (crystall swap in no time) as targets with 0 transversal burning toward you. So your drones can keep hammering large targets …
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