Were high sec rats buffed in the last patch? I was mining in 0.7 sec and saw the usual rats trying to get my mining frigate. I didn’t mind, T1 drones would tear them to bits. I saw the drones miss some shots and get low on health, but I didn’t worry because they often missed some shots but would win anyways, even if sometimes they lost armor. I usually didn’t pay attention to the rats and my drones. I just needed to pay attention to the amount of stuff in the asteroids and if the amount was less than what could be extracted in 15 seconds, I would stop my laser on that asteroid. Oh wait, my drone actually got killed. And then this happened two more times in the next 3 hours. So were the rats buffed, or did I just have some bad luck with RNG where my drones got enough unlucky shots over a few minutes?
I’ve been using Acolyte Is, and rats do seem a touch beefier than they used to be. I don’t know for sure if they were buffed, but it seems that way. Either way, my four Acolytes still rip them apart pretty well.
at first i was like
oh your mean diamond rats, then i read on and all that happened was a lost drone and not a lost ship.
well there has been no buff to rats of any kind that I saw in the notes. if they were diamond rats then yes they are stronger and smarter than normal ones. make sure there is no FOB near by.
Nah, just the loss of a drone.
Yeah just the normal belt rats, not the normal ones that just take all the rocks and don’t shoot. I’ve been told by people to rotate drones out in PVE so their shields don’t wear out and let the main ship take a few hits, but Ive ignored this advice for the belt rats because I’ve always been able to just let Tech Is deal with them in High Sec. Sometimes the drones miss shots and take longer thanks to regen, but an Acoltye and Hammerhead always win without losses or even getting into hull before in high sec. I’ve been doing weeks and have been able to ignore them, even when a fight goes on for several minutes because my drones miss, it never lasts long enough to endanger them before.
Well until now I managed to lose 3 Hammerheads when I wasn’t paying attention. Tech I drones are easy to replace and their loss isn’t what concerned me, but that fact that two tech I drones weren’t able to dispatch rats in 7 to 15 minutes (I forgot how long) it took for the larger drone to die worried me.
So then I was wondering maybe my drones just missed several shots in a row and allowed the armor to regenerate. But all three times happened after a recent patch and I’ve been in the same area for weeks without this happening, so either I’m unlucky or something changed. If the armor regen was buffed I’d be a bit annoyed because then I’d need to upgrade drones.
You’re talking about hammerheads, did you switch from light to medium drones perhaps?
Rats like shooting at larger drones, if you can fill your bandwidth with multiple smaller drones do that instead of fewer larger drones.
I think a Venture has 10Mbit/s? That’s good enough for two small drones or one medium. Don’t use one medium drone, but pick two small drones. They will be faster, apply damage better and are less likely to be targeted.
Another thing that might be the different now compared to before is the region of space you’re in. Depending on the region you have different pirate enemies with different damage and resist profiles. Your Hobgoblins might work well in region 1, but in region 2 it could be better to use Acolytes instead.
if you want tanky drones, i recommend using faction drones. they have the highest hp.
Agreed. I noticed a change in the strength of hi-sec belt rats 6-8 weeks ago. Then a return to “normal”. I’m wondering if CCP was testing the rats and the humans.
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