So as I go around searching high and low for things to shoot, 90% of the time I run into the vexor navy issue, if I bring a cruiser it out tanks and out dps’s me even while fit to do pve, if I bring a 30m sig tank ship the heavy drones (Battle ship class weapons), easily track and 1 shot me off the field https://zkillboard.com/kill/67438446/. I don’t want to have to bring a gang every time I fight, since blobbing is pretty boring and solo is a lot more exciting but what ship could successfully get passed those insta locking ecm heavy gate camps and still be able to kill a vexor navy that’s ratting in a site.
Vexor Navy Issue:
+5% drone tracking (any drone) and speed (every drone but sentries) per level
10% hitpoints and damage per level (Gallente Cruiser level)
Most folks fit neutralizers in the high slots, so be careful with an active tank. Even though I hate it, I suggest shooting the drones - no drones, no damage.
When he ran out of drones, you will have an easy time shooting him down.
1 on kill drones. Webbed heavies die in seconds despite hp bonus, and VNI doesnt have that many of them.
Stil, as is with many other navy ships, its a major PITA, just as Nomen kiters, or Naracals making frig gangs cry
and every time he pulls them he’s losing his dps
so even if you don’t manage to kill them, throwing your unbonused drones at them can help mitigate a lot of incoming dps if he pulls or loses them and doesn’t notice.
Yea Iv tried mwd aswell but then they release small drones which eat up any mwd frig and with mwd you cant really fit a tank that can tank small drones.
My idea was that the large drones : Wasp II has 0.62 unbonused tracking, which should have no way in hell of tracking a 30m sig frig , for frig on frig you need at least 200+ tracking to track at 1-5km so it makes no sense to me.
You totally misunderstand how tracking works.
0.62 unbonused tracking doesn’t mean ■■■■ without taking movement into consideration.
Drones just got into your tail and easily blapped you to pieces, standard scenario.
It’s not that I don’t understand how tracking works. it’s that CCP has designed drones to pilot them selves perfectly so that their chance to hit sky rockets, taking all skill needed away from the pilot as it’s an automated process. If on the other hand drones only started firing once they started orbiting, instead of on approach you will find pilot’s would need to swap to the appropriate drones to handle the correct sized target, instead of one size fits all like it is now.
I will repeat once more as well, their piloting skill is hard coded into the way they fly, they approach with perfect tracking and then fire if they are slower than you they fall back again and then mwd up to you and fire again, if you are slow enough they start orbiting you, once they orbit their tracking goes way down but the problem is that they are firing while approaching with 0 angular velocity.
if they have perfect tracking on you, you have perfect tracking on them… and drones have a quite short optimal range, you should be able to hit them first.
This… any decent frigate pilot will spiral in, drones head straight to their death.
You make a good point, but often heavy drones will wipe a frig out way before that frig can kill them off, I will try the spiraling thou although to have good positioning against all 5 drones + the enemy ship at the same time is ridiculously hard.
How on earth are heavy drones hitting you in a frigate? If you’re AB fit they shouldn’t be able to track you, if you’re MWD fit then you are way faster than a heavy drone.
Four separate ways to deal with a drone ship, among others:
1) Most common: Shoot the drones.
Webs, blasters, warrior drones and a strong tank help here. Can be a struggle if the target has a huge drone bay. If your guns have poor tracking but good range kite at high speed to get the drones to line up behind you with low transverse. This also keeps you out of range any high-slot weapons.
2) Most amusing: Sensor damp the ship before it gets its drones out.
Vexors and VNI’s have only average targeting range: two remote sensor damps in a cheap Maulus frigate will bring targeting range down from 65km to <20 km. So fit sensor damps, a warp disrupt and sit at 20km. Drones that were out prior to the damp will target you if set to hostile - but only when they finish with any NPC they may be attacking. New drones released after the damp will not target you regardless of their setting.
3) Most sensible: Speed tank the drones.
Drone damage decreases with increasing speed: my tests suggest drones do approximately half damage at half their maximum speed, only ~30% damage at ~75% drone maximum speed, and they struggle to keep up and hit at >80% of their drone max speed. Large and medium drones should not be able to hit an orbiting MWD frigate. Hob II’s struggle at >3000m/s, and Warrior IIs struggle above 4000m/s. Kite outside scram and neut range (>12km) in a fast ship and blap away.
4) Most prepared: Shoot his ship and tank his drones
If the target only ever carries 1 race of drones (check his kill board) fit your ship to tank their damage type and attack his ship while ignoring the drones. This assumes his high slots don’t carry much risk.
You can also have a go at using ECM.
In reality a combination of the above works the best: kite and speed tank while shooting drones you are tanked against.
, for frig on frig you need at least 200+ tracking to track at 1-5km so it makes no sense to me.