so now I learned lots of basic skills of EVE and I want to know some tactics on using drone ships as I have no idea how they fight and protect themselves. I plan to practice on the ship Dragoon as people say it’s an easy and cheap drone ship. please help. Thanks.
Mmmmm… there is a lot to go over when it comes to drone boats.
- For PvE:
– Focus the ship’s fit mostly on enhancing drone performance and getting NPCs to “hate” your ship more with Electronic Warfare (because NPCs really don’t like drones and drones are a bit “squishy”).
– Choose the appropriately sized drones for the target in question (smalls against frigates and destroyers, mediums for destroyers and cruisers, etc).
The reasons for this is simple: Drones are like mini-turrets. And tracking targets is an issue for them. The larger the drone, the less able they can apply their damage to smaller targets.
– Choose the appropriate drone type for the target in questions.
Hobgoblins (Gallente) are ideal against most NPCs as they deal Thermal damage (which is the primary or secondary weakness of most NPCs)
Warrior (Minmatar) or Hornet (Caldari) drones are ideal for those NPCs that Hobgoblins are not good against.
- No matter how big or small a ship is, ALWAYS carry 5x light drones (or the max number of light drones). They are your point defense!
– Don’t let your drones go too far (see: do not let them go after targets further than 20km from your ship).
As mentioned before NPCs do not like drones and will make them a priority.
The best way to deal with this is to recall the drones and wait until the NPCs focus fire on your ship again. Then redeploy the drones.
Using Ewar like Target Painters will keep the NPCs focused on you longer.
– Keep spares handy. You will lose them.
– Go for Tech 2 light drones. They are more expensive, but the upgrade in stats is worth it.
– Don’t bother with Faction, Integrated, or Augmented drones. They are too expensive for what they offer.
- For PvP:
– Focus the ship’s fit mostly on Ewar, tank, and speed. Drone enhancement modules are secondary unless you are going for a gank or speed fit.
– Choose the appropriately sized drones for the target in question (smalls against frigates and destroyers, mediums for destroyers and cruisers, etc)
The reasons for this is simple: Drones are like mini-turrets. And tracking targets is an issue for them. The larger the drone, the less able they can apply their damage to smaller targets.
– Gallente drones typically do more damage but are slower. Minmatar drones deal the least damage, but are the fastest. Choose your drone types wisely.
– No matter how big or small your ship is, ALWAYS carry 5 light drones (specifically Warriors). They are your point-defense!
– Don’t let your drones go too far. There may be a time where you will have to run and losing the things that make your ship go “pew pew” is not a good feeling.
– Keep spares handy.
– Go for Tech 2 light drones. The upgrade in stats is NEEDED.
– Don’t bother with Faction, Integrated, or Augmented drones. They are too expensive for what they offer.
Exception: Guristas ships have a bonus that makes drones VERY beefy and more damaging. Take advantage of this!
Please note that this is the “simple” list of things to know.
Drone boats are arguably the most technically challenging (and potentially lazy) of all the weapon systems. But when used well they can pull off things that few other weapon systems can do.
Until they decide they have had enough and go rogue on you. 
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Gallente is the faction where drones are most useful. The Dragoon is primarily an EW platform with bonuses for energy neutralization while the Gallente Algos has the same drone bonuses but also has a damage bonus for hybrid turrets. Amarr has some excellent drone/missile boats in their T2 lineup developed by Khanid but for T1, I recommend sticking with Gallente. Normal progression would be - Algos, Vexor, Myrmidon, Dominix
People like drones because they can be set to aggressive and will choose their own targets for a very lazy way to farm PVE as long as you can convince the NPC rats to shoot your ship instead of your drones. More info: https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Drone_mechanics
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While the Gallente are the drone specialists, the Amarrian drone boats are definitely up there - though they do tend to be weighted towards combat support roles in addition to their drone capabilities. It generally makes them nice fleet boats, but they are useful mission ships: I started in Eve flying the Dragoon/Arbitrator/Prophecy line in missions before, if you excuse the pun, seeing the light and moving Omen/Harbinger/Apocalypse.
The three Amarrian T1 drone ships served me very well, and still do in many situations: in fleets I’m normally a support role, and Tracking Disruption is a wonderful thing!
Make sure you can fly with five drones deployed. Your secondary weapons should, ideally, not use a lot of capacitor (projectile weapons on Amarrian ships is sacrilegious, but effective - you can mount a mix of turrets and missiles) - that frees you up for a good active tank. Take multiple flights of drones and definitely train for T2 drones, and have a range of damage types. One of the key strengths of a drone carrier is that you can easily change and shift damage type and effective weapon size as the situation demands. In a mission, check the attributes of the NPC targets and select drones to hit their weakest resists.
Drones have their downside - they take time to get to a target, they take a certain amount of active management (the natural state for a drone is “rogue”, they are normally collectively known as “you b*****ds”). If your ship has a drone bay it is worth carrying drones to complement your main weapon system - to fill in damage options if your main weapons are damage locked.
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