When did the Drake jump the shark?

New Citizens Q&A
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Nostalgia warning: So… I used to play EVE quite a bit back in the day (roughly 5-8 years ago). Back then, the Drake was the big bad tanky ship for running lvl 3-4 (if memory serves) missions. I’ve been back a few months now, and I see a lot of posts just joking about the Drake. Was it nerfed, or simply bypassed by better ships in the last few years? Just curious. Used to love my tanky Drake lol

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Heavy missiles were nerfed into the ground and then some. Over the past few years the Drake and heavy missiles clawed a bit back, but nothing compared to its former glory (or scourge).

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Ah ok thanks. Id not heard anything about heavy missiles being nerfed. Good to know it’s not the ship itself.

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Drake Navy Issue tanks at 80k hitpoints for me.

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I started playing in 2009, and I remember the Drake being a dominant ship. Stuff that has changed for it since then:

  • Heavy missiles were significantly nerfed; their DPS was lowered a lot (20% I think) and their application (explosion velocity/radius) was also nerfed. They now apply damage worse than HAMs, which are notorious for not being able to apply damage well.
  • Drake itself was also nerfed (not unique to it, this was mostly across the board on BCs):
    • Slightly reduced fittings and tank
    • Significantly reduced shield regen; “passive regen” Drake fits are a thing of the past
    • Greatly reduced speed / increased mass; Drake with MWD before: 1400-1500 m/s now: 1150 m/s
  • Drake got a tweaked high slot layout making it more dependent on kinetic damage (but do slightly more damage)
  • Like all other BCs, Drake now has access to fitting a Medium Micro Jump Drive
  • Like all other BCs, Drake can fit Shield Command Burst (or other command bursts) in its spare high slot

Overall, I would maintain the Drake remains a viable and good ship, but it is far from its former role as dominating the meta in multiple areas of the game. To get something that works much closer to the “old” Drake, look into the Drake Navy Issue. It is faster, has a bigger shield buffer, an application bonus (to make heavy missiles suck less) and is not bound to kinetic damage.

(Disclaimer: my background is that of an avid PvPer, so my knowledge of PvE is likely wrong)

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When I first started playing in 2011, there were basically two ships anyone cared you could fly-- the Sabre and Drake. It was Nano-Drakes as far as the eye could see.

But then came the nerf bat. Heavies were hit as well as the hull. So much like the Wrecking Ball of insta-alpha drone Ishtars, and the Isk-printer Tengu, the Drake passed into the realm of meme.
However, they make great entosis ships, and can once again be flown un-ironically in a fleet.

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for lv3s a drake should still stomp them, and for lv4s you can probably still do them, but imo it’s just too slow to be worth the time.

Personally I prefer turrets, and most turrets have been buffed over the years so if I’m using a BC hull I’d much rather use a ferox with 250mm rails for lv3s, going with a vulture or a proteus would be even better but those are both much more SP and cost intensive. Then for lv4s I’d use a battleship. pretty much any BS can put out more damage and/or tank more than a drake.

back in 2009 there were so many new and low SP players people really focused on that, these days I think the average SP is much higher so people just don’t talk much about low SP lv4 running, which is one of the few reasons to use a drake imo. Also many of the more vocal players have moved to nullsec so they focus more on ratting than mission running.

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cries in Scorpion

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